Cancun Dispatch: 9/9

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On the sculptures above the fountain in the midst of the intersection, a young man swathed in black waves a red flag. Then the wild piece plays itself out -- the small Maoist group charges the police line, the orange block tries to move the crowd back, the focus is disturbed. But that's the way of actions in the midst of the street. We finish the mandala, people are milling around the fence and searching for shade. The Maoist group mounts another assault, forming into a block, counting down, "Cinco, quatro, trece, dos . . . ." And charge the fence, leaping onto it, only to be pushed back. It appears more like an athletic event than a serious assault, and the police stay behind their barricades, without reacting on the crowd. But this is the very spot where students were attacked two years ago and badly beaten, and sensitivity is running high.

But all ends peacefully. The march moves back, and some of the Pagans wade in the fountain. I am letting go of my own disappointment at not having an action more directly impactful on the meeting, but I am reconciled to doing what we can do. I've learned from this that we really can't plan actions in coordination among groups that haven't actually ever had a chance to meet and coordinate. And it's still the first day.

We head back to the Parque de Palapas, to eat and drink and relax. Now the mood is more like a festival or vacation, and I sit with Gloria to talk about the ritual. She feels that it was very important for the students to go back to the same spot where they were hurt before and have things go well.

There's a debrief meeting for the students, but a few of us head out instead to the IFG forum just inside the hotel zone to listen to Vandana Shiva and others remind us why we are doing this. The morning''s blockade has had an unfortunate impact on the forum. Because the road was closed, many people couldn't get there, and numbers are down. We feel bad, although we had no control over any of it and doubt that the students would have changed their plan because an NGO was holding a forum further down the road. But the IFG folks are our friends and allies, and it's a shame there aren't thousands thronging the forum. More people start to come as we listen to the speakers, and the space fills.

But we have to admit that numbers are low everywhere. The WTO chose their site well, for them. There aren't huge numbers of internationals who have been able to spend the money or devote the time to get to this spot, so far away from most of the major centers of resistance. The Mexican students and campesinos have raised money and come on buses, but it's a week-to-10-day trip, which means again that numbers are limited to the most committed. And unlike most mobilizations, there is really no local base in Cancun, no real community of resistance in this tourist town.

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