{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
The '''Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca "Ricardo Flores Magón"''' ({{langx|es|Consejo Indígena Popular de Oaxaca "Ricardo Flores Magón"}}), also known by its [[acronym]] '''CIPO-RFM''', is an organization drawn from rural [[Indigenous peoples in Mexico|Indigenous peoples and communities]] in the Mexican [[States of Mexico|state]] of [[Oaxaca]]. The organization states that its goals (among others) are to "promote, diffuse and defend our human, territorial, economic, social, political and cultural rights, as communities and as individuals", which are to be accomplished through non-violent community-based action. Decisions within the organization are made through assemblies in which the participants work towards reaching a [[Consensus decision-making|consensus]].<ref>[http://www.newint.org/columns/makingwaves/2002/12/01/raul-gatica/ New International article, 2002.]</ref> Their namesake and inspiration is the late early 20th century Mexican [[anarchist]] [[Ricardo Flores Magón]], upon whose legacy and principles the organization is based. The CIPO advocates autonomous communities, ending [[private property]], and [[common ownership]] of land.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Anarchy Works|url=https://archive.org/details/anarchyworks00geld|url-access=limited|last=Gelderloos|first=Peter|year=2010|pages=[https://archive.org/details/anarchyworks00geld/page/n73 66]}}</ref>

== Community Organizing ==
The CIPO-RFM has organised around twenty-six rural communities into small [[anarchist communities]] where [[common ownership]] and [[participatory democracy]] are practiced.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Teaching Rebellion: Stories from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca|last=Denham|first=Diana|year=2006}}</ref> If a village expresses interest in the group a delegate from the CIPO-RFM comes to the village and explains how they work before it is put to a vote.<ref name=":0" /> In an effort to protect the local environment, the CIPO-RFM has engaged in the sabotage and [[direct action]] against [[wind farm]]s, [[shrimp farms]], [[Eucalyptus|eucalyptus plantations]] and the [[timber industry]]. They have also set up corn and coffee [[worker cooperative]]s and built schools and hospitals to help the local populations. They have also created a network of autonomous community radio stations to educate people about dangers to the environment and inform the surrounding communities about new industrial projects that would destroy more land. In 2001, the CIPO-RFM defeated the construction of a highway that was part of [[Plan Puebla Panama]]. During the Zapatista rebellion of 1994, they shut down transportation lines to slow down the movement of troops, and they also blocked highways and shut down government offices to support the 2006 rebellion throughout Oaxaca.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Gelderloos|first1=Peter|title=Anarchy Works|url=http://engl273g-f11-cerrone.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/Gelderloos+-+Anarchy+Works%5B1%5D.pdf|publisher=Ardent Press|page=141|date=2010}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>

== Harassment ==
Since its inception in the 1980s the CIPO-RFM has reported experiencing varying levels of harassment and persecution by officials within Oaxaca government and by paramilitaries they suspect of being associated with the Oaxacan state government.<ref>[https://www.nodo50.org/cipo/documentos/presosingles21.htm Nodo50.org article]</ref> Members of CIPO-RFM have by their own account faced public defamation, ransacked homes and threats of death.<ref>[http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=2247 Zmag.org article] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311022556/http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=2247 |date=11 March 2007 }}</ref> Several high-profile members of CIPO-RFM now live abroad as [[political refugees]], after having to flee Mexico due to persecution, including death threats and assassination attempts against them. Exiles include [[Raúl Gatica]], one of the original founding members of CIPO-RFM.  Gatica fled Mexico following persecution, including threats upon his life, and has been living in Canada since 2005.<ref>[http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR410102002?open&of=ENG-MEX Amnesty International] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061029110552/http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR410102002?open&of=ENG-MEX |date=29 October 2006 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.horizons.ca/article.php?sid=304 Horizons.ca article] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060705114121/http://www.horizons.ca/article.php?sid=304 |date=5 July 2006 }}</ref> The Mexican government has also tried to deny resources to CIPO-RFM communities in the hope of starving them out.<ref name=":0" />

== Current status ==
As of September 2006 the membership of CIPO-RFM involves representation from 26 different, mainly [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous]], communities including [[Chatinos|Chatino]], [[Mixtec]], [[Chinantec]], [[Cuicatecs|Cuicatec]], [[Zapotec people|Zapotec]], [[Mixe people|Mixe]], and [[Trique people|Trique]] peoples, and membership numbers total approximately 2000 activists. Though most of the membership of CIPO-RFM is of Indigenous origin the organization is also open to non-Indigenous people, both from Mexico and abroad, and is supportive of broader [[grassroots]] progressive social movements and struggles throughout the world.<ref>[http://zmagsite.zmag.org/May2006/kolhatkar0506.html Zmag.org article] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109080553/http://zmagsite.zmag.org/May2006/kolhatkar0506.html |date=9 November 2007 }} from May 2006</ref> The ideas of Ricardo Flores Magon have found followers among Indigenous leaders, such as Tomas Cruz Lorenzo, a Chatino leader.

==See also==
* [[Magonism]]
* [[Anarchism]]
* [[Green anarchism|Green Anarchism]]
* [[Anarchism in Mexico]]
* [[2006 Oaxaca protests|2006 Oaxaca Protests]]
* [[Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities|Rebel Autonomous Zapatista Municipalities]]
* [[Libertarian socialism|Libertarian Socialism]]
* [[Zaachila]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.nodo50.org/cipo CIPO-RFM] Official site.
*[http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/mexico/ciporfm_sept16_2004.html An account of reported harassment of the CIPO-RFM in Oaxaca: Sta. Lucía del Camino, Oaxaca, 16 September 2004]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061208131517/http://www.laneta.apc.org/rio/cipo/ Consejo Indígena Popular de Oaxaca "Ricardo Flores Magon"]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca Ricardo Flores Magon}}
[[Category:Anarchism in Mexico]]
[[Category:Magonism]]
[[Category:Anarchist organizations in North America]]
[[Category:Politics of Oaxaca]]
[[Category:Human rights in Mexico]]
[[Category:Political organizations based in Mexico]]
[[Category:Indigenous rights organizations in Mexico]]