María Zedillo and Magdalena Ceto – Ixil women from Guatemala, survivors of the genocide, speak about women’s courage during the trials against the dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.

Carlos Martín Beristain -Doctor in psychology and activist working with attention to victims, mental health and human rights in several countries. In the interview, he speaks of his talk on memory with victims and survivors.

Víctor Hugo López – Director of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center- Balance of the International Human Rights Forum “From Memory to Hope” and Frayba’s 25th anniversary.

Listen to all the Forum’s audios here.

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Llamado Internacional
17 de abril – Día internacional de las luchas campesinas en defensa de las semillas campesinas

Vía Campesina

(Harare, 4 de Marzo de 2014) Las campesinas y los campesinos articulados en La Vía Campesina convocamos este 17 de Abril, al día de acción y movilización global en defensa de las luchas campesinas con un énfasis en las semillas campesinas.

Las semillas tienen un lugar fundamental en la lucha por la soberanía alimentaria. De ellas depende, a cada ciclo de siembra, el alimento de los pueblos, cómo se cultiva y quién lo cultiva. Las semillas también transmiten la visión, los saberes, las prácticas y la cultura de las comunidades campesinas.

Desde hace 100 años nuestras semillas han sido agredidas por capitales quienes buscan privatizlarlas y estandarizarlas a favor de una agricultura industrial. En los últimos años se ha intensificado este despojo a través de nuevas ‘Leyes Monsanto’ que criminalizan a los campesinos por utilizar sus propias semillas a favor de semillas registradas o patentadas de la industria y través de los transgénicos.

Sin embargo, en África, Asia, Europa y las Américas, cada año crece y se fortalece la capacidad de movilización y lucha de los pueblos organizados en contra de la agroindustria que genera explotación y muerte, que acapara la tierra, envenena los alimentos y expulsa a los y las campesinos, y pueblos indígenas de sus territorios. En Colombia hubo un paro nacional cuando el gobierno aprobó una ley que permitió destruir semillas campesinas por no estar registradas y en México una huelga de hambre frente al intento de permitir la siembra de maíz transgénico. En toda África las comunidades campesinas luchan en contra de una nueva ‘revolución verde’ que quiere imponer transgénicos y semillas industriales. En todos los continentes luchamos por nuestras semillas que nos permiten una agricultura sana, rica en diversidad y que nos permite verdaderamente enfrentar al cambio climático.

Luchamos en defensa de las semillas campesinas porque ellas son esenciales para una reforma agraria integral y de nuestro modelo de agricultura basado en la producción agroecológica. Las semillas campesinas son un patrimonio de los pueblos en la afirmación de la Soberanía Alimentaria. Son parte de los bienes comunes como la tierra, el agua y los minerales que deben permanecer en manos de los pueblos.

En nuestra Jornada también denunciaremos a las transnacionales, al agronegocio, el uso de agrotóxicos y transgénicos. Asimismo, rechazamos todo intento de represión, criminalización de la protesta, penalización y muerte. Continuaremos luchando para transformar todo aquello que nos oprime, domina y somete. Nuestra lucha crece, se fortalece, y frente a cada clamor del pueblo, desarrollaremos indignación, solidaridad, internacionalismo y Lucha.

Desde 1996 en memoria de la masacre de 19 campesinos sin tierra de Brasil que fueron brutalmente asesinados por la policía militar por intereses del agronegocio, La Vía Campesina declaró el 17 de abril como día mundial de las luchas campesinas, organizando acciones que visibilizan las distintas luchas que se dan en los territorios. A la vez se busca generar un dialogo con la sociedad en la edificación de una gran alianza internacional por la soberanía de nuestros pueblos, en la en la construcción de un modelo de agricultura y sociedad que rescata la justicia y dignidad humana.

La Vía Campesina Internacional hace un llamado a todas sus organizaciones miembros, amigos y aliados a realizar acciones en sus países y territorios para reforzar esta lucha global. Estas pueden ser movilizaciones, tomas de tierras, intercambio de semillas, ferias de soberanía alimentaria, foros sobre las semillas y la soberanía alimentaria, eventos culturales, etc. Les pedimos que registren estas acciones enviándonos información sobre ellas para que de esta manera podamos visibilizar esta gran jornada mundial de lucha. Publicaremos un mapa de acciones en todo el mundo en www.viacampesina.org

Globalicemos la lucha! Globalicemos la Esperanza!

•    Vean aquí VIDEO: Llamado Comité Internacional de Coordinación de la Vía Campesina por Jornada Mundial de Luchas Campesinas – 17 de Abril (http://tv.viacampesina.org/Jornada-Mundial-de-las-Luchas?lang=en)

•    Vean también VIDEO: Movilización en Defensa de la Semillas Campesinas realizado por la Coordinación Europea – Vía Campesina (http://tv.viacampesina.org/New-translation-Plant-local-seeds?lang=en)

•    Vía Campesina TV (http://tv.viacampesina.org/?lang=en): Envíanos fotos, afiches, audios y  vídeos de las luchas campesinas en sus territorios o de las acciones que hagan el 17 de Abril a lvc-communication@viacampesina.org

•    Sus comunicados, declaraciones, artículos y acciones para que sean publicados en nuestra web www.viacampesina.org enviar a lvcweb@viacampesina.org

•    Suscríbete a nuestra lista de correo especial, enviando un mensaje en blanco a  via.17april-suscribe@viacampesina.net

•    Participa en nuestro evento en Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/events/1450497111850070/?ref=5)

By: Raúl Zibechi

In the 20 years that have transpired since the January 1, 1994 Zapatista Uprising, Latin American movements have championed one of the most intense and extensive cycles of struggle in a long time. Since the 1989 Caracazo (Caracas Massacre), uprisings, insurrections and mobilizations occurred that encompassed the whole region, delegitimized the neoliberal model and installed those from below, organized into movements, as central actors of changes.

Zapatismo formed part of this wave of the 90s and very soon became one of the inescapable referents, even for those who do not share their proposals and forms of action. It is almost impossible to enumerate everything the movements realized in these two decades. We can only review a handful of significant acts: the picketer cycle in Argentina (1997-2002), the indigenous and popular uprisings in Ecuador, the Peruvian mobilizations that forced the resignation of Fujimori, and the Paraguayan March, in 1999, that led to the exile of Lino Oviedo, who led a military coup.

In the next decade we had the formidable response of the Venezuelan people to the 2002 rightwing coup, the three Bolivian “wars” between 2000 and 2005 (one del about water and two about gas) that erased the neoliberal right from the political map, the impressive struggle of the Amazon Indians in Bagua (Peru) in 2009, the resistance of the Guatemalan communities to mining, the Oaxaca commune in 2006 and the mobilization of the Paraguayan peasantry in 2002 against the privatizations.

In the last three years a new layer of movements were felt that insinuate a new cycle of protests, like the mobilization of Chilean secondary students, the community resistance to the Conga mining enterprise in northern Peru, the growing resistance to mining, to fumigations and to Monsanto in Argentina, the defense of the TIPNIS (Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure) in Bolivia and the resistance to the Belo Monte Dam in Brazil.

In 2013 alone we had the Colombian agrarian strike that was capable of uniting all the rural sectors (campesinos, indigenous and cane cutters) against the free trade agreement with the United States and one of the urban movements, and also the June mobilizations in Brazil against the ferocious urban extractivism of labor for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

This group of actions throughout the two decades permits assuring that the movements of those below are alive in the whole region. Many of them are carriers of a new political culture and organization that is demonstrated in very diverse ways in the different organizations, but make up different ways of doing than what we knew in the decades of the 60s and 70s.

Some of the movements, from the Chilean secondary school students to the Zapatista communities, passing through the Guardians of the Conga Lakes, the Venezuela Settlers Movement and the Free Pass Movement (Movimiento Passe Livre, MPL) of Brazil, among the most prominent, demonstrate some common characteristics that would be worth noting.

The first is the massive and exceptional participation of youth and women. This presence revitalizes the anti-capitalist struggles, because the people most affected by capitalism are participating directly, those who don’t have a place in the still hegemonic world. It is the majority presence of those who don’t have anything to lose because they are, basically, women and youth from below that give the movements an intransigent radical character.

In second place, a political culture is gaining ground that the Zapatistas have synthesized in the expression “govern by obeying” (mandar obedeciendo), which is still expressed diffusely. Those that care for the lakes in Perú, the heirs of campesino patrols, obey the communities. Youths of the MPL make decisions by consensus so that majorities are not consolidated, and they explicitly reject the “sound cars” that union bureaucracies imposed in the previous period to control the marches.

The third question in common is related to autonomy and horizontalness, words that just started to be used 20 years ago and were fully incorporated into the political culture of those who continue struggling. They claim autonomy from the State and the political parties, meanwhile horizontalness is collective leadership of the movement and not individual. Members of the Coordinator Assembly of Secondary Students (ACES, its initials in Spanish) of Chile function horizontally, with a collective leadership and assembly.

The fourth characteristic that I see in common is the predominance of flows over structures. The organization adapts and is subordinate to the movement, not frozen in a structure capable of conditioning the collective, with its own interests separate from the movement. The collectives that fight are something like communities in resistance, in which all run similar risks and where the division of labor adapts to the objectives that the group outlines at every moment.

In this new layer of organizations it is not easy to distinguish who the leaders are, not because referents and spokespersons don’t exist, but rather because the difference between directors and directed has been diminishing as the leadership of those below increases. This is perhaps one of the most important aspects of the new political culture in expansion in the last two decades.

Finally, I would like to say that Zapatismo is a political and ethical referent, but not as the direction of these movements, which it does not seek or could be. It can be an inspiration, a reference and an example if one chooses. I feel that there are multiple dialogues among all these experiences, not in the style of formal and structured gatherings, but direct exchanges between militants, capillaries, not controlled, but the kind of exchange of knowledge and experience that we need to strengthen the fight against the system.

———————————————————————-

Originally Published in Spanish by La Jornada

Translation: Chiapas Support Committee

Friday, December 27, 2013

In this program

– Useless mega-projects in Europe and the world
– Notres Dames de Landes (France): Pressure increases around the airport project
– No to the High-Speed Train (TAV) in Italy: no more pillage to our territories
– Struggle against the great project of the capitalist elite: Stuttgard 21 (Germany)
– Rebelion of the Black Sea (Turkey)
– Day of Land in Palestine
– Anti-fascist action in Rome (Italy)
– Moving to Gaza, life in the Gaza Strip (Palestine)
– Torture in Greece and the birth of a rebelious man: Dionisis Gorgoyiannis

Free distribution report by La Pirata:

Colectivo Zapatista “Marisol” de Lugano (Switzerland) – http://czl.noblogs.org/
Nodo Solidale (Italy and Mexico) – http://www.autistici.org/nodosolidale/
Nomads de XM24 (Italy) – http://nomads.indivia.net/

Radio Autonomía: Zapatismo in the Bay — JUNE 2012 SHOW

AUDIOS from the June 3, 2012 broadcast of Radio Autonomía: Zapatismo in the Bay (formerly Relatos Zapatistas) on Berkeley Liberation Radio, 104.1FM, livestream at www.berkeleyliberationradio.net

1. Durito Storytime: The Story of the Seven Rainbows
(Descarga aquí)  

2. Report from Infinite Solidarity with Montreal March
(Descarga aquí)  

3. Interview with Lobna (Egypt) & Gemma (OO Antirepression Crew)
(Descarga aquí)  

4. Interview with Mariana Mora & Guiomar Rovira (Mexico)
(Descarga aquí)  

5. Entrevista con Mariana Mora y Guiomar Rovira (México)
(Descarga aquí)  

We want to announce that we’re changing the name of our show from Relatos Zapatistas to Radio Autonomía: Zapatismo in the Bay to reflect the increasingly local focus of our reporting on anticapitalist and autonomous politics.

(Continuar leyendo…)

By: Dr. Agustín Lao Montes

7 June 2012
Cideci Las Casas-Unitierra Chiapas
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.

Presentation
(Descarga aquí)  

Presentation in Tsotsil
(Descarga aquí)  

Presentation in Tseltal
(Descarga aquí)  

Words by Dr. Agustín Lao Montes
(Descarga aquí)  

Translation to Tsotsil
(Descarga aquí)  

Translation to Tseltal
(Descarga aquí)  

Questions and answers
(Descarga aquí)  

(Continuar leyendo…)

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La cultura y sabiduría ancestral que brotaba por todo su ser no se le escapaba a nadie de los que lo conocimos. El amor por el ecosistema y su íntimo respeto y acompañamiento a los procesos de lucha y resistencia de los pueblos indios de México jamás caerán en el olvido ni la desidia. Va por tí Don Juan, va por tod@s.

Al CNI

Al EZLN

Desde hace mucho, mucho, tiempo, algunos compañer@s tuvimos la suerte de conocer personalmente a Don Juan, un hombre accesible y pegado a la tierra, a la tierra rebelde, fecunda y libre que él junto con millones de campesinos y quienes somos pueblo de abajo y para l@s de abajo, amamos desde las entrañas.

Tierra y Libertad, son dos palabras, es un concepto que define la belleza infinita de fusionar todo aquello que nos aporta por un lado la tierra al entrar en verdadero contacto con ella: sus frutos, su tacto, su olor, su efecto en nuestra mirada y en nuestra alma. Y por otra parte la libertad, esa indomable amiga, compañera y todo, que portamos en nuestros corazones y que nos deja sin respirar si se nos niega. Don Juan sabía vivir en comunión con ambas, y precisamente como hombre del pueblo que fué, su interés residía en transmitir a l@s demás su certeza. Así nos llegó y así se lo reconocemos.

Desde la CGT mandamos a su familia y a todo el CNI en México un fraterno, rebelde y alegre abrazo en recuerdo de su persona y por los sueños que en el día a día él íba forjando, siempre compartiendolos y anhelando lo más importante, que cada vez más, la cotidianidad, el presente, juegue a nuestro favor, que demos los pasos nosotros, l@s de abajo, del baile de la vida, y que por tanto dejemos de arrastrarnos al son de los que desde arriba ansian vernos sometid@s y esclav@s.

Viva el CNI

Viva el EZLN

Por un mundo de niñas, niños, mujeres, hombres, ancianas y ancianos libres.
A Don Juan in memoriam…….

This past May 19th, as part of the “Spring Celebrations” of Ateneu l’ Harmonia de Sant Andreu de Palomar, and organized as part of the “Week of Worldwide Struggle for the Liberation of Patishtán and Sántiz López: bringing down the prison walls‏”. Several collectives joined forces and our work to create a solidarity video.

The people of Sant Andreu, are in solidarity and send all of our support to the political prisoners Alberto Patishtán y Francisco Sántiz and we demand their immediate liberation. We also send our support and solidarity to the Zapatista communities in resistance and the bases of support of the EZLN.

The video was made possible thanks to the solidarity work and coordination of:

La Batonera de Sant Andreu
Els Diables de Sant Andreu
Assamblea Sant Andreu Indigna’t
Edpac. Educació per a l’Acció Crítica
L’ Adhesiva, Espai de Trobada i Acció.

We appreciate the initiative of Movement for Justice in El Barrio, The Other Campaign New York.

We take this opportunity to also send solidarity embraces to all groups, from below and to the left, that organize, fight and resist everyday to construct a better world that we hold in our hearts. The solidarity amongst all dignified peoples will always be our strength.

Solidarity embraces,

L’Adhesiva,
Espai de Trobada i Acció.
Barcelona,
Maig de 2012.

The Good Government Council of Oventic and relatives of the Zapatista Base of Support Francisco Sántiz López sent two special messages on the actions for the “Week of Worldwide Struggle for the Freedom of Patishtán and Sántiz López.” The original audios of these texts, read by a representative of the Good Government Council and two relatives of Francisco, appear in full in the new documentary produced by the Movement for Justice of El Barrio, The Other Campaign New York.

Below, the text of the two messages in full (Spanish):

(Continuar leyendo…)

As over 125 cities across the US and countless others around the world began to mobilize, Radio Zapatista headed into New York City to participate in the dense and diverse program of May Day activities. This special report features interviews and audio from the Free University at Madison Square Park; the “Pop-Up Occupation” at Bryant Park; the Occupy Guitarmy; the rally & concert in Union Square; and the massive march to Wall St