150 March on Mexican Consulate in San Francisco Solidarity with Oaxaca

In San Francisco yesterday, about 150 people gathered in small groups responding to an international call for shows of solidarity for the people of Oaxaca. Folsom street and entrances to the Bay Bridge were blocked by cyclists and marchers carrying symbolic body bags, colorful banners and puppets, and chanting slogans like "La lucha Sigue" ...<the Struggle Continues,> celebrating over six months of struggle by the people of Oaxaca to build community in resistance to the corrupt state government of Governor Ruiz.

Police escorted marchers on a number of marches around the Mexican Consulate, only to return to find the consulate was barricaded with bicycle u-locks, in response for people internationally to set up blockades in solidarity with the blockades in Oaxaca. After breaking into the embassy and spending about an hour inside, the Police found out that that being inside the embassy was not the best place to remove u-locks on the outside of the building. At this point, the doorways were splattered with red paint and piled up with body bags, representing the people who have been killed in state violence against the APPO insurgents in Mexico.

Bay area resident Tristan, recently returned from Oaxaca calls the "APPO" coalitions one of the most directly democratic groups that he has ever seen, despite the Mexican government's use of deadly force to try and disband protestors. Dozens have already been killed or "disappeared" by police in a recent attempt by the state to reclaim what was once a thriving people's city right in the center of town, replete with popular kitchens, pirate radio, convergence centers, Indymedia centers, teach-ins and barricades armed with makeshift weapons like fireworks and molotov cocktails.

This weekend saw massive actions around the world and in Oaxaca, where people have regained many of the areas that the police had captured by killing people in the street including American Indymedia Journalist Brad Will.

More info on Oaxaca and "APPO" on this site and at mexico.indymedia.org