Workers Solidarity Movement

Following an 11 hour riot sparked by a brutal police attack on demonstrations against the inauguration of the new president in Mexico City on 1 December, the local government declares a witch hunt against anarchists. Through declarations made by the head of the Government of the Federal District (Mexico City is constitutionally incorporated as a Federal District, following the US model) blame for the bloody events has been directed at Mexican anarchists. Over 50 anarchists remain in prison and face being charged with terrorist legislation and scapegoated for what was a public outpouring of fury at intolerable economic deprivation, official corruption and police brutality. WSM is reprinting below the statement from the Mexican Anarchist Black Cross in response to the accusations of anarchists being the instigators and "ring-leaders" of the events of 1st December, to spread awareness of the current repression in Mexico.

Communiqué of the Mexican Anarchist Black Cross following the declarations of the Federal District Government

In recent days, following the events of the demonstrations on December 1st for the presidential inauguration of Enrique Peña Nieto, during which the police forces, both of the Federal [national] and Federal District [Mexico City] forces, brutally repressed demonstrators - officials of the Federal District government, amongst whom were the head of government of the FD and the capital's attorney, have made statements declaring that those responsible for the clashes are anarchist groups.

Faced with this, we want to clarify:

The Mexican Anarchist Black Cross is a libertarian initiative, our work is aimed to extend solidarity with prisoners, both the so-called ordinary ones and those imprisoned for their ideas and political actions and anarchists, supporting them in their legal processes, distributing their letters and doing outreach events to publicise their situation: we organise anti-repression workshops, promote self-organization in our neighborhoods and communities, as well as knowledge of legal defense strategies, based on the idea that repression is a mechanism inherent to Capital and the State, which does not hesitate to use it to maintain the domination and exploitation which sustains this system; we also disseminate anti-prison ideas and thinking, to prompt debate on the social control nature of the prison, and its function in maintaining the capitalist system.

As an initiative, our efforts are aimed at these tasks, which have always been done in the open. All the activities that we organise and participate in are called for via our webpage or by email, and are signed.

In the mass media, it has been mentioned that amongst the detained were persons belonging to anarchist groups. Faced with these assertions it is necessary to declare that none of those detained belonged to the Mexican Anarchist Black Cross. Nonetheless we declare our absolute solidarity with all the people detained and demand they be freed immediately.

We understand that these declarations, along with the allegations of instigating the events that occurred during the demonstrations, are part of a campaign of criminalisation and persecution against anarchist groups and individuals. Marcelo Ebrard has distinguished himself by the targeting and criminalisation of anarchist groups, during his tenure as Secretary of Public Safety of the City, so this campaign is no surprise to us and we see in these statements a revenge against us because of the work we have carried out, principally in solidarity with the young anarchists that the Government of the Federal District has confined in its prisons in recent years.

We have given solidarity to these, as well as with different cases at a national level of political prisoners, and in that context we have made several reports showing the intrinsically repressive character of Federal District government, who has subverted its own laws in using them in a biased way to create and stage accusations and trials riddled with irregularities.

We denounce this campaign of persecution, that began in 2003 with accusations against anarchist groups following the October 2 commemoration march and in the last year has worsened, (not to mention that a call has been circulating in recent days from an apocryphal group for an activity in solidarity with prisoners), and continues with the administration of Miguel Ángel Mancera, who has also had no hesitation in making incriminating statements against anarchist groups active in the "City of Despair".

What happened on December 1st is the product of social discontent. The investiture of Enrique Peña Nieto is only one part, we can not fail to see that there is a growing outrage at the current social, economic and political climate, in which the concentration of power in a narrow group of people and companies are bringing grave consequences for the vast majority of people. The police, federal and local, displayed their usual brutality against all the protesters; against anyone they found in their path, making arbitrary and indiscriminate arrests. This, coupled with the news of comrades wounded around San Lazaro,  further enraged the protesters.

For us, violence originates in the political system and the state, which intends to subdue us by means of its instruments of social control, and the economic system that deprives us of the ability to have a dignified life and exploits us through appropriation of our labour. This is the originating violence and faced with it it will always be legitimate to organise. The real terrorists are those who by their actions or their silent complicity, have plunged the country into a senseless war, filling the cities of fear and death, persecuting and criminalizing poverty and assassinating whoever organises themselves and dares to stand up against it.

Through this communiqué we thus denounce the growing campaign of criminalisation of social protest, and especially against anarchist groups and individuals. Those responsible for this are the Government of the Federal District. We demand the immediate liberation of each and every one of the persons detained.

Down with the prison walls!
Freedom for all!
Mexico ABC

Statement originally published at http://anarkismo.net/article/24506