World
Words by mapuche activist Moira Millán, judicialized for defending her people’s rights
On February 21, 2019, weichafe Moira Ivana Millán will be tried in Argentina. She is charged with “aggravated coercion” for organizing a peaceful demonstration in 2017 in protest of the violations to the rights of Mapuche communities committed by the Argentinian gendarmerie during the raids in September of that year. The raids were authorized by the federal judge Guido Otranto, and were part of the investigations for the disappearance of the activist Santiago Maldonado in August 2017, and who was found ded in October that year. During the raids, the gendarmerie beat and humilliated the Mapuche people.
Moira Millán was acquitted of all charges in September 2018 by judge Gustavo Lleral, but the prosecution appealed the decision. If she is declared guilty this February 21, she could face from two to four years in prison.
Letter to the zapatista women from the women who struggle in Mexico and the world
Letter in Japanese
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Letter in Spanish
LETTER TO THE ZAPATISTA WOMEN
FROM THE WOMEN WHO STRUGGLE IN MEXICO AND THE WORLD
(signed by 891, Organizations, Collectives, Networks, and Individuals)
To our compañeras Zapatistas
To the women of the world who struggle
To the grandmothers, mothers, sisters, youth and girls
To those who have the heart of a woman
We the undersigned are women of Mexico and the world, convened by the Zapatista women on March 8th, 2018 in the First International Political, Artistic, Cultural and Sports Encounter of Women Who Struggle.
We reaffirm that every one of us committed ourselves to struggle, each one from our own place of origin or new home places, from our distinct cultures and occupations, so that “not one more woman in the world, regardless of color, size, or place of origin, should feel alone or afraid anymore”. We committed ourselves to the light that all of you shared with us in our gathering, and to the light that all of you represent to all of us. We keep that light alive in order to be, to walk and to struggle together.
Today we proclaim that we will not allow the bad governments to destroy your worlds and displace you from the territories that provide the roots, heartbeat and direction to your lives and dreams. We will denounce, through multiple venues and modes, the misuse of practices of cultural resistance, staging ancestral people’s rituals to justify megaprojects of death and sickness imposed by the patriarchal capitalist system.
Given the conditions of war that we continue to face every day as women, we reaffirm our agreement to “stay alive, and for us to live is to struggle, each one according to her means, her time and her place.”
Now is the time to tell the bad governments, past and present, in every corner and place in the world, that we repudiate, from our multiple locations and territories, the practices of concessions, extraction, and the misuse and abuse of our Mother Earth. “Fracking,” gas and oil pipelines, massive hydroelectric dams, extensive agro-industrial monocultures of crops and trees, and infrastructure for corporate tourism in indigenous territories, all benefit major commercial projects, at the cost of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples’ lives and territories. In the face of profit-seeking interests, we will struggle for Life, for the lives and territories of people and other living beings.
As women, we know the value of life and for this reason we work to build conditions that support life. We declare that yes, we can do this, we women with our collective hearts. You are not alone compañeras zapatistas, friends, and sisters, and neither are your children, families and peoples!
Quotations excerpted from Zapatista Women (2018) Zapatista Women’s Opening Address at the First International Gathering of Politics, Art, Sport, and Culture for Women in Struggle. March 8, 2018. Caracol in the Tzots Choj zone. March 26, 2018, Enlace Zapatista:
http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2018/03/26/zapatista-womens-opening-address-at-the-first-international-gathering-of-politics-art-sport-and-culture-for-women-in-struggle/
