June’s Lessons.

July, 2016

Compañeras, compañeros, compañeroas of the Sixth in Mexico and the World:
Artists of the five continents:
Teachers in rebellion:

We send you all [todos, todas, todoas] greetings, from us and the indigenous Zapatista communities. We are writing this letter to tell you about what we have seen and heard this past month of June and to let you know about a decision we Zapatistas have made. Here goes:

Lessons from Above

In just the last few weeks of June, we have been given a true educational seminar.

Once again, the character of the Mexican state has been laid bare: as soon as the capitalists snapped their fingers, regarding what is called the “Law 3 of 3,” the institutional powers scrambled to correct what didn’t please their masters. Not content merely with knowing that they rule, the great lords of money demonstrated, to anyone who wished to see, who really makes the decisions. A handful of masters, in luxury brand suits and ties, came out to the Ángel de la Independenciai and, to mock its meaning, gave what amounts to a class in modern politics. “We rule,” they said without speaking, “and we do not like that law. We do not need to sacrifice lives, hold marches, or suffer blows, humiliation, or imprisonment. We don’t even need to show ourselves. If we do so now it is only to remind all of the politicians of their place, both those who are in office and those who aspire to be. And for the lumpen, well, this is just to remind them of the contempt we feel for them.” And then the system’s legal structure (and those who create, implement it, and enforce it) showed its true purpose: within just a few hours, the governmental “institutions” fell over themselves apologizing and trying to ease the anger of the gentlemen of money. Like overseers eager to serve their masters, the governing officials prostrated themselves and maneuvered to make the law appropriate to the system’s design. “We didn’t even read it,” the legislators murmured as they expressed reverence and made servile apologies to their masters.

But when the teachers in resistance and the communities, movements, organizations, and persons who support them demanded the repeal of the education reform (really just a presidential pre-campaign platform for Aurelio’s aspirations to be a police informant), the government and its masters declared that nothing (meaning, the use of force) was off the table in order to defend “the rule of law.” With a tone more hysterical than historical, they emphasized that the law would not be negotiated. And they made this declaration just a few hours after they bowed before the powers of money… to negotiate modification of a law.

(Continuar leyendo…)

The Hour of the Policeman 4
From the Cat-Dog’s spoiler notebook

June 2016

Here’s the doubt: what would be the most appropriate comparison for that sad and mediocre overseer who aspires to be a policeman?

Aurelio Donald Nuño Trump?

Aurelio Ramsay Nuño Bolton?

We think that, given his thirst for blood and his cowardice, the latter fits him best.

And, just like in the television series “Game of Thrones,” where Ramsay Bolton is devoured by the dogs that he before used to attack others, the paid media that have used Nuño to slander, threaten, and attack the teachers in resistance and the communities and organizations in solidarity, will feed on him when he falls.

It could very well be said to him tomorrow:

“Your words will disappear.
Your house will disappear
Your name will disappear
All memory of you will disappear.”
To him and the entire system he serves.

Time will tell.
Woof-meow.

FROM WITHIN THE STORM

Joint Communique from the National Indigenous Congress and the EZLN on the cowardly police attack against the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers and the indigenous community of Nochixtlán, Oaxaca.

June 20, 2016

To the People of Mexico:

To the peoples of the World:

Faced with the cowardly repressive attack suffered by the teachers and the community in Nochixtlán, Oaxaca—in which the Mexican state reminds us that this is a war on all—the peoples, nations, and tribes who make up the National Indigenous Congress and the Zapatista Army for National Liberation say to the dignified teachers that they are not alone, that we know that reason and truth are on their side, that the collective dignity from which they speak their resistance is unbreakable, and that this the principal weapon of those of us below.

We condemn the escalation of repression with which the neoliberal capitalist reform, supposedly about “education,” is being imposed across the entire country and principally in the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, and Michoacán. With threats, persecutions, beatings, unjust imprisonments and now murders they try to break the dignity of the teachers in rebellion.

We call on our peoples and on civil society in general to be with the teachers who resist at all times, to recognize ourselves in them. The violence used to dispossess them of their basic work benefits with the goal of privatizing education is a reflection of the violence with which the originary peoples and rural and urban peoples are dispossessed.

Those who delight in power decided that education, health, indigenous and campesino territories, and even peace and security are a commodity for whoever can pay for them, that rights are not rights but rather products and services to be snatched away, and they dispossess, destroy, and negotiate according to what big capital dictates. And they intend to impose this aberration through bloody means, murdering and disappearing our compañer@s, sending our spokespeople to high security prisons, making shameless torture into government marketing, and with the help of the paid press, criminalizing the bravest part of Mexican society, that is, those who struggle, who do not give in, who do not sell out, and who do not give up.

We demand a halt to the repression against the teachers in struggle and the immediate and unconditional liberation of ALL political prisoners.

We invite all of the peoples of the countryside and cities to be attentive and in solidarity with the teachers’ struggle, to organize autonomously in order to remain informed and alert in the face of the storm that is upon all of us, knowing that a storm, in addition to its turmoil and chaos, also makes the ground fertile where a new world is always born.

From the mountains, countryside, valleys, canyons, and barrios of the originary peoples, nations, and tribes of Mexico.

Never Again a Mexico Without Us!
National Indigenous Congress
Zapatista Army for National Liberation
Mexico, June 20, 2016

Notes on the War Against the Teachers in Resistance
(The Hour of the Police 3)

June 2016

From the notebook of the cat-dog:

—We don’t know about the rest of the country, but in Chiapas those above are losing the media war.

We have seen entire families support the teachers, in the rural areas as well as the urban. And we aren’t talking about support of the “we see your raised fists” type, or that of “the people united will never be defeated” and other slogans that continue to be the same despite distances in calendar and geography because below solidarity continues to be a basic principle. But if in previous mobilizations among the rebellious teachers, the “citizens” (a term that hides inequality) were bothered and fed up, now things have changed.

There are more and more families helping the teachers, donating support for their trips and marches, becoming anxious when they are attacked, offering food, drink, and refuge. They are families who, according to the taxonomy of the electoral left, have been “dumbed down” by television, or are “sandwich-gobblers,”(i) “deranged,” “sheep,” “people without conscience.” But it seems that the outsized media campaign against the teachers in resistance has failed.

The resistance movement against the education reform has become a mirror for more and more people-people (meaning, not social and political organizations, but ordinary people). It is as if the resistance has awoken a collective sense of urgency in the face of the coming tragedy. It is as if every swing of a police baton, every canister of tear gas, every rubber bullet, and every arrest warrant were eloquent slogans: “today I attack her, him; tomorrow I’m coming for you.” Perhaps that is why, behind every teacher there are entire families that sympathize with their cause and their struggle.

Why? Why does a movement that has been fiercely attacked on all sides continue to grow? If they are “vandals,” “slackers,” “terrorists,” “corrupt,” and “opposed to progress,” then why do so many people below, no small number in the middle, and even a few above salute the teachers, even if sometimes in silence, for defending what anyone would defend?

(Continuar leyendo…)

May: Between Authoritarianism and Resistance

The calendar? May 2016
The geography?

Well, it could be any part of this country, scratched open and bleeding with forced disappearances, impunity made institution, intolerance as a form of government, corruption as the modus vivendi of a fetid and mediocre political class.

But it could also be any part of this country healed by the persistence of the families who do not forget their missing, their tenacious search for truth and justice, their rebellious resistance in the face of blows, bullets, and clubs, and their eagerness to construct a path without masters, bosses, saviors, guides, or caudillos; through defense, resistance, rebellion; through the strength of pain and rage making the crack deeper and wider.

“Mexico” as this country is commonly called, reflects in its own way the crisis that is shaking the entire world.

It seems that at some moment in the brief and intense history of the 20th century, this country was an international referent for tourism. One heard about its landscapes, its gastronomy, the hospitality of its people, the perfection of the perfect dictatorship.

But both before and during this travel agency pamphlet image, what happened happened. No, I won’t ply you with information on what has happened in the immediate past, say the last 30 years.

The thing is that over the past few years, “Mexico” has become a world referent for governmental corruption; for the cruelty of narco-trafficking; the full complicity and cohabitation, not merely infiltration, of organized crime and the official institutions; the forced disappearances; the army out of the barracks and into the streets and onto the highways; the murders and imprisonments of opposition figures, journalists, and others; the “warning” signs on the paths of tourists; the cynicism as idiosyncrasy in the media and social networks; and life, freedom, and personal possessions gambled in the deadly roulette of daily life (“if they didn’t come for you today, maybe tomorrow”). If you are a woman, of whatever age, multiply the risks. The feminine, along with any difference, is ahead only in this respect: more likely to suffer violence, disappearance, death.

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Foto: Argelaga

NATIONAL INDIGENOUS CONGRESS
ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION

To the media

To the solidarity organizations
To the Human Rights organizations
To the dignified Binizza community of Álvaro Obregón, Juchitán, Oaxaca

Sisters and Brothers

Our peoples, tribes, communities, organizations, and neighborhoods see with rage and indignation how the bad government boasts its total lack of shame, through its political parties of every color, as it continues to attack our peoples and its political parties continue trying to divide our communities. Our voice will not tire of denouncing and shouting, Enough!

On May 14, brutally and shamelessly, the police and bodyguards of the PAN-PRD candidate Gloria Sánchez López dared to aim their murderous weapons at the dignified community of Álvaro Obregón, Juchitán, injuring the six compañeros who were in an assembly, defending their physical and political territory from deadly wind energy projects, whose “clean” energy is filthy with blood, corruption, and death. The candidates from all of the political parties—who even though they are only candidates feel they can already benefit from the impunity they are granted for belonging to the band of criminals badly governing the state of Oaxaca and the country—believe that with bullets they will manage to change the conscience and kill the dignity of the Binizza people.

(Continuar leyendo…)

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Son dos años sin el Maestro Votán Zapatista Galeano. En el contexto de su ausencia física podemos retomar elementos que nos dan luces de la importancia de la organización, la vida en comunidad y los esfuerzos colectivos.

Con nudo en la garganta, los dientes apretados y el dolor en el corazón, no podemos dejar de denunciar que nuestro Maestro fue asesinado y que los cobardes responsables son muchos: el desprecio del sistema capitalista hacia los pueblos indígenas en resistencia, la política de contrainsurgencia del Estado mexicano en contra de las comunidades zapatistas, los criminales que ostentan cargos institucionales, los grupos de poder locales y caciques de la región, los medios de comunicación de paga.

Todos y cada uno de ellos fueron representados por los asesinos de la CIOAC y periodistas que trabajan para La Jornada y El Universal, los primeros autores materiales del asesinato y los segundos como viles cómplices presentando a los agresores como los agredidos, tratando de reducir un acto de guerra a una falaz “refriega” intercomunitaria. Este ataque paramilitar dejó a otros compañeros heridos de gravedad y tuvo también como objetivo una escuela zapatista.

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To the media
To the Human Rights organizations
To the Union of Inhabitants of Chablekal
To the people of Mexico

Sisters and Brothers

We, the peoples, communities, tribes, neighborhoods, organizations, and collectives who make up the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) denounce and condemn the events today in the community of Chablekal, Yucatán, where the police attempted to evict an elder of the community from his home. Upon learning of the unjust eviction, the inhabitants decided to protest to try to stop the action, to which state antiriot police responded with tear gas. Women, children, and elderly persons were present; as of now more than 40 canisters of tear gas have been found in the community.

Jorge Fernández Mendiburu and Martha Capetillo Pasos, in their role as human rights defenders and members of the Human Rights Center Indignación A.C. and the National Indigenous Congress, were arbitrarily detained, beaten, and handcuffed in an aggressive manner and against all due process. Although they were released shortly after, this constitutes an act of intimidation and criminalization of human rights observation and social protest.

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“El pueblo pobre no se equivoca”

Conversacion entre el vocero del EZLN Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés y el colectivo artistico social Chto Delat y el periodista Oleg Yasinsky (Ucrania)

-Subcomandante Moisés: Lo que les puedo compartir no es de lo que hacemos nosotros como tropas insurgentes, sino es la realidad de su práctica de nuestros compañeros, bases de apoyo y compañeras a lo largo de 22 años que salimos a la luz pública. Eso es lo que les voy a platicar. No es lo que nosotros logramos como tropa, como insurgentes, sino lo que lograron nuestros pueblos.

Cuando nos declaramos municipios autónomos rebeldes zapatistas, entonces ahí donde dijeron los compañeros: vamos a gobernarnos nosotros mismos. Los compañeros, las compañeras vencieron muchas cosas, porque no saben leer ni escribir y no pueden hablar el español. Pero ellos dijeron: la justicia sabemos cómo queremos, cómo debe ser un buen gobierno, no depende de leer ni escribir o saber bien español. Entonces, como entran en resistencia. Como ellos quieren el gobierno que quiere el pueblo, entonces vamos a hablarnos como gobierno en nuestra lengua. Porque aquí hay varias lenguas. Hay tzeltal, tzotzil, tojolabal, chol, zoque, mame y otros así pues que hablan español. Entonces tuvieron que resistir burlas de los que no son zapatistas, por ejemplo: él es un tzeltalero y otra tzeltalera, pero no es zapatista, entonces ella le dice no sabe gobernar, lo conozco, es hijo de tal, no tiene estudio; burlas así, de ese tipo. Años después, la que burló, va a ir a pedir justicia ahí.

El mal gobierno o sea el sistema, el mal sistema, es que este controla, domina, manipula a la gente, para que se pongan en contra de nosotros. Por ejemplo, provoca problemas, quieren quitar la tierra recuperada, que la recuperamos en el 94, porque recuperamos miles de hectáreas,

Luego otra resistencia que vino son los bombardeos políticos en los medios de comunicación hasta, por ejemplo, dicen en los medios de comunicación que los comandantes ya se vendieron o que la comandancia general ya abandonó al EZLN, que la comandancia está peleada con el pueblo y hasta guerras psicológicas en los medios. Dicen por ejemplo que el finado sub Marcos está enfermo y que el gobierno de Calderón lo está curando. Que no que el finado Marcos abandonó los pueblos zapatistas, que anda de turista en Europa. Así montón de cosas que dicen, con tal de que crean los compañeros y se desmoralizan, pues. Los compañeros tuvieron que resistir las provocaciones que hace el ejército y la policía, pues quieren que los matemos para que nos maten ellos. Pero lo que se dieron cuenta los compañeros de los pueblos es el cambio que queremos, y entonces el cambio se hace con lucha política pacífica, rebelde y resistente.

Hay un nuevo sistema de gobierno de los compañeros, donde ellos, miles de zapatistas, ellos y ellas mandan y el gobierno obedece, eso se logró con arma de lucha de resistencia y de rebeldía, 22 años se hizo eso, si hubiéramos hecho 22 años de balazos, no hubiésemos construido lo que hay ahora. Los pueblos son los que vigilan al gobierno, demostraron que los pueblos sepamos o no leer o escribir, sabemos gobernar. Un gobierno donde piensa por el pueblo, clarito podemos decir ahora, a todos los gobiernos capitalistas que hay en el mundo, no les sirven los estudios que dan en Harward o algo así. Porque los que saben son los pueblos que están explotados.

Pero dicen los compañeros y las compañeras: hay que saber usar la rabia, o sea el coraje, pues. Dicen las compañeras que tiene que ser digna esa rabia, o sea se tiene que estudiar cuando es necesario matar o morir, y cuando no. Por ejemplo estos 22 años.

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