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Words of the General Command of the EZLN in the name of the Zapatista women, men, children and elders at the opening of the Gathering “The Zapatistas and ConSciences for Humanity”
Words of the General Command of the EZLN in the name of the Zapatista women, men, children and elders at the opening of the Gathering “The Zapatistas and ConSciences for Humanity”
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Good morning.
Compañeras, compañeros of Mexico and of the world:
Brothers and sisters of Mexico and of the world:
First and foremost, in the name of the compañeras and compañeros who are Bases of Support of the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, we thank all of the compañer@s of CIDECI who once again have provided us with these spaces so that we, Zapatista originary peoples and scientists, can gather here as a way to begin to look and walk toward what must be done in this world we live in, which capitalism is destroying.
We also thank the compañeros who have worked on registration and coordination for this event.
We also thank the compañer@s from the transport support team.
We thank you in advance, compañeras and compañeros of the various teams and collectives for the shitload of work that you have done to make this gathering happen. Many thanks.
For we as Zapatista men and women, today begins our long walk in search of others with whom we think share the great responsibility to defend and save the world we live in – with the art of artists, the science of scientists, and the originary peoples alongside those below from across the entire world.
A handful of some so-called “neoliberal capitalists” have decided to savagely destroy everything, caring nothing at all for this house that we live in.
This makes us Zapatistas think and ask ourselves:
Where are we poor people of the world going to live, because they, the rich, might just go and live on another planet?
What should we do now, as we see that they are destroying our house?
Or what happens if they take us to another planet to be their slaves?
After turning this over many times in our heads, we conclude that:
Below there are women and men who study science, who study scientifically, who do good science. But the wicked capitalists come along and use this science to do harm to the very people who discovered that science. What kind of harm?
They use science to make the rich richer.
The rich use it as they choose, for a destiny other than that for which it was created. They use it to kill and destroy.
Now it is getting worse for them up there, and that will be used even more harshly against us living beings and our mother earth.
That is how all of these bad things began and how they continue, bringing us to a very dire point today.
This is how things happened, and in the same way they use the artists who make art – capitalism uses everything to the detriment of society and for the good of capitalism. What was natural, nature and those who live within it, which is to say the originary peoples, will be destroyed along with mother nature.
Therefore, we believe, think, and imagine.
We can organize ourselves, work, struggle, and defend who we are – the foundation of this world – so that this world, the house in which we live, can’t be disappeared by the capitalists. Now is the time, brothers and sisters, compañer@s, compañeroas; no one is going to bring us salvation. It is up to us.
Begin to dream and you will see that we can only fight capitalism with good scientific science, the art of the artist, and the guardians of mother nature together with those below from across the world. This is our responsibility.
I don’t mean to say that we are the only ones who should struggle, not at all. But when we look around at how things are, we realize that all of the useful things that we have in our houses are a matter of science, in terms of where they came from, and all of the figures and figurines in our houses and rooms are the art of artists, and all of the materials for these things come from mother nature, where the originary peoples live.
It is as if we are the “seeds” of all of this.
Let’s put it even more clearly.
Who figured out how to make today’s most modern cellphone? It’s the same for thousands of other products – they are used to benefit the rich, and not for the use science intended, nor for the people.
Who figured out how to make the images that are held within cellphones which are now manipulated on any whim?
Where did the materials that cellphones are made of come from? The same question goes for thousands of other goods.
Capitalism has converted science into something used for harm: something to feed its massive accumulation of wealth; something to manipulate at its every whim. It takes no responsibility for the destruction it has wrought with these actions.
We know what will happen.
One more point of clarity.
We are the lifeblood of the rich; we are the flesh and bone that make their lives possible, and the rest of the organs (in this body) are made up of the consumers; meanwhile, they live to do us harm in this capitalist system.
The origin of the evil the capitalist system wreaks on us is revealed.
Our survival, and the other construction of a new world, is in our hands.
Today we are here not to tell each other what to do, but to understand what our function is to capitalism in this world, and to see if what capitalism has us doing is any good for this world that we live in, human and living beings.
And if we discover that it is entirely bad, that the use capitalism makes of our sciences is harmful, then we have to take responsibility and decide what to do.
Before I finish compañeras and compañeros, sisters and brothers, today December 26, we do not forget that there are lives missing from our midst, the life of the 46 missing young people from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero.
Together with their families and friends who continue to search for them and who do not give up or sell out, we Zapatista men and women also demand truth and justice. To these mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers of the missing, we give our largest collective embrace.
So, welcome to this gathering, to this long walk of the other sciences during which there is no rest, because rest would mean that the other, new world is already built, and until it is built there will be no rest.
May your wisdom, scientists, encounter and embrace our desire to learn and to know about the worlds.
Many thanks.
From CIDECI-Unitierra, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.
Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.
Mexico, December 26, 2016
(Español) L@s Zapatistas y las ConCiencias por la Humanidad (día 1)
Texto: Raúl Romero @cancerbero_mx
Fotografía: María González y Elis Monroy
Cientos de zapatistas, miembros de diferentes pueblos originarios, personas de diferentes organizaciones sociales y a título individual asistieron este 26 de diciembre al CIDECI, en San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, a la inauguración del encuentro L@s Zapatistas y las ConCiencias por la Humanidad en el que participan científic@s de diferentes partes del mundo y de distintas disciplinas.
El encuentro, convocado por el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) desde hace varios meses, es parte de los esfuerzos que l@s zapatistas vienen haciendo por convocar a científic@s y artistas para reflexionar sobre cómo es que desde sus áreas viven la tormenta y cuáles son las estrategias que imaginan, investigan o proponen para enfrentarla.
La inauguración estuvo a cargo del Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, quien en su intervención señaló que para las y los zapatistas comenzaba un recorrido con quienes, como ellos y ellas, tienen la «gran responsabilidad de defender y salvar al mundo en que vivimos, artes de artistas, ciencias de científicos y los pueblos originarios con los abajos del mundo entero».
Moisés también señaló que la ciencia, en manos de los capitalistas, es usada para «hacer el mal», y que con ella «los ricos se hacen más ricos», al tiempo que la utilizan para matar y destruir. Antes de terminar su discurso, dijo a los asistentes que este 26 de diciembre había que recordar que «nos faltan 46 vidas», en alusión al crimen –todavía impune– contra los estudiantes de Ayotzinapa.
