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The sea of yellow swept through the
veins of Mexico City en route to the Zocalo on Sunday, the platelets
returning to the heart. Yellow for clean elections; amarillo
for democracy, as manifest in the candidacy of Andres Manuel
Lopez Obrador who believes that his populist electoral victory
in the presidential election three weeks ago was stolen from
him and the working class and poor of Mexico who voted for him.
Unlike John Kerry, Obrador
-- the mayor of Mexico City -- did not disappoint the perhaps
2 million people who completely filled the Zocalo and avenues
in every direction for block after block after block. He has
presented evidence of fraud at 70,000 polling places to the
Supreme Court. And, as his voice echoed from loudspeakers everywhere,
he called on his supporters to remain in the Zocalo (after apologizing
to the thousands of street vendors who would be inconvenienced
by the occupation), setting up dozens of large white tents --
one for each Mexican state -- for the vigil to use to organize
itself and expand.
It was impossible to get to
the giant central square (zocalo) until long after the rally
had ended and the round-the-clock vigil had commenced with cultural
festivities. Three members of the Brooklyn Greens -- myself,
Cathryn Swan, and Robert Gold -- along with a grouping of Mexican
comrades who helped with the translation, found a shady corner
a few blocks away and listened to the crowd's cheers as Obrador
announced the occupation of the central square. (Being mayor
certainly helps here in Mexico City, as the police were all smiles
and supportive of the protests despite the negative media barrage
that batters Obrador and his working class base on a daily basis.)
Earlier, we inched our way
down Avenida Juarez, where artists had hung dozens of dramatic
paintings and historic quotations about the need for democracy.
A few days ago, right wing vandals slashed a number of the artworks,
each around 12 feet wide. When the artists returned to repair
them, they found that hundreds of people had already shown up
to defend the art and people from the neighborhoods had carefully
stitched each tattered canvas back together, rendering them even
more dramatic.
While the amarillo waves washed
down the streets, many focused not on Obrador himself but on
the need for free elections, real democracy, an end to the corruption
of all of the institutional political parties. Obrador has become
the symbol of that movement, that hope. Not that he will be able
to solve the momentous problems Mexico faces, particularly in
the face of International Monetary Fund and U.S. economic pressures
(which are intense). But, they feel that at least Obrador is
honest and will clean house.
It remains to be seen how this
movement for democracy will play out. The Zapatistas, for instance,
were critical of Obrador as a candidate but many EZLN supporters
were evident in the crowd demanding free elections and supporting
the movement. We stopped at one EZLN tent in which Zapatista
supporters displayed pictures of numerous political prisoners
in Mexico and raised funds for their defense. Other tents contained
literature from scores of political organizations, and giant
banners sweated their slogans in the hot Mexican sun. One political
party even hung huge pictures of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin
across one section of the plaza, and elsewhere anarchist symbols
and sentiments were much in evidence.
On a personal note, I can only
wonder what would have happened in the U.S. had John Kerry or
Al Gore called for protests and occupations of public spaces
across the United States. Would the world look very different
today had they done so? The swiftness with which both abandoned
those who voted for them, who voted against war and for civil
liberties and the environment, becomes even more despicable when
contrasted with the opposite approach being taken today in Mexico
by the possibilities being opened up by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
and the working class and the poor. Even the military has become
more questioning of its support for the history of scandalous
electoral fraud in Mexico.
A revolution is brewing in
Mexico, one that for now is non-violent, powerful, and visible
everywhere. Can the movement be co-opted? Will Obrador betray
his base? The Zapatistas understand that the revolution proceeds
on many fronts. As of this Sunday, the revolution has taken a
giant step forward. What will happen tomorrow is anyone's guess.
But, for now, these are very exciting times, and the hopes of
a huge swath of humanity rides on the ability of the Mexican
people to reclaim liberty, not only for themselves but for the
rest of us as well.
Mitchel Cohen is co-editor of "G", the
newspaper of the NY State Greens. He can be reached at: mitchelcohen@mindspring.com
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