Marginality and Universality: The Indigenous Working Group and the 17th General Assembly of #OccupyMelbourne. #OMEL #OWS

Moar blah on Occupy Melbourne at the usevalue wordpress.  Big up JP.

 

The 17th General Assembly of Occupy Melbourne occurred in Treasury Gardens on the 12th November, 2011. Treasury Gardens is the current site of the second occupation of the movement, one marked by a great sense of malaise after the eviction of the first occupation, which was the site of such bold experimentation, at City Square. The 17th Assembly revealed how the Occupation conceives of itself as a cohesive movement, and some of the limitations to this conception. In this article, I use the case of the Indigenous embassy, erected and defended at the 17th Assembly, to illutrate some of the problems in the concept of political unity and the democratic processes intended to express it. At the same time, a review of these events should point a way forward from the political deadlock developing within the movement, which manifests as an inability to imagine strategies beyond the single camp, with a single strategy, presenting a single target for state attacks.

The position of the Indigenous working group within Occupy Melbourne is roughly analagous to the position of Indigenous people within Australian society as a whole. In both cases, we encounter a “totality,” a sign which organises a real diversity into an idealised unity. In one case we encounter “Australia,” in the other “Occupy Melbourne,” totalities which, even when “diversity” is admitted as one of their qualities, possess a slightly homogenising, flattening quality. In both cases, “Indigenous” appears as an intrusive, excessive element, disturbing this homogeneity. In terms of Australia, our imaginary construction of a white, anglophone nation-state is disrupted and embarassed by the inclusion of this exception. The same goes for many depictions of our movement (mostly young, white, university-educated, etc). Obviously, these static and homogenous images are not the reality, either of Australia or Occupy Melbourne, but we must recognise the real power that these images have to structure reality. In the case of Australia, policy is always (supposedly) geared first and foremost to the needs of the “typical” Australian, and “marginal” interests can only be considered when these first interests are satisfied. This means that Indigenous claims for social goods must compete with a multitude of other marginalised interests: women, migrants, the disabled, and so forth, not to mention the competition internal to the Indigenous community between different social projects and programs. Within Occupy Melbourne, the marginal interest of a working group is always secondary to the assumed consensus.

Before going further, it is worth identifying various strategies which have historically been used to overcome this contradiction between the marginal/particular and the general/universal:

1. Suppression of the margin. This strategy actually has two levels: when possible, the existence of the margin is denied (“Yes, it’s sad that there aren’t any Aborigines left”); when it’s not possible to simply ignore the margin, usually because some marginal people have organised collective power and a collective voice, this strategy turns simply genocidal.
2. Inclusion-as-exception. This is what we have outlined above; it mostly appears as political correctness, or so-called identity politics.
3. Exile. In Indigenous affairs, this is often the strategy of Black Nationalists who start to question whether it’s even worthwhile for “Indigenous” to include itself within “Australia.” But the refusal of the media to recognise “refugee” as “Australian” shows that this status can be imposed, as well as chosen.

In Occupy Melbourne, there exists a consensus damning the first strategy. The third seems theoretically possible, were the Indigenous working group (or some fraction thereof) to finally grow fed up with the latent and actual racism within the movement and walk out. Ultimately, however, one suspects this would be an expression of political impotence (and we should remember, to this effect, that even Malcolm X began to renounce seperatism towards the end of his life). The predominant strategy, then, has been the inclusion-as-exception of Indigenous people: their working group brings their voice as one of several special interests within the mosaic that is Occupy Melbourne, subordinate to the group’s consensus, as are we all. But is this the absolute limit of political possibility?

The 17th General Assembly began in the standard way, with the reports of working groups. The delegate of the Indigenous working group came forth and announced that the erection of a tent embassy had been achieved. He requested (informally, it would later be said) the solidarity of the assembly, and was assured of it by a wave of raising arms and voices. The meeting continued. The logistics working group, during its report, pointed out that all existing structures (including the embassy, but also some set up by other political groups) lacked the mandate of the general assembly. It was during this report that several police moved on the embassy in an effort to remove it. Most of the Assembly responded immediately: the embassy was defended by a crowd, the police were surrounded, and to clapping and the cry of “Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land” they were forced back.[1] When the crisis passed, and as the Assembly began to reconvene, there were heated arguments over whether the words of the logistics working group, or the failure of the facilitators to “officially” adjourn the Assembly, constituted a (possibly racist) attack on the legitimacy of the embassy. Others put forward a more nuanced perspective, that the process itself was at fault, and suggested it be altered. I will return to these political dilemmas, but what is important to note is that as soon as the arguments were past the General Assembly entertained a motion for the defense of the embassy. This decision, which was basically to do “officially” in the future what we had all just done in actuality, took several confused minutes to debate and pass, largely, it seemed, due to sectarian tensions. When it finally passed, the meeting then spent the remainder of its duration discussing and approving the form of a new, more established, camp in Treasury Gardens.

I think it is incorrect to ascribe the reluctance of some to endorse the embassy, or its defense, to racism or malicious intent. Rather, it resulted from the same fetishism of democratic process and consensus which causes many to endorse “individual” structures, while at the same time agonising over what an “Occupy Melbourne” structure is. In this respect, those who went on to fight for motions to retroactively validate the defense were equally guilty. Both factions attempted to relegate the actions of the Indigenous working group to an included exception, an element at the margin of our unity which must be subordinated the the will of the whole. Of course, the divide was ostensibly between strategic conservatism and principled militancy. But the fact that we spent so much time debating whether we would collectively endorse the actions that we had already taken so decisively indicates to me how superficial the difference between those positions actually was.

What the events of the day showed is that there is in fact a fourth way of resolving the particular/universal contradiction. Whatever their merits or detriments, all of the previously named solutions have in common the preservation of the marginal as marginal, as a contained excess. What occurred on Saturday was something entirely different: the marginal element directly became the universal. Through their actions, the Indigenous working group implicitly posed several demands:

1. Treasury Gardens should have structures, both in order to defy the council and to increase the effectiveness of the occupation.
2. Those who are fighting systemic injustice need wait on no authority to legitimise their efforts to fight.
3. Solidarity is not the outcome of mediating procedure, but of direct bonds of political love between singularities.

These proposals gained the effective consensus (of bodies, minds, and voices raised in indignation) because they were not limited to the circumstances of the Indigenous working group. The marginal status of Indigenous people (even within an “inclusive” movement) and the working group’s frustration with the strategic timidity of the movement forced them to create these demands. This outburst revealed a subterranean politics which had been hidden beneath the supposed consensus of the group. Subsequently, the assembly attempted to corral that instinctive, “spontaneous” outburst of collective refusal back into the space of procedural consensus, the only space which so far enjoys recognised legitimacy within the movement. While the General Assembly is certainly a more democratic space than the shambling, zombified parliaments of the world’s governments, we still see here a failure of its political imagination.

Normally, I hate the verbal rituals of solidarity that the Australian left expresses with Indigenous people. How radical can the acknowledgement of country really be if Julia Gillard can utter its words without bursting into flame? And what is the real impact of these words when the actions they ought to imply are always deferred to another day, another place? But when we surrounded the Indigenous embassy, the chant which had always seemed like ritualistic politeness to me in the past exploded from my lips: I felt my solidarity with the dispossesed throughout my mind and in my body, a unity called “praxis” in Marxist jargon. It seemed that we were living a politics that had reached back in time from some revolutionary future, and which pulled us inexorably forward. For a moment, the ontological order of the movement was completely inverted. Instead of the Indigenous working group trying to accommodate itself within the alienating consensus of the General Assembly (alienating and alienated to us all), the movement was suddenly subsumed within the marginal position of the Indigenous working group. That position was our strength and our righteous anger. And in that moment, it ceased to be the position of the Indigenous working group at all: it became the universal truth of our movement, the embodiment of our collective desire to be free. The political effect of this event was obvious over the next few days. It is doubtful whether the Assembly would have even dared to call for structures without the event; it seems more likely that a collapse back into impotent legalism would have occurred. And while we failed to really generalise the demands of the event, continuing to remove structures when the council issued their notices to comply, the refusal to negotiate over the presence of the Indigenous embassy demonstrates a fidelity to the event, an internalisation of truth that it took one hundred of the police on the following Wednesday morning to erase.

The purpose of this article is not to claim that Indigenous politics are now universal politics, or that the Indigenous working group should now claim leadership of the movement (I think they’re smart enough not to want it anyway). Nor are Indigenous politics always the most radical politics: there are Indigenous politicians and business owners, and Indigenous voices which encourage accommodation with the present order. Rather, I argue that in a given social-historical situation it is possible for a marginal position, due to its very desperate need, to give rise to a demand that suddenly reveals the universal truth of the entire situation. This was precisely Marx’s point on the proletariat: if the proletariat could really express its desires for a project of liberation from its repressed and excluded position, that project would in fact be one of universal liberation. If one accepts a Marxist methodology (while setting aside a 19th century sociology), then it should come as no suprise that Indigenous political action should be capable of revealing the universal will of Occupy Melbourne. It is vital that the movement learn this lesson well: Occupy Melbourne is not some tool which the 99% must wield in order to restore its well-deserved democratic representation. The 99% is a demographic phantasm in which every human voice is drowned out. Rather, Occupy Melbourne must be the process by those who are politically, economically, and legally 0% can suddenly become 100%. This revolutionary inversion happens in a moment, but if one recognises the moment one can act in fidelity with it, generalise its meaning, and exploit its potential to the full.

Notes
[1] I would like to point out that the tactic here was one which I choose to call anti-violence. The police were forced back not because we were threatening violence; only the state has used or threatened violence in this campaign. Rather, the police fell back when they realised our physical presence robbed them of the option of inciting violence. I conceive of anti-violence of this sort of being a proactive, aggressive strategic orientation: like nonviolence it refuses to use violent means; but unlike nonviolence it actively seeks to deny such means to the enemy as well. I intend to develop a theory of this strategy in a future article.

Congratulations if you’ve made it this far. Hope it was worth the trip. I didn’t have time to do any quotations, but if you’re curious about my methodology I recommend Alain Badiou’s 2nd Manifesto for Philosophy, which I’m quite enamoured with. It’s a light, but dense, tome.

see also: For Democracy & Discipline

Moving Ninja – Formations EP (2007)

 

 

Tracklist:

1. Blackout

2. THX

3. Kermancheh

4. Uranium

 

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Honduras Coup Update – October 2011

Sparked by outrage over recent police murders of university students including the son of the UNAH Director, Julieta Castellanos, the Lobo regime dismissed police department heads to give the impression that impunity is being addressed. Castellano, who was previously in favour of using police force against student protests, now calls for countries to stop economic aid to the Honduran police.

Meanwhile, evidence of political persecution and impunity continues and intensifies, as have reports of increased cost of living, funding cuts, exploitation, deals and corruption, and further militarisation in all the cities now with ´Operation Lightning’.

The US façade of ever increasing military and police aid to ´fight drugs and crime´ is dispelled as a Wikileaks report shows that the US Embassy recognised that the powerful landholder Miguel Facussé, whose security operations it supports, is a cocaine importer. Investigations found that officers of the recently inaugurated Xatruch Operation against organised farmers have received training at US bases.

Honduras is also being highlighted as an example of why the carbon trading market is inherently dismissive of human rights. Clean Development Board members say that under the current rules they could not withdraw the registration of Facussé´s palm oil project carbon credits despite reports of his company´s implication in mass human rights violations.
Dismissals over police murder of students
The case of the police murders of students Rafael Vargas and Carlos Pineda is not spectacular in that many murders occur in Honduras, but because Rafael is the son of Julieta Castellanos, the director of the national university UNAH, this became one of the most notorious cases, making it impossible for the regime not to respond at least superficially. The police suspects were arrested but released after being detained for 3 days and none returned. In this instance Lobo replaced several heads of police, and also appointed Coralia Rivera as the Security Vice Minister. Julieta Castellanos now say the police force is a ´monster´, calling on countries to stop giving economic aid to the Honduran police, and questions the credibility of the new appointees. Simply moving officials from one position to another will not change the system.
Intensification of political persecution and impunity

• Ex presidential minister Enrique Flores Lanza continues under home arrest as a political prisoner – his court hearing adjourned again to 17 November
• The Armed Forces Junta was freed from the charges of abuse of authority and expatriation of Manuel Zelaya Rosales in a majority vote of judges by the Honduran Supreme Court.
• The UN Freedom of Expression Relator Frank la Rue announced that he will seek for the UN to send an official visitor to investigate the assassination of (16) journalists in Honduras as well as of 130 lgbti persons and 40 social leaders, murdered after the military coup.
• The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights Commissioner María Guillén told the press that the current conditions for victims and of impunity obligate the IACHR to directly receive cases in Honduras, skipping Honduran institutions.

Journalist Karla Rivas highlighted, that in Honduras, for a few hundred dollars, someone can contract an assassin – so it is more important to find out why the assassination took place than who did it.
Reports of increased living costs, funding cuts, exploitation, deals and corruption

• The number of oil companies is reduced to only three, allowing transnationals to monopolise and decide market price of petrol; electricity bills increased by 7% for those consuming 200-300kws/month; price of eggs, meats, coffee and nuts went up; and the minimum wage negotiations that are legally due to begin are expected to be stalled by the coup regime
• The Special Unit for the Investigation of Women´s Deaths was closed, another retrograde move showing lack of political will to address femicides.
• A public-private partnership involving $123 million is expected to be approved by the end of the year to build a commercial airport, city toll road and highway and hospital projects using public funds and private companies.
• The Finance Secretary skipped the law requiring projects over 150,000 lempiras to be submitted  to a public tendering process, directly passing 3 million lempiras to coup-supporting Channel 10 owner Wong Arévalo to ´promote new forms of energy generation´
• Disaster capitalism shows as the south of Honduras floods. Congress approved an emergency decree ´for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the affected areas nationally by natural phenomena during 2011´ ordering the government to borrow 600 million lempiras from private banks to spend on the floods for which interest will be charged. Three banks quickly announced they are ready to lend. The state also organised collections of donations which they received from many thousands of Honduran citizens. But before distribution the donations get stickers put on them for eg saying ´Anduray Presidente 2014´ or in promotion of other organisations and campaigns, taking credit for donations made by citizens.

Further militarisation in all the cities in the name of fighting crime

´Operation Lightning’ has been announced to saturate Honduran cities with police and military hitmen in the name of fighting criminal acts (of ´delinquents´, ´gangs´, and ´drug cartels´) and of addressing Honduras having become one of the most violent countries in the world. Lobo also begins talks to reform and legislate to merge together the police and military ministers / departments, which would further militarisation. In addition, a bill was presented to the Congress to broaden the powers of the armed forces to be able to carry out arrests and invasions and searches.

US providing increasing military aid to the Honduran regime including the Xatruch Operation against organised farmers in the name of fighting drugs and crimes

Major contradictions are visible in US relations with Honduras in its words (for human rights and against drug and crimes) and actions (against human rights and in support of known drug dealer and powerful landholder). The Honduran regime president Lobo met with Obama and agreements made included US helping with human rights violations investigations, and for the US Security Secretary to help with security technology for Port Cortés. In these meetings Lobo also requested assistance in investigative processes. US Embassy said it was happy to look into having FBI accompany investigations. US financing of Honduran military and police have increased drastically since the coup. US assigned $45 million of new funds for military construction including for the expansion of the US military base Palmerola and in opening three new US bases. $200 million is assigned to Honduras for the Central American Regional initiative to ´combat drug trafficking´.

But to the contrary, the US is militarily supporting drug trafficking, and human rights violations. For eg human rights delegation La Voz de Los de Abajo confirmed that Xatruch Operations officials received counterinsurgency, sniper and antiterrorism training (´Special Operations´) at the US Soto Cano Military base. It was also confirmed that 70 members of the 15th Battalion received 33 days training from US ´rangers´ in 2011. The Xatruch Operation with Miguel Facussé´s private army attacks organised farmers struggling for land and human rights. Facussé is a powerful palm oil giant and coup supporter and a recent Wikileaks report shows that the US Embassy knew of his trafficking of cocaine since 2004.  US also supplied vehicles to the Honduran National Police and Military, used in raids against farmers. A representative of the 15th Battalion made a statement blaming ´farmers, armed groups of farmers and foreigners´ for the conflict in the region, showing its allegiance with Miguel Facussé. In relation to foreigners, Lobo proposes to use immigration to better control foreigners entering the region – likely targets being human rights observers.

Palm oil blood: Honduras Bajo Aguán example shows why a carbon trading market is inherently dismissive of human rights

Under ETS, UN credits were accredited by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Board to the Dinant palm oil plantations where reports show that between January 2010 and March 2011 alone 23 organised farmers have been murdered as part of the land conflict. CDM members expressed regret and distress, but said that under CDM rules, because the stakeholder consultations had been finished, it was beyond their power to block this project registration. Beyond a question of timing, a European Commission Directorate General for Energy official said that putting human rights in the criteria for assessing CDM projects would be ´very difficult´. So business as usual continues in Aguán and in the world´s carbon markets, disregarding systemic and grave human rights violations.

Other news:

• In the Texas Federal Court, proceedings began against Roberto Micheletti, who headed the 2009 coup, for crimes against humanity, and extrajudicial executions against over 200 Hondurans killed by state organisms and paramilitary.

• Deposed president Zelaya sent a letter to defacto president Lobo in reconciliatory tones when conditions for reconciliation does not exist. Amongst other things, he wrote, ´Mr President… I am sure of your goodwill towards the process of national reconciliation … we are ready for dialogue … you have our support.´

• Zelaya, as coordinator of FNRP, delivered the 85,000 signatures to the Electoral Commission of Honduras to register LIBRE (Freedom and Refoundation Party).

Summary of political persecution in October 2011

Summary of political killings in October 2011

Miriam Emelda Fiallo  resistance member, farm worker of COAPALMA plantation cooperative in Prieto, Tocoa, killed 1/10/11

Carlos Humberto Rosa Martínez (24), MUCA farmer and land rights activist, killed 2/10/11

Santos Seferino Zelaya (35), organised MUCA farmer of Aurora, killed 11/10/11

Segundo, organised farmer and FNRP member, killed 15/10/11

Felix Vasquez Morena (55), San Pedro Sula leader and Colective Plaza La Libertad, killed 23/10/11.

Persecution against organised farmers this month

• On 1/10/11, Miriam Emelda Fiallo was gunned down and died and her husband German Castro was hospitalised with grave wounds, when the couple was driving. Both are resistance members. Miriam was a farmer on the COAPALMA plantation and German is the president of Prieta – one of about 15 cooperatives of COAPALMA. In February the then Prieta President Rigoberto Funez was assassinated together with the then treasurer Fredy – German´s brother. Prieta cooperative has achieved a dignified standard of living for its members who run it collectively and independently without need of capital investment and Prieta has been very supportive of the farmers´ movement since the coup.
• Early on 2/10/11, Carlos Humberto Rosa Martínez (24) was assassinated with 7 gunshots by security guards of Miguel Facussé. ´They keep killing us´, said his sister. He is a MUCA farmer and land rights activist of the Lempira Cooperative. He has a 4 yr old son. The day before he left to see his family in Tocoa and he was going to work in the cornfield.
• On 3/10/11, Mario Paredes suffered a kidnap attempt by a contingent of 35 security guards in three vehicles, of Facussé and Canales, when Mario was visiting his mother in the Agua Maria community. Mario managed to escape to a nearby house and fled the village.
• On 4/10/11, a violent eviction was carried out against la Consentida community (organised farmers land recovery movement near Rigores) by a contingent of police, military and guards of Miguel Facussé and several helicopters. During the operation, they burned wooden houses, arbitrarily detained Antonio Quintanilla who was released soon after. They dragged children from their homes, and kidnapped a leader of the Cooperative 21 de Junio.
• On 5/10/11, unidentified guards of Miguel Facussé riddled with bullets and gravely wounded MUCA organised farming leaders Pedro Alfredo Matamoros Bonilla (45) and Heder Jael Sánchez Cruz of ´La Aurora´, in front of the San Isidro Finca and the Sinaloa Agrarian Dpt building. Alfredo was shot through the mouth and head and Heder in his legs and abdomen. They have land assigned to them by the Agrarian Department to build homes for La Aurora and La Confianza farmers. Pedro is the treasurer, and Heder the secretary.
• On 6/10/11, at 5.30am, farmer Walter Nelin Sabillón Yanes (25) was captured near Rigores and tortured by Operation Xatruch II members. He was thrown into an investigative police vehicle without numberplates and beaten, kicked, and interrogated throughout about names of his comrades and ´where the arms are´. He was taken to the Tocoa police station handcuffed. Walter said he didn´t know anyone´s names and just arrived to the group. They grabbed his mobile and warned, ´someone will call you here and you will fall.´ They put the hood on him 5 times and gave him 3 electric shocks to the hands, abdomen and mouth. One agent told him they were going to cut his fingers. 5-6 soldiers guarded him with pointed rifles. Walter was freed at 7.30pm, they took his photos and full name and said, ´promise us not to go back to these groups because we are going to come back to capture you, we will tie a stone on your neck and throw you into the Aguán river.´
• Between 7-11/10/11, the Xatruch operation maintained Rigores and Marañones under a state of siege with checkpoints and extracting large payments to enter and leave, and did the same at La Lempira on 14/10/11
• On 11/10/11, 8am, 6 of Miguel Facussé´s hooded guards arrived at La Aurora MUCA settlement surrounding the workers asking for the cooperative president and when nobody answered, they shot at and killed Santos Seferino Zelaya (35), and others fled. Santos has 2 children aged 8 and 10. 15 women of La Aurora and men were chased by guards and police on the settlement fields. La Aurora lands are under dispute with Facussé and farmers have info that landholders are spending 3 million lempiras for hitmen to kill organised farmers.
• On 15/10/11, guards returned to La Consentida and fired shots at farmers wounding Santiago Iván Gonzales and Deby Mancía. The farmers saw 2 body bags in a guards´ vehicle. Police claims they don´t know who killed them (one was of Segundo, an organised farmer and FNRP member) but that they were ´fruit thieves´ (criminalising land struggle), despite the police having participated in the operation. Segundo´s body was found on 17/10 in a judicial morgue in La Ceiba 60km from the settlement covered in gunshot wounds.
• Early on 16/10/11, Miguel Facussé´s guards and Xatruche police and military executed a new armed attack against the Rigores land recovery movement. They arrived to the Paso Aguán finca and began to shoot at men, women and children, disappearing Segundo Mendoz (26) whose whereabouts were unknown. They wounded Arling Adolfo Torres (20) fracturing his arm.
• On 29/10/11, Operation Xatruch returned to militarise the Rigores community, and on 30/10/11, Facussé´s guards fired shots against several farmers who were going past at night.
• On 30/10/11 a group of police not of Xatruch arrested the security head of Miguel Facussé and charged him with carrying prohibited arms, but released him within 24 hours arguing, that the confiscated arms belonged to a Honduran army colonel.

In Bajo Aguan, at least 45 organised farmers have been assassinated by armed groups defending interests of large landholders since November 2009, and over 500 face judicial persecution.

Persecution against journalists this month

• On 2/10/11 journalist Lenin Alfaro of Ojo Critico was detained after a car accident while returning from a FNRP assembly. He and his brother transmit the 10pm Globo TV program.
• On 30/10/11 TV news presenter Isaac Hernandez of Colon News Centre received a threatening call from 31900236, after he questioned on air how police found prohibited arms carried by Facussé´s guards but not from the farmers´ side. During the week he also reported that 300 bullets have gone missing in the police warehouses.

• On 31/10/11 at 8.30pm, journalist Edy Andino was shot with heavy arms in his left leg and his car received at least 20 shots from a black tourist van, after he reported from a police source for Channel 6 night time news and was going home. To survive he said he had to scream that he is from Channel 6 (mainstream) so they did not kill him.

Persecution against human rights defenders in October 2011

• On 9/10/11, Italian youth human rights defender Alessandro Bellini was given a death threat by a neighbour, who had been drinking, from the Zacate Grande community. Alessandro belongs to the Italian Central American Collective, and is at Zacate Grande on a Human Rights Observers Camp. He has already been threatened on different occasions by people against the land struggles of the Zacate Grande villagers.
• On 30/10/11, soon after the human rights defenders Wilfredo Paz and Rudy Hernándes gave testimony at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights about the situation in Aguán and during their presentation about the installation of a human rights watch in Aguán at the restaurant Tierra Libre, a car with dark windows without numberplates kept passing by every 10 minutes. As Wilfredo and Rudy finished and left about 8.45pm, the same car sped and parked abruptly 20 metres from them. Wilfredo and Rudy returned to seek safety and someone who helped them leave told them these kinds of cars are used by the army. At 11.30am on 1/11/11 as they prepared their complaints, they heard AK47s fired.

Repression of other protests

• On 11/10/11, a police and army contingent brutally repressed a protest in Comayagua, wounding many, beating people and teargassing them. They chased protesters through the neighbouring mountains and hills – even gunshots were reported.

Against youths and students

• On 8/10/11, a large object was thrown at high speed at the windscreen of the car Sara Tome and Aureliano Molina were in. They were in charge of organising the Self-Convoked First Assembly of Youths for the Refoundation of Honduras held at Zacate Grande. Sara is from the Centre of Women´s Studies, and Aureliano of indigenous organisation Copinh.
• On 22/10/11, the bodies of the uni students Carlos Pineda Rodríguez (23) and Rafael Alejandro Vargas Castellanos (22) were found. There is video evidence that implicates the police in the murders. Carlos and Rafael recently visited Enrique Flores Lanza who has been under political house arrest. Rafael is also the son of UNAH Director Julieta Castellanos and so this case is heavily investigated and gets media attention. Carlos´s father worked in one of Miguel Facussé´s companies and may be a MUCA farmer organiser.  Rafael participated in COFADEH´s youth human rights program when aged 15.

Other resistance activists persecuted in October

• On 23/10/11 about 10.30pm, Felix Vasquez Moreno (55) was assassinated in his own vehicle by unknown persons as he was leaving his modest food business. Felix was also a member of Colectivo Plaza La Libertad and San Pedro Sula FNRP leader. Felix´s body was found savagely beaten, with bruising and 6 gunshot wounds in the head and throat.
• On 23/10/11 in the night, Jesús Zepeda, another FNRP member, was attacked by individuals with machetes, who set his home on fire, as he returned home from church.

Other Evictions

• On 27/10/11, at 7am, 140 police evicted over 100 families of Estiquirín Hill in Comayaguela. They destroyed 45 homes built by marginalised families who lived on those fields for 7 years without access to public services. The land is under judicial dispute between large landholder Oscar Siri Zúniga, the Honduran Children and Family Department and others. The judge made eviction order without regards for international human rights laws.
• On 8/10/11, in the night, vendors were attacked and had their stalls damaged in an illegal eviction carried out by council employees under the Council Mayor´s order.

Some statistics and data from Honduras that came this month

• 54 women have made reports of  sexual assault as repression for protesting against the coup
• 62 university students have been murdered in 2011 alone (14 in July 2011 alone)
• The recently signed agreement with MUCA from June 2011 eliminates the April 2010 commitment to return 11,000 hectares of land to the people. Also no solutions for MARCA and MCA.

Snapshot of solidarity and resistance in Honduras this October 2011 – Occupy!!

As Occupy movements spread and grow around the world, similar actions in Honduras continue against a small elite controlling and exploiting the 99%

Examples: 3000 teachers stopped traffic at the Finance Secretary’s office, demanding backpay of unpaid salaries. Hundreds of community board affiliates, 2000 taxi drivers, and other activists occupied the city centre protesting against a million dollar rubbish collection contract about to be signed that will increase citizens´ rubbish collection bills, and to protest increasing petrol prices. Similar workers’ protest took place in the capital against increasing living costs and privatisations; indigenous people marched to protest 519 years of invasion and colonisation; National Maya Chortí Council members occupied the Copán Ruins park demanding the cancelling of an eviction order against a community occupying Nueva Estanzuela village for which a land title application is in process. Small and medium company owners, under ´Honor and National Dignity´, went on hunger strike to protest the signing of expensive thermal energy contracts that will increase electricity costs for everyone.

A Human Rights Observation camp is being set up in Bajo Aguan that will have a provisional office opening on 11 November 2011.

 

– From Sydney Says No 2 Honduras Coup