MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY

This is the last major demo before the carnage of the night of November 25, 2006. As before, participants were representative of the diverse population of Oaxaca. When the going gets rough, those most vulnerable retire, leaving confrontation in its various forms to others less encumbered, primarily the youth.

Retiring still means one is presente, doing her/his part. Men, middle-aged or elders, will move in large stones, break them up with a hammer. Middle-aged women will help gather them up, pile them in grocery carts. Someone appears to push the carts to staging areas. Others will bring in more coke-a-cola, vinegar, and water, supplementing the work of medics. Still others will help those most in need---those wounded from rocks, teargas grenade hits, and beatings; those vomiting, staggering, unable to see or breathe cause of the tear gas.

NOVEMBER 20, 2006

In zocolo young buff PFP males
Front line assault squad
Urban warfare training
Adjust medieval style riot gear
At ready three-foot wooden batons
Not hollowed out and metal put inside
Like Daley's cops of 1968
As far as I know
Nearby medics wait

Orders given to PFP
Get ready to go
Scramble to strap on leg and arm protectors
Secure
1980s recycled U.S. assault weapons
Teargas guns dangle down
Line up
Tanks in back

Lob teargas up Alcala towards Santo Domingo Encampment
Grenades made in U.S.A.
Shaped like short fat penis
Complete with tapered head
Torpedoes, missiles, rockets the same
Those military guys
Their formally educated weapons designers
Corporations, shareholders
Making a bundle

Wind blows teargas clouds back on PFP
Cheers
PFP launches lots of them
From specially made guns, hand thrown
Increasingly from tops of buildings
Helicopters drop them everywhere
Gas masks in place
Advancing through teargas fog
PFP beat their large heavy plastic shields in unison
March ahead in unison
Terrifying

Coke-a-Cola and vinegar neutralize teargas
Demos do go better with Coke
President Fox would agree
This former CEO of Coke-a-Cola in Mexico
Now running affairs of the county
After assassination of Brad Will
Ordered PFP into Oaxaca October 27
APPO the problem
Calderon pressuring for its destruction
At minimum weaken
Then easy to manage APPO
How many killed, wounded, disappeared
Seeking to ensure this form of power
Wickedness chasing an illusion

Water, vinegar, and coke in the pockets
Hanging down from backpacks
Medics with buckets full of bottles
Sheet rock installers medium blue work masks
Sanitary napkins to sop up the blood of wounds
The latest in demo paraphernalia
In Oaxaca

I wasn't thinking carefully
Focused on getting above to photograph
Even with all their gear
No way I can outrun PFP
Impossible to get on top of anything in zocolo area
Join demonstrators
Look for accessible tall building
Find one being constructed
Hand made wooden ladder leading to second level
Demonstrators or provocateurs
Throwing rocks by hand
Propelling rocks with homemade slingshots
Whirling rocks from slings indigenous fashioned

Why didn't I think about it
Surely those federal lads will
Lob teargas grenades inside this open building
With its uneven mud floor
Crooked rebar out here and there
Carefully make way don't trip or fall
In the middle almost to ladder
Incoming PFP teargas
Humungous clouds everywhere
Make way out
Leaving some right leg flesh behind on rebar

Everyone fleeing further up hill
Santo Domingo encampment
Medical teams & citizen volunteers out
Jugs of water
Coke and vinegar
Place sanitary napkin on open leg wound
Absorbs blood
Sock and shoe remain dry
Eyes burning red
Coughing, spitting not help
Everyone in same shape
Awful stuff
Brutal

Regroup
Teargas canisters now souvenirs
Meet PFP again
Erect barriers out of what's available
It's a dance of star-crossed partners

APPO barricades at intersections
Sandbags, sheet metal, wire, large stones
Wrecked cars and buses
Young men place tires in vehicles
Ready to pour gasoline, set ablaze
When PFP comes out of zocolo
Barricades slow them down
Before setting the fire
Man appears
Talks about the situation
Strongly voices
Caution
Non-violence
Keep distance both from
PFP and fire
Stay upwind from burning vehicles
Bad for the lungs

In the lull
La Doctora talking with demonstrators
Urging mutual aid and non-violence
Nearby
Indigenous men in groups
Preparing for the next round
Braiding rope slings to house rocks
Whirled and let go
We are All Palestinians
Proclaims the wall painting

Working all the angles
PFP now on rooftops adjacent to zocolo
In their hands
Video cameras
Assault weapons
Tear gas
And
In addition to everything else
PFP now throwing rocks
They don't whirl stones on rope
No indigenous companeros to make slings

20 November
Mexican Independence Day
And
My birthday
Knowing it might be a difficult demo day
I'd celebrated the day before
Best to make plans