Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada
*****************************
Translated by irlandesa
La Jornada
Saturday, August 12, 2006.
Those of Below
Gloria Muñoz Ramírez
Three Years of the JBG
La Realidad, Chiapas.
On August 9, unnoticed by the press, but in zapatista territory, the work of the good government juntas was celebrated, but not with dances or ceremonies. They were created in 2003 in order to consolidate a process which got underway in December of 1994 with the creation of 38 autonomous and rebel municipalities.
The red alert that was agreed more than three months ago in solidarity with the 27 prisoners of San Salvador Atenco and of the Other Campaign did not bring the autonomías to a standstill, although it did put off contacts with the outside and some of the towns’ projects, their way of endorsing their support of those whom they consider to be their compañeros.
The “Madre de los caracoles del mar in nuestros sueños” caracol, better known as the caracol of La Realidad, remains closed, with large banners on the main doors, on which can be read “Closed for red alert”. Here, no contacts or visits are possible. The junta is not here, but it emerged that the turnover of positions is being prepared, that is, the delivery of a clear accounting to the peoples and to the new members of what will be the second good government junta in this region.
A journey through the cañada of the Euseba River, the banks of the Jataté River and the road from Margaritas to San Quintín allowed us to see the ongoing work of the San José del Río hospital, of the Santa Rosa clinic, of the schools in San José, Guadalupe Tepeyac and La Realidad, among others.
The people, say the zapatistas, are the ones who have learned the most from this entire process. “They have learned to give orders to the officials, to manage their education, their health and other needs. It’s been difficult, because there are a lot of things that have to be organized, but that’s what we’re doing.”
Autonomía will follow its path. The peoples continue to think that “this is beginning”, because, as they say here: “We aren’t taking autonomy from a model, but we’re building it, we’re making it and putting it together, looking for its components. We don’t even know what it’s going to look like later. But what is certain is that we’re not what we were like three years ago, much less before the war.”
It takes work to be a zapatista. It is not easy to work in the field or the coffee plantation, in the tasks of health and of education, in the building of a road, in the marketing process, in the building of schools, clinics and training centers; in the work as community and municipal police; in the political assemblies in the village or in the region. And, in addition, “not swallowing or taking anything from the government.”
“This, says Miguel, “we’re all proud of. It’s our work. It’s just not easy, but that’s why we’re zapatistas.”
(The zapatistas have become stronger in the face of death and the persecution ordered by the government. The same thing will happen in Oaxaca and Atenco. It’s incredible, as a man in Oaxaca told this newspaper, “that compañeros have to die for that group to exist.”)
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Monday, July 10, 2006
Almeyra: Words and Acts
Originally published in Spanish by Memoria
*********************************
Translated by irlandesa
Memoria
June 2006
http://memoria.com.mx
Words and Acts
The events in San Salvador Atenco compel us to address the issues of what phase the country is in and what the left can and should do in order to be able, first, to defend the margins for democracy and, simultaneously, to prepare an anti-capitalist solution to the crisis which is assailing us. Inflammatory rhetoric is of no use for guidance or for changing anything, since insults and threats do not kill anyone.
Almeyra, Guillermo
Where are we, then? The social movements – which are few in number – are all defensive: like the miners, La Parota, the very combative indigenous campesinos of the Isthmus and the union front which is defending its autonomy. The widespread emigration - from Chiapas, including zapatista areas, to all the rest of the corners of the country - demonstrates, for its part, that the majority of Mexicans are “voting with their feet” in order to seek better integration into the capitalist system. They are even risking their lives for that, and they have no hope of obtaining a social change in the country from which they are fleeing.
There is a social left, as always, but it is more weakened by emigration and unemployment than in the past, and it is, in addition, dispersed and without common objectives. There is, on the other hand, no unified student movement, nor any student activism of real importance. There have, however, and this is extremely important, been various rapprochements between campesinos and workers and ephemeral organizing fronts. Also, the rift between many important unions (including their leadership) and the government is a fait accompli, which has left the government machine with just a handful of discredited “charros.” While anti-democratic and corrupt leaders (like Hernández Juárez or Vega Galina) still have weight in the opposition union front, they have been forced to abandon their support of the PRI and the government in order to not lose their bases. They have even had to convene a one hour national strike – an unprecedented event – which mobilized five million workers (who are not, of course, charros, despite the fact that they are still not in a position to throw them out). Thanks to momentum from the SME electrical workers, but with the support of hundreds of social organizations, the third National Dialogue has been held, and the program is being maintained in Querétaro. It is of class oriented and has a general nationalist significance, which could be transformed into the foundation for substantive agreements among the various sectors of the exploited.
The left which declares itself anti-capitalist is, for its part, extremely fragmented, and its influence among the exploited is exceedingly weak. In addition, one part of it has turned into the organizational core of the Other Campaign, whose leadership, however, is in the hands of the political group which gives the platform to the EZLN. Meanwhile, another part, somewhat more numerous, is scattered among the PRD election activity, where it has little influence from an organizational viewpoint, as can be seen in that party’s list of candidates, as well as in its statements and public positions.
To top it off, the country is a few days from elections which will be much more important than all the previous ones, but in which one must choose between the PRD and two versions of savagely repressive neoliberal policies at the service of large international financial capital and of United States imperialism. They have the liquidation of Pemex in their sights, as well as the privatization of the electrical and water industries, the destruction of those union laws and victories which still survive and the privatization of learning and of cultural resources and institutions.
The PRI (the bureaucratic-reactionary version of that class doctrine) or the PAN (semi-fascist and clerical version of same) are confronting, basically united, the PRD (which is again proposing a vaguely nationalist and distributive capitalist policy, already failed in the 80s and resurrected in order to put itself at the service of an important sector of national capitalists).
In other words, the exploited have to choose between various capitalist policies and wings, and they still do not have their own option, another program for the country. What is at stake is being fought over above them, often with their passive participation as the “electoral infantry” of one of the two blocks which have maintained shared policies in basic problems, such as the anti-indigenous law, the Monsanto law and the Televisa law. It is logical, therefore, that the oppressed, who are electors, continue to think about emigration, have no electoral enthusiasm and, if they do not desert the ballot box, are thinking of voting for a Salvador (Mexican political education involves hoping for a change from the pinnacle of the state pyramid) or for the least malicious. This is what they are doing instead of using the election campaign for discussing what to do in their regions or territories, what the needs are, what the possible solutions are and how to organize themselves in order to impose those solutions directly.
Regarding the Other Campaign, it is exactly that: another election campaign, as its name so indicates, but directed towards the non-voting sector, which is very large because it is made up of those who cannot vote (emigrants, the five million agricultural day laborers dispersed throughout the country, those who are far away from the voting booths or sick or absent), in addition to those who do not feel the need to do so and who do not want to do so because “after all, they’re all the same.” It is a campaign directed towards making contact with those who cannot express themselves – that is exactly its primary quality - but not a campaign whose objective is organizing or raising the political level of those who participate in their events (which is also organizing). It says that López Obrador is the same as, or worse than, the other candidates, in that way cutting off bridges to those who, fairly, see that it is not like that, but who, incorrectly, limit themselves to working for their candidate’s victory, without organizing themselves. Nor does it teach what capitalism is (it only divides society into the “rich” and the “poor”), or about what the State is (they simple say “we have to throw the rich out to Miami”, without saying how, nor by what means, nor how the potential expelled and the state forces will react, in addition to the United States). It is not educating politically (it says “we’ll take the lands away from them,” “we’ll expropriate the banks”, without even outlining the minimal necessary conditions for being able to do that). It is a campaign of anti-electoral and antiestablishment agitation, but not an organizing anti-capitalist campaign.
Quickly leaving aside the histrionic-folkloric aspects (Marcos’ motorcycle tour with his chicken mascot in the back), the tourney never became anything more than making contact with sectors in struggle or those marginalized by the actions of the parties (which is undoubtedly very important, but it is also not sufficient). It sounded out their level of understanding, listened to their demands, saw their level of organization and decision-making, but they did not propose anything, even autonomy and self-management (fundamental victories of the chiapaneco zapatistas), nor did they discuss anything or present a program for the country (or the basic problems which it must confront) or organize. In addition to their sectarianism in relation to the PRD - and the false identification of the millions of their voters, their hundreds of thousands of members with their leadership - they also incorporated sectarianism in their response to those workers’ and campesino social movements not affiliated with the Other Campaign. They refused to recognize the National Dialogue, in which thousands of worker, campesino and popular organizations participated, saying it was an election maneuver by a group of “charros”. They ignored the national strike of five million workers and the miners’ strike over repression in Sicartsa and the repudiation of the governor’s naming of the secretary of their union. He said “we don’t have to look towards Bolivia.” In addition, by appearing not to accept the fact that López Obrador, even though he is a capitalist candidate, is not the same as the others - not to the government, nor to the exploiting classes - because he did not come from them, and he is supported by “the hoi polloi”. Nor are they even confronting the “strategy of tension” (assassinations, blows against the unions, repression in Atenco, slander and political lynching of the opposition), the general repressive strategy that is being directed not only against the PRD, but also against all the oppressed and exploited.
The need for a battle of ideas
Rebellion against capitalism is provoked by exploitation, dispossession, oppression, racism, by the specific way capitalism functions in Mexico. But the building of an alternative to capitalism requires slow, tortuous work in the theoretical elaboration of the practical experiences of class struggles. It requires reflection, discussion, conclusions which benefit from errors as well as triumphs; the study of history and, in particular, of the history of past struggles of the exploited classes; an analysis of the building of the State in this country and of its roots in popular consciousness. This is intellectual work which is not dependent just on intellectuals. On the contrary, it is the fruit of the operation of collective intellect, of education-learning in the struggle and in discussion, treating theoretically what emerges from experiences and providing those experiences with the contribution of those conclusions.
The Other Campaign, however, talks of an “other theory”, but it understands that objective as mere empirical verification of exploitation and, above all, it excludes the history of its analysis. It is not possible to make an anti-capitalist “other theory” without making an assessment of previous theories without running the risk of maintaining terrible confusion. For example, the Other Campaign displays huge portraits of Stalin everywhere. They are not “official”, but rather the expression of the ignorance of a group which calls itself “communist” and which is active in the organization of the trip. Tolerance in the face of that aberration is a demonstration of paternalism (“they have the right to be ignorant.”), but also of a total lack of concern for ideas and for the fact that Stalin’s portrait is, in large measure, a tacit program. It indicates, if not a policy presented as a model, at least a lack of repudiation of disastrous and counterrevolutionary policies which destroyed the October Revolution and created a powerful bureaucracy with capitalistic values, which gave rise to the mafia government and to the current Russian neo-capitalists. It warded off and sabotaged the world struggle against capitalists, buried revolutions, killed millions of campesinos in the Soviet Union, inoculated other millions of workers against socialism and emasculated Marxist thought. Pragmatism without principles (“everyone come, as long as you accept our leadership”), far from organizing, pushes away those people who think and seek. Yes, we must work together with everyone possible, but not at the cost of principles or by wallowing in the rubbish bin of history.
What is most serious is that, in a mostly conservative country, which is still hoping for changes within the system, in an unfavorable relationship of forces, without great social movements, marked by massive migration, the Other Campaign is not concerned about elevating the level of comprehension of those people who come to it. It does not try to present an anti-capitalist project for the country, nor does it talk about the country’s great problems (how to replace the hydrocarbon reserves which are running out, how to reorganize land and water resources, how to create work, how to elevate the level of popular consumption). Loudmouthed and empty rhetoric (“we’re going to expropriate the banks,” “we’re going to throw the rich out to Miami,” “the factories will be ours”) substitutes for a lack of programs and projects, without the slightest reference as to how to join forces, make alliances and build class fronts, in order to make real those promises flung into the air. Nor do they take at all into consideration the real correlation of forces or the elemental fact that power is in the hands of the exploiters and of imperialism, and that they also act and react when they see their interests in danger. The Other Campaign cannot organize because it does politics in a sectarian and primitive way, and it seeks power, but by inadequate methods like simple agitation against “the rich.” It does not teach, taking advantage, for example, of the Bolivian experience, in order to demonstrate what can be done legally, how to combine social movements and the struggle within them, how to make alliances. On the contrary, he says “we don’t have to look at Bolivia” and the same as the Bolivian and South American ultra-left, trying to weaken the government of Evo Morales and keeping a tight hold on aid while the Bolivian right and all the forces of capitalism are trying to defeat it. He doesn’t teach doing politics, showing the divisions in the combination of opposition forces, explaining over what, and to what extent, López Obrador has clashed with the other candidates, and which sectors are supporting which and what their plans are and their effects on the country and on the oppressed. When Marcos exclaims “screw the correlation of forces!”, he is teaching vulgar voluntarismo to his followers, who are ignorant of what battle is being unleashed, of what the enemy’s methods are, of how there is consensus on those methods in certain sectors, and this leads them to a lack of organizational and political preparation. By replacing reason and considered commitment with rage and improvisation, he leads them to disastrous adventures, as in Atenco.
The Other Campaign is, it is true, fighting against capitalism’s lack of ethics and its agents (the rapes, assassinations, dispossessions, the terrible exploitation, racism), but it does not present an opposing ethic. That is why it has no problem accepting the portraits of Stalin, whose system assassinated millions of workers and campesinos, raped en masse, built inhuman labor and extermination camps, collaborated with the nazis during the Molotov-Ribentropp Pact, destroyed all democratic rights and physically annihilated their opponents. It tacitly accepts the principle that the ends justify the means, and thus legitimate hate towards the police who repress in order to preserve the system culminates, as in San Salvador Atenco, in brutalities against a prostrate policeman, savagely beaten when he could not have been a danger to anyone. The Vietnamese and Cuban revolutionaries condemned the mistreatment of prisoners and torture. They did not practice them even when the enemy resorted to those methods. Where, on the other hand, are Marcos’ condemnations of the lynching of a defenseless policeman which provided a pretext for the ferocity of the repression against the people of Atenco? Is he afraid that by condemning it he would be justifying the police barbarity, when that barbarity is typical of the system but is “justified” against the most deprived sectors by the pretexts shown by the victims’ barbarism. Would not realistic objectivity involve dividing the policemen who refuse to carry out any criminal orders of the assassins and rapists, and not uniting them? If Marcos says “screw the correlation of forces,” then why did he agree to an interview on Televisa with Loret de Mola, settling in on a sofa, smoking calmly, as if he were in his own house and not in hostile territory, and let De Mola conduct the interview without even trying to say anything? Could it be that he does not understand that TV – which he did not say anything against during his interview – is part of the adverse “correlation of forces” and he wanted to make himself cute, tolerable, so that at least a lot of people would see him.
The Other Campaign’s big problem is that it is dependent on the political preparation of just Marcos and of a small handful of assistants. The immense majority of those who support zapatismo, especially among intellectuals, are afraid to posit “buts” (let alone constructive criticism) out of fear, first of all, of helping the “enemy” (and also, although to a lesser degree, since they are not cowards, but mistakenly accountable, of being attacked or condemned in a sectarian response). In Chiapas, Marcos is subject to the control and influence of the communities’ good sense. During his tour, on the other hand, that is not happening, and he is using the blank check they have given, and are giving him, with disastrous results. The general situation is increasingly complicated, and the task he has undertaken, decisively and courageously, far exceeds his abilities, and it demands reflection, maturity, international political vision and a policy of alliances.
If the Other Campaign contributes – as it seems to be doing, through its acts and through its deficiencies – to the victory of the government’s candidate, PANista Felipe Calderón, we will not have long to wait for the offensive by the right and by imperialism and the subsequent repression, because they will have to strike while the iron is hot. The reorganization of popular forces will take place amidst confusion, and it will take time. The defeat of the PRD will mark, of course, for the midterm, its destruction and the emergence, in order to fill the vacuum, of a leftist party, which will develop amid political confusion. Large sectors who will be voting for López Obrador, hoping for a change, will retain general support of zapatismo, especially if it is attacked, as the right desires, which says the truce is no longer justified, but those sectors will have accounts to settle with Marcos and with the Other Campaign. Will they have the maturity to seek, with them, a single defensive front and to begin to do politics, to have a program, ethics, pluralism and theoretical rigor? That is not dependent just on the Other Campaign, but also on those who, conquering their fear of making constructive criticism, understand that that is precisely the duty of friends, of compañeros, who cannot, nor should not, accept the role of Greek chorus in the drama.
*********************************
Translated by irlandesa
Memoria
June 2006
http://memoria.com.mx
Words and Acts
The events in San Salvador Atenco compel us to address the issues of what phase the country is in and what the left can and should do in order to be able, first, to defend the margins for democracy and, simultaneously, to prepare an anti-capitalist solution to the crisis which is assailing us. Inflammatory rhetoric is of no use for guidance or for changing anything, since insults and threats do not kill anyone.
Almeyra, Guillermo
Where are we, then? The social movements – which are few in number – are all defensive: like the miners, La Parota, the very combative indigenous campesinos of the Isthmus and the union front which is defending its autonomy. The widespread emigration - from Chiapas, including zapatista areas, to all the rest of the corners of the country - demonstrates, for its part, that the majority of Mexicans are “voting with their feet” in order to seek better integration into the capitalist system. They are even risking their lives for that, and they have no hope of obtaining a social change in the country from which they are fleeing.
There is a social left, as always, but it is more weakened by emigration and unemployment than in the past, and it is, in addition, dispersed and without common objectives. There is, on the other hand, no unified student movement, nor any student activism of real importance. There have, however, and this is extremely important, been various rapprochements between campesinos and workers and ephemeral organizing fronts. Also, the rift between many important unions (including their leadership) and the government is a fait accompli, which has left the government machine with just a handful of discredited “charros.” While anti-democratic and corrupt leaders (like Hernández Juárez or Vega Galina) still have weight in the opposition union front, they have been forced to abandon their support of the PRI and the government in order to not lose their bases. They have even had to convene a one hour national strike – an unprecedented event – which mobilized five million workers (who are not, of course, charros, despite the fact that they are still not in a position to throw them out). Thanks to momentum from the SME electrical workers, but with the support of hundreds of social organizations, the third National Dialogue has been held, and the program is being maintained in Querétaro. It is of class oriented and has a general nationalist significance, which could be transformed into the foundation for substantive agreements among the various sectors of the exploited.
The left which declares itself anti-capitalist is, for its part, extremely fragmented, and its influence among the exploited is exceedingly weak. In addition, one part of it has turned into the organizational core of the Other Campaign, whose leadership, however, is in the hands of the political group which gives the platform to the EZLN. Meanwhile, another part, somewhat more numerous, is scattered among the PRD election activity, where it has little influence from an organizational viewpoint, as can be seen in that party’s list of candidates, as well as in its statements and public positions.
To top it off, the country is a few days from elections which will be much more important than all the previous ones, but in which one must choose between the PRD and two versions of savagely repressive neoliberal policies at the service of large international financial capital and of United States imperialism. They have the liquidation of Pemex in their sights, as well as the privatization of the electrical and water industries, the destruction of those union laws and victories which still survive and the privatization of learning and of cultural resources and institutions.
The PRI (the bureaucratic-reactionary version of that class doctrine) or the PAN (semi-fascist and clerical version of same) are confronting, basically united, the PRD (which is again proposing a vaguely nationalist and distributive capitalist policy, already failed in the 80s and resurrected in order to put itself at the service of an important sector of national capitalists).
In other words, the exploited have to choose between various capitalist policies and wings, and they still do not have their own option, another program for the country. What is at stake is being fought over above them, often with their passive participation as the “electoral infantry” of one of the two blocks which have maintained shared policies in basic problems, such as the anti-indigenous law, the Monsanto law and the Televisa law. It is logical, therefore, that the oppressed, who are electors, continue to think about emigration, have no electoral enthusiasm and, if they do not desert the ballot box, are thinking of voting for a Salvador (Mexican political education involves hoping for a change from the pinnacle of the state pyramid) or for the least malicious. This is what they are doing instead of using the election campaign for discussing what to do in their regions or territories, what the needs are, what the possible solutions are and how to organize themselves in order to impose those solutions directly.
Regarding the Other Campaign, it is exactly that: another election campaign, as its name so indicates, but directed towards the non-voting sector, which is very large because it is made up of those who cannot vote (emigrants, the five million agricultural day laborers dispersed throughout the country, those who are far away from the voting booths or sick or absent), in addition to those who do not feel the need to do so and who do not want to do so because “after all, they’re all the same.” It is a campaign directed towards making contact with those who cannot express themselves – that is exactly its primary quality - but not a campaign whose objective is organizing or raising the political level of those who participate in their events (which is also organizing). It says that López Obrador is the same as, or worse than, the other candidates, in that way cutting off bridges to those who, fairly, see that it is not like that, but who, incorrectly, limit themselves to working for their candidate’s victory, without organizing themselves. Nor does it teach what capitalism is (it only divides society into the “rich” and the “poor”), or about what the State is (they simple say “we have to throw the rich out to Miami”, without saying how, nor by what means, nor how the potential expelled and the state forces will react, in addition to the United States). It is not educating politically (it says “we’ll take the lands away from them,” “we’ll expropriate the banks”, without even outlining the minimal necessary conditions for being able to do that). It is a campaign of anti-electoral and antiestablishment agitation, but not an organizing anti-capitalist campaign.
Quickly leaving aside the histrionic-folkloric aspects (Marcos’ motorcycle tour with his chicken mascot in the back), the tourney never became anything more than making contact with sectors in struggle or those marginalized by the actions of the parties (which is undoubtedly very important, but it is also not sufficient). It sounded out their level of understanding, listened to their demands, saw their level of organization and decision-making, but they did not propose anything, even autonomy and self-management (fundamental victories of the chiapaneco zapatistas), nor did they discuss anything or present a program for the country (or the basic problems which it must confront) or organize. In addition to their sectarianism in relation to the PRD - and the false identification of the millions of their voters, their hundreds of thousands of members with their leadership - they also incorporated sectarianism in their response to those workers’ and campesino social movements not affiliated with the Other Campaign. They refused to recognize the National Dialogue, in which thousands of worker, campesino and popular organizations participated, saying it was an election maneuver by a group of “charros”. They ignored the national strike of five million workers and the miners’ strike over repression in Sicartsa and the repudiation of the governor’s naming of the secretary of their union. He said “we don’t have to look towards Bolivia.” In addition, by appearing not to accept the fact that López Obrador, even though he is a capitalist candidate, is not the same as the others - not to the government, nor to the exploiting classes - because he did not come from them, and he is supported by “the hoi polloi”. Nor are they even confronting the “strategy of tension” (assassinations, blows against the unions, repression in Atenco, slander and political lynching of the opposition), the general repressive strategy that is being directed not only against the PRD, but also against all the oppressed and exploited.
The need for a battle of ideas
Rebellion against capitalism is provoked by exploitation, dispossession, oppression, racism, by the specific way capitalism functions in Mexico. But the building of an alternative to capitalism requires slow, tortuous work in the theoretical elaboration of the practical experiences of class struggles. It requires reflection, discussion, conclusions which benefit from errors as well as triumphs; the study of history and, in particular, of the history of past struggles of the exploited classes; an analysis of the building of the State in this country and of its roots in popular consciousness. This is intellectual work which is not dependent just on intellectuals. On the contrary, it is the fruit of the operation of collective intellect, of education-learning in the struggle and in discussion, treating theoretically what emerges from experiences and providing those experiences with the contribution of those conclusions.
The Other Campaign, however, talks of an “other theory”, but it understands that objective as mere empirical verification of exploitation and, above all, it excludes the history of its analysis. It is not possible to make an anti-capitalist “other theory” without making an assessment of previous theories without running the risk of maintaining terrible confusion. For example, the Other Campaign displays huge portraits of Stalin everywhere. They are not “official”, but rather the expression of the ignorance of a group which calls itself “communist” and which is active in the organization of the trip. Tolerance in the face of that aberration is a demonstration of paternalism (“they have the right to be ignorant.”), but also of a total lack of concern for ideas and for the fact that Stalin’s portrait is, in large measure, a tacit program. It indicates, if not a policy presented as a model, at least a lack of repudiation of disastrous and counterrevolutionary policies which destroyed the October Revolution and created a powerful bureaucracy with capitalistic values, which gave rise to the mafia government and to the current Russian neo-capitalists. It warded off and sabotaged the world struggle against capitalists, buried revolutions, killed millions of campesinos in the Soviet Union, inoculated other millions of workers against socialism and emasculated Marxist thought. Pragmatism without principles (“everyone come, as long as you accept our leadership”), far from organizing, pushes away those people who think and seek. Yes, we must work together with everyone possible, but not at the cost of principles or by wallowing in the rubbish bin of history.
What is most serious is that, in a mostly conservative country, which is still hoping for changes within the system, in an unfavorable relationship of forces, without great social movements, marked by massive migration, the Other Campaign is not concerned about elevating the level of comprehension of those people who come to it. It does not try to present an anti-capitalist project for the country, nor does it talk about the country’s great problems (how to replace the hydrocarbon reserves which are running out, how to reorganize land and water resources, how to create work, how to elevate the level of popular consumption). Loudmouthed and empty rhetoric (“we’re going to expropriate the banks,” “we’re going to throw the rich out to Miami,” “the factories will be ours”) substitutes for a lack of programs and projects, without the slightest reference as to how to join forces, make alliances and build class fronts, in order to make real those promises flung into the air. Nor do they take at all into consideration the real correlation of forces or the elemental fact that power is in the hands of the exploiters and of imperialism, and that they also act and react when they see their interests in danger. The Other Campaign cannot organize because it does politics in a sectarian and primitive way, and it seeks power, but by inadequate methods like simple agitation against “the rich.” It does not teach, taking advantage, for example, of the Bolivian experience, in order to demonstrate what can be done legally, how to combine social movements and the struggle within them, how to make alliances. On the contrary, he says “we don’t have to look at Bolivia” and the same as the Bolivian and South American ultra-left, trying to weaken the government of Evo Morales and keeping a tight hold on aid while the Bolivian right and all the forces of capitalism are trying to defeat it. He doesn’t teach doing politics, showing the divisions in the combination of opposition forces, explaining over what, and to what extent, López Obrador has clashed with the other candidates, and which sectors are supporting which and what their plans are and their effects on the country and on the oppressed. When Marcos exclaims “screw the correlation of forces!”, he is teaching vulgar voluntarismo to his followers, who are ignorant of what battle is being unleashed, of what the enemy’s methods are, of how there is consensus on those methods in certain sectors, and this leads them to a lack of organizational and political preparation. By replacing reason and considered commitment with rage and improvisation, he leads them to disastrous adventures, as in Atenco.
The Other Campaign is, it is true, fighting against capitalism’s lack of ethics and its agents (the rapes, assassinations, dispossessions, the terrible exploitation, racism), but it does not present an opposing ethic. That is why it has no problem accepting the portraits of Stalin, whose system assassinated millions of workers and campesinos, raped en masse, built inhuman labor and extermination camps, collaborated with the nazis during the Molotov-Ribentropp Pact, destroyed all democratic rights and physically annihilated their opponents. It tacitly accepts the principle that the ends justify the means, and thus legitimate hate towards the police who repress in order to preserve the system culminates, as in San Salvador Atenco, in brutalities against a prostrate policeman, savagely beaten when he could not have been a danger to anyone. The Vietnamese and Cuban revolutionaries condemned the mistreatment of prisoners and torture. They did not practice them even when the enemy resorted to those methods. Where, on the other hand, are Marcos’ condemnations of the lynching of a defenseless policeman which provided a pretext for the ferocity of the repression against the people of Atenco? Is he afraid that by condemning it he would be justifying the police barbarity, when that barbarity is typical of the system but is “justified” against the most deprived sectors by the pretexts shown by the victims’ barbarism. Would not realistic objectivity involve dividing the policemen who refuse to carry out any criminal orders of the assassins and rapists, and not uniting them? If Marcos says “screw the correlation of forces,” then why did he agree to an interview on Televisa with Loret de Mola, settling in on a sofa, smoking calmly, as if he were in his own house and not in hostile territory, and let De Mola conduct the interview without even trying to say anything? Could it be that he does not understand that TV – which he did not say anything against during his interview – is part of the adverse “correlation of forces” and he wanted to make himself cute, tolerable, so that at least a lot of people would see him.
The Other Campaign’s big problem is that it is dependent on the political preparation of just Marcos and of a small handful of assistants. The immense majority of those who support zapatismo, especially among intellectuals, are afraid to posit “buts” (let alone constructive criticism) out of fear, first of all, of helping the “enemy” (and also, although to a lesser degree, since they are not cowards, but mistakenly accountable, of being attacked or condemned in a sectarian response). In Chiapas, Marcos is subject to the control and influence of the communities’ good sense. During his tour, on the other hand, that is not happening, and he is using the blank check they have given, and are giving him, with disastrous results. The general situation is increasingly complicated, and the task he has undertaken, decisively and courageously, far exceeds his abilities, and it demands reflection, maturity, international political vision and a policy of alliances.
If the Other Campaign contributes – as it seems to be doing, through its acts and through its deficiencies – to the victory of the government’s candidate, PANista Felipe Calderón, we will not have long to wait for the offensive by the right and by imperialism and the subsequent repression, because they will have to strike while the iron is hot. The reorganization of popular forces will take place amidst confusion, and it will take time. The defeat of the PRD will mark, of course, for the midterm, its destruction and the emergence, in order to fill the vacuum, of a leftist party, which will develop amid political confusion. Large sectors who will be voting for López Obrador, hoping for a change, will retain general support of zapatismo, especially if it is attacked, as the right desires, which says the truce is no longer justified, but those sectors will have accounts to settle with Marcos and with the Other Campaign. Will they have the maturity to seek, with them, a single defensive front and to begin to do politics, to have a program, ethics, pluralism and theoretical rigor? That is not dependent just on the Other Campaign, but also on those who, conquering their fear of making constructive criticism, understand that that is precisely the duty of friends, of compañeros, who cannot, nor should not, accept the role of Greek chorus in the drama.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Marcos & Durito on bricks, curtains and fish
Originally published in Spanish by Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
***************************************
Translated by irlandesa
On bricks, curtains and fish
(Dialogue between Durito, Juan de Mairena and a superfluous nose)
I must publicly apologize: the present text, in its basic corpus, does not belong to me, rather it is the transcription of a recorded tape. Said recording tape (or “cassette” for the rabble), has been surreptitiously extracted from the backpack of someone who looks extraordinarily like a beetle.
It could be seen as astonishing and scandalous that, in this digital age, someone would still resort to a “cassette” for recording and reproducing, but that would be nothing compared to the stupefaction that would arise from knowing that the individual in question is, in effect, a beetle. And from there deducing (it cannot be forgotten that it is a fortunate presentation which makes the audience and the reader feel verrry intelligent) that that beetle calls himself “Don Durito of La Lacandona,” is a fairly regular, that is, light to moderate, step.
Accepting this small but thick package of facts, regardless of whether they take place in real reality or in our bedeviled imagination, is an achievement for which I applaud you all. During these times of political platforms being defined in their proper dimensions (that is, as publicity “spots”), of “passes for the network” and polls which do indeed summon the entire Nation (those having to do with what place the Mexican football team will have in the World Cup), of “deep” analyses of the “correlation of forces” by pedants who call themselves the part and the whole of “progressive intellectualism,” of situating the government spokesperson in policemen’s penises (Atenco) and in grenade launchers (Atenco and Oaxaca), of the “high-level” of columnists and editorial writers who comment on and analyze what is said by…other columnists and editorial writers. In sum, in these times of “political realism” the fact that there are still people (well, it seems as if some of them even have jobs) who allow room in their hearts for accepting the existence of a beetle who professes to the misunderstood profession of knight errantry is, to put it modestly, simply marvelous.
Not just because that means I’m no longer alone with the heavy burden of knowing of the existence of this strange being, but also and above all because it is irrefutable evidence that there are still people willing to be astonished by the marvels which walk below and which, therefore, are only perceived by those who know how to see the path and the way.
The beetle in question calls himself, as almost no one here will know, Don Durito of La Lacandona, I.C. of A.I. of I.I. (for its initials: Individuality Known of Invariable Anti-capital of Unlimited Irresponsibility), Copyleft no of the Circle but Squared of Knights Errant, of which, incidentally, he is lifetime President and sole member.
Taking advantage of the fact that he is not, I believe, present, I will divest Durito of all the paraphernalia flaunted by his form of address, and I will call him “Simply Durito”.
Durito, without being invited, has traveled a good part of the lands of this unhealed wound which we call “Mexico” to be here with us in order to demand liberty and justice for the prisoners of Atenco.
He arrived, as is law, at dawn, carrying his baggage in one of those backpacks carried by the secondary school/corner/with/degree/poorly/paid/job/and/or/unemployed/but/safe/getting by/safe kids.
He was not invited to this writers’ meeting, despite the fact that he professes that exhilaration for the written word which the organizers would have had to reproach. Although perhaps they didn’t invite him because they feared he wouldn’t keep his word and would display that irresponsibility for which knights errant have been so famous, ever since that of the sad figure who exhibited said quality on the roads of Iberian La Mancha.
One cannot make serious plans with Durito. Not because he lacks formality (let us not forget that he is, yes, a beetle, but also a knight errant), but because he will suddenly grab his skateboard and head downhill, and I want you to see a security bubble here.
Yes, sometimes he just goes away. Other times he goes leaving a note which laconically states:
“My dear Face of the used shorts: Here I go then. Don’t get into (too much) trouble. Sincerely, Durito. Postscript – I took the tobacco.”
Well, so as not to tire you out too much, I’ll tell you that, when trying to recover my tobacco, I found a cassette in the backpack along with a note that read:
“For the new book, “Impossible Dialogues.” Listen: tell the redundant nose to organize an auction between the publishing houses to see which one is going to get this best seller. Author’s rights for the film, as well. The Da Vinci Code “fanfirulea” me.
End of note.
I don’t know why Durito decided to give his new creature a title like this, but we won’t worry about that now.
The dialogue we are presenting takes place between Durito, an individual about whom more will be known shortly, and the person who is making this presentation.
I said previously that I had transcribed a tape recording. When I heard it for the first time, I remembered the scene, since I had been there. It was in the “Comandanta Ramona” café, next to “El Rincon Zapatista” shop. If someone wants to go there, it’s very easy to find the place: head out as if you’re going there, but then make a U-turn where it says: “U-turns Prohibited”, and then there are a lot of traffic lights, and, when you see a good number of cops from all the agencies, bored and acting as if they’re keeping watch, there it is.
I will proceed…
It was dawn. The moon was illuminated hip of desire, although without the longed-for cleft. In the dream, a long, a long and damp kiss was opening the flower of desire and was key for opening the closed and silent heart of time.
But in the half-sleep I was picking up the mess, trying to digest some “buzzards of the world, unite” beans, and looking to see if there were a carcass of some pecan ice cream left. I had been up late listening to an alternative radio station which calls itself “La Ke Huelga”. During the program, the announcers had been digressing about dislocations.
And they moved from ankle dislocations to those of ideas, because they had been talking about love in times of revolution for a bit, and then that they agreed we were for the mobilization for the Atenco prisoners, and they moved on to love in times of repression. From there they went on to giving a lecture called “Measures against repression” or something like that, or what to do when the cops are already charging the respectable to shouts of “Against the left of below, the rule of law of above”.
I took note because of that thing about freezing. In addition to the quite classic, and of proven effectiveness, “run until you see a sign that reads ‘Welcome to Guatemala’”, they provided other measures and advice.
For example, the psychology school recommended denial, or, when the club is already on its way to its destination, shouting “No!!!!!” most convincingly. The law school would recommend, I believe, the technique of legally overwhelming the cops, shouting “Señor police officer, you are violating such and such articles of the constitution which notes that no individual can be beaten by the police if a television program has not previously intervened which presents him as a criminal” (here the riot cop wonders if the one being presented as a criminal is he, or the aforementioned against whom the rule of law is being directed, and then to feeling up, man, I’ll tell you later). The school of “instant recruitment” would advise slogans of “the uniformed peoples are also exploited” type just before, paradoxically, the tear gas grenade explodes.
There was lengthy and abundant, good and ingenious, information in the radio chat by those colleagues of “Ke Huelga”, a station I highly recommend and which broadcasts at 102.9 megahertz FM. And I’ll take the moment to send an embrace in solidarity to the compas of Radio Plantón, attacked yesterday by the police of the Oaxaca government and to all the alternative media which, below and to the left, keep us informed and recharge our batteries.
Where was I? Ah, yes! Well, it so happened that at one of the little tables in the “Comandanta Ramona” café, the only one that didn’t have books, newspapers and magazines on top of it, said Durito was sitting with an individual who was known as Juan de Mairena and who, he said, was a great friend of the Spanish poet Antonio Machado.
Durito was bogged down in Pancrema cookies and a cappuccino, with two pairs of his feet on top of the table, while Juan de Mairena, sitting quite properly, was elegantly taking a cup of tea of love.
The recording which I have faithfully transcribed here picks up some parts of the dialogue which took place between these two individuals and the “heavy duty” napkin.
It begins with the beetle speaking to me…
Durito: Listen, my dear antonym of a small nose, to the following arguments of Don Juan de Mairena:
“1. - If every exception proves a rule, a rule with exceptions will be more of a rule than would be a rule without exceptions, which would lack the exception which would prove it.
2. - A rule will be that much more of a rule the more it abounds in exceptions.
3. - The ideal rule will contain nothing but exceptions.
(Continuing this chain of reasoning , until the vortex of stupidity is reached)” (“Juan de Mairena”. Antonio Machado. Alianza Editorial, p. 40)
Me: It seems to me to be clever…and useless…reasoning.
Durito: That’s true, but not completely. Sometimes questioning the obvious leads one to a linkage which will make you forget about the Tlalpan-Taxqueno crossroads. But other times you will find that that evidence is nothing but repetitious lies…
Me: For example?
Durito: The today, that created entity, cherished and adored by modern society, the one that is arranged around the media. Is it not true that “today” is no longer a present with a past and future, and it turns into the eternal? Before it, chaos. After it, nothing.
Me: I don’t know where you’re going.
Durito (with a complicit look at Mairena): The converse would surprise me. Look, Juanito, there’s the capitalist system. Is it not true that it presents itself as eternal, omnipotent and omnipresent?
Juan de Mairena: Certainly.
Durito: Is it not true that its presence is accepted as an inevitable, primary destiny, and later as the only one possible, and then later again as the best one we have had?
Juan de Mairena: “It is what happens always: a fact is noted, afterwards it is accepted as fate. Finally it is turned into a flag. If it is discovered one day that the fact was not completely true, or that it was completely false, the flag, more or less faded, would not stop waving.” (Ibid, p. 77).
Durito: Right, a faded flag waving. That, and nothing else, is what the apologists for capitalism are doing. Now, what would happen if we were to question that whole construct?
Me: (feeling the need to contribute something to the debate): Hmm…I don’t know…we’d get bored?
Durito (looking at me disapprovingly): Besides that?
Me (with the need to go and “cincuentear”): Hmm…We’d get into trouble?
Durito (applauding with those paws which were not on top of the table or occupied with the Pancrema cookies): Correct! You got it right, my dear face of the undershirt of come/come/breaking/breaking/the/blow/warning! We would have knowledge that would get us into such predicaments that you would forget about the Hidalgo metro station at rush hour…
Me (boasting): Since we’re on the subject of public transportation, I want to denounce that the other day I went down to the metro, and they copped a feel [tortear, from torte, sandwich]…
Durito: Come on! Don’t act like a rag doll!
Me: Yes, they sold me a sandwich with ham that was as skimpy as the Governor of the State of Mexico’s brain.
Durito (stating this to the abovementioned Mairena): I am afraid, my dear sir, that we are getting off the subject. We were questioning the capitalist system. Or, better, questioning its omnipresence…
Me (focused on the issue): And the beans didn’t agree with me. They wouldn’t have passed inspection.
Durito (openly angry now): The level of debate is declining.
Juan de Mairena: Yes, yes, proceed.
Durito: Thank you, Don Juan. The elemental tools for questioning have to do with history. By studying it, we will see…
1. That this system, the capitalist one, has not existed forever.
2. That its origin has nothing to do with the spirit, the deity of choice or idealism, but with dispossession (or theft), exploitation, repression and contempt, in sum: crime.
3. That its growth and development go hand in hand with that which gave it life.
Me (putting my spoon into the conversation and into a bottle of past its used-by date pecan ice cream): But this just leads to proving the omnipotence of capitalism, in that the bad who are seen as good always win.
Durito (opening another package of cookies): I have not finished…What are the founding and fundamental tricks of this system? Equality and liberty. Capitalism says and repeats unto death that it is based in an egalitarian society and, therefore, it turns itself into the guarantor of that equality. In capitalist society we are all human beings and, therefore, we are all equals. Equal before the law, for example.
Me (lamenting the inequality which makes Durito devour all the cookies while I’m left to sweep up the mess he leaves): But that’s not true, or at least some are more equal than others. Here are the Atenco prisoners, and here are the Bribriesca children of Martha Sahagún. As if there were two laws: one for below and one for above.
Durito (throwing a fork at me for the obvious purpose of stifling the free expression of my ideas): According to capitalism, human beings are free, free to work, to become rich, to vote, to be an official, to express their thoughts.
Juan de Mairena: “The free expression of thought is an important, but secondary, problem to ours, which is that of freedom of thought itself. For one, we ask ourselves whether the thought, our thought, that of each of us, can take place with complete liberty, regardless of the fact that, then, we are allowed, or not allowed, to express it. Let us ask rhetorically: Of what use to us would be the free expression of an enslaved thought?” (Ibid, p. 179)
Durito: Good point, Don Juan. But let us go on questioning, even if they label us skeptics.
Juan de Mairena: “A devastating argument has been put forth against skepticism: The one who denies the existence of truth, assuming that is the truth, and affirms in the conclusion what was denied in the premise, contradicts oneself. I assume this argument will not have convinced any of the purebred skeptics (…) Skepticism is a vital, not logical, position, which neither affirms nor denies, it limits itself to questioning, and it is not frightened by contradictions.” (Ibid, p. 47).
Durito: Cheers for that! Then let us ask: Are we equal? Are we free? And when do we ask these questions? Let us agree to ask them now, since it is above the affirmative response to both that entire edifices of ideas…and of bricks…shall be raised.
If we answer “yes”, excuse me if I’m being rude, then I don’t understand what we are doing here. And I’m not referring to here, in this zapatista corner or to that meeting of writers for liberty and justice for the Atenco prisoners, to which they did not invite me, but to this Mexico which, below and to the left, is trying to build a path and a way, without being clear about anything other than the agreed destination.
But we are here and there for something. Perhaps, within that infinite and chaotic universe which is the “something”, it is because we answer “NO!” to those questions “Are we equal?”, “Are we free?” And with this “NO!”, we are not only putting in jeopardy the entire legal foundation of that which is called the “Rule of law” (a name which, obviously, is posited against what would be the “State of the left”), we would also be starting to question the evidence that turns into tombstones for lack of critique. We would stop swallowing what they administer to us every day from above as if it were something true.
Juan de Mairena: “It is a normal tendency for men to believe something true when it proves useful to them. That is why there are so many men who are capable of falling for things.” (Ibid, p. 67).
Durito: Then capitalist politics in the modern age would be the art of making the greatest possible number of persons swallow things. And, nonetheless, it is increasingly difficult, or at least when more “others” appear who reject the indigestion those truths provoke. As if the politics of above is no longer what it was, and I’m not saying that nostalgically, but noting a fact. It is chaos now.
Juan de Mairena: “One must demand of the public man, and most especially of the politician, that he possess the public virtues, all of which can be summed up in one: fidelity to one’s own mask. (…) a public man who is bad in public is much worse than a public woman who is not good in private. Joking aside – (…) – take note that there is no political imbroglio that is not an exchange, a confusion of masks, a bad comedy rehearsal in which no one knows his role.” (Ibid, p. 81).
Durito: Excellent, Don Juan! You have precisely defined what politics in Mexico is now: a bad comedy in which no one knows his role. That is why there is so much mistrust of politics and so much reluctance to construct a new politics.
Juan de Mairena: “Politics, gentlemen – Mairena went on – is an extremely important activity…I would never counsel being apolitical, but, as a last resort, scorn for bad politics which makes social climbers and cushy jobseekers with no purpose other than that of gaining profits and securing positions for their relatives. You should engage in politics, although I would tell something else to those who try to do so without you and, naturally, to those against you.” (Ibid, p. 136)
Durito: Then another politics would be necessary. Necessary, urgent, merited. And it seems to me that here the role of critical thought, of the intellectuals, is very important.
Juan de Mairena: “It is said that intellectuals have not done anything useful in politics thus far. Intellectuals are confused with pedants.” (Ibid, p. 54)
Me: Well now, what’s this about pedantry?
Juan de Mairena: “The specifically pedantic is denying things when they are not the way we think them to be. But things are never the way we think they are, they are much more serious and complex.” (Ibidem)
Durito: Then what would be the role of critical intellectuals? That of luxuriating spectators while society is being destroyed in the theater of politics?
Juan de Mairena: “But have you not yet noticed that almost always, when the curtain is lifted or opened in the modern theater, a room appears with three walls, lacking that fourth wall which the rooms we inhabit have? Why are you not amazed (…) by that terrible lack of verisimilitude? Because, without the absence of that fourth wall (…), how could we know what was going on inside this room?” (Ibid, p. 152).
Durito: I understand. The work of the intellectuals would be exactly that, taking down the fourth wall of the political space, showing it as it is, without anything being concealed, so we can all know what is going on in that room, and acting accordingly. Today there is a hidden injustice in the room of Power: the one that killed Alexis Benhumea Hernández, the one that raped the Atenco prisoners, the one that is illegally keeping upright men and women imprisoned, the one that represses in Oaxaca and in all the corners of the Mexico of below and to the left. That is why…
The recording ends here. I have decided to bring his transcription here because I know quite well that there are writers, bright critics, here, willing to protest against the injustice which murdered Alexis, which raped our compañeras, which keeps social activists imprisoned, which chooses repression instead of dialogue.
Because there are, among these writers, those who produce plays and, through that, are raising the curtain which allows us to see not only what is going on up above, but also inside us. Because not a few are also making poetry with the slippery bricks of words. Slippery, like a fish.
“Poetry is,” Mairena said, “the dialogue of man, of a man with his times. That is what poetry tries to make eternal, taking it out of time, difficult work which requires much time, almost all the time the poet has. The poet is a fisherman, not of fish, but of living fish, let us understand each other: of fish which can live after being caught.” (Ibid, p. 106).
Cheers to these fisherwomen and fishermen who, with words, help us to look, to look at ourselves and who are, along with us, demanding liberty and justice for the prisoners of Atenco.
From the Other Mexico City.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, June 15 of 2006.
***************************************
Translated by irlandesa
On bricks, curtains and fish
(Dialogue between Durito, Juan de Mairena and a superfluous nose)
I must publicly apologize: the present text, in its basic corpus, does not belong to me, rather it is the transcription of a recorded tape. Said recording tape (or “cassette” for the rabble), has been surreptitiously extracted from the backpack of someone who looks extraordinarily like a beetle.
It could be seen as astonishing and scandalous that, in this digital age, someone would still resort to a “cassette” for recording and reproducing, but that would be nothing compared to the stupefaction that would arise from knowing that the individual in question is, in effect, a beetle. And from there deducing (it cannot be forgotten that it is a fortunate presentation which makes the audience and the reader feel verrry intelligent) that that beetle calls himself “Don Durito of La Lacandona,” is a fairly regular, that is, light to moderate, step.
Accepting this small but thick package of facts, regardless of whether they take place in real reality or in our bedeviled imagination, is an achievement for which I applaud you all. During these times of political platforms being defined in their proper dimensions (that is, as publicity “spots”), of “passes for the network” and polls which do indeed summon the entire Nation (those having to do with what place the Mexican football team will have in the World Cup), of “deep” analyses of the “correlation of forces” by pedants who call themselves the part and the whole of “progressive intellectualism,” of situating the government spokesperson in policemen’s penises (Atenco) and in grenade launchers (Atenco and Oaxaca), of the “high-level” of columnists and editorial writers who comment on and analyze what is said by…other columnists and editorial writers. In sum, in these times of “political realism” the fact that there are still people (well, it seems as if some of them even have jobs) who allow room in their hearts for accepting the existence of a beetle who professes to the misunderstood profession of knight errantry is, to put it modestly, simply marvelous.
Not just because that means I’m no longer alone with the heavy burden of knowing of the existence of this strange being, but also and above all because it is irrefutable evidence that there are still people willing to be astonished by the marvels which walk below and which, therefore, are only perceived by those who know how to see the path and the way.
The beetle in question calls himself, as almost no one here will know, Don Durito of La Lacandona, I.C. of A.I. of I.I. (for its initials: Individuality Known of Invariable Anti-capital of Unlimited Irresponsibility), Copyleft no of the Circle but Squared of Knights Errant, of which, incidentally, he is lifetime President and sole member.
Taking advantage of the fact that he is not, I believe, present, I will divest Durito of all the paraphernalia flaunted by his form of address, and I will call him “Simply Durito”.
Durito, without being invited, has traveled a good part of the lands of this unhealed wound which we call “Mexico” to be here with us in order to demand liberty and justice for the prisoners of Atenco.
He arrived, as is law, at dawn, carrying his baggage in one of those backpacks carried by the secondary school/corner/with/degree/poorly/paid/job/and/or/unemployed/but/safe/getting by/safe kids.
He was not invited to this writers’ meeting, despite the fact that he professes that exhilaration for the written word which the organizers would have had to reproach. Although perhaps they didn’t invite him because they feared he wouldn’t keep his word and would display that irresponsibility for which knights errant have been so famous, ever since that of the sad figure who exhibited said quality on the roads of Iberian La Mancha.
One cannot make serious plans with Durito. Not because he lacks formality (let us not forget that he is, yes, a beetle, but also a knight errant), but because he will suddenly grab his skateboard and head downhill, and I want you to see a security bubble here.
Yes, sometimes he just goes away. Other times he goes leaving a note which laconically states:
“My dear Face of the used shorts: Here I go then. Don’t get into (too much) trouble. Sincerely, Durito. Postscript – I took the tobacco.”
Well, so as not to tire you out too much, I’ll tell you that, when trying to recover my tobacco, I found a cassette in the backpack along with a note that read:
“For the new book, “Impossible Dialogues.” Listen: tell the redundant nose to organize an auction between the publishing houses to see which one is going to get this best seller. Author’s rights for the film, as well. The Da Vinci Code “fanfirulea” me.
End of note.
I don’t know why Durito decided to give his new creature a title like this, but we won’t worry about that now.
The dialogue we are presenting takes place between Durito, an individual about whom more will be known shortly, and the person who is making this presentation.
I said previously that I had transcribed a tape recording. When I heard it for the first time, I remembered the scene, since I had been there. It was in the “Comandanta Ramona” café, next to “El Rincon Zapatista” shop. If someone wants to go there, it’s very easy to find the place: head out as if you’re going there, but then make a U-turn where it says: “U-turns Prohibited”, and then there are a lot of traffic lights, and, when you see a good number of cops from all the agencies, bored and acting as if they’re keeping watch, there it is.
I will proceed…
It was dawn. The moon was illuminated hip of desire, although without the longed-for cleft. In the dream, a long, a long and damp kiss was opening the flower of desire and was key for opening the closed and silent heart of time.
But in the half-sleep I was picking up the mess, trying to digest some “buzzards of the world, unite” beans, and looking to see if there were a carcass of some pecan ice cream left. I had been up late listening to an alternative radio station which calls itself “La Ke Huelga”. During the program, the announcers had been digressing about dislocations.
And they moved from ankle dislocations to those of ideas, because they had been talking about love in times of revolution for a bit, and then that they agreed we were for the mobilization for the Atenco prisoners, and they moved on to love in times of repression. From there they went on to giving a lecture called “Measures against repression” or something like that, or what to do when the cops are already charging the respectable to shouts of “Against the left of below, the rule of law of above”.
I took note because of that thing about freezing. In addition to the quite classic, and of proven effectiveness, “run until you see a sign that reads ‘Welcome to Guatemala’”, they provided other measures and advice.
For example, the psychology school recommended denial, or, when the club is already on its way to its destination, shouting “No!!!!!” most convincingly. The law school would recommend, I believe, the technique of legally overwhelming the cops, shouting “Señor police officer, you are violating such and such articles of the constitution which notes that no individual can be beaten by the police if a television program has not previously intervened which presents him as a criminal” (here the riot cop wonders if the one being presented as a criminal is he, or the aforementioned against whom the rule of law is being directed, and then to feeling up, man, I’ll tell you later). The school of “instant recruitment” would advise slogans of “the uniformed peoples are also exploited” type just before, paradoxically, the tear gas grenade explodes.
There was lengthy and abundant, good and ingenious, information in the radio chat by those colleagues of “Ke Huelga”, a station I highly recommend and which broadcasts at 102.9 megahertz FM. And I’ll take the moment to send an embrace in solidarity to the compas of Radio Plantón, attacked yesterday by the police of the Oaxaca government and to all the alternative media which, below and to the left, keep us informed and recharge our batteries.
Where was I? Ah, yes! Well, it so happened that at one of the little tables in the “Comandanta Ramona” café, the only one that didn’t have books, newspapers and magazines on top of it, said Durito was sitting with an individual who was known as Juan de Mairena and who, he said, was a great friend of the Spanish poet Antonio Machado.
Durito was bogged down in Pancrema cookies and a cappuccino, with two pairs of his feet on top of the table, while Juan de Mairena, sitting quite properly, was elegantly taking a cup of tea of love.
The recording which I have faithfully transcribed here picks up some parts of the dialogue which took place between these two individuals and the “heavy duty” napkin.
It begins with the beetle speaking to me…
Durito: Listen, my dear antonym of a small nose, to the following arguments of Don Juan de Mairena:
“1. - If every exception proves a rule, a rule with exceptions will be more of a rule than would be a rule without exceptions, which would lack the exception which would prove it.
2. - A rule will be that much more of a rule the more it abounds in exceptions.
3. - The ideal rule will contain nothing but exceptions.
(Continuing this chain of reasoning , until the vortex of stupidity is reached)” (“Juan de Mairena”. Antonio Machado. Alianza Editorial, p. 40)
Me: It seems to me to be clever…and useless…reasoning.
Durito: That’s true, but not completely. Sometimes questioning the obvious leads one to a linkage which will make you forget about the Tlalpan-Taxqueno crossroads. But other times you will find that that evidence is nothing but repetitious lies…
Me: For example?
Durito: The today, that created entity, cherished and adored by modern society, the one that is arranged around the media. Is it not true that “today” is no longer a present with a past and future, and it turns into the eternal? Before it, chaos. After it, nothing.
Me: I don’t know where you’re going.
Durito (with a complicit look at Mairena): The converse would surprise me. Look, Juanito, there’s the capitalist system. Is it not true that it presents itself as eternal, omnipotent and omnipresent?
Juan de Mairena: Certainly.
Durito: Is it not true that its presence is accepted as an inevitable, primary destiny, and later as the only one possible, and then later again as the best one we have had?
Juan de Mairena: “It is what happens always: a fact is noted, afterwards it is accepted as fate. Finally it is turned into a flag. If it is discovered one day that the fact was not completely true, or that it was completely false, the flag, more or less faded, would not stop waving.” (Ibid, p. 77).
Durito: Right, a faded flag waving. That, and nothing else, is what the apologists for capitalism are doing. Now, what would happen if we were to question that whole construct?
Me: (feeling the need to contribute something to the debate): Hmm…I don’t know…we’d get bored?
Durito (looking at me disapprovingly): Besides that?
Me (with the need to go and “cincuentear”): Hmm…We’d get into trouble?
Durito (applauding with those paws which were not on top of the table or occupied with the Pancrema cookies): Correct! You got it right, my dear face of the undershirt of come/come/breaking/breaking/the/blow/warning! We would have knowledge that would get us into such predicaments that you would forget about the Hidalgo metro station at rush hour…
Me (boasting): Since we’re on the subject of public transportation, I want to denounce that the other day I went down to the metro, and they copped a feel [tortear, from torte, sandwich]…
Durito: Come on! Don’t act like a rag doll!
Me: Yes, they sold me a sandwich with ham that was as skimpy as the Governor of the State of Mexico’s brain.
Durito (stating this to the abovementioned Mairena): I am afraid, my dear sir, that we are getting off the subject. We were questioning the capitalist system. Or, better, questioning its omnipresence…
Me (focused on the issue): And the beans didn’t agree with me. They wouldn’t have passed inspection.
Durito (openly angry now): The level of debate is declining.
Juan de Mairena: Yes, yes, proceed.
Durito: Thank you, Don Juan. The elemental tools for questioning have to do with history. By studying it, we will see…
1. That this system, the capitalist one, has not existed forever.
2. That its origin has nothing to do with the spirit, the deity of choice or idealism, but with dispossession (or theft), exploitation, repression and contempt, in sum: crime.
3. That its growth and development go hand in hand with that which gave it life.
Me (putting my spoon into the conversation and into a bottle of past its used-by date pecan ice cream): But this just leads to proving the omnipotence of capitalism, in that the bad who are seen as good always win.
Durito (opening another package of cookies): I have not finished…What are the founding and fundamental tricks of this system? Equality and liberty. Capitalism says and repeats unto death that it is based in an egalitarian society and, therefore, it turns itself into the guarantor of that equality. In capitalist society we are all human beings and, therefore, we are all equals. Equal before the law, for example.
Me (lamenting the inequality which makes Durito devour all the cookies while I’m left to sweep up the mess he leaves): But that’s not true, or at least some are more equal than others. Here are the Atenco prisoners, and here are the Bribriesca children of Martha Sahagún. As if there were two laws: one for below and one for above.
Durito (throwing a fork at me for the obvious purpose of stifling the free expression of my ideas): According to capitalism, human beings are free, free to work, to become rich, to vote, to be an official, to express their thoughts.
Juan de Mairena: “The free expression of thought is an important, but secondary, problem to ours, which is that of freedom of thought itself. For one, we ask ourselves whether the thought, our thought, that of each of us, can take place with complete liberty, regardless of the fact that, then, we are allowed, or not allowed, to express it. Let us ask rhetorically: Of what use to us would be the free expression of an enslaved thought?” (Ibid, p. 179)
Durito: Good point, Don Juan. But let us go on questioning, even if they label us skeptics.
Juan de Mairena: “A devastating argument has been put forth against skepticism: The one who denies the existence of truth, assuming that is the truth, and affirms in the conclusion what was denied in the premise, contradicts oneself. I assume this argument will not have convinced any of the purebred skeptics (…) Skepticism is a vital, not logical, position, which neither affirms nor denies, it limits itself to questioning, and it is not frightened by contradictions.” (Ibid, p. 47).
Durito: Cheers for that! Then let us ask: Are we equal? Are we free? And when do we ask these questions? Let us agree to ask them now, since it is above the affirmative response to both that entire edifices of ideas…and of bricks…shall be raised.
If we answer “yes”, excuse me if I’m being rude, then I don’t understand what we are doing here. And I’m not referring to here, in this zapatista corner or to that meeting of writers for liberty and justice for the Atenco prisoners, to which they did not invite me, but to this Mexico which, below and to the left, is trying to build a path and a way, without being clear about anything other than the agreed destination.
But we are here and there for something. Perhaps, within that infinite and chaotic universe which is the “something”, it is because we answer “NO!” to those questions “Are we equal?”, “Are we free?” And with this “NO!”, we are not only putting in jeopardy the entire legal foundation of that which is called the “Rule of law” (a name which, obviously, is posited against what would be the “State of the left”), we would also be starting to question the evidence that turns into tombstones for lack of critique. We would stop swallowing what they administer to us every day from above as if it were something true.
Juan de Mairena: “It is a normal tendency for men to believe something true when it proves useful to them. That is why there are so many men who are capable of falling for things.” (Ibid, p. 67).
Durito: Then capitalist politics in the modern age would be the art of making the greatest possible number of persons swallow things. And, nonetheless, it is increasingly difficult, or at least when more “others” appear who reject the indigestion those truths provoke. As if the politics of above is no longer what it was, and I’m not saying that nostalgically, but noting a fact. It is chaos now.
Juan de Mairena: “One must demand of the public man, and most especially of the politician, that he possess the public virtues, all of which can be summed up in one: fidelity to one’s own mask. (…) a public man who is bad in public is much worse than a public woman who is not good in private. Joking aside – (…) – take note that there is no political imbroglio that is not an exchange, a confusion of masks, a bad comedy rehearsal in which no one knows his role.” (Ibid, p. 81).
Durito: Excellent, Don Juan! You have precisely defined what politics in Mexico is now: a bad comedy in which no one knows his role. That is why there is so much mistrust of politics and so much reluctance to construct a new politics.
Juan de Mairena: “Politics, gentlemen – Mairena went on – is an extremely important activity…I would never counsel being apolitical, but, as a last resort, scorn for bad politics which makes social climbers and cushy jobseekers with no purpose other than that of gaining profits and securing positions for their relatives. You should engage in politics, although I would tell something else to those who try to do so without you and, naturally, to those against you.” (Ibid, p. 136)
Durito: Then another politics would be necessary. Necessary, urgent, merited. And it seems to me that here the role of critical thought, of the intellectuals, is very important.
Juan de Mairena: “It is said that intellectuals have not done anything useful in politics thus far. Intellectuals are confused with pedants.” (Ibid, p. 54)
Me: Well now, what’s this about pedantry?
Juan de Mairena: “The specifically pedantic is denying things when they are not the way we think them to be. But things are never the way we think they are, they are much more serious and complex.” (Ibidem)
Durito: Then what would be the role of critical intellectuals? That of luxuriating spectators while society is being destroyed in the theater of politics?
Juan de Mairena: “But have you not yet noticed that almost always, when the curtain is lifted or opened in the modern theater, a room appears with three walls, lacking that fourth wall which the rooms we inhabit have? Why are you not amazed (…) by that terrible lack of verisimilitude? Because, without the absence of that fourth wall (…), how could we know what was going on inside this room?” (Ibid, p. 152).
Durito: I understand. The work of the intellectuals would be exactly that, taking down the fourth wall of the political space, showing it as it is, without anything being concealed, so we can all know what is going on in that room, and acting accordingly. Today there is a hidden injustice in the room of Power: the one that killed Alexis Benhumea Hernández, the one that raped the Atenco prisoners, the one that is illegally keeping upright men and women imprisoned, the one that represses in Oaxaca and in all the corners of the Mexico of below and to the left. That is why…
The recording ends here. I have decided to bring his transcription here because I know quite well that there are writers, bright critics, here, willing to protest against the injustice which murdered Alexis, which raped our compañeras, which keeps social activists imprisoned, which chooses repression instead of dialogue.
Because there are, among these writers, those who produce plays and, through that, are raising the curtain which allows us to see not only what is going on up above, but also inside us. Because not a few are also making poetry with the slippery bricks of words. Slippery, like a fish.
“Poetry is,” Mairena said, “the dialogue of man, of a man with his times. That is what poetry tries to make eternal, taking it out of time, difficult work which requires much time, almost all the time the poet has. The poet is a fisherman, not of fish, but of living fish, let us understand each other: of fish which can live after being caught.” (Ibid, p. 106).
Cheers to these fisherwomen and fishermen who, with words, help us to look, to look at ourselves and who are, along with us, demanding liberty and justice for the prisoners of Atenco.
From the Other Mexico City.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, June 15 of 2006.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Loaeza & González Casanova
Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada
***********************************
Translated by irlandesa
[The following are two op-ed pieces which appeared recently in La Jornada. As you will see, there is some relation between the two, the second in some ways a response to the first. The respective authors, and their histories, will be quite familiar to many, but here they bring special light to specific issues which have been recently debated - at higher decibel and perhaps with less light - in other arenas]
La Jornada
Thursday, May 18, 2006.
The Challenge
Soledad Loaeza
There are many people in Mexico who are still skeptical about electoral democracy. Gradual changes exasperate them, they mistrust the secret vote and they spurn reasoned discourse for stridency or the ease of insult. The brain made viscera, they react furiously to political differences, they reject debate because they consider it a dangerous weapon, which it is, especially for those who have no recourse other than so-called dignified silence or verbal violence. Since they fear the discussion of ideas and of diverse political proposals, they implicitly discredit it as if it were illegitimate.
In 1999 the CGH – the vulgar minority which paralyzed activities at UNAM for a year – embodies, in an infantile and brutal manner, the victory of attitudes over ideas. Nonetheless, there are more than a few political actors these days who are proving that Mosh and his partying compañeros imposed a style of doing politics which has met with nothing more than tolerance. Many of these attitudes are the framework of action of those – leaders and followers – who have raised in recent weeks what could turn into a powerful challenge for our electoral institutions.
The union mobilizations – provoked, it’s true, by the stubbornness of officials – and the machetes of Atenco, which also seem to be those of Los Altos of Chiapas, are weighing like a Damocles sword above the upcoming election of July 2, and, even worse, above the more than 20 years of work and resources invested by everyone in the building of an inclusive political system in which politics would not be a chain of mechanical acts or repetition of clichés.
Many of those nowadays who, voluntarily or involuntarily, are calling into question the power of elections as an instrument of change, do not accept the profound political transformations of the last two decades which are proof that we have overcome the authoritarian past. They are determined to stop the democratic creation, and they are trying “…to get their poetry from the past..” instead of looking to the future, as Marx wrote regarding the bourgeois revolutionaries of 1851, the same ones who established the dictatorial power bases for Napoleon III.
The organizers of the Other Campaign, but also those candidates who – for logical consistency I imagine – would be This Campaign, for example, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Roberto Madrazo, seem to be determined to undermine the credibility of the July 2 election, and they want to take us back “…to an extinct epoch…” and then “…the old dates, the old names reappear…” (Karl Marx, El 18 brumario de Luis Bonaparte), and they talk about the State election and about the dirty war as if Luis Echeverría were still president, and they act as if the multi-party system which has been so laboriously constructed since 1979 and the Federal Election Institution Institute did not exist.
Some of them are threatening violent confrontation, worse still, they are offering it as if it were a valid promise of the future, and is if their history in Mexico had not been a history of failures, of betrayals and of costly errors, and not just of repression. Those who are questioning the validity of the vote and the legitimacy of elections these days want to make us forget what the country was like when the parties were hardly representative, political participation was limited and it wasn’t possible to choose among different options in the elections. With their actions and their statements they are denying the political plurality of society which is reflected in the very contest for the positions of political representation, in the newspapers, among the editorialists, news announcers, observers, citizens.
Casting the shadow of doubt on the electoral institutions is the equivalent of denying the validity of political pluralism, which is one of the great achievements of Mexican democracy. The formula “Todos somos Atenco” has lost that sense of solidarity which inspired its birth in the 19th century to defend, with another name, the universality of suffrage, and it has taken on the intolerable authoritarian resonance which comes from the concept of democracy as unanimity.
It remains to be said that the same thing is happening with the different invocations with which a formula is used which has lost its greatness because it has been used for such diverse and not always honorable causes, some of them outright trivial. The worst of all is that in many cases it only serves to hide poverty of language, as happens with the responses of the politicians who resort to palabrotas as a substitute for argument. They might make us laugh, but they do not invite us to think. That is probably what they are seeking: to trivialize politics in order to conceal their own triviality.
Defending the July 2 election is a challenge not just for the IFE – which appears spineless and confused – it is an obligation for parties and candidates, and for everyone else it is the most secure and efficient instrument for guaranteeing the survival of our status as citizens.
*******************************************************************
********************************************************************
La Jornada
Monday, May 22, 2006.
Social Sciences and Democracy in Mexico (what I actually said)
Pablo González Casanova
A few days ago a roundtable was organized at the Social Research Institute of UNAM on Democracy in Mexico. At the end, they invited me to say a few words, whose principle theses did not appear in the news article. As it might be of interest for them to be known, below I will make a brief summary in an attempt to rectify the disinformation. I will say what I said:
ONE: Today, more than ever, the social sciences have to confront the problem of knowledge of the truth, the problem of critiquing the lie and the problem of speaking what one thinks and of thinking about what one doesn’t even want to think about.
It is necessary to see what is novel in such old problems: for example, the importance which has accrued to those lies which are not made in order to deceive, but in order to seek accomplices, lies whose art has so enriched international bodies and neoliberal governments. And another example: the importance which rudeness has gained, more than as insults, as crude expressions and angry responses as a substitute for critical thought in the explication of controversial issues which should be clarified.
TWO: The social sciences have to start from highly probable hypotheses, like those which are noted below, and be elucidated with all scientific resources and “narrated experiences,” taking care not to substitute reasoning with rationalization or justification, and using rhetoric as the art of persuasion which can help one in science and also in conscience.
THREE: It is false to assert that “we have moved closer to democracy, and the authoritarian regime ruled Mexico has been done away with.”
FOUR: The presidentialist regime continues, although now the final decision and the limits of freedom of action, and of the “politically correct” measures and offers, are no longer established by the President of the Republic, but rather by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the mega-businesses and the business and military complexes of the “Empire” and their native partners.
FIVE: The “separation of powers” is not in play in the primary mechanisms of the privatizing and de-nationalizing neoliberal politics in which the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial share in the “decision-making,” palabras mas, palabras menos.
SIX: The struggle of the parties disappears in concepts, vocabulary, programs, purportedly alternative to neoliberal politics, all lacking in concrete measures and in organized and articulated social foundations which would make them credible. Today the State party seems to have transformed itself into three different parties and one single truth. Fights take place between parties which were previously fought inside the PRI, and even in the PRM, as when there was discussion about whether it would be better to choose Mújica or Avila Camacho. The fights take place within the parties and between the parties, and the alliances of individuals and clients are established in order to prevail in the selection of government elites and in the distribution of public positions.
SEVEN: The constitutional reforms approved by all the parties in the “government of change” are three in number: 1st – The one which denied the rights of the Indian peoples and even deprived them of some rights which came from the colonial period. 2nd – The one which handed the mass media over to Televisa and TV Azteca. 3rd – The one which handed over ownership of archeological and cultural sites of the national heritage to the federal government, for a purpose similar to Salinas de Gortari’s when he did away with ejidal ownership and commercialized the lands of poor campesinos. Now Mexico’s cultural heritage is marketable, or it’s coming very close to being so.
EIGHT: Facing that panorama – precisely! – is a very important and positive, creative, fact – democracy has become part of the Mexican culture and of the ideals of government. The Mexican people have not “become disillusioned with democracy,” in general, as the reports of some “experts” maintain. People are increasingly critical of that so-called democracy which is neither representative nor participatory, but rather “supplantive.” In many base organizations there tends to prevail a culture in which reasoned discourse can be heard, political dialogue with clear statements, sometimes quite original, respect for beliefs and ideas, autonomy and the dignity of individuals and communities. If our authoritarian culture is still a serious problem in the alternative formations themselves and in democratic practices - and in the compliance of the majority when there is no consensus - there is still a culture of coordinated, plural and democratic collective organization which has been increasingly able to express itself among the poor of our land and among those who are with them. As for me, as all of you know, I am with the Other Campaign.
A few words in conclusion: In our country and in our university there are highly qualified personnel in the social sciences, with many international-level researchers and professors, who are in the forefront in this Latin American region, who are in the forefront in the world. Perhaps this is because we came from conquering peoples and rebels conquered to the yoke, many of whose leaders have gone to universities and colleges which neoliberalism has vainly tried to privatize and denationalize, and which have provided postgraduate studies and residencies on the campuses of the best universities in the world and on the campuses of Mexico and Latin America.
When I entered the Institute here as a research assistant, more than half a century ago, the university had not attained the high level it now has, although it was already playing that critical role, and was autonomous from the power of the State, which, with contradictions, is so important for the emancipation of the peoples. Today I am sure that it has even more possibilities and much more personnel able to link the social sciences with the theory and practice of democracy in Mexico. And then I added a few words of thanks.
***********************************
Translated by irlandesa
[The following are two op-ed pieces which appeared recently in La Jornada. As you will see, there is some relation between the two, the second in some ways a response to the first. The respective authors, and their histories, will be quite familiar to many, but here they bring special light to specific issues which have been recently debated - at higher decibel and perhaps with less light - in other arenas]
La Jornada
Thursday, May 18, 2006.
The Challenge
Soledad Loaeza
There are many people in Mexico who are still skeptical about electoral democracy. Gradual changes exasperate them, they mistrust the secret vote and they spurn reasoned discourse for stridency or the ease of insult. The brain made viscera, they react furiously to political differences, they reject debate because they consider it a dangerous weapon, which it is, especially for those who have no recourse other than so-called dignified silence or verbal violence. Since they fear the discussion of ideas and of diverse political proposals, they implicitly discredit it as if it were illegitimate.
In 1999 the CGH – the vulgar minority which paralyzed activities at UNAM for a year – embodies, in an infantile and brutal manner, the victory of attitudes over ideas. Nonetheless, there are more than a few political actors these days who are proving that Mosh and his partying compañeros imposed a style of doing politics which has met with nothing more than tolerance. Many of these attitudes are the framework of action of those – leaders and followers – who have raised in recent weeks what could turn into a powerful challenge for our electoral institutions.
The union mobilizations – provoked, it’s true, by the stubbornness of officials – and the machetes of Atenco, which also seem to be those of Los Altos of Chiapas, are weighing like a Damocles sword above the upcoming election of July 2, and, even worse, above the more than 20 years of work and resources invested by everyone in the building of an inclusive political system in which politics would not be a chain of mechanical acts or repetition of clichés.
Many of those nowadays who, voluntarily or involuntarily, are calling into question the power of elections as an instrument of change, do not accept the profound political transformations of the last two decades which are proof that we have overcome the authoritarian past. They are determined to stop the democratic creation, and they are trying “…to get their poetry from the past..” instead of looking to the future, as Marx wrote regarding the bourgeois revolutionaries of 1851, the same ones who established the dictatorial power bases for Napoleon III.
The organizers of the Other Campaign, but also those candidates who – for logical consistency I imagine – would be This Campaign, for example, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Roberto Madrazo, seem to be determined to undermine the credibility of the July 2 election, and they want to take us back “…to an extinct epoch…” and then “…the old dates, the old names reappear…” (Karl Marx, El 18 brumario de Luis Bonaparte), and they talk about the State election and about the dirty war as if Luis Echeverría were still president, and they act as if the multi-party system which has been so laboriously constructed since 1979 and the Federal Election Institution Institute did not exist.
Some of them are threatening violent confrontation, worse still, they are offering it as if it were a valid promise of the future, and is if their history in Mexico had not been a history of failures, of betrayals and of costly errors, and not just of repression. Those who are questioning the validity of the vote and the legitimacy of elections these days want to make us forget what the country was like when the parties were hardly representative, political participation was limited and it wasn’t possible to choose among different options in the elections. With their actions and their statements they are denying the political plurality of society which is reflected in the very contest for the positions of political representation, in the newspapers, among the editorialists, news announcers, observers, citizens.
Casting the shadow of doubt on the electoral institutions is the equivalent of denying the validity of political pluralism, which is one of the great achievements of Mexican democracy. The formula “Todos somos Atenco” has lost that sense of solidarity which inspired its birth in the 19th century to defend, with another name, the universality of suffrage, and it has taken on the intolerable authoritarian resonance which comes from the concept of democracy as unanimity.
It remains to be said that the same thing is happening with the different invocations with which a formula is used which has lost its greatness because it has been used for such diverse and not always honorable causes, some of them outright trivial. The worst of all is that in many cases it only serves to hide poverty of language, as happens with the responses of the politicians who resort to palabrotas as a substitute for argument. They might make us laugh, but they do not invite us to think. That is probably what they are seeking: to trivialize politics in order to conceal their own triviality.
Defending the July 2 election is a challenge not just for the IFE – which appears spineless and confused – it is an obligation for parties and candidates, and for everyone else it is the most secure and efficient instrument for guaranteeing the survival of our status as citizens.
*******************************************************************
********************************************************************
La Jornada
Monday, May 22, 2006.
Social Sciences and Democracy in Mexico (what I actually said)
Pablo González Casanova
A few days ago a roundtable was organized at the Social Research Institute of UNAM on Democracy in Mexico. At the end, they invited me to say a few words, whose principle theses did not appear in the news article. As it might be of interest for them to be known, below I will make a brief summary in an attempt to rectify the disinformation. I will say what I said:
ONE: Today, more than ever, the social sciences have to confront the problem of knowledge of the truth, the problem of critiquing the lie and the problem of speaking what one thinks and of thinking about what one doesn’t even want to think about.
It is necessary to see what is novel in such old problems: for example, the importance which has accrued to those lies which are not made in order to deceive, but in order to seek accomplices, lies whose art has so enriched international bodies and neoliberal governments. And another example: the importance which rudeness has gained, more than as insults, as crude expressions and angry responses as a substitute for critical thought in the explication of controversial issues which should be clarified.
TWO: The social sciences have to start from highly probable hypotheses, like those which are noted below, and be elucidated with all scientific resources and “narrated experiences,” taking care not to substitute reasoning with rationalization or justification, and using rhetoric as the art of persuasion which can help one in science and also in conscience.
THREE: It is false to assert that “we have moved closer to democracy, and the authoritarian regime ruled Mexico has been done away with.”
FOUR: The presidentialist regime continues, although now the final decision and the limits of freedom of action, and of the “politically correct” measures and offers, are no longer established by the President of the Republic, but rather by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the mega-businesses and the business and military complexes of the “Empire” and their native partners.
FIVE: The “separation of powers” is not in play in the primary mechanisms of the privatizing and de-nationalizing neoliberal politics in which the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial share in the “decision-making,” palabras mas, palabras menos.
SIX: The struggle of the parties disappears in concepts, vocabulary, programs, purportedly alternative to neoliberal politics, all lacking in concrete measures and in organized and articulated social foundations which would make them credible. Today the State party seems to have transformed itself into three different parties and one single truth. Fights take place between parties which were previously fought inside the PRI, and even in the PRM, as when there was discussion about whether it would be better to choose Mújica or Avila Camacho. The fights take place within the parties and between the parties, and the alliances of individuals and clients are established in order to prevail in the selection of government elites and in the distribution of public positions.
SEVEN: The constitutional reforms approved by all the parties in the “government of change” are three in number: 1st – The one which denied the rights of the Indian peoples and even deprived them of some rights which came from the colonial period. 2nd – The one which handed the mass media over to Televisa and TV Azteca. 3rd – The one which handed over ownership of archeological and cultural sites of the national heritage to the federal government, for a purpose similar to Salinas de Gortari’s when he did away with ejidal ownership and commercialized the lands of poor campesinos. Now Mexico’s cultural heritage is marketable, or it’s coming very close to being so.
EIGHT: Facing that panorama – precisely! – is a very important and positive, creative, fact – democracy has become part of the Mexican culture and of the ideals of government. The Mexican people have not “become disillusioned with democracy,” in general, as the reports of some “experts” maintain. People are increasingly critical of that so-called democracy which is neither representative nor participatory, but rather “supplantive.” In many base organizations there tends to prevail a culture in which reasoned discourse can be heard, political dialogue with clear statements, sometimes quite original, respect for beliefs and ideas, autonomy and the dignity of individuals and communities. If our authoritarian culture is still a serious problem in the alternative formations themselves and in democratic practices - and in the compliance of the majority when there is no consensus - there is still a culture of coordinated, plural and democratic collective organization which has been increasingly able to express itself among the poor of our land and among those who are with them. As for me, as all of you know, I am with the Other Campaign.
A few words in conclusion: In our country and in our university there are highly qualified personnel in the social sciences, with many international-level researchers and professors, who are in the forefront in this Latin American region, who are in the forefront in the world. Perhaps this is because we came from conquering peoples and rebels conquered to the yoke, many of whose leaders have gone to universities and colleges which neoliberalism has vainly tried to privatize and denationalize, and which have provided postgraduate studies and residencies on the campuses of the best universities in the world and on the campuses of Mexico and Latin America.
When I entered the Institute here as a research assistant, more than half a century ago, the university had not attained the high level it now has, although it was already playing that critical role, and was autonomous from the power of the State, which, with contradictions, is so important for the emancipation of the peoples. Today I am sure that it has even more possibilities and much more personnel able to link the social sciences with the theory and practice of democracy in Mexico. And then I added a few words of thanks.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Women with no fear
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
********************************
Translated by irlandesa
Women: Assembly Instructions?
Words from the Sixth Committee of the EZLN for the public event “Women Without Fear. We Are All Atenco.”
May 22, 2006
May 22, 2006
Good evening.
My name is Marcos, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
For those of you who are familiar with zapatismo, it might not be necessary to explain what I’m doing here, at an event of and for women.
Of course you are not just women, but women who have decided to raise your voices in order to protest against the attacks the police have been making, and are making, on other women since May 3 and 4, 2006 in San Salvador Atenco, in the State of Mexico, in the Mexican Republic.
You are, here, there and everywhere, women without fear.
My name is Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, and I am, among other things, the spokesperson for the EZLN, a primarily indigenous organization which fights for democracy, liberty and justice for our country which is called Mexico.
As spokesperson for the EZLN, those others take voice through my voice, those who comprise us, who give us face, word, heart.
A collective voice.
In that collective voice is the voice of zapatista women.
And along with our voices and hearing are also our looking, our zapatista lights and shadows.
I am called Marcos, and among the numerous personal flaws I bear, sometimes cynically and cockily, is that of being man, macho, male.
As such I must bear, and often flaunt, a series of archetypes, clichés, proofs.
Not only in regard to me and my sex, but also and above all in reference to woman, the female gender.
To those flaws which define me personally, someone might add the one we have as zapatistas, to wit, that of still not having lost the capacity for being astonished, for being amazed.
As zapatistas, sometimes we approach other voices which we know to be different, strange, and yet similar and appropriate.
Voices which astonish and amaze our ear with your light…and with your shadow.
Voices, for example, of women.
From the collective which gives us face and name, journey and path, we go to great effort in choosing where to direct ear and heart.
And so now we are choosing to hear the voice of women who have no fear.
Can one listen to a light? And, if so, can one listen to a shadow?
And who else chooses, as we are today, to lend ear – and with it, thought and heart – in order to listen to those voices?
We choose. We choose to be here, to listen to and make echo for an injustice committed against women.
We choose to be fearless in order to listen to those who were not afraid to speak.
The brutality wielded by the bad Mexican governments in San Salvador Atenco on the 3rd and 4th of May, and which is still going on, to this very night, against the prisoners, especially the violence against women, is what summons us.
And not only that. Those bad governments are trying to sow fear through their actions, and, no, what is happening now is that they are sowing indignation and anger.
In a newspaper this morning, one of the individuals who, along with Vicente Fox and his cabinet, are priding themselves on “imposing the Rule of Law,” Señor Peña Nieto (alleged Governor of the State of Mexico), stated that what happened at Atenco had been planned.
If this were so, then those who were beaten, illegally detained, sexually attacked, raped, humiliated, then they planned, among other things, to be women.
We know, from the statements of those without fear who were detained, who are our compañeras, that they were attacked as women, their women’s bodies violated.
And we also know from their words that the violence visited upon their bodies brought pleasure to the policemen.
The woman’s body taken violently, usurped, attacked in order to obtain pleasure.
And the promise of that pleasure taken on those women’s bodies was the lagniappe which the police received along with the mandate to “impose peace and order” in Atenco.
Certainly according to the government they planned on having the body of a woman, and, they planned, with extreme depravity, that their bodies would be plunder for the “forces of law.”
Señor Fox, the federal leader of “change” and of the “Rule of Law,” clarified for us a few months ago that women are “two-legged washing machines” (partial disclaimer, revolving payment plans and go to the customer service department).
And it so happens that up above those machines of pleasure and of work, which are the bodies of women, include assembly instructions which the dominant system assigns them.
If a human being is born woman, she must travel throughout her life a path which has been built especially for her.
Being a girl. Being an adolescent. Being a young woman. Being an adult. Being mature. Being old.
And not just from menarche to menopause. Capitalism has discovered they can obtain objects of work and pleasure in infancy and in old age, and we have “Gobers Preciosos” and pedophile businessmen everywhere for the appropriation and administration of those objects.
Women, they say above, should travel through life begging pardon and asking permission for being, and in order to be, women.
And traveling a path full of barbed wire.
A path which must be traveled by crawling, with head and heart against the ground.
And, even so, despite following the assembly instructions, gathering scrapes, wounds, scars, blows, amputations, death.
And seeking the one responsible for those sorrows in oneself, because condemnation is also included in the crime of being women.
In the assembly instructions for the merchandise known as “Woman,” it explains that the model should always have her head bowed. That her most productive position is on her knees. That the brain is optional, and its inclusion is often counterproductive. That her heart should be nourished with trivialities. That her spirit should be maintained by competition with others of her same gender in order to attract the buyer, that always unsatisfied customer who is the male. That her ignorance should be fed in order to guarantee better functioning. That the product is capable of self-maintenance and improvement (and there is a wide range of products for that, in addition to salons and metal and painting workshops). That she should not only learn to reduce her vocabulary to “yes” and “no,” but, above all, she should learn when she should speak these words.
There is a warranty included in the assembly instructions for the product called “Woman” that she will always have her head lowered.
And that, if for some involuntary or premeditated manufacturing defect, one should lift her gaze, then the implacable scythe of Power will chop off the place of thought, and condemn her to walking as if being a woman were something for which one must ask forgiveness and for which one must ask permission.
In order to comply with this warranty, there are governments who substitute the weapons and sex of their police officers for their lack of brain. And, in addition, these same governments have mental hospitals, jails and cemeteries for irreparably “broken” women.
A bullet, a punch, a penis, prison bars, a judge, a government, in sum, a system, puts a sign on a woman who doesn’t ask for forgiveness or permission which reads “Out of Service. Non-Recyclable Product.”
Women must ask permission in order to be a woman, and it is granted to her if she is so according to what is shown in the assembly instructions.
Women should serve men, always following those instructions, in order to be absolved of the crime of being a woman.
At home, in the fields, the street, the school, work, transportation, culture, art, entertainment, science, government. Twenty-four hours a day and 365 days a year. From when they are born until they die, women confront this assembly process.
But there are women who confront it with rebellion.
Women who, instead of asking permission, command their own existence.
Women who, instead of begging pardon, demand justice.
Because the assembly instructions say that women should be submissive and walk on their knees.
And, nonetheless, some women are naughty and walk upright.
There are women who tear up the assembly instructions and stand up on their feet.
There are women without fear.
They say that when a woman moves forward, no men move back.
It depends, I say, from my machismo reloaded perspective – a mixture of Pedro Infante and José Alfredo Jiménez.
It depends, for example, on whether the man is in front of the woman who is moving forward.
My name is Marcos, I have the personal flaw of being man, macho, male. And the collective virtue of being what we are, we who are zapatistas.
As such, I confess that I am astonished and amazed at seeing a woman raise herself up and seeing the assembly instructions shattering, torn into pieces.
A woman standing up is so beautiful that it makes one shiver just to look at her.
And that is what listening is, learning to look…
Cheers to these women, to our imprisoned compañeras and to those who are gathered here.
Cheers for your having no fear.
Cheers for the valor which you pass on to us, for the conviction you grant us that if we do nothing to change this system, we are all accomplices in it.
From the Other City of Mexico.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, May of 2006
PS WHICH ASKS: What punishment do those officials, leaders and police deserve who attacked the women, our compañeras, like that? What punishment does the system deserve which has turned being a woman into a crime? If we are silent, if we look the other way, if we allow the police brutality in Atenco to go unpunished, who will be safe? Isn’t the release of all the Atenco prisoners thus a matter of elemental justice?
********************************
Translated by irlandesa
Women: Assembly Instructions?
Words from the Sixth Committee of the EZLN for the public event “Women Without Fear. We Are All Atenco.”
May 22, 2006
May 22, 2006
Good evening.
My name is Marcos, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
For those of you who are familiar with zapatismo, it might not be necessary to explain what I’m doing here, at an event of and for women.
Of course you are not just women, but women who have decided to raise your voices in order to protest against the attacks the police have been making, and are making, on other women since May 3 and 4, 2006 in San Salvador Atenco, in the State of Mexico, in the Mexican Republic.
You are, here, there and everywhere, women without fear.
My name is Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, and I am, among other things, the spokesperson for the EZLN, a primarily indigenous organization which fights for democracy, liberty and justice for our country which is called Mexico.
As spokesperson for the EZLN, those others take voice through my voice, those who comprise us, who give us face, word, heart.
A collective voice.
In that collective voice is the voice of zapatista women.
And along with our voices and hearing are also our looking, our zapatista lights and shadows.
I am called Marcos, and among the numerous personal flaws I bear, sometimes cynically and cockily, is that of being man, macho, male.
As such I must bear, and often flaunt, a series of archetypes, clichés, proofs.
Not only in regard to me and my sex, but also and above all in reference to woman, the female gender.
To those flaws which define me personally, someone might add the one we have as zapatistas, to wit, that of still not having lost the capacity for being astonished, for being amazed.
As zapatistas, sometimes we approach other voices which we know to be different, strange, and yet similar and appropriate.
Voices which astonish and amaze our ear with your light…and with your shadow.
Voices, for example, of women.
From the collective which gives us face and name, journey and path, we go to great effort in choosing where to direct ear and heart.
And so now we are choosing to hear the voice of women who have no fear.
Can one listen to a light? And, if so, can one listen to a shadow?
And who else chooses, as we are today, to lend ear – and with it, thought and heart – in order to listen to those voices?
We choose. We choose to be here, to listen to and make echo for an injustice committed against women.
We choose to be fearless in order to listen to those who were not afraid to speak.
The brutality wielded by the bad Mexican governments in San Salvador Atenco on the 3rd and 4th of May, and which is still going on, to this very night, against the prisoners, especially the violence against women, is what summons us.
And not only that. Those bad governments are trying to sow fear through their actions, and, no, what is happening now is that they are sowing indignation and anger.
In a newspaper this morning, one of the individuals who, along with Vicente Fox and his cabinet, are priding themselves on “imposing the Rule of Law,” Señor Peña Nieto (alleged Governor of the State of Mexico), stated that what happened at Atenco had been planned.
If this were so, then those who were beaten, illegally detained, sexually attacked, raped, humiliated, then they planned, among other things, to be women.
We know, from the statements of those without fear who were detained, who are our compañeras, that they were attacked as women, their women’s bodies violated.
And we also know from their words that the violence visited upon their bodies brought pleasure to the policemen.
The woman’s body taken violently, usurped, attacked in order to obtain pleasure.
And the promise of that pleasure taken on those women’s bodies was the lagniappe which the police received along with the mandate to “impose peace and order” in Atenco.
Certainly according to the government they planned on having the body of a woman, and, they planned, with extreme depravity, that their bodies would be plunder for the “forces of law.”
Señor Fox, the federal leader of “change” and of the “Rule of Law,” clarified for us a few months ago that women are “two-legged washing machines” (partial disclaimer, revolving payment plans and go to the customer service department).
And it so happens that up above those machines of pleasure and of work, which are the bodies of women, include assembly instructions which the dominant system assigns them.
If a human being is born woman, she must travel throughout her life a path which has been built especially for her.
Being a girl. Being an adolescent. Being a young woman. Being an adult. Being mature. Being old.
And not just from menarche to menopause. Capitalism has discovered they can obtain objects of work and pleasure in infancy and in old age, and we have “Gobers Preciosos” and pedophile businessmen everywhere for the appropriation and administration of those objects.
Women, they say above, should travel through life begging pardon and asking permission for being, and in order to be, women.
And traveling a path full of barbed wire.
A path which must be traveled by crawling, with head and heart against the ground.
And, even so, despite following the assembly instructions, gathering scrapes, wounds, scars, blows, amputations, death.
And seeking the one responsible for those sorrows in oneself, because condemnation is also included in the crime of being women.
In the assembly instructions for the merchandise known as “Woman,” it explains that the model should always have her head bowed. That her most productive position is on her knees. That the brain is optional, and its inclusion is often counterproductive. That her heart should be nourished with trivialities. That her spirit should be maintained by competition with others of her same gender in order to attract the buyer, that always unsatisfied customer who is the male. That her ignorance should be fed in order to guarantee better functioning. That the product is capable of self-maintenance and improvement (and there is a wide range of products for that, in addition to salons and metal and painting workshops). That she should not only learn to reduce her vocabulary to “yes” and “no,” but, above all, she should learn when she should speak these words.
There is a warranty included in the assembly instructions for the product called “Woman” that she will always have her head lowered.
And that, if for some involuntary or premeditated manufacturing defect, one should lift her gaze, then the implacable scythe of Power will chop off the place of thought, and condemn her to walking as if being a woman were something for which one must ask forgiveness and for which one must ask permission.
In order to comply with this warranty, there are governments who substitute the weapons and sex of their police officers for their lack of brain. And, in addition, these same governments have mental hospitals, jails and cemeteries for irreparably “broken” women.
A bullet, a punch, a penis, prison bars, a judge, a government, in sum, a system, puts a sign on a woman who doesn’t ask for forgiveness or permission which reads “Out of Service. Non-Recyclable Product.”
Women must ask permission in order to be a woman, and it is granted to her if she is so according to what is shown in the assembly instructions.
Women should serve men, always following those instructions, in order to be absolved of the crime of being a woman.
At home, in the fields, the street, the school, work, transportation, culture, art, entertainment, science, government. Twenty-four hours a day and 365 days a year. From when they are born until they die, women confront this assembly process.
But there are women who confront it with rebellion.
Women who, instead of asking permission, command their own existence.
Women who, instead of begging pardon, demand justice.
Because the assembly instructions say that women should be submissive and walk on their knees.
And, nonetheless, some women are naughty and walk upright.
There are women who tear up the assembly instructions and stand up on their feet.
There are women without fear.
They say that when a woman moves forward, no men move back.
It depends, I say, from my machismo reloaded perspective – a mixture of Pedro Infante and José Alfredo Jiménez.
It depends, for example, on whether the man is in front of the woman who is moving forward.
My name is Marcos, I have the personal flaw of being man, macho, male. And the collective virtue of being what we are, we who are zapatistas.
As such, I confess that I am astonished and amazed at seeing a woman raise herself up and seeing the assembly instructions shattering, torn into pieces.
A woman standing up is so beautiful that it makes one shiver just to look at her.
And that is what listening is, learning to look…
Cheers to these women, to our imprisoned compañeras and to those who are gathered here.
Cheers for your having no fear.
Cheers for the valor which you pass on to us, for the conviction you grant us that if we do nothing to change this system, we are all accomplices in it.
From the Other City of Mexico.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, May of 2006
PS WHICH ASKS: What punishment do those officials, leaders and police deserve who attacked the women, our compañeras, like that? What punishment does the system deserve which has turned being a woman into a crime? If we are silent, if we look the other way, if we allow the police brutality in Atenco to go unpunished, who will be safe? Isn’t the release of all the Atenco prisoners thus a matter of elemental justice?
Sunday, May 21, 2006
The sine qua non of legitimacy
Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada
**********************************
Translated by irlandesa
La Jornada
Sunday, May 21, 2006.
No Movement More Legitimate Than Release of Atenco Prisoners: Marcos
Emir Olivares Alonso
The movement for the release of the prisoners of San Salvador Atenco and for justice for those women who were attacked and sexually violated “has an international force which the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) strike didn’t have, and which the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) didn’t have,” stated Subcomandante Marcos during his address at the student group assembly.
Delegate Zero added that what had happened at Atenco had taken on such international relevance that now “women all over the world are mobilizing” so that the repression is not repeated.
“A woman, any of you, or someone who isn’t here, gets up in the morning, bathes and fixes herself up and looks in the mirror and asks herself: “Am I fixing myself up for those bastards to detain me and rape me?” (…) This feeling of defenselessness which turned into being on guard thanks to the attitude of the compañeras’, and those who are still imprisoned, has given rise to a legitimate movement. There isn’t a movement in this country as legitimate as that of the release of the prisoners taken on May 3 and 4 in Atenco. None.”
He warned that after the denuncias of what happened during the detention in Atenco and the trip to the jail in Santiaguito in Almoloya, the state of Mexico, social groups should ensure that every woman “be treated with gentleness,” since “we are not going to allow” what happened two weeks ago “to be repeated.”
He stated that no political organization has the legitimacy of that movement. “At the best, a bothersome interview was contributed. We think it contributed.”
He added that, after appearing on television, the media began reversing the attitude that the residents of San Salvador Atenco had been the aggressors, and “now the police operation lacks all legitimacy, but that belongs to the lawyers.”
The group assembly, held yesterday in the Che Guevara auditorium in the UNAM Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, lasted more than seven hours, with some 400 students discussing, in front of Delegate Zero, the actions they would be carrying out in response to events in Atenco.
Subcomandante Marcos urged them to listen and not to decide for those who were absent, since it’s “not about making the assembly as long as possible, for seven hours. There were 400 (participants), and, according to the vote count, there were 150. And the other 250? And the other thousands who are supporters of the Other Campaign? It’s fucked! The group has already decided, and that’s how it’s going to be, even though the Other Campaign is saying there are other ways of doing politics. We said the organizational process has to be respected.”
Delegate Zero attacked the method the students were using for discussion. “It’s good that you listen to all the positions, but those who aren’t here should be taken into account. That’s what we’re proposing.” He said that what should be at stake during the assembly is that the movement not be exhausted.
“We, as a group, can decide, given that at no point has the Other Campaign said that an assembly can make an agreement for the rest of the supporters, even at the last assembly in the Che (last Saturday) we said we couldn’t make a decision. We can propose, but we can’t decide.”
After the long assembly session, the students agreed that they would participate in the marches called for May 28, from the Angel de la Independencia to the Zócalo, and in the one on June 10. They also agreed to continue with the information brigades and to hold another group assembly on May 26.
**********************************
Translated by irlandesa
La Jornada
Sunday, May 21, 2006.
No Movement More Legitimate Than Release of Atenco Prisoners: Marcos
Emir Olivares Alonso
The movement for the release of the prisoners of San Salvador Atenco and for justice for those women who were attacked and sexually violated “has an international force which the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) strike didn’t have, and which the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) didn’t have,” stated Subcomandante Marcos during his address at the student group assembly.
Delegate Zero added that what had happened at Atenco had taken on such international relevance that now “women all over the world are mobilizing” so that the repression is not repeated.
“A woman, any of you, or someone who isn’t here, gets up in the morning, bathes and fixes herself up and looks in the mirror and asks herself: “Am I fixing myself up for those bastards to detain me and rape me?” (…) This feeling of defenselessness which turned into being on guard thanks to the attitude of the compañeras’, and those who are still imprisoned, has given rise to a legitimate movement. There isn’t a movement in this country as legitimate as that of the release of the prisoners taken on May 3 and 4 in Atenco. None.”
He warned that after the denuncias of what happened during the detention in Atenco and the trip to the jail in Santiaguito in Almoloya, the state of Mexico, social groups should ensure that every woman “be treated with gentleness,” since “we are not going to allow” what happened two weeks ago “to be repeated.”
He stated that no political organization has the legitimacy of that movement. “At the best, a bothersome interview was contributed. We think it contributed.”
He added that, after appearing on television, the media began reversing the attitude that the residents of San Salvador Atenco had been the aggressors, and “now the police operation lacks all legitimacy, but that belongs to the lawyers.”
The group assembly, held yesterday in the Che Guevara auditorium in the UNAM Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, lasted more than seven hours, with some 400 students discussing, in front of Delegate Zero, the actions they would be carrying out in response to events in Atenco.
Subcomandante Marcos urged them to listen and not to decide for those who were absent, since it’s “not about making the assembly as long as possible, for seven hours. There were 400 (participants), and, according to the vote count, there were 150. And the other 250? And the other thousands who are supporters of the Other Campaign? It’s fucked! The group has already decided, and that’s how it’s going to be, even though the Other Campaign is saying there are other ways of doing politics. We said the organizational process has to be respected.”
Delegate Zero attacked the method the students were using for discussion. “It’s good that you listen to all the positions, but those who aren’t here should be taken into account. That’s what we’re proposing.” He said that what should be at stake during the assembly is that the movement not be exhausted.
“We, as a group, can decide, given that at no point has the Other Campaign said that an assembly can make an agreement for the rest of the supporters, even at the last assembly in the Che (last Saturday) we said we couldn’t make a decision. We can propose, but we can’t decide.”
After the long assembly session, the students agreed that they would participate in the marches called for May 28, from the Angel de la Independencia to the Zócalo, and in the one on June 10. They also agreed to continue with the information brigades and to hold another group assembly on May 26.
Friday, May 19, 2006
The Demon of Will
Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada
*******************************
Translated by irlandesa
The Demon of Will
Guillermo Almeyra*
It is time to close ranks in order to secure the release of all the prisoners, to the very last one, who have been brutally and arbitrarily jailed, as well as to secure the condemnation of the rapists, torturers, those who invaded properties and the kidnappers, and to expose those highly placed who ordered the violations of law and the murders in Sicartsa and in San Salvador Atenco. That is our primary task. But at the same time we have two other fundamental tasks: protecting our flank from other provocations and assessing what the tactical and strategic errors of the popular sector have been, in order to reorganize and reinforce it, and to discuss the ideological bases of the lynching of an unarmed policeman, which was used so much by television as an excuse for fascist attacks. Because the “strategy of tension” which the government is employing is not going to stop, instead it will be increasingly on the agenda - and now Calderón is saying that AMLO is behind Marcos’ mask - in order to extend the provocations as far as popular reaction will allow it.
Will is the worst of advisors. It is irresponsible to say, like Marcos, “screw the correlation of forces” (in a speech at UNAM), or to publish, in Rebeldía, “we agree, we’ll overthrow the government, we’ll throw the rich out, we’ll change the country” (something like Fox’s 15 minutes to resolve the Chiapas issue), or, as he repeated each time during his trip, “we’ll expropriate the banks,” “we’ll throw the rich out to Miami,” “we’ll overthrow the government.” It is irresponsible to maintain that the Other Campaign “stopped the construction of La Parota” – thus displacing the Guerrero ejiditarios and comuneros who are still confronting that construction – or made San Salvador Atenco visible.
The correlation of forces is fundamental, and attaining objectives depends on it and on the times, on combining, through alliances, with other sectors - with which one certainly has differences, but the differences are fewer than the points in common - and on the patient building of conscience and of organization in their own ranks. It is impossible, for example, not to see that the popular sector is confronting, and will inevitably be confronting, repression from the State, which is in the hands of exploiters (not of the “rich,” many of whom can be innocuous). It is a mistake to not put the Sicartsa situation alongside the one in Atenco, and, meanwhile, alongside the attempt to ethically lynch Elena Poniatowska or AMLO. It is delusory to ignore the national strike by 5 million workers and the breach between large numbers of the union leadership and the government with the argument that are all charros. It is absurd to appropriate the defense of the prisoners in San Salvador Atenco when, on the contrary, the broadest front possible must be constructed in defense of democratic rights and the Constitution.
It is irresponsible to “screw the correlation of forces” and to ignore the fact that the adversary thinks and acts, he has the power and he will defend it. That ignorant and arrogant advice led to confrontation (machetes against more powerful weapons) in order to defend eight florists whose situation could have been negotiated and, in any event, should not have led to providing an excuse for deaths, rapes, illegal searches, hundreds of prisoners, dozens of wounded, to the division of Atenco residents, to many of them fleeing. There are two reasons for the lynching of a fallen policeman (whose image was repeated ad nauseum on television and which, naturally, did not then lead to the savage images of repression). The main cause is hate, which has been well earned by the repressive organizations and their brutality (Sicartsa is the most recent case), which has now led to other acts of savagery such as the burning of police in various neighborhoods. But the other reason is lack of political conscience and of the idea of what the correlation of forces is.
And that is a problem of the Other Campaign and of the left. The end does not justify the means. You cannot fight the bourgeoisie with their own savage methods. Blind violence and hate should be eradicated, especially since we are fighting not just against capitalism and its horrors, but because we also want to build a new human being and a just society. Even if they were to impose war upon us, nothing, however, would justify torture, irregularities against enemy prisoners. In addition, it is a terrible commanding officer – and leads to bloody disasters - who only understands orders to advance and attack, and who does not take into account the media and immediate consequences of his actions.
The social movements in Mexico, without exception, from the indigenous of Chiapas and the rest of the country to the workers and campesinos, are going to great effort, on the other hand, to demonstrate that their struggles are not only legitimate but they are also legal. Those of La Parota, for example, insist that no one consulted them, that no environmental studies were conducted, that thousands of ejidos will be flooded, etcetera. Workers are seeking to defend their union independence, campesinos are asking for reform. In order to “overthrow the government (and) throw the rich (out of the country)” it is therefore necessary to violate neither consciences nor the times. To create consensus, to make alliances, to discuss how, with what, when, with whom. It is not fair to appear on Televisa with Loret de Mila, smoking, sprawled in an armchair as if at home, calmly answering insidious questions like a friend while, at the same time, calling for risky actions, “screwing correlation of forces,” because the bodies, whether for bullets or rape, are also being contributed by others.
[* Dr. Almeyra is a professor at UAM-Xochimilco, and, among an abundance of other accomplishments, is providing a workshop next month in conjunction with Mexico Solidarity Network (http://www.mexicosolidarity.org/Study%20Abroad/Syllabus/index.html) .]
*******************************
Translated by irlandesa
The Demon of Will
Guillermo Almeyra*
It is time to close ranks in order to secure the release of all the prisoners, to the very last one, who have been brutally and arbitrarily jailed, as well as to secure the condemnation of the rapists, torturers, those who invaded properties and the kidnappers, and to expose those highly placed who ordered the violations of law and the murders in Sicartsa and in San Salvador Atenco. That is our primary task. But at the same time we have two other fundamental tasks: protecting our flank from other provocations and assessing what the tactical and strategic errors of the popular sector have been, in order to reorganize and reinforce it, and to discuss the ideological bases of the lynching of an unarmed policeman, which was used so much by television as an excuse for fascist attacks. Because the “strategy of tension” which the government is employing is not going to stop, instead it will be increasingly on the agenda - and now Calderón is saying that AMLO is behind Marcos’ mask - in order to extend the provocations as far as popular reaction will allow it.
Will is the worst of advisors. It is irresponsible to say, like Marcos, “screw the correlation of forces” (in a speech at UNAM), or to publish, in Rebeldía, “we agree, we’ll overthrow the government, we’ll throw the rich out, we’ll change the country” (something like Fox’s 15 minutes to resolve the Chiapas issue), or, as he repeated each time during his trip, “we’ll expropriate the banks,” “we’ll throw the rich out to Miami,” “we’ll overthrow the government.” It is irresponsible to maintain that the Other Campaign “stopped the construction of La Parota” – thus displacing the Guerrero ejiditarios and comuneros who are still confronting that construction – or made San Salvador Atenco visible.
The correlation of forces is fundamental, and attaining objectives depends on it and on the times, on combining, through alliances, with other sectors - with which one certainly has differences, but the differences are fewer than the points in common - and on the patient building of conscience and of organization in their own ranks. It is impossible, for example, not to see that the popular sector is confronting, and will inevitably be confronting, repression from the State, which is in the hands of exploiters (not of the “rich,” many of whom can be innocuous). It is a mistake to not put the Sicartsa situation alongside the one in Atenco, and, meanwhile, alongside the attempt to ethically lynch Elena Poniatowska or AMLO. It is delusory to ignore the national strike by 5 million workers and the breach between large numbers of the union leadership and the government with the argument that are all charros. It is absurd to appropriate the defense of the prisoners in San Salvador Atenco when, on the contrary, the broadest front possible must be constructed in defense of democratic rights and the Constitution.
It is irresponsible to “screw the correlation of forces” and to ignore the fact that the adversary thinks and acts, he has the power and he will defend it. That ignorant and arrogant advice led to confrontation (machetes against more powerful weapons) in order to defend eight florists whose situation could have been negotiated and, in any event, should not have led to providing an excuse for deaths, rapes, illegal searches, hundreds of prisoners, dozens of wounded, to the division of Atenco residents, to many of them fleeing. There are two reasons for the lynching of a fallen policeman (whose image was repeated ad nauseum on television and which, naturally, did not then lead to the savage images of repression). The main cause is hate, which has been well earned by the repressive organizations and their brutality (Sicartsa is the most recent case), which has now led to other acts of savagery such as the burning of police in various neighborhoods. But the other reason is lack of political conscience and of the idea of what the correlation of forces is.
And that is a problem of the Other Campaign and of the left. The end does not justify the means. You cannot fight the bourgeoisie with their own savage methods. Blind violence and hate should be eradicated, especially since we are fighting not just against capitalism and its horrors, but because we also want to build a new human being and a just society. Even if they were to impose war upon us, nothing, however, would justify torture, irregularities against enemy prisoners. In addition, it is a terrible commanding officer – and leads to bloody disasters - who only understands orders to advance and attack, and who does not take into account the media and immediate consequences of his actions.
The social movements in Mexico, without exception, from the indigenous of Chiapas and the rest of the country to the workers and campesinos, are going to great effort, on the other hand, to demonstrate that their struggles are not only legitimate but they are also legal. Those of La Parota, for example, insist that no one consulted them, that no environmental studies were conducted, that thousands of ejidos will be flooded, etcetera. Workers are seeking to defend their union independence, campesinos are asking for reform. In order to “overthrow the government (and) throw the rich (out of the country)” it is therefore necessary to violate neither consciences nor the times. To create consensus, to make alliances, to discuss how, with what, when, with whom. It is not fair to appear on Televisa with Loret de Mila, smoking, sprawled in an armchair as if at home, calmly answering insidious questions like a friend while, at the same time, calling for risky actions, “screwing correlation of forces,” because the bodies, whether for bullets or rape, are also being contributed by others.
[* Dr. Almeyra is a professor at UAM-Xochimilco, and, among an abundance of other accomplishments, is providing a workshop next month in conjunction with Mexico Solidarity Network (http://www.mexicosolidarity.org/Study%20Abroad/Syllabus/index.html) .]
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Interview with Marcos by Bellinghausen
[La Jornada]
Martes 9 de mayo de 2006
ENTREVISTA / SUBCOMANDANTE INSURGENTE MARCOS, DEL EJERCITO ZAPATISTA DE LIBERACION NACIONAL
Los medios electrónicos tienen amarrados a los candidatos
"Los conflictos ya están. La Otra Campaña los hace visibles"
En la primera entrevista que concede en cinco años a un medio de información, el delegado Zero considera que el cambio, que es inevitable, no será violento con La Otra Campaña
HERMANN BELLINGHAUSEN /I
Actualmente el Estado nacional mexicano atraviesa una grave crisis, donde la clase política en su conjunto ha dejado de representar a la sociedad, y ese vacío está siendo llenado, torpemente, por los grandes consorcios de comunicación, que ni siquiera están preparados para ello. "Antes, la clase política gobernaba a los medios, luego en el periodo de crisis gobernó con los medios, y ahora es gobernada por ellos. O sea, ningún medio de comunicación masiva va a permitir que nadie de la clase política se salga del huacal", dice el subcomandante Marcos en extensa entrevista con La Jornada, la primera que concede en cinco años.
Considera que ningún candidato presidencial ofrece una solución a esta crisis del Estado. Madrazo propone un imposible regreso al pasado criminal; Calderón la instauración del fascismo, sacando al Ejército y la policía a las calles, y López Obrador un Estado que sea funcional al capitalismo (aunque se dice de izquierda), estableciendo una nueva estructura, que será autoritaria y no resolverá los problemas de los de abajo.
Considera que esta situación es insostenible, y que todos juntos caerán más pronto que tarde. Insiste en que el movimiento de La Otra Campaña es civil y pacífico; que es la única posibilidad de que el cambio, que es inevitable, no sea violento.
Desmiente las interpretaciones de que por donde pasan Marcos y La Otra Campaña surgen conflictos. "Los conflictos ya están. La Otra Campaña los hace visibles". Niega también que él haya desencadenado los hechos en Atenco. De ser así, ironiza, la resistencia "habría salido bien". Al respecto, dice que los medios electrónicos azuzaron el uso de la fuerza y construyeron una versión que de cualquier manera la gente de abajo no cree.
-Hay quien asegura que La Otra Campaña hace el juego a la derecha, que dinamita el camino de la opción de izquierda a la Presidencia, o sea López Obrador ¿Es cierto, o qué busca La Otra Campaña?
-Primero, no es cierto que muchísima gente piense que AMLO es la opción de izquierda. La Otra Campaña, a la hora que está criticando la clase política, ve de abajo hacia arriba. Dice éstos son los problemas, éste es el sistema, y siempre aparece la clase política como corresponsable o como correa de transmisión de esa injusticia, de ese despojo, de ese crimen, de esa represión, y no importa qué partido político sea. Lo señalamos en Yucatán con Acción Nacional; en Quintana Roo, Campeche, Veracruz con el PRI. Dijimos los nombres, aquí son éstos, de tal partido. Pero como hasta ahora el negocio era pegarle a López Obrador, lo único que sacaban los medios de comunicación eran las críticas a AMLO y los demás lo omitían.
-Pero al arranque de la otra, desde el año pasado, fue percibido como que el blanco eran AMLO y el PRD.
-El EZLN fue vinculado al PRD desde antes y tenía que marcar su distancia. Esto no sólo tiene que ver con el PRD, sino que también va contra toda la clase política. Porque siempre estaba la diferenciación; se critica a la clase política, pero al PRD se le pone aparte. Desde 1994 ni siquiera era el PRD, era Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas.
-Bueno, con él hay una cercanía en 94.
-Sí, pero cuando va Cárdenas a Chiapas, se le deja aparte y se hace la crítica al PRD. Siempre ha habido esta relación; ahora lo que se trata es de incluir a toda la clase política en nuestra crítica, aun el PRD. Teníamos que señalarlo porque la historia anterior era diferente. Siempre hacíamos esta distinción, éstos no, éstos a lo mejor sí, éstos tal vez.
"Teníamos que hacer la denuncia de que toda la clase política estaba en ese juego y que se podían hacer distinciones de matices, pero finalente su traducción en una propuesta política no tenía ningún impacto. ¿Cuál es la diferencia de que Calderón sea un Hitler en potencia y que Madrazo sea un criminal y que López Obrador sea un embaucador? ¿Porque uno roba y el otro no roba, si finalmente el proceso de destrucción de nuestra nación es el mismo? No se traduce en una diferencia práctica. A la hora de que la otra campaña dice 'vamos a mirar hacia abajo', entonces lo que está pasando arriba pasa a segundo plano.
"Antes de decidir mirar hacia abajo, hay una valoración de lo que pasa arriba, y uno puede decir 'no, pues es que hay un rencor del EZLN o de Marcos por lo que pasó con la ley indígena'. No sólo fue la ley indígena, sino todo lo que ha seguido después, de cómo las leyes son aprobadas por mayoría; algunas alcanzan nota en el periódico o en las noticias por el escándalo, como lo de la ley Televisa, pero otras no. Las que van realmente sobre los fundamentos de la soberanía nacional han pasado por unanimidad de todos los partidos políticos.
"Entonces de qué sirve diferenciar que AMLO es honesto, que no se roba el dinero (aunque su grupo sí) y el otro de derecha descarada, el otro de derecha moderada, éste es de derecha vergonzante. De qué sirve si finalmente toda esa crisis está ocurriendo.
En otro momento de la charla Foto Víctor Camacho
"Habíamos explicado antes que en la vieja política estaba concentrado todo en el poder presidencial, pero a la hora que se da esta crisis en el Estado nacional, por el avance del neoliberalismo, se destruye la clase política, se desplaza.
"Primero que se entienda esto: teníamos que hacer un deslinde especial del PRD porque en nuestra historia anterior hacíamos la distinción con los otros. Esto no afectó para que, a la hora en que López Obrador iba ser desaforado, nos opusimos y llamamos a movilizarnos contra el desafuero. Por lo que significaba, era una oposición ética. Nosotros no estamos de acuerdo con esta gente, pero tampoco estamos de acuerdo con lo que le hacen. Esta era nuestra posición ante el desafuero, porque una cosa es una cosa y otra cosa es otra cosa. En ese caso se trataba de dejarlo fuera de la jugada."
-Pero mucha gente insiste en que los dueños del dinero quieren hacer a un lado a AMLO. No quieren que sea él porque lo ven como una amenaza a la hegemonía del capital. Esa es la insistencia de que todo lo que se diga contra AMLO favorece a la derecha.
-Eso no es cierto: el hombre más poderoso de este país, Carlos Slim, ya le prometió que va a traer el beisbol aquí, que no nomás va a traer equipos de futbol, y AMLO se precia de que lleva una buena relación con Slim.
-De todos modos los medios...
-Ese es otro problema. Los medios de comunicación electrónica no quieren perder lo que ganaron, sin luchar, a la hora en la que se dio la crisis en el Estado nacional. Antes, la clase política gobernaba a los medios, luego en este periodo de crisis gobernó con los medios y ahora es gobernada por ellos. O sea, ningún medio de comunicación masiva va a permitir que nadie de la clase política se salga del huacal. Se trata de que obedezca, que vaya por la línea que le están marcando. Y si AMLO o Calderón, o Madrazo o Patricia Mercado o Campa o el Dr. Simi, cualquiera de ellos se sale y pretende tomar decisiones sin los medios de comunicación, entonces lo van a acorralar. Y se da todo este proceso de desgaste entre los medios y AMLO.
-¿Lo están domesticando?
-Sí, lo están domando, a él y a toda la clase política. "Se lo digo a Juana para que lo entienda Chana." No temen a una posición de izquierda, sino a una posición que no obedezca sus indicaciones y AMLO lo que está diciendo es "voy a administrar todo, incluyendo esto". López Obrador está ofreciendo una "nueva administración", es la posición política más avanzada que hay allá arriba y que no se nota porque éste está entre que las chachalacas y en el mismo juego. O sea, si Madrazo propone la imposible vuelta al pasado, lo único que hará es que el país acabe de destruirse; Calderón propone la mano dura, el fascismo, sacar el Ejército a las calles y la policía a todos los lugares y a gobernar con la fuerza represiva del Estado y no con leyes ni nada, aunque él dice que con leyes.
-Bueno, con las leyes que están haciendo...
-La propuesta de López Obrador es hacer un Estado nuevo, o sea el otro ya se destruyó: él no piensa regresar al Estado priísta, al populista y todo eso; dice la cosa está tan mal, que lo que se necesita es otro que no toque los fundamentos del sistema capitalista; un Estado moderno que administre esa crisis para mantener las cosas dentro de cauce; es la misma propuesta que hizo Lula en Brasil. Pero el gran capital dice que no hay problema; los gringos, que son los que mandan en este país, el Departamento de Estado estadunidense, dice que no hay problema; los bancos dicen que no hay problema, Slim dice que no hay problema. Los que dicen que hay problema son los medios de comunicación porque éste no obedece. Tienen miedo de haberlo alentado tanto que se sienta fuerte y quiera desprenderse de ellos; ése es el juego con las encuestas.
-Pero desde el desafuero...
-El desafuero lo mandó para arriba, o sea la mejor forma de promover a AMLO fue el desafuero.
-Lo estaban atacando no tuvo el efecto que querían, pero lo estaban atacando.
-Es que ya los medios no tienen la fuerza que tenían antes. Esto que explicaba de cómo se da la crisis en la clase política, los medios de comunicación ocupan un espacio que antes no tenían y no están preparados tampoco. Entonces lo que hacen es abrazar a la clase política y van a caer junto con ella. A la hora que la clase política pierde autoridad, legitimidad, los medios que los abrazan caen junto con ellos en su credibilidad.
"Salimos de Chapingo con mil gentes"
-¿Qué está pasando con lo de Atenco?
-Es un caso ejemplar. Yo estuve viendo la televisión, la radio, y todo era "acaben con ellos". En la marcha salimos de Chapingo con mil gentes, y llegamos a Atenco con 5 mil. ¿De dónde salieron esos 4 mil? Era gente de ahí. No había manifestaciones de repudio. Al revés, eran de adhesión; órale sí, no hay que dejarse. Eso ya lo habíamos visto desde la marcha de 2001, cuando los medios estaban en que la paz y no sé qué y la gente empezó a saludar al EZLN, a los indígenas, a contrapelo de los medios.
"Cuando abrazan a la clase política, los medios abandonan una actitud crítica, cuestionadora, que es el deber de todo medio y convierten la comunicación en un intercambio de opiniones. De un tiempo para acá, los columnistas políticos comentan lo que dice otro medio de comunicación, no lo que está pasando. Hasta que la realidad revienta, como en Atenco."
-Pero Atenco fue real, los medios mostraban escenas reales y fue un hecho muy grave, hubo mucha violencia; mucha gente sufrió y equivalió a que se atacara un pueblo.
-No, el proceso de desarrollo fue así, porque yo vi Tv Azteca y escuché las estaciones de radio. Cuando se da el primer enfrentamiento, o sea cuando a los policías les va mal, la televisora empieza a decir "cómo es posible, que entre la policía". Ellos estaban clamando porque hubiera una acción fuerte contra Atenco. Por supuesto se da el ataque, y a la hora que se ve en las imágenes en los medios electrónicos, se presentan sólo las del pueblo cuando está golpeando a los policías, y no lo que los policías hicieron. Tampoco aparece la parte de que los medios azuzaron esa acción represiva. Los locutores estaban diciendo "esto no puede permitirse que lo vea nuestra gente (aunque estaban pasando las imágenes), tiene que intervenir la autoridad y tiene que poner orden y hacerlo duro". Al final estaban leyendo las cartas donde su auditorio dice "¿cómo se les ocurre decir eso, que si llega la policía va a ser peor?", y dejaron de leer las cartas porque todas eran contra los que ellos decían.
"A la hora que se dice 'son una bola de alborotadores y violentos' y no sé qué contra Ignacio del Valle y los compas de Atenco y del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tiertra (FPDT), sólo se presentan las imágenes de que ellos son los agresores, no lo que pasó después. Después de eso es la marcha de Chapingo a Atenco. Después de la campaña de miedo. Llega un momento en que esto de los medios tiene su límite. La gente dice: 'son los mismos que me humillan' o sea, a quién va a convencer que un pobre policía es agredido si es el que lo extorsiona, el que lo golpea o la viola."
-Pero se dice que ahora que estamos en la democracia, la policía responde a gobiernos legítimos y, por tanto, hay que estar con la policía contra los violentos de Atenco.
-Eso lo dicen allá arriba, abajo no. Qué legitimidad puede tener la policía del estado de México o de la ciudad. No ha hecho una sola acción en beneficio de la comuniad. Todos en México, allá abajo, lo saben. Por eso cada vez refuerzan más los aparatos policiacos, porque cada vez pueden menos.
-También se dice que lo de Atenco fue azuzado por Marcos.
-Si hubiera estado organizado se habría hecho bien. Hay una imagen que es elemental, que es cuando están pateando al policía.
"Sí, tú dices: "Esa gente está enojada y fuera de control". Por tanto, no está organizada; cualquiera hubiera dicho mejor agárrenlo, amárrenlo y llévenselo. Lo entregan, lo catean o lo que sea. Pero de nada sirve que lo pateen, ¿para qué?
"En el caso de la barranca de Los Sauces (Cuernavaca), paramos el desalojo; en el caso de La Parota, lo paramos, en el caso de la gasolinera en Cuautla se puso en stand by. Y en otras muchas partes, que son muchos de los lugares donde hemos ido, donde ningún candidato presidencial lo ha hecho, no ha pasado nada. O ha pasado por existir una lógica del conflicto. No es cierto eso de que donde yo llego provoco conflictos. No estaríamos hablando aquí, estaríamos hablando en el castillo de Chapultepec."
-Una corriente de opinión afirmaba La Otra Campaña no existe, Marcos está para abajo. Y ahora resulta que Atenco resucita al muerto, le da oxígeno a Marcos y a La Otra Campaña y está en los medios, porque es donde existen las cosas. La Otra Campaña no estaba, luego entonces no existía. Ahora ya está, Marcos se salió con la suya.
-¿Cuál es la mía?
-Estar en los medios, según los medios.
-Pero si todos los medios están en contra, por qué voy a querer yo estar en los medios que hablan en contra mío.
-¿No están castigando a La Otra Campaña en Atenco?
-Te voy a decir a quién están castigando: a López Obrador. Te voy a decir qué fue lo que pasó. El FPDT hizo lo que todo adherente de La Otra Campaña hace, que es apoyar a otro. Siempre aparecen estos compañeros con su consignas, dicen ánimo cantan canciones y se van. Entonces están los compañeros floreros que van a la reunión en el mitin de Atenco y hablan y dicen nos quieren hacer esto, el gobierno perredista.
"Los compañeros del FPDT les aconsejan dialogar, ellos tratan, van a buscar al presidente municipal, para que no los desalojen, para que les dé un espacio, él no los recibe, los amenazan con el desalojo y el compa Nacho del Valle y todos los demás hacen lo que hacen siempre, se juntan y se ponen junto a ellos y siempre cargan su machete como nosotros cargamos nuestro pasamontañas. Estando ahí , ya sea porque le pagaron, o por idiota. El presidente municipal de Texcoco cerca de los floristas y al grupo de Nacho, y amenaza con desalojarlos. Ve que son pocos y el presidente municipal en una entrevista de radio dice "Yo pedí el apoyo de la seguridad pública del estado". Los que están en Atenco ven que sus compañeros están cercados y cierran carreteras para que los dejen libres."
"Todo esto pasa con el presidente municipal del PRD, que es de izquierda, democrático y que es la salvación del país. Llega la policía a desalojarlos y se mete hasta el pueblo, la gente de ahí reacciona, los golpea y los hecha para atrás. Viene la campaña de medios "acaben con ellos, cómo es posible el desorden y todo" y entonces se da la entrada y toda la crueldad extrema de la policía y se empieza a manejar que fue el pueblo y que no sé qué. Ahora ya se está diciendo que no, que en realidad la brutalidad vino de la policía, no de la población, que hay mujeres violadas, niños desaparecidos (ahí tengo los nombres, cinco menores de edad)."
-De eso no se ha hablado.
-Bueno, pues se supone que había algunos chiquitos sueltos, no aparecen y dice la mamá que nos tocó ahí en Atenco, que y uno está en Almoloya. Ella dice que está ahí, que lo golpearon mucho.
"Y entonces se dice, 'bueno, pues si es Atenco y el PRD, sobre López Obrador'. A los tres equipos de campaña no les importa si hubo muertos, ni si hubo balazos o violaciones, sino cómo se capitaliza electoralmente. Entonces el equipo de López Obrador hace el cálculo 'deslíndate, no tienes nada que ver'. Ni siquiera dice si estuvo mal la policía o estuvo mal. 'No son tuyos, no digas nada.' No importa si hubo mujeres violadas, si hay muertos, no importa si hay violación a los derechos humanos. A los otros les dicen: 'tú di que sí, que es lo que hay que hacer' y eso lo deciden Calderón y Madrazo.
"Hasta ahí van las cosas, van contra el PRD, contra AMLO. Esta es la puntilla, si le colgamos a López Obrador Atenco, lo bajamos en las encuestas. Como ya toda la clase política está de acuerdo en que las encuestas deciden, no las urnas, pues entonces ahí ya quedamos."
-Incluido López Obrador.
-El fue el que empezó con eso.
"Y entonces resulta que cuando ya está así la jugada, hay una marcha en la que aparece Marcos junto con la comisión sexta, con La Otra Campaña, que crece a contracorriente de los medios de comunicación y de la clase política. Y hay un giro en las declaraciones, para todos los candidatos es 'que si Marcos, que si el EZLN, que si van a capitalizar y no se qué' y es cuando Marcos dice 'me quedo y voy a hacer lo que no había hecho hasta ahorita que es dar entrevistas'.
"Por eso brincan. Ahora nos viene a hacer revoltutra en la sopa que tenemos, menos López Obrador, que dice, 'no yo no'. Pero Calderón y Madrazo dicen 'no, aplíquenle la ley, la ley Cocopa', también dicen. No les preocupaba que estuviera aparte, aunque fueran muchos, mientras no salieran en los medios electrónicos. Si ahora va a salir en los medios entonces se envidenciará la crisis de la clase política, la falta de propuestas. 'Es nuestro derrumbe', piensan.
© Derechos Reservados 1996-2005 DEMOS, Desarrollo de Medios, S.A. de C.V.Todos los Derechos Reservados.Derechos de Autor 04-2005-011817321500-203.
Martes 9 de mayo de 2006
ENTREVISTA / SUBCOMANDANTE INSURGENTE MARCOS, DEL EJERCITO ZAPATISTA DE LIBERACION NACIONAL
Los medios electrónicos tienen amarrados a los candidatos
"Los conflictos ya están. La Otra Campaña los hace visibles"
En la primera entrevista que concede en cinco años a un medio de información, el delegado Zero considera que el cambio, que es inevitable, no será violento con La Otra Campaña
HERMANN BELLINGHAUSEN /I
Actualmente el Estado nacional mexicano atraviesa una grave crisis, donde la clase política en su conjunto ha dejado de representar a la sociedad, y ese vacío está siendo llenado, torpemente, por los grandes consorcios de comunicación, que ni siquiera están preparados para ello. "Antes, la clase política gobernaba a los medios, luego en el periodo de crisis gobernó con los medios, y ahora es gobernada por ellos. O sea, ningún medio de comunicación masiva va a permitir que nadie de la clase política se salga del huacal", dice el subcomandante Marcos en extensa entrevista con La Jornada, la primera que concede en cinco años.
Considera que ningún candidato presidencial ofrece una solución a esta crisis del Estado. Madrazo propone un imposible regreso al pasado criminal; Calderón la instauración del fascismo, sacando al Ejército y la policía a las calles, y López Obrador un Estado que sea funcional al capitalismo (aunque se dice de izquierda), estableciendo una nueva estructura, que será autoritaria y no resolverá los problemas de los de abajo.
Considera que esta situación es insostenible, y que todos juntos caerán más pronto que tarde. Insiste en que el movimiento de La Otra Campaña es civil y pacífico; que es la única posibilidad de que el cambio, que es inevitable, no sea violento.
Desmiente las interpretaciones de que por donde pasan Marcos y La Otra Campaña surgen conflictos. "Los conflictos ya están. La Otra Campaña los hace visibles". Niega también que él haya desencadenado los hechos en Atenco. De ser así, ironiza, la resistencia "habría salido bien". Al respecto, dice que los medios electrónicos azuzaron el uso de la fuerza y construyeron una versión que de cualquier manera la gente de abajo no cree.
-Hay quien asegura que La Otra Campaña hace el juego a la derecha, que dinamita el camino de la opción de izquierda a la Presidencia, o sea López Obrador ¿Es cierto, o qué busca La Otra Campaña?
-Primero, no es cierto que muchísima gente piense que AMLO es la opción de izquierda. La Otra Campaña, a la hora que está criticando la clase política, ve de abajo hacia arriba. Dice éstos son los problemas, éste es el sistema, y siempre aparece la clase política como corresponsable o como correa de transmisión de esa injusticia, de ese despojo, de ese crimen, de esa represión, y no importa qué partido político sea. Lo señalamos en Yucatán con Acción Nacional; en Quintana Roo, Campeche, Veracruz con el PRI. Dijimos los nombres, aquí son éstos, de tal partido. Pero como hasta ahora el negocio era pegarle a López Obrador, lo único que sacaban los medios de comunicación eran las críticas a AMLO y los demás lo omitían.
-Pero al arranque de la otra, desde el año pasado, fue percibido como que el blanco eran AMLO y el PRD.
-El EZLN fue vinculado al PRD desde antes y tenía que marcar su distancia. Esto no sólo tiene que ver con el PRD, sino que también va contra toda la clase política. Porque siempre estaba la diferenciación; se critica a la clase política, pero al PRD se le pone aparte. Desde 1994 ni siquiera era el PRD, era Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas.
-Bueno, con él hay una cercanía en 94.
-Sí, pero cuando va Cárdenas a Chiapas, se le deja aparte y se hace la crítica al PRD. Siempre ha habido esta relación; ahora lo que se trata es de incluir a toda la clase política en nuestra crítica, aun el PRD. Teníamos que señalarlo porque la historia anterior era diferente. Siempre hacíamos esta distinción, éstos no, éstos a lo mejor sí, éstos tal vez.
"Teníamos que hacer la denuncia de que toda la clase política estaba en ese juego y que se podían hacer distinciones de matices, pero finalente su traducción en una propuesta política no tenía ningún impacto. ¿Cuál es la diferencia de que Calderón sea un Hitler en potencia y que Madrazo sea un criminal y que López Obrador sea un embaucador? ¿Porque uno roba y el otro no roba, si finalmente el proceso de destrucción de nuestra nación es el mismo? No se traduce en una diferencia práctica. A la hora de que la otra campaña dice 'vamos a mirar hacia abajo', entonces lo que está pasando arriba pasa a segundo plano.
"Antes de decidir mirar hacia abajo, hay una valoración de lo que pasa arriba, y uno puede decir 'no, pues es que hay un rencor del EZLN o de Marcos por lo que pasó con la ley indígena'. No sólo fue la ley indígena, sino todo lo que ha seguido después, de cómo las leyes son aprobadas por mayoría; algunas alcanzan nota en el periódico o en las noticias por el escándalo, como lo de la ley Televisa, pero otras no. Las que van realmente sobre los fundamentos de la soberanía nacional han pasado por unanimidad de todos los partidos políticos.
"Entonces de qué sirve diferenciar que AMLO es honesto, que no se roba el dinero (aunque su grupo sí) y el otro de derecha descarada, el otro de derecha moderada, éste es de derecha vergonzante. De qué sirve si finalmente toda esa crisis está ocurriendo.
En otro momento de la charla Foto Víctor Camacho
"Habíamos explicado antes que en la vieja política estaba concentrado todo en el poder presidencial, pero a la hora que se da esta crisis en el Estado nacional, por el avance del neoliberalismo, se destruye la clase política, se desplaza.
"Primero que se entienda esto: teníamos que hacer un deslinde especial del PRD porque en nuestra historia anterior hacíamos la distinción con los otros. Esto no afectó para que, a la hora en que López Obrador iba ser desaforado, nos opusimos y llamamos a movilizarnos contra el desafuero. Por lo que significaba, era una oposición ética. Nosotros no estamos de acuerdo con esta gente, pero tampoco estamos de acuerdo con lo que le hacen. Esta era nuestra posición ante el desafuero, porque una cosa es una cosa y otra cosa es otra cosa. En ese caso se trataba de dejarlo fuera de la jugada."
-Pero mucha gente insiste en que los dueños del dinero quieren hacer a un lado a AMLO. No quieren que sea él porque lo ven como una amenaza a la hegemonía del capital. Esa es la insistencia de que todo lo que se diga contra AMLO favorece a la derecha.
-Eso no es cierto: el hombre más poderoso de este país, Carlos Slim, ya le prometió que va a traer el beisbol aquí, que no nomás va a traer equipos de futbol, y AMLO se precia de que lleva una buena relación con Slim.
-De todos modos los medios...
-Ese es otro problema. Los medios de comunicación electrónica no quieren perder lo que ganaron, sin luchar, a la hora en la que se dio la crisis en el Estado nacional. Antes, la clase política gobernaba a los medios, luego en este periodo de crisis gobernó con los medios y ahora es gobernada por ellos. O sea, ningún medio de comunicación masiva va a permitir que nadie de la clase política se salga del huacal. Se trata de que obedezca, que vaya por la línea que le están marcando. Y si AMLO o Calderón, o Madrazo o Patricia Mercado o Campa o el Dr. Simi, cualquiera de ellos se sale y pretende tomar decisiones sin los medios de comunicación, entonces lo van a acorralar. Y se da todo este proceso de desgaste entre los medios y AMLO.
-¿Lo están domesticando?
-Sí, lo están domando, a él y a toda la clase política. "Se lo digo a Juana para que lo entienda Chana." No temen a una posición de izquierda, sino a una posición que no obedezca sus indicaciones y AMLO lo que está diciendo es "voy a administrar todo, incluyendo esto". López Obrador está ofreciendo una "nueva administración", es la posición política más avanzada que hay allá arriba y que no se nota porque éste está entre que las chachalacas y en el mismo juego. O sea, si Madrazo propone la imposible vuelta al pasado, lo único que hará es que el país acabe de destruirse; Calderón propone la mano dura, el fascismo, sacar el Ejército a las calles y la policía a todos los lugares y a gobernar con la fuerza represiva del Estado y no con leyes ni nada, aunque él dice que con leyes.
-Bueno, con las leyes que están haciendo...
-La propuesta de López Obrador es hacer un Estado nuevo, o sea el otro ya se destruyó: él no piensa regresar al Estado priísta, al populista y todo eso; dice la cosa está tan mal, que lo que se necesita es otro que no toque los fundamentos del sistema capitalista; un Estado moderno que administre esa crisis para mantener las cosas dentro de cauce; es la misma propuesta que hizo Lula en Brasil. Pero el gran capital dice que no hay problema; los gringos, que son los que mandan en este país, el Departamento de Estado estadunidense, dice que no hay problema; los bancos dicen que no hay problema, Slim dice que no hay problema. Los que dicen que hay problema son los medios de comunicación porque éste no obedece. Tienen miedo de haberlo alentado tanto que se sienta fuerte y quiera desprenderse de ellos; ése es el juego con las encuestas.
-Pero desde el desafuero...
-El desafuero lo mandó para arriba, o sea la mejor forma de promover a AMLO fue el desafuero.
-Lo estaban atacando no tuvo el efecto que querían, pero lo estaban atacando.
-Es que ya los medios no tienen la fuerza que tenían antes. Esto que explicaba de cómo se da la crisis en la clase política, los medios de comunicación ocupan un espacio que antes no tenían y no están preparados tampoco. Entonces lo que hacen es abrazar a la clase política y van a caer junto con ella. A la hora que la clase política pierde autoridad, legitimidad, los medios que los abrazan caen junto con ellos en su credibilidad.
"Salimos de Chapingo con mil gentes"
-¿Qué está pasando con lo de Atenco?
-Es un caso ejemplar. Yo estuve viendo la televisión, la radio, y todo era "acaben con ellos". En la marcha salimos de Chapingo con mil gentes, y llegamos a Atenco con 5 mil. ¿De dónde salieron esos 4 mil? Era gente de ahí. No había manifestaciones de repudio. Al revés, eran de adhesión; órale sí, no hay que dejarse. Eso ya lo habíamos visto desde la marcha de 2001, cuando los medios estaban en que la paz y no sé qué y la gente empezó a saludar al EZLN, a los indígenas, a contrapelo de los medios.
"Cuando abrazan a la clase política, los medios abandonan una actitud crítica, cuestionadora, que es el deber de todo medio y convierten la comunicación en un intercambio de opiniones. De un tiempo para acá, los columnistas políticos comentan lo que dice otro medio de comunicación, no lo que está pasando. Hasta que la realidad revienta, como en Atenco."
-Pero Atenco fue real, los medios mostraban escenas reales y fue un hecho muy grave, hubo mucha violencia; mucha gente sufrió y equivalió a que se atacara un pueblo.
-No, el proceso de desarrollo fue así, porque yo vi Tv Azteca y escuché las estaciones de radio. Cuando se da el primer enfrentamiento, o sea cuando a los policías les va mal, la televisora empieza a decir "cómo es posible, que entre la policía". Ellos estaban clamando porque hubiera una acción fuerte contra Atenco. Por supuesto se da el ataque, y a la hora que se ve en las imágenes en los medios electrónicos, se presentan sólo las del pueblo cuando está golpeando a los policías, y no lo que los policías hicieron. Tampoco aparece la parte de que los medios azuzaron esa acción represiva. Los locutores estaban diciendo "esto no puede permitirse que lo vea nuestra gente (aunque estaban pasando las imágenes), tiene que intervenir la autoridad y tiene que poner orden y hacerlo duro". Al final estaban leyendo las cartas donde su auditorio dice "¿cómo se les ocurre decir eso, que si llega la policía va a ser peor?", y dejaron de leer las cartas porque todas eran contra los que ellos decían.
"A la hora que se dice 'son una bola de alborotadores y violentos' y no sé qué contra Ignacio del Valle y los compas de Atenco y del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tiertra (FPDT), sólo se presentan las imágenes de que ellos son los agresores, no lo que pasó después. Después de eso es la marcha de Chapingo a Atenco. Después de la campaña de miedo. Llega un momento en que esto de los medios tiene su límite. La gente dice: 'son los mismos que me humillan' o sea, a quién va a convencer que un pobre policía es agredido si es el que lo extorsiona, el que lo golpea o la viola."
-Pero se dice que ahora que estamos en la democracia, la policía responde a gobiernos legítimos y, por tanto, hay que estar con la policía contra los violentos de Atenco.
-Eso lo dicen allá arriba, abajo no. Qué legitimidad puede tener la policía del estado de México o de la ciudad. No ha hecho una sola acción en beneficio de la comuniad. Todos en México, allá abajo, lo saben. Por eso cada vez refuerzan más los aparatos policiacos, porque cada vez pueden menos.
-También se dice que lo de Atenco fue azuzado por Marcos.
-Si hubiera estado organizado se habría hecho bien. Hay una imagen que es elemental, que es cuando están pateando al policía.
"Sí, tú dices: "Esa gente está enojada y fuera de control". Por tanto, no está organizada; cualquiera hubiera dicho mejor agárrenlo, amárrenlo y llévenselo. Lo entregan, lo catean o lo que sea. Pero de nada sirve que lo pateen, ¿para qué?
"En el caso de la barranca de Los Sauces (Cuernavaca), paramos el desalojo; en el caso de La Parota, lo paramos, en el caso de la gasolinera en Cuautla se puso en stand by. Y en otras muchas partes, que son muchos de los lugares donde hemos ido, donde ningún candidato presidencial lo ha hecho, no ha pasado nada. O ha pasado por existir una lógica del conflicto. No es cierto eso de que donde yo llego provoco conflictos. No estaríamos hablando aquí, estaríamos hablando en el castillo de Chapultepec."
-Una corriente de opinión afirmaba La Otra Campaña no existe, Marcos está para abajo. Y ahora resulta que Atenco resucita al muerto, le da oxígeno a Marcos y a La Otra Campaña y está en los medios, porque es donde existen las cosas. La Otra Campaña no estaba, luego entonces no existía. Ahora ya está, Marcos se salió con la suya.
-¿Cuál es la mía?
-Estar en los medios, según los medios.
-Pero si todos los medios están en contra, por qué voy a querer yo estar en los medios que hablan en contra mío.
-¿No están castigando a La Otra Campaña en Atenco?
-Te voy a decir a quién están castigando: a López Obrador. Te voy a decir qué fue lo que pasó. El FPDT hizo lo que todo adherente de La Otra Campaña hace, que es apoyar a otro. Siempre aparecen estos compañeros con su consignas, dicen ánimo cantan canciones y se van. Entonces están los compañeros floreros que van a la reunión en el mitin de Atenco y hablan y dicen nos quieren hacer esto, el gobierno perredista.
"Los compañeros del FPDT les aconsejan dialogar, ellos tratan, van a buscar al presidente municipal, para que no los desalojen, para que les dé un espacio, él no los recibe, los amenazan con el desalojo y el compa Nacho del Valle y todos los demás hacen lo que hacen siempre, se juntan y se ponen junto a ellos y siempre cargan su machete como nosotros cargamos nuestro pasamontañas. Estando ahí , ya sea porque le pagaron, o por idiota. El presidente municipal de Texcoco cerca de los floristas y al grupo de Nacho, y amenaza con desalojarlos. Ve que son pocos y el presidente municipal en una entrevista de radio dice "Yo pedí el apoyo de la seguridad pública del estado". Los que están en Atenco ven que sus compañeros están cercados y cierran carreteras para que los dejen libres."
"Todo esto pasa con el presidente municipal del PRD, que es de izquierda, democrático y que es la salvación del país. Llega la policía a desalojarlos y se mete hasta el pueblo, la gente de ahí reacciona, los golpea y los hecha para atrás. Viene la campaña de medios "acaben con ellos, cómo es posible el desorden y todo" y entonces se da la entrada y toda la crueldad extrema de la policía y se empieza a manejar que fue el pueblo y que no sé qué. Ahora ya se está diciendo que no, que en realidad la brutalidad vino de la policía, no de la población, que hay mujeres violadas, niños desaparecidos (ahí tengo los nombres, cinco menores de edad)."
-De eso no se ha hablado.
-Bueno, pues se supone que había algunos chiquitos sueltos, no aparecen y dice la mamá que nos tocó ahí en Atenco, que y uno está en Almoloya. Ella dice que está ahí, que lo golpearon mucho.
"Y entonces se dice, 'bueno, pues si es Atenco y el PRD, sobre López Obrador'. A los tres equipos de campaña no les importa si hubo muertos, ni si hubo balazos o violaciones, sino cómo se capitaliza electoralmente. Entonces el equipo de López Obrador hace el cálculo 'deslíndate, no tienes nada que ver'. Ni siquiera dice si estuvo mal la policía o estuvo mal. 'No son tuyos, no digas nada.' No importa si hubo mujeres violadas, si hay muertos, no importa si hay violación a los derechos humanos. A los otros les dicen: 'tú di que sí, que es lo que hay que hacer' y eso lo deciden Calderón y Madrazo.
"Hasta ahí van las cosas, van contra el PRD, contra AMLO. Esta es la puntilla, si le colgamos a López Obrador Atenco, lo bajamos en las encuestas. Como ya toda la clase política está de acuerdo en que las encuestas deciden, no las urnas, pues entonces ahí ya quedamos."
-Incluido López Obrador.
-El fue el que empezó con eso.
"Y entonces resulta que cuando ya está así la jugada, hay una marcha en la que aparece Marcos junto con la comisión sexta, con La Otra Campaña, que crece a contracorriente de los medios de comunicación y de la clase política. Y hay un giro en las declaraciones, para todos los candidatos es 'que si Marcos, que si el EZLN, que si van a capitalizar y no se qué' y es cuando Marcos dice 'me quedo y voy a hacer lo que no había hecho hasta ahorita que es dar entrevistas'.
"Por eso brincan. Ahora nos viene a hacer revoltutra en la sopa que tenemos, menos López Obrador, que dice, 'no yo no'. Pero Calderón y Madrazo dicen 'no, aplíquenle la ley, la ley Cocopa', también dicen. No les preocupaba que estuviera aparte, aunque fueran muchos, mientras no salieran en los medios electrónicos. Si ahora va a salir en los medios entonces se envidenciará la crisis de la clase política, la falta de propuestas. 'Es nuestro derrumbe', piensan.
© Derechos Reservados 1996-2005 DEMOS, Desarrollo de Medios, S.A. de C.V.Todos los Derechos Reservados.Derechos de Autor 04-2005-011817321500-203.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Call for Encuentro
Los Adherentes a La Sexta Declaración de la Selva Lacandona en Chiapas, Considerando:
Ø Que en las actividades de La Otra Campaña nos hemos propuesto construir el Plan Nacional de Lucha y una Nueva Constitución;
Ø Los acuerdos del Encuentro Estatal Contra la Represión celebrado el 9 y 10 de abril pasados, que incluyen preparar un Encuentro Estatal hacia el Plan Nacional de Lucha; Ø Los acontecimientos de represión que se vienen sucediendo desde el 3 de mayo, en contra de los compañeros de San Salvador Atenco y otros adherentes a la Sexta Declaración en el Distrito Federal,
CONVOCAMOS al
Encuentro Estatal en Chiapas de La Otra Campaña hacia el Plan Nacional de Lucha
Que se llevará a cabo del 16 al 18 de junio de 2006, en las instalaciones del CIDECI-Unitierra en San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas (Camino Viejo a Chamula sin número, Colonia Nueva Maravilla en la zona norte de la ciudad-). El viernes 16 será la llegada y la instalación del Encuentro, el sábado 17 se desarrollarán los trabajos y el domingo 18 se tomarán los acuerdos y la clausura.
Objetivos:
Ø Analizar el contexto en el que se ha desarrollado la primera etapa de La Otra Campaña, particularmente las acciones de represión en contra de los adherentes.
Ø Reunir las propuestas de las organizaciones e individuos adherentes para que sean incluidos en el Plan Nacional de Lucha.
Ø Acordar acciones y formas de coordinación entre los adherentes a La Otra Campaña en los estatal y nacional.
Solicitamos a todos los participantes para la preparación de este Encuentro:
1.- Compartir esta convocatoria con las organizaciones e individuos adherentes en sus regiones.
2.- Que se realicen acciones para juntar dinero para el pasaje de los delegados de su organización y si es posible, apoyar con los gastos del Encuentro.
3.- Preparar reuniones previas en su región o en su organización, considerando los siguientes temas:
a) Cuáles son las luchas, las demandas y las propuestas de sus organizaciones que deben estar incluidos en el Plan Nacional de Lucha.
b) Qué pensamos de cada uno de los 6 puntos que surgieron en la Plenaria de La Garrucha, al final de los encuentros preparativos:
1. De la ratificación, ampliación o modificación de las características de la Otra Campaña propuestas en la Sexta Declaración.
2. Quiénes están convocados y quiénes no.
3. Sobre la estructura organizativa de La Otra Campaña.
4. Del lugar especial de las diferencias: indígenas, mujeres, otros amores, jóvenes, niños y otros.
5. De la posición de la Otra Campaña frente a otros esfuerzos organizativos.
6. De las tareas inmediatas (difusión e información) política nacional/organización general.
c) Qué propuestas tenemos para una mejor coordinación de los adherentes de La Otra Campaña en Chiapas y con los adherentes del resto del país.
d) Qué propuestas tenemos para apoyar y solidarizarnos con los compañeros adherentes que son reprimidos en Chiapas y en el país.
Convocan: Adherentes a la Sexta Declaración y a La Otra Campaña en Chiapas.
Ø Que en las actividades de La Otra Campaña nos hemos propuesto construir el Plan Nacional de Lucha y una Nueva Constitución;
Ø Los acuerdos del Encuentro Estatal Contra la Represión celebrado el 9 y 10 de abril pasados, que incluyen preparar un Encuentro Estatal hacia el Plan Nacional de Lucha; Ø Los acontecimientos de represión que se vienen sucediendo desde el 3 de mayo, en contra de los compañeros de San Salvador Atenco y otros adherentes a la Sexta Declaración en el Distrito Federal,
CONVOCAMOS al
Encuentro Estatal en Chiapas de La Otra Campaña hacia el Plan Nacional de Lucha
Que se llevará a cabo del 16 al 18 de junio de 2006, en las instalaciones del CIDECI-Unitierra en San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas (Camino Viejo a Chamula sin número, Colonia Nueva Maravilla en la zona norte de la ciudad-). El viernes 16 será la llegada y la instalación del Encuentro, el sábado 17 se desarrollarán los trabajos y el domingo 18 se tomarán los acuerdos y la clausura.
Objetivos:
Ø Analizar el contexto en el que se ha desarrollado la primera etapa de La Otra Campaña, particularmente las acciones de represión en contra de los adherentes.
Ø Reunir las propuestas de las organizaciones e individuos adherentes para que sean incluidos en el Plan Nacional de Lucha.
Ø Acordar acciones y formas de coordinación entre los adherentes a La Otra Campaña en los estatal y nacional.
Solicitamos a todos los participantes para la preparación de este Encuentro:
1.- Compartir esta convocatoria con las organizaciones e individuos adherentes en sus regiones.
2.- Que se realicen acciones para juntar dinero para el pasaje de los delegados de su organización y si es posible, apoyar con los gastos del Encuentro.
3.- Preparar reuniones previas en su región o en su organización, considerando los siguientes temas:
a) Cuáles son las luchas, las demandas y las propuestas de sus organizaciones que deben estar incluidos en el Plan Nacional de Lucha.
b) Qué pensamos de cada uno de los 6 puntos que surgieron en la Plenaria de La Garrucha, al final de los encuentros preparativos:
1. De la ratificación, ampliación o modificación de las características de la Otra Campaña propuestas en la Sexta Declaración.
2. Quiénes están convocados y quiénes no.
3. Sobre la estructura organizativa de La Otra Campaña.
4. Del lugar especial de las diferencias: indígenas, mujeres, otros amores, jóvenes, niños y otros.
5. De la posición de la Otra Campaña frente a otros esfuerzos organizativos.
6. De las tareas inmediatas (difusión e información) política nacional/organización general.
c) Qué propuestas tenemos para una mejor coordinación de los adherentes de La Otra Campaña en Chiapas y con los adherentes del resto del país.
d) Qué propuestas tenemos para apoyar y solidarizarnos con los compañeros adherentes que son reprimidos en Chiapas y en el país.
Convocan: Adherentes a la Sexta Declaración y a La Otra Campaña en Chiapas.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
May 3
Compañeros, compañeras:
Hace unos momentos estuvimos viendo y escuchando en los medios de comunicación el manejo que se estaba haciendo, el manejo informativo sobre lo que estaba ocurriendo. Escuchamos a los locutores y locutoras de Televisión Azteca implorando por que entrara el orden, por que entrara el ejército a poner orden y acabar con lo que estaba ocurriendo ahí. Escuchamos también la indignación de televidentes que mandaban cartas diciendo que eran unos idiotas los locutores que estaban pidiendo que entrara más fuerza pública.
Hace años aquí, en la Plaza de las Tres Culturas hubo una matanza y entonces el gobierno dijo que el ejército había sido agredido. Y pasó mucho tiempo a que alguien preguntara qué estaba haciendo el ejército en un mitin estudiantil. Y ahora esos medios de comunicación, incluso de la radio, no se les ocurre preguntar qué estaba haciendo la fuerza pública en San Salvador Atenco. Y estaba haciendo esta alianza que se dio entre el PRD y el PRI para desalojar a unos vendedores de flores porque el presidente municipal de Texcoco piensa que afean la ciudad; porque quiere meter un centro comercial, un Wal-Mart ahí en Texcoco y le molestan los pequeños comerciantes y que también el PRD aliado ahí con el PRI a nivel estatal, ahora aliado con el PAN a nivel federal, y ahora va a tener que dar cuenta de esta muerte.
Como Comisión Sexta del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, organización adherente a la Otra Campaña, estamos pidiendo, solicitando respetuosamente a las coordinadoras regionales y subregionales en todo el país a que acuerden y ejecuten acciones y movilizaciones de apoyo al Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra a partir de las 800, ocho de la mañana del día de mañana, cuatro de mayo del 2006.
Como Comisión Sexta nos estamos declarando en alerta. Han sido ya declaradas en alerta roja las tropas del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional y en punto de esa hora serán cerrados los Caracoles y los Municipios Autónomos Rebeldes Zapatistas. A partir de este momento, a partir de este momento, está funcionando ya el nuevo escalón de mando en el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional. Cualquier cosa que me ocurra hay ya ahí quien tome las decisiones. No sabemos ustedes, pero los zapatistas somos hoy Atenco.
Vamos a estar atentos a sus demandas. Llamamos a que se hagan reuniones por sector, por regional, como ustedes piensen y que acuerden estas acciones. Como Comisión Sexta estamos cancelando todas nuestras participaciones en las actividades programadas y estamos esperando la indicación del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra. Si necesita nuestra presencia allá, allá iremos. Si no, participaremos directamente en alguna de las acciones que ustedes programen para el día de mañana a partir de las 800, ocho de la mañana.
Cierre de carreteras, cierre de calles, volanteo, pinta, lo que se les ocurra, civil y pacífico. Atenco no puede estar solo. No vamos a detener estas acciones y esta situación hasta que los compañeros y compañeras del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra así nos indiquen.
No vamos a hacer caso de ninguna información que no llegue a través de ellos. Para nosotros, ellos y ellas, quienes forman el Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra son la Otra Campaña en esas tierras. Respetaremos sus decisiones. Llegaremos hasta donde ellos nos digan llegar. Han sido claros en sus demandas: liberación inmediata de los detenidos y retiro total de la fuerza pública que está invadiendo sus tierras.
Este es nuestro mensaje compañeros y compañeras. No sólo para la Otra en este otro México, en esta otra ciudad de México que se está levantando. Es nuestro mensaje para la Otra Campaña en todo el país. Desde Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, hasta las dos Baja Californias, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Nuevo León. De norte a sur, de este a oeste, que la Otra Campaña resuene en Atenco y que haya justicia para los caídos.
Gracias compañeros, gracias compañeras.
Hace unos momentos estuvimos viendo y escuchando en los medios de comunicación el manejo que se estaba haciendo, el manejo informativo sobre lo que estaba ocurriendo. Escuchamos a los locutores y locutoras de Televisión Azteca implorando por que entrara el orden, por que entrara el ejército a poner orden y acabar con lo que estaba ocurriendo ahí. Escuchamos también la indignación de televidentes que mandaban cartas diciendo que eran unos idiotas los locutores que estaban pidiendo que entrara más fuerza pública.
Hace años aquí, en la Plaza de las Tres Culturas hubo una matanza y entonces el gobierno dijo que el ejército había sido agredido. Y pasó mucho tiempo a que alguien preguntara qué estaba haciendo el ejército en un mitin estudiantil. Y ahora esos medios de comunicación, incluso de la radio, no se les ocurre preguntar qué estaba haciendo la fuerza pública en San Salvador Atenco. Y estaba haciendo esta alianza que se dio entre el PRD y el PRI para desalojar a unos vendedores de flores porque el presidente municipal de Texcoco piensa que afean la ciudad; porque quiere meter un centro comercial, un Wal-Mart ahí en Texcoco y le molestan los pequeños comerciantes y que también el PRD aliado ahí con el PRI a nivel estatal, ahora aliado con el PAN a nivel federal, y ahora va a tener que dar cuenta de esta muerte.
Como Comisión Sexta del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, organización adherente a la Otra Campaña, estamos pidiendo, solicitando respetuosamente a las coordinadoras regionales y subregionales en todo el país a que acuerden y ejecuten acciones y movilizaciones de apoyo al Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra a partir de las 800, ocho de la mañana del día de mañana, cuatro de mayo del 2006.
Como Comisión Sexta nos estamos declarando en alerta. Han sido ya declaradas en alerta roja las tropas del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional y en punto de esa hora serán cerrados los Caracoles y los Municipios Autónomos Rebeldes Zapatistas. A partir de este momento, a partir de este momento, está funcionando ya el nuevo escalón de mando en el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional. Cualquier cosa que me ocurra hay ya ahí quien tome las decisiones. No sabemos ustedes, pero los zapatistas somos hoy Atenco.
Vamos a estar atentos a sus demandas. Llamamos a que se hagan reuniones por sector, por regional, como ustedes piensen y que acuerden estas acciones. Como Comisión Sexta estamos cancelando todas nuestras participaciones en las actividades programadas y estamos esperando la indicación del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra. Si necesita nuestra presencia allá, allá iremos. Si no, participaremos directamente en alguna de las acciones que ustedes programen para el día de mañana a partir de las 800, ocho de la mañana.
Cierre de carreteras, cierre de calles, volanteo, pinta, lo que se les ocurra, civil y pacífico. Atenco no puede estar solo. No vamos a detener estas acciones y esta situación hasta que los compañeros y compañeras del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra así nos indiquen.
No vamos a hacer caso de ninguna información que no llegue a través de ellos. Para nosotros, ellos y ellas, quienes forman el Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra son la Otra Campaña en esas tierras. Respetaremos sus decisiones. Llegaremos hasta donde ellos nos digan llegar. Han sido claros en sus demandas: liberación inmediata de los detenidos y retiro total de la fuerza pública que está invadiendo sus tierras.
Este es nuestro mensaje compañeros y compañeras. No sólo para la Otra en este otro México, en esta otra ciudad de México que se está levantando. Es nuestro mensaje para la Otra Campaña en todo el país. Desde Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, hasta las dos Baja Californias, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Nuevo León. De norte a sur, de este a oeste, que la Otra Campaña resuene en Atenco y que haya justicia para los caídos.
Gracias compañeros, gracias compañeras.
Zapatista Network
Date: April 27, 2006
To the compañer@s in every corner of the so-called US and Canada,
To all the peoples of the continent of so-called America,
To the struggling Peoples of the Global South and the world,
To all the adherents of the Sixth Declaration, the Other Campaign,and the International Campaign,
To the national and international alternative press,
We, the Zapatista Network, are reaching out as a newly emerging "network of networks" to invite companer@s in the so-called U.S. and Canada to "walk together" as Zapatista grassroots and community-based groups who support the Zapatistas and are inspired by Zapatismo. Our intent has been to create spaces of encounter so that diverse groups can share ideas, resources and projects as part of a larger process to strengthen each collective's work, solidarity efforts and rebellion; as well as to encourage new Zapatista inspired collectives to form. By saying "network of networks" we propose one of many overlapping webs of resistance taking place all over the world.
Since January 1, 1994 when the EZLN declared !Ya Basta! Mexican and International Civil Society have responded in solidarity creating a broad base of support. The Zapatistas' commitment to encounter and dialogue has made it possible to collectively imagine "a world where many worlds fit." Some communities working in solidarity with the Zapatistas have responded with aid, while others used direct action to help halt the military and state repression, drawing attention to the low intensity war directed against the Zapatistas. The response to the Zapatista rebellion has been unique not only in its diversity but its intensity. Solidarity efforts have served to keep people informed, provide material support, and protest the cruel excesses of military and state repression. More importantly, communities around the world and in the US have pursued their own resistance locally, attempting to imagine and realize a different way of doing politics.
In August 2004 the Committee of Indigenous Solidarity-DC-Zapatistas sent out a call to form a zapatista network in the U.S. and Canada that was initially referred to as red "Plan Morelia-Polo Norte" (in response to and in solidarity with the Plan La Realidad-Tijuana in Mexico). This call was made in order to construct one avenue of many for zapatista inspired groups in this region of America to dialogue and construct networks of support. Of the Zapatista related collectives and groups who responded to this initial call, we began talking together about encuentro, Zapatismo, Zapatista solidarity and how to reach out to others so that we all know that we are not alone.
Regarding the Zapatistas as offering profound new political strategies and alternatives whose relevance goes well beyond Chiapas there have been two encuentros inspired by this effort to form a bi-national network and in response to the Zapatistas' proposals in the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle. One was in August 2005 in Oakland, California and the other in November 2005 in Los Angeles,California. Both were amazing successes and have lead to a stronger networking among the numerous Zapatista groups and individuals in California.
As these encuentros have strengthened networks and community in California, we would like to see this spread in other parts of the U.S. and Canada alongside Mexico and the whole of the Americas. Additionally, through sustained dialogue, the grassroots organizations and collectives involved thus far have come to eight "points of agreement" (preliminary and subject to change by the collective voice). These are: A commitment to horizontal, egalitarian, fully inclusive and transparent structures and processes in all aspects of our activities and interactions; reciprocal respect for the autonomy and independence of all member organizations; support for the Zapatistas' "Other Campaign" in solidarity with the efforts of our Mexican Compa~er@s to unify the struggle, and in recognition of the need to pursue a similar project north of the Rio Grande, throughout the U.S. and Canada; a commitment to carry out our solidarity support work for the autonomous Zapatista communities of Chiapas in full accordance with the protocols established by the Good Government Juntas and the autonomous rebel Zapatista municipalities (MAREZ); a commitment to advance Zapatismo as political thought and as a method for resistance in our local struggles; solidarity in principle with all global struggles being waged by the people of the world for humanity and against neoliberalism; support and respect for the choices of the autonomous Zapatista communities to struggle in defense of their lives, humanity and environment and against neoliberalism in any way they deem necessary; a commitment to participate to the best of our abilities in the operational processes and development of the Zapatista Network ("Zapared").
As the "Other Campaign" advances, we see it as urgent that this network is available to support such initiatives. Consequently, we are publicly announcing the existence of this emergent network which we are calling the Zapatista Network and are reaching out to Companer@s in the U.S and Canada in the hope to encourage more connections and strengthen webs of resistance.We invite you to join us, as we begin this dialogue to create a "world where many worlds fit." As a medium to facilitate an ongoing encounter, there is an interactive website with a private blog for collectives and an open forum available for individuals. There will also be a resource archive. For more information about the network, visit our web site at: http://zapred.revolt.org.
If you're interested in participating, feel free to contact the Zapatista Network atzaparedinfo@list.riseup.net, or contact any of our member organizations directly:
Acción Zapatista de Humboldt (Arcata, CA) Manolo Callahan, mc92@humboldt.edu
Acción Zapatista of Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA) Jordan Camp, jcamp@umail.ucsb.edu
Chiapas Support Committee (Oakland, CA) Mary Ann Tenuto-Sánchez, cezmat@igc.org
Committee of Indigenous Solidarity-DC Zapatistas (Washington, DC) Adrián Boutureira , cis-dcz@riseup.net
El Machete (Austin, TX) Simón, elpinchesimon@yahoo.com
Estación Libre (Los Angeles, CA) Pablo Gonzales, aztlan71@yahoo.com
Protesta y Apoyo Zapatista (Santa Barbara, CA) Jordan Campjcamp@umail.ucsb.edu
Zapatista Solidarity Coalition (Sacramento, CA) zapa@zsc.org
Colectivo Caracolero Chicagotra (Chicago, Il) Dora T. y Kora M., chicagotra@gmail.com
Rebel Imports (Maryland) Kristin Bricker, krisbricker@gmail.com
Colectivo Zapatista Tz' ajal Ek' 32 (San Diego, Ca.) Elizabeth Saenz-Ackermann,Tzajalek32@gmail.com
To the compañer@s in every corner of the so-called US and Canada,
To all the peoples of the continent of so-called America,
To the struggling Peoples of the Global South and the world,
To all the adherents of the Sixth Declaration, the Other Campaign,and the International Campaign,
To the national and international alternative press,
We, the Zapatista Network, are reaching out as a newly emerging "network of networks" to invite companer@s in the so-called U.S. and Canada to "walk together" as Zapatista grassroots and community-based groups who support the Zapatistas and are inspired by Zapatismo. Our intent has been to create spaces of encounter so that diverse groups can share ideas, resources and projects as part of a larger process to strengthen each collective's work, solidarity efforts and rebellion; as well as to encourage new Zapatista inspired collectives to form. By saying "network of networks" we propose one of many overlapping webs of resistance taking place all over the world.
Since January 1, 1994 when the EZLN declared !Ya Basta! Mexican and International Civil Society have responded in solidarity creating a broad base of support. The Zapatistas' commitment to encounter and dialogue has made it possible to collectively imagine "a world where many worlds fit." Some communities working in solidarity with the Zapatistas have responded with aid, while others used direct action to help halt the military and state repression, drawing attention to the low intensity war directed against the Zapatistas. The response to the Zapatista rebellion has been unique not only in its diversity but its intensity. Solidarity efforts have served to keep people informed, provide material support, and protest the cruel excesses of military and state repression. More importantly, communities around the world and in the US have pursued their own resistance locally, attempting to imagine and realize a different way of doing politics.
In August 2004 the Committee of Indigenous Solidarity-DC-Zapatistas sent out a call to form a zapatista network in the U.S. and Canada that was initially referred to as red "Plan Morelia-Polo Norte" (in response to and in solidarity with the Plan La Realidad-Tijuana in Mexico). This call was made in order to construct one avenue of many for zapatista inspired groups in this region of America to dialogue and construct networks of support. Of the Zapatista related collectives and groups who responded to this initial call, we began talking together about encuentro, Zapatismo, Zapatista solidarity and how to reach out to others so that we all know that we are not alone.
Regarding the Zapatistas as offering profound new political strategies and alternatives whose relevance goes well beyond Chiapas there have been two encuentros inspired by this effort to form a bi-national network and in response to the Zapatistas' proposals in the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle. One was in August 2005 in Oakland, California and the other in November 2005 in Los Angeles,California. Both were amazing successes and have lead to a stronger networking among the numerous Zapatista groups and individuals in California.
As these encuentros have strengthened networks and community in California, we would like to see this spread in other parts of the U.S. and Canada alongside Mexico and the whole of the Americas. Additionally, through sustained dialogue, the grassroots organizations and collectives involved thus far have come to eight "points of agreement" (preliminary and subject to change by the collective voice). These are: A commitment to horizontal, egalitarian, fully inclusive and transparent structures and processes in all aspects of our activities and interactions; reciprocal respect for the autonomy and independence of all member organizations; support for the Zapatistas' "Other Campaign" in solidarity with the efforts of our Mexican Compa~er@s to unify the struggle, and in recognition of the need to pursue a similar project north of the Rio Grande, throughout the U.S. and Canada; a commitment to carry out our solidarity support work for the autonomous Zapatista communities of Chiapas in full accordance with the protocols established by the Good Government Juntas and the autonomous rebel Zapatista municipalities (MAREZ); a commitment to advance Zapatismo as political thought and as a method for resistance in our local struggles; solidarity in principle with all global struggles being waged by the people of the world for humanity and against neoliberalism; support and respect for the choices of the autonomous Zapatista communities to struggle in defense of their lives, humanity and environment and against neoliberalism in any way they deem necessary; a commitment to participate to the best of our abilities in the operational processes and development of the Zapatista Network ("Zapared").
As the "Other Campaign" advances, we see it as urgent that this network is available to support such initiatives. Consequently, we are publicly announcing the existence of this emergent network which we are calling the Zapatista Network and are reaching out to Companer@s in the U.S and Canada in the hope to encourage more connections and strengthen webs of resistance.We invite you to join us, as we begin this dialogue to create a "world where many worlds fit." As a medium to facilitate an ongoing encounter, there is an interactive website with a private blog for collectives and an open forum available for individuals. There will also be a resource archive. For more information about the network, visit our web site at: http://zapred.revolt.org.
If you're interested in participating, feel free to contact the Zapatista Network atzaparedinfo@list.riseup.net, or contact any of our member organizations directly:
Acción Zapatista de Humboldt (Arcata, CA) Manolo Callahan, mc92@humboldt.edu
Acción Zapatista of Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA) Jordan Camp, jcamp@umail.ucsb.edu
Chiapas Support Committee (Oakland, CA) Mary Ann Tenuto-Sánchez, cezmat@igc.org
Committee of Indigenous Solidarity-DC Zapatistas (Washington, DC) Adrián Boutureira , cis-dcz@riseup.net
El Machete (Austin, TX) Simón, elpinchesimon@yahoo.com
Estación Libre (Los Angeles, CA) Pablo Gonzales, aztlan71@yahoo.com
Protesta y Apoyo Zapatista (Santa Barbara, CA) Jordan Campjcamp@umail.ucsb.edu
Zapatista Solidarity Coalition (Sacramento, CA) zapa@zsc.org
Colectivo Caracolero Chicagotra (Chicago, Il) Dora T. y Kora M., chicagotra@gmail.com
Rebel Imports (Maryland) Kristin Bricker, krisbricker@gmail.com
Colectivo Zapatista Tz' ajal Ek' 32 (San Diego, Ca.) Elizabeth Saenz-Ackermann,Tzajalek32@gmail.com
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Marcos: An Other Theory?
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
*******************************
Translated by irlandesa
An Other Theory?
Long ago, the Guadalajara dawn found Elías Contreras, the EZLN’s commissioner of investigations, sitting on one of the park benches in front of that cathedral which imposes its twofold power, the symbolic and the real, on the city of Guadalajara. Elías Contreras had come to this city in order to meet with the Ruso at his sandwich stall and, later, with the Chinese man Feng Chu in the public baths of the Mutualista, when he was involved in solving that unknown case of the Mal and the Malo.
For those who don’t know, Elías Contreras was an EZLN support base, a war veteran, who helped the EZLN Comandancia General in what you call “detective” work and we call “investigation commission.”
But, before the Ruso’s disconcerting sandwiches and the Chino’s taciturnity, Elías Contreras had been sitting on one of the park benches in this city centre of Guadalajara, scribbling sketches, odd phrases, complete paragraphs and imprecise lines in his notebook, while waiting for the sun to mottle the eastern wall of the cathedral.
I hadn’t known of the existence of that kind of trip log or campaign journal in which Elías Contreras, paradoxically, hadn’t written anything referring directly to that case in which love, that other love, came to him just as love does come, that is, where one least expects it. In his case accompanied by the confusion and fear which usually accompany an encounter with the other. The love which left him the way one always fears it will leave: by the irremediable path of death. Because, perhaps some might remember, La Magdalena fell fighting on our side, the zapatista side, against the Mal and the Malo. And she was our compañera in two ways: because she chose to be a woman and because she chose to be with us. But that’s another history which we may, perhaps, find somewhere else.
Elías Contreras never said that he had fallen in love with La Magdalena, the transvestite who saved his life in the streets of Mexico City and who accompanied him in the pursuit of one Morales. He never said so openly, it’s true, but anyone who learns to listen to words, silences, expressions and manners also knows how to find secrets whose existence isn’t even suspected. And Elías Contreras, the EZLN’s commissioner of investigations, spoke of La Magdalena through his silence about her, as if words would hurt her. I believe - it’s something which occurs to me now - that those feelings which Elías Contreras harbored for La Magdalena were not returned in kind, and in some way that soothed the chaos provoked by that emotion.
But perhaps I might tell you about the now deceased Elías Contreras’ hidden love for La Magdalena, and what there was about it in his notebook, at another time. Or perhaps I won’t recount anything, because there are people who leave not only the manifesto of their death as weight, but they also leave us the secrets of their lives.
Now I would like to tell you about some parts of the notebook which Elías Contreras carried. The dawn often found us standing in front of the stove in his kitchen, and, when our silences stretched out long enough, Elías would take the crumpled notebook out of his rucksack and pass it to me without even looking at me or saying anything.
I approached it as a clumsy intruder would. It took just a quick glance to realize that only the author would be able to decipher what was written or sketched there. As if it were a jigsaw puzzle whose complete picture was unknown to everyone except to the one who had designed the pieces.
Sometimes I would read a phrase out loud, and he, Elías Contreras, would begin putting the pieces together. As if talking to himself, he would rework an anecdote or an argument.
There were, for example, those simple and concise principles of the guerrero which Elías Contreras must have copied from somewhere in almost illegible strokes:
1. The guerrero should always put himself at the service of a noble cause.
2. The guerrero should always be willing to learn and to do so.
3. The guerrero should respect his ancestors and care for their memory.
4. The guerrero should exist for the good of humanity, live for that, die for that.
5. The guerrero should cultivate the sciences and the arts and also, with them, to be the guardian of his people.
6. The guerrero should dedicate himself equally to things great and small.
7. The guerrero should look ahead, imagining everything already complete and finished.
Not at dawn, but one afternoon - as the sun was leaping from one cloud to another until it concealed itself behind a mountain - with his notebook in my hands, I read the following sentences to Elías Contreras, which he himself had written:
“Resistance is averting the fate which is being imposed from above, at just the right time, exerting the necessary force and thus destroying that disaster and those who are contriving it for us.”
Upon hearing it, Elías Contreras said: “Guadalajara, during the time of the Ruso and the Chino.” And he immediately told me that he had written that thought during the dawn when he was waiting in the centre of the Pearl of the West.
Another sentence followed. I read it aloud:
“The great minds who sell themselves for money lack intelligence, as they lack courage, shame and good manners. As the citizens say, they are mediocre, cowards, imbeciles and bad-mannered.”
Up above, Elías Contreras told me, looking down bitterly, they didn’t just invent a religion where what counts is what you have and not what you are. They also make some into their priests, who write and preach the doctrine of the powerful among those of above and among those of below. They are like priests, but also like the police and guards, seeing to it that we behave well, that we accept exploitation and we are like meek little ones, our minds saying “yes” or “no” according to the order. In other words, the powerful also mess with thinking. And those priests of the thoughts of those of above are the great minds who sell themselves to money.
“The intellectuals of above?” I asked.
“Those,” said Elías Contreras, commissioner of investigations for the EZLN, and, sitting on a tree trunk, looking towards the west, he repeated for me the argument he had constructed here in Guadalajara when he was following the trail of the Mal and the Malo in that still unfinished work of ours, of us, the neo-zapatistas.
I took the following notes from that argument which Elías Contreras expounded to me in Tzeltal and which, therefore, has words for which there are no equivalents in the dictionaries of the dominant and dominating idioms:
The Intellectuals of Above
If the police and the armies are the stewards of the citizenry’s good behavior in the face of seizure, exploitation and racism, then who looks after good behavior in intellectual thought and theoretical analysis?
If the legal system, which sees the violent imposition of capital as being “rational and human”, has judges, guards, police and jails, then what are their equivalent in the culture of Mexico, in research and academia, in theoretical work, analysis and in the debating of ideas?
Answer: The intellectuals above who say what is science and what is not, what is serious and what is not, what is debate and what is not, what is true and what is false. In sum, what is intelligent and what is not.
Capitalism doesn’t just recruit its intellectuals in the academy and in the culture, it also “manufactures” their sounding boxes and assigns them their territories. But what they have in common is their foundation: feigning humanism where there is only thirst for profits, presenting capital as the synthesis of historical evolution and offering the comforts of complicity through grants, paying for publicity and privileged colloquy. There is no appreciable difference between a self-help book and the magazines Letras Libres, Nexos, Quién? and TV and Novelas. Not in the writing, not in the price, not in their location in Carlos Slim Helu’s Sanborns. Except, perhaps, in that more of the latter two are sold and read. In the contents? All offer the impossible mirror to those who above are what they are.
The Intellectuals in the Middle
Just like in the impossible center of the impossible geometry of power, are those intellectuals in the fragile crystal towers of “neutrality” and “objectivity” who are navigating, flirting discreetly or blatantly with the system, without caring about the color of the one holding political power.
Looking above, these intellectuals answer the explicit or implicit question with which they start their work: “From where?” And other questions are tied to this question: “Why?”, “With whom?”, “Against whom?”
From the threshold of power, on their best behavior in the mandarin court of the current administration, these intellectuals are not in the middle, but rather in transit to above. They put themselves on offer, with the tools of analysis and theoretical debate, at the banquets of political and economic power in Mexico, with a sign that reads: “Speeches made. Government programs justified. Businesspersons advised. Magazines produced at your pleasure. Entertainment provided for parties and for shareholders’ and cabinet meetings.”
Next to those intellectuals are the ones who, slowly or quickly, lose their principles, give in, and desperately search for an alibi which will save them in front of the mirror. They are the prudent, mature and sensible intellectuals who have put away the weapons of criticism for the blandishments of those who see their work of the right as being of the left.
But the dishonest position of these intellectuals who belong to the system doesn’t cease to amaze. The weak alibi of deliberate, rational and responsible change isn’t enough to sanctify that den of thieves which is the self-styled electoral left. They clothe themselves in the fragile transience of the media and in that way they conceal not only their lack of principles, but also their renunciation of all critical analysis of the political class. Beset by the ghosts their prudence has created, they confirm their profound contempt for intelligence.
And there are the ones who say they belong to the radical left and are even zapatistas (certainly in the same way Guajardo says he’s a zapatista). From the comforts of the academy they set themselves up as the new judges, the neo-commissars of good manners in the debate on what AMLO’s irresistible ascent in democratic modernity – in the polls, that is – really means.
They are the ones who say that any criticism of the political class promotes abstention, and with Thomist logic, that that will help the right. The ones who choose and edit national reality in order to present the unpresentable. The ones who remain silent in the face of the way the municipal president of Tulancingo, Hidalgo, of the PRD, treats indigenous and senior citizens. In the face of the frenzied leap by the PAN and the PRI into the open arms of the PRD anywhere in the nation. In the face of the nepotism of the PRD city halls in Tabasco. In the face of the selling of their franchise to the current cacique of any state. In the face of the approval of laws of neoliberal destruction by the sol azteca wing. In the face of the suspicious similarity of first and last names on the lists of PRD candidates to those of PRI and PAN ones of days gone by.
They are the same ones who want us to swallow the millstone that we have to put up with the macro-economic program, at the same time the macro-political changes.
They are the same ones who sell the illustrious “retirement to home.” The increasingly lesser evil is the only – comfortable – option.
They are the same ones who shamelessly say that the government is protecting the Other Campaign so that it will attack López Obrador, while various police forces are photographing, watching and harassing members of the karavana, state, regional and local coordinators. The same ones who feel a profound contempt for their readers and who, without any shame whatsoever, say that Rosario Robles is a heroine one day and on the next if they see her they don’t remember her.
They are the same ones who discredited the young students of the CGH who, in 1999-2000, managed to keep the UNAM as a public and free university with their movement. The same ones who silently applauded the repression of young altermundistas in that disgrace to the Jalisco calendar which is May 28, 2004.
They are the same ones who sigh with delight for the Segundo Pisos, the bullet train, the trans-isthmus project, the co-investors in Pemex and in the electricity industry, Mexico’s entrance into major league baseball, the concerts in the Zócalo in Mexico City, the privilege of colloquy with officials.
Ah! Finally a high-class, Segundo Piso, scene, so we don’t see, or we pretend not to see, those of below, the provocateurs, the hyper, the pelos parados, the rebels, the commoners, the wretched, those of below.
Who cares if the same ones are in the politics of above and if it’s the same “macro-economic” program as before? Who pays attention to that minutia? Who is worried that the program represents the continuation and deepening of the destruction of the Mexican nation?
They are the same ones who offer the calamity of not being satisfied with what is, man, nor do you have to be too demanding, man, whether Madrazo or Calderón, whether the PRI or the PAN, well, what would the foreign nations say? The big investors, man, well, they already understand, now we just need those of below to understand, to obey. But everything’s all wrapped up, man, it’s ours, man. Now we really did do it. A consultancy, trips, meals, rubbing shoulders with the big shots.
They are the ones who carry their leaking buckets of water to confront the promise written in Guanajuato: “There are still a lot of corn exchanges to set on fire.” They’re the ones with the thin skins who crack at the first criticism, and they scream their heads off, doling out labels like “intolerant”, “Stalinists”, “ultras”, “outdated”, “immature.”
The intellectuals in the middle…While the Other says “wake up”, those intellectuals say, beseech, beg, implore: “Stay asleep.”
The Other Intellectuals
From below and from the left, a movement which is building itself, the Other is also building new realities. We neo-zapatistas think these new realities, which are already emerging, and which will go on appearing further ahead, need another theoretical reflection, another debate of ideas.
This places demands on the other intellectuals. First, the humility to recognize that they are facing something new. And, secondly, to join in, to embrace the other, to learn about themselves through it and to come to know the indigenous, the worker, the campesino, the young person, the woman, the child, the old one, the teacher, the student, the employee, the homosexual, lesbian and transgender person, the sex worker, the street vendor, the small shopkeeper, the Christian base, the street worker, the other.
We think they should participate directly in the meetings of supporters in their states and, in addition, listen to what all the supporters throughout the country are saying. Thanks to the alternative media, the other media, it is possible to closely follow this beautiful lesson in contemporary national history. In their way and with their means, the other intellectuals will certainly produce analysis and theoretical debates which will astonish the world.
As zapatistas we think that the Other Campaign can proudly say that it deserves this country’s best intellectuals to be part of it. Now they will say, with their own work, whether they are deserving of the Other Campaign.
The Missing Word
In the old and battered notebook of Elías Contreras, the EZLN’s commissioner of investigation, there is an errant page, carefully folded, where it reads:
There are stones which are still silent. When they speak the secrets they keep, nothing will be the same again, but it will surely be better for everyone. The being and not the having will be valued. Another hand will raise the flag, and the world will be scented, will be heard, will know and will feel as it should be: the honourable home of those who work it.
Another Vigil for Shadow
Dawn. Above, the moon continues her pale disrobing of the blue which clothes her. The dark is forgiving of scars and generously offers her another veil for her shamelessness. Below, shadow curls up in the last corner of his sleeplessness.
Is that a wind rising up or a bridge, seeking the faraway riverbank in order to complete its reach?
A sigh, perhaps.
And once again the half-sleep and its illusions: a streamer, yearning and wrapped around an absent neck, longing rising and falling in the lower abdomen, the faint breathing of shadow in the ear of the night, desire clothing the dark of the half-light, a long and damp kiss on other lips, the hand writing a letter which will never reach its destination:
I would give anything to be entangled between your legs, to mingle our damp, to exhaust myself in the cleft moon of your hips. I would give anything, except giving up doing what it’s my duty to do.
Dawn breaks.
The sun is beginning to help the houses and buildings in their languorous bowing to the west.
The other Jalisco is honing word and tuning ear.
Outside they are asking:
“Are you ready?”
Inside, shadow carefully folds the longing, puts it in the left pocket of his shirt, close to his heart, and answers:
“Always.”
From the other Guadalajara.
Subcomandante insurgente Marcos
Mexico, March of 2006
*******************************
Translated by irlandesa
An Other Theory?
Long ago, the Guadalajara dawn found Elías Contreras, the EZLN’s commissioner of investigations, sitting on one of the park benches in front of that cathedral which imposes its twofold power, the symbolic and the real, on the city of Guadalajara. Elías Contreras had come to this city in order to meet with the Ruso at his sandwich stall and, later, with the Chinese man Feng Chu in the public baths of the Mutualista, when he was involved in solving that unknown case of the Mal and the Malo.
For those who don’t know, Elías Contreras was an EZLN support base, a war veteran, who helped the EZLN Comandancia General in what you call “detective” work and we call “investigation commission.”
But, before the Ruso’s disconcerting sandwiches and the Chino’s taciturnity, Elías Contreras had been sitting on one of the park benches in this city centre of Guadalajara, scribbling sketches, odd phrases, complete paragraphs and imprecise lines in his notebook, while waiting for the sun to mottle the eastern wall of the cathedral.
I hadn’t known of the existence of that kind of trip log or campaign journal in which Elías Contreras, paradoxically, hadn’t written anything referring directly to that case in which love, that other love, came to him just as love does come, that is, where one least expects it. In his case accompanied by the confusion and fear which usually accompany an encounter with the other. The love which left him the way one always fears it will leave: by the irremediable path of death. Because, perhaps some might remember, La Magdalena fell fighting on our side, the zapatista side, against the Mal and the Malo. And she was our compañera in two ways: because she chose to be a woman and because she chose to be with us. But that’s another history which we may, perhaps, find somewhere else.
Elías Contreras never said that he had fallen in love with La Magdalena, the transvestite who saved his life in the streets of Mexico City and who accompanied him in the pursuit of one Morales. He never said so openly, it’s true, but anyone who learns to listen to words, silences, expressions and manners also knows how to find secrets whose existence isn’t even suspected. And Elías Contreras, the EZLN’s commissioner of investigations, spoke of La Magdalena through his silence about her, as if words would hurt her. I believe - it’s something which occurs to me now - that those feelings which Elías Contreras harbored for La Magdalena were not returned in kind, and in some way that soothed the chaos provoked by that emotion.
But perhaps I might tell you about the now deceased Elías Contreras’ hidden love for La Magdalena, and what there was about it in his notebook, at another time. Or perhaps I won’t recount anything, because there are people who leave not only the manifesto of their death as weight, but they also leave us the secrets of their lives.
Now I would like to tell you about some parts of the notebook which Elías Contreras carried. The dawn often found us standing in front of the stove in his kitchen, and, when our silences stretched out long enough, Elías would take the crumpled notebook out of his rucksack and pass it to me without even looking at me or saying anything.
I approached it as a clumsy intruder would. It took just a quick glance to realize that only the author would be able to decipher what was written or sketched there. As if it were a jigsaw puzzle whose complete picture was unknown to everyone except to the one who had designed the pieces.
Sometimes I would read a phrase out loud, and he, Elías Contreras, would begin putting the pieces together. As if talking to himself, he would rework an anecdote or an argument.
There were, for example, those simple and concise principles of the guerrero which Elías Contreras must have copied from somewhere in almost illegible strokes:
1. The guerrero should always put himself at the service of a noble cause.
2. The guerrero should always be willing to learn and to do so.
3. The guerrero should respect his ancestors and care for their memory.
4. The guerrero should exist for the good of humanity, live for that, die for that.
5. The guerrero should cultivate the sciences and the arts and also, with them, to be the guardian of his people.
6. The guerrero should dedicate himself equally to things great and small.
7. The guerrero should look ahead, imagining everything already complete and finished.
Not at dawn, but one afternoon - as the sun was leaping from one cloud to another until it concealed itself behind a mountain - with his notebook in my hands, I read the following sentences to Elías Contreras, which he himself had written:
“Resistance is averting the fate which is being imposed from above, at just the right time, exerting the necessary force and thus destroying that disaster and those who are contriving it for us.”
Upon hearing it, Elías Contreras said: “Guadalajara, during the time of the Ruso and the Chino.” And he immediately told me that he had written that thought during the dawn when he was waiting in the centre of the Pearl of the West.
Another sentence followed. I read it aloud:
“The great minds who sell themselves for money lack intelligence, as they lack courage, shame and good manners. As the citizens say, they are mediocre, cowards, imbeciles and bad-mannered.”
Up above, Elías Contreras told me, looking down bitterly, they didn’t just invent a religion where what counts is what you have and not what you are. They also make some into their priests, who write and preach the doctrine of the powerful among those of above and among those of below. They are like priests, but also like the police and guards, seeing to it that we behave well, that we accept exploitation and we are like meek little ones, our minds saying “yes” or “no” according to the order. In other words, the powerful also mess with thinking. And those priests of the thoughts of those of above are the great minds who sell themselves to money.
“The intellectuals of above?” I asked.
“Those,” said Elías Contreras, commissioner of investigations for the EZLN, and, sitting on a tree trunk, looking towards the west, he repeated for me the argument he had constructed here in Guadalajara when he was following the trail of the Mal and the Malo in that still unfinished work of ours, of us, the neo-zapatistas.
I took the following notes from that argument which Elías Contreras expounded to me in Tzeltal and which, therefore, has words for which there are no equivalents in the dictionaries of the dominant and dominating idioms:
The Intellectuals of Above
If the police and the armies are the stewards of the citizenry’s good behavior in the face of seizure, exploitation and racism, then who looks after good behavior in intellectual thought and theoretical analysis?
If the legal system, which sees the violent imposition of capital as being “rational and human”, has judges, guards, police and jails, then what are their equivalent in the culture of Mexico, in research and academia, in theoretical work, analysis and in the debating of ideas?
Answer: The intellectuals above who say what is science and what is not, what is serious and what is not, what is debate and what is not, what is true and what is false. In sum, what is intelligent and what is not.
Capitalism doesn’t just recruit its intellectuals in the academy and in the culture, it also “manufactures” their sounding boxes and assigns them their territories. But what they have in common is their foundation: feigning humanism where there is only thirst for profits, presenting capital as the synthesis of historical evolution and offering the comforts of complicity through grants, paying for publicity and privileged colloquy. There is no appreciable difference between a self-help book and the magazines Letras Libres, Nexos, Quién? and TV and Novelas. Not in the writing, not in the price, not in their location in Carlos Slim Helu’s Sanborns. Except, perhaps, in that more of the latter two are sold and read. In the contents? All offer the impossible mirror to those who above are what they are.
The Intellectuals in the Middle
Just like in the impossible center of the impossible geometry of power, are those intellectuals in the fragile crystal towers of “neutrality” and “objectivity” who are navigating, flirting discreetly or blatantly with the system, without caring about the color of the one holding political power.
Looking above, these intellectuals answer the explicit or implicit question with which they start their work: “From where?” And other questions are tied to this question: “Why?”, “With whom?”, “Against whom?”
From the threshold of power, on their best behavior in the mandarin court of the current administration, these intellectuals are not in the middle, but rather in transit to above. They put themselves on offer, with the tools of analysis and theoretical debate, at the banquets of political and economic power in Mexico, with a sign that reads: “Speeches made. Government programs justified. Businesspersons advised. Magazines produced at your pleasure. Entertainment provided for parties and for shareholders’ and cabinet meetings.”
Next to those intellectuals are the ones who, slowly or quickly, lose their principles, give in, and desperately search for an alibi which will save them in front of the mirror. They are the prudent, mature and sensible intellectuals who have put away the weapons of criticism for the blandishments of those who see their work of the right as being of the left.
But the dishonest position of these intellectuals who belong to the system doesn’t cease to amaze. The weak alibi of deliberate, rational and responsible change isn’t enough to sanctify that den of thieves which is the self-styled electoral left. They clothe themselves in the fragile transience of the media and in that way they conceal not only their lack of principles, but also their renunciation of all critical analysis of the political class. Beset by the ghosts their prudence has created, they confirm their profound contempt for intelligence.
And there are the ones who say they belong to the radical left and are even zapatistas (certainly in the same way Guajardo says he’s a zapatista). From the comforts of the academy they set themselves up as the new judges, the neo-commissars of good manners in the debate on what AMLO’s irresistible ascent in democratic modernity – in the polls, that is – really means.
They are the ones who say that any criticism of the political class promotes abstention, and with Thomist logic, that that will help the right. The ones who choose and edit national reality in order to present the unpresentable. The ones who remain silent in the face of the way the municipal president of Tulancingo, Hidalgo, of the PRD, treats indigenous and senior citizens. In the face of the frenzied leap by the PAN and the PRI into the open arms of the PRD anywhere in the nation. In the face of the nepotism of the PRD city halls in Tabasco. In the face of the selling of their franchise to the current cacique of any state. In the face of the approval of laws of neoliberal destruction by the sol azteca wing. In the face of the suspicious similarity of first and last names on the lists of PRD candidates to those of PRI and PAN ones of days gone by.
They are the same ones who want us to swallow the millstone that we have to put up with the macro-economic program, at the same time the macro-political changes.
They are the same ones who sell the illustrious “retirement to home.” The increasingly lesser evil is the only – comfortable – option.
They are the same ones who shamelessly say that the government is protecting the Other Campaign so that it will attack López Obrador, while various police forces are photographing, watching and harassing members of the karavana, state, regional and local coordinators. The same ones who feel a profound contempt for their readers and who, without any shame whatsoever, say that Rosario Robles is a heroine one day and on the next if they see her they don’t remember her.
They are the same ones who discredited the young students of the CGH who, in 1999-2000, managed to keep the UNAM as a public and free university with their movement. The same ones who silently applauded the repression of young altermundistas in that disgrace to the Jalisco calendar which is May 28, 2004.
They are the same ones who sigh with delight for the Segundo Pisos, the bullet train, the trans-isthmus project, the co-investors in Pemex and in the electricity industry, Mexico’s entrance into major league baseball, the concerts in the Zócalo in Mexico City, the privilege of colloquy with officials.
Ah! Finally a high-class, Segundo Piso, scene, so we don’t see, or we pretend not to see, those of below, the provocateurs, the hyper, the pelos parados, the rebels, the commoners, the wretched, those of below.
Who cares if the same ones are in the politics of above and if it’s the same “macro-economic” program as before? Who pays attention to that minutia? Who is worried that the program represents the continuation and deepening of the destruction of the Mexican nation?
They are the same ones who offer the calamity of not being satisfied with what is, man, nor do you have to be too demanding, man, whether Madrazo or Calderón, whether the PRI or the PAN, well, what would the foreign nations say? The big investors, man, well, they already understand, now we just need those of below to understand, to obey. But everything’s all wrapped up, man, it’s ours, man. Now we really did do it. A consultancy, trips, meals, rubbing shoulders with the big shots.
They are the ones who carry their leaking buckets of water to confront the promise written in Guanajuato: “There are still a lot of corn exchanges to set on fire.” They’re the ones with the thin skins who crack at the first criticism, and they scream their heads off, doling out labels like “intolerant”, “Stalinists”, “ultras”, “outdated”, “immature.”
The intellectuals in the middle…While the Other says “wake up”, those intellectuals say, beseech, beg, implore: “Stay asleep.”
The Other Intellectuals
From below and from the left, a movement which is building itself, the Other is also building new realities. We neo-zapatistas think these new realities, which are already emerging, and which will go on appearing further ahead, need another theoretical reflection, another debate of ideas.
This places demands on the other intellectuals. First, the humility to recognize that they are facing something new. And, secondly, to join in, to embrace the other, to learn about themselves through it and to come to know the indigenous, the worker, the campesino, the young person, the woman, the child, the old one, the teacher, the student, the employee, the homosexual, lesbian and transgender person, the sex worker, the street vendor, the small shopkeeper, the Christian base, the street worker, the other.
We think they should participate directly in the meetings of supporters in their states and, in addition, listen to what all the supporters throughout the country are saying. Thanks to the alternative media, the other media, it is possible to closely follow this beautiful lesson in contemporary national history. In their way and with their means, the other intellectuals will certainly produce analysis and theoretical debates which will astonish the world.
As zapatistas we think that the Other Campaign can proudly say that it deserves this country’s best intellectuals to be part of it. Now they will say, with their own work, whether they are deserving of the Other Campaign.
The Missing Word
In the old and battered notebook of Elías Contreras, the EZLN’s commissioner of investigation, there is an errant page, carefully folded, where it reads:
There are stones which are still silent. When they speak the secrets they keep, nothing will be the same again, but it will surely be better for everyone. The being and not the having will be valued. Another hand will raise the flag, and the world will be scented, will be heard, will know and will feel as it should be: the honourable home of those who work it.
Another Vigil for Shadow
Dawn. Above, the moon continues her pale disrobing of the blue which clothes her. The dark is forgiving of scars and generously offers her another veil for her shamelessness. Below, shadow curls up in the last corner of his sleeplessness.
Is that a wind rising up or a bridge, seeking the faraway riverbank in order to complete its reach?
A sigh, perhaps.
And once again the half-sleep and its illusions: a streamer, yearning and wrapped around an absent neck, longing rising and falling in the lower abdomen, the faint breathing of shadow in the ear of the night, desire clothing the dark of the half-light, a long and damp kiss on other lips, the hand writing a letter which will never reach its destination:
I would give anything to be entangled between your legs, to mingle our damp, to exhaust myself in the cleft moon of your hips. I would give anything, except giving up doing what it’s my duty to do.
Dawn breaks.
The sun is beginning to help the houses and buildings in their languorous bowing to the west.
The other Jalisco is honing word and tuning ear.
Outside they are asking:
“Are you ready?”
Inside, shadow carefully folds the longing, puts it in the left pocket of his shirt, close to his heart, and answers:
“Always.”
From the other Guadalajara.
Subcomandante insurgente Marcos
Mexico, March of 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
The First Other Winds [Primera, 2/2]
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
********************************
Translated by irlandesa
The First Other Winds
First Part/II and Last
YUCATÁN
Above, a hacienda as political program. Below, Mayan dignity awakening the other.
On one side, that of above: the resistance of the powerful to losing privileges won through blood and fire since the times of the Conquest. On the other, that of below: ancient rebellion multiplying its colors.
The postmodern hacienda of the PAN’s Yucatán is adding the establishment of maquiladoras to the tourism and oil. The weak scaffolding of government propaganda is being built on top of this: even though local economic powers are still thinking in the 16th century, Yucatán is exploiting these lands (and their people) using 21st century methods.
This is the National Action Party’s [PAN] political program: an encomendero mentality running an industry. More is missing, this is the “government of change.” The real results are at odds with the fragile PAN stage set: land seizures, privatization of the heritage, industrial exploitation, destruction of nature, migration. This truth is more visible in rural Yucatán: the destruction of the Mexican countryside is not the result of the governments’ lack of skill, rather it is their primary objective. It has to do with a strategic plan that entails, in simple and straightforward terms, a war, a war of reconquest. But this war is not just one-sided, the resistance is also resounding from below.
And then the guardians appear who are making it quite clear that not in their name will the oblivion of the native persons of these lands be legislated. The Mayan artisans who are resisting the seizure of memory made stone of their ancestors. Chichen Itzá: the fishermen of Puerto Progreso, of the Camarón Vagabundo, who denounced that they are turned into criminals if they work because of a law. They have to pay them to get permission to work, and not even then. In addition, the inspectors steal their catch. The ejiditarios of Oxcum who note that they want to seize their lands for an airport. The banda that suffers persecution for making and promoting another culture.
And the fury and indignation looks around, and, with Mayan language, color and ways, they find the others who are also repeating, though separately, that “ya basta!” Also appearing here, along with residents, students, artisans and academics, homosexuals, their Oasis of San Juan de Dios and their threefold struggle against AIDS: against the virus, against the society which discriminates against them and segregates them and against the government which washes its hands of the problem. Others who join in with the struggle for respect for sexual diversity.
They all say, repeat, insist: we’re not going to allow it, no longer, ya basta. And now it is not only pain which can be heard in the voices of below. Also the joy of someone who is beginning to realize that he or she is not alone, who, by being listened to and listening, finds the compañero, compañera.
But the rebel peninsular wind doesn’t stop here, and it goes on to…
CAMPECHE
Above, destruction as government program. Below, the rebellion of colors.
In Bekal, the first voices resound, and from here they are beginning to sound the alert about the greatness of raising a movement of the people throughout the country. The recounting is made: ejiditarios harassed by corrupt leaders, by the government and by the big owners. Now they have to pay to work their own land, pay to be poor. In the port of Campeche, the voice continues, and the listening is organized primarily by young people. The only point in common with injustice is the number two: 20 wealthy families, 200 of courtiers and 200,000 poor families. The owners of the economy also own the political: a powerful family stands candidates for the three parties: PRI, PAN and PRD. They appropriate large expanses of land and beaches, and the campesinos and fishermen go on to become employees of tourism centers, or they emigrate to the United States.
Hand in hand with wealthy locals, Pemex contributes to the destruction of nature. In Campeche a truth is made evident: nature is being destroyed by the selfsame officials who are in charge of protecting it. The pirates and corsairs who once ravaged the Campeche coasts now hold public and private offices and appear in the society pages while 180,000 residents are surviving in conditions of extreme poverty. The sorrow reaches to Xpujil (Calakmul) and Candelaria. The old PRI politics (sometimes with the flag of the PT, of Convergencia, of the PAN or of the PRD) is being repeated in the Mexican countryside: the buying of campesino leaders, division and confrontations between organizations, repression, persecution, imprisonment, death. Migration to the United States is the only door they find open. The situation isn’t far different from what existed in the times of the chicleros. Injustice is christened in these lands by Carlos Salinas de Gortari as Calakmul (Edificios Gemelos) in order to emphasize the zeal of the neo-conquest of capital: these lands, with everything and the historical wealth they amass, will belong to the new lords of money.
And lies hold an important place in this war: the government social welfare programs do not arrive in full. Those monies remain somewhere else, but government progress is nonetheless announced with pomp and circumstance. The modern divestiture follows known paths: bank credits, increasing interest rates, the bank devouring all the work, and the debt somehow grows, Procede eliminates legal impediments and they are seized. Years of work and, in the end, without land or anything…only rage.
But in the Campeche of below there are rebels who are not just from here, but also from the majority of the states of the Republic. And so rebellion takes on many colors throughout the state. As injustices multiply, so, also, multiply intelligent and organized rebellions.
The Other Campeche joins together artisans, campesinos, cultural and theoretical analysis collectives, beekeepers, cooperative members, mostly indigenous. Many come from the ecclesiastical base communities and committed Christianity. And all of them are in agreement about their being fed-up, about their rage, indignation, rebellion. But they don’t stop there, they form their organizations and educate in the struggle, and there they identify the enemy and the compañero, the opportunist and the momentary passenger.
The wind resounds in the Other Campaign and repeats: “No longer!,” and the echo is so powerful it manages to reach the other country which, below and to the left, watches over the night in order to continue on its path, on another dawn, to Tabasco.
INTERMISSION
Along its way and in its way, the Otra is beginning to turn into an option, into something else, into another alternative to despair. While up above the noise comes and goes (as does the money to simulate discussion and debate, where there are only e-spot ads), an echo sounds in the other voices of below, an echo which does not end, which is beginning to define itself in collective: the Otra is joining together struggles and thoughts. The “I am” is beginning to transform, step by step, into “we are.”
Various points in common in the first winds:
- The brazen alliance between businesspersons and politicians from all parties.
- Seizure of lands.
- Privatization of the national heritage.
- Premeditated destruction of the environment.
- Repression, persecution and imprisonment of those who fight for social good.
- High cost of living, especially that of electricity.
- Migration to the United States.
- Educational crises at all levels and, in the end, the disaster of unemployment.
- Disgust with the political class and criticism of institutional political parties.
And so the bridges are beginning to be extended between those who below are who we are. The first of them, the struggle for our own: freedom for all political prisoners and the cancellation of all arrest warrants for social activists.
But that is not all. Proposals are also beginning to emerge: the general strike over payments to the Federal Commission of Electricity until fair rates are agreed according to the criteria that the rich pay more and the poor pay less or they don’t pay. The generalized campesino rejection of Procede. The national blockade against the official policy of destroying the environment. The national defense of our heritage in the face of its growing privatization. The building of a new option for future migrants which consists of a cry: Stay and fight! Another 1st of May for the other workers. And the first signs of other realities and demands, which we will explain further along.
Video Click: The Week Above and Below
There are differences, above and below, in looking at how the week transpired. Up above it’s always Monday, even for those who are running as the electoral alternative.
Time and again they tell us that we don’t have to go quickly, we have to stop, walk so slowly that movement is barely feigned.
Ah! It’s so nice up above! Entertainment suitable for a wallet full of plastic, high culture, highways and wide streets for vehicles, second floors in order to reaffirm that we are above, television as an instant stage set in every Mexican home. Ah! And once again those naughty ones of below, listening to each other, exchanging histories which look so nice in books and essays, but that way, being talked about, how they offend, my friend, that democracy of those words of below is in such bad taste. Then what are we for, the popular representatives, the opinion leaders, the columnists, the commentators, editors? Where do they get off dispensing with intermediaries and speaking among themselves? And then, in addition to talking and listening, they dare to agree to rise up. Better that you turn up the volume on the television, my friend! Come on, just like that! How are the polls going? Good, we’re in the lead.
What? The Other Campaign? A murmur, nothing to worry about…Or yes? I don’t know why they’re infuriated and promising us a jail. But who is advising them to try and dispense with us? They themselves? Why don’t they wait? We can go on leading them, teaching them the caution and prudence which we learned and which, you’ll see, is so comfortable! Red and black weekend? Excuse me, no, my friend, that color isn’t registered, it’s worthless. What do you mean they don’t want to be registered? Don’t tell me another politics is possible? And we, the whitewashed tombs of unhurried, exceedingly slow change, take no notice, my friend, because then the investors will be frightened away from us. What is this about their not wanting investors? Or politicians? You see, my friend, they are so very pre-modern. Let’s hope they don’t affect the polls. What would happen to our democracy then?
Yes, they look so pretty when they’re silent, stopped, attentive to our word, to our directions. Yes, ingrates. They don’t know they can’t do anything in such a hurry, so below, so to the left. Yes, little by little. Now, with the project for the Isthmus…What? The same as the Plan Puebla Panama? No, my friend, if this is from the left. Bah! There’ll be a few indigenous peoples disappeared and a few effects on the land. But there will be jobs, maquiladoras and a glimpse of the service and tourism industry booms. Yes, modernity, but with a human face, our face.
That left – how can I say it – isn’t it an ugly, poorly educated, vulgar left? Where is the high level of debate, our skill in dulling the edges of words and our all remaining friends, happy, immobile? Yes, we say what debate is and what it is not. For example, all discussion that ends up in principled commitments is not high-level debate, it’s for ultras, the desperate, resentful. Bah! They can’t take anything, a few indigenous shot, kidnapped, tortured, stripped. No, my friend, don’t look down there. What for? Here is the mature, calm, prudent path. Do you see how we barely move? No, my friend, don’t be distracted, look at me, listen to me, sit down, wait, don’t move, like that, very quiet. Look, what you have to do is to let me do. The rest are just that, the “rest,” the “other.”
Listen, my friend, and are there a lot of them? And you say they’re coming for us? For everyone? Also for the left that’s faithful and loyal to the system? And are they going to take a long time? You know, the academy, the café, the automobile, the position, the symposium, the stroking we give and receive, the invitation to eat with that so very important politician-businessman-leader.
Another communication? All right, tell me why if this one that we have is the one that rules, the one that counts in the polls, the democratic and modern one. As if there’s anything more important to report on other than what concerns me? Another art? What? And the exquisite selection of our tastes? Another culture? That, yes. The charrapastrosos need their own things. They look so cute with all those things. What are they called? Yes, that, with their idiosyncrasies, their crafts, their piercings, their tattoos, their hair sticking up and painted in scandalous colors, their chido-guey-varo-rola things, their music. No, my friend, that’s not rock. Real rock is neat and tidy, “nice,” it’s “your rock is voting,” it’s “better shut up,” it’s about that immobility that moves, jumps and applauds, but thinking…well, my friend, what for? If you’re going to grow up and mature and you’re going to be like us anyway…Or not?
What are you saying? An uprising? National? You mean it’s not just a national mailbox of complaints? They’re also joining together, organizing? But that’s too fast, there should just be a few. What? They’re growing? Listen, but is it true they’re still going to be a while? My grant, my position, my editorial, my essay, my teaching post, my candidacy…
Unauthorized Interference
Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Puebla. Eight states and one single challenge: communication, another communication. Among the conclusions of this first third of the trip around the country is that “All Mexico is Telcel country” is a lie. Slim needs to be put in jail, not just for exploiting, but also for lying.
One of the challenges is that of communication with all those who are battling for this. Technology should also seek the path of below so that the weaving of this network can be made visible in the Other Campaign. Here is a job for now, for right now. The alternative media should not be satisfied with keeping the words of the “others” up to date on their current channels. They should, we believe, seek out the others who don’t have the ways or means to learn about this “other” which is growing down and to the left.
Little by little, the alternative media is coming to understand that the Sixth Committee of the EZLN is just their “back stage,” a support team (big-nosed and ill-tempered at this point) which is helping this part of the “other” a bit in the beginning: making the word grow from below and building a collective ear for it. But the science and technology is still lacking to link up the most distant compas.
Provisional Final (only for the broadminded)
Dawn has almost slipped away. The light from the sun is beginning to peek through the crevices, and we must return to the dim shadows which clothe us. The skin of desire and the tempest of her hair are still missing from my hands. A sigh still waits expectantly on lips. The gaze, and the cloud which envelops it, miss the light which is absent from them. Ah! The tricks of imagination: in the half-sleep dream, her thighs were moaning on cheeks and prison for the waist. Standing, the ride of desire ending, after a brief precipice, in a damp and mutual fall. And at the end there were no debts other than those one has with oneself. Ah, the longing to be drenched in her rain. To be sated by her and to make her desire increase.
Dawn breaks with the certainty that there could be no better photo than the one I take with my hands and lips, no better audio or video than that of awakening her gasps and moans, no better show or painting than that of skin joined together, no better meeting than that of our bodies…
Another communication? Another news report? Another art? Another culture? Another campaign? Who in the hell would embrace that nonsense?
They are knocking on the door of the day. The shadow laces up his boots and desires. We must continue walking, listening…
From the Other Tlaxcala,
Sup Marcos
Mexico, February of 2006
P.S. As of February 15 of this year, the Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign has gained 1036 political, indigenous, social, non-governmental organizations, groups and collectives supporters, all of them from below and to the left. Without any ads other than their voices, nor any signatures traced other than those of their steps throughout the country, signed firmly and with a flourish. Here we are, we are the Otra, rebel dignity, the heart forgotten up till now by the Patria.
********************************
Translated by irlandesa
The First Other Winds
First Part/II and Last
YUCATÁN
Above, a hacienda as political program. Below, Mayan dignity awakening the other.
On one side, that of above: the resistance of the powerful to losing privileges won through blood and fire since the times of the Conquest. On the other, that of below: ancient rebellion multiplying its colors.
The postmodern hacienda of the PAN’s Yucatán is adding the establishment of maquiladoras to the tourism and oil. The weak scaffolding of government propaganda is being built on top of this: even though local economic powers are still thinking in the 16th century, Yucatán is exploiting these lands (and their people) using 21st century methods.
This is the National Action Party’s [PAN] political program: an encomendero mentality running an industry. More is missing, this is the “government of change.” The real results are at odds with the fragile PAN stage set: land seizures, privatization of the heritage, industrial exploitation, destruction of nature, migration. This truth is more visible in rural Yucatán: the destruction of the Mexican countryside is not the result of the governments’ lack of skill, rather it is their primary objective. It has to do with a strategic plan that entails, in simple and straightforward terms, a war, a war of reconquest. But this war is not just one-sided, the resistance is also resounding from below.
And then the guardians appear who are making it quite clear that not in their name will the oblivion of the native persons of these lands be legislated. The Mayan artisans who are resisting the seizure of memory made stone of their ancestors. Chichen Itzá: the fishermen of Puerto Progreso, of the Camarón Vagabundo, who denounced that they are turned into criminals if they work because of a law. They have to pay them to get permission to work, and not even then. In addition, the inspectors steal their catch. The ejiditarios of Oxcum who note that they want to seize their lands for an airport. The banda that suffers persecution for making and promoting another culture.
And the fury and indignation looks around, and, with Mayan language, color and ways, they find the others who are also repeating, though separately, that “ya basta!” Also appearing here, along with residents, students, artisans and academics, homosexuals, their Oasis of San Juan de Dios and their threefold struggle against AIDS: against the virus, against the society which discriminates against them and segregates them and against the government which washes its hands of the problem. Others who join in with the struggle for respect for sexual diversity.
They all say, repeat, insist: we’re not going to allow it, no longer, ya basta. And now it is not only pain which can be heard in the voices of below. Also the joy of someone who is beginning to realize that he or she is not alone, who, by being listened to and listening, finds the compañero, compañera.
But the rebel peninsular wind doesn’t stop here, and it goes on to…
CAMPECHE
Above, destruction as government program. Below, the rebellion of colors.
In Bekal, the first voices resound, and from here they are beginning to sound the alert about the greatness of raising a movement of the people throughout the country. The recounting is made: ejiditarios harassed by corrupt leaders, by the government and by the big owners. Now they have to pay to work their own land, pay to be poor. In the port of Campeche, the voice continues, and the listening is organized primarily by young people. The only point in common with injustice is the number two: 20 wealthy families, 200 of courtiers and 200,000 poor families. The owners of the economy also own the political: a powerful family stands candidates for the three parties: PRI, PAN and PRD. They appropriate large expanses of land and beaches, and the campesinos and fishermen go on to become employees of tourism centers, or they emigrate to the United States.
Hand in hand with wealthy locals, Pemex contributes to the destruction of nature. In Campeche a truth is made evident: nature is being destroyed by the selfsame officials who are in charge of protecting it. The pirates and corsairs who once ravaged the Campeche coasts now hold public and private offices and appear in the society pages while 180,000 residents are surviving in conditions of extreme poverty. The sorrow reaches to Xpujil (Calakmul) and Candelaria. The old PRI politics (sometimes with the flag of the PT, of Convergencia, of the PAN or of the PRD) is being repeated in the Mexican countryside: the buying of campesino leaders, division and confrontations between organizations, repression, persecution, imprisonment, death. Migration to the United States is the only door they find open. The situation isn’t far different from what existed in the times of the chicleros. Injustice is christened in these lands by Carlos Salinas de Gortari as Calakmul (Edificios Gemelos) in order to emphasize the zeal of the neo-conquest of capital: these lands, with everything and the historical wealth they amass, will belong to the new lords of money.
And lies hold an important place in this war: the government social welfare programs do not arrive in full. Those monies remain somewhere else, but government progress is nonetheless announced with pomp and circumstance. The modern divestiture follows known paths: bank credits, increasing interest rates, the bank devouring all the work, and the debt somehow grows, Procede eliminates legal impediments and they are seized. Years of work and, in the end, without land or anything…only rage.
But in the Campeche of below there are rebels who are not just from here, but also from the majority of the states of the Republic. And so rebellion takes on many colors throughout the state. As injustices multiply, so, also, multiply intelligent and organized rebellions.
The Other Campeche joins together artisans, campesinos, cultural and theoretical analysis collectives, beekeepers, cooperative members, mostly indigenous. Many come from the ecclesiastical base communities and committed Christianity. And all of them are in agreement about their being fed-up, about their rage, indignation, rebellion. But they don’t stop there, they form their organizations and educate in the struggle, and there they identify the enemy and the compañero, the opportunist and the momentary passenger.
The wind resounds in the Other Campaign and repeats: “No longer!,” and the echo is so powerful it manages to reach the other country which, below and to the left, watches over the night in order to continue on its path, on another dawn, to Tabasco.
INTERMISSION
Along its way and in its way, the Otra is beginning to turn into an option, into something else, into another alternative to despair. While up above the noise comes and goes (as does the money to simulate discussion and debate, where there are only e-spot ads), an echo sounds in the other voices of below, an echo which does not end, which is beginning to define itself in collective: the Otra is joining together struggles and thoughts. The “I am” is beginning to transform, step by step, into “we are.”
Various points in common in the first winds:
- The brazen alliance between businesspersons and politicians from all parties.
- Seizure of lands.
- Privatization of the national heritage.
- Premeditated destruction of the environment.
- Repression, persecution and imprisonment of those who fight for social good.
- High cost of living, especially that of electricity.
- Migration to the United States.
- Educational crises at all levels and, in the end, the disaster of unemployment.
- Disgust with the political class and criticism of institutional political parties.
And so the bridges are beginning to be extended between those who below are who we are. The first of them, the struggle for our own: freedom for all political prisoners and the cancellation of all arrest warrants for social activists.
But that is not all. Proposals are also beginning to emerge: the general strike over payments to the Federal Commission of Electricity until fair rates are agreed according to the criteria that the rich pay more and the poor pay less or they don’t pay. The generalized campesino rejection of Procede. The national blockade against the official policy of destroying the environment. The national defense of our heritage in the face of its growing privatization. The building of a new option for future migrants which consists of a cry: Stay and fight! Another 1st of May for the other workers. And the first signs of other realities and demands, which we will explain further along.
Video Click: The Week Above and Below
There are differences, above and below, in looking at how the week transpired. Up above it’s always Monday, even for those who are running as the electoral alternative.
Time and again they tell us that we don’t have to go quickly, we have to stop, walk so slowly that movement is barely feigned.
Ah! It’s so nice up above! Entertainment suitable for a wallet full of plastic, high culture, highways and wide streets for vehicles, second floors in order to reaffirm that we are above, television as an instant stage set in every Mexican home. Ah! And once again those naughty ones of below, listening to each other, exchanging histories which look so nice in books and essays, but that way, being talked about, how they offend, my friend, that democracy of those words of below is in such bad taste. Then what are we for, the popular representatives, the opinion leaders, the columnists, the commentators, editors? Where do they get off dispensing with intermediaries and speaking among themselves? And then, in addition to talking and listening, they dare to agree to rise up. Better that you turn up the volume on the television, my friend! Come on, just like that! How are the polls going? Good, we’re in the lead.
What? The Other Campaign? A murmur, nothing to worry about…Or yes? I don’t know why they’re infuriated and promising us a jail. But who is advising them to try and dispense with us? They themselves? Why don’t they wait? We can go on leading them, teaching them the caution and prudence which we learned and which, you’ll see, is so comfortable! Red and black weekend? Excuse me, no, my friend, that color isn’t registered, it’s worthless. What do you mean they don’t want to be registered? Don’t tell me another politics is possible? And we, the whitewashed tombs of unhurried, exceedingly slow change, take no notice, my friend, because then the investors will be frightened away from us. What is this about their not wanting investors? Or politicians? You see, my friend, they are so very pre-modern. Let’s hope they don’t affect the polls. What would happen to our democracy then?
Yes, they look so pretty when they’re silent, stopped, attentive to our word, to our directions. Yes, ingrates. They don’t know they can’t do anything in such a hurry, so below, so to the left. Yes, little by little. Now, with the project for the Isthmus…What? The same as the Plan Puebla Panama? No, my friend, if this is from the left. Bah! There’ll be a few indigenous peoples disappeared and a few effects on the land. But there will be jobs, maquiladoras and a glimpse of the service and tourism industry booms. Yes, modernity, but with a human face, our face.
That left – how can I say it – isn’t it an ugly, poorly educated, vulgar left? Where is the high level of debate, our skill in dulling the edges of words and our all remaining friends, happy, immobile? Yes, we say what debate is and what it is not. For example, all discussion that ends up in principled commitments is not high-level debate, it’s for ultras, the desperate, resentful. Bah! They can’t take anything, a few indigenous shot, kidnapped, tortured, stripped. No, my friend, don’t look down there. What for? Here is the mature, calm, prudent path. Do you see how we barely move? No, my friend, don’t be distracted, look at me, listen to me, sit down, wait, don’t move, like that, very quiet. Look, what you have to do is to let me do. The rest are just that, the “rest,” the “other.”
Listen, my friend, and are there a lot of them? And you say they’re coming for us? For everyone? Also for the left that’s faithful and loyal to the system? And are they going to take a long time? You know, the academy, the café, the automobile, the position, the symposium, the stroking we give and receive, the invitation to eat with that so very important politician-businessman-leader.
Another communication? All right, tell me why if this one that we have is the one that rules, the one that counts in the polls, the democratic and modern one. As if there’s anything more important to report on other than what concerns me? Another art? What? And the exquisite selection of our tastes? Another culture? That, yes. The charrapastrosos need their own things. They look so cute with all those things. What are they called? Yes, that, with their idiosyncrasies, their crafts, their piercings, their tattoos, their hair sticking up and painted in scandalous colors, their chido-guey-varo-rola things, their music. No, my friend, that’s not rock. Real rock is neat and tidy, “nice,” it’s “your rock is voting,” it’s “better shut up,” it’s about that immobility that moves, jumps and applauds, but thinking…well, my friend, what for? If you’re going to grow up and mature and you’re going to be like us anyway…Or not?
What are you saying? An uprising? National? You mean it’s not just a national mailbox of complaints? They’re also joining together, organizing? But that’s too fast, there should just be a few. What? They’re growing? Listen, but is it true they’re still going to be a while? My grant, my position, my editorial, my essay, my teaching post, my candidacy…
Unauthorized Interference
Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Puebla. Eight states and one single challenge: communication, another communication. Among the conclusions of this first third of the trip around the country is that “All Mexico is Telcel country” is a lie. Slim needs to be put in jail, not just for exploiting, but also for lying.
One of the challenges is that of communication with all those who are battling for this. Technology should also seek the path of below so that the weaving of this network can be made visible in the Other Campaign. Here is a job for now, for right now. The alternative media should not be satisfied with keeping the words of the “others” up to date on their current channels. They should, we believe, seek out the others who don’t have the ways or means to learn about this “other” which is growing down and to the left.
Little by little, the alternative media is coming to understand that the Sixth Committee of the EZLN is just their “back stage,” a support team (big-nosed and ill-tempered at this point) which is helping this part of the “other” a bit in the beginning: making the word grow from below and building a collective ear for it. But the science and technology is still lacking to link up the most distant compas.
Provisional Final (only for the broadminded)
Dawn has almost slipped away. The light from the sun is beginning to peek through the crevices, and we must return to the dim shadows which clothe us. The skin of desire and the tempest of her hair are still missing from my hands. A sigh still waits expectantly on lips. The gaze, and the cloud which envelops it, miss the light which is absent from them. Ah! The tricks of imagination: in the half-sleep dream, her thighs were moaning on cheeks and prison for the waist. Standing, the ride of desire ending, after a brief precipice, in a damp and mutual fall. And at the end there were no debts other than those one has with oneself. Ah, the longing to be drenched in her rain. To be sated by her and to make her desire increase.
Dawn breaks with the certainty that there could be no better photo than the one I take with my hands and lips, no better audio or video than that of awakening her gasps and moans, no better show or painting than that of skin joined together, no better meeting than that of our bodies…
Another communication? Another news report? Another art? Another culture? Another campaign? Who in the hell would embrace that nonsense?
They are knocking on the door of the day. The shadow laces up his boots and desires. We must continue walking, listening…
From the Other Tlaxcala,
Sup Marcos
Mexico, February of 2006
P.S. As of February 15 of this year, the Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign has gained 1036 political, indigenous, social, non-governmental organizations, groups and collectives supporters, all of them from below and to the left. Without any ads other than their voices, nor any signatures traced other than those of their steps throughout the country, signed firmly and with a flourish. Here we are, we are the Otra, rebel dignity, the heart forgotten up till now by the Patria.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Marcos: The First Other Winds [Primera: 1/2]
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
*********************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
February 18-19, 2006
In the name of the Zapatista System of Intergalactic Television, “the only television which is read,” we would like to express our gratitude to this space for the presentation of a special program, sponsored by “Huaraches Yepa, Yepa. The only globalized huarache” and “El Pozol Agrio. A delight for the palate.”
We would like to take the opportunity to report that the channels on which SZTVI is broadcasting are for the exclusive and preferential access by the alternative media, and for all honest and principled persons on any part of Planet Earth. As an alternative to the tiresome (and inefficient) PPV system, the SZTVI is offering the NPPL (No Pay Per View) system as a gesture of courtesy for our compañeros and compañeras.
The following program will be rebroadcast by the banda of below to the left by methods which range from pirate radio to the very sophisticated (and practically impossible to jam) bathroom gossip. With you, the program…
THE FIRST OTHER WINDS
First Part
(Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche)
“We want them to lend wind to our words, that they fly quite high and go very far.”
Words of a Mayan indigenous, spoken in the Other Cancún, in the Other Quintana Roo, in the Other southeast, in the Other Campaign, in the Other Mexico.
Walking over itself, with the excuse of a ski-mask, the Other Campaign started the year by noting, from its first steps, what the response would be from above. The march which joint forces of the Other Campaign held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas on the first day of January of 2006 saw how the street lights went out as they made their way. Almost simultaneously, step by step, the mass media’s microphones, cameras, tape recorders and notebooks were being turned off. The Otra’s first victory: more than indifference, the silence of above reflects fear, much fear. The joint steps of the Otra is not just a challenge to the economic and social system (and to the political class which lives off and with it), it is also another step, the change of pace and direction of those who have, up until now, been on the defensive, resisting, surviving, weaving history so they won’t fall. The Otra is now a step to the offense. And so a sound, which is still small, is rising up from the Mexico of below. And it rises up to then make itself a murmur, next a shout and, finally, movement. With its journey, the Otra has a message for those of above: “Ya basta. No longer. Now we’re going after you.” A shiver runs down the system’s spine: instead of listening to those of above, those of below have chosen to listen to each other.
CHIAPAS
Above, a traveling stage set. Below, a yet incomplete heart and a growing indignation, seeking way, path, direction and destination.
The stations of the Other Campaign follow each other, one by one, but the indigenous voice is repeated. From the first day, the Other Campaign has demonstrated that it is more, much more, than the EZLN. San Cristobál de Las Casas, Palenque, Chiapa de Corzo, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the Amate jail, Tonalá, Joaquín Amaro, San Isidro, Huixtla, Ejido Nuevo Villa Flores. Indigenous, most especially indigenous, and, along with them, those who accompany their sorrows and rebellions: non-governmental organizations, groups, collectives, families, individuals who work in the defense of human rights, gender struggle, economic projects, education, culture, defense of the environment, alternative communication, analysis and theoretical debate. Mostly women, mostly young people. There they are, there they always were, even before 1994.
But something has changed: their voice no longer carries just solidarity and support for zapatismo, now it speaks their history, their resistance, their struggle. The “this is what I am” with which the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona started up is now beginning to recount other histories and to name the other through their own voices. Indigenous organizations and Indian peoples, they are not zapatistas but neither are they anti-zapatistas, are demonstrating that their unfinished business is not just with those who rose up in arms in 1994, but also with the very root of the Mexican nation.
The reappearance of the evangelical indigenous on the outskirts of San Cristóbal de Las Casas put an end to the illusion that the Otra Jovel is mestiza. In Palenque something is emerging which may look like a symptom but is, in reality, a movement that is growing as the Otra moves through the Mexican southeast: resistance against the high costs of electricity and against privatization. The first voices against the onslaught by the government which is attempting to privatize the electrical industry are dark of color and speak indigenous language.
In Chiapa de Corzo and Tuxtla Gutiérrez, new voices appear with their own sound: market tenants, teachers, students, residents, non-indigenous campesinos. The tension line which joins the southeast with the north surfaces in the first steps: David Meza, chiapaneco, who is used as a scapegoat in order to conceal the inefficiency of officials in the feminicide which set up camp in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. The young man (26) is accused of murdering his cousin, Neyra Azucena Cervantes (19). Through torture he is forced to sign a confession. He or the real murderers (without videos or tape recordings having yet been discovered) are still free and adding more deaths to the list of sorrow in the Mexican north.
The young students point out a truth: education is bad and moving towards privatization, and when they leave there’s no work. Injustice in Chiapas has face and name of indigenous, campesino, teacher, journalist. But also rebel dignity: Section VII of the SNTE of the National Farm Workers Union is contributing not only prisoners, but also mobilizations. In Tonalá, in Joaquín Amaro, in San Isidro and in Huixtla, the civil resistance movement against the high cost of electric energy is appearing once again, but now they know they’re not alone.
And throughout the coast of Chiapas one can see the combined work of officials and companies in the destruction of nature. Work is now a luxury which you have to pay for, and poverty is a crime. Criticism is growing against the political class and the PRD as a renamed PRI, its corruption improved and magnified. Water is in short supply here, schools don’t even have chalkboards and Fox’s messages about “educational excellence” sound like a bad joke. Old people are protesting against being treated like non-recyclable products. All along the coast, the sierra is an open wound which is far from being healed. Going up, we arrive at the Nuevo Villa Flores ejido and the Otra’s most combative event, with the OCEZ-UNOPII as host.
Half-way along, a blow to the heart forces the silence with which we grieve those in the struggle whom we love. Comandanta Ramona has gone, leaving a multi-colored piece of embroidery as zapatista proposal for the Otra throughout the country. In the mountains of the Mexican southeast we zapatistas tear off a piece of the clothing we’re wearing and, with this sorrowful tatter on our left shoulder, we name the one who we now miss beyond all measure.
Meanwhile, as the Otra’s journey progresses, the state government is moving the stage set of “Everything is calm in Chiapas,” but just for the consumption of those who have accepted the ley mordaza. For the photograph: equipment working on the highway. For the shadow: the scandal of the “disappearance” of the funds and aid earmarked for victims of the storms. The government of Chiapas - when it can find time from its work as real estate consultant and public image advisor to the “king of denim” (and emperor of pederasty and child pornography) - is persecuting and imprisoning dissidents and journalists, and, in addition, is building monuments in praise of themselves and of Fox. The Otra’s journey is forcing them to redouble…their publicity expenditures.
Too late. It does not matter if they close their eyes and ears up above, below they have listened and seen. Now a wind lifts up and, from below and to the left, heads towards…
QUINTANA ROO
Above, a country of hoteliers. Below, Chan Santa Cruz speaks once again.
Chetumal, Carrillo Puerto, Playa del Carmen, Cancún. Names which refer to tourist destinations, to large hotel companies and to natural disasters. But the history of below recounts that the latter have been brought about by pro-business governments. The privatization of large stretches of land and water were achieved through underhanded laws, seizures of ejidal and communal lands and through the destruction of nature. The campesino voice denounces seizure of lands and privatization of beaches with Procede as spearhead. In Majahual, while the North American government is building a wall on the northern border, another is being raised by foreign companies in order to prevent access to a beach. The countryside no longer suffers from government inattention under these skies. Now it has an exceptional commitment, but in order to conquer-destroy it: high interest rates, low prices for what is produced, turning ejiditarios and comuneros into small landowners under Procede. The result is indebtedness, attachment or buying and selling. And where before there was farming land, now there is, or will be, a shopping or tourism center, a residential area or an airport.
Adding insult to injury: After Hurricane Wilma, wasn’t the priority of Fox’s PAN government to bring aid to the big hotel owners instead of to the humble people? Fear of the Otra up above distributed blankets to the Maya of Nicolás Bravo so they wouldn’t go to the meetings, while lumber is being looted by big companies with government permits, and the selva is being destroyed with legal backing.
But nature and history have their guardians. Individually or in organizations, the defense of nature and of heritage supports their strongholds throughout Quintana Roo. Men and women are meeting, analyzing, discussing, agreeing to not remain silent or immobilized. They are thus undertaking a two-fold struggle: one for the legal defense of nature and of history, and the other for creating awareness among the people of below and to the left. Hand in hand with these efforts, another artistic and cultural work is on the march, running up against the tackiness of Fox’s cultural programs and seeking other ears, other gazes, below.
In a corner of the corner that is the Mexican southeast, then appears the indigenous voice of the Union of Defense of the Mayan Race and of the Collective of Isla Mujeres. The dark word of the most small is the one which has best summarized the purpose of the first stage of the Otra: lending wind to word, that it might fly high, that it might go far. The faltering initial steps of the alternative media in the Karavan now have, from these distances, their own pace and firm definition: so that the ear can exist and increase, the word of the other is necessary. The direction of the other cameras and microphones have thus been reoriented, and, with these other men and women, now beginning to fly high are the voices of farmers, fishermen, construction workers, artisans, street vendors, indigenous, campesinos without land, residents, students, teachers, workers, researchers, men, women, young people, especially women and young people.
But, in addition to voices, whispers and shouts, the Otra hears silences. Here, in the Mayan lands of Quintana Roo, Chan Santa Cruz is taking back up the message of the chiapaneco mountains, echoing and so repeating: “May all the guardians of the land, the mother, awaken. May the watchkeepers awaken. May they awaken from the night of sorrow. The hour has come.”
The wind then takes on new force, and, with the voice of the other as engine and fuel, reaches…
(Tomorrow, Yucatán and Campeche, as this first part continues.)
From the Other Tlaxcala,
Sup Marcos
*********************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
February 18-19, 2006
In the name of the Zapatista System of Intergalactic Television, “the only television which is read,” we would like to express our gratitude to this space for the presentation of a special program, sponsored by “Huaraches Yepa, Yepa. The only globalized huarache” and “El Pozol Agrio. A delight for the palate.”
We would like to take the opportunity to report that the channels on which SZTVI is broadcasting are for the exclusive and preferential access by the alternative media, and for all honest and principled persons on any part of Planet Earth. As an alternative to the tiresome (and inefficient) PPV system, the SZTVI is offering the NPPL (No Pay Per View) system as a gesture of courtesy for our compañeros and compañeras.
The following program will be rebroadcast by the banda of below to the left by methods which range from pirate radio to the very sophisticated (and practically impossible to jam) bathroom gossip. With you, the program…
THE FIRST OTHER WINDS
First Part
(Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche)
“We want them to lend wind to our words, that they fly quite high and go very far.”
Words of a Mayan indigenous, spoken in the Other Cancún, in the Other Quintana Roo, in the Other southeast, in the Other Campaign, in the Other Mexico.
Walking over itself, with the excuse of a ski-mask, the Other Campaign started the year by noting, from its first steps, what the response would be from above. The march which joint forces of the Other Campaign held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas on the first day of January of 2006 saw how the street lights went out as they made their way. Almost simultaneously, step by step, the mass media’s microphones, cameras, tape recorders and notebooks were being turned off. The Otra’s first victory: more than indifference, the silence of above reflects fear, much fear. The joint steps of the Otra is not just a challenge to the economic and social system (and to the political class which lives off and with it), it is also another step, the change of pace and direction of those who have, up until now, been on the defensive, resisting, surviving, weaving history so they won’t fall. The Otra is now a step to the offense. And so a sound, which is still small, is rising up from the Mexico of below. And it rises up to then make itself a murmur, next a shout and, finally, movement. With its journey, the Otra has a message for those of above: “Ya basta. No longer. Now we’re going after you.” A shiver runs down the system’s spine: instead of listening to those of above, those of below have chosen to listen to each other.
CHIAPAS
Above, a traveling stage set. Below, a yet incomplete heart and a growing indignation, seeking way, path, direction and destination.
The stations of the Other Campaign follow each other, one by one, but the indigenous voice is repeated. From the first day, the Other Campaign has demonstrated that it is more, much more, than the EZLN. San Cristobál de Las Casas, Palenque, Chiapa de Corzo, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the Amate jail, Tonalá, Joaquín Amaro, San Isidro, Huixtla, Ejido Nuevo Villa Flores. Indigenous, most especially indigenous, and, along with them, those who accompany their sorrows and rebellions: non-governmental organizations, groups, collectives, families, individuals who work in the defense of human rights, gender struggle, economic projects, education, culture, defense of the environment, alternative communication, analysis and theoretical debate. Mostly women, mostly young people. There they are, there they always were, even before 1994.
But something has changed: their voice no longer carries just solidarity and support for zapatismo, now it speaks their history, their resistance, their struggle. The “this is what I am” with which the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona started up is now beginning to recount other histories and to name the other through their own voices. Indigenous organizations and Indian peoples, they are not zapatistas but neither are they anti-zapatistas, are demonstrating that their unfinished business is not just with those who rose up in arms in 1994, but also with the very root of the Mexican nation.
The reappearance of the evangelical indigenous on the outskirts of San Cristóbal de Las Casas put an end to the illusion that the Otra Jovel is mestiza. In Palenque something is emerging which may look like a symptom but is, in reality, a movement that is growing as the Otra moves through the Mexican southeast: resistance against the high costs of electricity and against privatization. The first voices against the onslaught by the government which is attempting to privatize the electrical industry are dark of color and speak indigenous language.
In Chiapa de Corzo and Tuxtla Gutiérrez, new voices appear with their own sound: market tenants, teachers, students, residents, non-indigenous campesinos. The tension line which joins the southeast with the north surfaces in the first steps: David Meza, chiapaneco, who is used as a scapegoat in order to conceal the inefficiency of officials in the feminicide which set up camp in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. The young man (26) is accused of murdering his cousin, Neyra Azucena Cervantes (19). Through torture he is forced to sign a confession. He or the real murderers (without videos or tape recordings having yet been discovered) are still free and adding more deaths to the list of sorrow in the Mexican north.
The young students point out a truth: education is bad and moving towards privatization, and when they leave there’s no work. Injustice in Chiapas has face and name of indigenous, campesino, teacher, journalist. But also rebel dignity: Section VII of the SNTE of the National Farm Workers Union is contributing not only prisoners, but also mobilizations. In Tonalá, in Joaquín Amaro, in San Isidro and in Huixtla, the civil resistance movement against the high cost of electric energy is appearing once again, but now they know they’re not alone.
And throughout the coast of Chiapas one can see the combined work of officials and companies in the destruction of nature. Work is now a luxury which you have to pay for, and poverty is a crime. Criticism is growing against the political class and the PRD as a renamed PRI, its corruption improved and magnified. Water is in short supply here, schools don’t even have chalkboards and Fox’s messages about “educational excellence” sound like a bad joke. Old people are protesting against being treated like non-recyclable products. All along the coast, the sierra is an open wound which is far from being healed. Going up, we arrive at the Nuevo Villa Flores ejido and the Otra’s most combative event, with the OCEZ-UNOPII as host.
Half-way along, a blow to the heart forces the silence with which we grieve those in the struggle whom we love. Comandanta Ramona has gone, leaving a multi-colored piece of embroidery as zapatista proposal for the Otra throughout the country. In the mountains of the Mexican southeast we zapatistas tear off a piece of the clothing we’re wearing and, with this sorrowful tatter on our left shoulder, we name the one who we now miss beyond all measure.
Meanwhile, as the Otra’s journey progresses, the state government is moving the stage set of “Everything is calm in Chiapas,” but just for the consumption of those who have accepted the ley mordaza. For the photograph: equipment working on the highway. For the shadow: the scandal of the “disappearance” of the funds and aid earmarked for victims of the storms. The government of Chiapas - when it can find time from its work as real estate consultant and public image advisor to the “king of denim” (and emperor of pederasty and child pornography) - is persecuting and imprisoning dissidents and journalists, and, in addition, is building monuments in praise of themselves and of Fox. The Otra’s journey is forcing them to redouble…their publicity expenditures.
Too late. It does not matter if they close their eyes and ears up above, below they have listened and seen. Now a wind lifts up and, from below and to the left, heads towards…
QUINTANA ROO
Above, a country of hoteliers. Below, Chan Santa Cruz speaks once again.
Chetumal, Carrillo Puerto, Playa del Carmen, Cancún. Names which refer to tourist destinations, to large hotel companies and to natural disasters. But the history of below recounts that the latter have been brought about by pro-business governments. The privatization of large stretches of land and water were achieved through underhanded laws, seizures of ejidal and communal lands and through the destruction of nature. The campesino voice denounces seizure of lands and privatization of beaches with Procede as spearhead. In Majahual, while the North American government is building a wall on the northern border, another is being raised by foreign companies in order to prevent access to a beach. The countryside no longer suffers from government inattention under these skies. Now it has an exceptional commitment, but in order to conquer-destroy it: high interest rates, low prices for what is produced, turning ejiditarios and comuneros into small landowners under Procede. The result is indebtedness, attachment or buying and selling. And where before there was farming land, now there is, or will be, a shopping or tourism center, a residential area or an airport.
Adding insult to injury: After Hurricane Wilma, wasn’t the priority of Fox’s PAN government to bring aid to the big hotel owners instead of to the humble people? Fear of the Otra up above distributed blankets to the Maya of Nicolás Bravo so they wouldn’t go to the meetings, while lumber is being looted by big companies with government permits, and the selva is being destroyed with legal backing.
But nature and history have their guardians. Individually or in organizations, the defense of nature and of heritage supports their strongholds throughout Quintana Roo. Men and women are meeting, analyzing, discussing, agreeing to not remain silent or immobilized. They are thus undertaking a two-fold struggle: one for the legal defense of nature and of history, and the other for creating awareness among the people of below and to the left. Hand in hand with these efforts, another artistic and cultural work is on the march, running up against the tackiness of Fox’s cultural programs and seeking other ears, other gazes, below.
In a corner of the corner that is the Mexican southeast, then appears the indigenous voice of the Union of Defense of the Mayan Race and of the Collective of Isla Mujeres. The dark word of the most small is the one which has best summarized the purpose of the first stage of the Otra: lending wind to word, that it might fly high, that it might go far. The faltering initial steps of the alternative media in the Karavan now have, from these distances, their own pace and firm definition: so that the ear can exist and increase, the word of the other is necessary. The direction of the other cameras and microphones have thus been reoriented, and, with these other men and women, now beginning to fly high are the voices of farmers, fishermen, construction workers, artisans, street vendors, indigenous, campesinos without land, residents, students, teachers, workers, researchers, men, women, young people, especially women and young people.
But, in addition to voices, whispers and shouts, the Otra hears silences. Here, in the Mayan lands of Quintana Roo, Chan Santa Cruz is taking back up the message of the chiapaneco mountains, echoing and so repeating: “May all the guardians of the land, the mother, awaken. May the watchkeepers awaken. May they awaken from the night of sorrow. The hour has come.”
The wind then takes on new force, and, with the voice of the other as engine and fuel, reaches…
(Tomorrow, Yucatán and Campeche, as this first part continues.)
From the Other Tlaxcala,
Sup Marcos
Monday, February 20, 2006
Marcos & Durito on 'how big is the world?'
Originally published in Spanish by the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
*********************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
February 17, 2006
After a day of preparation meetings for the Other Campaign (it was September, it was dawn, there was rain from a far-off cloud), we were heading towards the hut where our things were when we ran into a citizen who all of a sudden came out with: “Listen, Sup, what are the zapatistas proposing?” Without even stopping, I answered: “Changing the world.” We reached the hut and began getting things ready in order to leave. Insurgenta Erika waited until I was alone. She approached me and said “Listen, Sup, the world is very big,” as if she were trying to make me realize what nonsense I was proposing and that I didn’t, in reality, know what I was saying when I’d said what I’d said. Following the custom of responding to a question with another question, I came out with:
“How big?”
She kept looking at me, and she answered almost tenderly: “Very big.”
I insisted: “Yes, but how big?”
She thought about it for a minute and said: “Much bigger than Chiapas.”
Then they told us we had to go. When we had gotten back, in the barracks now and after making Penguin comfortable, Erika came over to me, carrying a globe, the kind they use in elementary schools. She put it on the ground and told me: “Look, Sup, here, in this little piece, there’s Chiapas, and all this is the world,” almost caressing the globe with her dark hands as she said it.
“Hmm,” I said, lighting my pipe in order to gain some time.
Erika insisted: “Now you’ve seen that it’s very big?”
“Yes, but we’re not going to change it all by ourselves, we’re going to change it with many compañeros and compañeras from everywhere.” At that point they called the guard. Showing that I’d learned, she shot back at me before she left: “How many compañeros and compañeras?”
How big is the world?
In the Tehuacán valley, in the Sierra Negra, in the Sierra Norte, in the suburban areas of Puebla. From the most forgotten corners of the other Puebla, answers are ventured:
In Altepexi, a young woman replied: More than 12 hours a day of work in the maquiladora, working on days off, no benefits, or insurance, or Christmas bonus, or profit sharing. Authoritarianism and bad treatment by the manager or line supervisor, being punished by not being paid when I get sick, seeing my name on a black list so they won’t give me work in any maquiladora. If we mobilize, the owner closes down and goes someplace else. Transportation is very bad, and I get back to the house where I live really late. I look at the light bill, the water bill, taxes, I do the sums and see there’s not enough. Realizing that there’s not even any water to drink, that the plumbing doesn’t work and that the street stinks. And the next day, after sleeping badly and being poorly fed, back to work. The world is as big as the rage I feel against all this.
A young Mixtec indigenous: My papa went to the United States more than 12 years ago. My mama works sewing balls. They pay her 10 pesos for each ball, and if one of them isn’t good, they charge 40 pesos. They don’t pay then, not until the contractor comes back to the village. My brother is also packing to leave. We women are alone in this, in carrying on with the family, the land, the work. And so it’s up to us to also carry on with the struggle. The world is as big as the courage this injustice makes me feel, so big it makes my blood boil.
In San Miguel Tzinacapan an elderly couple look at each other and answer almost in unison: the world is the size of our effort to change it.
An indigenous campesino from the Sierra Negra, a veteran of all the dislocations, except the dislocation of history: It has to be very big, that’s why we need to make our organization grow.
In Ixtepec, Sierra Norte: The world is the size of the swinishness of the bad governments and of the Antorcha Campesina, which is just prejudiced against the campesino and is still poisoning the earth.
In Huitziltepec, from a small autonomous school, a rebel television station is broadcasting a truth: the world is so large that it has room for the history of the community and of its desire and struggle to continue looking out at the universe with dignity. A lady, an indigenous artisan, from the same round as the departed Comandanta Ramona, adds off-mike: “The world is as big as the injustice we feel, because they pay us a pittance for what we do, and we watch the things we need just pass us by, because there’s not enough.”
In the neighborhood of Granja: It can’t be very big, because it seems as if there’s no room for poor children, they just scold us, persecute and beat us, and we’re just trying to make enough to eat.
In Coronango: As big as the world is, it’s dying from the neoliberal pollution of the land, water, air. It’s breaking down, because that’s what our grandparents said, that when the community breaks down, the world breaks down.
In San Matías Cocoyotla: It’s as big as the government’s lack of shame, which is simply destroying what we do as workers. Now we have to organize in order to defend ourselves from the government which is supposed to serve us. Now they see that they are without shame.
In Puebla, but in the other Puebla: The world isn’t so big because what the rich already have isn’t enough for them, and now they want to take away from us poor people what little we have.
Again, another Puebla, a young woman: It’s very big, so just a few of us can’t change it. We all have to join together in order to do it, because if not, we can’t, you get tired.
A young artist: It’s big, but it’s rotten. They extort money from us for being young people. In this world it’s a crime to be young.
A neighbor: However big it may be, it’s small for the rich, because they are invading communal lands, ejidos, popular neighborhoods. As if there’s no longer room for their shopping centers and their luxuries, and they’re putting them on our lands. The same way, I believe, that there’s no room for us, those of below.
A worker: The world is as big as the cynicism of the corrupt leaders. And they still say they’re for the defense of the workers. And up above they’ve got their shit together: whether it’s the owner, the official or the pro-management union leader, no matter what new things they say. They should make one of those landfills, a garbage dump, and put all of them in it together. Or not, better not, because they’d certainly pollute everything. And then if we were to put them in jail, the criminals would riot because even they don’t want to live next to those bastards.
Now it’s dawn in this other Puebla which hasn’t ceased to amaze us with every step we take on its lands. We’ve just finished eating, and I’m thinking about what I’m going to say on this occasion. Suddenly a little suitcase is sticking out from under the door, and it almost immediately gets stuck in the crack. A murmur of heavy breathing can barely be heard, of someone pushing from the other side. The little suitcase finally makes it through and, behind it, stumbling, something appears which looks remarkably like a beetle. If it weren’t for the fact that I was in Puebla, albeit the other Puebla, and not in the mountains of the Mexican southeast, I would almost swear that it was Durito. As if putting aside a bad thought, I return to the notebook where the question which headed this surprise exam is already written down. I continue trying to write, but nothing worthwhile occurs to me. That is what I was doing, making a fool of myself, when I felt as if something were on my shoulder. I was just about to shrug in order to get rid of it, when I heard:
“Do you have tobacco?”
“That little voice, that little voice,” I thought.
“What little voice? I see you’re jealous of my masculine and seductive voice,” Durito protested.
There was no longer any room for doubt, and so, with more resignation than enthusiasm, I said:
“Durito…!”
“Not ‘Durito’! I am the greatest righter of wrongs, the savior of the helpless, the comforter of the defenseless, the hope of the weak, the unattainable dream of women, the favorite poster of children, the object of men’s unspeakable jealousy, the…”
“Stop it, stop it! You sound like a candidate in an election campaign,” I told Durito, trying to interrupt him. Uselessly, as can be seen, because he continued:
“…the most gallant of that race which has embraced knight errantry: Don Durito of the Lacandona SA of CV of RL. And authorized by the good government juntas.”
As he said this, Durito showed me a decal on his shell which read: “Authorized by the Charlie Parker Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipality (MAREZ).”
“Charlie Parker? I didn’t know we had a MAREZ with that name, at least we didn’t when I left,” I said disconcertedly.
“Of course, I established it just before I left there and came to your aid,” Durito said.
“How odd, I asked them to send me tobacco, not a beetle,” I responded-protested.
“I am not a beetle, I am a knight errant who has come to get you out of the predicament you have found yourself in.”
“Me? Predicament?”
“Yes, do not act like Mario Marín’s “precious hero” in the face of those recordings which revealed his true moral caliber. Are you in a predicament or not?”
“Well, predicament, what’s called a predicament, then…yes, I’m in a predicament.”
“You see? Perhaps you were not longing for me, the very best of the knights errant, to come to your aid?”
I thought for barely an instant and responded:
“Well, the truth is, no.”
“Come, do not conceal that great pleasure, the huge joy and the unbridled enthusiasm which exists in your heart upon seeing me once again.”
“I prefer to conceal it,” I said resignedly.
“Fine, fine, enough of the welcoming fiestas and fireworks. Who is the scoundrel I should defeat with the arm I have below and to the left? Where are the Kamel Nacif, Succar Kuri so-and-sos and others of such low ilk?”
“No scoundrels and nothing to do with that ilk of swine. I have to answer a question.”
“Come on,” Durito pressed.
“How big is the world?” I asked.
“Well, there is a short version and a long version of the answer. Which do you want?”
I looked at my watch. It was 3 AM, and my eyelids and cap were falling into my eyes, and so I said without hesitation:
“The short version.”
“What do you mean, the short version! Do you think I have been following your tracks through eight states of the Mexican Republic in order to present the short version?
Naranjas podridas, ni mais palomas, not hardly, absolutely not, no way, negative, rejected, no.”
“Fine,” I said, resigned. “The long version then.”
“That’s it, my big-nosed nomad! Take this down.”
I picked up my pen and notebook. Durito dictated:
“If you look at it from above, the world is small and the color green of the dollar. It fits perfectly in the price indexes and the valuations of a stock market, in the profits of a transnational, in the election polls of a country which has suffered the hijacking of its dignity, in the cosmopolitan calculator which adds capital and subtracts lives, mountains, rivers, seas, springs, histories, entire civilizations, in the miniscule brain of George W. Bush, in the shortsightedness of savage capitalism badly dressed up in neoliberal attire. Seen from above, the world is very small because it disregards persons and, in their place, there is a bank account number, with no movement other than that of deposits.
But if you look at it from below, the world stretches so far that one look is not enough to encompass it, instead many looks are necessary in order to complete it. Seen from below, the world abounds in worlds, almost all of them painted with the color of dislocation, poverty, despair, death. The world below grows sideways, especially to the left side, and it has many colors, almost as many as persons and histories. And it grows backwards, to the history which the world below made. And it grows towards itself with the struggles that illuminate it, even though the light from above goes out. And it sounds, even though the silence of above crushes it. And it grows forward, divining in every heart the morrow that will be given birth by those who below are who they are. Seen from below, the world is so big that many worlds fit, and, even so, there is space left over, for example, for a jail.
Or, in summary, seen from above, the world shrinks, and nothing fits in it other than injustice. And, seen from below, the world is so spacious that there is room for joy, music, song, dance, dignified work, justice, everyone’s opinions and thoughts, no matter how different they are if below they are what they are.”
I had barely been able to write it down. I re-read Durito’s response, and I asked him:
“And what is the short version?”
“The short version is the following: the world is as big as the heart which first hurts and then struggles, along with everyone from below and to the left.”
Durito left. I continued writing while the moon waned in the heavens with the night’s damp caress…
I would like to venture a response. Imagining that I, with my hands, undo her hair and her desire, that I envelope her ear with a sigh, and, while my lips move up and down her hills, understanding that the world is as large as is my thirst for her belly.
Or, more decorously, trying to say that the world is as large as the delirium to make it “otherly,” as the ear that is needed to embrace all the voices of below, as this other collective desire to go against the tide, uniting rebellions of below, while above they separate solitudes.
The world is as big as the prickly plant of indignation which we raise, knowing the flower of tomorrow will be born from it. And, in that tomorrow, the Iberoamerican University will be a public, free and secular university, and in its corridors and rooms will be the workers, campesinos, indigenous and others who today are outside.
That is all. Your responses should be presented on February 30 in triplicate: one for your conscience, another for the Other Campaign and another with a heading that clearly states: Warning, for those of above who believe, naively, that they are eternal.
From the other Puebla.
Sup Marcos
Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Mexico, February of 2006
*********************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
February 17, 2006
After a day of preparation meetings for the Other Campaign (it was September, it was dawn, there was rain from a far-off cloud), we were heading towards the hut where our things were when we ran into a citizen who all of a sudden came out with: “Listen, Sup, what are the zapatistas proposing?” Without even stopping, I answered: “Changing the world.” We reached the hut and began getting things ready in order to leave. Insurgenta Erika waited until I was alone. She approached me and said “Listen, Sup, the world is very big,” as if she were trying to make me realize what nonsense I was proposing and that I didn’t, in reality, know what I was saying when I’d said what I’d said. Following the custom of responding to a question with another question, I came out with:
“How big?”
She kept looking at me, and she answered almost tenderly: “Very big.”
I insisted: “Yes, but how big?”
She thought about it for a minute and said: “Much bigger than Chiapas.”
Then they told us we had to go. When we had gotten back, in the barracks now and after making Penguin comfortable, Erika came over to me, carrying a globe, the kind they use in elementary schools. She put it on the ground and told me: “Look, Sup, here, in this little piece, there’s Chiapas, and all this is the world,” almost caressing the globe with her dark hands as she said it.
“Hmm,” I said, lighting my pipe in order to gain some time.
Erika insisted: “Now you’ve seen that it’s very big?”
“Yes, but we’re not going to change it all by ourselves, we’re going to change it with many compañeros and compañeras from everywhere.” At that point they called the guard. Showing that I’d learned, she shot back at me before she left: “How many compañeros and compañeras?”
How big is the world?
In the Tehuacán valley, in the Sierra Negra, in the Sierra Norte, in the suburban areas of Puebla. From the most forgotten corners of the other Puebla, answers are ventured:
In Altepexi, a young woman replied: More than 12 hours a day of work in the maquiladora, working on days off, no benefits, or insurance, or Christmas bonus, or profit sharing. Authoritarianism and bad treatment by the manager or line supervisor, being punished by not being paid when I get sick, seeing my name on a black list so they won’t give me work in any maquiladora. If we mobilize, the owner closes down and goes someplace else. Transportation is very bad, and I get back to the house where I live really late. I look at the light bill, the water bill, taxes, I do the sums and see there’s not enough. Realizing that there’s not even any water to drink, that the plumbing doesn’t work and that the street stinks. And the next day, after sleeping badly and being poorly fed, back to work. The world is as big as the rage I feel against all this.
A young Mixtec indigenous: My papa went to the United States more than 12 years ago. My mama works sewing balls. They pay her 10 pesos for each ball, and if one of them isn’t good, they charge 40 pesos. They don’t pay then, not until the contractor comes back to the village. My brother is also packing to leave. We women are alone in this, in carrying on with the family, the land, the work. And so it’s up to us to also carry on with the struggle. The world is as big as the courage this injustice makes me feel, so big it makes my blood boil.
In San Miguel Tzinacapan an elderly couple look at each other and answer almost in unison: the world is the size of our effort to change it.
An indigenous campesino from the Sierra Negra, a veteran of all the dislocations, except the dislocation of history: It has to be very big, that’s why we need to make our organization grow.
In Ixtepec, Sierra Norte: The world is the size of the swinishness of the bad governments and of the Antorcha Campesina, which is just prejudiced against the campesino and is still poisoning the earth.
In Huitziltepec, from a small autonomous school, a rebel television station is broadcasting a truth: the world is so large that it has room for the history of the community and of its desire and struggle to continue looking out at the universe with dignity. A lady, an indigenous artisan, from the same round as the departed Comandanta Ramona, adds off-mike: “The world is as big as the injustice we feel, because they pay us a pittance for what we do, and we watch the things we need just pass us by, because there’s not enough.”
In the neighborhood of Granja: It can’t be very big, because it seems as if there’s no room for poor children, they just scold us, persecute and beat us, and we’re just trying to make enough to eat.
In Coronango: As big as the world is, it’s dying from the neoliberal pollution of the land, water, air. It’s breaking down, because that’s what our grandparents said, that when the community breaks down, the world breaks down.
In San Matías Cocoyotla: It’s as big as the government’s lack of shame, which is simply destroying what we do as workers. Now we have to organize in order to defend ourselves from the government which is supposed to serve us. Now they see that they are without shame.
In Puebla, but in the other Puebla: The world isn’t so big because what the rich already have isn’t enough for them, and now they want to take away from us poor people what little we have.
Again, another Puebla, a young woman: It’s very big, so just a few of us can’t change it. We all have to join together in order to do it, because if not, we can’t, you get tired.
A young artist: It’s big, but it’s rotten. They extort money from us for being young people. In this world it’s a crime to be young.
A neighbor: However big it may be, it’s small for the rich, because they are invading communal lands, ejidos, popular neighborhoods. As if there’s no longer room for their shopping centers and their luxuries, and they’re putting them on our lands. The same way, I believe, that there’s no room for us, those of below.
A worker: The world is as big as the cynicism of the corrupt leaders. And they still say they’re for the defense of the workers. And up above they’ve got their shit together: whether it’s the owner, the official or the pro-management union leader, no matter what new things they say. They should make one of those landfills, a garbage dump, and put all of them in it together. Or not, better not, because they’d certainly pollute everything. And then if we were to put them in jail, the criminals would riot because even they don’t want to live next to those bastards.
Now it’s dawn in this other Puebla which hasn’t ceased to amaze us with every step we take on its lands. We’ve just finished eating, and I’m thinking about what I’m going to say on this occasion. Suddenly a little suitcase is sticking out from under the door, and it almost immediately gets stuck in the crack. A murmur of heavy breathing can barely be heard, of someone pushing from the other side. The little suitcase finally makes it through and, behind it, stumbling, something appears which looks remarkably like a beetle. If it weren’t for the fact that I was in Puebla, albeit the other Puebla, and not in the mountains of the Mexican southeast, I would almost swear that it was Durito. As if putting aside a bad thought, I return to the notebook where the question which headed this surprise exam is already written down. I continue trying to write, but nothing worthwhile occurs to me. That is what I was doing, making a fool of myself, when I felt as if something were on my shoulder. I was just about to shrug in order to get rid of it, when I heard:
“Do you have tobacco?”
“That little voice, that little voice,” I thought.
“What little voice? I see you’re jealous of my masculine and seductive voice,” Durito protested.
There was no longer any room for doubt, and so, with more resignation than enthusiasm, I said:
“Durito…!”
“Not ‘Durito’! I am the greatest righter of wrongs, the savior of the helpless, the comforter of the defenseless, the hope of the weak, the unattainable dream of women, the favorite poster of children, the object of men’s unspeakable jealousy, the…”
“Stop it, stop it! You sound like a candidate in an election campaign,” I told Durito, trying to interrupt him. Uselessly, as can be seen, because he continued:
“…the most gallant of that race which has embraced knight errantry: Don Durito of the Lacandona SA of CV of RL. And authorized by the good government juntas.”
As he said this, Durito showed me a decal on his shell which read: “Authorized by the Charlie Parker Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipality (MAREZ).”
“Charlie Parker? I didn’t know we had a MAREZ with that name, at least we didn’t when I left,” I said disconcertedly.
“Of course, I established it just before I left there and came to your aid,” Durito said.
“How odd, I asked them to send me tobacco, not a beetle,” I responded-protested.
“I am not a beetle, I am a knight errant who has come to get you out of the predicament you have found yourself in.”
“Me? Predicament?”
“Yes, do not act like Mario Marín’s “precious hero” in the face of those recordings which revealed his true moral caliber. Are you in a predicament or not?”
“Well, predicament, what’s called a predicament, then…yes, I’m in a predicament.”
“You see? Perhaps you were not longing for me, the very best of the knights errant, to come to your aid?”
I thought for barely an instant and responded:
“Well, the truth is, no.”
“Come, do not conceal that great pleasure, the huge joy and the unbridled enthusiasm which exists in your heart upon seeing me once again.”
“I prefer to conceal it,” I said resignedly.
“Fine, fine, enough of the welcoming fiestas and fireworks. Who is the scoundrel I should defeat with the arm I have below and to the left? Where are the Kamel Nacif, Succar Kuri so-and-sos and others of such low ilk?”
“No scoundrels and nothing to do with that ilk of swine. I have to answer a question.”
“Come on,” Durito pressed.
“How big is the world?” I asked.
“Well, there is a short version and a long version of the answer. Which do you want?”
I looked at my watch. It was 3 AM, and my eyelids and cap were falling into my eyes, and so I said without hesitation:
“The short version.”
“What do you mean, the short version! Do you think I have been following your tracks through eight states of the Mexican Republic in order to present the short version?
Naranjas podridas, ni mais palomas, not hardly, absolutely not, no way, negative, rejected, no.”
“Fine,” I said, resigned. “The long version then.”
“That’s it, my big-nosed nomad! Take this down.”
I picked up my pen and notebook. Durito dictated:
“If you look at it from above, the world is small and the color green of the dollar. It fits perfectly in the price indexes and the valuations of a stock market, in the profits of a transnational, in the election polls of a country which has suffered the hijacking of its dignity, in the cosmopolitan calculator which adds capital and subtracts lives, mountains, rivers, seas, springs, histories, entire civilizations, in the miniscule brain of George W. Bush, in the shortsightedness of savage capitalism badly dressed up in neoliberal attire. Seen from above, the world is very small because it disregards persons and, in their place, there is a bank account number, with no movement other than that of deposits.
But if you look at it from below, the world stretches so far that one look is not enough to encompass it, instead many looks are necessary in order to complete it. Seen from below, the world abounds in worlds, almost all of them painted with the color of dislocation, poverty, despair, death. The world below grows sideways, especially to the left side, and it has many colors, almost as many as persons and histories. And it grows backwards, to the history which the world below made. And it grows towards itself with the struggles that illuminate it, even though the light from above goes out. And it sounds, even though the silence of above crushes it. And it grows forward, divining in every heart the morrow that will be given birth by those who below are who they are. Seen from below, the world is so big that many worlds fit, and, even so, there is space left over, for example, for a jail.
Or, in summary, seen from above, the world shrinks, and nothing fits in it other than injustice. And, seen from below, the world is so spacious that there is room for joy, music, song, dance, dignified work, justice, everyone’s opinions and thoughts, no matter how different they are if below they are what they are.”
I had barely been able to write it down. I re-read Durito’s response, and I asked him:
“And what is the short version?”
“The short version is the following: the world is as big as the heart which first hurts and then struggles, along with everyone from below and to the left.”
Durito left. I continued writing while the moon waned in the heavens with the night’s damp caress…
I would like to venture a response. Imagining that I, with my hands, undo her hair and her desire, that I envelope her ear with a sigh, and, while my lips move up and down her hills, understanding that the world is as large as is my thirst for her belly.
Or, more decorously, trying to say that the world is as large as the delirium to make it “otherly,” as the ear that is needed to embrace all the voices of below, as this other collective desire to go against the tide, uniting rebellions of below, while above they separate solitudes.
The world is as big as the prickly plant of indignation which we raise, knowing the flower of tomorrow will be born from it. And, in that tomorrow, the Iberoamerican University will be a public, free and secular university, and in its corridors and rooms will be the workers, campesinos, indigenous and others who today are outside.
That is all. Your responses should be presented on February 30 in triplicate: one for your conscience, another for the Other Campaign and another with a heading that clearly states: Warning, for those of above who believe, naively, that they are eternal.
From the other Puebla.
Sup Marcos
Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Mexico, February of 2006
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Statement by JBG on 12th Anniversary of Uprising
Originally published in Spanish by the JBG
**************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Resistencia Hacia un Nuevo Amanecer Caracol
El Camino del Futuro Good Government Junta
Chiapas, Mexico
December 31, 2005
Compañeros, compañeras, support bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, brothers and sisters of national and international civil society, good evening to everyone.
Today it is 11:50 minutes southeastern time. Welcome to our Resistencia Hacia un Nuevo Amanecer Caracol. Once again we are joining together, men, women, boys, girls, young people and old ones, to remember and to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the armed uprising, and we are also remembering our compañeros who fell in combat in 1994. Please be so kind as to accompany us in observing a moment of silence.
There have been 12 steps forward in building its history and making a reality of its transformation of struggle. And for 12 years we have also worked to strengthen and to build what did not exist before. Now there is hope and dignity for men, women, indigenous and non-indigenous to continue struggling with rebellion. Our Caracol of Resistance is a name of dignity, but we are the ones who give it shape. We are the ones who struggle, live and die. We are those of rebel dignity. We are the ones who built it and work it and watch over it in its growth..
Compañeros and compañeras, EZLN support bases, for 12 years we have been resisting attacks of all kinds. They have attacked us with bullets, with torture and jail, with lies, contempt and forgetting, but here we are, and we, the most small of this land, shall continue. And here we will continue being zapatistas, even though the bad government wants to do away with our Autonomous Municipalities, which they attentively listen to and watch. They do not want what they see. This struggle has begun, and no one can stop it.
Brothers and sisters of civil society, our hearts are made glad today to share with you, and we give you greetings of hope. It is only by being together and only as brothers that we can really respect each other and help each other, shoulder to shoulder, demonstrating to the powerful of the color of money and to those who exploit that there are many hearts in the world which are joined together, who help each other, who work united together in things they have in common, helping each other in their struggles and respecting each other's differences in order to build that new world where many worlds fit.
The true peoples have sown different works through autonomy, and they are working like the most first peoples. When it is the new moon, as it is now, they sow, in order to yield good fruit to feed themselves, through that, for the future.
Autonomy has allowed the peoples to build their regulatory, political, economic, social and cultural systems by themselves. We want autonomy so that we are all of value all the time, so that the one who governs, governs obeying.
They have named their different authorities and different committees for the operation of the Autonomous Municipalities and the Good Government Junta, so they will keep working. It is not necessary to be zapatista in order to be taken care of and respected by the authorities in any part of our rebel territory. We, the zapatistas, are not going to attack anyone, not those brothers who are not zapatistas. We will be respectful with all our indigenous brothers, without regard to their organization, their party or their religion, always and as long as they respect us. The people themselves decide when to change or remove a compañero from a position, but none of the compañero authorities can receive any salary.
Brothers and sisters, the Good Government Junta is grateful to this zapatista village, La Garrucha, to everyone, men, women, boys, girls, young people and old ones who have helped us through their great efforts in giving us this space for the gathering and who are continuing to organize more in order to move forward with our revolutionary struggle by the zapatista support base compañeros and grateful also to national and international civil society.
Brothers and sisters, we have nothing else to give you other than our seeds of hope, other than our rebel and indigenous dignified hearts. Take them in order to continue scattering more seeds among your different peoples of the world.
Liberty, justice and democracy.
Viva Compañero Sup Comandante Insurgente Marcos
Viva the EZLN.
Vivan the peoples in resistance.
Viva the Resistencia Hacia un Nuevo Amanecer Caracol.
Viva national and international civil society.
Viva the people of La Garrucha.
Vivan the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committees.
Vivan the compañeros fallen in combat in 1994.
Vivan the Autonomous Municipalities in resistance.
Viva the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona.
Viva the Other Campaign.
**************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Resistencia Hacia un Nuevo Amanecer Caracol
El Camino del Futuro Good Government Junta
Chiapas, Mexico
December 31, 2005
Compañeros, compañeras, support bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, brothers and sisters of national and international civil society, good evening to everyone.
Today it is 11:50 minutes southeastern time. Welcome to our Resistencia Hacia un Nuevo Amanecer Caracol. Once again we are joining together, men, women, boys, girls, young people and old ones, to remember and to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the armed uprising, and we are also remembering our compañeros who fell in combat in 1994. Please be so kind as to accompany us in observing a moment of silence.
There have been 12 steps forward in building its history and making a reality of its transformation of struggle. And for 12 years we have also worked to strengthen and to build what did not exist before. Now there is hope and dignity for men, women, indigenous and non-indigenous to continue struggling with rebellion. Our Caracol of Resistance is a name of dignity, but we are the ones who give it shape. We are the ones who struggle, live and die. We are those of rebel dignity. We are the ones who built it and work it and watch over it in its growth..
Compañeros and compañeras, EZLN support bases, for 12 years we have been resisting attacks of all kinds. They have attacked us with bullets, with torture and jail, with lies, contempt and forgetting, but here we are, and we, the most small of this land, shall continue. And here we will continue being zapatistas, even though the bad government wants to do away with our Autonomous Municipalities, which they attentively listen to and watch. They do not want what they see. This struggle has begun, and no one can stop it.
Brothers and sisters of civil society, our hearts are made glad today to share with you, and we give you greetings of hope. It is only by being together and only as brothers that we can really respect each other and help each other, shoulder to shoulder, demonstrating to the powerful of the color of money and to those who exploit that there are many hearts in the world which are joined together, who help each other, who work united together in things they have in common, helping each other in their struggles and respecting each other's differences in order to build that new world where many worlds fit.
The true peoples have sown different works through autonomy, and they are working like the most first peoples. When it is the new moon, as it is now, they sow, in order to yield good fruit to feed themselves, through that, for the future.
Autonomy has allowed the peoples to build their regulatory, political, economic, social and cultural systems by themselves. We want autonomy so that we are all of value all the time, so that the one who governs, governs obeying.
They have named their different authorities and different committees for the operation of the Autonomous Municipalities and the Good Government Junta, so they will keep working. It is not necessary to be zapatista in order to be taken care of and respected by the authorities in any part of our rebel territory. We, the zapatistas, are not going to attack anyone, not those brothers who are not zapatistas. We will be respectful with all our indigenous brothers, without regard to their organization, their party or their religion, always and as long as they respect us. The people themselves decide when to change or remove a compañero from a position, but none of the compañero authorities can receive any salary.
Brothers and sisters, the Good Government Junta is grateful to this zapatista village, La Garrucha, to everyone, men, women, boys, girls, young people and old ones who have helped us through their great efforts in giving us this space for the gathering and who are continuing to organize more in order to move forward with our revolutionary struggle by the zapatista support base compañeros and grateful also to national and international civil society.
Brothers and sisters, we have nothing else to give you other than our seeds of hope, other than our rebel and indigenous dignified hearts. Take them in order to continue scattering more seeds among your different peoples of the world.
Liberty, justice and democracy.
Viva Compañero Sup Comandante Insurgente Marcos
Viva the EZLN.
Vivan the peoples in resistance.
Viva the Resistencia Hacia un Nuevo Amanecer Caracol.
Viva national and international civil society.
Viva the people of La Garrucha.
Vivan the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committees.
Vivan the compañeros fallen in combat in 1994.
Vivan the Autonomous Municipalities in resistance.
Viva the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona.
Viva the Other Campaign.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
EZLN denounces harrassment and threats
Originally published in Spanish by the CCRI-CG and the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
**********************************
Translated by irlandesa
Communiqué from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 25, 2005
To the People of Mexico:
To the Supporters of the "Other Campaign":
To the Peoples of the World:
Brothers and Sisters:
Compañeros and Compañeras:
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation makes note of the following:
First - As the EZLN's direct participation in the "Other Campaign" has been approaching - through its Sixth Committee and along with thousands of Mexicans - the climate of harassment, threats and persecution against those who are committed to this initiative has been growing.
Second - In Chiapas, the compañeros Gustavo Jiménez and Gabriel Ramírez have received direct attacks and threats, as well have compas from the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center and from the "Maderas del Pueblo" organization. In other parts of our country there have been similar threats and attacks, such as the detention in Oaxaca of Joel Aquino, the continuous attacks against the brothers who are opposing the construction of "La Parota" dam in the state of Guerrero and the closures, or attempts at closure, of indigenous community radio stations.
Third - In the chiapaneco regions of the different zapatista Good Government Juntas, the corporate organizations of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) and of its shameless brother, the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD,) have been increasingly belligerent.
Fourth - In the case of the PRI, the "OPDICCH" has been moving forward in making itself into a paramilitary group with the consent of the federal and Chiapas state governments, and it is organizing provocations in various parts of the Selva Lacandona. In the Northern region, PRI organizations are continuing their threats against zapatista support bases and members of other sister organizations.
Fifth - The "CIOAC-Historic", affiliated with the PRD, is trying to present unfortunate events which have been provoked, encouraged and perpetrated by its leadership as having been carried out by zapatista support bases. One of the leaders of "CIOAC-Historic" supports Lopez Obrador's campaign in the state. They are using the deaths of their compañeros (assassinated by members of the CIOAC itself) for the purpose of gaining positions in the next election in Chiapas while hundreds of displaced, women, men, children and old ones, who are members of their organization, are wandering around without food or shelter.
Sixth - All of this is being concealed by the bad and tragicomic comedy of the elections of above for a two-fold purpose: getting rid of everything that is not within the framework of above and presenting the appearance of "democratic normalcy" during the elections to the international public.
Seventh - The EZLN is calling on all supporters of the Sexta and the "Other Campaign" to lift their voices in protest, to be in solidarity with all those who have been attacked, persecuted and threatened and to not stop in their work of building a national anti-capitalist movement of the left.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command and the Sixth Committee of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, December of 2005
**********************************
Translated by irlandesa
Communiqué from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 25, 2005
To the People of Mexico:
To the Supporters of the "Other Campaign":
To the Peoples of the World:
Brothers and Sisters:
Compañeros and Compañeras:
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation makes note of the following:
First - As the EZLN's direct participation in the "Other Campaign" has been approaching - through its Sixth Committee and along with thousands of Mexicans - the climate of harassment, threats and persecution against those who are committed to this initiative has been growing.
Second - In Chiapas, the compañeros Gustavo Jiménez and Gabriel Ramírez have received direct attacks and threats, as well have compas from the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center and from the "Maderas del Pueblo" organization. In other parts of our country there have been similar threats and attacks, such as the detention in Oaxaca of Joel Aquino, the continuous attacks against the brothers who are opposing the construction of "La Parota" dam in the state of Guerrero and the closures, or attempts at closure, of indigenous community radio stations.
Third - In the chiapaneco regions of the different zapatista Good Government Juntas, the corporate organizations of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) and of its shameless brother, the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD,) have been increasingly belligerent.
Fourth - In the case of the PRI, the "OPDICCH" has been moving forward in making itself into a paramilitary group with the consent of the federal and Chiapas state governments, and it is organizing provocations in various parts of the Selva Lacandona. In the Northern region, PRI organizations are continuing their threats against zapatista support bases and members of other sister organizations.
Fifth - The "CIOAC-Historic", affiliated with the PRD, is trying to present unfortunate events which have been provoked, encouraged and perpetrated by its leadership as having been carried out by zapatista support bases. One of the leaders of "CIOAC-Historic" supports Lopez Obrador's campaign in the state. They are using the deaths of their compañeros (assassinated by members of the CIOAC itself) for the purpose of gaining positions in the next election in Chiapas while hundreds of displaced, women, men, children and old ones, who are members of their organization, are wandering around without food or shelter.
Sixth - All of this is being concealed by the bad and tragicomic comedy of the elections of above for a two-fold purpose: getting rid of everything that is not within the framework of above and presenting the appearance of "democratic normalcy" during the elections to the international public.
Seventh - The EZLN is calling on all supporters of the Sexta and the "Other Campaign" to lift their voices in protest, to be in solidarity with all those who have been attacked, persecuted and threatened and to not stop in their work of building a national anti-capitalist movement of the left.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command and the Sixth Committee of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, December of 2005
Marcos to the press
Originally published in Spanish by the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
*********************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 26, 2005
To the workers of the National and International Press:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
In the unlikely event that some of you intend, or possess the obscure object of desire, to cover part of the trip by the self-named “Delegate Zero” (me) through the 32 states of this sorrowful country called Mexico, we are letting you know that, as far as we (the EZLN) are concerned, no special accreditation will be asked for, nor will any informative or disinformative (which do exist, you know) media be barred.
I imagine that most of you will be tethered to the boring election campaigns, already suffering from trying to pull something coherent out of that three ring circus (the polls, don’t think bad thoughts), and you would like to do “something else,” but the relentless editors threaten you that the three nutters thing (poll takers, I repeat) is more important than any “other campaign.” No matter, I understand you and accompany you in your pain (?). But don’t let your heart grow sad. You can always go to the web page to learn about the “Other”. And besides, our participation in the “Other” will be very “otherly” and, according to what they tell me, it will be an unengaging passage throughout the Republic, while the election campaigns will excite the passion and enthusiasm of the respectable public (seemingly including those who don’t appear in any poll).
There’s more – so you can see that I’m up to date, I’ll share a “tip” with you: its rumored that Sup-Zero’s trip (to the left and, since it’s the Sup, below, of course) will serve to confirm that the zapatones’ (and Zero’s – round, as Zeros should be) power to convene is at rock-bottom, and they would be making a mistake in not joining in with plaudits to the “favorite victim” (to differentiate it from “favorite villain”). According to trustworthy sources who have asked that their names not be revealed (perhaps because they don’t exist), the self-referenced Zero knows this, and he’s trying to divert himself with the little regional fancies which supposedly abound everywhere in the country. And more, with the neoliberal slogan “fat is beautiful” and the very hick one of “bottled water, no, thick atole, yes,” he’s trying to cut down the flourishing industry of “all included” anorexia.
Hmm. Yes, I know that these “tips” aren’t good enough even for the food section, but we don’t have the budget to pay for commercial announcements in the media (which isn’t so bad, because no one would use us for promoting, for example, diet products).
Now, supposing you manage to convince your bosses to give you even a small space in the inside pages (even if it’s in the “many-X lingerie” section), we’re letting you know that, as regards the press, we will observe the directives decided upon by the compas from the “Other” in each state.
We are recommending that they not exclude anyone (besides, I don’t believe there will be much press), and that they just ask you to respect the times and places that are put at your disposal. Although we are quite aware of all your good behavior, maturity and restraint, we believe all the “Other” should confirm this.
Anyway, I’m letting you know that I will be leaving on January 1, 2006 (which is, as is public and well-known, a year which began at least in January of 2004) from the Caracol of La Garrucha in the morning. In the afternoon-evening of that first day, the zapatistas of the EZLN and compas from the “Other” will hold an event in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. On January 2, 2006 the tour of Mexico will formally begin in that same city. We will continue from there, and, “with a few kilos more” (I hope), we will return at the end of June, still in 2006.
On another issue, don’t think we have ignored the requests for interviews which some of you have sent. What is happening is that it’s better for me to let some time go by in order to reconsider, because it’s certainly not of any interest to any polling firm now, and even less so once the “Christmas truce” is over.
Vale. Salud and, since it’s almost certain that I won’t be seeing anything more than your signatures (if they’re used) in your articles, reports and photos about the election polls, I’ll lie a bit to you: I will miss you.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
The Alleged Sub Delegado Zero (below and to the left) of the Sixth Committee of the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
SupMarcos, belching self-confidently after knocking back a “Marcos’ Very Heavy Pozol Reloaded” (note: the recipe is secret, but it packs a lot of “punch”)
Mexico, December of 2005
*********************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 26, 2005
To the workers of the National and International Press:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
In the unlikely event that some of you intend, or possess the obscure object of desire, to cover part of the trip by the self-named “Delegate Zero” (me) through the 32 states of this sorrowful country called Mexico, we are letting you know that, as far as we (the EZLN) are concerned, no special accreditation will be asked for, nor will any informative or disinformative (which do exist, you know) media be barred.
I imagine that most of you will be tethered to the boring election campaigns, already suffering from trying to pull something coherent out of that three ring circus (the polls, don’t think bad thoughts), and you would like to do “something else,” but the relentless editors threaten you that the three nutters thing (poll takers, I repeat) is more important than any “other campaign.” No matter, I understand you and accompany you in your pain (?). But don’t let your heart grow sad. You can always go to the web page to learn about the “Other”. And besides, our participation in the “Other” will be very “otherly” and, according to what they tell me, it will be an unengaging passage throughout the Republic, while the election campaigns will excite the passion and enthusiasm of the respectable public (seemingly including those who don’t appear in any poll).
There’s more – so you can see that I’m up to date, I’ll share a “tip” with you: its rumored that Sup-Zero’s trip (to the left and, since it’s the Sup, below, of course) will serve to confirm that the zapatones’ (and Zero’s – round, as Zeros should be) power to convene is at rock-bottom, and they would be making a mistake in not joining in with plaudits to the “favorite victim” (to differentiate it from “favorite villain”). According to trustworthy sources who have asked that their names not be revealed (perhaps because they don’t exist), the self-referenced Zero knows this, and he’s trying to divert himself with the little regional fancies which supposedly abound everywhere in the country. And more, with the neoliberal slogan “fat is beautiful” and the very hick one of “bottled water, no, thick atole, yes,” he’s trying to cut down the flourishing industry of “all included” anorexia.
Hmm. Yes, I know that these “tips” aren’t good enough even for the food section, but we don’t have the budget to pay for commercial announcements in the media (which isn’t so bad, because no one would use us for promoting, for example, diet products).
Now, supposing you manage to convince your bosses to give you even a small space in the inside pages (even if it’s in the “many-X lingerie” section), we’re letting you know that, as regards the press, we will observe the directives decided upon by the compas from the “Other” in each state.
We are recommending that they not exclude anyone (besides, I don’t believe there will be much press), and that they just ask you to respect the times and places that are put at your disposal. Although we are quite aware of all your good behavior, maturity and restraint, we believe all the “Other” should confirm this.
Anyway, I’m letting you know that I will be leaving on January 1, 2006 (which is, as is public and well-known, a year which began at least in January of 2004) from the Caracol of La Garrucha in the morning. In the afternoon-evening of that first day, the zapatistas of the EZLN and compas from the “Other” will hold an event in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. On January 2, 2006 the tour of Mexico will formally begin in that same city. We will continue from there, and, “with a few kilos more” (I hope), we will return at the end of June, still in 2006.
On another issue, don’t think we have ignored the requests for interviews which some of you have sent. What is happening is that it’s better for me to let some time go by in order to reconsider, because it’s certainly not of any interest to any polling firm now, and even less so once the “Christmas truce” is over.
Vale. Salud and, since it’s almost certain that I won’t be seeing anything more than your signatures (if they’re used) in your articles, reports and photos about the election polls, I’ll lie a bit to you: I will miss you.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
The Alleged Sub Delegado Zero (below and to the left) of the Sixth Committee of the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
SupMarcos, belching self-confidently after knocking back a “Marcos’ Very Heavy Pozol Reloaded” (note: the recipe is secret, but it packs a lot of “punch”)
Mexico, December of 2005
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
SubDelegado Zero on security issues
Originally published in Spanish by the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
*********************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 26, 2005
To all the compañeros and compañeras of the "Other":
To the Committees, Coordinators (or however they are called) which are being formed in each state or region in order to help with the first stage of the EZLN's Sixth Committee national work
To the Security Committees which have been formed, or are being formed, for the accompaniment and security of SubDelegado Zero during this first stage:
Compañeras and compañeros:
Greetings from our compañeros and compañeras of the "Other." We are writing you in order to propose some criteria for security at the meetings and activities in which SubDelegado Zero will be participating.
First - It is always better (and more effective) to avoid arrogance and grandstanding. It is not about isolating, but about accompanying and protecting. A security team is effective if it does its work without being noticed. In no way will the EZLN's Sixth Committee accept any persons on their security team who are of any nationality other than Mexican.
Second - The work of security and accompaniment is avoiding problems due to crowds (in the unlikely event that there are any), preventing (as far as possible) any bad acts by some "anti-otra," and, most importantly, seeing that SubDelegado Zero does not get lost while going from one place to another (for example, making a "mistake," with obvious trickery, with the door when going to the bathroom and going into the "ladies" instead of the "gents").
Third - In the event that the bad governments attempt some repressive measure, do not put up any resistance (especially if there are shots), and step aside. In no way should you put your life or liberty at risk. Always have identification with you and the help of human rights, always maintaining the truth, that is, that you are exercising a legal and legitimate civil right. You will not be violating any law by being next to an individual with a ski-mask and an elegant profile (with the contribution of the tummy).
Fourth - In the event of detention, SubDelegado Zero knows what to do and, above all, what not to do. And so do not worry yourselves by imagining what you will do in such and such a horrible event. The response is: run, take shelter, inform, disseminate, mobilize...send me tobacco.
I am, in advance, not authorizing anyone or any organization to assume, WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT VERBAL AND WRITTEN REQUEST, the legal defense of my person.
Fifth - Neither the EZLN nor its Sixth Committee will be asking for any guarantees from federal, state or municipal officials. We do not expect anything, nor will we ask for anything, from those who have always treated us with contempt and disdain. If any Committee or Coordinator from a state or region decides to request from their respective officials respect for the liberties of meeting, association and movement, which are the prerogatives of any citizen, we are respectfully asking that they do so in their name, not in ours. Even if they threaten us from above or promise us detentions, jails, clandestine cellars or cemeteries, we shall go out to do the work which we committed ourselves to in the Sexta.
Sixth - In the event of any major mishap, public statements or not, and the decisions which our organization will take, are the SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE purview of the top command level of the EZLN.
Seventh - Whatever happens, know that it is an honor, and it shall be, to have you as compañeros and compañeras in struggle.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
SubComandante Insurgente Marcos
SubDelegado Zero of the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Mexico, December of 2005
*********************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 26, 2005
To all the compañeros and compañeras of the "Other":
To the Committees, Coordinators (or however they are called) which are being formed in each state or region in order to help with the first stage of the EZLN's Sixth Committee national work
To the Security Committees which have been formed, or are being formed, for the accompaniment and security of SubDelegado Zero during this first stage:
Compañeras and compañeros:
Greetings from our compañeros and compañeras of the "Other." We are writing you in order to propose some criteria for security at the meetings and activities in which SubDelegado Zero will be participating.
First - It is always better (and more effective) to avoid arrogance and grandstanding. It is not about isolating, but about accompanying and protecting. A security team is effective if it does its work without being noticed. In no way will the EZLN's Sixth Committee accept any persons on their security team who are of any nationality other than Mexican.
Second - The work of security and accompaniment is avoiding problems due to crowds (in the unlikely event that there are any), preventing (as far as possible) any bad acts by some "anti-otra," and, most importantly, seeing that SubDelegado Zero does not get lost while going from one place to another (for example, making a "mistake," with obvious trickery, with the door when going to the bathroom and going into the "ladies" instead of the "gents").
Third - In the event that the bad governments attempt some repressive measure, do not put up any resistance (especially if there are shots), and step aside. In no way should you put your life or liberty at risk. Always have identification with you and the help of human rights, always maintaining the truth, that is, that you are exercising a legal and legitimate civil right. You will not be violating any law by being next to an individual with a ski-mask and an elegant profile (with the contribution of the tummy).
Fourth - In the event of detention, SubDelegado Zero knows what to do and, above all, what not to do. And so do not worry yourselves by imagining what you will do in such and such a horrible event. The response is: run, take shelter, inform, disseminate, mobilize...send me tobacco.
I am, in advance, not authorizing anyone or any organization to assume, WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT VERBAL AND WRITTEN REQUEST, the legal defense of my person.
Fifth - Neither the EZLN nor its Sixth Committee will be asking for any guarantees from federal, state or municipal officials. We do not expect anything, nor will we ask for anything, from those who have always treated us with contempt and disdain. If any Committee or Coordinator from a state or region decides to request from their respective officials respect for the liberties of meeting, association and movement, which are the prerogatives of any citizen, we are respectfully asking that they do so in their name, not in ours. Even if they threaten us from above or promise us detentions, jails, clandestine cellars or cemeteries, we shall go out to do the work which we committed ourselves to in the Sexta.
Sixth - In the event of any major mishap, public statements or not, and the decisions which our organization will take, are the SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE purview of the top command level of the EZLN.
Seventh - Whatever happens, know that it is an honor, and it shall be, to have you as compañeros and compañeras in struggle.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
SubComandante Insurgente Marcos
SubDelegado Zero of the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Mexico, December of 2005
SubDelegado Zero regarding altmedia and coverage
Originally published in Spanish by the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
**********************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 26, 2005
To the Alternative Media of the “Other”
To those persons, collectives and organizations of the “Other” who are proposing to make films, videos, photographs, reports, research, etcetera concerning or during the first trip by SubDelegado Zero of the EZLN’s Sixth Committee:
Compañeras and compañeros:
Zapatista greetings from compañeros in struggle. I am letting you know that several letters have been received at our post office proposing, or asking for authorization for, projects having to do with Alternative Communication and independent artistic productions. We have the following to say about this:
1. - Neither the EZLN nor its Sixth Committee (including SubDelegado Zero), have any objection to your work. The “Other,” as we have said time and again, belongs to everyone, and, to our way of thinking, it should also be a place for promoting and consolidating the different alternative communication projects which exist below and to the left in Mexico. We think the same way about artistic productions. In this regard, the only thing we should do is welcome your proposals and do everything we can to not be an obstacle to their being carried out.
2 - This first stage of the EZLN’s Sixth Committee’s trip throughout Mexico will concentrate primarily on making direct contact with the greatest possible number of supporters of the Sexta and the “Other.” In some cases it will be possible for us to participate in public events. Given how full the agendas in each state will be, it appears that it will be difficult for us to participate directly in the projects you are proposing. Even so, we will make an effort to participate at some point in something jointly with all the compas who are working in alternative media and in artistic productions.
3 - Given that you are compas, and we need to also make the “Other” a place for communications, dissemination and art, the EZLN’s Sixth Committee is recommending to the committees or coordinators which are being formed in each state that they give preferential treatment to the compañeros from the “Other” who will be “covering” this trip, given that the alternative media are at a disadvantage to the mass media, and, if this is the “Other,” then we should also be “otherly” as regards communication and artistic productions. This preferential treatment does not refer just to their being given access to the meetings and activities in each location, but also that the space be organized so that the alternative compas who record, take photos, films, videos, etcetera, can do their work of news, documentation, research, artistic production, etcetera, with the greatest possible ease.
4 - In return, we are asking you, in turn, to respect the decisions and regulations made on this matter by the committees or coordinators in each state or region.
That’s all for now then, compañeros and compañeras. I hope that, when we pass through the state where you live and work, we will be able to see you and talk to you without a lens-microphone being involved.
Un abrazo.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
SubDelegado Zero of the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Mexico, December of 2005
**********************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 26, 2005
To the Alternative Media of the “Other”
To those persons, collectives and organizations of the “Other” who are proposing to make films, videos, photographs, reports, research, etcetera concerning or during the first trip by SubDelegado Zero of the EZLN’s Sixth Committee:
Compañeras and compañeros:
Zapatista greetings from compañeros in struggle. I am letting you know that several letters have been received at our post office proposing, or asking for authorization for, projects having to do with Alternative Communication and independent artistic productions. We have the following to say about this:
1. - Neither the EZLN nor its Sixth Committee (including SubDelegado Zero), have any objection to your work. The “Other,” as we have said time and again, belongs to everyone, and, to our way of thinking, it should also be a place for promoting and consolidating the different alternative communication projects which exist below and to the left in Mexico. We think the same way about artistic productions. In this regard, the only thing we should do is welcome your proposals and do everything we can to not be an obstacle to their being carried out.
2 - This first stage of the EZLN’s Sixth Committee’s trip throughout Mexico will concentrate primarily on making direct contact with the greatest possible number of supporters of the Sexta and the “Other.” In some cases it will be possible for us to participate in public events. Given how full the agendas in each state will be, it appears that it will be difficult for us to participate directly in the projects you are proposing. Even so, we will make an effort to participate at some point in something jointly with all the compas who are working in alternative media and in artistic productions.
3 - Given that you are compas, and we need to also make the “Other” a place for communications, dissemination and art, the EZLN’s Sixth Committee is recommending to the committees or coordinators which are being formed in each state that they give preferential treatment to the compañeros from the “Other” who will be “covering” this trip, given that the alternative media are at a disadvantage to the mass media, and, if this is the “Other,” then we should also be “otherly” as regards communication and artistic productions. This preferential treatment does not refer just to their being given access to the meetings and activities in each location, but also that the space be organized so that the alternative compas who record, take photos, films, videos, etcetera, can do their work of news, documentation, research, artistic production, etcetera, with the greatest possible ease.
4 - In return, we are asking you, in turn, to respect the decisions and regulations made on this matter by the committees or coordinators in each state or region.
That’s all for now then, compañeros and compañeras. I hope that, when we pass through the state where you live and work, we will be able to see you and talk to you without a lens-microphone being involved.
Un abrazo.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
SubDelegado Zero of the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Mexico, December of 2005
Saturday, November 26, 2005
JBG clarifies incident in Altamirano
Originally published in Spanish by La Esperanza JBG
**************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Caracol: Madre de Los Caracoles Del Mar de Nuestros Sueños
La Realidad, Chiapas, Mexico, November of 2005
Brothers and Sisters
To National and International Civil Society.
The Good Government Junta is clarifying the following:
We have been informed of what happened on November 25 in the community of Lucha Campesina in the official municipality of Altamirano in which EZLN support bases were [purportedly] involved.
We are, therefore, clarifying and denying the statements by Señor Jose Antonio Vázquez Hernandez, Municipal President of Las Margaritas, Miguel Ángel Vázquez Hernández and Luis Hernández Cruz, that members of the EZLN ambushed those persons. This incident is between persons who have nothing to do with the EZLN.
Sincerely,
Hacia La Esperanza Good Government Junta
**************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Caracol: Madre de Los Caracoles Del Mar de Nuestros Sueños
La Realidad, Chiapas, Mexico, November of 2005
Brothers and Sisters
To National and International Civil Society.
The Good Government Junta is clarifying the following:
We have been informed of what happened on November 25 in the community of Lucha Campesina in the official municipality of Altamirano in which EZLN support bases were [purportedly] involved.
We are, therefore, clarifying and denying the statements by Señor Jose Antonio Vázquez Hernandez, Municipal President of Las Margaritas, Miguel Ángel Vázquez Hernández and Luis Hernández Cruz, that members of the EZLN ambushed those persons. This incident is between persons who have nothing to do with the EZLN.
Sincerely,
Hacia La Esperanza Good Government Junta
Letter from the FZLN to the EZLN
Originally published in Spanish by the FZLN
************************************
Translated by irlandesa
To the Comandancia General – Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
On January 1, 1996, in its Fourth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation called for the establishment of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation. At the end of the second of the three parts which made up the declaration, and after having cited the political characteristics of the new organization they were calling for, you wrote the following: “With the organized unity of the civilian zapatistas and zapatista combatants in the Zapatista Front of National Liberation, the struggle which began on January 1, 1994 will enter into a new stage. The EZLN will not disappear, but its most important efforts will be directed to political struggle. At the proper time and circumstances, the EZLN will participate directly in the establishment of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation.
Twenty months later, during the Founding Congress of the FZLN which was held in Mexico City and which was attended by 1111 zapatista delegates who had left the mountains of the Mexican southeast, the EZLN explained the following: “…Many people are asking why we have come just to observe your Congress and not to participate in it directly. Many are asking why we have stated over the last few days, again and again, that the EZLN will not form part of the FZLN, and we will be two sister, but different, organizations…When we called for the establishment of the FZLN, we thought peace was close and our rebellion had to seek new paths and means of struggle in order to continue its determined march…We thought we would soon be like you and next to you. With the same rebellion in the face of the powerful, but without the necessity of arms…With the same dignity for the morrow, but without the face hidden by the black of sorrow or the red of blood. But we were wrong, Frentista brothers and sisters…Peace was not close. Peace is still far away. Before and now the government used and uses the lie of peace that it imagines as nothing but surrender and punishment. But nor could we continue holding you back or asking you to wait for us, not to move forward, not to grow, not to make yourselves large, not to organize until there was a just and dignified peace and the EZLN could share present and future with you. It will not be a military force which directs your civilian steps and puts you at risk. This should not and cannot be like that.”
More than eight years later, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation issued the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, and, along with several thousand more Mexican men and women, it undertook the construction of what has been called the Other Campaign. And then, just like they said in the Fourth Declaration, they are going to do, among other things, the following: “We are going to go and listen to and speak directly with, without intermediaries or mediations, the simple and humble people of Mexico, and, according to what we hear and learn, we are going to build, along with those people who are like us, humble and simple, a national program of struggle, but a program which will be clearly of the left, anti-capitalist, anti-neoliberal, for justice, democracy and liberty for the Mexican people.
In short, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation is going to come out in order to engage directly in politics, a new way of doing politics, in all corners of the country.
And then we, the Zapatista Front of National Liberation, got together with you, compañeros from the EZLN, the ones who called on us to form the organization and gave us name. At that meeting we saw that the FZLN had fulfilled its duty in that stage from the Fourth Declaration until the Sexta came out, but now the new stage has become too much for us because of what is to come. And so we made an internal consultation among all the members of the FZLN, with the following results:
Of the 127 Civil Committees of Dialogue which make up our FZLN, 123 declared themselves for the FZLN to be completely dissolved as a national, political organization and for the name to be returned to the compas from the EZLN.
Three Committees said we should continue as an organization, but with another name, although two of them stressed that if the majority accepted something else, they too would accept it.
And one said that it would not make a specific declaration, instead it resigned from the FZLN.
In addition, nine individual Frentistas came out for the option of dissolving the FZLN and returning the name to the EZLN.
And so, the agreement having been made by majority, we would like to communicate the following to you:
The Zapatista Front of National Liberation is completely dissolved as a political organization, and it is returning its name to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation so that it, in turn, can decide what to do with it. Those committees and individuals who so decide can remain together in each location and join the Sexta and the Other Campaign, but no longer using the name of an FZLN committee.
Lastly, we would like to tell you, dear compañeros and compañeras of the EZLN and of all the indigenous zapatista communities, of the zapatista autonomous municipalities, of the Good Government Juntas, that it has been an honor for the Frentistas to have walked with the name you gave us for all these years. We know we committed many errors, and things did not always turn out as we had thought they would and how they should have turned out, but everything we have learned from you and your dignified struggle for a better Mexico and World for everyone, will certainly serve as a first step for us in joining this path that is beginning now with the Other Campaign, where we will also try to be, in order to collaborate from each one of our spaces, along with thousands more, in the building of a more just, more free and more democratic Mexico, from below and to the left.
Zapatista Front of National Liberation
Mexico
October of 2005
************************************
Translated by irlandesa
To the Comandancia General – Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
On January 1, 1996, in its Fourth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation called for the establishment of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation. At the end of the second of the three parts which made up the declaration, and after having cited the political characteristics of the new organization they were calling for, you wrote the following: “With the organized unity of the civilian zapatistas and zapatista combatants in the Zapatista Front of National Liberation, the struggle which began on January 1, 1994 will enter into a new stage. The EZLN will not disappear, but its most important efforts will be directed to political struggle. At the proper time and circumstances, the EZLN will participate directly in the establishment of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation.
Twenty months later, during the Founding Congress of the FZLN which was held in Mexico City and which was attended by 1111 zapatista delegates who had left the mountains of the Mexican southeast, the EZLN explained the following: “…Many people are asking why we have come just to observe your Congress and not to participate in it directly. Many are asking why we have stated over the last few days, again and again, that the EZLN will not form part of the FZLN, and we will be two sister, but different, organizations…When we called for the establishment of the FZLN, we thought peace was close and our rebellion had to seek new paths and means of struggle in order to continue its determined march…We thought we would soon be like you and next to you. With the same rebellion in the face of the powerful, but without the necessity of arms…With the same dignity for the morrow, but without the face hidden by the black of sorrow or the red of blood. But we were wrong, Frentista brothers and sisters…Peace was not close. Peace is still far away. Before and now the government used and uses the lie of peace that it imagines as nothing but surrender and punishment. But nor could we continue holding you back or asking you to wait for us, not to move forward, not to grow, not to make yourselves large, not to organize until there was a just and dignified peace and the EZLN could share present and future with you. It will not be a military force which directs your civilian steps and puts you at risk. This should not and cannot be like that.”
More than eight years later, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation issued the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, and, along with several thousand more Mexican men and women, it undertook the construction of what has been called the Other Campaign. And then, just like they said in the Fourth Declaration, they are going to do, among other things, the following: “We are going to go and listen to and speak directly with, without intermediaries or mediations, the simple and humble people of Mexico, and, according to what we hear and learn, we are going to build, along with those people who are like us, humble and simple, a national program of struggle, but a program which will be clearly of the left, anti-capitalist, anti-neoliberal, for justice, democracy and liberty for the Mexican people.
In short, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation is going to come out in order to engage directly in politics, a new way of doing politics, in all corners of the country.
And then we, the Zapatista Front of National Liberation, got together with you, compañeros from the EZLN, the ones who called on us to form the organization and gave us name. At that meeting we saw that the FZLN had fulfilled its duty in that stage from the Fourth Declaration until the Sexta came out, but now the new stage has become too much for us because of what is to come. And so we made an internal consultation among all the members of the FZLN, with the following results:
Of the 127 Civil Committees of Dialogue which make up our FZLN, 123 declared themselves for the FZLN to be completely dissolved as a national, political organization and for the name to be returned to the compas from the EZLN.
Three Committees said we should continue as an organization, but with another name, although two of them stressed that if the majority accepted something else, they too would accept it.
And one said that it would not make a specific declaration, instead it resigned from the FZLN.
In addition, nine individual Frentistas came out for the option of dissolving the FZLN and returning the name to the EZLN.
And so, the agreement having been made by majority, we would like to communicate the following to you:
The Zapatista Front of National Liberation is completely dissolved as a political organization, and it is returning its name to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation so that it, in turn, can decide what to do with it. Those committees and individuals who so decide can remain together in each location and join the Sexta and the Other Campaign, but no longer using the name of an FZLN committee.
Lastly, we would like to tell you, dear compañeros and compañeras of the EZLN and of all the indigenous zapatista communities, of the zapatista autonomous municipalities, of the Good Government Juntas, that it has been an honor for the Frentistas to have walked with the name you gave us for all these years. We know we committed many errors, and things did not always turn out as we had thought they would and how they should have turned out, but everything we have learned from you and your dignified struggle for a better Mexico and World for everyone, will certainly serve as a first step for us in joining this path that is beginning now with the Other Campaign, where we will also try to be, in order to collaborate from each one of our spaces, along with thousands more, in the building of a more just, more free and more democratic Mexico, from below and to the left.
Zapatista Front of National Liberation
Mexico
October of 2005
Friday, November 25, 2005
EZLN: 2 communiques - new website & international
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
[Two communiqués follow]
Communiqué from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee –
General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
November of 2005
To the People of Mexico:
To the Peoples of the World:
Brothers and Sisters:
In accordance with that which was stated in the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, the CCRI-CG of the EZLN says its word:
First - The EZLN continues to move forward with organizing its participation, civil and peaceful, in the tasks set forth in the Sixth Declaration which are: the “Other Campaign,” agreements and alliances with political organizations of the left in Mexico, holding an International Encuentro and helping struggles and resistances for humanity and against neoliberalism throughout the world.
Second - Given that the “Other Campaign” is no longer just the EZLN’s, but instead belongs to everyone who has embraced it, we have organized a working team for direct, exclusive contact with the EZLN’s Sixth Committee. This team will work under the Sixth Committee’s leadership, and it has been named “Enlace Zapatista.” While the Other Campaign’s supporters will be deciding and starting up the organization for all of us to communicate among ourselves, the EZLN’s Sixth Committee will continue its work, now through Enlace Zapatista, of receiving, processing and distributing to everyone the information produced by those who make up the Other Campaign.
Third - The EZLN thanks the compañeros and compañeras of Revista Rebeldía for the unconditional help they have been giving us since the Sixth Declaration was issued. Through their website and the direct participation of those who produce it, they have been helping us receive and process subscribers to the Sexta and communications directed to the EZLN, and in holding the preparatory meetings and the Other Campaign’s plenary.
Fourth - As of December 1, 2005, the EZLN’s Sixth Committee’s communications with those who are active in work which involve the EZLN and the Other Campaign will no longer be through Revista Rebeldía, but through Enlace Zapatista.
Fifth - As of November 30, a special web site will be operating for direct cyber communication with the EZLN’s Sixth Committee (regarding the national, Mexico) and with the EZLN’s Intergalactic Committee (for everything having to do with the international arena): www.ezln.org.mx The cyber information which Revista Rebeldía has been gathering will be moved to this page.
This page will have two links: one to the EZLN in the Other Campaign (www.enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx ) and the other to the EZLN concerning international matters (zeztainternazional.ezln.org.mx – yes, like that, with “z”).
Sixth - Regarding the Other Campaign, the Sixth Committee will maintain communication from and with everyone who makes up the Other Campaign, and it will continue reporting on subscribers, as it had been doing previously through Revista Rebeldía, but now through Enlace Zapatista. At this time we are informing you that, as of November 20, 2005, the following have subscribed to the Sexta and the Other Campaign:
64 Political Organizations of the Left
120 Indigenous and Indian Peoples’ Organizations
203 Social Organizations
498 Non-Governmental Organizations, Groups and Collectives
2020 Individuals and Individuals representing Families, Barrios and Communities
427 Internationals
When the Other Campaign so decides, the Sixth Committee will cease doing this work, and only Enlace Zapatista will devote itself to the EZLN’s participation in the Other Campaign.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, November of 2005
************************************************
Communiqué from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee –
General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
November of 2005
To the Peoples of the World:
Brothers and Sisters:
Concerning the Intercontinental proposed in the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, and in general regarding the international aspects of this statement, the CCRI-CG of the EZLN says its word:
First - The Intergalactic Committee of the EZLN, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Insurgente Moisés, has been named for the coordination and monitoring of the international part of the Sexta. There will be a rotating team of comandantes and comandantas from the CCRI-CG of the EZLN, in addition to help from the EZLN’s Sixth Committee.
Second - So that the conception, organization and holding of the Intercontinental Encuentro proposed in the Sexta can be produced with the real participation of supporters throughout the world, and not as a unilateral decision by the EZLN, as of December 1 of this year and at least until June 30, 2006, meetings and preparation consultations, of groups, personal or cyber, will be held so that proposals can be made for the Intercontinental (including the place and times it is to be held). This will be done by agreement of the majority. At the end of this 7 month consultation stage, it will be decided whether the consultation should continue or if the Intercontinental should be held as of July of 2006.
Third - For those personal meetings and consultations which are held in Mexico, the EZLN’s Intergalactic Committee has asked the Good Government Junta of the Selva Border region to provide us with space in the Caracol of La Realidad, so that direct meetings with the EZLN can be held there.
Preparation meetings can be held in other countries. If they are advised in sufficient time, the EZLN’s Intergalactic Committee will send someone to listen and to take note of everything proposed there, and it will inform the EZLN so it can be aware of it.
Fourth - For the cyber consultation, the Intergalactic Committee will put into operation, as of December 1, 2005, the web page: zeztainternazional.ezln.org.mx (yes, like that, with “z”). This web site will receive international subscribers to the Sixth Declaration as well as proposals and comments concerning the Intercontinental. They will be received, systematized and reported to all supporters by the EZLN’s Intergalactic Committee.
Fifth - The zeztainternazional web page will have a very basic design so that it can be completed and improved collectively by those people from the five continents who desire to do so. For now it will just have the main page (which can be changed further along or every so often, according to the proposals) and spaces for support and for proposals for the Intercontinental, the EZLN’s positions and information concerning the international, as well as the EZLN’s actions and messages in support of struggles and resistances against neoliberalism and for humanity.
Sixth - The EZLN is proposing that, where so accepted and desired, “Intergalactic Committees” be formed on the five continents. Their only work would be to propose, debate and agree on everything related to the Intercontinental Encuentro, as well as disseminating and promoting the participation of the entire spectrum which, below and to the left, is struggling and resisting for humanity.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General Command of the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
By the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
By the Intergalactic Committee of the EZLN
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Lieutenant Colonel Insurgente Moisés
Mexico. November of 2005
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
[Two communiqués follow]
Communiqué from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee –
General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
November of 2005
To the People of Mexico:
To the Peoples of the World:
Brothers and Sisters:
In accordance with that which was stated in the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, the CCRI-CG of the EZLN says its word:
First - The EZLN continues to move forward with organizing its participation, civil and peaceful, in the tasks set forth in the Sixth Declaration which are: the “Other Campaign,” agreements and alliances with political organizations of the left in Mexico, holding an International Encuentro and helping struggles and resistances for humanity and against neoliberalism throughout the world.
Second - Given that the “Other Campaign” is no longer just the EZLN’s, but instead belongs to everyone who has embraced it, we have organized a working team for direct, exclusive contact with the EZLN’s Sixth Committee. This team will work under the Sixth Committee’s leadership, and it has been named “Enlace Zapatista.” While the Other Campaign’s supporters will be deciding and starting up the organization for all of us to communicate among ourselves, the EZLN’s Sixth Committee will continue its work, now through Enlace Zapatista, of receiving, processing and distributing to everyone the information produced by those who make up the Other Campaign.
Third - The EZLN thanks the compañeros and compañeras of Revista Rebeldía for the unconditional help they have been giving us since the Sixth Declaration was issued. Through their website and the direct participation of those who produce it, they have been helping us receive and process subscribers to the Sexta and communications directed to the EZLN, and in holding the preparatory meetings and the Other Campaign’s plenary.
Fourth - As of December 1, 2005, the EZLN’s Sixth Committee’s communications with those who are active in work which involve the EZLN and the Other Campaign will no longer be through Revista Rebeldía, but through Enlace Zapatista.
Fifth - As of November 30, a special web site will be operating for direct cyber communication with the EZLN’s Sixth Committee (regarding the national, Mexico) and with the EZLN’s Intergalactic Committee (for everything having to do with the international arena): www.ezln.org.mx The cyber information which Revista Rebeldía has been gathering will be moved to this page.
This page will have two links: one to the EZLN in the Other Campaign (www.enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx ) and the other to the EZLN concerning international matters (zeztainternazional.ezln.org.mx – yes, like that, with “z”).
Sixth - Regarding the Other Campaign, the Sixth Committee will maintain communication from and with everyone who makes up the Other Campaign, and it will continue reporting on subscribers, as it had been doing previously through Revista Rebeldía, but now through Enlace Zapatista. At this time we are informing you that, as of November 20, 2005, the following have subscribed to the Sexta and the Other Campaign:
64 Political Organizations of the Left
120 Indigenous and Indian Peoples’ Organizations
203 Social Organizations
498 Non-Governmental Organizations, Groups and Collectives
2020 Individuals and Individuals representing Families, Barrios and Communities
427 Internationals
When the Other Campaign so decides, the Sixth Committee will cease doing this work, and only Enlace Zapatista will devote itself to the EZLN’s participation in the Other Campaign.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, November of 2005
************************************************
Communiqué from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee –
General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
November of 2005
To the Peoples of the World:
Brothers and Sisters:
Concerning the Intercontinental proposed in the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, and in general regarding the international aspects of this statement, the CCRI-CG of the EZLN says its word:
First - The Intergalactic Committee of the EZLN, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Insurgente Moisés, has been named for the coordination and monitoring of the international part of the Sexta. There will be a rotating team of comandantes and comandantas from the CCRI-CG of the EZLN, in addition to help from the EZLN’s Sixth Committee.
Second - So that the conception, organization and holding of the Intercontinental Encuentro proposed in the Sexta can be produced with the real participation of supporters throughout the world, and not as a unilateral decision by the EZLN, as of December 1 of this year and at least until June 30, 2006, meetings and preparation consultations, of groups, personal or cyber, will be held so that proposals can be made for the Intercontinental (including the place and times it is to be held). This will be done by agreement of the majority. At the end of this 7 month consultation stage, it will be decided whether the consultation should continue or if the Intercontinental should be held as of July of 2006.
Third - For those personal meetings and consultations which are held in Mexico, the EZLN’s Intergalactic Committee has asked the Good Government Junta of the Selva Border region to provide us with space in the Caracol of La Realidad, so that direct meetings with the EZLN can be held there.
Preparation meetings can be held in other countries. If they are advised in sufficient time, the EZLN’s Intergalactic Committee will send someone to listen and to take note of everything proposed there, and it will inform the EZLN so it can be aware of it.
Fourth - For the cyber consultation, the Intergalactic Committee will put into operation, as of December 1, 2005, the web page: zeztainternazional.ezln.org.mx (yes, like that, with “z”). This web site will receive international subscribers to the Sixth Declaration as well as proposals and comments concerning the Intercontinental. They will be received, systematized and reported to all supporters by the EZLN’s Intergalactic Committee.
Fifth - The zeztainternazional web page will have a very basic design so that it can be completed and improved collectively by those people from the five continents who desire to do so. For now it will just have the main page (which can be changed further along or every so often, according to the proposals) and spaces for support and for proposals for the Intercontinental, the EZLN’s positions and information concerning the international, as well as the EZLN’s actions and messages in support of struggles and resistances against neoliberalism and for humanity.
Sixth - The EZLN is proposing that, where so accepted and desired, “Intergalactic Committees” be formed on the five continents. Their only work would be to propose, debate and agree on everything related to the Intercontinental Encuentro, as well as disseminating and promoting the participation of the entire spectrum which, below and to the left, is struggling and resisting for humanity.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General Command of the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
By the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
By the Intergalactic Committee of the EZLN
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Lieutenant Colonel Insurgente Moisés
Mexico. November of 2005
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
EZLN: FZLN dissolves and devolves to EZLN
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Communiqué from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
November 20, 2005
To the People of Mexico:
To the Peoples of the World:
Brothers and Sisters, Compañeros and Compañeras:
The CCRI-CG of the EZLN speaks its word:
First - In 1996, in its Fourth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, the EZLN called for the formation of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation (FZLN), a political, civil and peaceful organization, that would not fight for power and which would strive to build a new way of doing politics. At that time we thought that the end of the war was approaching, and we would be able to move on to open political struggle in the FZLN. It was not like that, the bad governments continued their war against us, and we have continued resisting since then. Even though it was without our direct participation, many men and women from all over Mexico (and even from other countries) entered the FZLN, and, complying with the principle of not fighting for power, endeavored to build a new way of doing politics throughout these almost 10 years.
Second - This year, in 2005, the EZLN issued the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona with a series of initiatives which included a group of zapatistas from the EZLN leaving in order to engage in open, civil and peaceful political work in the "Other Campaign." A new stage was thus opened in the zapatista struggle for democracy, liberty and justice for Mexico, and a few changes are necessary in order to fully achieve it.
Third - At the end of October of this year of 2005, a delegation from the CCRI-CG of the EZLN met with some members of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation and asked them to consult with all the compañeros and compañeras from the Frente concerning the possibility of dissolving the organic structure of the FZLN and returning to the EZLN the name of that political, civil, zapatista organization, whose origin and ends had been called for by the EZLN.
The purpose was to leave the EZLN free to reestablish a zapatista, civil and peaceful organization which, ratifying the principles articulated in the Fourth Declaration, will incorporate those put forth in the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona (anti-capitalist and of the left), with the good achieved by the FZLN in its 10 years of life, trying to avoid the errors and defects which occurred in its work, and now with the direct participation of zapatistas from the EZLN.
Fourth - A few days ago the FZLN finished its internal consultation, and the majority of the compañeros agreed to break up, returning the name of the "FZLN" to the EZLN, and to await the call for the reestablishment of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation with new principles, requirements, regulations, structure and objectives. They so communicated this to the EZLN.
Fifth - Learning of this decision, the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the EZLN, is informing the people of Mexico and the peoples of the world that, as of Friday, November 25, 2005, the Zapatista Front of National Liberation, sister organization of the EZLN, will cease to exist, and no one shall be able to use its name for any purpose, no matter how kindhearted it might appear or be. At the express request of the EZLN, some Frentistas will be forming a transition committee in charge of conveying all the FZLN's works and assets to the EZLN's Sixth Committee.
Sixth - The EZLN appreciates and recognizes the effort and sacrifice of those compañeros and compañeras of the Frente who carried with dignity the name of "zapatistas", honoring the civil and peaceful brotherhood with the EZLN and who carried themselves in accordance with the principles which encouraged our just struggle. The indigenous rebel communities, now organized in the MAREZ' and Good Government Juntas, had the unconditional support of the Frentistas throughout this time. There was no moment of suffering, anguish or danger when the FZLN was not at the side of the EZLN. Because of that, in the name of the women, men, children and old ones of the EZLN, we give you our most sincere thanks.
Seventh - There were, it is true, those who used the FZLN and its closeness to the EZLN for their own benefit, in order to hurt others, in order to isolate it and isolate us, in order to take power through personal rivalries and useless fights, as a platform for individual or small group prominence and in order to feign commitment where there was nothing but a comfortable position. In addition to those which correspond to itself, the EZLN assumes as its own those errors which, under the flag of civil zapatismo, have been committed by the FZLN. As the EZLN, we are publicly apologizing to all men and women who have felt hurt by actions, words or inattention.
Eighth - A new stage of civil zapatismo is beginning. We will now be making - along with those persons who demonstrate, through attitude and work, that they so want to - a new political zapatista organization, civil and peaceful, anti-capitalist and of the left, which will not fight for power and which will strive to build a new way of doing politics. The same destination towards which we have been going by parallel paths up until now.
Ninth - This new organization will be born being led directly by the Sixth Committee of the EZLN, admission to it will be only upon express invitation, and it will be particularly strict in seeing that zapatista principles are carried out, always imposing ethics above pragmatic considerations.
Tenth - The EZLN's Sixth Committee will, with this organization, draw up the form and paint the zapatista color in the multicolored embroidery of the "Other Campaign."
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, November of 2005
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Communiqué from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
November 20, 2005
To the People of Mexico:
To the Peoples of the World:
Brothers and Sisters, Compañeros and Compañeras:
The CCRI-CG of the EZLN speaks its word:
First - In 1996, in its Fourth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, the EZLN called for the formation of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation (FZLN), a political, civil and peaceful organization, that would not fight for power and which would strive to build a new way of doing politics. At that time we thought that the end of the war was approaching, and we would be able to move on to open political struggle in the FZLN. It was not like that, the bad governments continued their war against us, and we have continued resisting since then. Even though it was without our direct participation, many men and women from all over Mexico (and even from other countries) entered the FZLN, and, complying with the principle of not fighting for power, endeavored to build a new way of doing politics throughout these almost 10 years.
Second - This year, in 2005, the EZLN issued the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona with a series of initiatives which included a group of zapatistas from the EZLN leaving in order to engage in open, civil and peaceful political work in the "Other Campaign." A new stage was thus opened in the zapatista struggle for democracy, liberty and justice for Mexico, and a few changes are necessary in order to fully achieve it.
Third - At the end of October of this year of 2005, a delegation from the CCRI-CG of the EZLN met with some members of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation and asked them to consult with all the compañeros and compañeras from the Frente concerning the possibility of dissolving the organic structure of the FZLN and returning to the EZLN the name of that political, civil, zapatista organization, whose origin and ends had been called for by the EZLN.
The purpose was to leave the EZLN free to reestablish a zapatista, civil and peaceful organization which, ratifying the principles articulated in the Fourth Declaration, will incorporate those put forth in the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona (anti-capitalist and of the left), with the good achieved by the FZLN in its 10 years of life, trying to avoid the errors and defects which occurred in its work, and now with the direct participation of zapatistas from the EZLN.
Fourth - A few days ago the FZLN finished its internal consultation, and the majority of the compañeros agreed to break up, returning the name of the "FZLN" to the EZLN, and to await the call for the reestablishment of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation with new principles, requirements, regulations, structure and objectives. They so communicated this to the EZLN.
Fifth - Learning of this decision, the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the EZLN, is informing the people of Mexico and the peoples of the world that, as of Friday, November 25, 2005, the Zapatista Front of National Liberation, sister organization of the EZLN, will cease to exist, and no one shall be able to use its name for any purpose, no matter how kindhearted it might appear or be. At the express request of the EZLN, some Frentistas will be forming a transition committee in charge of conveying all the FZLN's works and assets to the EZLN's Sixth Committee.
Sixth - The EZLN appreciates and recognizes the effort and sacrifice of those compañeros and compañeras of the Frente who carried with dignity the name of "zapatistas", honoring the civil and peaceful brotherhood with the EZLN and who carried themselves in accordance with the principles which encouraged our just struggle. The indigenous rebel communities, now organized in the MAREZ' and Good Government Juntas, had the unconditional support of the Frentistas throughout this time. There was no moment of suffering, anguish or danger when the FZLN was not at the side of the EZLN. Because of that, in the name of the women, men, children and old ones of the EZLN, we give you our most sincere thanks.
Seventh - There were, it is true, those who used the FZLN and its closeness to the EZLN for their own benefit, in order to hurt others, in order to isolate it and isolate us, in order to take power through personal rivalries and useless fights, as a platform for individual or small group prominence and in order to feign commitment where there was nothing but a comfortable position. In addition to those which correspond to itself, the EZLN assumes as its own those errors which, under the flag of civil zapatismo, have been committed by the FZLN. As the EZLN, we are publicly apologizing to all men and women who have felt hurt by actions, words or inattention.
Eighth - A new stage of civil zapatismo is beginning. We will now be making - along with those persons who demonstrate, through attitude and work, that they so want to - a new political zapatista organization, civil and peaceful, anti-capitalist and of the left, which will not fight for power and which will strive to build a new way of doing politics. The same destination towards which we have been going by parallel paths up until now.
Ninth - This new organization will be born being led directly by the Sixth Committee of the EZLN, admission to it will be only upon express invitation, and it will be particularly strict in seeing that zapatista principles are carried out, always imposing ethics above pragmatic considerations.
Tenth - The EZLN's Sixth Committee will, with this organization, draw up the form and paint the zapatista color in the multicolored embroidery of the "Other Campaign."
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, November of 2005
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
EZLN: Other Campaign Plenary Narrative, Part 2
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN for the Other Campaign
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
[Due to the length, I am translating this document in 10-15 page increments. This is Part 2 of this translation – irl]
Narrative of the First Plenary Session of the Other Campaign
September 17 and 18, 2005
Caracol of La Garrucha
23. José Antonio Yáñez, from the Reflection in Action collective
We believe that the Other Campaign is an opportunity for all of us to see, in practice, what we really are, if we are really democratic and inclusive. In addition to being peaceful and civil, the Other Campaign should be radical, even though this doesn’t necessarily mean carrying out extreme acts. If we call ourselves inclusive and democratic, but we’re not able to present proposals and projects, we run the risk of excluding or being excluded. Insofar as the Other Campaign is radical, it should address the root problems in order to establish a new model of social relationships. In order for the Other Campaign to not be just about dissemination, or propagandizing and the lifting of spirits, it has to be oriented towards real social change. We believe that, as we achieve the ability for analysis and understanding, we will be able to build a program of struggle which is not just anti-establishment. Specifically, if we want this Other Campaign to be different from the one the parties are carrying out, it should go to the fundamental and stress that we are different in practice.
Armando (from the same collective) (The assembly protested and asked him to sit down. He apologized in the name of his collective. He said he hadn’t intended to monopolize the time. He withdrew without speaking.)
24. Julio Muñoz Rubio
UNAM Professor, Faculty of Sciences. There is a risk that this campaign will be a campaign strictly tied to the political. This would be a mistake, because it would lead to limiting the campaign to just one part of the problems of the world, of the country and of the left. I am therefore proposing that the campaign be cultural in nature, which should not be confused with the artistic, because the cultural is much broader. We have the wrong idea about what capitalism is, because it’s thought to be a strictly economic system with political consequences. That is false. Capitalism dominates all aspects of life, in philosophy, the arts, the natural and social sciences, technology. Capitalism is an entire world vision. It is true that it’s a fragmentary, partial and limited conception of the world, but, at the end of the day, it is a vision which must be confronted by another world vision, another global vision, but one which is coherent and integrated. If this campaign doesn’t emphasize all this, it’s going to fall short, because it’s not going to be able to provide an answer for the totality of the forms of domination and of capitalist oppression: the classic capitalist oppression against wage earners, but also the domination and oppression of human beings against nature (including the mistreatment of animals), that of the adult or “mature” against children or adolescents, the heterosexual and monogamous against all other forms of sexuality and affective relations, of the “healthy” against the sick; the “whites” against other populations (not races), of all society against the indigenous cultures, and the urban countercultures being dominated in the arena of ideas, scientific theories and pseudo-scientists who justify all these oppressions. The Other Campaign should question capitalism’s ethical, epistemological and ontological values, especially in Mexico. Their esthetic bosses, their words in the political world and in the media, their dehumanizing, vulgar hedonism contained in various kinds of entertainment. Finally, the Other Campaign should emphasize the way capitalism has inserted in our minds the authoritarian values and principles of its behavior in order to convert us into reproducers of those values in all arenas of daily life. The campaign should, therefore, be “counter-hegemonic”, understanding hegemony as a world vision. That is why the struggle should be against capitalism and for the building of another vision. I am proposing that the Other Campaign declare itself to be “contra-hegemonic.”
25. David Domínguez
What I’m bringing are some proposals for broadening the campaign in the sense of security, because we’re all exposed to dangers by the State’s apparatus of repression. That we should, among ourselves, form self-help groups in order to protect each other. If anything were to happen to anyone, they would be recovered immediately. Also that we would have martial arts classes in order to defend ourselves. They are questions of security. If we don’t think the State has really swinish apparatuses of repression, this isn’t going to grow, and it’s going to fail from the beginning. It’s a proposal I have.
26. Mauricio Villegas
I think this could turn into an act of self-deception if we don’t understand the spirit of the Other Campaign. We say we’re anti-capitalist, but how many products have we decided not to buy from the big companies? We keep on buying, consuming. If we don’t sabotage things, like Gandhi did, we’ll be left with just very general positions. If Marcos and the EZLN want to direct this great movement, we have to sabotage the products of the big companies, promote fair trade in the communities. If we don’t do it, we’re going to come up short, we won’t get anywhere.
27. Alejandro Cruz, of the OIDHO
He belongs to Indian Organizations for Human Rights in Oaxaca. A question came up at a meeting with his peoples: How should this meeting be dealt with? After discussing it, they concluded they had to listen to other thoughts. How to respond to ideological confrontation, and how can it be resolved? The solution would be to deal more with the practical, organizing without going so much into the ideological. Placing more emphasis on how to engage in the practical before theorizing. He is willing to share his experiences in struggle against repression. That is why his concrete proposal is to create unity. They are worried because many compañeros are going to come to the meetings, but accords have to be created. We have to change the way of doing politics, create processes of accord and unity. He cited: “A cause doesn’t triumph because of its justice, but because of the strength and work of its followers.”
28. Cihuatl Arroyo
Greetings, and I hope everyone listens (Reads a poem)
“Here we are the forgotten ones even by ourselves…”
“Even here it is all the same.”
“I wish it were something else.”
“I hope the women speak a lot. There, with you in the other, on the left side of the heart…”
“Is it true that you are here? That your encouraging voice is full of love for the land”
“I hope your voice will be a call for attention, but not for a López, Sánchez…the adversary is called consumerism and indifference.”
“Let us move forward with the work which awaits us every day.”
29. Claudia López, from the Promotora
While we reach agreement, we have to look for what unifies us, what makes us brothers. Our thoughts unite us, our identity, the mother, those thoughts that are born from these lands. We are lost when we look for people to fight with, and nonetheless we should join together because of the land. Of what use is victory if, when it comes, we’re going to be dressed in Nikes and we forget our identity? My proposal is to center ourselves in what identifies us as Mexicans, to reclaim the identity and those values which we share.
30. Cecilio Pérez Hernández, from CNPI
They have a proposal-invitation: to come to San Felipe, Ecatepec. Proposes fighting for the defense of the lands and for rejecting government programs; that throughout the country education be redirected to the education of the indigenous peoples and that ancestral values be taken into consideration when learning history. That the free determination of the peoples be respected.
31. Francisco Reyes
Only National Front of Active Workers, Retirees and Pensioners of the IMSS. We believe that the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona is, right now, the best expression of the struggle of the workers of the countryside and the city, of the oppressed and exploited sectors. In the past, other efforts attempted to unify the struggles, and they lost their opportunity (like the front against privatization of the Electricity Industry). They lost by playing the election game, and their strength was reduced until it reached the point of extinction. They became institutionalized. The Sexta concurs with everyone’s desire to not engage in scattered struggles. The Sexta should form the organizations for the anti-capitalist left that we will be building. We should gather strengths in order to make a qualitative leap that will tell us that we are prepared for something wonderful. Everyone who should be here isn’t, but they will join together along the way. Meanwhile, the responsibility of those of us who are here is to care for each other, everyone from their movement, so that the Other Campaign is successful.
32. Enrique Guerrero, of the Friends of Puerto Rico committee
We have a proposal for the Sexta: That it explicitly include Puerto Rico’s struggle for independence and against US colonialism and imperialism (We’re bringing a gift, an independence flag from Puerto Rico).
33. Pietro Ameglio, of the Gandhi collective Pensar en Voz Alta [Thinking Out Loud]
The nature of the Sexta is primarily political, nationally and internationally, and they believe that the key aspect is educational. The Other Campaign is educational in nature, we cannot let that remain implicit. Knowledge must be constructed. The Other Campaign is going to allow there to be a map of autonomías and of social struggles in the countries. We have to create a shared knowledge of how to struggle better, to create a tactical and strategic plan for civil, peaceful struggle. The EZLN established three guidelines: listening, opting for moral strength and trusting in civil organization. All of this is summarized in our proposal which states the educational nature of study-action in the Other Campaign.
34. Sister Edith Hernández González
Brothers, sisters, my proposal is that the Other Campaign have the following characteristics:
1. That it be fully revolutionary. That all of us here break with our concepts of compañeros and families and see ourselves as a family. That we leave aside egoism, we have to listen to each other.
2. That we enter into a profound process of spiritual, personal, family and social transformation. We need to be born again, like Jesus said to Nicodemus.
3. To become aware of the fact that we ourselves have to become aware, to reorganize ourselves in this Other Campaign. We are going to become subjects of change, to be really anti-capitalist.
4. The Bible says that one does not have to follow the currents of the world.
5. That during the trip those who are going to go out in order to train ourselves, we should hold our meeting, see how we are going to do it and see what was accomplished. Then reorganize what comes next.
35. Alejandro Castillo
I think that, in the building of the Other Campaign, there are many aspects which can be developed from the cultural identity of the peoples. Recover the teachings of the Indian peoples. We have to present the discussion quite well, and the way the relationship with other peoples is presented, a dialogue with the world. We have to have a true debate through multiple points of view, from positivism, the dialectical, theological and from a neo-positivism.
36. Victor Guzmán, of Xi Nich
What stands out is that the indigenous peoples who talk about the characteristics of the Other Campaign are for a multicultural country, where all the recognized peoples of this country fit, and it should be oriented towards accompanying the struggle of the indigenous peoples in all corners of the country, for recognition, for the autonomías and the territories. They are struggling for the reconstitution of the peoples and for autonomía. The Other Campaign should be for the reconstitution of the country.
37. Martha Figueroa
A concrete proposal for the Other Campaign: the women’s organizations are not going to apologize. As women, we make up more than half the population, and we are mothers of the other half. As part of these others who think and feel differently, we came to propose that agreements are reached for this campaign in which equality of gender, class, ethnicity, differences and self-determination are expressed in all the struggles. We hope that these equalities will be considered to be irreplaceable principles for this campaign. That we who are different, women, indigenous, who have another political form of expressing ourselves, will have a place that will be guaranteed in an egalitarian manner. This is our unwavering principle. This vision of culture - which is the collective as being sometimes above the individual - means it must be guaranteed that all visions are part of which the Other Campaign is built. It should be a transversal vision. Forms of affect which are a political position. We do not want little separate houses. There are specific forms for each of our participations. This identity is made manifest every time we participate as young people, as indigenous. Participating in the campaign in all places is part of our identity and of this struggle which we want to continue engaging in.
38. Javier Fernández
I would suggest that, as this initiative is disseminated, the discussion should not be centered just around the political class, but directly on capital, that is the issue. We have to deal with the issue of capital and attack it. The other campaigns, those of the political parties, don’t want to affect capital. We have to accustom them to the fact that it is going to change. On the other hand, I sense that there’s not much emphasis on what has been presented, especially in the manner of linking with social struggles. There’s the case, for example, of the IMSS pensioners. We should seek the proper means of linking ourselves with everyone and of participating in and strengthening other struggles.
39. Beatriz Baños, of the Colectivo Homo Sapienz [Homo Sapiens Collective]
Came out in favor of the Other Campaign stating that it is of the left and anti-capitalist, that alternatives be proposed for fighting capitalism. It has to be extended throughout the world.
40. Mariana Mora
I have a concrete proposal about how to build an anti-capitalist struggle for the transformation of the nation. We have been fighting for eleven years for the recognition of indigenous rights and culture. It was never a separate point. It was always a central point for the transformation of the nation. We have listened to Comandantas Esther and Ramona over these last few weeks, who have also talked about the right of women to participate as a focal point of the struggle. We have heard about the right to different forms of love, but also of speaking, understanding the idiom, not just of the peoples, but also as forms of communication, for example, as young people do it. That is why the issue of respect for differences is a focal point, a principle which has to be part of the characteristics of the Other Campaign. My concrete proposal is that the Other Campaign include that it is against discrimination against indigenous peoples, against sexism, against homophobia and in favor of a Mexico where many Mexicos fit.
41. Faustino Santiago, of the Only National Front of Active Workers, Retirees and Pensioners of the IMSS
We aren’t for the government’s politics, a politics of handouts which have done much damage to our culture. It is difficult, but not impossible, to destroy this system. We reaffirm our support of the Sexta. A very important goal of this train that is the Other Campaign is that we will be going very far. Some will want to get off at the next stop. But we don’t. We are going much further.
42. Reinaldo Beltrán, of the Che Guevara Collective
They are in agreement with declaring the Sexta anti-hierarchical and anti-capitalist. Given that the Other Campaign will be fighting capitalism, there has to be a program for linking different economic programs, through the creation of self managing economic programs in different communities and to create networks of production and consumption. They said the Other Campaign should assume the basic infrastructure for the other economic program. They proposed that the only flag that the members of the Sexta should carry is Comandanta Ramona’s embroidery piece.
43. Virginia Ortega
I’m from the Popular Defense Committee of the Valley of Mexico. We are here because of the interest we have had in this struggle over the last eleven years. The Sexta is ours. We have supported it, we are participating and we issued a communiqué to all our bases to be with us. We are holding assemblies in order to release the communiqués from this important place. We have come in order to join and to tell Marcos that he is not alone. He can count on our associations in the DF. We will continue holding assemblies and adding more people for a new country, a patria we have forgotten. Our country has always been large, combative, well-informed. We will continue being committed to giving our people all the information about everyplace we are. The Other Campaign is, for us, information. The people are not ignorant, it’s a lack of information. We have to exercise the right to do, say and state. We are doing so. That is going to be the Other Campaign’s success.
44. Martha Patricia Ortiz
We are saying our small word from the village of Tetelzingo, Morelos. Greetings from those in Tetelzingo who have joined with the Sexta. We want a new world without exclusion, where the poor listen to the poor and believe in their word. We are ratifying our support of the Sexta. That is why we are here. Saludos.
45. Mayan Peninsular Forum of Quintana Roo
They summarized some affirmative characteristics and proposed some additions. They proposed that the Other Campaign be representative, democratic, plural, popular and responsive to the needs of the people, establishing democratic procedures for decision making. In addition it should establish conditions for a more just society, promote the development of liberty and enforce universal rights. They proposed that this campaign doesn’t just turn into a place for crowds, instead it should establish itself as organized social classes. Another aspect is to transform from dominant and working class and install democracy and a socialized system in order to make the indigenous and the citizens compatible in their constitution. Form a multicultural Nation State which recognizes equality and differences.
46. Gregorio Miranda
Revolutionary Left Force of the People. Ratifying the Sexta and the point [agenda point under discussion], we are proposing that it state that the Other Campaign is the accumulation of the resistance and of the rebellion of hundreds of years and of thousands of Mexicans who have said basta to capitalism. That it is the response of thousands of Mexicans in response to the great election banquet which is trying to maintain this system. Today we are coming out as Mexicans for national liberation. A Mexico and a new world is possible.
47. Alan Tapia
Ciudad Juárez is the laboratory of our future. Forty years of the capitalist economic model has resulted in very serious problems, among them, and importantly, the feminicides and the maquiladora industry, which is predatory and exploitative. We have managed to raise the issue of the murders of the women on the national and international level, but they have not been solved. The murders of the women are classist. We propose that solving and ending the murders be put on the same level as the defense of energy, that is, that it not be a local demand, but rather a demand of all of us who are participating in the Other Campaign. What is happening in Juárez is what happens to a city when it counts only on international capital and it rejects community work and society’s work.
48. Sergio Rodríguez Arona, from the Citizens Collective Front of Southern Baja California
The Sexta proposes building from below and for below in order to destroy neoliberalism, which doesn’t have only to do with marches, but also with the resistance we see in our tables and homes. He proposed that we all build an Economic Development Program in order to confront the neoliberal program. The ejido no longer exists in BCS [Southern Baja California], everything is privatized and in foreign hands. The PRI and the PAN have handed over sovereignty. They want help in forming the economic development program.
49. Compañero Édgar, from the Women and Men for Equality Organization in Tepito
I am telling you that we embrace the Sixth Declaration, and we support the Other Campaign. We are proposing that a vote of confidence be given to the EZLN and in that way conclude the debate.
50. Beatriz Torres
That the Other Campaign not be an alliance just with humanity, but rather a man/nature alliance. That we pay attention to the environment and know how to listen to it. It’s not only the neoliberals who could do away with it.
51. Rodrigo Ibarra
Who are the ones who didn’t come? Those who didn’t have the money, but there are also many others who didn’t come, those who are resigned to sorrow, those who have been blinded by hunger, those who don’t move because despair has left them in oblivion. Are they not our brothers? Are we willing to build all of them a new world? This campaign is a very otherly hurricane which is born from our mouths and our hearts. It will not be stopped until it carries fertile water to the deserts. When it arrives, we will all be there, and the caracol will be called Mexico. Strength is on the path and in the link with the dream. Proposes that we see it without forgetting that it is path, creative process, and that we are defining the first steps.
52. Sergio Santiago Cruz
From the Martín Lancero Popular Defense Committee, of Cosoleacaque, Veracruz. As we already stated on August 20 in Dolores Hidalgo, we join in with the Sexta. We are waiting for you in the southeastern region of Veracruz. Seven compañeros are willing to give their lives in order to protect Sub Marcos. They have written in their own hand their complete commitment. During your next visit, even though you are going to listen and not speak, we are asking that, when they speak and tell you about all their problems and all their struggles and everything the government is doing to them, you tell them what they are going through is pure neoliberalism, savage capitalism. We are proposing to everyone that we be more of a people. That we learn to feel what the people feel. We are delivering our document of commitment to the EZLN and a document we delivered to the government about the problems we have with the CFE about a dam.
53. Yoyo, from Jerusalén
We want a cultural, spiritual and environmental revolution. If we don’t take these issues into account in the Other Campaign, we will be forgetting the most important. We are proposing to reform the use of the word anti-capitalist. We are for an alternative democracy. It is inconsistent to attack capital if we continue consuming products. We are all accomplices of capitalism as consumers. We can speak of alternatives through sustainability. The foundation of these alternatives is the organic, autonomous self-sustaining communities. We are proposing that the Other Campaign reevaluate its methodology and, instead of traveling through the cities where the foci of capital are located, go by horseback through the rural communities.
54. Enlace Civil
They wanted to add characteristics: that the Other Campaign take into account all the aspects of dignified life. That it be exemplary and self-critical, that it favor mutual ethics over ideologies, that it be a joint place of collective conscience and that it express itself against discrimination.
55. Jorge Salinas, from the zapatista telephone workers collective
We in the collective are very happy to be in this community after eleven years of a successful movement by civil society which was able to bring help here. It’s worth remembering. Towards a program of struggle is one of the aspects of this first point. We are making a very concrete proposal. In 1990, Carlos Salinas de Gortari awarded the telephone company to Carlos Slim. Today Peje has awarded him the historical center because he has the telephone industry in his hands. This great popular group should take the struggle for recovering the telephone industry into their own hands, once again into the hands of the nation. Take it away from that swine Carlos Slim and the pro-management unions. If the telephone industry were returned to the hands of the nation, the wealth could be used for the nation’s demands.
56. Gregorio Pérez Núñez, from Matías Romero
Fraternal greetings. We can’t be beating each other up. It’s said we’re looking for unity, that’s why we can’t be enemies between brothers. If we want a new country, we have to work shoulder to shoulder in order to be successful. If we want a new country, we have to build a new program.
57. Juan Trujillo, Political Science student at UNAM
The Other Campaign has to put emphasis on the artistic-cultural. During the Sixth Committee’s trip, the cultural organizations will be not only a weapon, but also a means of judgment against capitalist forms. Theoretical-philosophical discussion centers can be organized now in order to achieve unity for constructing the utopia of a better life and for creating a solid movement. They proposed developing political consciousness and achieving legitimacy. We need to recover the pre-Hispanic vision, the Other is a metaphor which is looking for results not in one year, but over several years. In order to understand it, we need to recover cyclical time, the land. Solidarity with Latin America has to be the general nature of the Sexta and the Other Campaign, perhaps not in the short and mid term, but using words, performances, art, etc., in order to link the struggles.
58. Jorge Huerta
From the Native Art collective. We’re in agreement with what the EZLN has presented, but we’re proposing that the organizations make real the statement that we are broad and plural. When we propose a boycott, they tell us it’s out of context. As for the professor of the Science faculty, the struggle has to embrace all aspects. We should say what kind of products we’re going to boycott. These struggles aren’t out of context. The problem of pre-Hispanic history has to be addressed in depth. There is the problem of identity. If we are engaged in a national struggle, we have to make clear what the uses and customs are that we should be defending. The indigenous are fighting for their uses and customs to be respected, because they’re clear as to what they are. But we, as mestizos, should fight for uses and customs which bring us closer to the land. Consuming nopal, consuming beans and the products which bring us closer to our national identity, class, which make us more like other struggles. To make clear which are the products which bring us close to capitalism and we have to eradicate. Make a list of the uses, customs and products that we’re proposing should be rejected because they belong to the culture imposed by capitalism, as well as promoting a list of uses, customs and products which help us create an alternative economy and helps us rescue and create a national and class identity (products which bring us closer to our land), as well as rescuing our pre-Hispanic history.
59. Martha Mendoza (in defense of animals)
We are proposing that in the Other Campaign the changing of the patriarchal mental structure be promoted, as well as sensitizing the heart so that as human beings we respect non-human beings. Since we are against the system doing violence to us, we, as non-violent human beings should not abuse non-human beings and their habitats. If we achieve that, we will be better quality and conscientious beings with our goal of creating a world where many worlds fit.
60. Óscar Chávez
Comes from Anarcopunk Space, reporting on the situation of the prisoners in Guadalajara: the two compañeros who were talked about yesterday have not been able to leave, since their case is continuing. In addition, there are 31 other prisoners. There has been one year and four months of repression, resulting in 12 people sentenced, one free and four guilty minors. Their concrete proposal is that the Other Campaign be in solidarity with the prisoners. Networks must be created for freedom for political, indigenous, worker and student prisoners. Down with prison walls.
61. Eva Macossay, from the Popular Culture Movement of Yucatan
We have to be humble and a little self-critical. It’s fairly obvious how much we’re lacking in terms of organization. If the zapatistas and indigenous organizations have taught us anything, it’s that capacity for organization. Reach an agreement, but not just that. Also, do it, not just say it. We don’t need the microphone for expressing solidarity and recounting our histories, because that is built with our struggles. Use it for proposing and building. Proposal: that we be consistent with our words about getting rid of conventional methods (westernized). That the Other Campaign not forget about an issue that’s fundamental: racism and discrimination (subtle levels, psychological). You’re not going to get rid of five centuries of racist culture in a flash. We have to make an effort at introspection in search of that little racist we all carry inside ourselves so we can see how it manifests itself in our daily lives. We have to look for and discuss experiences in order to try and explain this phenomenon in the present. I propose that we especially work on this with the children, racism in schools (in formal education, but also in informal education), because they are the ones who can have the road half done. That the Other Campaign work with children and young people, orient them ideologically and educate them on justice and solidarity.
62. Hermenegildo Aguilera, from Nezahualcóyotl
Greetings to those with whom we’re sharing this dialogue. We want to tell you that we join in with this program. It is part of our ideology to support popular movements and be in solidarity with them. The popular movements are those which are fighting for their rights and recognition. We have followed your struggle, and we respect it. The EZLN has the stature to call on us for a struggle for a better Mexico. It is calling on us to struggle for a place for the left, strengthening the resistance. The Other Campaign is necessary in order to question the practices of the political class.
63. The compañera E. González
Her concern – being from Oaxaca – is the safety of the Sup when he goes out for his trip. We need to pick that responsibility back up and decide who is going to enter in a serious manner. We have to be more open and sure about what we’re going to do. There is very great repression in Oaxaca with the new government.
[Translator’s note: You will see the voice move between first and third person, which is how these narratives were compiled: the nature of taking minutes – irl]
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Translated by irlandesa
[Due to the length, I am translating this document in 10-15 page increments. This is Part 2 of this translation – irl]
Narrative of the First Plenary Session of the Other Campaign
September 17 and 18, 2005
Caracol of La Garrucha
23. José Antonio Yáñez, from the Reflection in Action collective
We believe that the Other Campaign is an opportunity for all of us to see, in practice, what we really are, if we are really democratic and inclusive. In addition to being peaceful and civil, the Other Campaign should be radical, even though this doesn’t necessarily mean carrying out extreme acts. If we call ourselves inclusive and democratic, but we’re not able to present proposals and projects, we run the risk of excluding or being excluded. Insofar as the Other Campaign is radical, it should address the root problems in order to establish a new model of social relationships. In order for the Other Campaign to not be just about dissemination, or propagandizing and the lifting of spirits, it has to be oriented towards real social change. We believe that, as we achieve the ability for analysis and understanding, we will be able to build a program of struggle which is not just anti-establishment. Specifically, if we want this Other Campaign to be different from the one the parties are carrying out, it should go to the fundamental and stress that we are different in practice.
Armando (from the same collective) (The assembly protested and asked him to sit down. He apologized in the name of his collective. He said he hadn’t intended to monopolize the time. He withdrew without speaking.)
24. Julio Muñoz Rubio
UNAM Professor, Faculty of Sciences. There is a risk that this campaign will be a campaign strictly tied to the political. This would be a mistake, because it would lead to limiting the campaign to just one part of the problems of the world, of the country and of the left. I am therefore proposing that the campaign be cultural in nature, which should not be confused with the artistic, because the cultural is much broader. We have the wrong idea about what capitalism is, because it’s thought to be a strictly economic system with political consequences. That is false. Capitalism dominates all aspects of life, in philosophy, the arts, the natural and social sciences, technology. Capitalism is an entire world vision. It is true that it’s a fragmentary, partial and limited conception of the world, but, at the end of the day, it is a vision which must be confronted by another world vision, another global vision, but one which is coherent and integrated. If this campaign doesn’t emphasize all this, it’s going to fall short, because it’s not going to be able to provide an answer for the totality of the forms of domination and of capitalist oppression: the classic capitalist oppression against wage earners, but also the domination and oppression of human beings against nature (including the mistreatment of animals), that of the adult or “mature” against children or adolescents, the heterosexual and monogamous against all other forms of sexuality and affective relations, of the “healthy” against the sick; the “whites” against other populations (not races), of all society against the indigenous cultures, and the urban countercultures being dominated in the arena of ideas, scientific theories and pseudo-scientists who justify all these oppressions. The Other Campaign should question capitalism’s ethical, epistemological and ontological values, especially in Mexico. Their esthetic bosses, their words in the political world and in the media, their dehumanizing, vulgar hedonism contained in various kinds of entertainment. Finally, the Other Campaign should emphasize the way capitalism has inserted in our minds the authoritarian values and principles of its behavior in order to convert us into reproducers of those values in all arenas of daily life. The campaign should, therefore, be “counter-hegemonic”, understanding hegemony as a world vision. That is why the struggle should be against capitalism and for the building of another vision. I am proposing that the Other Campaign declare itself to be “contra-hegemonic.”
25. David Domínguez
What I’m bringing are some proposals for broadening the campaign in the sense of security, because we’re all exposed to dangers by the State’s apparatus of repression. That we should, among ourselves, form self-help groups in order to protect each other. If anything were to happen to anyone, they would be recovered immediately. Also that we would have martial arts classes in order to defend ourselves. They are questions of security. If we don’t think the State has really swinish apparatuses of repression, this isn’t going to grow, and it’s going to fail from the beginning. It’s a proposal I have.
26. Mauricio Villegas
I think this could turn into an act of self-deception if we don’t understand the spirit of the Other Campaign. We say we’re anti-capitalist, but how many products have we decided not to buy from the big companies? We keep on buying, consuming. If we don’t sabotage things, like Gandhi did, we’ll be left with just very general positions. If Marcos and the EZLN want to direct this great movement, we have to sabotage the products of the big companies, promote fair trade in the communities. If we don’t do it, we’re going to come up short, we won’t get anywhere.
27. Alejandro Cruz, of the OIDHO
He belongs to Indian Organizations for Human Rights in Oaxaca. A question came up at a meeting with his peoples: How should this meeting be dealt with? After discussing it, they concluded they had to listen to other thoughts. How to respond to ideological confrontation, and how can it be resolved? The solution would be to deal more with the practical, organizing without going so much into the ideological. Placing more emphasis on how to engage in the practical before theorizing. He is willing to share his experiences in struggle against repression. That is why his concrete proposal is to create unity. They are worried because many compañeros are going to come to the meetings, but accords have to be created. We have to change the way of doing politics, create processes of accord and unity. He cited: “A cause doesn’t triumph because of its justice, but because of the strength and work of its followers.”
28. Cihuatl Arroyo
Greetings, and I hope everyone listens (Reads a poem)
“Here we are the forgotten ones even by ourselves…”
“Even here it is all the same.”
“I wish it were something else.”
“I hope the women speak a lot. There, with you in the other, on the left side of the heart…”
“Is it true that you are here? That your encouraging voice is full of love for the land”
“I hope your voice will be a call for attention, but not for a López, Sánchez…the adversary is called consumerism and indifference.”
“Let us move forward with the work which awaits us every day.”
29. Claudia López, from the Promotora
While we reach agreement, we have to look for what unifies us, what makes us brothers. Our thoughts unite us, our identity, the mother, those thoughts that are born from these lands. We are lost when we look for people to fight with, and nonetheless we should join together because of the land. Of what use is victory if, when it comes, we’re going to be dressed in Nikes and we forget our identity? My proposal is to center ourselves in what identifies us as Mexicans, to reclaim the identity and those values which we share.
30. Cecilio Pérez Hernández, from CNPI
They have a proposal-invitation: to come to San Felipe, Ecatepec. Proposes fighting for the defense of the lands and for rejecting government programs; that throughout the country education be redirected to the education of the indigenous peoples and that ancestral values be taken into consideration when learning history. That the free determination of the peoples be respected.
31. Francisco Reyes
Only National Front of Active Workers, Retirees and Pensioners of the IMSS. We believe that the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona is, right now, the best expression of the struggle of the workers of the countryside and the city, of the oppressed and exploited sectors. In the past, other efforts attempted to unify the struggles, and they lost their opportunity (like the front against privatization of the Electricity Industry). They lost by playing the election game, and their strength was reduced until it reached the point of extinction. They became institutionalized. The Sexta concurs with everyone’s desire to not engage in scattered struggles. The Sexta should form the organizations for the anti-capitalist left that we will be building. We should gather strengths in order to make a qualitative leap that will tell us that we are prepared for something wonderful. Everyone who should be here isn’t, but they will join together along the way. Meanwhile, the responsibility of those of us who are here is to care for each other, everyone from their movement, so that the Other Campaign is successful.
32. Enrique Guerrero, of the Friends of Puerto Rico committee
We have a proposal for the Sexta: That it explicitly include Puerto Rico’s struggle for independence and against US colonialism and imperialism (We’re bringing a gift, an independence flag from Puerto Rico).
33. Pietro Ameglio, of the Gandhi collective Pensar en Voz Alta [Thinking Out Loud]
The nature of the Sexta is primarily political, nationally and internationally, and they believe that the key aspect is educational. The Other Campaign is educational in nature, we cannot let that remain implicit. Knowledge must be constructed. The Other Campaign is going to allow there to be a map of autonomías and of social struggles in the countries. We have to create a shared knowledge of how to struggle better, to create a tactical and strategic plan for civil, peaceful struggle. The EZLN established three guidelines: listening, opting for moral strength and trusting in civil organization. All of this is summarized in our proposal which states the educational nature of study-action in the Other Campaign.
34. Sister Edith Hernández González
Brothers, sisters, my proposal is that the Other Campaign have the following characteristics:
1. That it be fully revolutionary. That all of us here break with our concepts of compañeros and families and see ourselves as a family. That we leave aside egoism, we have to listen to each other.
2. That we enter into a profound process of spiritual, personal, family and social transformation. We need to be born again, like Jesus said to Nicodemus.
3. To become aware of the fact that we ourselves have to become aware, to reorganize ourselves in this Other Campaign. We are going to become subjects of change, to be really anti-capitalist.
4. The Bible says that one does not have to follow the currents of the world.
5. That during the trip those who are going to go out in order to train ourselves, we should hold our meeting, see how we are going to do it and see what was accomplished. Then reorganize what comes next.
35. Alejandro Castillo
I think that, in the building of the Other Campaign, there are many aspects which can be developed from the cultural identity of the peoples. Recover the teachings of the Indian peoples. We have to present the discussion quite well, and the way the relationship with other peoples is presented, a dialogue with the world. We have to have a true debate through multiple points of view, from positivism, the dialectical, theological and from a neo-positivism.
36. Victor Guzmán, of Xi Nich
What stands out is that the indigenous peoples who talk about the characteristics of the Other Campaign are for a multicultural country, where all the recognized peoples of this country fit, and it should be oriented towards accompanying the struggle of the indigenous peoples in all corners of the country, for recognition, for the autonomías and the territories. They are struggling for the reconstitution of the peoples and for autonomía. The Other Campaign should be for the reconstitution of the country.
37. Martha Figueroa
A concrete proposal for the Other Campaign: the women’s organizations are not going to apologize. As women, we make up more than half the population, and we are mothers of the other half. As part of these others who think and feel differently, we came to propose that agreements are reached for this campaign in which equality of gender, class, ethnicity, differences and self-determination are expressed in all the struggles. We hope that these equalities will be considered to be irreplaceable principles for this campaign. That we who are different, women, indigenous, who have another political form of expressing ourselves, will have a place that will be guaranteed in an egalitarian manner. This is our unwavering principle. This vision of culture - which is the collective as being sometimes above the individual - means it must be guaranteed that all visions are part of which the Other Campaign is built. It should be a transversal vision. Forms of affect which are a political position. We do not want little separate houses. There are specific forms for each of our participations. This identity is made manifest every time we participate as young people, as indigenous. Participating in the campaign in all places is part of our identity and of this struggle which we want to continue engaging in.
38. Javier Fernández
I would suggest that, as this initiative is disseminated, the discussion should not be centered just around the political class, but directly on capital, that is the issue. We have to deal with the issue of capital and attack it. The other campaigns, those of the political parties, don’t want to affect capital. We have to accustom them to the fact that it is going to change. On the other hand, I sense that there’s not much emphasis on what has been presented, especially in the manner of linking with social struggles. There’s the case, for example, of the IMSS pensioners. We should seek the proper means of linking ourselves with everyone and of participating in and strengthening other struggles.
39. Beatriz Baños, of the Colectivo Homo Sapienz [Homo Sapiens Collective]
Came out in favor of the Other Campaign stating that it is of the left and anti-capitalist, that alternatives be proposed for fighting capitalism. It has to be extended throughout the world.
40. Mariana Mora
I have a concrete proposal about how to build an anti-capitalist struggle for the transformation of the nation. We have been fighting for eleven years for the recognition of indigenous rights and culture. It was never a separate point. It was always a central point for the transformation of the nation. We have listened to Comandantas Esther and Ramona over these last few weeks, who have also talked about the right of women to participate as a focal point of the struggle. We have heard about the right to different forms of love, but also of speaking, understanding the idiom, not just of the peoples, but also as forms of communication, for example, as young people do it. That is why the issue of respect for differences is a focal point, a principle which has to be part of the characteristics of the Other Campaign. My concrete proposal is that the Other Campaign include that it is against discrimination against indigenous peoples, against sexism, against homophobia and in favor of a Mexico where many Mexicos fit.
41. Faustino Santiago, of the Only National Front of Active Workers, Retirees and Pensioners of the IMSS
We aren’t for the government’s politics, a politics of handouts which have done much damage to our culture. It is difficult, but not impossible, to destroy this system. We reaffirm our support of the Sexta. A very important goal of this train that is the Other Campaign is that we will be going very far. Some will want to get off at the next stop. But we don’t. We are going much further.
42. Reinaldo Beltrán, of the Che Guevara Collective
They are in agreement with declaring the Sexta anti-hierarchical and anti-capitalist. Given that the Other Campaign will be fighting capitalism, there has to be a program for linking different economic programs, through the creation of self managing economic programs in different communities and to create networks of production and consumption. They said the Other Campaign should assume the basic infrastructure for the other economic program. They proposed that the only flag that the members of the Sexta should carry is Comandanta Ramona’s embroidery piece.
43. Virginia Ortega
I’m from the Popular Defense Committee of the Valley of Mexico. We are here because of the interest we have had in this struggle over the last eleven years. The Sexta is ours. We have supported it, we are participating and we issued a communiqué to all our bases to be with us. We are holding assemblies in order to release the communiqués from this important place. We have come in order to join and to tell Marcos that he is not alone. He can count on our associations in the DF. We will continue holding assemblies and adding more people for a new country, a patria we have forgotten. Our country has always been large, combative, well-informed. We will continue being committed to giving our people all the information about everyplace we are. The Other Campaign is, for us, information. The people are not ignorant, it’s a lack of information. We have to exercise the right to do, say and state. We are doing so. That is going to be the Other Campaign’s success.
44. Martha Patricia Ortiz
We are saying our small word from the village of Tetelzingo, Morelos. Greetings from those in Tetelzingo who have joined with the Sexta. We want a new world without exclusion, where the poor listen to the poor and believe in their word. We are ratifying our support of the Sexta. That is why we are here. Saludos.
45. Mayan Peninsular Forum of Quintana Roo
They summarized some affirmative characteristics and proposed some additions. They proposed that the Other Campaign be representative, democratic, plural, popular and responsive to the needs of the people, establishing democratic procedures for decision making. In addition it should establish conditions for a more just society, promote the development of liberty and enforce universal rights. They proposed that this campaign doesn’t just turn into a place for crowds, instead it should establish itself as organized social classes. Another aspect is to transform from dominant and working class and install democracy and a socialized system in order to make the indigenous and the citizens compatible in their constitution. Form a multicultural Nation State which recognizes equality and differences.
46. Gregorio Miranda
Revolutionary Left Force of the People. Ratifying the Sexta and the point [agenda point under discussion], we are proposing that it state that the Other Campaign is the accumulation of the resistance and of the rebellion of hundreds of years and of thousands of Mexicans who have said basta to capitalism. That it is the response of thousands of Mexicans in response to the great election banquet which is trying to maintain this system. Today we are coming out as Mexicans for national liberation. A Mexico and a new world is possible.
47. Alan Tapia
Ciudad Juárez is the laboratory of our future. Forty years of the capitalist economic model has resulted in very serious problems, among them, and importantly, the feminicides and the maquiladora industry, which is predatory and exploitative. We have managed to raise the issue of the murders of the women on the national and international level, but they have not been solved. The murders of the women are classist. We propose that solving and ending the murders be put on the same level as the defense of energy, that is, that it not be a local demand, but rather a demand of all of us who are participating in the Other Campaign. What is happening in Juárez is what happens to a city when it counts only on international capital and it rejects community work and society’s work.
48. Sergio Rodríguez Arona, from the Citizens Collective Front of Southern Baja California
The Sexta proposes building from below and for below in order to destroy neoliberalism, which doesn’t have only to do with marches, but also with the resistance we see in our tables and homes. He proposed that we all build an Economic Development Program in order to confront the neoliberal program. The ejido no longer exists in BCS [Southern Baja California], everything is privatized and in foreign hands. The PRI and the PAN have handed over sovereignty. They want help in forming the economic development program.
49. Compañero Édgar, from the Women and Men for Equality Organization in Tepito
I am telling you that we embrace the Sixth Declaration, and we support the Other Campaign. We are proposing that a vote of confidence be given to the EZLN and in that way conclude the debate.
50. Beatriz Torres
That the Other Campaign not be an alliance just with humanity, but rather a man/nature alliance. That we pay attention to the environment and know how to listen to it. It’s not only the neoliberals who could do away with it.
51. Rodrigo Ibarra
Who are the ones who didn’t come? Those who didn’t have the money, but there are also many others who didn’t come, those who are resigned to sorrow, those who have been blinded by hunger, those who don’t move because despair has left them in oblivion. Are they not our brothers? Are we willing to build all of them a new world? This campaign is a very otherly hurricane which is born from our mouths and our hearts. It will not be stopped until it carries fertile water to the deserts. When it arrives, we will all be there, and the caracol will be called Mexico. Strength is on the path and in the link with the dream. Proposes that we see it without forgetting that it is path, creative process, and that we are defining the first steps.
52. Sergio Santiago Cruz
From the Martín Lancero Popular Defense Committee, of Cosoleacaque, Veracruz. As we already stated on August 20 in Dolores Hidalgo, we join in with the Sexta. We are waiting for you in the southeastern region of Veracruz. Seven compañeros are willing to give their lives in order to protect Sub Marcos. They have written in their own hand their complete commitment. During your next visit, even though you are going to listen and not speak, we are asking that, when they speak and tell you about all their problems and all their struggles and everything the government is doing to them, you tell them what they are going through is pure neoliberalism, savage capitalism. We are proposing to everyone that we be more of a people. That we learn to feel what the people feel. We are delivering our document of commitment to the EZLN and a document we delivered to the government about the problems we have with the CFE about a dam.
53. Yoyo, from Jerusalén
We want a cultural, spiritual and environmental revolution. If we don’t take these issues into account in the Other Campaign, we will be forgetting the most important. We are proposing to reform the use of the word anti-capitalist. We are for an alternative democracy. It is inconsistent to attack capital if we continue consuming products. We are all accomplices of capitalism as consumers. We can speak of alternatives through sustainability. The foundation of these alternatives is the organic, autonomous self-sustaining communities. We are proposing that the Other Campaign reevaluate its methodology and, instead of traveling through the cities where the foci of capital are located, go by horseback through the rural communities.
54. Enlace Civil
They wanted to add characteristics: that the Other Campaign take into account all the aspects of dignified life. That it be exemplary and self-critical, that it favor mutual ethics over ideologies, that it be a joint place of collective conscience and that it express itself against discrimination.
55. Jorge Salinas, from the zapatista telephone workers collective
We in the collective are very happy to be in this community after eleven years of a successful movement by civil society which was able to bring help here. It’s worth remembering. Towards a program of struggle is one of the aspects of this first point. We are making a very concrete proposal. In 1990, Carlos Salinas de Gortari awarded the telephone company to Carlos Slim. Today Peje has awarded him the historical center because he has the telephone industry in his hands. This great popular group should take the struggle for recovering the telephone industry into their own hands, once again into the hands of the nation. Take it away from that swine Carlos Slim and the pro-management unions. If the telephone industry were returned to the hands of the nation, the wealth could be used for the nation’s demands.
56. Gregorio Pérez Núñez, from Matías Romero
Fraternal greetings. We can’t be beating each other up. It’s said we’re looking for unity, that’s why we can’t be enemies between brothers. If we want a new country, we have to work shoulder to shoulder in order to be successful. If we want a new country, we have to build a new program.
57. Juan Trujillo, Political Science student at UNAM
The Other Campaign has to put emphasis on the artistic-cultural. During the Sixth Committee’s trip, the cultural organizations will be not only a weapon, but also a means of judgment against capitalist forms. Theoretical-philosophical discussion centers can be organized now in order to achieve unity for constructing the utopia of a better life and for creating a solid movement. They proposed developing political consciousness and achieving legitimacy. We need to recover the pre-Hispanic vision, the Other is a metaphor which is looking for results not in one year, but over several years. In order to understand it, we need to recover cyclical time, the land. Solidarity with Latin America has to be the general nature of the Sexta and the Other Campaign, perhaps not in the short and mid term, but using words, performances, art, etc., in order to link the struggles.
58. Jorge Huerta
From the Native Art collective. We’re in agreement with what the EZLN has presented, but we’re proposing that the organizations make real the statement that we are broad and plural. When we propose a boycott, they tell us it’s out of context. As for the professor of the Science faculty, the struggle has to embrace all aspects. We should say what kind of products we’re going to boycott. These struggles aren’t out of context. The problem of pre-Hispanic history has to be addressed in depth. There is the problem of identity. If we are engaged in a national struggle, we have to make clear what the uses and customs are that we should be defending. The indigenous are fighting for their uses and customs to be respected, because they’re clear as to what they are. But we, as mestizos, should fight for uses and customs which bring us closer to the land. Consuming nopal, consuming beans and the products which bring us closer to our national identity, class, which make us more like other struggles. To make clear which are the products which bring us close to capitalism and we have to eradicate. Make a list of the uses, customs and products that we’re proposing should be rejected because they belong to the culture imposed by capitalism, as well as promoting a list of uses, customs and products which help us create an alternative economy and helps us rescue and create a national and class identity (products which bring us closer to our land), as well as rescuing our pre-Hispanic history.
59. Martha Mendoza (in defense of animals)
We are proposing that in the Other Campaign the changing of the patriarchal mental structure be promoted, as well as sensitizing the heart so that as human beings we respect non-human beings. Since we are against the system doing violence to us, we, as non-violent human beings should not abuse non-human beings and their habitats. If we achieve that, we will be better quality and conscientious beings with our goal of creating a world where many worlds fit.
60. Óscar Chávez
Comes from Anarcopunk Space, reporting on the situation of the prisoners in Guadalajara: the two compañeros who were talked about yesterday have not been able to leave, since their case is continuing. In addition, there are 31 other prisoners. There has been one year and four months of repression, resulting in 12 people sentenced, one free and four guilty minors. Their concrete proposal is that the Other Campaign be in solidarity with the prisoners. Networks must be created for freedom for political, indigenous, worker and student prisoners. Down with prison walls.
61. Eva Macossay, from the Popular Culture Movement of Yucatan
We have to be humble and a little self-critical. It’s fairly obvious how much we’re lacking in terms of organization. If the zapatistas and indigenous organizations have taught us anything, it’s that capacity for organization. Reach an agreement, but not just that. Also, do it, not just say it. We don’t need the microphone for expressing solidarity and recounting our histories, because that is built with our struggles. Use it for proposing and building. Proposal: that we be consistent with our words about getting rid of conventional methods (westernized). That the Other Campaign not forget about an issue that’s fundamental: racism and discrimination (subtle levels, psychological). You’re not going to get rid of five centuries of racist culture in a flash. We have to make an effort at introspection in search of that little racist we all carry inside ourselves so we can see how it manifests itself in our daily lives. We have to look for and discuss experiences in order to try and explain this phenomenon in the present. I propose that we especially work on this with the children, racism in schools (in formal education, but also in informal education), because they are the ones who can have the road half done. That the Other Campaign work with children and young people, orient them ideologically and educate them on justice and solidarity.
62. Hermenegildo Aguilera, from Nezahualcóyotl
Greetings to those with whom we’re sharing this dialogue. We want to tell you that we join in with this program. It is part of our ideology to support popular movements and be in solidarity with them. The popular movements are those which are fighting for their rights and recognition. We have followed your struggle, and we respect it. The EZLN has the stature to call on us for a struggle for a better Mexico. It is calling on us to struggle for a place for the left, strengthening the resistance. The Other Campaign is necessary in order to question the practices of the political class.
63. The compañera E. González
Her concern – being from Oaxaca – is the safety of the Sup when he goes out for his trip. We need to pick that responsibility back up and decide who is going to enter in a serious manner. We have to be more open and sure about what we’re going to do. There is very great repression in Oaxaca with the new government.
[Translator’s note: You will see the voice move between first and third person, which is how these narratives were compiled: the nature of taking minutes – irl]
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
CCRI-CG/EZLN: requesting aid for storm victims
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Communiqué from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
October 17, 2005
To the People of Mexico
To the Peoples of the World
To the Other Campaign
Brothers and Sisters
Compañeras and Compañeros:
First - As everyone is aware, the heavy rains of the last few weeks have caused serious damage to the poor population of several states of the Mexican Republic, among them the state of Chiapas. Owing to this catastrophe, the very poorest have been left with nothing, and, in addition to the burden of pain at having lost what little they had, they must now put up with the bad leaders’ inability to provide humanitarian aid, politicians using the media to plunder their misfortune and the one who turns the disaster zones into an election bulletin.
Second - Apart from the bureaucracies and corruption of the Mexican political class (which has turned the misfortunes of the poorest into a publicity spot), honest non-governmental organizations, groups, social organizations, political organizations of the left and individuals are organizing help for the affected persons.
Third - At the present time, authorities of the Good Government Junta of the Selva-Border Region and the “Tierra y Libertad” Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipality, which includes communities in the Border, Sierra and Coast of Chiapas, have gone personally to the affected area in order to see how the zapatista support base compañeros and compañeras who reside in those places are doing.
Fourth - The Good Government Committee has only been able to reach a few areas, because the roads to some zapatista communities and villages are cut off. The first report from the Good Government Junta notes, up to now, that there are close to 300 zapatista support bases who are suffering from damage caused by the rains, hill slides and rivers overflowing. 62 homes were destroyed, 37 of them completely and 25 with severe damage.
Fifth - The Good Government Junta of La Realidad is devoting part of its resources to helping these compañeros and compañeras. The zapatista peoples in other areas are also organizing aid, and the EZLN has already earmarked part of its war funds for helping our support bases in those places, but it is not enough, and we are having difficulties with transportation.
Sixth - The CCRI-CG of the EZLN is, therefore, respectfully addressing their compañeros and compañeras from the “Other” Campaign and individuals, groups and collectives from other countries, and it is calling on them to organize, below and to the left of governments and political parties, direct aid for this region. We are especially directing ourselves to the compañeros and compañeras of the “Other” Campaign in Chiapas so that they can provide premises and transportation.
Seventh - As offered to the Good Government of Junta of La Realidad, aid can be received at the following locations in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas (to be then moved from there to those places that need it): Desmi A.C., Enlace Civil and Melel Xojobal. The humanitarian aid will be received directly by the zapatista indigenous victims.
Democracy!!
Liberty!!
Justice!!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, October of 2005
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Communiqué from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
October 17, 2005
To the People of Mexico
To the Peoples of the World
To the Other Campaign
Brothers and Sisters
Compañeras and Compañeros:
First - As everyone is aware, the heavy rains of the last few weeks have caused serious damage to the poor population of several states of the Mexican Republic, among them the state of Chiapas. Owing to this catastrophe, the very poorest have been left with nothing, and, in addition to the burden of pain at having lost what little they had, they must now put up with the bad leaders’ inability to provide humanitarian aid, politicians using the media to plunder their misfortune and the one who turns the disaster zones into an election bulletin.
Second - Apart from the bureaucracies and corruption of the Mexican political class (which has turned the misfortunes of the poorest into a publicity spot), honest non-governmental organizations, groups, social organizations, political organizations of the left and individuals are organizing help for the affected persons.
Third - At the present time, authorities of the Good Government Junta of the Selva-Border Region and the “Tierra y Libertad” Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipality, which includes communities in the Border, Sierra and Coast of Chiapas, have gone personally to the affected area in order to see how the zapatista support base compañeros and compañeras who reside in those places are doing.
Fourth - The Good Government Committee has only been able to reach a few areas, because the roads to some zapatista communities and villages are cut off. The first report from the Good Government Junta notes, up to now, that there are close to 300 zapatista support bases who are suffering from damage caused by the rains, hill slides and rivers overflowing. 62 homes were destroyed, 37 of them completely and 25 with severe damage.
Fifth - The Good Government Junta of La Realidad is devoting part of its resources to helping these compañeros and compañeras. The zapatista peoples in other areas are also organizing aid, and the EZLN has already earmarked part of its war funds for helping our support bases in those places, but it is not enough, and we are having difficulties with transportation.
Sixth - The CCRI-CG of the EZLN is, therefore, respectfully addressing their compañeros and compañeras from the “Other” Campaign and individuals, groups and collectives from other countries, and it is calling on them to organize, below and to the left of governments and political parties, direct aid for this region. We are especially directing ourselves to the compañeros and compañeras of the “Other” Campaign in Chiapas so that they can provide premises and transportation.
Seventh - As offered to the Good Government of Junta of La Realidad, aid can be received at the following locations in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas (to be then moved from there to those places that need it): Desmi A.C., Enlace Civil and Melel Xojobal. The humanitarian aid will be received directly by the zapatista indigenous victims.
Democracy!!
Liberty!!
Justice!!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, October of 2005
Monday, October 17, 2005
Autonomías warn of pending attack on Olga Isabel
Originally published in Spanish by the MAREZ
*******************************
Translated by irlandesa
Corazón del Arcoiris de la Esperanza Good Government Junta
Caracol 4, Torbellino de Nuestras Palabras, on October 16, 2005, we are making a denuncia concerning a threat from the OPDDIC organization.
To Public Opinion:
Brothers and Sisters, Nationally and Internationally:
On October 14, 2005, members of the OPDDIC organization held an assembly in the community of Chak Akolja. Present at the assembly were the representatives or leaders of that organization along with the ejidal commissioner of Mukul Lim Bachajon, Barrio San Sebastián, Jerónimo Deméza Jiménez, president of the security council, Domingo García Pérez, secretary of the council and as Secretary General of OPDDIC, Leonardo Moreno Jiménez.
Where [at the assembly] the OPDDIC members planned to once again open up the rift and possessions, given that it is land recovered by the zapatista compañeros in 1994 and the Olga Isabel Municipal seat.
They also made plans to dismantle the Olga Isabel Autonomous Municipality, to destroy the houses, offices, bodegas, schools, health centers and the compañeras’ crafts center and to detain the most well-known autonomous authorities.
If there are any attempts to prevent these actions, there are 35 persons who have high powered firearms who are determined to open fire on the zapatista support base compañeros of that municipality.
There are 300 persons gathered together from various communities and ejidos in order to carry out these actions:
- Jetjá, Nuevo Joto Aquil, and others who will be coming from the Selva.
- The leaders agreed to contribute $50 for transportation for those who live far away, and then laminate will be distributed in order to recover the money.
- They said this action would be carried out on October 17 or 18 of 2005.
- These groups will gather together in the municipality itself.
Sincerely,
The Good Government Junta
Autonomous Municipalities in Rebellion:
Vicente Guerrero, Primero de Enero, Lucio Cabañas, Che Guevara, 17 de Noviembre, Olga Isabel and Miguel Hidalgo
Caracol IV, Torbellino de Nuestros Palabras, Chiapas, Mexico
[Signature and Seal]
*******************************
Translated by irlandesa
Corazón del Arcoiris de la Esperanza Good Government Junta
Caracol 4, Torbellino de Nuestras Palabras, on October 16, 2005, we are making a denuncia concerning a threat from the OPDDIC organization.
To Public Opinion:
Brothers and Sisters, Nationally and Internationally:
On October 14, 2005, members of the OPDDIC organization held an assembly in the community of Chak Akolja. Present at the assembly were the representatives or leaders of that organization along with the ejidal commissioner of Mukul Lim Bachajon, Barrio San Sebastián, Jerónimo Deméza Jiménez, president of the security council, Domingo García Pérez, secretary of the council and as Secretary General of OPDDIC, Leonardo Moreno Jiménez.
Where [at the assembly] the OPDDIC members planned to once again open up the rift and possessions, given that it is land recovered by the zapatista compañeros in 1994 and the Olga Isabel Municipal seat.
They also made plans to dismantle the Olga Isabel Autonomous Municipality, to destroy the houses, offices, bodegas, schools, health centers and the compañeras’ crafts center and to detain the most well-known autonomous authorities.
If there are any attempts to prevent these actions, there are 35 persons who have high powered firearms who are determined to open fire on the zapatista support base compañeros of that municipality.
There are 300 persons gathered together from various communities and ejidos in order to carry out these actions:
- Jetjá, Nuevo Joto Aquil, and others who will be coming from the Selva.
- The leaders agreed to contribute $50 for transportation for those who live far away, and then laminate will be distributed in order to recover the money.
- They said this action would be carried out on October 17 or 18 of 2005.
- These groups will gather together in the municipality itself.
Sincerely,
The Good Government Junta
Autonomous Municipalities in Rebellion:
Vicente Guerrero, Primero de Enero, Lucio Cabañas, Che Guevara, 17 de Noviembre, Olga Isabel and Miguel Hidalgo
Caracol IV, Torbellino de Nuestros Palabras, Chiapas, Mexico
[Signature and Seal]
Thursday, October 13, 2005
EZLN: 2 communiques in support of the IMSS
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
[Two communiqués follow: the first from the CCRI-CG of the EZLN and the second from Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos]
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
October of 2005
To the Workers of the IMSS:
To the Other Campaign:
To the People of Mexico:
Compañeras and Compañeros:
We are sending you our greetings and respect. We are writing in order to tell you that we are supporting you in your struggle to prevent Vicente Fox’s government from achieving the privatization of public health and for the defense of your rights and social achievements. We know quite well that there have been many attacks against you and that you are now, as previously, the object of a media campaign to discredit you and to set the Mexican people against you. That is why we want to tell you that we know quite well that the lies they are saying against you conceal the truth about the big business which the federal government, headed by the National Action Party (PAN) has been turned into.
We know that your struggle, against management, against the government and against the pro-management unions, is not just to defend your rights as workers, but it is also to defend the union victories of all workers, and it is also for the right of the people to health care.
We know of your decision to not surrender and to not sell out, and that you are willing to go as far as mounting a strike. That is why we want you to know that the men, women, children and old ones of the EZLN will help you in any way we can, and we will be alert to see that no evil is done to you, because strikes are a right of the worker and should be respected.
We are calling on the people of Mexico to not let themselves be deceived by the lies spoken about those workers, because that is just what the powerful do, when someone rebels against injustice, they invent crimes and falsehoods so they will be left by themselves, without the help of the humble people.
We are making a special call to all the compañeros and compañeras of the “Other” campaign, to mobilize in support of these compañeros and compañeras, workers of the IMSS, in the ways and times they establish; to disseminate true information about the IMSS and their workers; and that we carry out joint actions so that these compañeros know they are not alone.
Lastly, we are telling the workers of the Mexican Institute of Social Security that they can count on us, the zapatistas of the EZLN, to be as we, in fact, are: as compañeros and compañeras of struggle.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, October of 2005
***************************************************
After the Storm Comes…
the “Other” Storm
“and by the strength of our weaknesses
we will be the strongest of the world,
of history and of the right struggles.”
Roque Dalton
October of 2005.
I hope you are well. We are, more or less, recovering little by little from the shipwreck, and worried about the compas on the Coast and in all the affected states. Surely those supporters of the Sexta who are still dry will extend bridges below for that support which is owed between compañeros and compañeras. What is happening above is nothing but a publicity spot, and, when prime time is over, the histories of the omissions, lack of responsibility and inefficiencies of the state and federal governments which aren’t even good for entertainment will remain buried (like under the water and the mud).
Behind the images and the sounds of the catastrophe the storm provoked down here, one can see the government program which, with different colors and initials, is being waged up above: turning our country into a huge disaster zone and the Mexicans into a large mass of victims, victims suitable for instantaneous media charity (because one doesn’t have to exaggerate, they say, after all, the most important thing is still the election campaigns).
You know what? You can sense a certain desperation up there. As if the “respectable” public were increasingly reluctant to consume the plastic, transgenetic news stories that they’re being offered one after another: a helicopter which fell or “was felled” and the habitual absence of an official whose death snuffed out that of Miguel Ángel Mesino M. and that of Tomás Cruz Zamora (the latter the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to Parota – CECOP). In other words, there are deaths above and deaths below. Those of above deserve headlines, prime time, speculations. Those of below…well, what better example than the attitude of the Governor of Guerrero, Zeferino Torreblanca (who reached the position with the initials and colors of the PRD), who asked “that these crimes not be magnified.” And then there aren’t, as they then said, “favorable conditions”: during the celebration of the sub 17 world victory, the rains came to ruin everything and to remind us that misfortune also has a class predilection and preferentially embraces those who have little and then lose it.
Fox already said that “after the storm comes the calm.” The only thing he missed was asking “don’t magnify these things.” Now the news will go somewhere else, and in the devastated areas the networks of corruption and complicity, which will ensure that history repeats itself, will be rebuilt in silence. And the millions of victims? They will move from being a news item to being a campaign item: “if you vote for me, this won’t happen again…because others will be the ones to profit from their misfortune.”
But up above they don’t see that after the storm the calm doesn’t come, but instead an “other” storm, one that will go from below to above, which will shake this sorrow we call Patria and which will return to it what it once had: dignity. And, like a small and weak wind, perhaps just a little cloud, the “other” campaign will begin to raise up everywhere, from the irate Suchiate to beyond the Rio Grande.
You ask me about the problem of the compas from the IMSS, about the media campaign against them (one day they’re “spoiled” workers and the next they’re “anti-Semitic” nazis) and about the Other Campaign’s role in this and in other movements.
Well, during the preparation meetings we heard from some persons (mostly women) who are engaged in that movement: they don’t receive any pay whatsoever for their political work, they take time from their free moments in order to organize, study and struggle for their rights, they are more concerned for the generations of workers to come than they are for themselves (yes, like the student movement of 1999-2000), and we spoke with that camaraderie of those who know they are engaged in the same effort. They recently sent us some documents. As far as I understand what they wrote me (and without trying to replace their voice) about the struggle of the IMSS workers, and at the risk of being too succinct, I can tell you the following:
- The premise of a state or para-state owned company is not the same as that of a private company. While the latter is only interested in profits at all costs (even extending to crime), the former is interested in social service, service to the community (or it should be). Private companies seek to benefit the businessman, the state and para-state owned ones seek (or should) to benefit the people, the workers, or however they want to be called.
- Leaving aside the issue of whether the existence of state or para-state owned companies are a palliative for social discontent, a means of control, or an achievement of social struggle (for us, it is, above all, the latter), those who are employed there are workers (with rights to win and to defend in the face of an owner (the State, in this case). Ergo, they have the right to organize in unions, union wings, collectives, groups, circles or however they want to call themselves and to operate.
- In present-day capitalism, the thirst for capitalist profits doesn’t stop at the State boundaries. That is why they try to gain control of everything that does, or can, create profits, including state and para-state owned companies. This buying/selling of State property is one of the characteristics of neoliberalism, and it counts on the complicity of officials (who, being politicians, transform themselves into managers).
- The common premise of neoliberal governments is: take over a state or para-state owned company; team up with stupid and/or corrupt officials and corrupt and/or stupid union leaders, in order to loot the patrimony; make it inefficient and costly; argue that it has to be sold so it can deliver good service and be competitive; modify or violate the laws that prevent privatization; sell it; get rid of the workers and/or their organizations; declare that the country is making progress because direct foreign investment has increased, “which reflects the high level of confidence which Mexico has gained at the global level in an increasingly competitive world” (grammatical infamy, the responsibility of the current official).
- In Mexico, at least since the administration of Miguel de la Madrid, successive governments have made privatization the backbone of their economic program. The results are obvious: the quantity and quality of services decrease, unemployment grows and salaries fall, businessmen’s profits increase and social well-being decreases. In sum: with this politics, more are increasingly worse off, and fewer are increasingly better off.
- For two decades the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) has been one of the principal objectives of neoliberal governments. On the one hand it has carried out a policy of looting and undercapitalizing the IMSS in order to justify its privatization. The idea isn’t just to have the IMSS “run out” of funds, but to “transfer” them to the big capitalists. With the approval of the Reforms to the Social Security Law – in which pension funds were privatized by creating AFORES – a profit of 60 billion pesos has been created, which has gone into the coffers of big banks which today are already in the hands of international financial capital. The employer’s contribution for illness and maternity insurance was reduced by 33%. In addition, instead of investing in the maintenance and modernization of equipment in the IMSS, they have put it into private hospital medical services such as ambulances, surgeries and clinical studies (in other words, private companies being financed with public money). In addition, there is the following: salary reductions of up to 70%; precariousness in employment; budget reduction; increase in salaries and benefits for top officials; the toleration of the extension and evasion of employer’s contributions.
- When the Reforms to the Social Security Law were approved in 2004, the Federal Labor Law and the Collective Labor Contract were violated, because two labor regimens were established: one for those who had already been working prior to the reform and another for those who entered the workforce afterwards. There are worse provisions for retirement for the latter than for the former.
- All of this demonstrates to us a conscious policy by businessmen, politicians and union bureaucrats of the pro-management unions to undercapitalize the IMSS in order to deliver it the final blow and to carry out the privatization of public medical services.
- This is aimed not only at those who are working at the IMSS, but also at all workers and their families.
- The workers in the IMSS who are struggling against this plan of destruction are for: turning back the 2004 reforms; not allowing the existence of two kinds of labor relationships; making an audit of the IMSS finances in order to detect the dirty deals of successive boards; carrying out mobilizations in order to prevent pro-management unions from betraying the accords; defending the IMSS and the demands of its workers; preparations for a national strike if the neoliberal plan doesn’t back off; wage increases of 10%; and earmarking 50% of surplus oil profits for financially strengthening the IMSS.
- The struggle of the IMSS workers is nothing less than the defense of health care, of social security, of labor rights, of collective contracts and of the unions.
- As might be expected, this movement has been the object of a real slander campaign in the media. The common argument is that the IMSS workers, and the pensioners in the IMSS regimen, are “privileged” workers as regards pensions. A pensioner from the IMSS regimen receives close to 22,000 pesos per year (less than 2000 pesos a month), while the Fox government supports the truly “privileged” : the banks (during the administration of “change” close to one billion, 400,000 million pesos will be paid out for debt service); the ex-presidents (there are 4 of them, and they receive close to 45 million pesos each per year – or more than 2 million pesos a month); the ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (more than 133 million pesos a year for each one of those living or for their widows – or more than 10 million pesos monthly).
In summary: these compañeros and compañeras of the IMSS have managed to raise an intelligent and dignified struggle in order to check the privatization offensive of above. On the other hand, pro-management unions don’t have it easy: if they take the side of the workers, they will be of no use to management and the government; and if they take the side of management, they’ll be of no use to the workers. And, looked at carefully, these movements are also useful for that: for demonstrating the uselessness of the charros [the term means both cowboys and also pro-management unions] for anything other than folklore for bewildered tourists.
And if the government does not stop, and it insists on imposing its privatization, then it will be confronting not just the IMSS strike, but also the support which the entire Other Campaign in general, and the EZLN in particular, will have to offer them as the compañeros we are.
As for the rest, what can I tell you: that the Other continues to grow (as of October 2 there are now 64 political organizations of the left, 118 indigenous organizations. 197 social organizations, 474 NGOs/groups/collectives and 1898 individuals), slowly but inexorably. The assessments of the Plenary are beginning to arrive, the opinions on the 6 points of definition and the proposals (some of them including weight loss diets) for “Agent X’s” first trip.
We believe that the eagerness for self-purification when we’ve just begun will soon be overcome, and the stage of “ismos” (sometimes as praise and sometimes as insult) will pass when it becomes understood that to be of the left in the Mexico of today is to be, at the least, not in the center, but to the left of the right. I don’t know very well what will happen, but, believe me, the results will not be a left agreeable to the right, it will be an “other left.”
I’ll say goodbye now. Be sure to write, since sometimes we also walk in words.
Vale. Salud and may the wind which we are continue to grow.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico, October of 2005
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
[Two communiqués follow: the first from the CCRI-CG of the EZLN and the second from Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos]
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
October of 2005
To the Workers of the IMSS:
To the Other Campaign:
To the People of Mexico:
Compañeras and Compañeros:
We are sending you our greetings and respect. We are writing in order to tell you that we are supporting you in your struggle to prevent Vicente Fox’s government from achieving the privatization of public health and for the defense of your rights and social achievements. We know quite well that there have been many attacks against you and that you are now, as previously, the object of a media campaign to discredit you and to set the Mexican people against you. That is why we want to tell you that we know quite well that the lies they are saying against you conceal the truth about the big business which the federal government, headed by the National Action Party (PAN) has been turned into.
We know that your struggle, against management, against the government and against the pro-management unions, is not just to defend your rights as workers, but it is also to defend the union victories of all workers, and it is also for the right of the people to health care.
We know of your decision to not surrender and to not sell out, and that you are willing to go as far as mounting a strike. That is why we want you to know that the men, women, children and old ones of the EZLN will help you in any way we can, and we will be alert to see that no evil is done to you, because strikes are a right of the worker and should be respected.
We are calling on the people of Mexico to not let themselves be deceived by the lies spoken about those workers, because that is just what the powerful do, when someone rebels against injustice, they invent crimes and falsehoods so they will be left by themselves, without the help of the humble people.
We are making a special call to all the compañeros and compañeras of the “Other” campaign, to mobilize in support of these compañeros and compañeras, workers of the IMSS, in the ways and times they establish; to disseminate true information about the IMSS and their workers; and that we carry out joint actions so that these compañeros know they are not alone.
Lastly, we are telling the workers of the Mexican Institute of Social Security that they can count on us, the zapatistas of the EZLN, to be as we, in fact, are: as compañeros and compañeras of struggle.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, October of 2005
***************************************************
After the Storm Comes…
the “Other” Storm
“and by the strength of our weaknesses
we will be the strongest of the world,
of history and of the right struggles.”
Roque Dalton
October of 2005.
I hope you are well. We are, more or less, recovering little by little from the shipwreck, and worried about the compas on the Coast and in all the affected states. Surely those supporters of the Sexta who are still dry will extend bridges below for that support which is owed between compañeros and compañeras. What is happening above is nothing but a publicity spot, and, when prime time is over, the histories of the omissions, lack of responsibility and inefficiencies of the state and federal governments which aren’t even good for entertainment will remain buried (like under the water and the mud).
Behind the images and the sounds of the catastrophe the storm provoked down here, one can see the government program which, with different colors and initials, is being waged up above: turning our country into a huge disaster zone and the Mexicans into a large mass of victims, victims suitable for instantaneous media charity (because one doesn’t have to exaggerate, they say, after all, the most important thing is still the election campaigns).
You know what? You can sense a certain desperation up there. As if the “respectable” public were increasingly reluctant to consume the plastic, transgenetic news stories that they’re being offered one after another: a helicopter which fell or “was felled” and the habitual absence of an official whose death snuffed out that of Miguel Ángel Mesino M. and that of Tomás Cruz Zamora (the latter the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to Parota – CECOP). In other words, there are deaths above and deaths below. Those of above deserve headlines, prime time, speculations. Those of below…well, what better example than the attitude of the Governor of Guerrero, Zeferino Torreblanca (who reached the position with the initials and colors of the PRD), who asked “that these crimes not be magnified.” And then there aren’t, as they then said, “favorable conditions”: during the celebration of the sub 17 world victory, the rains came to ruin everything and to remind us that misfortune also has a class predilection and preferentially embraces those who have little and then lose it.
Fox already said that “after the storm comes the calm.” The only thing he missed was asking “don’t magnify these things.” Now the news will go somewhere else, and in the devastated areas the networks of corruption and complicity, which will ensure that history repeats itself, will be rebuilt in silence. And the millions of victims? They will move from being a news item to being a campaign item: “if you vote for me, this won’t happen again…because others will be the ones to profit from their misfortune.”
But up above they don’t see that after the storm the calm doesn’t come, but instead an “other” storm, one that will go from below to above, which will shake this sorrow we call Patria and which will return to it what it once had: dignity. And, like a small and weak wind, perhaps just a little cloud, the “other” campaign will begin to raise up everywhere, from the irate Suchiate to beyond the Rio Grande.
You ask me about the problem of the compas from the IMSS, about the media campaign against them (one day they’re “spoiled” workers and the next they’re “anti-Semitic” nazis) and about the Other Campaign’s role in this and in other movements.
Well, during the preparation meetings we heard from some persons (mostly women) who are engaged in that movement: they don’t receive any pay whatsoever for their political work, they take time from their free moments in order to organize, study and struggle for their rights, they are more concerned for the generations of workers to come than they are for themselves (yes, like the student movement of 1999-2000), and we spoke with that camaraderie of those who know they are engaged in the same effort. They recently sent us some documents. As far as I understand what they wrote me (and without trying to replace their voice) about the struggle of the IMSS workers, and at the risk of being too succinct, I can tell you the following:
- The premise of a state or para-state owned company is not the same as that of a private company. While the latter is only interested in profits at all costs (even extending to crime), the former is interested in social service, service to the community (or it should be). Private companies seek to benefit the businessman, the state and para-state owned ones seek (or should) to benefit the people, the workers, or however they want to be called.
- Leaving aside the issue of whether the existence of state or para-state owned companies are a palliative for social discontent, a means of control, or an achievement of social struggle (for us, it is, above all, the latter), those who are employed there are workers (with rights to win and to defend in the face of an owner (the State, in this case). Ergo, they have the right to organize in unions, union wings, collectives, groups, circles or however they want to call themselves and to operate.
- In present-day capitalism, the thirst for capitalist profits doesn’t stop at the State boundaries. That is why they try to gain control of everything that does, or can, create profits, including state and para-state owned companies. This buying/selling of State property is one of the characteristics of neoliberalism, and it counts on the complicity of officials (who, being politicians, transform themselves into managers).
- The common premise of neoliberal governments is: take over a state or para-state owned company; team up with stupid and/or corrupt officials and corrupt and/or stupid union leaders, in order to loot the patrimony; make it inefficient and costly; argue that it has to be sold so it can deliver good service and be competitive; modify or violate the laws that prevent privatization; sell it; get rid of the workers and/or their organizations; declare that the country is making progress because direct foreign investment has increased, “which reflects the high level of confidence which Mexico has gained at the global level in an increasingly competitive world” (grammatical infamy, the responsibility of the current official).
- In Mexico, at least since the administration of Miguel de la Madrid, successive governments have made privatization the backbone of their economic program. The results are obvious: the quantity and quality of services decrease, unemployment grows and salaries fall, businessmen’s profits increase and social well-being decreases. In sum: with this politics, more are increasingly worse off, and fewer are increasingly better off.
- For two decades the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) has been one of the principal objectives of neoliberal governments. On the one hand it has carried out a policy of looting and undercapitalizing the IMSS in order to justify its privatization. The idea isn’t just to have the IMSS “run out” of funds, but to “transfer” them to the big capitalists. With the approval of the Reforms to the Social Security Law – in which pension funds were privatized by creating AFORES – a profit of 60 billion pesos has been created, which has gone into the coffers of big banks which today are already in the hands of international financial capital. The employer’s contribution for illness and maternity insurance was reduced by 33%. In addition, instead of investing in the maintenance and modernization of equipment in the IMSS, they have put it into private hospital medical services such as ambulances, surgeries and clinical studies (in other words, private companies being financed with public money). In addition, there is the following: salary reductions of up to 70%; precariousness in employment; budget reduction; increase in salaries and benefits for top officials; the toleration of the extension and evasion of employer’s contributions.
- When the Reforms to the Social Security Law were approved in 2004, the Federal Labor Law and the Collective Labor Contract were violated, because two labor regimens were established: one for those who had already been working prior to the reform and another for those who entered the workforce afterwards. There are worse provisions for retirement for the latter than for the former.
- All of this demonstrates to us a conscious policy by businessmen, politicians and union bureaucrats of the pro-management unions to undercapitalize the IMSS in order to deliver it the final blow and to carry out the privatization of public medical services.
- This is aimed not only at those who are working at the IMSS, but also at all workers and their families.
- The workers in the IMSS who are struggling against this plan of destruction are for: turning back the 2004 reforms; not allowing the existence of two kinds of labor relationships; making an audit of the IMSS finances in order to detect the dirty deals of successive boards; carrying out mobilizations in order to prevent pro-management unions from betraying the accords; defending the IMSS and the demands of its workers; preparations for a national strike if the neoliberal plan doesn’t back off; wage increases of 10%; and earmarking 50% of surplus oil profits for financially strengthening the IMSS.
- The struggle of the IMSS workers is nothing less than the defense of health care, of social security, of labor rights, of collective contracts and of the unions.
- As might be expected, this movement has been the object of a real slander campaign in the media. The common argument is that the IMSS workers, and the pensioners in the IMSS regimen, are “privileged” workers as regards pensions. A pensioner from the IMSS regimen receives close to 22,000 pesos per year (less than 2000 pesos a month), while the Fox government supports the truly “privileged” : the banks (during the administration of “change” close to one billion, 400,000 million pesos will be paid out for debt service); the ex-presidents (there are 4 of them, and they receive close to 45 million pesos each per year – or more than 2 million pesos a month); the ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (more than 133 million pesos a year for each one of those living or for their widows – or more than 10 million pesos monthly).
In summary: these compañeros and compañeras of the IMSS have managed to raise an intelligent and dignified struggle in order to check the privatization offensive of above. On the other hand, pro-management unions don’t have it easy: if they take the side of the workers, they will be of no use to management and the government; and if they take the side of management, they’ll be of no use to the workers. And, looked at carefully, these movements are also useful for that: for demonstrating the uselessness of the charros [the term means both cowboys and also pro-management unions] for anything other than folklore for bewildered tourists.
And if the government does not stop, and it insists on imposing its privatization, then it will be confronting not just the IMSS strike, but also the support which the entire Other Campaign in general, and the EZLN in particular, will have to offer them as the compañeros we are.
As for the rest, what can I tell you: that the Other continues to grow (as of October 2 there are now 64 political organizations of the left, 118 indigenous organizations. 197 social organizations, 474 NGOs/groups/collectives and 1898 individuals), slowly but inexorably. The assessments of the Plenary are beginning to arrive, the opinions on the 6 points of definition and the proposals (some of them including weight loss diets) for “Agent X’s” first trip.
We believe that the eagerness for self-purification when we’ve just begun will soon be overcome, and the stage of “ismos” (sometimes as praise and sometimes as insult) will pass when it becomes understood that to be of the left in the Mexico of today is to be, at the least, not in the center, but to the left of the right. I don’t know very well what will happen, but, believe me, the results will not be a left agreeable to the right, it will be an “other left.”
I’ll say goodbye now. Be sure to write, since sometimes we also walk in words.
Vale. Salud and may the wind which we are continue to grow.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico, October of 2005
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Other Campaign Plenary Narrative [Part 1]
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN for the Other Campaign
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
[Given the length of the narratives, I’m going to be translating and posting them in 10 to 15 page increments – irl]
Narrative of the Plenary Session of the Other Campaign [Part 1]
September 17 and 18, 2005, Caracol of La Garrucha
AGENDA
1. Concerning the ratification, broadening or modification of the features of the Other Campaign as proposed in the Sixth Declaration.
2. Concerning the definition of who is being convened and who is not.
3. Concerning the organizational structure of the Other Campaign.
4. Concerning the special place of differences in the Other Campaign: indigenous, women, other loves, young people, children and others.
5. Concerning the Other Campaign’s position vis-à-vis other organizational efforts (Promotora, Frentote, National Dialogues).
6. Concerning immediate national political/general organizational tasks (dissemination and information).
7. Concerning what is missing.
The EZLN is announcing that it will be holding bilateral meetings throughout the month of October with all those member organizations, persons and groups who wish to disseminate the Other Campaign. I am asking them to note those bilateral meetings through Revista Rebeldía.
The EZLN is proposing that there be political, artistic and cultural events throughout the country in memory of our dead, political prisoners and disappeared on October 29, 30 and 31, as well as on November 1 and 2. It is also being proposed that a large event be held in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. The EZLN is proposing that the month of November be for dissemination, and that an event or several events be held in December for the Other Campaign.
Present for the EZLN are Comandantas Rosalinda, Kelly, Yolanda, Gabino, Gustavo, Omar, Zebedeo, Tacho, David, Hortensia, Miriam and Lieutenant Colonel Moisés. Comandantas Hortensia and Miriam will be in charge of recognizing speakers. Comandantes Zebedeo, David and Tacho will be in charge of monitoring the time for members of the audience so they don’t run over their five minutes.
AN INITIAL DISCUSSION TOOK PLACE CONCERNING TASKS
1. POS: We propose that there be immediate tasks and that a package be prepared of different kinds of tasks. That a distinction be made for some national political tasks. That the point be divided in two: national political tasks and the rest of the tasks. If this is what we do, that this point take place prior to the definition. Before that point. And that afterwards the Other [Campaign’s] position vis-à-vis the Promotora, the Frentote and the rest.
THE DIVISION OF IMMEDIATE TASKS INTO TWO PARTS WAS APPROVED
2. Comité de Lucha José Martí [José Martí Committee of Struggle]: proposes that general or global projects be presented and the discussion not be about small details, but rather involve large proposals which are to be voted on at a general level. That each organization present global proposals.
3. Mariana, of the SCLC, proposes devoting a specific space for gender, ethnicity, but not just a special place, instead that these issues be addressed within each point in order to ensure that these points are discussed in each issue. How to build a “we” which includes a space against discrimination at all different levels.
Whether differences should be addressed in all the points or if they should be handled in a special manner was put to a vote.
If they should be addressed in all the points:
247 in favor
If they should be handled in a different manner:
419 in favor
Subcomandante Marcos:
It stands as it is.
4. Armando Martínez Verdugo: As a first point, the national political situation. It is not possible for us to begin seeing the characteristics of the Other if we don’t clearly define what the challenges are which must be confronted. We should first discuss the political situation here in Mexico.
THE PROPOSAL WAS NOT APPROVED.
5. Jesús Franco, DF: Concerning the proposal by the compañera concerning differences in each point, that two very specific points be included. If it remains as one point, you run the risk that it would be nothing more than a general statement, and we won’t all discuss it. Everyone understanding the national political situation. That what we understand within the Other concerning other excluded sectors be very precise and that it guide the discussion a bit.
6. Angélica, from Un Puente a La Esperanza [A Bridge to Hope]: This campaign is an opportunity and a political space for reinforcing the autonomous projects of the indigenous communities. They exist in Xochimilco and Zirahuén. That it serve to build ties, networks and to strengthen the autonomías. That we can begin to build and to provide new ways of doing politics that are more than just words.
7. A compañera: First of all, we’re missing the contents: what kind of opposition are we going to engage in against the political parties.
8. A compañero: We support what the compañera said. It’s not necessary to travel all over the country, but rather an economic self-management effort. Creating the brigades. That they deal with it in all the tasks.
9. María Elena, of the FZ: That the agenda stay the same, because it’s part of the identity of number five [fifth Agenda point, see above]. They are organizational and structural proposals. That the fifth stays as it is, and then the tasks, the how-to.
APPROVED
The discussion concerning the agenda begins:
FIRST POINT. Concerning the ratification, broadening and modification of the features of the Other Campaign as proposed in the Sixth Declaration.
Sup:
The list of speakers is opened.
1. Coordinadora Anarquista Feminista [Anarchist Feminist Coordinating Group]
As to the first point, where the features of the Other Campaign have to be defined, the Coordinadora proposes that it be civil, peaceful, national and in solidarity with resistance struggles throughout the world. That it be anti-capitalist. We are proposing that the Other Campaign be of the left, but an anti-hierarchical and antiauthoritarian left. A left which tries to change relationships.
2. Jesús Franco, DF:
Proposing that listening is emphasized in the Other Campaign, we have to turn around all the propaganda from the political parties, where they conceal the country’s problems, and, like Subcomandante Marcos said, turn the country on its head. All of us are ready here to make a statement, to take a position and to debate, but it seems like we’re not ready to listen to other people’s proposals. And so I’m proposing that what we really stress in the first parts of the Other Campaign is linking ourselves with diverse organizations, NGOs of various types that work in different places, not just sector organizations or political organizations. We have to work a lot with human rights compañeros, so we can find out and see the real conditions in the country, in order to build a national program of struggle.
3. Francisco, of POS
Mentioned that one of the activities is to hold an international encuentro, which is very important because the movement has to be linked with struggles in the world. But the Sexta posits that the encuentro be convened against neoliberalism and for humanity. This statement is ambiguous, and that is why it would be appropriate to specify that it should be convened on the same basis as that of the Sixth Declaration. Concern that the international encuentro would be a copy of the world forums which have demonstrated their limitations. Da Silva attended some of them, and that is why it has to be clear from the beginning. There has to be correlation between the national and the international encuentros. The national even has to go further. Proposes that it be clearly defined as anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist at the national and international levels.
4. Alejandro Varas Orozco (UNIOS)
We want to strengthen one of the criteria used in the Sexta regarding the kind of political and social movement that the Other Campaign will be. It seems to me, after yesterday’s speech by the Comandancia, that many compañeros and compañeras might have the feeling that it is an anti-establishment campaign against the presidential campaigns which have already, in fact, begun and to which the Mexican political regime has given 13 billion pesos. As the name says, this Other Campaign basically seeks to position itself, as Marcos defined it, below and to the left. That is why it seems to me today that we have to strengthen the issue that it is a political and social movement in defense of those who are struggling, of those who are victims of this neoliberal system, of this savage capitalism. In this regard, definitions are fundamental. It is not an election campaign, but it is national, and it speaks well of you that you are calling on us to build another country. A country where we will be able to change the direction of the economy in favor of the workers. We have to go out now and organize the trip which is being planned and begin the work of the Other Campaign in favor of the Social Security workers, in defense of sovereignty. Solidarity with other peoples is fundamental. I join in with it.
5. Andrés, from CLETA
Regarding the Other Campaign’s decisions, it would be good to respond as to how we are going to transform the social relationships of domination and exploitation in community relations. Political, social and cultural mediations must be found in order to create a fabric and networks of collaboration. While at the same time creating a permanent space for theoretical discussion, from below – micro-politics it’s called – in order to create new relationships in the political sphere, which will clarify and allow us to discuss the direction, the path.
6. Emiliano Thibaut
Invitation to be precise in the presentations. It is necessary to define this new project as being of the left, anti-capitalist and not Stalinist. His argument is that Stalinism has been a burden which has destroyed wonderful programs. Capital and the US government are also guilty, but something which weighs on the left, like a tumor, is Stalinism. I propose that the huge image of Stalin which is hanging in the auditorium be taken down, because he is was guilty of genocide.
7. Marcos, ONPP
I would like to talk about the Sexta. All of us meeting here are supporting the Sexta because it provides us with a fundamental point of agreement. But the Sexta has to present the specific theme of re-founding the nation in perspective. We need a concrete nation proposal. What we will present in response to the great national issues. This is what is going to allow us to build a popular unity. The building of popular unity has to do with the unity of resistances, not just of the people who like to make speeches to us, instead linked with the process of resistance which is going on in other places. All forms of resistance. The Other cannot be an election campaign. It is for re-founding the nation, in order to build national dialogue, in order to posit that Mexico can recover its libertarian traditions and create a new program, not just for the country but for the world. To fill those words – which sound so pleasant to everyone, like anti-capitalism – with meaning. We have to explain what anti-capitalism is so we don’t end up delivering slogans. This is one of the risks we face. We have to be the people, Lucio Cabañas said. We have to merge with the people. The Sexta is a good starting point, but we need the First to come from all of us gathered together here, because the Sexta does not meet all the needs of all of us meeting here. This is just the first step.
8. La Guillotina
We would like to insist on the Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign work from a territorial and municipal manner, in order, by sectors, to discuss the problems. Experience has been gained, we believe that the experience of the zapatista consulta of 1999 must be revisited, which called on already structured organizations and which set the political class aside. We are proposing an assembly and a horizontal method of work.
We should also work on very precise and defined initiatives, in a territorial and horizontal way, so we structured organizations can make way for new forms of popular organizations and in that way not repeat the faults and errors of the political class.
9. Nuria Fernández, of No en Nuestro Nombre [Not in Our Name]
What should be included in the Other Campaign is the definition of what we want and what we don’t want. What we don’t want is for it to be an inverted mirror of the official campaigns, even if it’s just criticism. If we limit ourselves to what they say, we are limiting ourselves to a very impoverished world. It’s necessary to start thinking about the Other Campaign like a blank slate. The blackboard and the chalk make up our experiences, but we need new ideas. If we impose old ideas, and we don’t create new things, we’re not going to create an Other Campaign nor another world. What limits us is thinking like a Nation State. The Other Campaign says we have to think about humanity and against neoliberalism. Those who have died in Iraq, more than three thousand persons, and in other parts of the world, demonstrate what is happening outside. A central point of the Other Campaign is to be tied to world struggles and not to be restricted to Mexico, because if we do that then we will be their mirror. What is happening here will not be over on July 6. In order to achieve it we have to begin thinking about the world in an open manner, with new ways of doing politics. I am struck by the fact that when voting here, one of the things zapatismo has taught us is to seek consensus. Or why we don’t shout for people to sit down or be quiet, they haven’t taught us that. The affection we have as brothers will be reflected in what we are building as the Other Campaign. I’m proposing that we should add stating No to the War as a central point, since it’s not just a problem for those outside, but also for those inside, for us.
10. Arnoldo Borjas, Mexicanos sin Fronteras [Mexicans Without Borders]
Compañeros: We are grateful first for this humble but sincere effort at rescuing our nation and the values for which we are fighting: Dignity, liberty, justice, democracy, equality and progress. We salute rebellion.
We, the absent children of the Mexican Patria consider our struggle for our rights as Mexican migrants to be, first, a struggle for Mexico.
We consider our struggle from abroad for a just, free and democratic patria to be legitimate. As our right to fight against those who attack our country and our Mexican brothers is legitimate.
We believe that we cannot conceive of our nation’s past, present and future without us.
We will leave our first contribution to the campaign in summary form in these points:
- That the bi-national nature of the Other Campaign be recognized since it will be able to count on the participation of Mexicans residing abroad.
- That we are offering the Other Campaign our collaboration, our office which is located in Washington, DC (capital of the United States) and our resources in order to carry out and coordinate these efforts with persons and organizations who decide to participate in the Other Campaign from abroad.
- That we are leaving our invitation to the Comandancia of the EZLN, and to everyone participating in the Other Campaign, open to visit us.
- That the Other Campaign promote the autonomous organization of Mexicans residing abroad.
- That the Other Campaign adopts our proposal to create a national migrant congress for the purpose of achieving real representation for Mexicans abroad.
- That we refuse to recognize the Mexican government and any employee or official as our legitimate representatives: We can never accept as our representatives those who deny us our rights and who are directly responsible for our circumstances.
- That we will not accept anyone negotiating in our name and our circumstances with any other nation’s government.
- That the Other Campaign adopts our demand for a constitutional reform of the general population law of the Mexican Constitution which guarantees full respect for the rights of migrants, which guarantees security and respect for human and civil rights on the Mexican borders, and which limits and guides the sovereignty of the Mexican migration policy, currently subordinated to the interests of the United States.
- That we Mexicans residing abroad are guaranteed our constitutional rights in full, the same as all Mexicans in Mexico.
- That the right not to migrate be recognized within the constitutional rights.
- That our economic contribution through remittances should not be used for profit-making ends, participating in speculative projects, nor charitable, nor to promote the exploitation of Mexicans, but rather to help autonomous community projects of a sustainable nature which dignify the lives of our families.
- That the discussion of the Other Campaign’s issues be done in public forums.
11. Luis Miranda Reséndiz, PPS
We should look at the possibility of building a great alliance that would liberate Mexico from imperialism in order to win our second independence and to establish democracy. We are going to present how we can link everyone’s efforts in the great Campaign that’s being proposed. We are open, we should be flexible and listen to all the proposals. We have to control the effort suitably and stress what the EZLN stated: an alliance of parties of the left conjoined together in a broad front. And this demands respect for the autonomy and independence of the organizations and resisting the temptation to put ourselves in the lead. We should act with humility, respect differences and put the emphasis on areas of agreement.
Proposals:
Definition that we are for a different society with justice, democracy and liberty.
State definitively that there is no possibility today for change via the electoral route, because all the parties are neoliberal, and they are at the service of capital.
Create a broad and inclusive social block, of different classes and social sectors, capable of conquering neoliberalism.
Take back up the experience of the fronts which already exist (Frente, Promotora, National Dialogue).
That space should include the demands of every social class and each sector, and, above all, avoid being sectarian.
12. Manuel Fernández Guasti
Proposes including that the Sexta should be an initiative of direct participation. This is what is talking place at this plenary: all of us are participating and deciding. Don’t delegate the important questions to representatives and have them decide for us. This kind of direct participation must be implemented inside and outside, that is, inside our process as well as in fighting for it to take place in various government and power decision making bodies. In those areas where autonomías are not viable, direct participation must be implemented as its counterpart, through mechanisms such as plebiscites, referendums, popular initiatives and recall. If the branches of the union aren’t wanted or are incapable, plebiscites!
13. La Neta Amorfa
First of all I would like to offer a reflection, because we are being invited to reflect on the Declaration and the Other Campaign regarding its civil and pacific nature. But first I believe we have to demonstrate that we are capable of behaving with civility and peacefully amongst ourselves. If we do not do things with love, it will be difficult to achieve the results we’re seeking. In this regard, with your permission: Regarding the points of the Other Campaign as being civil, peaceful and national, we in the SLP so ratify, and we are now stating, on the other hand, that as we have been carrying out local struggles, that now we are moving from the general to the particular. That we carry the struggle from the general to the particular. Concerning dissemination and propaganda, we are offering in the SLP, in the valley of Tangamanga and Cerro de San Pedro, that the persons who are going to be addressing that work are already implementing it. That everyone come with a specific program about what is going to be taking place further along instead of coming to talk about the theoretical. That we pass from the theoretical to the practical.
14. Neftalí Miranda, of the FZLN
After attending, with delegates, the preparation meeting for the Other Campaign held with the EZLN and political organizations of the left, and with observers at all the other preparation meetings, the FZLN ratifies its support of the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, as well as its unconditional participation in all the work and political accords which are collectively reached in the building of the Other Campaign.
15. José Antonio Almazán
He is a retiree from the Electricians Union. Proposes that the rejection of structural reforms be stressed, that they support the rejection of the privatization of oil and electricity, that they come out against the privatization of education; reject fiscal reform, in defense of sovereignty, the patria and for union democracy, for the autonomy and political independence of workers of the countryside and the city.
16. Édgard Sánchez
In addition to what we have to say here, we are circulating our statement on some points. In summary, concerning the nature of the Other: it is not another election campaign, it is not engaging in the system’s rules of the game, but it is an alternative campaign. Some people have expressed the proper concern that it not be contrarian or “anti”, defined in terms of the others. This is correct, but it’s clear that what we are committing ourselves to is an alternative campaign alongside the context of parties and political system. As the PRT, we made a proposal which we circulated prior to the Sexta, an alternative campaign to the official system, critical of it, with an unregistered candidate. At one of the preparation meetings which was held with political organizations, we presented the proposal that it be Antonio Almazán. But we want to tell you that for us that is secondary. What is important is agreeing that the Other Campaign is a social force and a political alternative. Moises said that the compañero who would be going out first will be the Subcomandante. We believe that it is better represented with the figure of Marcos himself. We withdraw this unregistered candidacy from discussion. The proposal presented last night strongly symbolizes the alternative of a political and social force of the anti-capitalist left, which is what we want to construct.
17. Alejandro Cerezo, Promotora Por La Unidad Nacional Contra el Neoliberalismo
How we understand and propose the Other Campaign to be: We agree with the need to listen. To listen and to be listened to. To listen to the other and to listen to each other, among ourselves. We are all going to speak, and we are all going to listen to each other. It has to do with listening in order to analyze the social actors, the struggles and the local resistances. It has to do with listening in order to identify local, regional and sector agendas. It is about listening in order to identify the national agenda of all the social movements. That is what it is about, a great dialogue of those of below, in order to build, as part of the process, the National Program of Struggle. Listening and dialogue, accepting proposals and the recovery of popular experiences. In that regard, the organizations and members of the Promotora will contribute the Non-Negotiable Minimum Program and Statement of Querétaro. In addition to listening, the Other Campaign is a magnificent opportunity for making visible, for nourishing and strengthening local and sector resistances, for coordinating them, in dialogue and in action, in order to connect local struggles with the great mobilizations that are national in nature. In that way, that same process of listening and engaging in dialogue should resolve how the resistances will be coordinated. Listening and engaging in dialogue with all sectors in struggle also creates the necessity for supporting and accompanying the different struggles and demands. Because of that, the Other Campaign should also be understood as a campaign of mobilization, mobilization of ideas and popular mobilization in the streets. In summary, we understand, and propose, the Other Campaign to be a combination of efforts directed towards listening, to creating dialogue between those of below, to connecting struggles and unifying resistance, to strengthening the mobilization against neoliberalism, to demanding the resolution of the demands of the peoples and organizations, to building a national program of struggle, and to defining the route for achieving a New Constitution. Thank you for your attention.
18. Liga de Unidad Socialista [League for Socialist Unity]
The situation in the country is difficult, because the workers who filled the streets in 2003 and in 2004 reached a dead-end, because the union machine took the movement to a pact with this country’s institutions, with the government of the bourgeoisie. Organizations against structural reforms can only work against the country’s institutions, they cannot be work within institutions. A collection of forces promoted the struggles to create another country, where the workers could change the relations of forces in order to solve the problems. The problems of these movements still exist. An example of this is the 20 plants which are being closed, the country’s petrochemical plants which are being sabotaged. The compañeros from the IMSS are proposing the struggle against privatization. In their new program, in Guanajuato, on the 24th, at a meeting of oil owners, they called on activists against the privatization of water and other struggles to seek forms of organization. They linked their struggle with the Other Campaign in order to seek solutions and new social relationships.
19. Compañero Sergio, from Tlaxcala
We cannot reduce the Other Campaign to one campaign by the EZLN in two time periods throughout the country, where they travel to our places of origin, where they go there and then comes the forgetting and desolation. We need to build the popular power of those of below. We should understand it as a permanent campaign of agitation, of dissemination, a campaign whose starting point is the complex of struggles or fights which are going to be coming over the next weeks and months. From that concrete fight that frees our compañeros so a political fight can spring up. We need a strategy of dialogue, the social construction of that political program, in order to build the democratic and popular part. That will have to be the nature of the social transformation we’re all looking for. A program which presents what the necessary conditions are for re-founding the nation. We should try to emphasize the fundamental points that will make possible the construction or reconstruction of the free and popular patria. Not just the recovery of our energy sources, but the development of our autonomías in the full exercise of our territoriality as the central focus of the campaign. A program centered around these points is fundamental for confronting the oligarchy.
That the campaign be summarized in three great slogans:
1) Raise the resistance, occupy all the territories.
2) Develop control from those of below and eliminate all forms of the neoliberal oligarchy’s control.
3) During this first stage, it’s absolutely necessary to form not the committees of the Sexta, but popular committees for the transformation of the country.
20. Aurelio Ángel Villanueva, of the Rumbo Proletario collective [Proletarian Direction]
This is the first time we’ve been here, and we are here in order to contribute to the work which the compañeros of the EZLN have presented us. We do not want to be more zapatista than them. We came, humbly, in order to build. It seems to us that the Other Campaign is not just about going out through the national territory and saying that we’re making the Other Campaign. No, what is fundamental is building a new Mexican society. We are in agreement with the discussion points, but we are presenting other propositions:
That the Other Campaign should build a mobilizing, progressive and inclusive project for the construction of a new democratic form.
That we not only carry out actions in the national territory, but also study how the people who aren’t here are participating, those millions who don’t have the opportunity to travel. The Other Campaign should be inclusive and purposeful.
It’s necessary for all sectors to say what demands they’re fighting for and for which programs we should all be fighting.
21. Ángel Librado Cruz, from the Reflexión en La Acción collective [Reflection in Action]
Proposes that we should make up an historic block through a system of new alliances and of various currents against neoliberalism. Proposes that the new historic block replace the hegemonic block which currently exists. This is necessary because that’s the only way the system can be overthrown.
22. Gabriela Arteaga, from the Reflection in Action collective
Also in the name of the Reflection in Action collective. We believe we are experiencing an historic moment. At this moment we are building, and we’re going to continue doing so. The Other Campaign should take on the space for outlining the revolutionary direction which is going to include the forces which are present here and those which could not accompany us. We’re fed up with the evil system which keeps us in poverty. We want to overthrow it. We are going to study it. We’re building. This, the revolutionary direction, is a guarantee for popular victory. Either the evil capitalist project is consolidated or space is given for the inclusive and democratic project in which all of us are going to put all our efforts so the peoples’ demands can be met. We are at the moment where the necessary conditions are in place for building the guarantees for our victory.
We propose the following five points:
1) Building a popular movement.
2) That the project includes all of us.
3) Defining the spaces that are identified for the struggle.
4) Alliances.
5) This, which we’ve already seen here: the revolutionary direction.
Let’s keep joining in, compañeros. There’s room for everyone. Those who are here and those who aren’t.
23. José Antonio Yáñez, from the Reflection in Action collective
We believe that the Other Campaign is an opportunity for all of us to see, in practice, what we really are, if we are really democratic and inclusive. In addition to being peaceful and civil, the Other Campaign should be radical, even though this doesn’t necessarily mean carrying out extreme acts. If we call ourselves inclusive and democratic, but we’re not able to present proposals and projects, we run the risk of excluding or being excluded. Insofar as the Other Campaign is radical, it should address the root problems in order to establish a new model of social relationships. In order for the Other Campaign to not be just about dissemination, or propagandizing and the lifting of spirits, it has to be oriented towards real social change. We believe that, as we achieve the ability for analysis and understanding, we will be able to build a program of struggle which is not just anti-establishment. Specifically, if we want this Other Campaign to be different from the one the parties are carrying out, it should go to the fundamental and stress that we are different in practice.
Armando (from the same collective) (The assembly protested and asked him to sit down. He apologized in the name of his collective. He said he hadn’t intended to monopolize the time. He withdrew without speaking.)
24. Julio Muñoz Rubio
UNAM Professor, Faculty of Sciences. There is a risk that this campaign will be a campaign strictly tied to the political. This would be a mistake, because it would lead to limiting the campaign to just one part of the problems of the world, of the country and of the left. I am therefore proposing that the campaign be cultural in nature, which should not be confused with the artistic, because the cultural is much broader. We have the wrong idea about what capitalism is, because it’s thought to be a strictly economic system with political consequences. That is false. Capitalism dominates all aspects of life, in philosophy, the arts, the natural and social sciences, technology. Capitalism is an entire world vision. It is true that it’s a fragmentary, partial and limited conception of the world, but, at the end of the day, it is a vision which must be confronted by another world vision, another global vision, but one which is coherent and integrated. If this campaign doesn’t emphasize all this, it’s going to fall short, because it’s not going to be able to provide an answer for the totality of the forms of domination and of capitalist oppression: the classic capitalist oppression against wage earners, but also the domination and oppression of human beings against nature (including the mistreatment of animals), that of the adult or “mature” against children or adolescents, the heterosexual and monogamous against all other forms of sexuality and affective relations, of the “healthy” against the sick; the “whites” against other populations (not races), all of society against the indigenous cultures, and the urban countercultures being dominated in the arena of ideas, scientific theories and pseudo-scientists who justify all these oppressions. The Other Campaign should question capitalism’s ethical, epistemological and ontological values, especially in Mexico. Their esthetic bosses, their words in the political world and in the media, their dehumanizing, vulgar hedonism contained in various kinds of entertainment. Finally, the Other Campaign should emphasize the way capitalism has inserted in our minds the authoritarian values and principles of its conduct in order to convert us into reproducers of those values in all arenas of daily life. The campaign should, therefore, be “counter-hegemonic”, understanding hegemony as a world vision. That is why the struggle should be against capitalism and for the building of another vision. I am proposing that the Other Campaign declare itself to be “contra-hegemonic.”
25. David Domínguez
What I’m bringing are some proposals for broadening the campaign in the sense of security, because we’re all exposed to dangers by the State’s apparatus of repression. That we should, among ourselves, form self-help groups in order to protect each other. If anything were to happen to anyone, they would be recovered immediately. Also that we would have martial arts classes in order to defend ourselves. They are questions of security. If we don’t think the State has really swinish apparatuses of repression, this isn’t going to grow, and it’s going to fail from the beginning. It’s a proposal I have.
26. Mauricio Villegas
I think this could turn into an act of self-deception if we don’t understand the spirit of the Other Campaign. We say we’re anti-capitalist, but how many products have we decided not to buy from the big companies? We keep on buying, consuming. If we don’t sabotage things, like Gandhi did, we’ll be left with just very general positions. If Marcos and the EZLN want to direct this great movement, we have to sabotage the products of the big companies, promote fair trade in the communities. If we don’t do it, we’re going to come up short, we won’t get anywhere.
27. Alejandro Cruz, of the OIDHO
He belongs to Indian Organizations for Human Rights in Oaxaca. A question came up at a meeting with his peoples: How should this meeting be dealt with? After discussing it, they concluded they had to listen to other thoughts. How to respond to ideological confrontation, and how can it be resolved? The solution would be to have more to do with the practical, organizing without going so much into the ideological. Placing more emphasis on how to engage in the practical before theorizing. He is willing to share his experiences in struggle against repression. That is why his concrete proposal is to create unity. They are worried because many compañeros are going to come to the meetings, but accords have to be created. We have to change the way of doing politics, create processes of accord and unity. He cited: “A cause doesn’t triumph because of its justice, but because of the strength and work of its followers.”
[Translator’s note: You will see the voice move between first and third person, which is how these narratives were compiled: the nature of taking minutes – irl]
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Translated by irlandesa
[Given the length of the narratives, I’m going to be translating and posting them in 10 to 15 page increments – irl]
Narrative of the Plenary Session of the Other Campaign [Part 1]
September 17 and 18, 2005, Caracol of La Garrucha
AGENDA
1. Concerning the ratification, broadening or modification of the features of the Other Campaign as proposed in the Sixth Declaration.
2. Concerning the definition of who is being convened and who is not.
3. Concerning the organizational structure of the Other Campaign.
4. Concerning the special place of differences in the Other Campaign: indigenous, women, other loves, young people, children and others.
5. Concerning the Other Campaign’s position vis-à-vis other organizational efforts (Promotora, Frentote, National Dialogues).
6. Concerning immediate national political/general organizational tasks (dissemination and information).
7. Concerning what is missing.
The EZLN is announcing that it will be holding bilateral meetings throughout the month of October with all those member organizations, persons and groups who wish to disseminate the Other Campaign. I am asking them to note those bilateral meetings through Revista Rebeldía.
The EZLN is proposing that there be political, artistic and cultural events throughout the country in memory of our dead, political prisoners and disappeared on October 29, 30 and 31, as well as on November 1 and 2. It is also being proposed that a large event be held in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. The EZLN is proposing that the month of November be for dissemination, and that an event or several events be held in December for the Other Campaign.
Present for the EZLN are Comandantas Rosalinda, Kelly, Yolanda, Gabino, Gustavo, Omar, Zebedeo, Tacho, David, Hortensia, Miriam and Lieutenant Colonel Moisés. Comandantas Hortensia and Miriam will be in charge of recognizing speakers. Comandantes Zebedeo, David and Tacho will be in charge of monitoring the time for members of the audience so they don’t run over their five minutes.
AN INITIAL DISCUSSION TOOK PLACE CONCERNING TASKS
1. POS: We propose that there be immediate tasks and that a package be prepared of different kinds of tasks. That a distinction be made for some national political tasks. That the point be divided in two: national political tasks and the rest of the tasks. If this is what we do, that this point take place prior to the definition. Before that point. And that afterwards the Other [Campaign’s] position vis-à-vis the Promotora, the Frentote and the rest.
THE DIVISION OF IMMEDIATE TASKS INTO TWO PARTS WAS APPROVED
2. Comité de Lucha José Martí [José Martí Committee of Struggle]: proposes that general or global projects be presented and the discussion not be about small details, but rather involve large proposals which are to be voted on at a general level. That each organization present global proposals.
3. Mariana, of the SCLC, proposes devoting a specific space for gender, ethnicity, but not just a special place, instead that these issues be addressed within each point in order to ensure that these points are discussed in each issue. How to build a “we” which includes a space against discrimination at all different levels.
Whether differences should be addressed in all the points or if they should be handled in a special manner was put to a vote.
If they should be addressed in all the points:
247 in favor
If they should be handled in a different manner:
419 in favor
Subcomandante Marcos:
It stands as it is.
4. Armando Martínez Verdugo: As a first point, the national political situation. It is not possible for us to begin seeing the characteristics of the Other if we don’t clearly define what the challenges are which must be confronted. We should first discuss the political situation here in Mexico.
THE PROPOSAL WAS NOT APPROVED.
5. Jesús Franco, DF: Concerning the proposal by the compañera concerning differences in each point, that two very specific points be included. If it remains as one point, you run the risk that it would be nothing more than a general statement, and we won’t all discuss it. Everyone understanding the national political situation. That what we understand within the Other concerning other excluded sectors be very precise and that it guide the discussion a bit.
6. Angélica, from Un Puente a La Esperanza [A Bridge to Hope]: This campaign is an opportunity and a political space for reinforcing the autonomous projects of the indigenous communities. They exist in Xochimilco and Zirahuén. That it serve to build ties, networks and to strengthen the autonomías. That we can begin to build and to provide new ways of doing politics that are more than just words.
7. A compañera: First of all, we’re missing the contents: what kind of opposition are we going to engage in against the political parties.
8. A compañero: We support what the compañera said. It’s not necessary to travel all over the country, but rather an economic self-management effort. Creating the brigades. That they deal with it in all the tasks.
9. María Elena, of the FZ: That the agenda stay the same, because it’s part of the identity of number five [fifth Agenda point, see above]. They are organizational and structural proposals. That the fifth stays as it is, and then the tasks, the how-to.
APPROVED
The discussion concerning the agenda begins:
FIRST POINT. Concerning the ratification, broadening and modification of the features of the Other Campaign as proposed in the Sixth Declaration.
Sup:
The list of speakers is opened.
1. Coordinadora Anarquista Feminista [Anarchist Feminist Coordinating Group]
As to the first point, where the features of the Other Campaign have to be defined, the Coordinadora proposes that it be civil, peaceful, national and in solidarity with resistance struggles throughout the world. That it be anti-capitalist. We are proposing that the Other Campaign be of the left, but an anti-hierarchical and antiauthoritarian left. A left which tries to change relationships.
2. Jesús Franco, DF:
Proposing that listening is emphasized in the Other Campaign, we have to turn around all the propaganda from the political parties, where they conceal the country’s problems, and, like Subcomandante Marcos said, turn the country on its head. All of us are ready here to make a statement, to take a position and to debate, but it seems like we’re not ready to listen to other people’s proposals. And so I’m proposing that what we really stress in the first parts of the Other Campaign is linking ourselves with diverse organizations, NGOs of various types that work in different places, not just sector organizations or political organizations. We have to work a lot with human rights compañeros, so we can find out and see the real conditions in the country, in order to build a national program of struggle.
3. Francisco, of POS
Mentioned that one of the activities is to hold an international encuentro, which is very important because the movement has to be linked with struggles in the world. But the Sexta posits that the encuentro be convened against neoliberalism and for humanity. This statement is ambiguous, and that is why it would be appropriate to specify that it should be convened on the same basis as that of the Sixth Declaration. Concern that the international encuentro would be a copy of the world forums which have demonstrated their limitations. Da Silva attended some of them, and that is why it has to be clear from the beginning. There has to be correlation between the national and the international encuentros. The national even has to go further. Proposes that it be clearly defined as anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist at the national and international levels.
4. Alejandro Varas Orozco (UNIOS)
We want to strengthen one of the criteria used in the Sexta regarding the kind of political and social movement that the Other Campaign will be. It seems to me, after yesterday’s speech by the Comandancia, that many compañeros and compañeras might have the feeling that it is an anti-establishment campaign against the presidential campaigns which have already, in fact, begun and to which the Mexican political regime has given 13 billion pesos. As the name says, this Other Campaign basically seeks to position itself, as Marcos defined it, below and to the left. That is why it seems to me today that we have to strengthen the issue that it is a political and social movement in defense of those who are struggling, of those who are victims of this neoliberal system, of this savage capitalism. In this regard, definitions are fundamental. It is not an election campaign, but it is national, and it speaks well of you that you are calling on us to build another country. A country where we will be able to change the direction of the economy in favor of the workers. We have to go out now and organize the trip which is being planned and begin the work of the Other Campaign in favor of the Social Security workers, in defense of sovereignty. Solidarity with other peoples is fundamental. I join in with it.
5. Andrés, from CLETA
Regarding the Other Campaign’s decisions, it would be good to respond as to how we are going to transform the social relationships of domination and exploitation in community relations. Political, social and cultural mediations must be found in order to create a fabric and networks of collaboration. While at the same time creating a permanent space for theoretical discussion, from below – micro-politics it’s called – in order to create new relationships in the political sphere, which will clarify and allow us to discuss the direction, the path.
6. Emiliano Thibaut
Invitation to be precise in the presentations. It is necessary to define this new project as being of the left, anti-capitalist and not Stalinist. His argument is that Stalinism has been a burden which has destroyed wonderful programs. Capital and the US government are also guilty, but something which weighs on the left, like a tumor, is Stalinism. I propose that the huge image of Stalin which is hanging in the auditorium be taken down, because he is was guilty of genocide.
7. Marcos, ONPP
I would like to talk about the Sexta. All of us meeting here are supporting the Sexta because it provides us with a fundamental point of agreement. But the Sexta has to present the specific theme of re-founding the nation in perspective. We need a concrete nation proposal. What we will present in response to the great national issues. This is what is going to allow us to build a popular unity. The building of popular unity has to do with the unity of resistances, not just of the people who like to make speeches to us, instead linked with the process of resistance which is going on in other places. All forms of resistance. The Other cannot be an election campaign. It is for re-founding the nation, in order to build national dialogue, in order to posit that Mexico can recover its libertarian traditions and create a new program, not just for the country but for the world. To fill those words – which sound so pleasant to everyone, like anti-capitalism – with meaning. We have to explain what anti-capitalism is so we don’t end up delivering slogans. This is one of the risks we face. We have to be the people, Lucio Cabañas said. We have to merge with the people. The Sexta is a good starting point, but we need the First to come from all of us gathered together here, because the Sexta does not meet all the needs of all of us meeting here. This is just the first step.
8. La Guillotina
We would like to insist on the Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign work from a territorial and municipal manner, in order, by sectors, to discuss the problems. Experience has been gained, we believe that the experience of the zapatista consulta of 1999 must be revisited, which called on already structured organizations and which set the political class aside. We are proposing an assembly and a horizontal method of work.
We should also work on very precise and defined initiatives, in a territorial and horizontal way, so we structured organizations can make way for new forms of popular organizations and in that way not repeat the faults and errors of the political class.
9. Nuria Fernández, of No en Nuestro Nombre [Not in Our Name]
What should be included in the Other Campaign is the definition of what we want and what we don’t want. What we don’t want is for it to be an inverted mirror of the official campaigns, even if it’s just criticism. If we limit ourselves to what they say, we are limiting ourselves to a very impoverished world. It’s necessary to start thinking about the Other Campaign like a blank slate. The blackboard and the chalk make up our experiences, but we need new ideas. If we impose old ideas, and we don’t create new things, we’re not going to create an Other Campaign nor another world. What limits us is thinking like a Nation State. The Other Campaign says we have to think about humanity and against neoliberalism. Those who have died in Iraq, more than three thousand persons, and in other parts of the world, demonstrate what is happening outside. A central point of the Other Campaign is to be tied to world struggles and not to be restricted to Mexico, because if we do that then we will be their mirror. What is happening here will not be over on July 6. In order to achieve it we have to begin thinking about the world in an open manner, with new ways of doing politics. I am struck by the fact that when voting here, one of the things zapatismo has taught us is to seek consensus. Or why we don’t shout for people to sit down or be quiet, they haven’t taught us that. The affection we have as brothers will be reflected in what we are building as the Other Campaign. I’m proposing that we should add stating No to the War as a central point, since it’s not just a problem for those outside, but also for those inside, for us.
10. Arnoldo Borjas, Mexicanos sin Fronteras [Mexicans Without Borders]
Compañeros: We are grateful first for this humble but sincere effort at rescuing our nation and the values for which we are fighting: Dignity, liberty, justice, democracy, equality and progress. We salute rebellion.
We, the absent children of the Mexican Patria consider our struggle for our rights as Mexican migrants to be, first, a struggle for Mexico.
We consider our struggle from abroad for a just, free and democratic patria to be legitimate. As our right to fight against those who attack our country and our Mexican brothers is legitimate.
We believe that we cannot conceive of our nation’s past, present and future without us.
We will leave our first contribution to the campaign in summary form in these points:
- That the bi-national nature of the Other Campaign be recognized since it will be able to count on the participation of Mexicans residing abroad.
- That we are offering the Other Campaign our collaboration, our office which is located in Washington, DC (capital of the United States) and our resources in order to carry out and coordinate these efforts with persons and organizations who decide to participate in the Other Campaign from abroad.
- That we are leaving our invitation to the Comandancia of the EZLN, and to everyone participating in the Other Campaign, open to visit us.
- That the Other Campaign promote the autonomous organization of Mexicans residing abroad.
- That the Other Campaign adopts our proposal to create a national migrant congress for the purpose of achieving real representation for Mexicans abroad.
- That we refuse to recognize the Mexican government and any employee or official as our legitimate representatives: We can never accept as our representatives those who deny us our rights and who are directly responsible for our circumstances.
- That we will not accept anyone negotiating in our name and our circumstances with any other nation’s government.
- That the Other Campaign adopts our demand for a constitutional reform of the general population law of the Mexican Constitution which guarantees full respect for the rights of migrants, which guarantees security and respect for human and civil rights on the Mexican borders, and which limits and guides the sovereignty of the Mexican migration policy, currently subordinated to the interests of the United States.
- That we Mexicans residing abroad are guaranteed our constitutional rights in full, the same as all Mexicans in Mexico.
- That the right not to migrate be recognized within the constitutional rights.
- That our economic contribution through remittances should not be used for profit-making ends, participating in speculative projects, nor charitable, nor to promote the exploitation of Mexicans, but rather to help autonomous community projects of a sustainable nature which dignify the lives of our families.
- That the discussion of the Other Campaign’s issues be done in public forums.
11. Luis Miranda Reséndiz, PPS
We should look at the possibility of building a great alliance that would liberate Mexico from imperialism in order to win our second independence and to establish democracy. We are going to present how we can link everyone’s efforts in the great Campaign that’s being proposed. We are open, we should be flexible and listen to all the proposals. We have to control the effort suitably and stress what the EZLN stated: an alliance of parties of the left conjoined together in a broad front. And this demands respect for the autonomy and independence of the organizations and resisting the temptation to put ourselves in the lead. We should act with humility, respect differences and put the emphasis on areas of agreement.
Proposals:
Definition that we are for a different society with justice, democracy and liberty.
State definitively that there is no possibility today for change via the electoral route, because all the parties are neoliberal, and they are at the service of capital.
Create a broad and inclusive social block, of different classes and social sectors, capable of conquering neoliberalism.
Take back up the experience of the fronts which already exist (Frente, Promotora, National Dialogue).
That space should include the demands of every social class and each sector, and, above all, avoid being sectarian.
12. Manuel Fernández Guasti
Proposes including that the Sexta should be an initiative of direct participation. This is what is talking place at this plenary: all of us are participating and deciding. Don’t delegate the important questions to representatives and have them decide for us. This kind of direct participation must be implemented inside and outside, that is, inside our process as well as in fighting for it to take place in various government and power decision making bodies. In those areas where autonomías are not viable, direct participation must be implemented as its counterpart, through mechanisms such as plebiscites, referendums, popular initiatives and recall. If the branches of the union aren’t wanted or are incapable, plebiscites!
13. La Neta Amorfa
First of all I would like to offer a reflection, because we are being invited to reflect on the Declaration and the Other Campaign regarding its civil and pacific nature. But first I believe we have to demonstrate that we are capable of behaving with civility and peacefully amongst ourselves. If we do not do things with love, it will be difficult to achieve the results we’re seeking. In this regard, with your permission: Regarding the points of the Other Campaign as being civil, peaceful and national, we in the SLP so ratify, and we are now stating, on the other hand, that as we have been carrying out local struggles, that now we are moving from the general to the particular. That we carry the struggle from the general to the particular. Concerning dissemination and propaganda, we are offering in the SLP, in the valley of Tangamanga and Cerro de San Pedro, that the persons who are going to be addressing that work are already implementing it. That everyone come with a specific program about what is going to be taking place further along instead of coming to talk about the theoretical. That we pass from the theoretical to the practical.
14. Neftalí Miranda, of the FZLN
After attending, with delegates, the preparation meeting for the Other Campaign held with the EZLN and political organizations of the left, and with observers at all the other preparation meetings, the FZLN ratifies its support of the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, as well as its unconditional participation in all the work and political accords which are collectively reached in the building of the Other Campaign.
15. José Antonio Almazán
He is a retiree from the Electricians Union. Proposes that the rejection of structural reforms be stressed, that they support the rejection of the privatization of oil and electricity, that they come out against the privatization of education; reject fiscal reform, in defense of sovereignty, the patria and for union democracy, for the autonomy and political independence of workers of the countryside and the city.
16. Édgard Sánchez
In addition to what we have to say here, we are circulating our statement on some points. In summary, concerning the nature of the Other: it is not another election campaign, it is not engaging in the system’s rules of the game, but it is an alternative campaign. Some people have expressed the proper concern that it not be contrarian or “anti”, defined in terms of the others. This is correct, but it’s clear that what we are committing ourselves to is an alternative campaign alongside the context of parties and political system. As the PRT, we made a proposal which we circulated prior to the Sexta, an alternative campaign to the official system, critical of it, with an unregistered candidate. At one of the preparation meetings which was held with political organizations, we presented the proposal that it be Antonio Almazán. But we want to tell you that for us that is secondary. What is important is agreeing that the Other Campaign is a social force and a political alternative. Moises said that the compañero who would be going out first will be the Subcomandante. We believe that it is better represented with the figure of Marcos himself. We withdraw this unregistered candidacy from discussion. The proposal presented last night strongly symbolizes the alternative of a political and social force of the anti-capitalist left, which is what we want to construct.
17. Alejandro Cerezo, Promotora Por La Unidad Nacional Contra el Neoliberalismo
How we understand and propose the Other Campaign to be: We agree with the need to listen. To listen and to be listened to. To listen to the other and to listen to each other, among ourselves. We are all going to speak, and we are all going to listen to each other. It has to do with listening in order to analyze the social actors, the struggles and the local resistances. It has to do with listening in order to identify local, regional and sector agendas. It is about listening in order to identify the national agenda of all the social movements. That is what it is about, a great dialogue of those of below, in order to build, as part of the process, the National Program of Struggle. Listening and dialogue, accepting proposals and the recovery of popular experiences. In that regard, the organizations and members of the Promotora will contribute the Non-Negotiable Minimum Program and Statement of Querétaro. In addition to listening, the Other Campaign is a magnificent opportunity for making visible, for nourishing and strengthening local and sector resistances, for coordinating them, in dialogue and in action, in order to connect local struggles with the great mobilizations that are national in nature. In that way, that same process of listening and engaging in dialogue should resolve how the resistances will be coordinated. Listening and engaging in dialogue with all sectors in struggle also creates the necessity for supporting and accompanying the different struggles and demands. Because of that, the Other Campaign should also be understood as a campaign of mobilization, mobilization of ideas and popular mobilization in the streets. In summary, we understand, and propose, the Other Campaign to be a combination of efforts directed towards listening, to creating dialogue between those of below, to connecting struggles and unifying resistance, to strengthening the mobilization against neoliberalism, to demanding the resolution of the demands of the peoples and organizations, to building a national program of struggle, and to defining the route for achieving a New Constitution. Thank you for your attention.
18. Liga de Unidad Socialista [League for Socialist Unity]
The situation in the country is difficult, because the workers who filled the streets in 2003 and in 2004 reached a dead-end, because the union machine took the movement to a pact with this country’s institutions, with the government of the bourgeoisie. Organizations against structural reforms can only work against the country’s institutions, they cannot be work within institutions. A collection of forces promoted the struggles to create another country, where the workers could change the relations of forces in order to solve the problems. The problems of these movements still exist. An example of this is the 20 plants which are being closed, the country’s petrochemical plants which are being sabotaged. The compañeros from the IMSS are proposing the struggle against privatization. In their new program, in Guanajuato, on the 24th, at a meeting of oil owners, they called on activists against the privatization of water and other struggles to seek forms of organization. They linked their struggle with the Other Campaign in order to seek solutions and new social relationships.
19. Compañero Sergio, from Tlaxcala
We cannot reduce the Other Campaign to one campaign by the EZLN in two time periods throughout the country, where they travel to our places of origin, where they go there and then comes the forgetting and desolation. We need to build the popular power of those of below. We should understand it as a permanent campaign of agitation, of dissemination, a campaign whose starting point is the complex of struggles or fights which are going to be coming over the next weeks and months. From that concrete fight that frees our compañeros so a political fight can spring up. We need a strategy of dialogue, the social construction of that political program, in order to build the democratic and popular part. That will have to be the nature of the social transformation we’re all looking for. A program which presents what the necessary conditions are for re-founding the nation. We should try to emphasize the fundamental points that will make possible the construction or reconstruction of the free and popular patria. Not just the recovery of our energy sources, but the development of our autonomías in the full exercise of our territoriality as the central focus of the campaign. A program centered around these points is fundamental for confronting the oligarchy.
That the campaign be summarized in three great slogans:
1) Raise the resistance, occupy all the territories.
2) Develop control from those of below and eliminate all forms of the neoliberal oligarchy’s control.
3) During this first stage, it’s absolutely necessary to form not the committees of the Sexta, but popular committees for the transformation of the country.
20. Aurelio Ángel Villanueva, of the Rumbo Proletario collective [Proletarian Direction]
This is the first time we’ve been here, and we are here in order to contribute to the work which the compañeros of the EZLN have presented us. We do not want to be more zapatista than them. We came, humbly, in order to build. It seems to us that the Other Campaign is not just about going out through the national territory and saying that we’re making the Other Campaign. No, what is fundamental is building a new Mexican society. We are in agreement with the discussion points, but we are presenting other propositions:
That the Other Campaign should build a mobilizing, progressive and inclusive project for the construction of a new democratic form.
That we not only carry out actions in the national territory, but also study how the people who aren’t here are participating, those millions who don’t have the opportunity to travel. The Other Campaign should be inclusive and purposeful.
It’s necessary for all sectors to say what demands they’re fighting for and for which programs we should all be fighting.
21. Ángel Librado Cruz, from the Reflexión en La Acción collective [Reflection in Action]
Proposes that we should make up an historic block through a system of new alliances and of various currents against neoliberalism. Proposes that the new historic block replace the hegemonic block which currently exists. This is necessary because that’s the only way the system can be overthrown.
22. Gabriela Arteaga, from the Reflection in Action collective
Also in the name of the Reflection in Action collective. We believe we are experiencing an historic moment. At this moment we are building, and we’re going to continue doing so. The Other Campaign should take on the space for outlining the revolutionary direction which is going to include the forces which are present here and those which could not accompany us. We’re fed up with the evil system which keeps us in poverty. We want to overthrow it. We are going to study it. We’re building. This, the revolutionary direction, is a guarantee for popular victory. Either the evil capitalist project is consolidated or space is given for the inclusive and democratic project in which all of us are going to put all our efforts so the peoples’ demands can be met. We are at the moment where the necessary conditions are in place for building the guarantees for our victory.
We propose the following five points:
1) Building a popular movement.
2) That the project includes all of us.
3) Defining the spaces that are identified for the struggle.
4) Alliances.
5) This, which we’ve already seen here: the revolutionary direction.
Let’s keep joining in, compañeros. There’s room for everyone. Those who are here and those who aren’t.
23. José Antonio Yáñez, from the Reflection in Action collective
We believe that the Other Campaign is an opportunity for all of us to see, in practice, what we really are, if we are really democratic and inclusive. In addition to being peaceful and civil, the Other Campaign should be radical, even though this doesn’t necessarily mean carrying out extreme acts. If we call ourselves inclusive and democratic, but we’re not able to present proposals and projects, we run the risk of excluding or being excluded. Insofar as the Other Campaign is radical, it should address the root problems in order to establish a new model of social relationships. In order for the Other Campaign to not be just about dissemination, or propagandizing and the lifting of spirits, it has to be oriented towards real social change. We believe that, as we achieve the ability for analysis and understanding, we will be able to build a program of struggle which is not just anti-establishment. Specifically, if we want this Other Campaign to be different from the one the parties are carrying out, it should go to the fundamental and stress that we are different in practice.
Armando (from the same collective) (The assembly protested and asked him to sit down. He apologized in the name of his collective. He said he hadn’t intended to monopolize the time. He withdrew without speaking.)
24. Julio Muñoz Rubio
UNAM Professor, Faculty of Sciences. There is a risk that this campaign will be a campaign strictly tied to the political. This would be a mistake, because it would lead to limiting the campaign to just one part of the problems of the world, of the country and of the left. I am therefore proposing that the campaign be cultural in nature, which should not be confused with the artistic, because the cultural is much broader. We have the wrong idea about what capitalism is, because it’s thought to be a strictly economic system with political consequences. That is false. Capitalism dominates all aspects of life, in philosophy, the arts, the natural and social sciences, technology. Capitalism is an entire world vision. It is true that it’s a fragmentary, partial and limited conception of the world, but, at the end of the day, it is a vision which must be confronted by another world vision, another global vision, but one which is coherent and integrated. If this campaign doesn’t emphasize all this, it’s going to fall short, because it’s not going to be able to provide an answer for the totality of the forms of domination and of capitalist oppression: the classic capitalist oppression against wage earners, but also the domination and oppression of human beings against nature (including the mistreatment of animals), that of the adult or “mature” against children or adolescents, the heterosexual and monogamous against all other forms of sexuality and affective relations, of the “healthy” against the sick; the “whites” against other populations (not races), all of society against the indigenous cultures, and the urban countercultures being dominated in the arena of ideas, scientific theories and pseudo-scientists who justify all these oppressions. The Other Campaign should question capitalism’s ethical, epistemological and ontological values, especially in Mexico. Their esthetic bosses, their words in the political world and in the media, their dehumanizing, vulgar hedonism contained in various kinds of entertainment. Finally, the Other Campaign should emphasize the way capitalism has inserted in our minds the authoritarian values and principles of its conduct in order to convert us into reproducers of those values in all arenas of daily life. The campaign should, therefore, be “counter-hegemonic”, understanding hegemony as a world vision. That is why the struggle should be against capitalism and for the building of another vision. I am proposing that the Other Campaign declare itself to be “contra-hegemonic.”
25. David Domínguez
What I’m bringing are some proposals for broadening the campaign in the sense of security, because we’re all exposed to dangers by the State’s apparatus of repression. That we should, among ourselves, form self-help groups in order to protect each other. If anything were to happen to anyone, they would be recovered immediately. Also that we would have martial arts classes in order to defend ourselves. They are questions of security. If we don’t think the State has really swinish apparatuses of repression, this isn’t going to grow, and it’s going to fail from the beginning. It’s a proposal I have.
26. Mauricio Villegas
I think this could turn into an act of self-deception if we don’t understand the spirit of the Other Campaign. We say we’re anti-capitalist, but how many products have we decided not to buy from the big companies? We keep on buying, consuming. If we don’t sabotage things, like Gandhi did, we’ll be left with just very general positions. If Marcos and the EZLN want to direct this great movement, we have to sabotage the products of the big companies, promote fair trade in the communities. If we don’t do it, we’re going to come up short, we won’t get anywhere.
27. Alejandro Cruz, of the OIDHO
He belongs to Indian Organizations for Human Rights in Oaxaca. A question came up at a meeting with his peoples: How should this meeting be dealt with? After discussing it, they concluded they had to listen to other thoughts. How to respond to ideological confrontation, and how can it be resolved? The solution would be to have more to do with the practical, organizing without going so much into the ideological. Placing more emphasis on how to engage in the practical before theorizing. He is willing to share his experiences in struggle against repression. That is why his concrete proposal is to create unity. They are worried because many compañeros are going to come to the meetings, but accords have to be created. We have to change the way of doing politics, create processes of accord and unity. He cited: “A cause doesn’t triumph because of its justice, but because of the strength and work of its followers.”
[Translator’s note: You will see the voice move between first and third person, which is how these narratives were compiled: the nature of taking minutes – irl]
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Zermeño: the US, globalization and the boomerang effect
Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada
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Translated by Maria Garrido
La Jornada
September 29, 2005
Why are Americans like this?
Sergio Zermeño
In the last days of September, the 11th reunion of the European Association of Development Institutes (EADI) took place in Germany. Reading from the conference’s program and proceedings, in which close to 300 research centers participated, one wonders why we [Mexicans] get to live globalization on the side of the United States.
In the second paragraph of the conference’s program, EADI questions if globalization shouldn’t be perceived as another threat, and maybe even the worst, to the safety of humanity in the period after the Cold War, together with AIDS, international terrorism, civil wars, organized crime and environmental disasters. Furthermore, EADI strongly asserts: “while trying to improve economic efficiency and quality of life, many countries opened their frontiers to international exchange, however, such openness increases their vulnerability to different types of risks generating poverty and inequality between rich and poor countries, and exacerbating the conditions within poor countries themselves. Poverty has been associated with different illnesses and environmental degradation, and this vicious circle can only be broken if the international community makes an effort to work in a coordinated way to improve the capacity of poor countries to resolve their problems”. That way, the principal objective is not economic growth but human security and wellbeing.
It is a shame that in Mexico the elite responsible for the management of our country worries exclusively about interest rates and the growth of the domestic product, thinking innocently that if these economic indicators improve (given the fact that in 20 years they haven’t) the situation for the poor will improve as well. Even the World Bank accepted that the current levels of poverty will not decreased by 2015 [as agreed on the Millennium Development Goals] and sets a new target year in 2050.
But for a country like ours, dependent on that evil empire, and where growth will probably mean that our maquiladora model has improved its competitiveness to defend itself better against China, things could not be worst. “Improved its competitiveness” in this context will mean that salaries will further decrease and that needs will intensify. This in turn will cause – we know it by memory – an increase in the statistics of feminicides, an acceleration of the exodus of our campesinos to the North, defeated by the products that come into the country at half price, submerging their families, now broken and left behind, in sadness.
We have reached an extreme in which it would not surprise us if Fox would be advised to rent the National Palace to Wall-Mart so it could, once and for all, from this privileged position, destroy all the small and medium retailers from the downtown area, and even all the informal commerce in the country.
Who knows what kind of knowledge our scholarship holders received in the universities of the northern country, or how they used this knowledge only to fulfill their own interests, but the fact is that, while Korea, Japan, France and other countries close their frontiers in the areas where competition is not viable, and the European Union has compensated the weakest countries in areas that were in trouble, the American formula has been the destruction of everything in the search for the immediate profit.
It seems clear that they [Americans] still don’t understand that there is not an outside and an inside, that the destruction and the human and ecological regression they produce beyond their borders is coming back to haunt them like a boomerang.
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Translated by Maria Garrido
La Jornada
September 29, 2005
Why are Americans like this?
Sergio Zermeño
In the last days of September, the 11th reunion of the European Association of Development Institutes (EADI) took place in Germany. Reading from the conference’s program and proceedings, in which close to 300 research centers participated, one wonders why we [Mexicans] get to live globalization on the side of the United States.
In the second paragraph of the conference’s program, EADI questions if globalization shouldn’t be perceived as another threat, and maybe even the worst, to the safety of humanity in the period after the Cold War, together with AIDS, international terrorism, civil wars, organized crime and environmental disasters. Furthermore, EADI strongly asserts: “while trying to improve economic efficiency and quality of life, many countries opened their frontiers to international exchange, however, such openness increases their vulnerability to different types of risks generating poverty and inequality between rich and poor countries, and exacerbating the conditions within poor countries themselves. Poverty has been associated with different illnesses and environmental degradation, and this vicious circle can only be broken if the international community makes an effort to work in a coordinated way to improve the capacity of poor countries to resolve their problems”. That way, the principal objective is not economic growth but human security and wellbeing.
It is a shame that in Mexico the elite responsible for the management of our country worries exclusively about interest rates and the growth of the domestic product, thinking innocently that if these economic indicators improve (given the fact that in 20 years they haven’t) the situation for the poor will improve as well. Even the World Bank accepted that the current levels of poverty will not decreased by 2015 [as agreed on the Millennium Development Goals] and sets a new target year in 2050.
But for a country like ours, dependent on that evil empire, and where growth will probably mean that our maquiladora model has improved its competitiveness to defend itself better against China, things could not be worst. “Improved its competitiveness” in this context will mean that salaries will further decrease and that needs will intensify. This in turn will cause – we know it by memory – an increase in the statistics of feminicides, an acceleration of the exodus of our campesinos to the North, defeated by the products that come into the country at half price, submerging their families, now broken and left behind, in sadness.
We have reached an extreme in which it would not surprise us if Fox would be advised to rent the National Palace to Wall-Mart so it could, once and for all, from this privileged position, destroy all the small and medium retailers from the downtown area, and even all the informal commerce in the country.
Who knows what kind of knowledge our scholarship holders received in the universities of the northern country, or how they used this knowledge only to fulfill their own interests, but the fact is that, while Korea, Japan, France and other countries close their frontiers in the areas where competition is not viable, and the European Union has compensated the weakest countries in areas that were in trouble, the American formula has been the destruction of everything in the search for the immediate profit.
It seems clear that they [Americans] still don’t understand that there is not an outside and an inside, that the destruction and the human and ecological regression they produce beyond their borders is coming back to haunt them like a boomerang.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Plenary words of the Comandantas and Comandantes
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
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Translated by irlandesa
Words Spoken by the Comandantas and Comandantes at the Opening of the Plenary Meeting, September 16, 2005
Words from Comandante David
Compañeros and compañeras, indigenous brothers and sisters from Mexico and the world and to all those who embrace the Sixth Declaration.
In the name of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN, we have the following to say:
As indigenous of our country, Mexico, and of our entire continent, we are the ones to whom everything has been denied, even our existence.
From the Conquest to our time, they have humiliated us, they have silenced us and they have tried to exterminate us, but they have taught us, over long years of pain and suffering, to resist. That is why they have not been able to extinguish our struggle, our resistance, our rebellion and our indignation against injustice and subjugation.
The fury and rebellion of the indigenous peoples of Mexico and of all America have been fuelled by the conquistadors themselves and by their descendents with their cruelty and barbarity against the indigenous. Our peoples do not forget their history, their sorrow and their struggle. They are kept safely in the hearts and thoughts of all of us who are the first ones of these lands of Mexico and of America. Because the lives and blood of many millions of fallen and massacred indigenous brothers continue to demand justice and liberty. That is why, throughout more than 500 years of sorrowful history, there have been movements, resistance struggles and wars by the indigenous against their oppressors and the bad leaders.
In the case of our beloved country Mexico, from the Conquest until our days it has been stained and cultivated with the blood of millions of indigenous.
Many thousands of indigenous died during the Conquest, and hundreds of thousands were enslaved.
During the War of Independence of eighteen hundred and ten, led by Padre Hidalgo, it was us, the indigenous, who gave the most blood for the independence and liberty of our Patria.
It is exactly today, September 16, 2005, when we remember with pride our indigenous brothers who died and all those who gave their lives because they wanted to give us liberty and independence. But after that war of independence and liberty, we indigenous continued to occupy the same places of slavery, of poverty, of being humiliated and forgotten, the blood of our fallen was ignored, as was the existence of those who had survived.
Thus there was no liberty or independence for the indigenous, only their masters and lords were changed.
We were not included in the laws that were drawn up during those times.
Then the Revolution of 1910, and it was also us, the indigenous and campesinos, who gave the most blood and lives for land and liberty, because it was our indigenous and campesino brothers who fought with valor and heroism, without fear of losing more than their own lives.
But after that revolution, there still was not any land or liberty for the indigenous and campesinos. Those who assumed power in the name of the revolution after the assassination of our General Emiliano Zapata also forgot about the indigenous. They drew up laws like the Constitution of 1917, and we were not included or recognized in that Mexican Constitution either.
As indigenous and campesinos, we are still the same or worse than jodidos, because we do not have the right to anything, not to land, health, education, food, a dignified life or to being respected.
And so struggles and revolutions have taken place, and we indigenous and campesinos have always stayed the same. Always set to one side, always marginalized and forgotten.
Compañeros and compañeras, brothers and sisters, we can no longer allow this sad history that we have been suffering for centuries to keep repeating itself. We cannot allow them to keep mocking us.
All indigenous and campesinos, and all honest men and women who inhabit our Mexican Patria, our continent and our entire world, have the right and the duty to change this reality and to build a new history, the history of humanity, the history of the world.
That is why - through this struggle the zapatistas are engaging in and this great movement we are building with all the indigenous and campesinos - we will no longer remain excluded, we will be an important part of history and of nations.
That is why it will be what it will be, and we will conquer the place that belongs to us and which the indigenous, the campesinos and all the exploited deserve. The struggle is ours, the Patria is ours and history is ours.
Words of Comandanta Esther
Good evening, Compañeras and Compañeros.
In the name of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
We would like to say a few words to all the women who are here and not here, those who have joined the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona. We must continue fighting as women in order to defend our rights, because for more than 500 years the bad leaders and the powerful have denied us the right and the place which belongs to us as persons. And they have treated us like objects, and they imposed that on our fathers and grandfathers. That is why now some of our fathers, brothers and husbands tell us we are useless, and that we are only good for taking care of children and taking care of the home and that we are weak, that we do not know how to think or to make decisions. These bad ideas have kept all the women in the countryside and the city dominated.
But this is not true, we women can indeed organize ourselves, hold positions and make decisions, just like men. That is why I am telling you that we shall keep fighting together to defend the rights we deserve as women and as human beings.
If we do not do anything, our daughters and granddaughters will continue to live the way it is now in our country, because the majority of women are not taken into account, we are not respected, we do not have dignified work. That is why many women leave to look for work in other countries like the United States. There they receive mistreatment, humiliation, contempt, exploitation, death, and their rights are often violated by their employers.
But this situation in our country cannot continue like this if we want women to have secure work, a fair salary, dignified and respectful treatment.
In order to achieve this, time is necessary, and sacrifice, responsibility, patience and resistance. Like this work and organization we are beginning together, there will be many problems and obstacles. But we cannot leave the struggle because of this, because it is not about just trying it for a while. It is going to take years to achieve what we want, and because of that we must be firm and strong and always seek solutions to the problems we will be encountering.
That is why it is now the hour to unite our strengths in order to achieve our objective. Courage, then, compañeras, workers, teachers, doctors, artists, lesbians, intellectuals, young people, housewives and all sectors of society. Do not become discouraged, because there is no other path left to us than that of continuing to fight together, men, women, young people, girls and boys, old ones, so that we may be taken into account in our country Mexico.
But we also want to talk a bit about the struggle of indigenous women. We, as indigenous women, are also struggling for the same circumstances, because we suffer from triple exploitation, for being women, for being indigenous and for being poor. Because we are women, they do not take us into account, we are humiliated, despised. Because we are indigenous, we are discriminated against because of our clothing, color, language and cultures. Because we are poor, we do not have a right to health, to education, and they forget about us. That is why we decided to organize and to fight together in order to get out of this situation. It does not matter to us if there is persecution, incarceration, kidnapping, even death if it is necessary. In spite of all this, here we are, and we shall continue fighting, and we are not going to surrender nor sell ourselves for the little bit of charity the bad government gives, let alone to hold some government position.
Thank you to the struggle that gave us this space to participate, to unite our strength and to struggle together, men and women, because without the men or without the women, the struggle would not move forward. That is why the participation of everyone is very important, without distinction as to race or color.
Lastly, I just want to tell you to join our strengths together in order to achieve democracy, liberty and justice for all.
Words of Lieutenant Colonel Moisés
Garrucha Meeting
Good evening to all the compañeros and compañeras, and so, as compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos said, I am speaking in the name of my compañeros and compañeras from the political-military wing. The compañero and compañera comandantes and comandantas are the organizational political part, those who guide us on our path of struggle. We are the soldiers of the people who left our fathers and mothers and everything. There are insurgent compañeros and compañeras who have now left their families forever, because they died while carrying out their duties. Those of us who are still alive are striking blows against the bad government, the exploiters, and we are not going to stop striking out at those bad, exploitative governments. We, the insurgents and insurgentas, are here out of conscience. The great payment that we will receive someday is that of one day seeing these people - which are called Mexico - being free. That is why we are a political-military army which took up arms in order to look after and defend our compañeros and compañeras of our peoples in struggle.
You have seen that while fighting, we have spoken truly and clearly about how they exploit us, how they humiliate us, and by organizing against that, and by fighting against that, repression comes. They do not want us to learn to make a new politics and another way of doing politics. That is why we are defenders of our organized peoples who are struggling politically.
It is exactly what we are doing now with these peoples who are here and those who are not here now, we want to fight politically and peacefully. We are not a militaristic army, we use arms to defend ourselves, in order to conquer liberty, justice and democracy.
Politically we understand that the people of Mexico should have democracy, and that is what we are organizing and we are demanding be practiced.
We had to form an army of the people in order to make it real and make democracy really of the people. We are very otherly, it is a different kind of army, crazy but good for the people.
Willing to go all the way, to die if it necessary, by the people and for the people and of the people of Mexico. It is so much like that that the EZLN practices democracy with its villages and regions, it consults with its villages on its initiatives of struggle. That is what it did in '93, we asked if we should begin our struggle. It has done so on several occasions, and now it did so with the Sixth Declaration and the great majority of our peoples said yes.
It is easy to give orders, but we did not do it like that, because it would not be a democracy that way, they were consulted as to whether they were in agreement with the initiative. With this new plan we are carrying out, together now, in the Sexta, there is something I would like to tell or recount to you. It is not very easy for me to tell you, but that is how it is when you really fight and one is willing to go all the way. That is what I want to talk to you about, but I'll see if I can.
I, Lieutenant Colonel Moisés, came to the mountains to prepare myself to be an insurgent, and - as it is when someone arrives to be part of the insurgent ranks - you learn, and later you are given command responsibility in order to teach others. For many years, my commander was our unforgettable Compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Pedro.
One day he said to me - I do not remember the exact date, but it was in 1993 - he said to me, or he called to me: "Moy, come here," and I went to where he was, in his house, in one of the barracks we had, but this one I'm telling you about was the "Collective" barracks. I came, and he said to me: "Listen, Moy, since we're going to go out in public now in order to start our struggle for National Liberation, if anything happens or happens to me, you'll be my second in command. I'm putting you in charge of the compañeros and compañeras and to continue the fight, continue the work. Just like me," he told me, "I'm the second in command for compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos." What do you think happened? I don't really feel like telling it, because it's not a story, it's not a story I really want to tell, it's very painful and distressing and mixed up with anger and sadness. When you are close to a compañero, and he's your commander, to see a faithful compañero die who you have lived with for a long time is like something...no, better that I don't tell you...
But our commanders, those who know how to honor their given word, they honor it at first if circumstances allow, if not, they fulfill their duty.
I remember the last time Subcomandante Insurgente Pedro and Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos saw each other, and I was there. I personally heard the last directions Subcomandante Marcos gave to Subcomandante Insurgente Pedro. Sub Marcos said to Sub Pedro: "Pedro, you are my second, remember, so be careful you don't die," Subcomandante Marcos said, and Subcomandante Pedro answered: "We'll take care of each other, compañero." Those were the last words exchanged between Subcomandante Marcos and Subcomandante Pedro.
Subcomandante Pedro was very happy, I remember he gathered together the insurgent compañeros and compañeras of the First Regiment, and he told us: "Compañeros, compañeras, now we're going to come out publicly, now they're going to know who we're fighting for, the people of Mexico."
We have to organize with them, the workers, and then he said, it's where I came from, because he was a worker, he wasn't indigenous, but he turned into an indigenous person with us and he died among the indigenous. A worker who was loyal to us is no longer with us physically, but he dreamed this, what we are doing here, he dreamed of being here with workers, campesinos, indigenous, teachers, students, neighbors, artists, and many others, he told us. This dream he dreamed, what he dreamed is what we are doing right now, and that is why I am speaking for him, because for us he is not dead, just like the great poverty and inequality we suffer have not died. For us he is not dead, and we have even triumphed, for us he is not dead, because what has to be built continues and we have even built what has to be built, for us he is not dead, because he will live among the living of the peoples of free Mexico. But for there to be free living beings in Mexico, you have to know how to give your life when it's necessary, and that is exactly what happened. He fell in combat on the dawn of the first day of January of the year of 1994 in Las Margaritas. He is with us there in a place where we have his body buried, his corpse, but he is here with us, and we want him to be with the compañeros and compañeras who have joined with the Sexta and with all the others.
As our commanders taught us, the one who follows, follows, and in this case it fell to me to continue the work that was left when compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Pedro fell.
I also remember that I wanted to speak to compañero Subcomandante Pedro when I reached the place where he had fallen, and I said to him: "What happened, Subcomandante, what happened?" He answered me with a silence. It hurts to see and lose a loved one of struggle who was at the same time your commander, but, as I told you, those of us who continue, will continue.
That is how we were made, organized, as soldiers. We are prepared for those events.
Like today, compañeros and compañeras. You know several of the compañeros and compañeras comandantes and comandantas, but someday we will not see them again, according to our circumstances in the struggle, the missions to be carried out, for the word given to struggle for a free Mexico.
Several of the compañeros and compañeras, comandantes and comandantas, are going to go to work in the Other Campaign. They were asked to make the decision to work in the Other Campaign voluntarily, because it is they and the people who we take care of. We, the insurgents, are also going to go out, but not voluntarily, by orders. If they say to us compañero, compañera, you're going to go out to work in the Other Campaign, or they tell us, compañero, keep taking care of our peoples and organize them better, the resistance, we will do that. Whatever it is, we will carry out our orders.
Our duty is to carry out the exploration of the land where we are going to take our compañeros and compañeras of our peoples, we are the soldiers, there are always those who go as vanguard. Vanguard is what we call those who go on ahead and see what the land is like ahead that we don't know yet. And the task of the one who goes as vanguard is to discover what is there. Whether the land is swampy, rocky, thorny and other circumstances which the vanguard observes, and he informs us of that so we know what to do and how to do it.
We know you understand vanguard as being the person who is going to lead, or those who know how to fight or the one who commands, and that they are the only ones and they are right and those who know more and who are, therefore, the leaders.
We do not understand it like that, the vanguard for us is like I just said, the one who goes to learn the land, unknown land for us, and it is necessary to go to that land in order to advance the struggle, that is our work, the military, the exploration of land.
We are already organized, reorganized and everything, for this work. The leadership succession is already in place.
The work of the vanguard of exploring the land for the Other Campaign has fallen to compañero Subcomandante Marcos. He will be the first to leave, and, after him, we will also follow, taking turns in order to do the work. Compañeros and compañeras, it has already been planned and decided.
The compañero second in charge to Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos is now ready. He is being guarded and looked after by us, the insurgents and insurgentas.
Compañeros and compañeras, the mission of struggle has fallen to compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, we are entrusting you with very much. All you can do for his security, because he is going to leave and be out of our control, but we will remain very alert.
We know who the ones are who want there to be deaths, and that it would be better for them if those who are struggling were to die, and especially, especially if it were the zapatistas who were to die. They are planning that, how they are going to kill us. That is why I am entrusting you with so very much, compañeros and compañeras.
If that happens, our struggle will not be stopped, we are ready and prepared for that.
Listen well, compañeros and compañeras, our departure is political, ideological and peaceful, our initiative does not speak with bullets, but with words and thoughts and ideas.
Men and women of the national and international press, well, we could also call you compañeros, compañeras, if you join the work of the Sixth Declaration. But if you don't join, just be good communicators, say what is said, and don't make things up.
Listen well, then, our compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos is going to depart, without arms, he's going to go with only what God gave him, and our initiative is political, peaceful, it's about ideas and thoughts and words.
Any attempt which the bad government and the exploiters make to do away with the struggle is going to fail, that is why we are staying, our liberation struggle will continue.
Compañeros and compañeras, compañero Subcomandante is not going to lead the people, we are not commanding, nor do we believe we are the vanguard of a struggle, that we're the best and the only ones. He is not going to promote armed struggle, he is going for what the poor people of Mexico want, political and peaceful struggle.
He is taking nothing other our word, which we want to join together with all our poor brothers and sisters in struggle in Mexico.
We, the soldiers of the people, have nothing. All we have is the aim of struggle, all of our equipment and arms are not ours, they belong to the people, we take care of them and use them for the struggle.
And so compañero Subcomandante Marcos is not taking anything. We trust in you, compañeros and compañeras, that you will be able to provide what is needed for the work we are entrusting you with. Well, there are some little things he'll be taking - you know which thing, right? - don't have bad thoughts. He's going to take his pipes, chewed up, obviously, which is now part of his life, his faithful compañera, inseparable for him. He's also going to take his beat-up computer so he can write us and tell us how his exploration of the environment is going. Today we are entrusting you with what he's lacking in his work.
One more time we are telling you that we are not going to provoke actions of war so there can be more deaths, not that, we are not seeking that. On the contrary, we want living lives, not deaths.
Compañeros and compañeras, we are giving everything: our top chiefs from our poor peoples, you will soon see, compañeros and compañeras.
Well, compañeros and compañeras, people of poor Mexico, it is our hour, it is the hour for the poor to together say ya basta!
Men and women, everyone, fight for this Patria, the one that gave us birth and which others wish to take over. We will not allow it, we will defend it as our loved ones fallen in battle have taught us. Today it is up to us, no one will do it for us, except we ourselves.
No one will come to liberate us from this ruinous state in which the criminals have placed us.
March on then, compañeros and compañeras! Let us all go towards the liberation struggle! Live for the patria or die for liberty!
Words of Comandante Tacho
Compañeras and Compañeros.
All those who have joined the Sixth Declaration.
In the name of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN and of the support base compañeros and compañeras of the rebel zapatista peoples, we are speaking our word.
We have spoken truthfully to the political class and the leaders, we have clearly told them what they are and what they are like. As for those who have felt hurt and offended by this, they will certainly try to come after us, because they do not like anyone telling them the truth. The politicians of the political parties who have been in power have committed many crimes against the people of Mexico.
As for the PRI, they are responsible for their actions in the massacre of 1968, where they were massacred for demanding their rights.
As they are responsible for other repressions and persecutions of other social and student movements.
In the countryside, the same federal and state officials used repressive force in order to crush and dislocate indigenous campesinos in different parts of the country. But there was more, they also incarcerated and assassinated campesinos unjustly. They are still being deprived of their liberty, and they are in their graves and in high security jails as if they were criminals, while the real criminals continue enjoying their freedom with large quantities of salaries, disguised as pensions.
This same PRI party, headed by Carlos Salinas, made the reforms to Article 27 of the Constitution for the purpose of burying the ideals of our General Emiliano Zapata. All this was, and is, in order to carry out the neoliberal plans to finish delivering our national sovereignty into the hands of the powerful moneyed ones.
That is why we say there have been many crimes. Because they themselves prepared this plan and right now they are continuing to carry it out with the FTT, Plan Puebla Panama and the ALCA.
These treaties demand that the Mexican government reform the laws which guarantee these plans.
This has been the dirty work the PRI has been up to behind the backs of the Mexican people.
And to top it off, their colors are those of our flag, and they say they are revolutionaries, but the truth of it is they aren't at all.
Because revolution means real change for the good of the people.
For them, on the other hand, revolution means looting the wealth and selling off the patria.
Those who are continuing this neoliberal plan, continue now with another color and with another name, but they are carrying out the same plan, and it's the National Action Party - PAN.
It is not true that it's a government of change. Their plans are worse for our peoples, because once again they are promoting structural reforms so they can continue selling off what is left of the rest of our national sovereignty.
The change they told us so much about is just promises. It would seem that more than 15 minutes have passed, and the problems and demands of the people are still unresolved, just as they were demanded before these last 5 years.
We cannot expect anything for the people from these politicians and these political parties. They have sown much despair, much mistrust, because we were once again mocked through words and promises.
Because the current government of that change did the same things as the previous ones did.
With Carlos Salinas de Gortari and that dream of entering the first world and with his family solidarity and with the February 9, 1995 betrayal, there was no improvement.
With Vicente Fox with his opportunities with little shops and the famous change and nothing.
And now with this señor, the commissioner for peace Luis H. Álvarez. The program is being used to wage a counterinsurgency campaign accompanied by some corrupt persons who pass themselves off as leaders and representatives of the PRI in different places in our region.
With the leftovers from Martha Sahagún and from Vicente Fox when they travel to other countries to lie in the name of the Mexican people that there is democracy in Mexico now, there isn't any poverty now and blessed peace now reigns.
That business about poverty being finished is just lies. Proof of that is that there is deep discontent among workers in the countryside and in the city, and they are saying no to privatization of electric energy and no to privatization of social security.
And what more can we say about the PRD? We have a list of what they've done to us.
They deceived us that they were a party of the left and that they were fighting for the demands of the people.
We believed they were a referent for opposition against the state party system.
But we realized we were wrong, that it wasn't true.
Another thing they did was that they made an agreement with the PRI, PAN and the PRD against the Cocopa law. If they were capable of doing that - after centuries of our being denied - what would they do with the selling of our national sovereignty?
In addition to this, everything the PRD itself has done in other states, but especially in Chiapas, which everyone already knows about through previous communiqués. The PRD is now a business, because those who make up Manuel López Obrador's team are Salinistas, and they have a lot of experience with manipulation and corruption. That's why they became expert politicians. That's why they know where to fit in, and so we don't expect anything.
Because of all this, we have seen that the three main political parties have the same plans and interests, but how good that they are doing that now.
That way the people of Mexico will realize that any party which comes to power is not going to resolve anything. They have also demonstrated that they only agree with the people every 6 years when they begin their political campaigns to seek the presidency, a governorship, a seat in the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate.
But after this, when any of these gentlemen reach power they forget everything, except the lucrative salary they receive every month and everything they steal and keep until the end of their term.
We are sure of all that, but for the Mexican people they are demonstrating quite clearly to us that what they are interested in is making money.
We have already seen that the PRD is no longer a party of the left, because when the Cocopa law was voted on and approved, it made agreements with the corrupt PRI-PAN parties, and they then showed us their complicity, and they did not pay any attention to the need for so many years for the constitutional recognition of indigenous rights and culture, it is not decades they have denied us, but centuries. And the PRD did not pay any attention, and they betrayed the hope of millions of Mexican indigenous, denying us our rights, our culture which belongs to us as the Mexican indigenous we are, deceived by those parties and those politicians.
And the engineer Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas. One May 15, 1994, if I remember correctly, he also committed himself to doing something for our demands and to being steadfast with the zapatista cause.
So, what can we expect of these señors? That is why it is worthwhile to join our forces and to fight together so the impossible will be possible and to go to great effort to make another form of doing politics.
That is all our words.
Thank you very much.
September, month of the Patria
Words of Comandante Zebedeo
Compañeras and Compañeros
Everyone who has joined and those who will be joining the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, in the name of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN and in the name of the men, women, young people, children and old ones, support bases, we address you.
Compañeras and compañeros, we would like to tell you that in these almost eleven years of struggle against the forgetting, against marginalization and against extermination, "here we are." We have not surrendered, nor have we sold out. We will not sell out, nor will we surrender, because we are quite convinced that out struggle has just causes for the poor of Mexico and of the world.
The living conditions of workers from the countryside and the city - and for the teachers, workers, students, housewives, doctors, truck drivers, campesinos, day workers, unemployed, indigenous, street children, religious persons, intellectuals, homosexuals, lesbians and artists - are increasingly worse, with pain, poverty, hunger, deaths from curable illnesses and contempt against this great majority.
While the exploiters are increasingly fewer in number and richer, because they are hoarding the wealth of our nation.
Faced with this indiscriminate appropriation by the rich, we are obliged to speak our words in this Sixth Declaration for the purpose of joining our struggles, in order to walk together without regard to color, creed or race.
We are workers from the countryside and the city who have the physical circumstances and the knowledge to produce and to make what our society needs. Seeing this immense capacity of the men and women of the countryside and of the city, we are capable of creating wealth to support our country. That is why we believe that the solution for this great injustice we are suffering is on our side and it is in our hands, because we have already seen that we can't expect anything good from the government.
Throughout these centuries of mockeries and deceptions, the wealthy have enriched themselves at the cost of the workers of the countryside and the city.
In the countryside we suffer from low prices for our goods, and in the city they suffer from unemployment and low wages.
On this long path, we have all separately sought a solution, and the response to all of this has been mockery, deception, repression, incarceration, torture and disappearances.
These black histories of struggle which we have passed through were not the best path, and they should not be repeated.
Do we have to repeat another 500 years of resistance against the forgetting and marginalization? Do we have to continue to be willing to put up with more years of corrupt politicians and those who sell off our Patria? If what they showed us was that when we fought against injustices and for our rights we were accused and persecuted like criminals and traitors to the Patria.
This is what really happened, and it continues to happen in our country, and we should no longer keep allowing them to continue with their projects of death.
Because the hour has come to unite our forces, our struggles, our thoughts, our ideas, our hearts, our faith, our hopes of some day experiencing a real change in our lives.
We know the risks and the cost this can bring to us zapatistas, but we have decided to take them.
It does not matter what happens if that is the price that is needed for doing away with injustice.
We also recognize the experiences of all your struggles, of all the organizations and the social movements that each of you have had during this time which has now passed, and we believe each organization had the capacity to plan and organize a movement.
You have had experience in the organizational practice of each movement which each organization had, and we must make these experiences greater from this day forward.
Once again we repeat our call to struggle together in the face of a common enemy, taking into account the long bridge of resistance and not falling into conformity, into competition, into divisionism and into corruption.
We should never allow the enemy's desires to be realized.
We should struggle and we should impose the desires of the exploited.
These have been our words.
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Translated by irlandesa
Words Spoken by the Comandantas and Comandantes at the Opening of the Plenary Meeting, September 16, 2005
Words from Comandante David
Compañeros and compañeras, indigenous brothers and sisters from Mexico and the world and to all those who embrace the Sixth Declaration.
In the name of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN, we have the following to say:
As indigenous of our country, Mexico, and of our entire continent, we are the ones to whom everything has been denied, even our existence.
From the Conquest to our time, they have humiliated us, they have silenced us and they have tried to exterminate us, but they have taught us, over long years of pain and suffering, to resist. That is why they have not been able to extinguish our struggle, our resistance, our rebellion and our indignation against injustice and subjugation.
The fury and rebellion of the indigenous peoples of Mexico and of all America have been fuelled by the conquistadors themselves and by their descendents with their cruelty and barbarity against the indigenous. Our peoples do not forget their history, their sorrow and their struggle. They are kept safely in the hearts and thoughts of all of us who are the first ones of these lands of Mexico and of America. Because the lives and blood of many millions of fallen and massacred indigenous brothers continue to demand justice and liberty. That is why, throughout more than 500 years of sorrowful history, there have been movements, resistance struggles and wars by the indigenous against their oppressors and the bad leaders.
In the case of our beloved country Mexico, from the Conquest until our days it has been stained and cultivated with the blood of millions of indigenous.
Many thousands of indigenous died during the Conquest, and hundreds of thousands were enslaved.
During the War of Independence of eighteen hundred and ten, led by Padre Hidalgo, it was us, the indigenous, who gave the most blood for the independence and liberty of our Patria.
It is exactly today, September 16, 2005, when we remember with pride our indigenous brothers who died and all those who gave their lives because they wanted to give us liberty and independence. But after that war of independence and liberty, we indigenous continued to occupy the same places of slavery, of poverty, of being humiliated and forgotten, the blood of our fallen was ignored, as was the existence of those who had survived.
Thus there was no liberty or independence for the indigenous, only their masters and lords were changed.
We were not included in the laws that were drawn up during those times.
Then the Revolution of 1910, and it was also us, the indigenous and campesinos, who gave the most blood and lives for land and liberty, because it was our indigenous and campesino brothers who fought with valor and heroism, without fear of losing more than their own lives.
But after that revolution, there still was not any land or liberty for the indigenous and campesinos. Those who assumed power in the name of the revolution after the assassination of our General Emiliano Zapata also forgot about the indigenous. They drew up laws like the Constitution of 1917, and we were not included or recognized in that Mexican Constitution either.
As indigenous and campesinos, we are still the same or worse than jodidos, because we do not have the right to anything, not to land, health, education, food, a dignified life or to being respected.
And so struggles and revolutions have taken place, and we indigenous and campesinos have always stayed the same. Always set to one side, always marginalized and forgotten.
Compañeros and compañeras, brothers and sisters, we can no longer allow this sad history that we have been suffering for centuries to keep repeating itself. We cannot allow them to keep mocking us.
All indigenous and campesinos, and all honest men and women who inhabit our Mexican Patria, our continent and our entire world, have the right and the duty to change this reality and to build a new history, the history of humanity, the history of the world.
That is why - through this struggle the zapatistas are engaging in and this great movement we are building with all the indigenous and campesinos - we will no longer remain excluded, we will be an important part of history and of nations.
That is why it will be what it will be, and we will conquer the place that belongs to us and which the indigenous, the campesinos and all the exploited deserve. The struggle is ours, the Patria is ours and history is ours.
Words of Comandanta Esther
Good evening, Compañeras and Compañeros.
In the name of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
We would like to say a few words to all the women who are here and not here, those who have joined the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona. We must continue fighting as women in order to defend our rights, because for more than 500 years the bad leaders and the powerful have denied us the right and the place which belongs to us as persons. And they have treated us like objects, and they imposed that on our fathers and grandfathers. That is why now some of our fathers, brothers and husbands tell us we are useless, and that we are only good for taking care of children and taking care of the home and that we are weak, that we do not know how to think or to make decisions. These bad ideas have kept all the women in the countryside and the city dominated.
But this is not true, we women can indeed organize ourselves, hold positions and make decisions, just like men. That is why I am telling you that we shall keep fighting together to defend the rights we deserve as women and as human beings.
If we do not do anything, our daughters and granddaughters will continue to live the way it is now in our country, because the majority of women are not taken into account, we are not respected, we do not have dignified work. That is why many women leave to look for work in other countries like the United States. There they receive mistreatment, humiliation, contempt, exploitation, death, and their rights are often violated by their employers.
But this situation in our country cannot continue like this if we want women to have secure work, a fair salary, dignified and respectful treatment.
In order to achieve this, time is necessary, and sacrifice, responsibility, patience and resistance. Like this work and organization we are beginning together, there will be many problems and obstacles. But we cannot leave the struggle because of this, because it is not about just trying it for a while. It is going to take years to achieve what we want, and because of that we must be firm and strong and always seek solutions to the problems we will be encountering.
That is why it is now the hour to unite our strengths in order to achieve our objective. Courage, then, compañeras, workers, teachers, doctors, artists, lesbians, intellectuals, young people, housewives and all sectors of society. Do not become discouraged, because there is no other path left to us than that of continuing to fight together, men, women, young people, girls and boys, old ones, so that we may be taken into account in our country Mexico.
But we also want to talk a bit about the struggle of indigenous women. We, as indigenous women, are also struggling for the same circumstances, because we suffer from triple exploitation, for being women, for being indigenous and for being poor. Because we are women, they do not take us into account, we are humiliated, despised. Because we are indigenous, we are discriminated against because of our clothing, color, language and cultures. Because we are poor, we do not have a right to health, to education, and they forget about us. That is why we decided to organize and to fight together in order to get out of this situation. It does not matter to us if there is persecution, incarceration, kidnapping, even death if it is necessary. In spite of all this, here we are, and we shall continue fighting, and we are not going to surrender nor sell ourselves for the little bit of charity the bad government gives, let alone to hold some government position.
Thank you to the struggle that gave us this space to participate, to unite our strength and to struggle together, men and women, because without the men or without the women, the struggle would not move forward. That is why the participation of everyone is very important, without distinction as to race or color.
Lastly, I just want to tell you to join our strengths together in order to achieve democracy, liberty and justice for all.
Words of Lieutenant Colonel Moisés
Garrucha Meeting
Good evening to all the compañeros and compañeras, and so, as compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos said, I am speaking in the name of my compañeros and compañeras from the political-military wing. The compañero and compañera comandantes and comandantas are the organizational political part, those who guide us on our path of struggle. We are the soldiers of the people who left our fathers and mothers and everything. There are insurgent compañeros and compañeras who have now left their families forever, because they died while carrying out their duties. Those of us who are still alive are striking blows against the bad government, the exploiters, and we are not going to stop striking out at those bad, exploitative governments. We, the insurgents and insurgentas, are here out of conscience. The great payment that we will receive someday is that of one day seeing these people - which are called Mexico - being free. That is why we are a political-military army which took up arms in order to look after and defend our compañeros and compañeras of our peoples in struggle.
You have seen that while fighting, we have spoken truly and clearly about how they exploit us, how they humiliate us, and by organizing against that, and by fighting against that, repression comes. They do not want us to learn to make a new politics and another way of doing politics. That is why we are defenders of our organized peoples who are struggling politically.
It is exactly what we are doing now with these peoples who are here and those who are not here now, we want to fight politically and peacefully. We are not a militaristic army, we use arms to defend ourselves, in order to conquer liberty, justice and democracy.
Politically we understand that the people of Mexico should have democracy, and that is what we are organizing and we are demanding be practiced.
We had to form an army of the people in order to make it real and make democracy really of the people. We are very otherly, it is a different kind of army, crazy but good for the people.
Willing to go all the way, to die if it necessary, by the people and for the people and of the people of Mexico. It is so much like that that the EZLN practices democracy with its villages and regions, it consults with its villages on its initiatives of struggle. That is what it did in '93, we asked if we should begin our struggle. It has done so on several occasions, and now it did so with the Sixth Declaration and the great majority of our peoples said yes.
It is easy to give orders, but we did not do it like that, because it would not be a democracy that way, they were consulted as to whether they were in agreement with the initiative. With this new plan we are carrying out, together now, in the Sexta, there is something I would like to tell or recount to you. It is not very easy for me to tell you, but that is how it is when you really fight and one is willing to go all the way. That is what I want to talk to you about, but I'll see if I can.
I, Lieutenant Colonel Moisés, came to the mountains to prepare myself to be an insurgent, and - as it is when someone arrives to be part of the insurgent ranks - you learn, and later you are given command responsibility in order to teach others. For many years, my commander was our unforgettable Compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Pedro.
One day he said to me - I do not remember the exact date, but it was in 1993 - he said to me, or he called to me: "Moy, come here," and I went to where he was, in his house, in one of the barracks we had, but this one I'm telling you about was the "Collective" barracks. I came, and he said to me: "Listen, Moy, since we're going to go out in public now in order to start our struggle for National Liberation, if anything happens or happens to me, you'll be my second in command. I'm putting you in charge of the compañeros and compañeras and to continue the fight, continue the work. Just like me," he told me, "I'm the second in command for compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos." What do you think happened? I don't really feel like telling it, because it's not a story, it's not a story I really want to tell, it's very painful and distressing and mixed up with anger and sadness. When you are close to a compañero, and he's your commander, to see a faithful compañero die who you have lived with for a long time is like something...no, better that I don't tell you...
But our commanders, those who know how to honor their given word, they honor it at first if circumstances allow, if not, they fulfill their duty.
I remember the last time Subcomandante Insurgente Pedro and Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos saw each other, and I was there. I personally heard the last directions Subcomandante Marcos gave to Subcomandante Insurgente Pedro. Sub Marcos said to Sub Pedro: "Pedro, you are my second, remember, so be careful you don't die," Subcomandante Marcos said, and Subcomandante Pedro answered: "We'll take care of each other, compañero." Those were the last words exchanged between Subcomandante Marcos and Subcomandante Pedro.
Subcomandante Pedro was very happy, I remember he gathered together the insurgent compañeros and compañeras of the First Regiment, and he told us: "Compañeros, compañeras, now we're going to come out publicly, now they're going to know who we're fighting for, the people of Mexico."
We have to organize with them, the workers, and then he said, it's where I came from, because he was a worker, he wasn't indigenous, but he turned into an indigenous person with us and he died among the indigenous. A worker who was loyal to us is no longer with us physically, but he dreamed this, what we are doing here, he dreamed of being here with workers, campesinos, indigenous, teachers, students, neighbors, artists, and many others, he told us. This dream he dreamed, what he dreamed is what we are doing right now, and that is why I am speaking for him, because for us he is not dead, just like the great poverty and inequality we suffer have not died. For us he is not dead, and we have even triumphed, for us he is not dead, because what has to be built continues and we have even built what has to be built, for us he is not dead, because he will live among the living of the peoples of free Mexico. But for there to be free living beings in Mexico, you have to know how to give your life when it's necessary, and that is exactly what happened. He fell in combat on the dawn of the first day of January of the year of 1994 in Las Margaritas. He is with us there in a place where we have his body buried, his corpse, but he is here with us, and we want him to be with the compañeros and compañeras who have joined with the Sexta and with all the others.
As our commanders taught us, the one who follows, follows, and in this case it fell to me to continue the work that was left when compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Pedro fell.
I also remember that I wanted to speak to compañero Subcomandante Pedro when I reached the place where he had fallen, and I said to him: "What happened, Subcomandante, what happened?" He answered me with a silence. It hurts to see and lose a loved one of struggle who was at the same time your commander, but, as I told you, those of us who continue, will continue.
That is how we were made, organized, as soldiers. We are prepared for those events.
Like today, compañeros and compañeras. You know several of the compañeros and compañeras comandantes and comandantas, but someday we will not see them again, according to our circumstances in the struggle, the missions to be carried out, for the word given to struggle for a free Mexico.
Several of the compañeros and compañeras, comandantes and comandantas, are going to go to work in the Other Campaign. They were asked to make the decision to work in the Other Campaign voluntarily, because it is they and the people who we take care of. We, the insurgents, are also going to go out, but not voluntarily, by orders. If they say to us compañero, compañera, you're going to go out to work in the Other Campaign, or they tell us, compañero, keep taking care of our peoples and organize them better, the resistance, we will do that. Whatever it is, we will carry out our orders.
Our duty is to carry out the exploration of the land where we are going to take our compañeros and compañeras of our peoples, we are the soldiers, there are always those who go as vanguard. Vanguard is what we call those who go on ahead and see what the land is like ahead that we don't know yet. And the task of the one who goes as vanguard is to discover what is there. Whether the land is swampy, rocky, thorny and other circumstances which the vanguard observes, and he informs us of that so we know what to do and how to do it.
We know you understand vanguard as being the person who is going to lead, or those who know how to fight or the one who commands, and that they are the only ones and they are right and those who know more and who are, therefore, the leaders.
We do not understand it like that, the vanguard for us is like I just said, the one who goes to learn the land, unknown land for us, and it is necessary to go to that land in order to advance the struggle, that is our work, the military, the exploration of land.
We are already organized, reorganized and everything, for this work. The leadership succession is already in place.
The work of the vanguard of exploring the land for the Other Campaign has fallen to compañero Subcomandante Marcos. He will be the first to leave, and, after him, we will also follow, taking turns in order to do the work. Compañeros and compañeras, it has already been planned and decided.
The compañero second in charge to Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos is now ready. He is being guarded and looked after by us, the insurgents and insurgentas.
Compañeros and compañeras, the mission of struggle has fallen to compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, we are entrusting you with very much. All you can do for his security, because he is going to leave and be out of our control, but we will remain very alert.
We know who the ones are who want there to be deaths, and that it would be better for them if those who are struggling were to die, and especially, especially if it were the zapatistas who were to die. They are planning that, how they are going to kill us. That is why I am entrusting you with so very much, compañeros and compañeras.
If that happens, our struggle will not be stopped, we are ready and prepared for that.
Listen well, compañeros and compañeras, our departure is political, ideological and peaceful, our initiative does not speak with bullets, but with words and thoughts and ideas.
Men and women of the national and international press, well, we could also call you compañeros, compañeras, if you join the work of the Sixth Declaration. But if you don't join, just be good communicators, say what is said, and don't make things up.
Listen well, then, our compañero Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos is going to depart, without arms, he's going to go with only what God gave him, and our initiative is political, peaceful, it's about ideas and thoughts and words.
Any attempt which the bad government and the exploiters make to do away with the struggle is going to fail, that is why we are staying, our liberation struggle will continue.
Compañeros and compañeras, compañero Subcomandante is not going to lead the people, we are not commanding, nor do we believe we are the vanguard of a struggle, that we're the best and the only ones. He is not going to promote armed struggle, he is going for what the poor people of Mexico want, political and peaceful struggle.
He is taking nothing other our word, which we want to join together with all our poor brothers and sisters in struggle in Mexico.
We, the soldiers of the people, have nothing. All we have is the aim of struggle, all of our equipment and arms are not ours, they belong to the people, we take care of them and use them for the struggle.
And so compañero Subcomandante Marcos is not taking anything. We trust in you, compañeros and compañeras, that you will be able to provide what is needed for the work we are entrusting you with. Well, there are some little things he'll be taking - you know which thing, right? - don't have bad thoughts. He's going to take his pipes, chewed up, obviously, which is now part of his life, his faithful compañera, inseparable for him. He's also going to take his beat-up computer so he can write us and tell us how his exploration of the environment is going. Today we are entrusting you with what he's lacking in his work.
One more time we are telling you that we are not going to provoke actions of war so there can be more deaths, not that, we are not seeking that. On the contrary, we want living lives, not deaths.
Compañeros and compañeras, we are giving everything: our top chiefs from our poor peoples, you will soon see, compañeros and compañeras.
Well, compañeros and compañeras, people of poor Mexico, it is our hour, it is the hour for the poor to together say ya basta!
Men and women, everyone, fight for this Patria, the one that gave us birth and which others wish to take over. We will not allow it, we will defend it as our loved ones fallen in battle have taught us. Today it is up to us, no one will do it for us, except we ourselves.
No one will come to liberate us from this ruinous state in which the criminals have placed us.
March on then, compañeros and compañeras! Let us all go towards the liberation struggle! Live for the patria or die for liberty!
Words of Comandante Tacho
Compañeras and Compañeros.
All those who have joined the Sixth Declaration.
In the name of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN and of the support base compañeros and compañeras of the rebel zapatista peoples, we are speaking our word.
We have spoken truthfully to the political class and the leaders, we have clearly told them what they are and what they are like. As for those who have felt hurt and offended by this, they will certainly try to come after us, because they do not like anyone telling them the truth. The politicians of the political parties who have been in power have committed many crimes against the people of Mexico.
As for the PRI, they are responsible for their actions in the massacre of 1968, where they were massacred for demanding their rights.
As they are responsible for other repressions and persecutions of other social and student movements.
In the countryside, the same federal and state officials used repressive force in order to crush and dislocate indigenous campesinos in different parts of the country. But there was more, they also incarcerated and assassinated campesinos unjustly. They are still being deprived of their liberty, and they are in their graves and in high security jails as if they were criminals, while the real criminals continue enjoying their freedom with large quantities of salaries, disguised as pensions.
This same PRI party, headed by Carlos Salinas, made the reforms to Article 27 of the Constitution for the purpose of burying the ideals of our General Emiliano Zapata. All this was, and is, in order to carry out the neoliberal plans to finish delivering our national sovereignty into the hands of the powerful moneyed ones.
That is why we say there have been many crimes. Because they themselves prepared this plan and right now they are continuing to carry it out with the FTT, Plan Puebla Panama and the ALCA.
These treaties demand that the Mexican government reform the laws which guarantee these plans.
This has been the dirty work the PRI has been up to behind the backs of the Mexican people.
And to top it off, their colors are those of our flag, and they say they are revolutionaries, but the truth of it is they aren't at all.
Because revolution means real change for the good of the people.
For them, on the other hand, revolution means looting the wealth and selling off the patria.
Those who are continuing this neoliberal plan, continue now with another color and with another name, but they are carrying out the same plan, and it's the National Action Party - PAN.
It is not true that it's a government of change. Their plans are worse for our peoples, because once again they are promoting structural reforms so they can continue selling off what is left of the rest of our national sovereignty.
The change they told us so much about is just promises. It would seem that more than 15 minutes have passed, and the problems and demands of the people are still unresolved, just as they were demanded before these last 5 years.
We cannot expect anything for the people from these politicians and these political parties. They have sown much despair, much mistrust, because we were once again mocked through words and promises.
Because the current government of that change did the same things as the previous ones did.
With Carlos Salinas de Gortari and that dream of entering the first world and with his family solidarity and with the February 9, 1995 betrayal, there was no improvement.
With Vicente Fox with his opportunities with little shops and the famous change and nothing.
And now with this señor, the commissioner for peace Luis H. Álvarez. The program is being used to wage a counterinsurgency campaign accompanied by some corrupt persons who pass themselves off as leaders and representatives of the PRI in different places in our region.
With the leftovers from Martha Sahagún and from Vicente Fox when they travel to other countries to lie in the name of the Mexican people that there is democracy in Mexico now, there isn't any poverty now and blessed peace now reigns.
That business about poverty being finished is just lies. Proof of that is that there is deep discontent among workers in the countryside and in the city, and they are saying no to privatization of electric energy and no to privatization of social security.
And what more can we say about the PRD? We have a list of what they've done to us.
They deceived us that they were a party of the left and that they were fighting for the demands of the people.
We believed they were a referent for opposition against the state party system.
But we realized we were wrong, that it wasn't true.
Another thing they did was that they made an agreement with the PRI, PAN and the PRD against the Cocopa law. If they were capable of doing that - after centuries of our being denied - what would they do with the selling of our national sovereignty?
In addition to this, everything the PRD itself has done in other states, but especially in Chiapas, which everyone already knows about through previous communiqués. The PRD is now a business, because those who make up Manuel López Obrador's team are Salinistas, and they have a lot of experience with manipulation and corruption. That's why they became expert politicians. That's why they know where to fit in, and so we don't expect anything.
Because of all this, we have seen that the three main political parties have the same plans and interests, but how good that they are doing that now.
That way the people of Mexico will realize that any party which comes to power is not going to resolve anything. They have also demonstrated that they only agree with the people every 6 years when they begin their political campaigns to seek the presidency, a governorship, a seat in the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate.
But after this, when any of these gentlemen reach power they forget everything, except the lucrative salary they receive every month and everything they steal and keep until the end of their term.
We are sure of all that, but for the Mexican people they are demonstrating quite clearly to us that what they are interested in is making money.
We have already seen that the PRD is no longer a party of the left, because when the Cocopa law was voted on and approved, it made agreements with the corrupt PRI-PAN parties, and they then showed us their complicity, and they did not pay any attention to the need for so many years for the constitutional recognition of indigenous rights and culture, it is not decades they have denied us, but centuries. And the PRD did not pay any attention, and they betrayed the hope of millions of Mexican indigenous, denying us our rights, our culture which belongs to us as the Mexican indigenous we are, deceived by those parties and those politicians.
And the engineer Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas. One May 15, 1994, if I remember correctly, he also committed himself to doing something for our demands and to being steadfast with the zapatista cause.
So, what can we expect of these señors? That is why it is worthwhile to join our forces and to fight together so the impossible will be possible and to go to great effort to make another form of doing politics.
That is all our words.
Thank you very much.
September, month of the Patria
Words of Comandante Zebedeo
Compañeras and Compañeros
Everyone who has joined and those who will be joining the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, in the name of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN and in the name of the men, women, young people, children and old ones, support bases, we address you.
Compañeras and compañeros, we would like to tell you that in these almost eleven years of struggle against the forgetting, against marginalization and against extermination, "here we are." We have not surrendered, nor have we sold out. We will not sell out, nor will we surrender, because we are quite convinced that out struggle has just causes for the poor of Mexico and of the world.
The living conditions of workers from the countryside and the city - and for the teachers, workers, students, housewives, doctors, truck drivers, campesinos, day workers, unemployed, indigenous, street children, religious persons, intellectuals, homosexuals, lesbians and artists - are increasingly worse, with pain, poverty, hunger, deaths from curable illnesses and contempt against this great majority.
While the exploiters are increasingly fewer in number and richer, because they are hoarding the wealth of our nation.
Faced with this indiscriminate appropriation by the rich, we are obliged to speak our words in this Sixth Declaration for the purpose of joining our struggles, in order to walk together without regard to color, creed or race.
We are workers from the countryside and the city who have the physical circumstances and the knowledge to produce and to make what our society needs. Seeing this immense capacity of the men and women of the countryside and of the city, we are capable of creating wealth to support our country. That is why we believe that the solution for this great injustice we are suffering is on our side and it is in our hands, because we have already seen that we can't expect anything good from the government.
Throughout these centuries of mockeries and deceptions, the wealthy have enriched themselves at the cost of the workers of the countryside and the city.
In the countryside we suffer from low prices for our goods, and in the city they suffer from unemployment and low wages.
On this long path, we have all separately sought a solution, and the response to all of this has been mockery, deception, repression, incarceration, torture and disappearances.
These black histories of struggle which we have passed through were not the best path, and they should not be repeated.
Do we have to repeat another 500 years of resistance against the forgetting and marginalization? Do we have to continue to be willing to put up with more years of corrupt politicians and those who sell off our Patria? If what they showed us was that when we fought against injustices and for our rights we were accused and persecuted like criminals and traitors to the Patria.
This is what really happened, and it continues to happen in our country, and we should no longer keep allowing them to continue with their projects of death.
Because the hour has come to unite our forces, our struggles, our thoughts, our ideas, our hearts, our faith, our hopes of some day experiencing a real change in our lives.
We know the risks and the cost this can bring to us zapatistas, but we have decided to take them.
It does not matter what happens if that is the price that is needed for doing away with injustice.
We also recognize the experiences of all your struggles, of all the organizations and the social movements that each of you have had during this time which has now passed, and we believe each organization had the capacity to plan and organize a movement.
You have had experience in the organizational practice of each movement which each organization had, and we must make these experiences greater from this day forward.
Once again we repeat our call to struggle together in the face of a common enemy, taking into account the long bridge of resistance and not falling into conformity, into competition, into divisionism and into corruption.
We should never allow the enemy's desires to be realized.
We should struggle and we should impose the desires of the exploited.
These have been our words.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Closing Words of the EZLN at the Plenary
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
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Translated by irlandesa
Plenary Meeting
Final Words of the EZLN
We are going to bring things to a close, compañeros and compañeras.
We are going to deliver a short message, compañeras and compañeros, in closing this meeting in which we handed over the Other Campaign to you. First of all, we apologize to you for the errors we committed while leading this assembly, while realizing that the act of recognizing our errors is not going to exonerate us from criticisms you make about what we have done. Some things we realized, like this last one about the immediate tasks. Perhaps we were not aware of other errors, but we are willing to learn that work also. We are going to ask a few things of everyone who’s here and of those who are not. Since we have already handed over the Other Campaign, it’s no longer the EZLN’s, not just the EZLN’s, so I’m going to ask the compañeros and compañeras of Revista Rebeldía to send an email to all those compañeros who have joined who they have on their list and ask for their authorization for allowing, or not allowing, their information to be collectivized – to be passed on to the other supporters. We have to do it like that because there are people, individuals and organizations who are trusting in us. To others we have to say that it’s no longer with us, it’s with everyone, so let them rectify or ratify whether they are going to share this information so they can be contacted. When we have this, in no later than one month – we’re going to set that as a deadline – the directory of the Other Campaign, as of September 11, is going to be sent to everyone, and then you’re going to be able to get into contact with each other by towns or states. We are also respectfully asking all organizations, individuals and groups, those who are here and those who are not here at the moment, to send us your proposals, as you’re organizing, for the dates when you’re going to relocate – what someone here called Agent X - to your states, taking into account the days we’re going to be there for the meetings which are going to be held. We are also asking you, as the EZLN, if you could make an assessment of what the meeting was like and send us a critical assessment so we can know how you saw it, and also tell us if we can make it public, if we can send it to the others. Everyone, persons, individuals, organizations, etcetera. And we want to make it quite clear here – because it was alluded to in some of the presentations – that neither the EZLN nor Marcos are going to agree to be the spokesperson for the Other Campaign, because that would mean establishing a position which has no place. Marcos is the spokesperson for the EZLN, nothing more. Compañeros, there is a problem regarding immediate political tasks which has been pointed out, which we noted, when we invited people to the Other Campaign. We told the people we were going to take them into account. That is why we thought that when the Other Campaign was handed over, everyone had to be consulted, everyone had to be taken into account. That is what is going to guarantee to the people that this is different. That no one is larger, or smaller, that the one who knows how to speak isn’t worth more than the one who doesn’t. That the one who has the money to be able to travel isn’t worth more than the one who has to stay put.
We have to look at the methodology for consulting on everything, because we cannot decide on the criteria. We’ll consult on that, but not on this. I know this presents problems for urgent tasks which come up, but it’s something we have to build, to know how to build, and, first, that everyone is guaranteed that decisions on the building and on the direction of the Other Campaign will be made by everyone. Every word is going to be taken into account the same as any other, nothing, then, is going to be decided through subjugation, ganging up or opportunism. Everything which is done in the name of the Other Campaign, since we have already turned it over to you, we will have to say that, that everyone counts. Then we cannot decide like that, this will be consulted and this not, or any criteria whatsoever, because then we would be demonstrating a lack of respect for the people. If we don’t want the same thing to happen in the Other Campaign that happened with the other political parties - who say chin two decades later, they left us for the other side, and we didn’t do anything at all – then in that building and in that direction of the Other Campaign, it’s going to be decided with everyone, from the smallest to the one which has the most people. That is what we’re proposing, but it’s not for us to decide which things are priorities and urgent in the Other Campaign. So we are proposing that everyone be consulted as to what is urgent and basic. The Other Campaign should be in solidarity with and help those who make it up. Then it won’t be possible for some compañeros to be attacked - because when you leave, or all of us leave, there will begin to be an atmosphere of threats against everyone. Therefore the first thing the Other Campaign has to do is to look after all the supporters – we cannot tolerate something happening to one of us, and we are going to mobilize with all the civil and pacific means we have in order to protect him, help him, be in solidarity with him. Also urgently, however, because that will allow many things to be done, since the immediate reflection of an organization is protecting those who are part of it. We are asking you to express yourselves as soon as possible concerning the different points which are being presented.
The EZLN is going to send this letter tomorrow to all supporters, asking them to express themselves, as quickly as possible, on the different points which are being presented, but especially on this one, insofar that, starting now, any one of us could be subjected to some action or threat, as has already been noted here. Several urgent issues have also been noted. I can imagine the desperation of the compañeros who were hoping there would be a declaration in this assembly about these important and urgent matters. We are also desperate, but we feel we have to wait for the Other Campaign to take hold of its direction and to give itself form. The problem of the Social Security workers was pointed out, of the metallurgical workers, of Fox’s energy program. So, making use of its prerogative as an organization supporting the Sexta – and the respect which is established for the autonomy and independence of organizations – the EZLN, as the EZLN, commits itself to sending a message (it is a shame that the calendar doesn’t allow us to go personally) to the compañeros, Social Security workers, on the day of their Congress, a message of encouragement, of support and, obviously, of unity with them. And the EZLN also commits itself to calling on all political organizations, persons, political groups, NGOs, collectives and persons supporting the Sexta to join with the mobilization the Social Security workers will be organizing on the day of the Congress. We will make this public. It is not a secret to anyone that there have been bilateral meetings between the EZLN and other organizations and collectives. We told everyone the same thing. Independent of the development of the Other Campaign, these relationships can allow for joint actions. What we are pointing out here is that the Other Campaign, which all of us are part of, is one thing, and each organization, each individual and each person, is another thing. In this regard, we are proposing to those political, social and non-governmental organizations, collectives, groups and individuals who find it relevant, that they draw up a joint message which the EZLN will sign along with these other organizations, groups and individuals.
Regarding the mobilizations which are going to be held in a few days against Fox’s energy program, what we are proposing to you here is – making use of your autonomy and independence – that you meet, draw up a joint draft, send it to us and we will sign it jointly with you. We can’t go any further right now. We think that after the first exploration of the environment, as Lieutenant Colonel Moisés said, we will then be able to participate personally in these meetings. Similarly, we will also commit ourselves to a message, to sending a message to the compañeros, metallurgical workers of Lázaro Cárdenas Las Truchas Iron and Steel, about their problem, and we are also calling on organizations to make a joint statement, but not as the Other Campaign, rather as organizations, persons and individuals, and to pass it along to everyone who wants to support it. And I am also proposing to organizations that have contact with the Mexican Electricians Union, or with other sectors of workers in the city or in the countryside, that they compose a joint invitation, a joint letter, inviting them to join the Other Campaign, and that they do the work that will make that take shape. We believe we can overcome obstacles in that way, and go about building a new organization where everyone has their place, without losing our independence and our autonomy as organizations, compañeros. I’m going to tell you: 91 social organizations came out of 162, 71 social organizations did not come; 36 political organizations came, 19 were missing; 129 NGOs, groups and collectives came, 324 were missing; 26 indigenous organizations came, 29 were missing; 196 individuals came, 1428 did not. In no way are we the majority, and we have to build something so that any one of these compañeros, who couldn’t come for any reason, will know that their place is going to be saved for them, like when something happens. In total, there were 2069 of us gathered here, counting national and international observers and without counting the press. So I am leaving that message for social and political organizations about the problems of Social Security, of electricity and energy in general, about Lázaro Cárdenas Iron and Steel.
Compañeras and compañeros, the Other Campaign is no longer ours. I mean it is no longer just ours because of what I have listened to at this meeting, what we listened to in the preparation meetings and what we have found out in various places. We want you to know that, as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, it is an honor for us to have you, from now on, as compañeros and compañeras. And, in saying that, I am telling you we will repay you with compañerismo, with honesty, and, above all, with loyalty to all of you. The loyalty which we have had, the compañerismo and honesty with our communities, we will now also have with you. After having heard and seen you work, we think we are very lucky to have met you. You are men, women, others, children and old ones. Some of the best in the country. How good that we met you. Hopefully we will continue on together, ahead, for a long time.
I would like to thank, in ending, first the zapatista community of La Garrucha, which welcomed us, the autonomous authorities of the Good Government Junta of the Caracol, the authorities of the Flores Magón, San Manuel, Francisco Villa and Francisco Gómez Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities, the support bases of the Tzeltal Selva region who worked to build all this, the militia compañeros of the Third Regiment of the Zapatista Infantry who were looking after us with just their batons and who had to put up with the impertinence of some imbecile photographer who called them perros because they didn’t let him through and who didn’t respond to the provocation. Thank you, militia compañeros, for taking care of us.
Thanks to my compañera comandantas and my compañero comandantes of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee.
Compañeros, compañeras, men, women, others, children, old ones, thank you very much.
That is all.
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Plenary Meeting
Final Words of the EZLN
We are going to bring things to a close, compañeros and compañeras.
We are going to deliver a short message, compañeras and compañeros, in closing this meeting in which we handed over the Other Campaign to you. First of all, we apologize to you for the errors we committed while leading this assembly, while realizing that the act of recognizing our errors is not going to exonerate us from criticisms you make about what we have done. Some things we realized, like this last one about the immediate tasks. Perhaps we were not aware of other errors, but we are willing to learn that work also. We are going to ask a few things of everyone who’s here and of those who are not. Since we have already handed over the Other Campaign, it’s no longer the EZLN’s, not just the EZLN’s, so I’m going to ask the compañeros and compañeras of Revista Rebeldía to send an email to all those compañeros who have joined who they have on their list and ask for their authorization for allowing, or not allowing, their information to be collectivized – to be passed on to the other supporters. We have to do it like that because there are people, individuals and organizations who are trusting in us. To others we have to say that it’s no longer with us, it’s with everyone, so let them rectify or ratify whether they are going to share this information so they can be contacted. When we have this, in no later than one month – we’re going to set that as a deadline – the directory of the Other Campaign, as of September 11, is going to be sent to everyone, and then you’re going to be able to get into contact with each other by towns or states. We are also respectfully asking all organizations, individuals and groups, those who are here and those who are not here at the moment, to send us your proposals, as you’re organizing, for the dates when you’re going to relocate – what someone here called Agent X - to your states, taking into account the days we’re going to be there for the meetings which are going to be held. We are also asking you, as the EZLN, if you could make an assessment of what the meeting was like and send us a critical assessment so we can know how you saw it, and also tell us if we can make it public, if we can send it to the others. Everyone, persons, individuals, organizations, etcetera. And we want to make it quite clear here – because it was alluded to in some of the presentations – that neither the EZLN nor Marcos are going to agree to be the spokesperson for the Other Campaign, because that would mean establishing a position which has no place. Marcos is the spokesperson for the EZLN, nothing more. Compañeros, there is a problem regarding immediate political tasks which has been pointed out, which we noted, when we invited people to the Other Campaign. We told the people we were going to take them into account. That is why we thought that when the Other Campaign was handed over, everyone had to be consulted, everyone had to be taken into account. That is what is going to guarantee to the people that this is different. That no one is larger, or smaller, that the one who knows how to speak isn’t worth more than the one who doesn’t. That the one who has the money to be able to travel isn’t worth more than the one who has to stay put.
We have to look at the methodology for consulting on everything, because we cannot decide on the criteria. We’ll consult on that, but not on this. I know this presents problems for urgent tasks which come up, but it’s something we have to build, to know how to build, and, first, that everyone is guaranteed that decisions on the building and on the direction of the Other Campaign will be made by everyone. Every word is going to be taken into account the same as any other, nothing, then, is going to be decided through subjugation, ganging up or opportunism. Everything which is done in the name of the Other Campaign, since we have already turned it over to you, we will have to say that, that everyone counts. Then we cannot decide like that, this will be consulted and this not, or any criteria whatsoever, because then we would be demonstrating a lack of respect for the people. If we don’t want the same thing to happen in the Other Campaign that happened with the other political parties - who say chin two decades later, they left us for the other side, and we didn’t do anything at all – then in that building and in that direction of the Other Campaign, it’s going to be decided with everyone, from the smallest to the one which has the most people. That is what we’re proposing, but it’s not for us to decide which things are priorities and urgent in the Other Campaign. So we are proposing that everyone be consulted as to what is urgent and basic. The Other Campaign should be in solidarity with and help those who make it up. Then it won’t be possible for some compañeros to be attacked - because when you leave, or all of us leave, there will begin to be an atmosphere of threats against everyone. Therefore the first thing the Other Campaign has to do is to look after all the supporters – we cannot tolerate something happening to one of us, and we are going to mobilize with all the civil and pacific means we have in order to protect him, help him, be in solidarity with him. Also urgently, however, because that will allow many things to be done, since the immediate reflection of an organization is protecting those who are part of it. We are asking you to express yourselves as soon as possible concerning the different points which are being presented.
The EZLN is going to send this letter tomorrow to all supporters, asking them to express themselves, as quickly as possible, on the different points which are being presented, but especially on this one, insofar that, starting now, any one of us could be subjected to some action or threat, as has already been noted here. Several urgent issues have also been noted. I can imagine the desperation of the compañeros who were hoping there would be a declaration in this assembly about these important and urgent matters. We are also desperate, but we feel we have to wait for the Other Campaign to take hold of its direction and to give itself form. The problem of the Social Security workers was pointed out, of the metallurgical workers, of Fox’s energy program. So, making use of its prerogative as an organization supporting the Sexta – and the respect which is established for the autonomy and independence of organizations – the EZLN, as the EZLN, commits itself to sending a message (it is a shame that the calendar doesn’t allow us to go personally) to the compañeros, Social Security workers, on the day of their Congress, a message of encouragement, of support and, obviously, of unity with them. And the EZLN also commits itself to calling on all political organizations, persons, political groups, NGOs, collectives and persons supporting the Sexta to join with the mobilization the Social Security workers will be organizing on the day of the Congress. We will make this public. It is not a secret to anyone that there have been bilateral meetings between the EZLN and other organizations and collectives. We told everyone the same thing. Independent of the development of the Other Campaign, these relationships can allow for joint actions. What we are pointing out here is that the Other Campaign, which all of us are part of, is one thing, and each organization, each individual and each person, is another thing. In this regard, we are proposing to those political, social and non-governmental organizations, collectives, groups and individuals who find it relevant, that they draw up a joint message which the EZLN will sign along with these other organizations, groups and individuals.
Regarding the mobilizations which are going to be held in a few days against Fox’s energy program, what we are proposing to you here is – making use of your autonomy and independence – that you meet, draw up a joint draft, send it to us and we will sign it jointly with you. We can’t go any further right now. We think that after the first exploration of the environment, as Lieutenant Colonel Moisés said, we will then be able to participate personally in these meetings. Similarly, we will also commit ourselves to a message, to sending a message to the compañeros, metallurgical workers of Lázaro Cárdenas Las Truchas Iron and Steel, about their problem, and we are also calling on organizations to make a joint statement, but not as the Other Campaign, rather as organizations, persons and individuals, and to pass it along to everyone who wants to support it. And I am also proposing to organizations that have contact with the Mexican Electricians Union, or with other sectors of workers in the city or in the countryside, that they compose a joint invitation, a joint letter, inviting them to join the Other Campaign, and that they do the work that will make that take shape. We believe we can overcome obstacles in that way, and go about building a new organization where everyone has their place, without losing our independence and our autonomy as organizations, compañeros. I’m going to tell you: 91 social organizations came out of 162, 71 social organizations did not come; 36 political organizations came, 19 were missing; 129 NGOs, groups and collectives came, 324 were missing; 26 indigenous organizations came, 29 were missing; 196 individuals came, 1428 did not. In no way are we the majority, and we have to build something so that any one of these compañeros, who couldn’t come for any reason, will know that their place is going to be saved for them, like when something happens. In total, there were 2069 of us gathered here, counting national and international observers and without counting the press. So I am leaving that message for social and political organizations about the problems of Social Security, of electricity and energy in general, about Lázaro Cárdenas Iron and Steel.
Compañeras and compañeros, the Other Campaign is no longer ours. I mean it is no longer just ours because of what I have listened to at this meeting, what we listened to in the preparation meetings and what we have found out in various places. We want you to know that, as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, it is an honor for us to have you, from now on, as compañeros and compañeras. And, in saying that, I am telling you we will repay you with compañerismo, with honesty, and, above all, with loyalty to all of you. The loyalty which we have had, the compañerismo and honesty with our communities, we will now also have with you. After having heard and seen you work, we think we are very lucky to have met you. You are men, women, others, children and old ones. Some of the best in the country. How good that we met you. Hopefully we will continue on together, ahead, for a long time.
I would like to thank, in ending, first the zapatista community of La Garrucha, which welcomed us, the autonomous authorities of the Good Government Junta of the Caracol, the authorities of the Flores Magón, San Manuel, Francisco Villa and Francisco Gómez Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities, the support bases of the Tzeltal Selva region who worked to build all this, the militia compañeros of the Third Regiment of the Zapatista Infantry who were looking after us with just their batons and who had to put up with the impertinence of some imbecile photographer who called them perros because they didn’t let him through and who didn’t respond to the provocation. Thank you, militia compañeros, for taking care of us.
Thanks to my compañera comandantas and my compañero comandantes of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee.
Compañeros, compañeras, men, women, others, children, old ones, thank you very much.
That is all.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Reunión Plenaria - Palabras Finales del EZLN
REUNIÓN PLENARIA
PALABRAS FINALES DEL EZLN
Vamos a clausurar, compañeros y compañeras.
Vamos a dar un pequeño mensaje, compañeras y compañeros, de clausura de esta reunión en la que les entregamos la Otra Campaña. Primero que nada les pedimos disculpas por los errores que hayamos cometido a la hora de conducir esta asamblea y tomando en cuenta que el hecho de reconocer nuestros errores no nos va a eximir de las críticas que nos hagan por lo que hayamos hecho. Algunas cosas nos dimos cuenta, como este último de las tareas inmediatas. Tal vez otros errores no nos dimos cuenta, pero está en nosotros la disposición para aprender también ese trabajo. Les vamos a pedir a todos los que están y los que no están algunas cosas. Como ya entregamos la Otra Campaña, ya no es del EZLN, no sólo del EZLN, entonces les voy a pedir a los compañeros y compañeras de la revista Rebeldía que manden un correo a todos los compañeros adherentes que tienen en la lista y les pidan autorización si están de acuerdo o no para que sus datos se socialicen o sea que se pasen a todos los adherentes. Eso tenemos que hacerlo así porque son gentes, personas y organizaciones que confiaron en nosotros. A otros les tenemos que decir ya no es con nosotros, es con todos y entonces. Que rectifiquen o ratifiquen si se va a compartir esta información para que se puedan contactar. Cuando tengamos esto a más tardar en un mes, vamos a poner eso de plazo, el directorio de lo que fue hasta el 11 de septiembre la Otra Campaña se les va a mandar a todos y ahí van a poder contactarse por localidades o estados. También pedimos respetuosamente a todas las organizaciones, individuos, grupos, y a los que están y a los que no están que en estos tiempos, conforme se organicen nos manden sus propuestas para las fechas en las que se va a mover lo que alguien dijo aquí, el agente X, en sus estados, tomando en cuenta los días que vamos a estar ahí para las reuniones que se vayan a hacer. También les pedimos, como EZLN, si pueden hacer luego un balance de lo que fue la reunión y nos manden un balance crítico para nosotros saber cómo lo vieron ustedes y también nos digan si se puede hacer público, es decir, mandárselo a los demás. Todos, personas, individuos, organizaciones, etc. Y queremos aquí dejar claro, porque se manejó en varias intervenciones, que ni el EZLN ni Marcos van a aceptar la vocería de la Otra Campaña porque eso ya sería establecer un cargo que no tiene cabida. Marcos es el vocero del EZLN nada más. Compañeros, hay en esto de las tareas políticas inmediatas un problema que se señaló, que se notó, pues, nosotros cuando invitamos a la Otra Campaña le dijimos a la gente que la íbamos a tomar en cuenta por eso nosotros pensamos que la otra campaña en el momento en que se entrega tiene que consultar todo, tomar en cuenta a todos. Eso es lo que le va a dar la garantía a la gente de que esto es diferente. Que no hay quien es más grande, o quien es más chico, que no vale más el que sabe que el que no sabe hablar, que no vale más el que tiene la paga para poder moverse que el que se tiene que quedar, pues.
Tenemos que ver la forma de consultar todo porque no podemos decidir el criterio. Eso sí lo consultamos y esto no. Yo sé que esto plantea problemas para tareas que se presentan como urgentes pero es algo que tenemos que construir, saber construir y lo primero es que todos tengan la garantía de que en esa construcción y en este rumbo de la otra campaña se va a decidir por todos. Cada palabra se va a tomar en cuenta como cualquiera, entonces nada se va a decidir por avasallamiento, por montón, por agandalle. Todo lo que sea a nombre de la otra campaña, si ya se la entregamos a todos, tenemos que decirlo, que todos cuentan. Entonces no podemos decidir así, esto sí se consulta y esto no o cualquier criterio porque entonces le vamos a estar faltando el respeto a la gente. Si no queremos que pase con la otra campaña lo que con otros partidos políticos que dos décadas después dicen chin, se nos fue yendo por otro lado, y ya no hicimos nada, de que en esa construcción y en ese rubro de la otra campaña se va a decidir con todos, desde el más pequeño hasta el que tenga más gente. Eso es lo que nosotros proponemos pero no está para nosotros lo que hay cosas que son prioritarias y urgentes en la otra campaña. Entonces nosotros estamos proponiendo que se consulte a todos lo que es urgente y básico que es que la otra campaña debe tener solidaridad y apoyo con los que la forman. Entonces no puede ser que estén golpeando a unos compañeros, porque en el momento en que salgan ustedes o salgamos todos pues, va a empezar a haber un ambiente de amenazas sobre todos. Entonces lo primero que tiene que hacer la otra campaña es ver por todos los adherentes, es decir, lo que le pase a uno de nosotros no podemos permitirlo, y nos vamos a movilizar con todos los medios civiles y pacíficos que tengamos, para protegerlo, apoyarlo, solidarizarnos con él. Como quiera también como urgente, porque eso va a permitir que muchas cosas se puedan hacer porque el reflejo inmediato de una organización es proteger a quienes forman parte de ella. Les pedimos que se pronuncien tan pronto sea posible sobre los diferentes puntos que se plantearon.
Entonces el EZLN va a mandar esta carta ya mañana a todos los adherentes donde se les pide que se pronuncien, tan pronto sea posible, sobre los diferentes puntos que se plantearon, pero especialmente sobre éste, en la medida en que a partir de ahora cualquiera de nosotros puede ser sujeto de alguna acción o amenaza como ya se señalaron aquí. Se señalaron también varias urgencias. Imagino la desesperación de los compañeros que esperaban que en esta asamblea hubiera un pronunciamiento sobre estas cosas importantes y urgentes y nosotros también tenemos desesperación, pero sentimos que tenemos que esperar que la otra campaña agarre su rumbo y se dé forma a sí misma. Se señaló el problema de los trabajadores del Seguro Social, de los trabajadores metalúrgicos, lo del programa de energéticos de Fox. Entonces, haciendo uso de su prerrogativa como organización adherente a la Sexta y el respeto que se establece en la autonomía e independencia de las organizaciones, el EZLN, como EZLN, se compromete a mandar un mensaje (lástima que no está en el calendario para poder ir personalmente) a los compañeros trabajadores del Seguro Social el día que sea su Congreso, un mensaje de aliento, de apoyo y por supuesto de unidad con ellos. Y el EZLN se compromete también a hacer un llamado a todas las organizaciones políticas, personas, grupos políticos, Ong’s, colectivos y personas adherentes o no a la Sexta para que se sumen a la movilización que van a organizar los trabajadores del Seguro Social el día en que sea el Congreso. Esto lo haremos público. Para nadie es un secreto que ha habido reuniones bilaterales del EZLN con otras organizaciones y colectivos. Con estas organizaciones hemos establecido relaciones bilaterales. A todos les dijimos lo mismo. Independientemente del desarrollo de la otra campaña, estas relaciones podrían permitir acciones conjuntas. Lo que nosotros estamos señalando aquí es que una cosa es la Otra Campaña que formamos entre todos y otra cosa es cada organización, cada individuo, cada persona. En ese sentido les proponemos a las organizaciones políticas, sociales, No Gubernamentales, Colectivos, grupos, individuos que lo consideren ya pertinente hacer un mensaje conjunto que firmaría el EZLN con estas otras organizaciones, grupos, individuos.
Para las movilizaciones que en unos días se van a hacer contra el proyecto energético de Fox, ahí lo que nosotros les proponemos es que haciendo uso de su autonomía, independencia, se reúnan, hagan una redacción común, nos la manden y nosotros firmaríamos junto con ustedes. No podemos ir más allá ahorita. Pensamos que después de la primera exploración del medio ambiente, como dice el Teniente Coronel Moisés, ya podremos participar personalmente en estas reuniones. Asimismo, nos comprometemos también a un mensaje, a mandar un mensaje a los compañeros obreros metalúrgicos de la Siderúrgica Lázaro Cárdenas Las Truchas sobre el problema que tienen y también llamamos a las organizaciones a que hagamos un pronunciamiento conjunto, pero no como la otra campaña sino como organizaciones, personas e individos y que se pase a todos los que quieran adherirse. Y les proponemos también a las organizaciones que tengan contacto con el Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas o con otros sectores de trabajadores de la ciudad o del campo a que les hagamos una invitación conjunta, una carta conjunta, de invitación a que se sumen a la Sexta y a la Otra Campaña y a los trabajos para irle dando forma. Nosotros pensamos que así podemos ir salvando los obstáculos, de ir construyendo una nueva organización donde todos tengan su lugar sin que perdamos nuestra independencia y nuestra autonomía como organización, compañeros. Les voy a decir: llegaron 91 organizaciones sociales de 162, 71 organizaciones sociales no llegaron, organizaciones políticas llegaron 36, faltaron 19 de llegar, ONG’s, grupos y colectivos, llegaron 129, faltaron 324, de organizaciones indígenas llegaron 26, faltaron 29, de individuos llegaron 196, faltaron 1428. De ninguna forma somos mayoría y nosotros tenemos que construir algo que cualquiera de estos compañeros que no pudo venir por cualquier situación, sepa que su lugar se le va a apartar, como cuando pasa algo. En total los que estuvimos reunidos contando observadores nacionales e internacionales y sin contar a la prensa fuimos 2069, los que estuvimos reunidos en estos días. Entonces les dejo ese mensaje a las organizaciones políticas, sociales, sobre los problemas del Seguro Social, de energía eléctrica y energético en general, sobre la Siderúrgica Lázaro Cárdenas.
Compañeras y compañeros, la Otra Campaña ya no es nuestra. Quiero decir, ya no es sólo nuestra por lo que hemos escuchado en esta reunión, lo que escuchamos en las reuniones preparatorias y lo que hemos investigado por varios lados. Queremos que sepan que como Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional es un honor para nosotros tenerlos a partir de ahora como compañeros y compañeras. Ya al decir esto les decimos que corresponderemos con compañerismo, con honestidad y sobre todo con lealtad hacia todos ustedes, la lealtad que hemos tenido, el compañerismo y la honestidad con nuestras comunidades ahora también los tendremos con ustedes. Después de haberlos oído y visto trabajar pensamos que tenemos mucha suerte de haberlos encontrado. Son ustedes hombres, mujeres otros, niños y ancianos. Algo de lo mejor de este país. Qué bueno que los encontramos. Ojalá sigamos mucho tiempo juntos adelante.
Queremos agradecer, para terminar, primeramente a la comunidad zapatista de La Garrucha, que nos recibió, a las autoridades autónomas de la Junta de Buen Gobierno del Caracol, a las autoridades de los Municipios Autónomos Rebeldes Zapatistas Flores Magón, San Manuel, Francisco Villa y Francisco Gómez, a las bases de apoyo de la zona selva tzeltal que trabajaron para construir todo esto, a los compañeros milicianos del Tercer Regimiento de Infantería Zapatista que nos estuvieron cuidando sólo con sus bastones y que tuvieron que soportar la impertinencia de algún imbécil fotógrafo que los llamó perros, por no dejarlo pasar, y que no respondieron a la provocación. Gracias, compañeros milicianos, por cuidarnos.
Gracias a mis compañeras comandantas y mis compañeros comandantes del Comité Clandestino Revolucionario Indígena.
Compañeros, compañeras, hombres, mujeres, otros, niños, ancianos, muchas gracias.
Es todo.
PALABRAS FINALES DEL EZLN
Vamos a clausurar, compañeros y compañeras.
Vamos a dar un pequeño mensaje, compañeras y compañeros, de clausura de esta reunión en la que les entregamos la Otra Campaña. Primero que nada les pedimos disculpas por los errores que hayamos cometido a la hora de conducir esta asamblea y tomando en cuenta que el hecho de reconocer nuestros errores no nos va a eximir de las críticas que nos hagan por lo que hayamos hecho. Algunas cosas nos dimos cuenta, como este último de las tareas inmediatas. Tal vez otros errores no nos dimos cuenta, pero está en nosotros la disposición para aprender también ese trabajo. Les vamos a pedir a todos los que están y los que no están algunas cosas. Como ya entregamos la Otra Campaña, ya no es del EZLN, no sólo del EZLN, entonces les voy a pedir a los compañeros y compañeras de la revista Rebeldía que manden un correo a todos los compañeros adherentes que tienen en la lista y les pidan autorización si están de acuerdo o no para que sus datos se socialicen o sea que se pasen a todos los adherentes. Eso tenemos que hacerlo así porque son gentes, personas y organizaciones que confiaron en nosotros. A otros les tenemos que decir ya no es con nosotros, es con todos y entonces. Que rectifiquen o ratifiquen si se va a compartir esta información para que se puedan contactar. Cuando tengamos esto a más tardar en un mes, vamos a poner eso de plazo, el directorio de lo que fue hasta el 11 de septiembre la Otra Campaña se les va a mandar a todos y ahí van a poder contactarse por localidades o estados. También pedimos respetuosamente a todas las organizaciones, individuos, grupos, y a los que están y a los que no están que en estos tiempos, conforme se organicen nos manden sus propuestas para las fechas en las que se va a mover lo que alguien dijo aquí, el agente X, en sus estados, tomando en cuenta los días que vamos a estar ahí para las reuniones que se vayan a hacer. También les pedimos, como EZLN, si pueden hacer luego un balance de lo que fue la reunión y nos manden un balance crítico para nosotros saber cómo lo vieron ustedes y también nos digan si se puede hacer público, es decir, mandárselo a los demás. Todos, personas, individuos, organizaciones, etc. Y queremos aquí dejar claro, porque se manejó en varias intervenciones, que ni el EZLN ni Marcos van a aceptar la vocería de la Otra Campaña porque eso ya sería establecer un cargo que no tiene cabida. Marcos es el vocero del EZLN nada más. Compañeros, hay en esto de las tareas políticas inmediatas un problema que se señaló, que se notó, pues, nosotros cuando invitamos a la Otra Campaña le dijimos a la gente que la íbamos a tomar en cuenta por eso nosotros pensamos que la otra campaña en el momento en que se entrega tiene que consultar todo, tomar en cuenta a todos. Eso es lo que le va a dar la garantía a la gente de que esto es diferente. Que no hay quien es más grande, o quien es más chico, que no vale más el que sabe que el que no sabe hablar, que no vale más el que tiene la paga para poder moverse que el que se tiene que quedar, pues.
Tenemos que ver la forma de consultar todo porque no podemos decidir el criterio. Eso sí lo consultamos y esto no. Yo sé que esto plantea problemas para tareas que se presentan como urgentes pero es algo que tenemos que construir, saber construir y lo primero es que todos tengan la garantía de que en esa construcción y en este rumbo de la otra campaña se va a decidir por todos. Cada palabra se va a tomar en cuenta como cualquiera, entonces nada se va a decidir por avasallamiento, por montón, por agandalle. Todo lo que sea a nombre de la otra campaña, si ya se la entregamos a todos, tenemos que decirlo, que todos cuentan. Entonces no podemos decidir así, esto sí se consulta y esto no o cualquier criterio porque entonces le vamos a estar faltando el respeto a la gente. Si no queremos que pase con la otra campaña lo que con otros partidos políticos que dos décadas después dicen chin, se nos fue yendo por otro lado, y ya no hicimos nada, de que en esa construcción y en ese rubro de la otra campaña se va a decidir con todos, desde el más pequeño hasta el que tenga más gente. Eso es lo que nosotros proponemos pero no está para nosotros lo que hay cosas que son prioritarias y urgentes en la otra campaña. Entonces nosotros estamos proponiendo que se consulte a todos lo que es urgente y básico que es que la otra campaña debe tener solidaridad y apoyo con los que la forman. Entonces no puede ser que estén golpeando a unos compañeros, porque en el momento en que salgan ustedes o salgamos todos pues, va a empezar a haber un ambiente de amenazas sobre todos. Entonces lo primero que tiene que hacer la otra campaña es ver por todos los adherentes, es decir, lo que le pase a uno de nosotros no podemos permitirlo, y nos vamos a movilizar con todos los medios civiles y pacíficos que tengamos, para protegerlo, apoyarlo, solidarizarnos con él. Como quiera también como urgente, porque eso va a permitir que muchas cosas se puedan hacer porque el reflejo inmediato de una organización es proteger a quienes forman parte de ella. Les pedimos que se pronuncien tan pronto sea posible sobre los diferentes puntos que se plantearon.
Entonces el EZLN va a mandar esta carta ya mañana a todos los adherentes donde se les pide que se pronuncien, tan pronto sea posible, sobre los diferentes puntos que se plantearon, pero especialmente sobre éste, en la medida en que a partir de ahora cualquiera de nosotros puede ser sujeto de alguna acción o amenaza como ya se señalaron aquí. Se señalaron también varias urgencias. Imagino la desesperación de los compañeros que esperaban que en esta asamblea hubiera un pronunciamiento sobre estas cosas importantes y urgentes y nosotros también tenemos desesperación, pero sentimos que tenemos que esperar que la otra campaña agarre su rumbo y se dé forma a sí misma. Se señaló el problema de los trabajadores del Seguro Social, de los trabajadores metalúrgicos, lo del programa de energéticos de Fox. Entonces, haciendo uso de su prerrogativa como organización adherente a la Sexta y el respeto que se establece en la autonomía e independencia de las organizaciones, el EZLN, como EZLN, se compromete a mandar un mensaje (lástima que no está en el calendario para poder ir personalmente) a los compañeros trabajadores del Seguro Social el día que sea su Congreso, un mensaje de aliento, de apoyo y por supuesto de unidad con ellos. Y el EZLN se compromete también a hacer un llamado a todas las organizaciones políticas, personas, grupos políticos, Ong’s, colectivos y personas adherentes o no a la Sexta para que se sumen a la movilización que van a organizar los trabajadores del Seguro Social el día en que sea el Congreso. Esto lo haremos público. Para nadie es un secreto que ha habido reuniones bilaterales del EZLN con otras organizaciones y colectivos. Con estas organizaciones hemos establecido relaciones bilaterales. A todos les dijimos lo mismo. Independientemente del desarrollo de la otra campaña, estas relaciones podrían permitir acciones conjuntas. Lo que nosotros estamos señalando aquí es que una cosa es la Otra Campaña que formamos entre todos y otra cosa es cada organización, cada individuo, cada persona. En ese sentido les proponemos a las organizaciones políticas, sociales, No Gubernamentales, Colectivos, grupos, individuos que lo consideren ya pertinente hacer un mensaje conjunto que firmaría el EZLN con estas otras organizaciones, grupos, individuos.
Para las movilizaciones que en unos días se van a hacer contra el proyecto energético de Fox, ahí lo que nosotros les proponemos es que haciendo uso de su autonomía, independencia, se reúnan, hagan una redacción común, nos la manden y nosotros firmaríamos junto con ustedes. No podemos ir más allá ahorita. Pensamos que después de la primera exploración del medio ambiente, como dice el Teniente Coronel Moisés, ya podremos participar personalmente en estas reuniones. Asimismo, nos comprometemos también a un mensaje, a mandar un mensaje a los compañeros obreros metalúrgicos de la Siderúrgica Lázaro Cárdenas Las Truchas sobre el problema que tienen y también llamamos a las organizaciones a que hagamos un pronunciamiento conjunto, pero no como la otra campaña sino como organizaciones, personas e individos y que se pase a todos los que quieran adherirse. Y les proponemos también a las organizaciones que tengan contacto con el Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas o con otros sectores de trabajadores de la ciudad o del campo a que les hagamos una invitación conjunta, una carta conjunta, de invitación a que se sumen a la Sexta y a la Otra Campaña y a los trabajos para irle dando forma. Nosotros pensamos que así podemos ir salvando los obstáculos, de ir construyendo una nueva organización donde todos tengan su lugar sin que perdamos nuestra independencia y nuestra autonomía como organización, compañeros. Les voy a decir: llegaron 91 organizaciones sociales de 162, 71 organizaciones sociales no llegaron, organizaciones políticas llegaron 36, faltaron 19 de llegar, ONG’s, grupos y colectivos, llegaron 129, faltaron 324, de organizaciones indígenas llegaron 26, faltaron 29, de individuos llegaron 196, faltaron 1428. De ninguna forma somos mayoría y nosotros tenemos que construir algo que cualquiera de estos compañeros que no pudo venir por cualquier situación, sepa que su lugar se le va a apartar, como cuando pasa algo. En total los que estuvimos reunidos contando observadores nacionales e internacionales y sin contar a la prensa fuimos 2069, los que estuvimos reunidos en estos días. Entonces les dejo ese mensaje a las organizaciones políticas, sociales, sobre los problemas del Seguro Social, de energía eléctrica y energético en general, sobre la Siderúrgica Lázaro Cárdenas.
Compañeras y compañeros, la Otra Campaña ya no es nuestra. Quiero decir, ya no es sólo nuestra por lo que hemos escuchado en esta reunión, lo que escuchamos en las reuniones preparatorias y lo que hemos investigado por varios lados. Queremos que sepan que como Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional es un honor para nosotros tenerlos a partir de ahora como compañeros y compañeras. Ya al decir esto les decimos que corresponderemos con compañerismo, con honestidad y sobre todo con lealtad hacia todos ustedes, la lealtad que hemos tenido, el compañerismo y la honestidad con nuestras comunidades ahora también los tendremos con ustedes. Después de haberlos oído y visto trabajar pensamos que tenemos mucha suerte de haberlos encontrado. Son ustedes hombres, mujeres otros, niños y ancianos. Algo de lo mejor de este país. Qué bueno que los encontramos. Ojalá sigamos mucho tiempo juntos adelante.
Queremos agradecer, para terminar, primeramente a la comunidad zapatista de La Garrucha, que nos recibió, a las autoridades autónomas de la Junta de Buen Gobierno del Caracol, a las autoridades de los Municipios Autónomos Rebeldes Zapatistas Flores Magón, San Manuel, Francisco Villa y Francisco Gómez, a las bases de apoyo de la zona selva tzeltal que trabajaron para construir todo esto, a los compañeros milicianos del Tercer Regimiento de Infantería Zapatista que nos estuvieron cuidando sólo con sus bastones y que tuvieron que soportar la impertinencia de algún imbécil fotógrafo que los llamó perros, por no dejarlo pasar, y que no respondieron a la provocación. Gracias, compañeros milicianos, por cuidarnos.
Gracias a mis compañeras comandantas y mis compañeros comandantes del Comité Clandestino Revolucionario Indígena.
Compañeros, compañeras, hombres, mujeres, otros, niños, ancianos, muchas gracias.
Es todo.
Marcos on the Plan for the zapatista departure
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Words of Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
on Friday, September 16, 2005
Compañeros and compañeras, in keeping with our brief tradition, I am informing you how the campaign of support closed as of this September 11, two months after we began the call: 55 political organizations of the left have joined, a month and a half ago there were 30; 103 indigenous organizations and Indian peoples of Mexico, and there were 32 a month and a half ago; 162 social organizations and movements, and there were 47 a month and a half ago; 453 non-governmental organizations, collectives and groups, and there were 210 a month and a half ago; 1624 individuals or persons representing their families, barrios or communities, and there were 690 a month and a half ago.
Compañeros and compañeras, there’s this thing which is fashionable now having to do with models of oratory: for example, there’s the: “Which is my best side?” Like Catherine Deneuve says, la gauche, the left, and then someone goes like this and starts talking as if he really were thinking about what he’s saying. He bursts onto the airwaves with the precise words, and there are large pauses, and not because he’s mentally deficient, but because he’s taking up more time on television: I’m pausing. And he uses this technique because no one is watching the morning conferences, so there aren’t any commercials they can put in between pause and pause. There’s also the method of power confronting the polemic: “Señor Subcomandante Marcos, what do you have to say to Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the PRD?” “What my little finger says (the middle finger).” There are other oratorical methods which are also fashionable: “My crown fell off, and my brassiere is there”…There is the genealogical model: “My papa taught me that those who love Mexico sell it off completely, not in pieces.” The other, the self-deprecating model: “Because I’m mediocre, that’s why I want to be president.”
Those are more or less the styles of oratory recommended by image consultants, and they are very expensive. I can give you a few sentences for free. There are other methods of oratory. That method that goes “All of you close your eyes,” and here the public is divided between the bad thinkers who snatch purses and the good thinkers who say: “I thought you were never going to ask me”…That says “We’re all going to take each others hands” and then someone next to you begins gasping and rolling his eyes, “What’s going on, compañero, compañera?” “That’s not my hand.” There’s the punster “Compañeros and compañeras, we’re in a hole, pay attention.” There are the techniques we learned in the preparation meetings, where someone starts by saying: “I’ll be brief,” and half an hour later, it can be understood why he’s going to be brief. There’s the method of didactic help “One, two, three, four…vote.”
There’s also the method that’s used above a lot, the one with of the admonishing finger: “Honorable Congress of the Union,” I won’t say who, because…There’s that one that’s also used a lot: he’s bent over because he carries the weight of responsibility for the world on his shoulders: “We have to be serious, we can’t be laughing (pounds on the table)…laugh, compañeros, and we have to laugh because what we’re going to do is very serious.”
What we are going to do, together, is to shake this country from below, raise it up, turn it on its head. So then all the deprivations will be on display, all the contempt, all the exploitation. We are going to shake it, and perhaps we’re going to discover that it’s not complete. That it shouldn’t be that way. Then we’re going to have to broaden it once again, without any other above or any other below than those which are marked by its mountains, its valleys, its rivers and its lakes, and we’re going to put it together once again, anew, between the Pacific and the Atlantic and between the Rio Grande and the Suchiate, and then it will indeed have to start working.
What we have to build should not be decided on platforms, by the charismatic, or by the virtues or defects of oratory. It should be discovered below, decided below, worked below. Platforms should serve only for gathering together one word and many listeners. Its place should be secondary, because it is, in itself, a choosing and an exclusion. We do not trust orators.
We have to prepare ourselves for a mobilization, but compañeros and compañeras also have to be preparing themselves for repression. When Lieutenant Colonel Moisés spoke to us, he explained how the replacements were planned and organized. We are recommending that the social, political, non-governmental organizations, all of them, clearly establish their replacements, in such a way that any repressive action doesn’t leave the Other Campaign without leaders, and it will be able to continue forward.
We have to learn to name our prisoners and to name our repressions. At one of the meetings there was talk of the case of repression in Guadalajara against the young altermundistas. The ones who were speaking couldn’t give the prisoners names. That’s incredible. We, as the Other Campaign, cannot do that. We have to be loyal to our compañeros and not leave anyone alone, nor forget about anyone. And I’m going to name here, at one of the extremes, two compañeros, a man and a woman, who are prisoners and who – if we believe their relatives who came to one of the meetings – joined the Sexta. They’re the compañero Jacobo Silva Nogales and the compañera Gloria Arena Asís, prisoners from the Revolutionary Army of Insurgent People.
I’m going to read a poem by Jacobo Silva Nogales, which is called “Secondary Effects,” which he wrote exactly two years ago in the Almoloya jail:
If I could, perhaps
up there by the entrance
of the entrance I would put a sign
and it would say: “Warning,
drive with care.”
At very high doses,
it can produce sadness,
anxiety, neurosis, insomnia,
depression, suicide attempts,
family disintegration, loneliness, bitterness,
addictions to medicines or drugs,
to insipid TV programs,
to any sport, entertainment,
to sleep,
eyes closed or open,
claustrophobia, perhaps narcissism,
onanism or change of sexual option.
A brief contact could produce
repressed anger, a knot in the throat, burning in the eyes.
Prolonged exposure,
even indirect,
could produce hearts that are hard,
even more so than rocks.
And in extreme cases,
hidden sadism behind an austere face,
very serious.
Those are the rules.
In sensitive hearts,
it can cause a desire for some change,
and some little drops of effort.
And on the last line,
the label would read:
instead of the eternal “Consult your physician,”
just a simple:
“Consult yourself
and do something, god damn it!”
August 10, 2003, Almoloya of Juárez
Jacobo Silva Nogales
The Other Campaign should, then, name our prisoners and our disappeared, but also our dead. When we do this work, we are not looking to the future, or we are, but let us do so in reverse: looking towards our past, towards our dead. If we only look forward, inhibitions appear, the realism that “you have to be mature, prudent,” “you have to think about what can happen,” and “let’s not do this,” “let’s not do the other thing,” “be careful.”
Let us together, then, turn the indebtedness we have accumulated into debts. Let us struggle for them, for our dead, and for us ourselves. Then the morning will exist, with its own strength, and it will be, beyond a doubt, something else.
If we look to the future while forgetting where we came from, inhibitions will appear, good sense, prudence, fear, surrender and the worst betrayal of all, the betrayal of ourselves.
In an attempt to pass on liberties to generations yet to come, we would be passing chains and burdens on to them. Let us allow them to decide their own destiny, because that, and nothing else, is what it means to be free.
In that way the world will be a little better, and others, later, will give it form, direction, path, speed and destiny. Because it cannot be forgotten: there will always be what’s missing is missing.
The EZLN is putting its life into the Other Campaign and the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, its survival as an organization, its moral authority, the modest advances it has made. In sum: everything we have. In exchange for that, we are asking: everything for everyone, nothing for us.
Let everyone tell yourselves how much you will put into this endeavor and what you’re willing to do. Then, in accord with that, establish your commitment and what you expect in exchange.
The unity we need is not the one to which we’re accustomed, unity as hegemony and homogeneity. Someone who wins and leads all the others and makes them equal. In that unity, someone wins and someone loses, but not the one who should lose, the one above.
Building unity with a thirst for hegemony and homogeneity is condemned to failure.
Before she left, Ramona gave me this piece of embroidery she made when she was in Mexico City, recovering. She gave it to someone from civil society, who returned it to us at one of the preparation meetings. I gave it to her, she returned it to me and told me: “This is what we want from the Other Campaign.” These colors, not one more, but not one less.
Perhaps what we have to do is to understand unity like this piece of Ramona’s embroidery, where every color and every form has its place. There is no homogeneity, nor hegemony.
Understanding, in the end, unity as agreement on a path.
And that unity means, above all else, loyalty to one’s compañeros. We, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, are offering you our loyalty as compañeros: the same as we have with our communities and with our troops.
It has to do with the No-one whom we are defending his place, his path and his destiny, and, above all, the multiplicity of feet and ways of walking in the Other Campaign.
Within everything, let us leave space for imagination. What is going to take place, compañeros and compañeras, will certainly be nothing like what we imagine. Hopefully it will better, and hopefully it will not carry the burdens which we could pass on to it. May it also be free from us.
A long time ago there was a poem which was made into a song and was converted into a hymn. The words were emasculated along with its meaning. I’m going to paraphrase it: no more dictators or supreme saviors, no Caesar, no bourgeoisie, no god; neither Andrés nor Marcos, No-one will be his own redemption, It was a part of the International, but modified now.
Compañeros and compañeras:
THE PLAN
I’m going to present the criteria by which the Sixth Committee of the EZLN will be going out:
Finances. There will not be any bank accounts. The Sixth Committee’s delegation will travel and be housed and fed solely through the support of those who have organized in states, regions and municipalities. What is received will go to and be collected by the delegation, or they will send them money so they can go to their location. The zapatista delegation will present an accounting of what it receives in each place.
Personal gifts will not be accepted, not even symbolic ones. Anything anyone wishes to send, should be sent to the communities.
Historians recount, if we are to believe them, that the first places in Mexico where critical anti-capitalist thought, and the effort to build a new society with new social relationships, arrived were the Chiapas coast and the Yucatán peninsula, among coffee and agave fiber plantation workers. That is where the Other Campaign is going to begin.
The zapatista delegation will begin where it began twelve years ago, one first of January, in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the first of January of 2006.
The week of January 2 to January 8: Chiapas
From January 9 to January 15: Yucatán and Quintana Roo
From January 16 to January 22: Campeche and Tabasco
From January 23 to January 29: Veracruz
From January 30 to February 5: Oaxaca
From February 6 to February 12: Puebla
From February 13 to February 19: Tlaxcala
From February 20 to February 26: Hidalgo
From February 27 to March 5: Querétaro
From March 6 to March 12: Guanajuato and Aguascalientes
From March 13 to March 19: Jalisco
From March 20 to March 26: Nayarit and Colima
From March 27 to April 2: Michoacán
From April 3 to April 9: Guerrero
From April 10 to April 16: Morelos
From April 17 to April 23: Mexico State and the Federal District
From April 24 to April 30: Federal District and Mexico State
From the first of May to May 7: San Luis Potosí
From May 8 to May 14: Zacatecas
From May 15 to May 21: Nuevo León and Tamaulipas
From May 22 to May 28: Coahuila and Durango
From May 29 to June 4: Chihuahua and the first meeting with the chicano compañeros on the other side
From June 5 to June 11: Sinaloa and Sonora
From June 12 to June 18: Northern Baja California, Southern Baja California and the second meeting with Mexicans from the other side.
From June 19 to June 25: We are proposing that on Saturday, June 24, on the night of San Juan, a Plenary-Report be held in the Federal District and Mexico State.
On June 25, we will return to Chiapas, and we will wait for whatever happens.
The first departure, as I have already explained, will begin in the month of January and end in the month of June. Delegate Zero, which we call ourselves, I, will travel the country for six months on a first trip in order to hold state meetings of the Other Campaign and see to the transportation, lodging and feeding and movement plans for the Sixth Committee. Bilateral meetings will also be held with compañeros who request them in each state.
The second departure will be in September of 2006 until March of 2007. Another delegation will appear, which will be the national delegation and the regional or state delegations. The Sixth Committee of the EZLN is going to have a group that moves throughout the country, and other groups which establish themselves in the states or in the regions in order to conduct the Other Campaign.
The national delegation will hold bilateral talks and meetings throughout the country, by states. As that moves forward, regional delegations will be established, and they will begin the visits to the struggles, resistances and rebellions.
In April of 2007, the national and regional delegations will be replaced by a new team.
And so on, until we finish, if we finish.
What we are proposing in this discussion, to everyone, is that there not be any bank accounts. No “progressive” businessperson is going to sneak in, like they say to others.
That all of us will be supported with the help of the people, with donations, with boteo, whatever, and always turning in a clear accounting.
Without any, without any help from institutions or institutional political parties.
Teams will be organized in the states for making a social evaluation regarding the situation in each state and for going about collecting the demands, and the struggles, as they discover them in the advancement of the Other Campaign, by states, regions and sectors.
We are proposing that there not be any special committees. The only thing that would do would be to duplicate duties and create bureaucracies.
Concerning human rights, the way we see it is that in the Other Campaign we have, supporting the Sexta, the best non-governmental organizations expert in human rights in Mexico. I don’t see any reason why we would have to create another special commission.
As for propaganda, we have groups and collectives, and I’ve been seeing some of their publications and the things they are doing, and they’re really very good, of very good quality and everything. So I’m also proposing that, as for all that, everyone do their own thing.
Regarding gender, the compañeras have been working in that for a long time. The same applies with differences, those who are already engaged in that. In other words, let the Indian peoples organize themselves, as well as homosexuals, lesbians, etcetera.
Compañeros and compañeras:
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
In the name of the women, men, children and old ones of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, I am formally, and in a shared manner, handing over the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona and the Other Campaign to those political organizations, indigenous organizations and Indian peoples, social organizations and movements, non-governmental organizations, groups and collectives, families and individuals, who have joined the Sexta and who have committed themselves to working in a campaign to go to all the corners of Mexico where we are invited, in order, through another way of doing politics, to listen and to learn about the struggles, resistances and rebellions; to support them and to link with them in the building of a national program of anti-capitalist struggle of the left.
The Sexta and the Other Campaign no longer belong just to the EZLN, but to everyone who embraces them.
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Comandanta Ramona,
Comandanta Susana,
Comandanta Esther,
Comandanta Miriam,
Comandanta Hortensia,
Comandanta Gabriela,
Comandante David,
Comandante Tacho,
Comandante Zebedeo,
Comandante Ramón.
By the insurgent troops and militia of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation,
Lieutenant Colonel Insurgente Moisés
By the Sixth Committee of the EZLN,
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
La Garrucha Caracol, Francisco Gómez Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipality, Chiapas, Mexico
September 16, 2005.
It is yours, compañeros.
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Words of Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
on Friday, September 16, 2005
Compañeros and compañeras, in keeping with our brief tradition, I am informing you how the campaign of support closed as of this September 11, two months after we began the call: 55 political organizations of the left have joined, a month and a half ago there were 30; 103 indigenous organizations and Indian peoples of Mexico, and there were 32 a month and a half ago; 162 social organizations and movements, and there were 47 a month and a half ago; 453 non-governmental organizations, collectives and groups, and there were 210 a month and a half ago; 1624 individuals or persons representing their families, barrios or communities, and there were 690 a month and a half ago.
Compañeros and compañeras, there’s this thing which is fashionable now having to do with models of oratory: for example, there’s the: “Which is my best side?” Like Catherine Deneuve says, la gauche, the left, and then someone goes like this and starts talking as if he really were thinking about what he’s saying. He bursts onto the airwaves with the precise words, and there are large pauses, and not because he’s mentally deficient, but because he’s taking up more time on television: I’m pausing. And he uses this technique because no one is watching the morning conferences, so there aren’t any commercials they can put in between pause and pause. There’s also the method of power confronting the polemic: “Señor Subcomandante Marcos, what do you have to say to Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the PRD?” “What my little finger says (the middle finger).” There are other oratorical methods which are also fashionable: “My crown fell off, and my brassiere is there”…There is the genealogical model: “My papa taught me that those who love Mexico sell it off completely, not in pieces.” The other, the self-deprecating model: “Because I’m mediocre, that’s why I want to be president.”
Those are more or less the styles of oratory recommended by image consultants, and they are very expensive. I can give you a few sentences for free. There are other methods of oratory. That method that goes “All of you close your eyes,” and here the public is divided between the bad thinkers who snatch purses and the good thinkers who say: “I thought you were never going to ask me”…That says “We’re all going to take each others hands” and then someone next to you begins gasping and rolling his eyes, “What’s going on, compañero, compañera?” “That’s not my hand.” There’s the punster “Compañeros and compañeras, we’re in a hole, pay attention.” There are the techniques we learned in the preparation meetings, where someone starts by saying: “I’ll be brief,” and half an hour later, it can be understood why he’s going to be brief. There’s the method of didactic help “One, two, three, four…vote.”
There’s also the method that’s used above a lot, the one with of the admonishing finger: “Honorable Congress of the Union,” I won’t say who, because…There’s that one that’s also used a lot: he’s bent over because he carries the weight of responsibility for the world on his shoulders: “We have to be serious, we can’t be laughing (pounds on the table)…laugh, compañeros, and we have to laugh because what we’re going to do is very serious.”
What we are going to do, together, is to shake this country from below, raise it up, turn it on its head. So then all the deprivations will be on display, all the contempt, all the exploitation. We are going to shake it, and perhaps we’re going to discover that it’s not complete. That it shouldn’t be that way. Then we’re going to have to broaden it once again, without any other above or any other below than those which are marked by its mountains, its valleys, its rivers and its lakes, and we’re going to put it together once again, anew, between the Pacific and the Atlantic and between the Rio Grande and the Suchiate, and then it will indeed have to start working.
What we have to build should not be decided on platforms, by the charismatic, or by the virtues or defects of oratory. It should be discovered below, decided below, worked below. Platforms should serve only for gathering together one word and many listeners. Its place should be secondary, because it is, in itself, a choosing and an exclusion. We do not trust orators.
We have to prepare ourselves for a mobilization, but compañeros and compañeras also have to be preparing themselves for repression. When Lieutenant Colonel Moisés spoke to us, he explained how the replacements were planned and organized. We are recommending that the social, political, non-governmental organizations, all of them, clearly establish their replacements, in such a way that any repressive action doesn’t leave the Other Campaign without leaders, and it will be able to continue forward.
We have to learn to name our prisoners and to name our repressions. At one of the meetings there was talk of the case of repression in Guadalajara against the young altermundistas. The ones who were speaking couldn’t give the prisoners names. That’s incredible. We, as the Other Campaign, cannot do that. We have to be loyal to our compañeros and not leave anyone alone, nor forget about anyone. And I’m going to name here, at one of the extremes, two compañeros, a man and a woman, who are prisoners and who – if we believe their relatives who came to one of the meetings – joined the Sexta. They’re the compañero Jacobo Silva Nogales and the compañera Gloria Arena Asís, prisoners from the Revolutionary Army of Insurgent People.
I’m going to read a poem by Jacobo Silva Nogales, which is called “Secondary Effects,” which he wrote exactly two years ago in the Almoloya jail:
If I could, perhaps
up there by the entrance
of the entrance I would put a sign
and it would say: “Warning,
drive with care.”
At very high doses,
it can produce sadness,
anxiety, neurosis, insomnia,
depression, suicide attempts,
family disintegration, loneliness, bitterness,
addictions to medicines or drugs,
to insipid TV programs,
to any sport, entertainment,
to sleep,
eyes closed or open,
claustrophobia, perhaps narcissism,
onanism or change of sexual option.
A brief contact could produce
repressed anger, a knot in the throat, burning in the eyes.
Prolonged exposure,
even indirect,
could produce hearts that are hard,
even more so than rocks.
And in extreme cases,
hidden sadism behind an austere face,
very serious.
Those are the rules.
In sensitive hearts,
it can cause a desire for some change,
and some little drops of effort.
And on the last line,
the label would read:
instead of the eternal “Consult your physician,”
just a simple:
“Consult yourself
and do something, god damn it!”
August 10, 2003, Almoloya of Juárez
Jacobo Silva Nogales
The Other Campaign should, then, name our prisoners and our disappeared, but also our dead. When we do this work, we are not looking to the future, or we are, but let us do so in reverse: looking towards our past, towards our dead. If we only look forward, inhibitions appear, the realism that “you have to be mature, prudent,” “you have to think about what can happen,” and “let’s not do this,” “let’s not do the other thing,” “be careful.”
Let us together, then, turn the indebtedness we have accumulated into debts. Let us struggle for them, for our dead, and for us ourselves. Then the morning will exist, with its own strength, and it will be, beyond a doubt, something else.
If we look to the future while forgetting where we came from, inhibitions will appear, good sense, prudence, fear, surrender and the worst betrayal of all, the betrayal of ourselves.
In an attempt to pass on liberties to generations yet to come, we would be passing chains and burdens on to them. Let us allow them to decide their own destiny, because that, and nothing else, is what it means to be free.
In that way the world will be a little better, and others, later, will give it form, direction, path, speed and destiny. Because it cannot be forgotten: there will always be what’s missing is missing.
The EZLN is putting its life into the Other Campaign and the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, its survival as an organization, its moral authority, the modest advances it has made. In sum: everything we have. In exchange for that, we are asking: everything for everyone, nothing for us.
Let everyone tell yourselves how much you will put into this endeavor and what you’re willing to do. Then, in accord with that, establish your commitment and what you expect in exchange.
The unity we need is not the one to which we’re accustomed, unity as hegemony and homogeneity. Someone who wins and leads all the others and makes them equal. In that unity, someone wins and someone loses, but not the one who should lose, the one above.
Building unity with a thirst for hegemony and homogeneity is condemned to failure.
Before she left, Ramona gave me this piece of embroidery she made when she was in Mexico City, recovering. She gave it to someone from civil society, who returned it to us at one of the preparation meetings. I gave it to her, she returned it to me and told me: “This is what we want from the Other Campaign.” These colors, not one more, but not one less.
Perhaps what we have to do is to understand unity like this piece of Ramona’s embroidery, where every color and every form has its place. There is no homogeneity, nor hegemony.
Understanding, in the end, unity as agreement on a path.
And that unity means, above all else, loyalty to one’s compañeros. We, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, are offering you our loyalty as compañeros: the same as we have with our communities and with our troops.
It has to do with the No-one whom we are defending his place, his path and his destiny, and, above all, the multiplicity of feet and ways of walking in the Other Campaign.
Within everything, let us leave space for imagination. What is going to take place, compañeros and compañeras, will certainly be nothing like what we imagine. Hopefully it will better, and hopefully it will not carry the burdens which we could pass on to it. May it also be free from us.
A long time ago there was a poem which was made into a song and was converted into a hymn. The words were emasculated along with its meaning. I’m going to paraphrase it: no more dictators or supreme saviors, no Caesar, no bourgeoisie, no god; neither Andrés nor Marcos, No-one will be his own redemption, It was a part of the International, but modified now.
Compañeros and compañeras:
THE PLAN
I’m going to present the criteria by which the Sixth Committee of the EZLN will be going out:
Finances. There will not be any bank accounts. The Sixth Committee’s delegation will travel and be housed and fed solely through the support of those who have organized in states, regions and municipalities. What is received will go to and be collected by the delegation, or they will send them money so they can go to their location. The zapatista delegation will present an accounting of what it receives in each place.
Personal gifts will not be accepted, not even symbolic ones. Anything anyone wishes to send, should be sent to the communities.
Historians recount, if we are to believe them, that the first places in Mexico where critical anti-capitalist thought, and the effort to build a new society with new social relationships, arrived were the Chiapas coast and the Yucatán peninsula, among coffee and agave fiber plantation workers. That is where the Other Campaign is going to begin.
The zapatista delegation will begin where it began twelve years ago, one first of January, in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the first of January of 2006.
The week of January 2 to January 8: Chiapas
From January 9 to January 15: Yucatán and Quintana Roo
From January 16 to January 22: Campeche and Tabasco
From January 23 to January 29: Veracruz
From January 30 to February 5: Oaxaca
From February 6 to February 12: Puebla
From February 13 to February 19: Tlaxcala
From February 20 to February 26: Hidalgo
From February 27 to March 5: Querétaro
From March 6 to March 12: Guanajuato and Aguascalientes
From March 13 to March 19: Jalisco
From March 20 to March 26: Nayarit and Colima
From March 27 to April 2: Michoacán
From April 3 to April 9: Guerrero
From April 10 to April 16: Morelos
From April 17 to April 23: Mexico State and the Federal District
From April 24 to April 30: Federal District and Mexico State
From the first of May to May 7: San Luis Potosí
From May 8 to May 14: Zacatecas
From May 15 to May 21: Nuevo León and Tamaulipas
From May 22 to May 28: Coahuila and Durango
From May 29 to June 4: Chihuahua and the first meeting with the chicano compañeros on the other side
From June 5 to June 11: Sinaloa and Sonora
From June 12 to June 18: Northern Baja California, Southern Baja California and the second meeting with Mexicans from the other side.
From June 19 to June 25: We are proposing that on Saturday, June 24, on the night of San Juan, a Plenary-Report be held in the Federal District and Mexico State.
On June 25, we will return to Chiapas, and we will wait for whatever happens.
The first departure, as I have already explained, will begin in the month of January and end in the month of June. Delegate Zero, which we call ourselves, I, will travel the country for six months on a first trip in order to hold state meetings of the Other Campaign and see to the transportation, lodging and feeding and movement plans for the Sixth Committee. Bilateral meetings will also be held with compañeros who request them in each state.
The second departure will be in September of 2006 until March of 2007. Another delegation will appear, which will be the national delegation and the regional or state delegations. The Sixth Committee of the EZLN is going to have a group that moves throughout the country, and other groups which establish themselves in the states or in the regions in order to conduct the Other Campaign.
The national delegation will hold bilateral talks and meetings throughout the country, by states. As that moves forward, regional delegations will be established, and they will begin the visits to the struggles, resistances and rebellions.
In April of 2007, the national and regional delegations will be replaced by a new team.
And so on, until we finish, if we finish.
What we are proposing in this discussion, to everyone, is that there not be any bank accounts. No “progressive” businessperson is going to sneak in, like they say to others.
That all of us will be supported with the help of the people, with donations, with boteo, whatever, and always turning in a clear accounting.
Without any, without any help from institutions or institutional political parties.
Teams will be organized in the states for making a social evaluation regarding the situation in each state and for going about collecting the demands, and the struggles, as they discover them in the advancement of the Other Campaign, by states, regions and sectors.
We are proposing that there not be any special committees. The only thing that would do would be to duplicate duties and create bureaucracies.
Concerning human rights, the way we see it is that in the Other Campaign we have, supporting the Sexta, the best non-governmental organizations expert in human rights in Mexico. I don’t see any reason why we would have to create another special commission.
As for propaganda, we have groups and collectives, and I’ve been seeing some of their publications and the things they are doing, and they’re really very good, of very good quality and everything. So I’m also proposing that, as for all that, everyone do their own thing.
Regarding gender, the compañeras have been working in that for a long time. The same applies with differences, those who are already engaged in that. In other words, let the Indian peoples organize themselves, as well as homosexuals, lesbians, etcetera.
Compañeros and compañeras:
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
In the name of the women, men, children and old ones of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, I am formally, and in a shared manner, handing over the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona and the Other Campaign to those political organizations, indigenous organizations and Indian peoples, social organizations and movements, non-governmental organizations, groups and collectives, families and individuals, who have joined the Sexta and who have committed themselves to working in a campaign to go to all the corners of Mexico where we are invited, in order, through another way of doing politics, to listen and to learn about the struggles, resistances and rebellions; to support them and to link with them in the building of a national program of anti-capitalist struggle of the left.
The Sexta and the Other Campaign no longer belong just to the EZLN, but to everyone who embraces them.
By the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Comandanta Ramona,
Comandanta Susana,
Comandanta Esther,
Comandanta Miriam,
Comandanta Hortensia,
Comandanta Gabriela,
Comandante David,
Comandante Tacho,
Comandante Zebedeo,
Comandante Ramón.
By the insurgent troops and militia of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation,
Lieutenant Colonel Insurgente Moisés
By the Sixth Committee of the EZLN,
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
La Garrucha Caracol, Francisco Gómez Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipality, Chiapas, Mexico
September 16, 2005.
It is yours, compañeros.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
The Parlour appears to be down
I don't know if it's a temporary issue, or not, but I haven't been able to access the Parlour for a bit. Since the Library is apparently functioning, we can always move here for the time being.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Further details on Plenary invitation
Originally published in Spanish by the FZLN
**********************
**********************
Translated by irlandesa
The Sixth Committee of the EZLN cordially invites you to:
The Sixth Committee of the EZLN cordially invites you to:
The First Plenary Session of
"The Other Campaign"
Place: La Garrucha
Arrival: September 15
Work: September 16, 17 and, perhaps, 18
"Thanks to the compas at Indymedia Chiapas, you can (I believe) follow what is happening at the plenary, almost simultaneously, by Internet. I don't understand it very well, but these compas are going to "upload" what's going on to <www.chiapas.indymedia.org>, and there the alternate media will act as "mirrors", and if you go to their pages, you can find out what's happening. In addition to Indymedia, they will be on the webpages of Revista Rebeldía and the FZLN"...
Live audio transmission on Internet
(information on Indymedia-Chiapas, Rebeldía and FZLN pages)...To come...
Marcos issues an invitation
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
September 14, 2005
To all those who signed on to the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona:
SUBJECT: Invitation
Compañeros and compañeras:
Greetings. We are verrrry happy. In fact, we haven’t been this happy since we survived the Salinas and Zedillo military offensives. It was no small thing to have withstood the six preparation meetings. That’s why we celebrated, doubling the rations of pozol and with a plentiful dosage of Hydrocarbons and carbohydrates in order to reinforce the “few extra kilos.” Even so, don’t doubt that we’ll be coming, like in this plenary, with the intention of authoritarian and “Stalinist” imposition (you’ve seen how the anti-Sexta cartoonists and intellectuals are letting fly at us), we’re going to propose that the time limit for participating in the discussion will be 5 minutes for everyone…except for the EZLN. Now, after my brief greeting, I’ll move on to the following:
First - I’m writing in order to formally invite you to the First Plenary Session of the “Other Campaign.” The authorities, compañeros and compañeras, of the MAREZ of the Selva Tzeltal region and of the Good Government Junta, have accepted our request that La Garrucha Caracol be the site of this meeting. La Garrucha is just where it is (about two hours from Ocosingo, heading towards San Quintín – the compas at Frayba have now made a sketch that’s so exact even the potholes are marked), and it’s easy to identify these days: according to what they’re telling me, compañeros and compañeras are already arriving from all over to participate in the plenary, so it’s the place where there’s a lot of commotion going on.
Second - Arrival is on September 15 (they inform me that on the night of the 15th the Good Government Junta will give the Grito) or, if you arrive later, on the afternoon of September 16. Inauguration will be on September 16 starting at 8 PM. Afterwards there will be a large artistic-cultural fiesta where everyone who wants to can participate with songs, music, poetry, theatrical pieces, performances or whatever. On the next day, September 17, after having something for breakfast, the work will begin, and it will continue throughout the day, with the necessary recesses for eating, satisfying primary biological needs, counseling, gossiping, promoting schisms, swearing, sabotaging the vanity of the slim ones by eating some fat-filled meat pies, criticizing what you see or don’t see, etcetera. If we don’t finish on the 17th, we’ll give you as much as we can of Sunday, the 18th.
Third - Thanks to the compas of Chiapas Indymedia, one may (I think) follow what’s going on in the plenary, almost simultaneously, by Internet. I don’t understand very well, but these compas are going to “upload” what’s going on to “Chiapas.indymedia.org”, and there the alternative media act like “mirrors”, and if you go to their pages you can find out what’s happening. In addition to Indymedia, they’ll be on the Revista Rebeldía and FZLN webpages.
Fourth - As they then say, the program of activities will be as follows:
Thursday, the 15th and Friday, the 16th of September
- Registration of delegates, observers, press, informers, spies, detractors, those jealous and envious of the meeting’s success, etcetera.
Friday, September 16
- 8 PM. Welcome, inauguration and opening words from the EZLN. Definition of the discussion points of the agenda, of their order, of the rules of participation, and such. Afterwards, artistic-cultural-dance celebration.
Saturday, September 17
- 9:30 AM - Beginning of the work of the Plenary according to the agenda and procedures agreed to.
- 12:00 - Recess for pozol.
- 12:30 - Resumption of work.
- 3:00 PM - Recess for eating.
- 5:00 PM - Resumption of work.
- 7:00 PM - Recess for complaining.
- 7:30 PM - Resumption of work
The rest of the 17th and whatever necessary of the 18th
- Indefinite timetable - Plenary work
Fifth - In its role as organizer, the EZLN proposes the following procedures:
1. - In its presentation on September 16, the Sixth Commission of the EZLN will present its rough plan for the departure of the zapatista delegation, and it will formally hand over the “Other Campaign” to all the supporters of the Sexta, including to the EZLN (not like at the CND in 1994, when we turned it over, but with the “Other Campaign” we are also going to be included, at no cost and tax free). Then, the full assembly will decide whether the zapatista delegation will continue presiding throughout the session or name another table (or whatever they call those who will be speaking, taking notes, aren’t able to sleep while others are speaking, nor go to the bathroom, nor daydream, nor make faces when they don’t agree with what someone is saying). After this, we’ll all be happy, because then we’ll know that next comes the music, dance, theatre, painting, poetry and the etceteras (which always go far beyond the most detailed list).
2. - The EZLN proposes that, unlike the way in which the preparation meetings were held (anyone could participate, presentations without time or subject limits), in this plenary session, during the debate on the various points, only those who have subscribed to the Sexta can participate (because there are some who are still deciding whether yes or no, who haven’t yet committed themselves to entering), the presentations can’t exceed 5 minutes per speaker, and they should refer strictly to the point of discussion. The EZLN proposes that those who go overtime and begin to digress be booed with a unanimity even greater than the boredom provoked by the PAN candidates or be urged in some way to not go too far.
3. - The EZLN proposes that the agenda points which are agreed be discussed one by one, that each discussion does not end in a vote (because all the supporters will not be attending, and we have to take everyone’s’ thoughts into consideration, even if they’re not at this meeting), but in a proposal reached by the assembly through consensus, and that this proposal be sent to all those who have entered in, and then it can be decided by everyone. Of course, here in the assembly those who so decided will have already been announced, but it will not be resolved until everyone has been consulted. We won’t go on to the next point, then, until there’s consensus on a proposal or the options are clearly defined for asking everyone their opinions on those options. Hmmm…it’s a bit confusing and messy, but I believe more or less understandable, and, in any event, we’ll explain it more at the meeting.
Sixth - After listening to everyone who participated in the preparation meetings and to those who expressed their opinions in a letter or to Revista Rebeldía (and selecting only what refers to the “Other Campaign”, because many presentations were about the National Program of Struggle and about the New Constitution), the Sixth Committee of the EZLN proposes the following points (in the order in which we shall specify below), in order to discuss and decide:
- Concerning the ratification, expansion or modification of the characteristics of the “Other Campaign” proposed in the Sixth Declaration: civil and pacific; national; anti-capitalist; of the left; with another way of doing politics; favoring listening; recognizing the limits of one’s own actions and the need to join with other struggles; towards a National Program of Struggle and a new constitution; learning about the struggles and resistances which are taking place throughout the country, being in solidarity with them, helping them and learning from them and with them; respecting the organizations, groups, collectives and individuals in their methods of work, decision-making, demands, strategies and tactics; seeking, always based on mutual respect, to link struggles and organizations; learning about and helping the struggles for humanity and against neoliberalism which are taking place throughout the world.
- Concerning who is being convened and who is not. Or who can enter in and who cannot.
- Concerning the organizational structure of the “Other Campaign.” How we are going to organize ourselves for the “Other Campaign,” each and everyone’s place and how we are all going to relate to each other.
- Concerning the special place of differences in the “Other Campaign: - Indigenas, Women, Other Loves and Affections (homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals, and everyone in their own way, and what is called “free preference or sexual orientation,” but, as we understand from what they have explained to us during the preparation meetings, the question isn’t just sexual), Young People, Boys and Girls and Others.
- Concerning the “Other Campaign’s” position vis-à-vis other organizational efforts (Promotora, Frentote, National Dialogues).
- Concerning the immediate tasks – information, propaganda and dissemination; artistic and cultural; against repression; solidarity and support; study; theoretical analysis and discussion; discussion and debate about the national situation, the struggles and resistances in our country, institutional politics, the election, struggles in the world.
- Concerning what has been sent us to make note of, group together or mark as points to be discussed and/or defined.
Compañeros and compañeras:
These are the proposals we are making. However, we want to make it clear that we are not forcing you to do it like this, but other things and changes can be proposed, and then we’ll all decide together.
Lastly, let me give you a few practical recommendations:
- We want to remind you that the consumption of alcohol and drugs is prohibited in the zapatista communities.
- Bring rubber boots – it’s raining a lot, and when we dance, it turns into a lot of mud.
- Also bring your plastic sheeting, rain cape, raincoat or something to protect you from the rain.
- If you naively think that some product is going to protect you from the mosquitoes and chaquiste, you’re completely wrong, but go ahead, try it.
- Those who so desire, feel free to embrace your difference.
- Don’t forget to bring something to eat. There will be small kiosks, but who knows whether there will be enough for everyone who comes. If not, they can throw more water into the beans (in case it’s just raining a bit too much).
- Bring a notebook and pen so you can take notes and then fully inform your organizations and collectives.
Vale. Salud and, hmmm…now it does look like everything is getting complicated.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
By the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, September of 2005
Discriminatory PS - Everyone who’s chubby will be received with a big smile and various expressions of sympathy. Those who are slim will be treated with distant coolness and looked upon with disapproval and gestures of clear displeasure.
PS Which Honors the Tradition of the Left of Becoming Divided As Soon As Possible - It is rumored that the creation of a faction inside the “Other Campaign” is brewing. It calls itself the “Panzer [panza: belly] Division of the Sexta,” its slogan is “Cellulitis, yes, anorexia, no,” and it meets at a local where there’s a sign at the entrance that warns: “Warning: Curves Ahead.” According to sources which cannot be revealed, the Sup is one of the promoters, and he’s planning on showing up at the plenary in one of those shirts called “belly-button”, thus confidently flaunting the belly which so scandalizes the right…and the (impossible) center.
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
September 14, 2005
To all those who signed on to the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona:
SUBJECT: Invitation
Compañeros and compañeras:
Greetings. We are verrrry happy. In fact, we haven’t been this happy since we survived the Salinas and Zedillo military offensives. It was no small thing to have withstood the six preparation meetings. That’s why we celebrated, doubling the rations of pozol and with a plentiful dosage of Hydrocarbons and carbohydrates in order to reinforce the “few extra kilos.” Even so, don’t doubt that we’ll be coming, like in this plenary, with the intention of authoritarian and “Stalinist” imposition (you’ve seen how the anti-Sexta cartoonists and intellectuals are letting fly at us), we’re going to propose that the time limit for participating in the discussion will be 5 minutes for everyone…except for the EZLN. Now, after my brief greeting, I’ll move on to the following:
First - I’m writing in order to formally invite you to the First Plenary Session of the “Other Campaign.” The authorities, compañeros and compañeras, of the MAREZ of the Selva Tzeltal region and of the Good Government Junta, have accepted our request that La Garrucha Caracol be the site of this meeting. La Garrucha is just where it is (about two hours from Ocosingo, heading towards San Quintín – the compas at Frayba have now made a sketch that’s so exact even the potholes are marked), and it’s easy to identify these days: according to what they’re telling me, compañeros and compañeras are already arriving from all over to participate in the plenary, so it’s the place where there’s a lot of commotion going on.
Second - Arrival is on September 15 (they inform me that on the night of the 15th the Good Government Junta will give the Grito) or, if you arrive later, on the afternoon of September 16. Inauguration will be on September 16 starting at 8 PM. Afterwards there will be a large artistic-cultural fiesta where everyone who wants to can participate with songs, music, poetry, theatrical pieces, performances or whatever. On the next day, September 17, after having something for breakfast, the work will begin, and it will continue throughout the day, with the necessary recesses for eating, satisfying primary biological needs, counseling, gossiping, promoting schisms, swearing, sabotaging the vanity of the slim ones by eating some fat-filled meat pies, criticizing what you see or don’t see, etcetera. If we don’t finish on the 17th, we’ll give you as much as we can of Sunday, the 18th.
Third - Thanks to the compas of Chiapas Indymedia, one may (I think) follow what’s going on in the plenary, almost simultaneously, by Internet. I don’t understand very well, but these compas are going to “upload” what’s going on to “Chiapas.indymedia.org”, and there the alternative media act like “mirrors”, and if you go to their pages you can find out what’s happening. In addition to Indymedia, they’ll be on the Revista Rebeldía and FZLN webpages.
Fourth - As they then say, the program of activities will be as follows:
Thursday, the 15th and Friday, the 16th of September
- Registration of delegates, observers, press, informers, spies, detractors, those jealous and envious of the meeting’s success, etcetera.
Friday, September 16
- 8 PM. Welcome, inauguration and opening words from the EZLN. Definition of the discussion points of the agenda, of their order, of the rules of participation, and such. Afterwards, artistic-cultural-dance celebration.
Saturday, September 17
- 9:30 AM - Beginning of the work of the Plenary according to the agenda and procedures agreed to.
- 12:00 - Recess for pozol.
- 12:30 - Resumption of work.
- 3:00 PM - Recess for eating.
- 5:00 PM - Resumption of work.
- 7:00 PM - Recess for complaining.
- 7:30 PM - Resumption of work
The rest of the 17th and whatever necessary of the 18th
- Indefinite timetable - Plenary work
Fifth - In its role as organizer, the EZLN proposes the following procedures:
1. - In its presentation on September 16, the Sixth Commission of the EZLN will present its rough plan for the departure of the zapatista delegation, and it will formally hand over the “Other Campaign” to all the supporters of the Sexta, including to the EZLN (not like at the CND in 1994, when we turned it over, but with the “Other Campaign” we are also going to be included, at no cost and tax free). Then, the full assembly will decide whether the zapatista delegation will continue presiding throughout the session or name another table (or whatever they call those who will be speaking, taking notes, aren’t able to sleep while others are speaking, nor go to the bathroom, nor daydream, nor make faces when they don’t agree with what someone is saying). After this, we’ll all be happy, because then we’ll know that next comes the music, dance, theatre, painting, poetry and the etceteras (which always go far beyond the most detailed list).
2. - The EZLN proposes that, unlike the way in which the preparation meetings were held (anyone could participate, presentations without time or subject limits), in this plenary session, during the debate on the various points, only those who have subscribed to the Sexta can participate (because there are some who are still deciding whether yes or no, who haven’t yet committed themselves to entering), the presentations can’t exceed 5 minutes per speaker, and they should refer strictly to the point of discussion. The EZLN proposes that those who go overtime and begin to digress be booed with a unanimity even greater than the boredom provoked by the PAN candidates or be urged in some way to not go too far.
3. - The EZLN proposes that the agenda points which are agreed be discussed one by one, that each discussion does not end in a vote (because all the supporters will not be attending, and we have to take everyone’s’ thoughts into consideration, even if they’re not at this meeting), but in a proposal reached by the assembly through consensus, and that this proposal be sent to all those who have entered in, and then it can be decided by everyone. Of course, here in the assembly those who so decided will have already been announced, but it will not be resolved until everyone has been consulted. We won’t go on to the next point, then, until there’s consensus on a proposal or the options are clearly defined for asking everyone their opinions on those options. Hmmm…it’s a bit confusing and messy, but I believe more or less understandable, and, in any event, we’ll explain it more at the meeting.
Sixth - After listening to everyone who participated in the preparation meetings and to those who expressed their opinions in a letter or to Revista Rebeldía (and selecting only what refers to the “Other Campaign”, because many presentations were about the National Program of Struggle and about the New Constitution), the Sixth Committee of the EZLN proposes the following points (in the order in which we shall specify below), in order to discuss and decide:
- Concerning the ratification, expansion or modification of the characteristics of the “Other Campaign” proposed in the Sixth Declaration: civil and pacific; national; anti-capitalist; of the left; with another way of doing politics; favoring listening; recognizing the limits of one’s own actions and the need to join with other struggles; towards a National Program of Struggle and a new constitution; learning about the struggles and resistances which are taking place throughout the country, being in solidarity with them, helping them and learning from them and with them; respecting the organizations, groups, collectives and individuals in their methods of work, decision-making, demands, strategies and tactics; seeking, always based on mutual respect, to link struggles and organizations; learning about and helping the struggles for humanity and against neoliberalism which are taking place throughout the world.
- Concerning who is being convened and who is not. Or who can enter in and who cannot.
- Concerning the organizational structure of the “Other Campaign.” How we are going to organize ourselves for the “Other Campaign,” each and everyone’s place and how we are all going to relate to each other.
- Concerning the special place of differences in the “Other Campaign: - Indigenas, Women, Other Loves and Affections (homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals, and everyone in their own way, and what is called “free preference or sexual orientation,” but, as we understand from what they have explained to us during the preparation meetings, the question isn’t just sexual), Young People, Boys and Girls and Others.
- Concerning the “Other Campaign’s” position vis-à-vis other organizational efforts (Promotora, Frentote, National Dialogues).
- Concerning the immediate tasks – information, propaganda and dissemination; artistic and cultural; against repression; solidarity and support; study; theoretical analysis and discussion; discussion and debate about the national situation, the struggles and resistances in our country, institutional politics, the election, struggles in the world.
- Concerning what has been sent us to make note of, group together or mark as points to be discussed and/or defined.
Compañeros and compañeras:
These are the proposals we are making. However, we want to make it clear that we are not forcing you to do it like this, but other things and changes can be proposed, and then we’ll all decide together.
Lastly, let me give you a few practical recommendations:
- We want to remind you that the consumption of alcohol and drugs is prohibited in the zapatista communities.
- Bring rubber boots – it’s raining a lot, and when we dance, it turns into a lot of mud.
- Also bring your plastic sheeting, rain cape, raincoat or something to protect you from the rain.
- If you naively think that some product is going to protect you from the mosquitoes and chaquiste, you’re completely wrong, but go ahead, try it.
- Those who so desire, feel free to embrace your difference.
- Don’t forget to bring something to eat. There will be small kiosks, but who knows whether there will be enough for everyone who comes. If not, they can throw more water into the beans (in case it’s just raining a bit too much).
- Bring a notebook and pen so you can take notes and then fully inform your organizations and collectives.
Vale. Salud and, hmmm…now it does look like everything is getting complicated.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
By the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, September of 2005
Discriminatory PS - Everyone who’s chubby will be received with a big smile and various expressions of sympathy. Those who are slim will be treated with distant coolness and looked upon with disapproval and gestures of clear displeasure.
PS Which Honors the Tradition of the Left of Becoming Divided As Soon As Possible - It is rumored that the creation of a faction inside the “Other Campaign” is brewing. It calls itself the “Panzer [panza: belly] Division of the Sexta,” its slogan is “Cellulitis, yes, anorexia, no,” and it meets at a local where there’s a sign at the entrance that warns: “Warning: Curves Ahead.” According to sources which cannot be revealed, the Sup is one of the promoters, and he’s planning on showing up at the plenary in one of those shirts called “belly-button”, thus confidently flaunting the belly which so scandalizes the right…and the (impossible) center.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Marcos on words and ways
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Opening Remarks for the September 10 Preparation Meeting
Welcome compañeros, welcome compañeras, welcome all others:
First of all, we would like to thank the compañeros and compañeras of the village of “Javier Hernandez” which is receiving us, and we would like to congratulate them on one more anniversary of the recovery of these lands, which were previously in the hands of the finqueros. And, along with them, we also congratulate all the compañeros and compañeras who are now celebrating the same thing in the new villages which were born on the ruins of the haciendas.
For those who don’t yet know, I’ll explain the format of this meeting. First, we’ll speak some words, then those who want to talk make a note of it, here at the Rebeldía table, and one by one you’ll take your turn and we’re all going to listen. There is no limit as to time or subject, but we all hope that the subject will be the Sixth Declaration and the “Other Campaign.” The compañeros and compañeras of Rebeldía, in addition to us, will be taking notes of your presentations in order to make a narrative that will be added to the ones from the previous meetings and which can be seen by those who have supported the Sexta and who have joined the “Other Campaign,” whether or not they’ve been able to attend one of the meetings.
I’m informing you that, as of September 5, we have:
51 political organizations
95 indigenous organizations
145 social organizations
395 non-governmental organizations, collectives and groups
1371 persons nationally
314 persons internationally
Compañeros and compañeras:
The Sexta and the “Other Campaign” present, for us, various challenges, discussions and definitions. Some have already been showing up throughout these now 6 preparation meetings and the sporadic debate which has taken place.
There is, for example, the debate about what it means to be of the left and what the work of the left means. There is also the debate about whether the grouping together of the left comes before, after or during the grouping together of a broader front. There is the debate about whether the elections should be confronted with a critical spirit or, on the contrary, to the drumbeat of the media and their polls. There is the debate about whether an organization of organizations or a movement should be built, a vertical and centralized structure or a horizontal network. There is the debate about concepts and slogans. There is the debate about times and places.
Now we would like to point out the challenge of words and ways. Because we have said that the “Other Campaign” proposes to listen and to build a space in order to listen. The Sexta assumes that the building of this listening is one stage which will be followed by others. But this first stage is also very unique, not just because it’s so against the grain, but also because it starts from a commonality and moves towards something different in order to build a new, still undefined, collective identity, a “something else.”
In order to understand what’s going on up above, you have to look at it like one of those television programs selling products, where some information is presented about the advantages of the product being advertised, its price and the sales offer to those who are being pressured to purchase it. Up above they talk and they promise, and that means that there are those who listen to the promises, who believe and hope and despair that what is promised will be fulfilled. The effect these promises seek to produce is to first transform beliefs into votes, and then into passive waiting. They are seasonal offers for a clientele who first must convince themselves that their only option is to buy one product or the other, then that their only participation is in choosing who will take their place in making the decisions which will affect them, and, lastly, that they should organize their emotional states into two time periods: three years for being disillusioned and three years for looking for a new illusion.
In addition, they shouldn’t question the fact that, as clients, they pay for promoting the product at a scandalously inflated price, especially if one watches the “debate” between the PAN “candidates” or the farce of the PRI’s internal democracy, or the hysterical PRD clamor which shouts “thief, thief” while they maintain their ties. And they all shout warnings about the right, the unmentionable, populism. With so much shouting perhaps some ingenuous persons, who do exist, become confused and choose the least worst from the ads.
The client, the citizen, pays for a pretense. Up above they pretend there are different programs, they pretend there is competence, they pretend there is intelligence and knowledge. They pretend there will be changes, they pretend they will do something else other than pretend.
Television rewards the lucrative profits they receive, and they celebrate the histrionics of the political class. The ridiculous ones of above put on their finest clothes, and Carlos Salinas de Gortari files down the runway, as do Roberto Madrazo, Vicente Fox, someone from PAN (he should have a name, but it doesn’t seem to matter to anyone), the great moneyed ones with last names from the social pages and the rising stock market. The view of the now exhausted progressive intellectuals edits and erases another image and another name: Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Paying critical attention to his presence in the most perfect portrait of the “modern” Mexican political class would obviously be playing into the right. And when they recount the presence of salinistas embedded in the PRI and the PAN, they fail to point out their delegates in the PRD. Why? Perhaps by remaining silent about their existence and leadership roles they will simply cease to be and to act in that party which presents itself and holds its anti-salinismo as its only difference, given that that there are no differences in programs and principles? No. Let the polls speak and analysis and debate be silent.
If anything sums up the campaign of above it is the profound contempt they have for the people, contempt for their intelligence, but also for their dignity.
Above is the spectacle, and there is no longer any room for anything but spectators who are asked to not even imagine that something else is necessary and possible. Laziness as media offer: don’t do, I’ll do for you; don’t speak, I’ll speak for you; don’t decide, I’ll decide for you; don’t think, I’ll act as if I’m thinking for you.
The “we” that is growing more and more, below and to the left, wants something else, the “Other Campaign.”
Below, with the “Other Campaign,” we are trying to listen and to organize. Nothing less, but nothing more. Nothing more than listening and the opportunity to work, together, in doing what we decide, together, to do. No redemption is promised other than that of work and struggle, no compensation other than the satisfaction of having done one’s duty. Positions are not being offered here, nor are budgets, but instead work and sacrifices. Neither influence, recommendations nor servility are asked for here, instead commitment, intelligence and imagination. Profits are not gained here, just chingas. Buying is not demanded here, just thinking. Here the calendar will be fashioned by looking, walking, listening, organizing, below and to the left.
And the words and ways are below and to the left.
And there are the words that mean different things according to who speaks them, to where they are spoken, when they are spoken, to whom they are spoken and the way in which they are spoken.
There is, for example, the word “sorrow,” and it is not the same when it is spoken by a Mexican when he’s crossing the border or when he’s detained on the other side by the Border Patrol or by the Minutemen project. When an indigenous sees how he is tricked simultaneously into being dispossessed of both land and culture. Or when a worker or retired person or pensioner sees social security being dismantled by decrees from those who say they are concerned about the workers.
Or a young person from the city or countryside being persecuted because of his clothes;
Or a campesina woman sitting at a table which abounds in nothing but deprivation;
Or a resident of one of the belts of abject poverty which are growing in modern Mexican;
Or a worker learning for himself about precariousness in the workplace;
Or an unemployed person scouring the newspapers and offices without finding work;
Or a street being vendor being fleeced by the police, officials and “leaders”;
Or a lesbian, a homosexual or some other whose love is criminalized;
Or a democratic teacher being attacked by officials, corrupt leaders and the media;
Or an artist who refuses to produce garbage for the commercial circuit;
Or an activist in a political organization being repressed for sinful words like “democracy,” “liberty” and “justice”;
Or a mother, wife, daughter, parent of a disappeared person or political prisoner looking for answers and not finding them;
Or a fisherman confronting the harshness of nature, the coyotes and the large consortiums;
Or a woman who is persecuted, looked down upon and dispossessed for the sole crime of not being a man;
Or an activist in an NGO who risks life and reputation in his work;
Or a musician being marginalized for the lyrics in his songs;
Or a religious person who chose to walk below and to the left;
Or an indigenous person who is exploited threefold: as a poor person, as a woman and as an indigenous;
Or a man, a woman, a boy, a girl, in any of the many corners of the left of the Mexico of below who says: “sorrow.”
It is not the same, but it is equal. By saying “sorrow” they are speaking of different sorrows, but that sorrow finds the bridge that unites them in a system that produces that sorrow and produces those who suffer from it: the capitalist system.
The Sixth Declaration has chosen. It did not choose to hear with resignation and surrender in this life in order to receive compensation in the other life, which is what the right offers. Nor did it choose to hear with the impossible neutrality of a little here, another bit there, neither one thing or the other, which is being hawked by the center.
It chose to listen with the reproach and indignation of the left. It chose to listen to the sorrow, emphasizing the nature of exploitation, contempt and dispossession by what is responsible for that sorrow: the capitalist system.
The “Other Campaign” should listen to that difference in the word “sorrow” which is spoken below and to the left by those who rebel against that sorrow. And it should learn the way in which that “sorrow” is spoken.
But the “Other Campaign” should also build the bridge between that word and the different ones who give it name. Because those who are listened to in the “Other Campaign” will know that they name sorrow with others, and we will discover the equality of those differences in the rebellion and resistance which they provoke.
We shall discover that that sorrow is only eased through collective struggle, and it is only relieved through a new social relationship.
That bridge is the National Program of Struggle, of the left and anti-capitalist.
The “Other Campaign” proposes, then, to organize the listening, organize the bridge, organize the resistance, organize the rebellion, make it collective, and turn it into a movement of profound and radical transformation, with those of below, from below and for those of below.
The “Other Campaign” can be summed up in that self-evident sentence: “What’s missing is missing.”
And what is missing is another way of doing politics.
Welcome, then, to this attempt.
Thank you very much.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Opening Remarks for the September 10 Preparation Meeting
Welcome compañeros, welcome compañeras, welcome all others:
First of all, we would like to thank the compañeros and compañeras of the village of “Javier Hernandez” which is receiving us, and we would like to congratulate them on one more anniversary of the recovery of these lands, which were previously in the hands of the finqueros. And, along with them, we also congratulate all the compañeros and compañeras who are now celebrating the same thing in the new villages which were born on the ruins of the haciendas.
For those who don’t yet know, I’ll explain the format of this meeting. First, we’ll speak some words, then those who want to talk make a note of it, here at the Rebeldía table, and one by one you’ll take your turn and we’re all going to listen. There is no limit as to time or subject, but we all hope that the subject will be the Sixth Declaration and the “Other Campaign.” The compañeros and compañeras of Rebeldía, in addition to us, will be taking notes of your presentations in order to make a narrative that will be added to the ones from the previous meetings and which can be seen by those who have supported the Sexta and who have joined the “Other Campaign,” whether or not they’ve been able to attend one of the meetings.
I’m informing you that, as of September 5, we have:
51 political organizations
95 indigenous organizations
145 social organizations
395 non-governmental organizations, collectives and groups
1371 persons nationally
314 persons internationally
Compañeros and compañeras:
The Sexta and the “Other Campaign” present, for us, various challenges, discussions and definitions. Some have already been showing up throughout these now 6 preparation meetings and the sporadic debate which has taken place.
There is, for example, the debate about what it means to be of the left and what the work of the left means. There is also the debate about whether the grouping together of the left comes before, after or during the grouping together of a broader front. There is the debate about whether the elections should be confronted with a critical spirit or, on the contrary, to the drumbeat of the media and their polls. There is the debate about whether an organization of organizations or a movement should be built, a vertical and centralized structure or a horizontal network. There is the debate about concepts and slogans. There is the debate about times and places.
Now we would like to point out the challenge of words and ways. Because we have said that the “Other Campaign” proposes to listen and to build a space in order to listen. The Sexta assumes that the building of this listening is one stage which will be followed by others. But this first stage is also very unique, not just because it’s so against the grain, but also because it starts from a commonality and moves towards something different in order to build a new, still undefined, collective identity, a “something else.”
In order to understand what’s going on up above, you have to look at it like one of those television programs selling products, where some information is presented about the advantages of the product being advertised, its price and the sales offer to those who are being pressured to purchase it. Up above they talk and they promise, and that means that there are those who listen to the promises, who believe and hope and despair that what is promised will be fulfilled. The effect these promises seek to produce is to first transform beliefs into votes, and then into passive waiting. They are seasonal offers for a clientele who first must convince themselves that their only option is to buy one product or the other, then that their only participation is in choosing who will take their place in making the decisions which will affect them, and, lastly, that they should organize their emotional states into two time periods: three years for being disillusioned and three years for looking for a new illusion.
In addition, they shouldn’t question the fact that, as clients, they pay for promoting the product at a scandalously inflated price, especially if one watches the “debate” between the PAN “candidates” or the farce of the PRI’s internal democracy, or the hysterical PRD clamor which shouts “thief, thief” while they maintain their ties. And they all shout warnings about the right, the unmentionable, populism. With so much shouting perhaps some ingenuous persons, who do exist, become confused and choose the least worst from the ads.
The client, the citizen, pays for a pretense. Up above they pretend there are different programs, they pretend there is competence, they pretend there is intelligence and knowledge. They pretend there will be changes, they pretend they will do something else other than pretend.
Television rewards the lucrative profits they receive, and they celebrate the histrionics of the political class. The ridiculous ones of above put on their finest clothes, and Carlos Salinas de Gortari files down the runway, as do Roberto Madrazo, Vicente Fox, someone from PAN (he should have a name, but it doesn’t seem to matter to anyone), the great moneyed ones with last names from the social pages and the rising stock market. The view of the now exhausted progressive intellectuals edits and erases another image and another name: Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Paying critical attention to his presence in the most perfect portrait of the “modern” Mexican political class would obviously be playing into the right. And when they recount the presence of salinistas embedded in the PRI and the PAN, they fail to point out their delegates in the PRD. Why? Perhaps by remaining silent about their existence and leadership roles they will simply cease to be and to act in that party which presents itself and holds its anti-salinismo as its only difference, given that that there are no differences in programs and principles? No. Let the polls speak and analysis and debate be silent.
If anything sums up the campaign of above it is the profound contempt they have for the people, contempt for their intelligence, but also for their dignity.
Above is the spectacle, and there is no longer any room for anything but spectators who are asked to not even imagine that something else is necessary and possible. Laziness as media offer: don’t do, I’ll do for you; don’t speak, I’ll speak for you; don’t decide, I’ll decide for you; don’t think, I’ll act as if I’m thinking for you.
The “we” that is growing more and more, below and to the left, wants something else, the “Other Campaign.”
Below, with the “Other Campaign,” we are trying to listen and to organize. Nothing less, but nothing more. Nothing more than listening and the opportunity to work, together, in doing what we decide, together, to do. No redemption is promised other than that of work and struggle, no compensation other than the satisfaction of having done one’s duty. Positions are not being offered here, nor are budgets, but instead work and sacrifices. Neither influence, recommendations nor servility are asked for here, instead commitment, intelligence and imagination. Profits are not gained here, just chingas. Buying is not demanded here, just thinking. Here the calendar will be fashioned by looking, walking, listening, organizing, below and to the left.
And the words and ways are below and to the left.
And there are the words that mean different things according to who speaks them, to where they are spoken, when they are spoken, to whom they are spoken and the way in which they are spoken.
There is, for example, the word “sorrow,” and it is not the same when it is spoken by a Mexican when he’s crossing the border or when he’s detained on the other side by the Border Patrol or by the Minutemen project. When an indigenous sees how he is tricked simultaneously into being dispossessed of both land and culture. Or when a worker or retired person or pensioner sees social security being dismantled by decrees from those who say they are concerned about the workers.
Or a young person from the city or countryside being persecuted because of his clothes;
Or a campesina woman sitting at a table which abounds in nothing but deprivation;
Or a resident of one of the belts of abject poverty which are growing in modern Mexican;
Or a worker learning for himself about precariousness in the workplace;
Or an unemployed person scouring the newspapers and offices without finding work;
Or a street being vendor being fleeced by the police, officials and “leaders”;
Or a lesbian, a homosexual or some other whose love is criminalized;
Or a democratic teacher being attacked by officials, corrupt leaders and the media;
Or an artist who refuses to produce garbage for the commercial circuit;
Or an activist in a political organization being repressed for sinful words like “democracy,” “liberty” and “justice”;
Or a mother, wife, daughter, parent of a disappeared person or political prisoner looking for answers and not finding them;
Or a fisherman confronting the harshness of nature, the coyotes and the large consortiums;
Or a woman who is persecuted, looked down upon and dispossessed for the sole crime of not being a man;
Or an activist in an NGO who risks life and reputation in his work;
Or a musician being marginalized for the lyrics in his songs;
Or a religious person who chose to walk below and to the left;
Or an indigenous person who is exploited threefold: as a poor person, as a woman and as an indigenous;
Or a man, a woman, a boy, a girl, in any of the many corners of the left of the Mexico of below who says: “sorrow.”
It is not the same, but it is equal. By saying “sorrow” they are speaking of different sorrows, but that sorrow finds the bridge that unites them in a system that produces that sorrow and produces those who suffer from it: the capitalist system.
The Sixth Declaration has chosen. It did not choose to hear with resignation and surrender in this life in order to receive compensation in the other life, which is what the right offers. Nor did it choose to hear with the impossible neutrality of a little here, another bit there, neither one thing or the other, which is being hawked by the center.
It chose to listen with the reproach and indignation of the left. It chose to listen to the sorrow, emphasizing the nature of exploitation, contempt and dispossession by what is responsible for that sorrow: the capitalist system.
The “Other Campaign” should listen to that difference in the word “sorrow” which is spoken below and to the left by those who rebel against that sorrow. And it should learn the way in which that “sorrow” is spoken.
But the “Other Campaign” should also build the bridge between that word and the different ones who give it name. Because those who are listened to in the “Other Campaign” will know that they name sorrow with others, and we will discover the equality of those differences in the rebellion and resistance which they provoke.
We shall discover that that sorrow is only eased through collective struggle, and it is only relieved through a new social relationship.
That bridge is the National Program of Struggle, of the left and anti-capitalist.
The “Other Campaign” proposes, then, to organize the listening, organize the bridge, organize the resistance, organize the rebellion, make it collective, and turn it into a movement of profound and radical transformation, with those of below, from below and for those of below.
The “Other Campaign” can be summed up in that self-evident sentence: “What’s missing is missing.”
And what is missing is another way of doing politics.
Welcome, then, to this attempt.
Thank you very much.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Marcos on clarity
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
September 6-7, 2005
To all those who are supporting the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona:
To those attending the Meeting of Persons representing themselves, families, streets, barrios, neighborhoods or communities:
Compañeros and compañeras:
As you know, owing to the fact that a good part of those attending the last preparation meeting had to depart before the presentations of all those attending were completed, we were not able to speak our words of farewell. That is why I’m sending along here some of the comments we had prepared for the end of the meeting.
Although those attending did not represent even half of those who have subscribed to the Sexta and to the “Other Campaign” as individuals and families, it could be said that their positions were representative of these compañeros and compañeras.
One part is those people who, as individuals or in groups and collectives which have disappeared, have participated directly in zapatista initiatives, from the peace circles and caravans to consultas and marches, the CND, the forums, international encuentros and projects in the indigenous communities. These compañeras and compañeros know that they have always had a place in the zapatista proposals, and now they are drawing near with the certainty of finding it again. So it shall be.
Another part are those persons, mostly young people, who have been recently approaching neozapatismo with a bit of skepticism and a lot of mistrust, since their contacts with political organizations have not been happy ones. They have approached because their relatives or friends have talked to them about the movement, and they are looking for a response to a small but crucial question: “Is there a place for me here?” To these persons we answer that we shall make every effort to see that they can answer that question affirmatively.
Our experience has shown that those persons who are engaged at the individual and family level are generally honest, noble and conscientious. Those who are active in political organizations, those who are activists in social movements and those who do professional work in Non-Governmental Organizations, Groups and Collectives have nothing on them as regards dedication and seriousness. If they work on an individual basis or just group together for specific tasks, it is because they work better that way or because they feel inhibited or pressured inside organizations. As we said in our initial words, there are persons who are collectives unto themselves. Those who are now supporting the Sexta and the “Other Campaign” as individuals or families are collectives in more than one sense of the word. As individuals or as individual collectives, you are welcome.
Aside from this, something which happened at this meeting, and which has happened before, although to a lesser extent, at other meetings, was the presence of activists from political parties, especially from the PRD. Of course they didn’t say so when they arrived, instead they waited and, depending on whether or not they thought the atmosphere was right, they either said so or remained silent. I would like to say the following concerning this:
The Sexta is quite clear in this regard. Those who are active in registered political parties, that is, those parties which are organized in a partisan manner for the election process, are NOT convened. We are not inviting them. We have no interest whatsoever in working with them, and, as zapatistas of the EZLN, we shall not do so.
We have stated that we will respect the decisions made by political, indigenous, social, non-governmental, cultural, artistic, individual and other organizations regarding the upcoming election. And we shall do so. But it is one thing for an autonomous and independent organization to decide to support or not support some party or candidate, but it is something quite different for one of those electoral parties to participate directly in the Sexta and in the “Other Campaign.” Let me remind you what the Sexta says, word for word: “We are inviting political and social organizations of the left which are not registered and those persons who consider themselves to be of the left who do not belong to any registered political parties to meet with us at the time, place and means we shall propose…”
In the case of the PRD, I don’t know if they were infected with the virus of perfidy when they joined or what happened to them, but some of their members have taken advantage of the zapatistas’ good faith and the rebel communities’ hospitality. Despite the fact that we clearly did not invite them, nor did we want to invite them, they came anyway. And they say they are from the PRD (and that they’re mid or low level officials or they’re on their way to being so) once they’re already talking. And no way are we going to run them out then, especially if it’s raining and it’s nighttime. And, of course, they’re carrying their photograph and their autographed book, and maybe they think they’re with their friends and mates, but you and we know it’s a lie, that they got them through a trick.
There you have it, but we told them quite clearly we felt they were mocking us, and they were just trying to use these dirty tricks to weasel out of the criticisms we’ve made of them (and which they haven’t answered) about their attacks and betrayals. And they’re still cynical enough to come and tell us not to be like that, that they’re inviting us to go to their neighborhoods and their apartment buildings and their houses. They should take as an example that compañero who, while he could hold any position in the PRD leadership, resigned from it, supported the Sexta and joined in with the “Other Campaign.”
Of course we told them we didn’t want them to come, that we don’t want to work with anything having to do with the PRD, the PRI, the PAN or with any of the “institutional” parties. Right now the “Other Campaign” is being organized using the criteria established by the Sixth Declaration. Something might perhaps change when everyone who has joined decides, but we’re stating clearly that we are going to vote against the entry of any activists, or whatever they’re called, of any registered political parties.
It doesn’t matter to us if they call us “sectarian,” if they devote “eight columns” to us or whatever articles and cartoons they want. We prefer looking sectarian to being crooks and scoundrels. Certainly they might deceive us, like this time when they snuck in like freeloaders. Or they might believe they deceive us when, taking advantage of the synonyms of social organizations, they present documents which they edit when reading them so they don’t say they’re a corporate structure of the PRD. Or they sneak into bilateral meetings inside political organizations with which we are interested in making alliances.
Whatever, we’re not going to go where they invite us. It doesn’t matter that they have better cars, or services, or offices, or auditoriums, or vehicles, or that they control many people or have a lot of important positions. We’re not going to deal with you. We’re going to deal with those who are, for starters, honest with us, and not some crooks who pass themselves off as something they aren’t so they can be on one side and the other, as if that were possible.
Regardless of the lashings they mete out above, you know that your vehicle is going on another side and by another path. To use the image of one of their candidate’s projects, their bullet train goes above, on another side and will reach its destination quickly. We are going to travel below, with another direction and we’re going to be a while. So why so many stories. Aren’t they really high in the polls and in election preferences? Then why do they want us if they don’t need us? Doesn’t it make them even a tiny bit ashamed, after everything they’ve done to us, to come here, to accept our hospitality and to eat with us and to speak without making one single mention of what their party has done, hell, without even saying they’re “sorry.” That’s why I’m telling them: don’t come, you’re not welcome, and we won’t go with you even if you invite us. Send all the letters you want, but you’re not going to convince us, even less with that “chicanery.” On the other hand, I read that you’re making your front “of the left” up there, and so you already have someplace to go. And so, enough of this subject.
To the rest of those persons who have joined on their own, as families, streets, barrios, communities or neighborhoods, I’m telling you that you can participate as such in the “Other Campaign,” or group together as it suits you according to your own fashion, time and place. And so there are, for example, scientists, artists, creators or researchers who can build a common place for meetings, or unemployed young people, or women, or teachers or students in a school (there’s a group of professors from a secondary school who got together in order to discuss and join the Sexta), and so on, as everyone decides. You will have your place.
And that is all. Travel with care. We’ll see you on September 16, or later on if you can’t come.
In addition, I’ll take advantage of the moment to let you know the following:
- September 11, 2005 is the last day for joining the Sexta and the “Other Campaign” during this first stage. As we’ve already let you know before, we will be making the first joint statement with all those organizations, groups, collectives and persons who have joined up to that date. Afterwards, everyone who wants to can join, but then under the criteria, places and methods which we agree to with the first Subscribers.
- The next preparation meeting is with the Others, with those who couldn’t come to any of the previous meetings or who preferred to wait until the last one. Arrival is on Friday, September 9, the meeting is on Saturday, the 10th, and departure is Sunday, September 11. The location of the meeting is in the zapatista village of Javier Hernández, which is right next to Carmen Pataté and where the meeting with Indigenous Organizations was held. The village of Javier Hernández is about an hour and a half from Ocosingo, on the highway that goes to San Quintín. Frayba will certainly have maps for guiding anyone who needs it and for confusing anyone who requires it.
Barring any last minute changes or the unforeseen, the first Plenary Session of the “Other Campaign” will be held on September 16 and 17.
By the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, September of 2005
PS of September 7 for the Group of Women of San Cristóbal, the Mercedes Olivera Feminist Collective A.C. and El Feminario. Just as I was sending this letter, we read the article which appeared in La Jornada on September 7, 2005, signed by Rosa Rojas. In it she gives an account of the disagreement which they, freely and without censure, expressed publicly at the meeting of NGOs, Groups and Collectives on August 27 and 28. We have the following to say concerning this:
Our political-military structure committed, in effect, with you (and not only with you) a series of arbitrary and unjust acts in years past. This took place not only in the region where you work, but in practically all regions. That is why we are now publicly apologizing (to you and to all those whom we hurt), hoping that you will be noble enough to forgive us. We believe, however, that, as regards these kinds of errors (and others) that we have made throughout our history as an organization, it is not enough to apologize (nor are those sanctions enough which were pronounced at the time on the leaders responsible for these authoritarian acts). That is why we began, in 2001, a process of internal restructuring aimed at detaching the political-military apparatus, in a focused and irreversible manner, from the civil structures themselves in the indigenous communities. In this manner we recognized that the presence of our political-military commanders was not always beneficial for the development of resistance and that not a few times we tended to resolve questions with military criteria that might have been better resolved with political criteria. That is why (and for other reasons) the Caracoles and Good Government Juntas were created, and that is why the civil authority compañeros and compañeras are now making their decisions without depending on or consulting with any of the military commanders. All work in the communities, including the very laudable one of promoting women’s rights, is now done – an
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
September 6-7, 2005
To all those who are supporting the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona:
To those attending the Meeting of Persons representing themselves, families, streets, barrios, neighborhoods or communities:
Compañeros and compañeras:
As you know, owing to the fact that a good part of those attending the last preparation meeting had to depart before the presentations of all those attending were completed, we were not able to speak our words of farewell. That is why I’m sending along here some of the comments we had prepared for the end of the meeting.
Although those attending did not represent even half of those who have subscribed to the Sexta and to the “Other Campaign” as individuals and families, it could be said that their positions were representative of these compañeros and compañeras.
One part is those people who, as individuals or in groups and collectives which have disappeared, have participated directly in zapatista initiatives, from the peace circles and caravans to consultas and marches, the CND, the forums, international encuentros and projects in the indigenous communities. These compañeras and compañeros know that they have always had a place in the zapatista proposals, and now they are drawing near with the certainty of finding it again. So it shall be.
Another part are those persons, mostly young people, who have been recently approaching neozapatismo with a bit of skepticism and a lot of mistrust, since their contacts with political organizations have not been happy ones. They have approached because their relatives or friends have talked to them about the movement, and they are looking for a response to a small but crucial question: “Is there a place for me here?” To these persons we answer that we shall make every effort to see that they can answer that question affirmatively.
Our experience has shown that those persons who are engaged at the individual and family level are generally honest, noble and conscientious. Those who are active in political organizations, those who are activists in social movements and those who do professional work in Non-Governmental Organizations, Groups and Collectives have nothing on them as regards dedication and seriousness. If they work on an individual basis or just group together for specific tasks, it is because they work better that way or because they feel inhibited or pressured inside organizations. As we said in our initial words, there are persons who are collectives unto themselves. Those who are now supporting the Sexta and the “Other Campaign” as individuals or families are collectives in more than one sense of the word. As individuals or as individual collectives, you are welcome.
Aside from this, something which happened at this meeting, and which has happened before, although to a lesser extent, at other meetings, was the presence of activists from political parties, especially from the PRD. Of course they didn’t say so when they arrived, instead they waited and, depending on whether or not they thought the atmosphere was right, they either said so or remained silent. I would like to say the following concerning this:
The Sexta is quite clear in this regard. Those who are active in registered political parties, that is, those parties which are organized in a partisan manner for the election process, are NOT convened. We are not inviting them. We have no interest whatsoever in working with them, and, as zapatistas of the EZLN, we shall not do so.
We have stated that we will respect the decisions made by political, indigenous, social, non-governmental, cultural, artistic, individual and other organizations regarding the upcoming election. And we shall do so. But it is one thing for an autonomous and independent organization to decide to support or not support some party or candidate, but it is something quite different for one of those electoral parties to participate directly in the Sexta and in the “Other Campaign.” Let me remind you what the Sexta says, word for word: “We are inviting political and social organizations of the left which are not registered and those persons who consider themselves to be of the left who do not belong to any registered political parties to meet with us at the time, place and means we shall propose…”
In the case of the PRD, I don’t know if they were infected with the virus of perfidy when they joined or what happened to them, but some of their members have taken advantage of the zapatistas’ good faith and the rebel communities’ hospitality. Despite the fact that we clearly did not invite them, nor did we want to invite them, they came anyway. And they say they are from the PRD (and that they’re mid or low level officials or they’re on their way to being so) once they’re already talking. And no way are we going to run them out then, especially if it’s raining and it’s nighttime. And, of course, they’re carrying their photograph and their autographed book, and maybe they think they’re with their friends and mates, but you and we know it’s a lie, that they got them through a trick.
There you have it, but we told them quite clearly we felt they were mocking us, and they were just trying to use these dirty tricks to weasel out of the criticisms we’ve made of them (and which they haven’t answered) about their attacks and betrayals. And they’re still cynical enough to come and tell us not to be like that, that they’re inviting us to go to their neighborhoods and their apartment buildings and their houses. They should take as an example that compañero who, while he could hold any position in the PRD leadership, resigned from it, supported the Sexta and joined in with the “Other Campaign.”
Of course we told them we didn’t want them to come, that we don’t want to work with anything having to do with the PRD, the PRI, the PAN or with any of the “institutional” parties. Right now the “Other Campaign” is being organized using the criteria established by the Sixth Declaration. Something might perhaps change when everyone who has joined decides, but we’re stating clearly that we are going to vote against the entry of any activists, or whatever they’re called, of any registered political parties.
It doesn’t matter to us if they call us “sectarian,” if they devote “eight columns” to us or whatever articles and cartoons they want. We prefer looking sectarian to being crooks and scoundrels. Certainly they might deceive us, like this time when they snuck in like freeloaders. Or they might believe they deceive us when, taking advantage of the synonyms of social organizations, they present documents which they edit when reading them so they don’t say they’re a corporate structure of the PRD. Or they sneak into bilateral meetings inside political organizations with which we are interested in making alliances.
Whatever, we’re not going to go where they invite us. It doesn’t matter that they have better cars, or services, or offices, or auditoriums, or vehicles, or that they control many people or have a lot of important positions. We’re not going to deal with you. We’re going to deal with those who are, for starters, honest with us, and not some crooks who pass themselves off as something they aren’t so they can be on one side and the other, as if that were possible.
Regardless of the lashings they mete out above, you know that your vehicle is going on another side and by another path. To use the image of one of their candidate’s projects, their bullet train goes above, on another side and will reach its destination quickly. We are going to travel below, with another direction and we’re going to be a while. So why so many stories. Aren’t they really high in the polls and in election preferences? Then why do they want us if they don’t need us? Doesn’t it make them even a tiny bit ashamed, after everything they’ve done to us, to come here, to accept our hospitality and to eat with us and to speak without making one single mention of what their party has done, hell, without even saying they’re “sorry.” That’s why I’m telling them: don’t come, you’re not welcome, and we won’t go with you even if you invite us. Send all the letters you want, but you’re not going to convince us, even less with that “chicanery.” On the other hand, I read that you’re making your front “of the left” up there, and so you already have someplace to go. And so, enough of this subject.
To the rest of those persons who have joined on their own, as families, streets, barrios, communities or neighborhoods, I’m telling you that you can participate as such in the “Other Campaign,” or group together as it suits you according to your own fashion, time and place. And so there are, for example, scientists, artists, creators or researchers who can build a common place for meetings, or unemployed young people, or women, or teachers or students in a school (there’s a group of professors from a secondary school who got together in order to discuss and join the Sexta), and so on, as everyone decides. You will have your place.
And that is all. Travel with care. We’ll see you on September 16, or later on if you can’t come.
In addition, I’ll take advantage of the moment to let you know the following:
- September 11, 2005 is the last day for joining the Sexta and the “Other Campaign” during this first stage. As we’ve already let you know before, we will be making the first joint statement with all those organizations, groups, collectives and persons who have joined up to that date. Afterwards, everyone who wants to can join, but then under the criteria, places and methods which we agree to with the first Subscribers.
- The next preparation meeting is with the Others, with those who couldn’t come to any of the previous meetings or who preferred to wait until the last one. Arrival is on Friday, September 9, the meeting is on Saturday, the 10th, and departure is Sunday, September 11. The location of the meeting is in the zapatista village of Javier Hernández, which is right next to Carmen Pataté and where the meeting with Indigenous Organizations was held. The village of Javier Hernández is about an hour and a half from Ocosingo, on the highway that goes to San Quintín. Frayba will certainly have maps for guiding anyone who needs it and for confusing anyone who requires it.
Barring any last minute changes or the unforeseen, the first Plenary Session of the “Other Campaign” will be held on September 16 and 17.
By the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, September of 2005
PS of September 7 for the Group of Women of San Cristóbal, the Mercedes Olivera Feminist Collective A.C. and El Feminario. Just as I was sending this letter, we read the article which appeared in La Jornada on September 7, 2005, signed by Rosa Rojas. In it she gives an account of the disagreement which they, freely and without censure, expressed publicly at the meeting of NGOs, Groups and Collectives on August 27 and 28. We have the following to say concerning this:
Our political-military structure committed, in effect, with you (and not only with you) a series of arbitrary and unjust acts in years past. This took place not only in the region where you work, but in practically all regions. That is why we are now publicly apologizing (to you and to all those whom we hurt), hoping that you will be noble enough to forgive us. We believe, however, that, as regards these kinds of errors (and others) that we have made throughout our history as an organization, it is not enough to apologize (nor are those sanctions enough which were pronounced at the time on the leaders responsible for these authoritarian acts). That is why we began, in 2001, a process of internal restructuring aimed at detaching the political-military apparatus, in a focused and irreversible manner, from the civil structures themselves in the indigenous communities. In this manner we recognized that the presence of our political-military commanders was not always beneficial for the development of resistance and that not a few times we tended to resolve questions with military criteria that might have been better resolved with political criteria. That is why (and for other reasons) the Caracoles and Good Government Juntas were created, and that is why the civil authority compañeros and compañeras are now making their decisions without depending on or consulting with any of the military commanders. All work in the communities, including the very laudable one of promoting women’s rights, is now done – an