En el 30 aniversario del inicio de la guerra contra el olvido, la Teia dos Povos (Tejido de los Pueblos) de Bahía, Brasil, manda este saludo para el EZLN.
(Haz clic en [CC] para subtítulos en español.)
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En ocasión del 30 aniversario del levantamiento zapatista, el Movimiento de Mujeres de Kurdistán envía este saludo para el EZLN.
¿Cómo enfrentar la crisis civilizatoria que vivimos? ¿Cómo enfrentar la devastación medioambiental, la crisis energética, la guerra, la reproducción de la violencia, la creciente polarización de la riqueza, la descomposición social, la brutalidad del crimen organizado y desorganizado?
Son éstas las preguntas que el zapatismo se ha planteado a lo largo de la última década. Y es a estas preguntas que el zapatismo responde con el nuevo camino que se abre al celebrar el 30 aniversario del levantamiento armado de 1994: lo común y el autogobierno. Así lo resumió el Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés en su discurso poco antes de la media noche el 31 de diciembre de 2023: “La propiedad debe ser del pueblo y común, y el pueblo tiene que gobernarse a sí mismo”.
La teoría fue detallada en los 20 comunicados publicados entre octubre y diciembre de 2023, en especial la novena parte, donde se explica la nueva estructura del autogobierno zapatista, y la vigésima parte, donde se habla de lo común y la no propiedad. La práctica, sobre la que se basa siempre toda teoría zapatista, es la que ya se lleva a cabo en las comunidades rebeldes. Mientras los medios de comunicación “de paga” se empeñaron en decir y repetir que el zapatismo ya no existe, lo que presenciamos los miles de personas que acudimos al Caracol VIII, “Resistencia y Rebeldía: Un Nuevo Horizonte”, inaugurado hace tres años en el poblado Dolores Hidalgo, cuenta una historia muy diferente, visible ya desde el trayecto hasta el lugar del encuentro: decenas de comunidades con letreros anunciando “Gobierno Autónomo Local Zapatista”. Eso sin hablar del gigantesco espacio que nos recibe, donde se congregan unos 10 mil zapatistas, sobre todo jóvenes y jóvenas, que nos deleitan con obras de teatro, música y poesía, y un gran contingente de milicianas y milicianos.
Es significativo que la celebración se realice aquí, en el mismo lugar donde hace 18 años se llevó a cabo una de las reuniones preparatorias para lo que sería la Otra Campaña. Un lugar donde, como explicó el entonces Subcomandante Marcos, existió otrora la finca Campo Grande: más de mil hectáreas de tierras fértiles con abundante agua, pista de aterrizaje, caminos y “miles de indígenas a quienes explotar, despreciar, violar, engañar, encarcelar, asesinar”. Estas tierras fueron recuperadas en el levantamiento hace 30 años, y desde entonces en ellas se construyen la autonomía, la justicia, la salud, la educación, la democracia, la libertad.
En este lugar, que tanto dolor experimentó antes del levantamiento, jóvenes de diferentes caracoles presentaron obras de teatro donde representaron el caminar zapatista en estos 30 años y los grandes cambios que se anuncian ahora (aunque se vienen implementando desde hace algún tiempo). Si quienes llegamos de otras geografías esperábamos que nos explicaran mejor las propuestas delineadas en los comunicados, fue por medio de esas obras que respondieron nuestras muchas preguntas.
Democracia
En 2003, ante la negativa del Estado mexicano de reconocer los Acuerdos de San Andrés, se fundaron los primeros cinco caracoles y las Juntas de Buen Gobierno (JBG), que junto con los consejos autónomos de los Municipios Autónomos Rebeldes Zapatistas (MAREZ), representaron una de las experiencias de autogobierno y democracia directa más importantes del mundo. En estos 20 años, las JBG mostraron al mundo que es posible crear una forma de gobierno fuera de la lógica del Estado liberal y de la democracia representativa. Un gobierno colectivo, rotativo, sin salarios ni prebendas ni mucho menos enriquecimiento a costas del erario público.
Y sin embargo, a partir de una intensa autocrítica, se pasa ahora a una forma aún más horizontal y más democrática de gobierno, centrada en las asambleas comunitarias, donde todas y todos participan: los Grupos de Autonomía Local (GAL). Como mostraron las y los jóvenes en las obras de teatro, cuando algo no se puede resolver al nivel local, se convoca un Colectivo de Grupos de Autonomía Local (CGAL), que reúne delegados de varias comunidades cercanas. Y cuando tampoco a este nivel se puede resolver un asunto, se convoca una Asamblea de Colectivos de Grupos de Autonomía Local (ACGAL), a nivel de zona, que se reúne en un caracol.
Lo Común
La frase que más se escuchó en estos días de celebración fue “Lo común”, un desafío radical al fundamento mismo del sistema capitalista: la propiedad privada. La propiedad, como dijo el Subcomandante Moisés, “debe ser del pueblo y común”.
Después del levantamiento, cuando los finqueros, que durante tanto tiempo explotaron y violentaron a los indígenas, huyeron, se recuperaron grandes extensiones de tierra. Pero muchas de esas tierras quedaron en una suerte de limbo legal, lo que ha ocasionado incontables conflictos por la tenencia de la tierra a lo largo de todos estos años. Se diría que los zapatistas lucharían por lo tanto por obtener los documentos legales de la propiedad de la tierra que, con la sangre de los caídos, recuperaron en 1994. Pero no. Como explica el Subcomandante Moisés en el vigésimo comunicado, “Los papeles de propiedad no dicen ‘esto es tuyo’, lo que dicen es ‘esto no es de aquél, atácalo’”.
Por lo tanto, en vez de eso, el zapatismo propone (y pone en efecto) la no propiedad. A la “base material de la producción”, que hasta ahora consistía en una combinación de trabajo individual-familiar y de trabajo colectivo, se le suma ahora lo que llaman “trabajo en común” o “no propiedad”. O sea, porciones de tierras recuperadas que no tienen dueño, que no son de nadie (y por lo tanto, son de todos). Es tierra que no se vende ni se compra, que se trabaja por turnos y cuyos frutos pertenecen a quienes la trabajan. Y lo más ambicioso: tierras donde se invita a trabajar también a no zapatistas: partidistas, migrantes, citadinos, desplazados, extranjeros… quien quiera que sea, siempre y cuando exista acuerdo en las GAL, CGAL y ACGAL. “Todo lo que sirva al bien común, nada que vaya contra el bien común.”
Se prevén problemas, desde luego, y eso queda muy claro en las obras de teatro. Para que lo común funcione, es necesario construir una ética colectiva. Una ética del bien común. Una ética que se construye no con discursos, sino en la práctica. En la práctica de una justicia digna basada en el diálogo y el consenso. En la salud autónoma, que se entiende no como mercancía, sino como un derecho de todas y todos. En la educación fundamentada en las necesidades de los pueblos, y no en la homogenización de una supuesta “nación mestiza” impuesta desde el Estado. En la comprensión del bien común como camino para el bien individual y familiar. En el respeto y la dignidad.
La urgencia y la mirada hacia el futuro
Los zapatistas no están mirando solamente hacia las comunidades. No se preocupan únicamente por su supervivencia ante la violencia del narcoestado y el desenfreno del capital. Nos lanzan un posible salvavidas ante una crisis global que nos afecta a todos y todas. Si es el capitalismo, por naturaleza depredador, pero ahora enloquecido con una voracidad sin precedentes, lo que está destruyendo el planeta, la pregunta es: ¿cómo destruir el capitalismo?
“No es necesario matar”, dice el Subcomandante Moisés, y dicen también las obras de teatro. La crisis climática y el agotamiento de los recursos naturales nos conducen a un futuro apocalíptico. En ese proceso, se desata una guerra de todos contra todos, como vemos con elocuencia en Chiapas y en tantos otros lugares. Ante eso, es necesario regresar a la tierra, regresar a lo que los antepasados nos han enseñado. Y es necesario también construir una ética de lo común. En todo esto, nos quedó claro el papel que desempeña la mujer en esta nueva fase de construcción del futuro. La mujer, dadora y cuidadora de vida, es quien más entiende y practica la ética de la comunalidad. Una ética basada en el cuidado, en la compartición, en el respeto, en el compromiso unos con otros. Eso nos enseñaron a lo largo de los cuatro días de celebración de tantas maneras. Con la atención de la salud autónoma cuidadosa y gratuita. Con la cocina colectiva que con tanto cariño nos alimentó. Con las conversaciones, los partidos de baloncesto, voleibol, futbol. Con la alegría de las y los niños desfilando en sus bicicletas. Con la extraordinaria organización colectiva que hizo posible que unas 12 mil personas convivieran durante cuatro días en ese espacio de libertad y colectividad.
Poco antes del discurso del Subcomandante Moisés, la fuerza de la organización zapatista se hizo presente con el desfile de milicianas y milicianos. Un desfile que fue no sólo demostración de disciplina y organización militar, sino también de alegría y celebración, cuando las milicianas rompen filas para bailar.
Del caracol de Dolores Hidalgo regresamos a nuestras geografías con la esperanza renovada de que es posible construir otros caminos en medio del desastre. De que es posible bailar bajo la tormenta. Y de que el camino requiere mucho compromiso y organización, para romper con el individualismo y el sálvese quien pueda, construyendo lo común.
Entre el 29 de diciembre y el 2 de enero del 2024 se llevó a cabo la celebración del 30 Aniversario del Inicio de la Guerra Contra el Olvido en el Caracol VIII “Resistencia y Rebeldía: Un Nuevo Horizonte”, en el poblado zapatista de Dolores Hidalgo. El evento fue organizado por miles de bases de apoyo zapatistas, hombres, mujeres, niños, niñas, ancianos y ancianas que cubiertos del rostro con pasamontañas, paliacates y cubrebocas celebraron con deportes, artes, música, comida y baile popular las tres décadas de resistencia al sistema capitalista. Estas tierras recuperadas tras el levantamiento armado del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) en 1994, son evidencia concreta de cómo el zapatismo en Chiapas ha mejorado las condiciones de vida de las comunidades con base en la organización, la autonomía y la rebeldía.
Sentipensar el legado del movimiento zapatista
1 de enero de 1994 – 1 de enero de 2024
30 libros – 30 años
El Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (Clacso), en conjunto con la Cooperativa Editorial Retos, la Cátedra Jorge Alonso y el Centro Universitario de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades de la Universidad de Guadalajara, conmemoran los 30 años del levantamiento del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional con la publicación de 30 libros de bolsillo en el marco de la Colección Al Faro Zapatista.
Esta serie de 30 libros es un homenaje a las mujeres, niñas(os), ancianas(os), otroas y hombres zapatistas en sus más de 500 años de resistencia y sus 30 años de vida pública rebelde desde el levantamiento del 1 de enero de 1994.
La iniciativa fue impulsada por el Grupo de Trabajo CLACSO «Cuerpos, territorios, resistencias» y más de medio centenar de trabajadorxs de las Ciencias Sociales, activadas activistas de México, América Latina, E.U., Europa Insumisa y Asia. Los libros muestran por qué, dónde y cómo el zapatismo ha sido el faro para muchos y muchas habitantes del planeta Tierra. Un faro en medio de La Tormenta provocada por lo que en 2017 las mujeres zapatistas nombraron como el “sistema capitalista machista y patriarcal”, alimentada por el racismo y la “cisheteronormatividad”, como le llaman las diversidades sexuales en movimiento y re-existencia.
La colección se encuentra disponible para su descarga gratutita en acceso abierto a través de la Librería Latinomericana y Caribeña de Ciencias Sociales de CLACSO, en la sección Producción editorial de los Centros CLACSO.
Editores
CLACSO
Cooperativa Editorial Retos
Grupo de Trabajo CLACSO Cuerpos, territorios, resistencias
Cátedra Jorge Alonso
Centro Universitario de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad de Guadalajara
December 2023.
The Zapatista communities and the EZLN invite all people, groups, collectives, associations, organizations and movements that signed the so-called Declaration for Life, the indigenous peoples gathered in the National Indigenous Congress, the International Sixth, the non-governmental organizations defenders of human rights and, especially, those whose destiny is in artistic creation, to the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of the war against oblivion.
The celebration will be on December 30 and 31, 2023 and January 1 and 2, 2024. Guests will be able to arrive from the 29th, not before that day.
Registration of attendees will be at the CIDECI in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Press, guests and the National Indigenous Congress register there, or directly at the caracol headquarters.
The central celebration of the 30th anniversary will be at the Caracol “Resistance and Rebellion: A New Horizon”, inaugurated 3 years ago in the town of Dolores Hidalgo, founded on recovered land. Climate from temperate to hot during the day. From cool to cold at night-early morning.
Location: one hour from the head of the official municipality of Ocosingo, highway to Monte Líbano. About 4-5 hours from San Cristóbal de las Casas. In Ocosingo there are hotels of different prices. From San Cristóbal, the route through Chanal-Altamirano towards the head of Ocosingo is recommended. Then take the road to Mount Líbano. They pass the federal barracks of Toniná and further on, always on the road to Mount Líbano, there will be signs on the different GALs that are at the foot of the road. From Ocosingo, in one hour-hour and 20 minutes you will arrive at the Caracol of the celebration.
Dates: December 30 and 31, 2023. Cultural festival with participation of Zapatista youngsters and children. There will be plays, songs, dances and poetry. Dance in the afternoon and evening.
January 1, 2024. At 00:00: central Zapatista words. In the afternoon and evening cultural participation by family guests from all over the world. Those whose vocation is art and culture will be able to present their creations in front of the Zapatista communities and guests on January 1 and 2, 2024. Dance, Theater, Cinema, Music, Murals, etc., will be welcome.
January 2, 2024. Cultural participation from family members from around the world. Dance.
It is recommended to bring something to put between the floor and your battered anatomy at bedtime. Here, in addition to being dignified, the ground is hard.
There will be internet service by tokens, so that they can notify their relatives that they arrived safely. There will be non-specialized food stalls (that is, there are no vegan or vegetarian food stalls). Look into it.
We recommend that people with special diet and medication bring what they need. There will be ambulance service and primary medical care.
For the assignment of rest areas and bedrooms, people of sound mind (what you call “seniors” or “golden age” or “elders” or “people in the process of aging”), and minors, have preference.
Minors are warned that it is prohibited to stone, harass or hunt whales, unicorns, crocodiles, dragons, dogs, cats, ‘cuches’, chickens, roosters, rabbits, cows, oxen (without harm), mules (without harm) ), horses, mares, sheep, bicycles and other fantastic animals you may find. The 3 times T “Popcorn Command” will be patrolling and ensuring that no living being is attacked by thought, word or deed. On the other hand, it is allowed to attack the stones, as long as it is with the head. Be warned.
We remind you that in the Zapatista territories the consumption, trade, transfer and planting of drugs is prohibited. Likewise, the consumption of alcohol in any of its forms is prohibited.
The exhibition, distribution, propaganda and apology of any of the electoral political parties of any geography is also prohibited.
Also prohibited are sexist, religious, nationalist, racist, ideological, political and sporting manifestations that promote mockery, bullying, harassment, aggression and violence against people because of their color, race, sexual orientation, religion, language, culture, social origin, size, nationality, ideology, etc.
The celebration is of and for the Zapatista peoples. Respect is required for our uses and customs, for our ways and times, for our struggle.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcommander Insurgent Moisés.
Mexico, December 2023.
Zapatista militiamen and militiawomen working on preparing the place for the 30th anniversary celebration. Zapatista bicycle workshop. The 3 times T “Comando Popcorn” reinforced with the ‘pelusa colocha’ on its canine wing. Images courtesy of Los Tercios Compas, copyleft December 2023. Music: Armad@s de Baile. Bossanonimos. Original and Copla ℗ 2014 Bossanónimos Released on: 2014-10-23
Twentieth and Last Part: The Common and Non-Property
“Open wide your eyes, son, and follow the Pujuy bird. He is not wrong.
His destiny is like ours: to walk so that others do not get lost.”
Canek. Ermilo Abreu Gómez
On some past occasion, a few years ago, the Zapatista people explained to themselves the struggle “as the women that we are” pointing out, not a matter of mere will, disposition or study, but the material basis that made this change possible: economic independence of Zapatista women. And they were not referring to having a job and salary or the alms in coins with which governments across the political spectrum buy votes and memberships. They pointed to collective work as the fertile ground for this change. That is, organized work that was not intended for individual well-being, but for that of the group. It was not just about getting together for crafts, commerce, raising livestock, or planting and harvesting corn, coffee, and vegetables. Also, and, perhaps, above all, it was about their own spaces, without men. Imagine what in those times and places they spoke and speak among themselves: their pain, their anger, their ideas, their proposals, their dreams.
I will not go into more detail about it – the companions have their own voice, history and destiny. I only mention it because it remains to be known what is the material base on which the new stage that the Zapatista communities have decided will be built. The new initiative, as outsiders would classify it.
I am proud to point out that not only was the entire proposal the product, from its very conception, of the Zapatista organizational leadership collective- all of it of indigenous blood with Mayan roots. Also, that my work was limited to providing information that my bosses “crossed” with their own, and, later, to look for and argue objections and probable future failures (the aforementioned “hypothesis” to which I referred in a previous text). In the end, when they finished their deliberation and they specified the central idea, to submit it for consultation with all the peoples, I was as surprised as perhaps you will be now that you are going to know about it.
In this other fragment of the interview with Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, he explains to us how they came to this idea of “the common.” Perhaps some of you can appreciate the deeply rebellious and subversive meaning of this in which, for the same reason, we risk our existence.
The Captain.
-*-
NON-OWNERSHIP.
Well, in summary this is our proposal: to establish extensions of the recovered land as common. That is, without property. Neither private, nor ejidal, nor communal, nor federal, nor state, nor business, nor anything. A non-ownership of land. As they say: “land without papers.” So, in those lands that are going to be defined, if they ask who owns that land or who is the owner, the answer will be: “nobody’s”, that is, they are “common”.
If you ask if it is the land of Zapatistas, or ‘partidistas’ or who, well, none of them. Or all of them, it’s the same. There is no commissioner or agent to buy, kill, disappear. What there is, is people who work and take care of those lands. And they defend them.
An important part is that, in order for this to be achieved, there has to be an agreement between the residents regardless of whether they are ‘partidistas’ or Zapatistas. In other words, they have to talk between themselves, not to bad governments. Seeking permission from bad governments has only brought divisions and even deaths among peasants themselves.
So, respecting the lands that are personal-family property, and those that are for collective work, this non-ownership is created on land recovered in these years of war. And it is proposed that it is worked together in shifts, regardless of what party you are, or what religion, or what color, or what size, or what gender you are.
The rules are simple: it has to be an agreement between the residents of a region. Do not grow drugs, do not sell the land, do not allow the entry of any company or industry. Paramilitaries are excluded. The product of the work of those lands belongs to those who work it in the agreed time. There are no taxes, nor payment of tithes. Each facility that is built is left for the next group. They take only the product of their work. But we will talk more about all this later.
This, very summarized, is what was presented and consulted with all the Zapatista towns. And it turned out that the vast majority agreed. And also that, in some Zapatista regions, it had already been done for years.
And what we did was, well, propose a path to cross the storm and reach the other side safely. And not to take that path alone as Zapatistas, but together as the indigenous peoples that we are. Of course, more will come out about this proposal: about health, about education, about justice, about government, about life. Let’s say that we see this as necessary to be able to face the storm.
TO THINK THE PATH AND THE STEP.
How did it get into our heads? Well, I’ll tell you. We saw several things. So this idea didn’t just come out at once. As if they came together and as if we saw it part by part and then everything together.
One was the storm. Everything that refers to the unconformity of nature. Its way of protesting, increasingly louder and increasingly terrible. Because we say destruction, but many times what happens is that nature kind of recovers a place. Or that it attacks invasions of the system: dams, for example. Tourist places, for example, that are built over the death of the coasts. Megaprojects that hurt, injure the earth. So, there comes a response. Sometimes it responds quickly, sometimes it takes a while. And the human being, well, what the system has done with the human being, is as if stunned. Does not react. Although he sees that misfortune is coming, that there are warnings, that there are alerts, he continues as if nothing had happened and, well, things do happen. They say that such misfortune was surprising. But it turns out that for several years now people have been warning that the destruction of nature is going to take its toll. Science, not us, analyzes it and proves it. We, then, as people of the earth see it. Everything is useless.
Misfortune does not suddenly appear in your house, no. First it gets closer, it makes its noise so you know it is coming. Knocks on your door. Breaks everything. Not only your house, your people, your life, but also your heart. You are no longer calm.
Another thing is what they call social decomposition, or as they say, the social fabric breaks, because of violence. In other words, a community of people is related to certain rules or norms or agreements, as we say. Sometimes written laws are made and sometimes there is nothing written, but nonetheless, people know. In many communities they say “act of agreement” that is, it is put into words. “This can be done, this cannot be done, this has to be done,” and so on. For example, whoever works advances. He who doesn’t work stays poor. That it is wrong to force someone to do something that he or she does not want to do, for example, in the case of men against women. That it is wrong to abuse the weak. That it is wrong to kill, steal, rape. But what happens if it’s the other way around? If evil is rewarded and goodness is persecuted and punished. For example, an indigenous farmer who sees that the destruction of a forest is wrong, then becomes its guardian. He protects the forest, therefore, from those who destroy it to make a profit. Defending is a good thing, because that brother or sister is taking care of life. That is humane, it is not religious. But it happens that this guardian is persecuted, imprisoned and, not infrequently, murdered. And if you ask what his crime is, why they killed him, and you hear that his crime was defending life, like brother Samir Flores Soberanes, then it is clear that the system is sick, that it no longer has a remedy, that you have to look elsewhere.
What does it take to realize this disease, this rottenness of humanity? You don’t need a religion, or a science, or an ideology. Just look, listen, feel.
And then we see that the big bosses, the capitalists, don’t care what happens tomorrow. They want to earn pay today. As much as possible and as quickly as possible. It doesn’t matter if you tell them: “hey, but what you do destroys and the destruction spreads, grows, becomes uncontrollable and returns to you. As if you were spitting up into the air or urinating against the wind. It comes back to you.” And you may think that it is good that misfortune happens to a scoundrel. But it turns out that, before that, it takes away quite a few people who don’t even know why. Like babies, for example. What will a child know about religions, ideologies, political parties or whatever. But the system holds those babies responsible. It makes them pay. It destroys in their name, it kills in their name, it lies in their name. And they inherit death and destruction.
So, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to get better. What we know is that it will get worse. And that, whatever happens, we have to cross the storm and get to the other side. Survive.
Another thing is what we saw on the Journey for Life. What is going on in those parts that are supposed to be more advanced, that are more developed as they say. We saw that all that talk about “Western civilization”, “progress” and things like that is a lie. We saw that there was what is necessary for wars and crimes. Now we actually saw two things: one is where the storm is headed if we don’t do anything. The other is what other organized rebellions are building in those geographies. In other words, those people look at the same thing that we look at. That is, the storm.
Thanks to these brother peoples we were able to broaden our vision, make it wider. That is, not only look further, but also look at more things. More world, that is.
So we, as indigenous peoples, ask ourselves what will we do, if it is already over, if it is every man for himself. But we see those brothers who act like they don’t care what happens to others, that they only look out for themselves, and then it reaches them anyway. They believe they are safe locked inside themselves. But that does not work at all.
THE ROAD OF MEMORY.
So we think, we remember how it was before. We talked about it to our elders. We asked them if it was like this before. We ask them to tell us if there has always been darkness, death, destruction. Where did that idea of the world come from? How come everything got fucked up. We think that if we know when and how the light, the good thought, the complete knowledge of what is good and what is bad was lost, then maybe we can find that and with that fight for everything to become complete, as it should be, respecting life.
And then we saw how that came to be and we saw that it came with private property. And it is not about changing the name and saying that there is ejidal property or small property or federal property. Because in all cases it is the bad government that gives the papers. In other words, it is the bad government that says if something exists and, with its trick, whether it ceases to exist. As it did with the reform of Salinas de Gortari and with the blows against communal property, which only existed if it was registered and that, with the same laws, they diminish it until it disappears. And communal property, let’s say registered, also causes divisions and confrontations. Because those lands legally belong to some, but against others. Property papers do not say “this is yours”, what they say is “this is not that person’s, attack him”.
And there you have the peasants going round and round to be given a piece of paper that says that what is theirs is theirs because they already work for it. And peasants waging war against peasants not even over a piece of land, no, it’s over a piece of paper that says who owns that land. And whoever has more papers, well, has more paid support, that is, more deception. Because it turns out that if you have a paper they give you a social program, but they ask you to support, for example, a candidate because that candidate is going to give you the paper and give you money. But it turns out that that same government is deceiving you, because it sells that paper to a company. And then it turns out that the company comes and tells you that you have to leave because that land is not yours because the ‘pinche’ businessman now has the paper. And you leave either willingly or forcefully. And there they have armies, police and paramilitaries to convince you to leave.
It is enough for the company to say that it wants such land, for the government to decree the expropriation of those lands and tells the company to do its business “for a while.” That’s what they do with megaprojects.
And all for a ‘pinche’ piece of paper. Although the paper is as old as New Spain, the paper is worthless to the powerful. It’s a hoax. It is so that you can trust and be calm until the system discovers that, beneath your poverty, there is oil, gold, uranium, silver. Or that there is a spring of pure water, and now it turns out that water is already a commodity that is bought and sold.
A commodity like your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents were. A commodity like you are, and your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren will be, and so on for generations.
So the paper is like the labels of merchandise in the markets, it is the price of the land, of your work, of your descendants. And you don’t realize it, but you’re already lined up in line at the cashier and you’re going to arrive. And it turns out that not only are you going to have to pay, you are also going to leave the store and find that they have taken your merchandise, that you don’t even have the paper that you and your ancestors fought so hard for. And that maybe you will inherit a paper for your children, and maybe not even that. Government papers are the price of your life, you have to pay that price with your life. So you are a legal commodity. That’s the only difference with slavery.
Then the older ones tell you that the problem, the division, the arguments and the fights, came when the property papers arrived. It’s not that there weren’t problems before, it’s that they were resolved by making an agreement.
And the problem is that you can make many papers that split the earth many times, but the earth does not grow like the papers. A hectare is still a hectare, even if there are many papers.
Then what happens now with that thing they call ‘Cuarta Transformación’ and its “Sembrando Vida” program: in the ejidos there are the ‘right-holders’ – who are the ejidatarios who have the aforementioned paper of agrarian certificate -, and the ‘applicants’ who, although they participate in the community , they have no paper, because the land is already distributed. Supposedly, the applicants are requesting a piece of land, but in reality, they are requesting a piece of paper that says they are peasants who work the land. So, it is not that the government comes and tells them that such land is theirs. No. It tells them that, if they prove ownership of 2 hectares, they will be given financial support. But where do those 2 hectares come from? Well, from the ‘right-holders’.
In other words, the land that the paper says is one’s property has to be broken into pieces for the applicants. It has to be broken up so that there can be several papers of the same paper. There is no agrarian distribution, there is fragmentation of property. And what happens if the ‘right-holder’ doesn’t want to or can’t? His children want the financial support, but they need the paper. Then they fight with the father. The daughters? Not even taking into account, women do not count in the pieces of paper. And children fight to the death against parents. And the children win and with that paper, because the land remains the same and continues to be where it was, they receive their money. With that payment they go into debt, buy something, or get together to pay the coyote to go to the United States. Since they can’t afford it, they sell the paper to someone else. They go to work abroad and it turns out that they are earning to pay back those who lent them. Yes, they send remittances to their relatives, but their families use that to pay the debt. After a while, that child returns or is returned. That is if they don’t kill him or kidnap him. But he no longer has land, because he sold the paper and now that land belongs to the person who has the paper. So he murdered his father for a paper he no longer has. And then he has to find the payment to buy the paper again.
The population grows, but the land does not grow. There are more papers, but it is only the same area of land. What is going to happen? That right now they are killing each other between right-holders and applicants, but later they are going to kill each other between applicants. His children are going to fight among themselves, just as he fought against his parents.
For example: you are a right-holder with 20 hectares and you have, let’s say, 4 children. It is the first generation. You distribute the land or rather the paper and there is now a 5-hectare paper for each one. Then those 4 children have four other children each, second generation, and they distribute their 5 hectares and they get a little more than one hectare each. Then those 4 grandchildren have another 4 children each, third generation, and they divide the paper and each one gets about a quarter of a hectare. Then those great-grandchildren have 4 children each, fourth generation, and they divide the paper and they get a tenth of a hectare each. And I no longer continue, because just in 40 years, in the second generation, they are going to kill each other. That’s what bad governments are doing: they are sowing death.
THE OLD NEW ROAD.
What has what they say about “material base” been like in our history of struggle?
Well, first was the food. With the recovery of the lands that were in the hands of the large landowners, the diet improved. Hunger was no longer the guest in our homes. Then, with the autonomy and support of people who are “good people,” we say, health followed. Here the support of the fraternal doctors was and is very important, which is what we call them because they are like our brothers who help us not only with serious illnesses. Also, and, above all, in preparation, that is, in health knowledge. Then education. Then the work on the land. Then what is the government and administration of the Zapatista people themselves. Then what is government and peaceful coexistence with those who are not Zapatistas.
The material basis of this, that is, the form of production is a coexistence of individual-family work with collective work. Collective work made it possible for the colleagues to take off and participate in autonomy.
Let’s say that the first 10 years of autonomy, that is, from the uprising to the birth of the Juntas de Buen Gobierno, in 2003, were years of learning. The next 10 years, until 2013, were about learning the importance of generational change. From 2013 up to date it has been about verifying, criticizing and self-criticizing errors in operation, administration and ethics.
In what follows now, we will have a stage of learning and readjustment. In other words, we will have many errors and problems, because there is no manual or book that tells you how to do it. We will have many falls, yes, but we will get up again and again to continue walking. That is, we are Zapatistas.
The material base or production base of this stage will be a combination of individual-family work, collective work and this new thing that we call “common work” or “non-ownership.”
Individual-family work is based on small and personal property. A person and his/her family work their piece of land, their little store, their mobile phone, their livestock. The profit or benefit is for that family.
Collective work is based on the agreement between colleagues to do work on collective land (assigned before the war and expanded after the war). Work is distributed according to time, capacity and disposition. The gain or benefit is for the collective. It is usually used for parties, mobilizations, acquisition of health equipment, training of health and education promoters, and for the movements and maintenance of authorities and autonomous commissions.
The common work begins, now, in tenure of land. A portion of the recovered lands are declared as “common work.” That is, it is not parceled out and is not owned by anyone, neither small, nor medium, nor large property. That land belongs to no one, it has no owner. And, in agreement with nearby communities, they “lend” each other that land to work on. It cannot be sold or bought. It cannot be used for the production, transfer or consumption of narcotics. The work is done in “shifts” agreed upon with the GALs and the non-Zapatista brothers. The benefit or gain is for those who work, but the property is not, it is a non-property that is used in common. It doesn’t matter if you are Zapatista, ‘partidista’, Catholic, evangelical, Presbyterian, atheist, Jewish, Muslim, black, white, dark, yellow, red, woman, man, ‘otroa’. You can work the land in common, with the agreement of the GALs, CGAL and ACGal, by town, region or zone, who are the ones who control compliance with the rules of common use. Everything that serves the common good, nothing that goes against the common good.
A WORLDWIDE SHARING: THE TOUR FOR LIFE.
A few hectares of this Non-Property will be proposed to sister nations in other geographies of the world. We are going to invite them to come and work those lands, with their own hands and knowledge. What happens if they don’t know how to work the land? Well, the Zapatista comrades will teach them how, and the times of the land, and its care. We believe that it is important to know how to work the land, that is, to know how to respect it. I don’t think it hurts anyone that, just as they study and learn in laboratories and research centers, they also study and learn field work. And it is even better if these brother peoples have knowledge and a way of working the land and they bring us that knowledge and ways, and that is how we also learn. It’s like a sharing, but not just words, but in practice.
We do not need people to explain exploitation to us, because we have experienced it for centuries. Nor for them to come and tell us that we have to die to achieve freedom. We know that and have practiced it every day for hundreds of years. What is welcome is knowledge and practice for life.
Look, the delegation that went to Europe learned many things, but the most important thing we learned is that there are many people, groups, collectives, organizations that are looking for a way to fight for life. They have another color, another language, another custom, another culture, another way. But they have the same thing as us, which is the heart of struggle.
They are not looking for who is better, or to be given a place in bad governments. They are seeking to heal the world. And yes, they are very different from each other. But they are equal, or rather we are equal. Because we really want to build something else, and that thing is freedom. That is, life.
And we, the Zapatista communities, say that all of these people are our family. It doesn’t matter that they are very far away. And in that family there are older sisters, older brothers, little sisters and little brothers. And there is no one better. But same family. And as a family we support each other when we can, and we teach each other what we know.
And all, women, men and ‘otroas’ are people from below. Why? Because those at the top preach death because that gives them profits. Those at the top want things to change, but for their benefit, although it is getting worse and worse. That is why it is those below who are going to fight and are already fighting for life. If the system is one of death, then the fight for life is the fight against the system.
What comes next? Well, everyone builds their idea, their thinking, their plan of what is best. And each person perhaps has a different thought and a different way. And that must be respected. Because it is in organized practice where everyone sees what works and what doesn’t. In other words, there are no recipes or manuals, because what works for one may not work for another. The global “common” is the sharing of stories, of knowledge, of struggles.
In other words, as they say, the journey for life continues. That is, for the struggle.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcommander Insurgent Moisés.
Mexico, December 2023. 500, 40, 30, 20, 10, 3, a year, a few months, a few weeks, a few days, just a while ago. After.
P.S.- At the end of the interview and after he had checked whether the meaning of his explanations was complete and correct, Subcommander Insurgent Moisés – who received command and the Zapatista spokesperson 10 years ago, in 2013 – lit the umpteenth cigarette. I lit the pipe. We stood looking at the lintel of the ‘champa’ door. Early morning gave way to dawn and the first lights of day woke up the sounds in the mountains of southeastern Mexico. We didn’t say more, but maybe we both thought: “and what’s missing is yet to come.”
P.S. WHICH DECLAREs UNDER OATH. – At no moment or stage of the deliberation that led to the decision made by the Zapatista peoples, did quotes or footnotes or references, even distant ones, come to light from Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mao, Bakunin, Che, Fidel Castro, Kropotkin, Flores Magón, the Bible, the Koran, Milton Freidman, Milei, progressivism (if it has any bibliographical reference other than its ‘cagatintas’), Liberation Theology, Lombardo, Revueltas, Freud, Lacan, Foucault, Deleuze, whatever is fashionable or fashionable on the left, or any source from the left, right, or from the non-existent centers. Not only, I also know that they have not read any of the founding works of the isms that fuel the dreams and defeats of the left. For my part, I give unsolicited advice to those who read these lines: everyone is free to make a fool of themselves, but I would recommend that before starting with their nonsense like “the Lacandona laboratory”, “the Zapatista experiment”, and to categorize this in one sense or another, they think about it a little. Because, speaking of ridiculous, they have already been making a big deal for almost 30 years by “explaining” Zapatismo. Maybe you don’t remember now, but what’s left over here, in addition to dignity and mud, is memory. Sorry.
I attest
The Captain
Produced by Tercios Compas. Mountains of the Mexican Southeast. Copyleft November 2023
Music: «El pueblo y el mal gobierno», Óscar Chávez, Guillermo Velázquez and Los Leones de Xichú
Eighteenth Part: The Rage
Is it inherited? It is acquired? Grown? Is it lost? Does it change? Is it spread? What channels is it transmitted through? How is it done collectively? Is it creative?
At what point does she become worthy? When do you begin to distance itself from resentment and revenge? Is it getting closer to justice?
How does it become the historical root of entire peoples, different in geography, language, culture, history, time?
Is rage the bridge between pain and rebellion?
At what moment do anguish, desperation, and helplessness turn into rage?
What if the disappeared men and women, conversely, inherit the rage to those who search for them? What if they give birth to their parents?
What if the seekers do not seek consolation, pity, sympathy, the alms of another’s ear? What if they also seek our rage?
What if all anger has the same root and they, we, the people, find each other at that root?
Will we greet each other? Will we have the strength to smile at each other, hug each other, exchange not only pain, but also the details of the person responsible – his same face (although different), his sardonic laugh, his mocking look, his cynicism, his way of knowing he goes unpunished, the flag of money?
What if sometime, in the unfinished book of history, someone looks at a light, any one, that, without any fuss or slogans, points out “this light was given birth to by rage”?
What if what unites us, despite all the differences, is the same rage? Who will face us? Who will sentence us to the same defeat as in the past, now, today? Who will threaten us with a tomorrow which looks exactly as yesterday?
Who will lose and who will find?
-*-
Zapatista youngsters practicing a play to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the war against oblivion. Images courtesy of Los Tercios Compas, copyleft December 2023. Music by Keni Arkana: “La Rage”.
The Captain.
Mexico, December 2023.
40, 30, 20, 10, 1 year later.
Movilización del EZLN en la ciudad de San Cristóbal de las Casas. Marzo, 2022. Foto: Tercios Compas / Enlace Zapatista
El pasado 25 de noviembre se cumplió un año de la detención arbitraria de José Díaz Gómez, Base de Apoyo del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (BAEZLN), quien permanece recluido en prisión preventiva oficiosa en el Centro Estatal de Reinserción Social de Sentenciados (CERSS) No. 17, también conocido como “El Bambú”, ubicado en Catazajá, región norte de Chiapas.
Acorde a un comunicado del Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas (CDH Frayba), Díaz Gómez, integrante del pueblo Ch’ol y acusado por robo, “permanece en una situación grave de vulnerabilidad a su dignidad humana por la fabricación de un delito en su contra”.
“La acusación se basa en montajes por parte de la Fiscalía General del Estado. Este ha sido el modo de operar de esta instancia quien opera un patrón de fabricación de culpables y criminalización contra personas defensoras en complicidad con el Poder Judicial local”, contextualiza el centro de derechos humanos.
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El CDH Frayba detalla que el proceso de prisión preventiva contra Díaz Gómez se ha visto “maliciosamente prolongado”. También señala que, ante la falta de evidencia para vincular a Díaz Gómez, la Fiscalía de Distrito Selva y el Juzgado de Control se han articulado para simular el proceso, a costa de su libertad.
Por ejemplo, ambas instancias han ampliado los tiempos de la investigación con el objetivo de retrasar la audiencia del juicio, “a sabiendas de que es imposible acreditar cualquier responsabilidad en su contra”, sostiene la organización.
Otro punto a destacar es la falta de la debida diligencia por parte de la defensoría pública del estado de Chiapas. Hace poco más de dos meses se le asigno un nuevo defensor, quien aún transcurrido este tiempo no se ha entrevistado con Díaz Gómez para actualizar su situación penal y conocer las necesidades de acceso a justicia del imputado. “En consecuencia, no ha realizado acciones necesarias para impulsar su pronta liberación”, denuncia el CDH Frayba.
Ante este escenario, el pasado 15 de noviembre, Díaz Gómez solicitó ante el Juzgado de Control de Catazajá la modificación de sus medidas cautelares para llevar su proceso en libertad condicionada.
El BAEZLN tiene dos hijos menores de edad y esposa, “quienes también sufren las consecuencias de su detención, afectando la convivencia familiar, así como su situación física, psicológica y económica por lo que el cambio de medida es una necesidad para aminorar tales impactos. Al momento no se ha dado respuesta a la solicitud”, contextualiza la organización de derechos humanos.
El EZLN ha denunciado que José Díaz Gómez es rehén del gobierno de Chiapas por ser zapatista. Lo mismo ocurrió en el caso de Manuel Gómez Vázquez, quien recientemente recuperó su libertad tras casi tres años de permanecer arbitrariamente privado de su libertad.
El centro de derechos humanos, con sede en San Cristóbal de las Casas, enfatiza que existe un patrón de criminalización en otras latitudes de México, “donde los pueblos originarios se oponen a la imposición de megaproyectos por parte del actual gobierno. Destacan así la existencia de ordenes de aprehensión en contra de poblaciones opositoras al Tren Interoceánico” en referencia a la persecución contra los miembros de la comunidad binizaá de Puente Madera, en Oaxaca.
En el caso de Chiapas, se suman los casos de la detención de Cesar Hernández y José Luis Gutiérrez, defensores tseltales criminalizados por oponerse a la imposición de una base de la Guardia Nacional en su territorio. También, el caso de cinco defensores tseltales de San Juan Cancuc, quienes fueron sentenciados a 25 años de prisión por defender su territorio ante megaproyectos como la “carretera de las culturas”.
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“La fabricación de delitos en contra de defensores indígenas representa una estrategia selectiva del actual gobierno Federal, que busca ocasionar un efecto inhibidor hacia las comunidades y personas que defienden sus derechos, destaca que en su mayoría se dirige en contra de personas indígenas defensoras del territorio”, sostiene el CDH Frayba.
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