300
Part III:
A Challenge, Real Autonomy, An Answer, Multiple Proposals, and a Few Anecdotes about the Number 300

So what’s next?

We’ll have to swim against the current, but that’s nothing new for us Zapatistas.

We want to reiterate—and we have consulted this with the Zapatista communities—that we oppose any and every overseer. We’re not just talking about those who insist they will administrate properly and repress correctly—as in the current proposal to combat corruption and improve security via impunity—but also those whose intentions for hegemony and imposed homogeneity lie just below their vanguardist dreams.

We will not exchange our history, our pain, our rage, and our struggle for a “progressive” conformity which is currently closing ranks behind its leader. We don’t forget, even when everybody else does, that we are Zapatistas.

With regard to our autonomy and the discussion that’s going on about whether it will be recognized or not, we make the following distinction: there is official autonomy, and there is real autonomy. Official autonomy is recognized by law, and this is its logic: “If you have an autonomous system and I legally recognize it, then your autonomy begins to depend on my law and not on your actual autonomous practices. When election season rolls around, you’ll have to support us, voting and promoting the vote for our party, because if another party takes office they’ll undo that law that protects you.” In that logic, we become political party peons, just as has happened to social movements all over the world. The actual function and defense of autonomy ceases to matter; the only thing that matters is what is recognized by the law. The struggle for freedom is in effect transformed into a struggle for the legal recognition of struggle.

-*-

We talked to our “bosses,” that is, the communities that determine our path, our route, and our destiny. We see what is coming through their perspective. We asked them: “if we take this position (what we believe is necessary), what will happen?”

And this is how we answered ourselves: “we’ll be alone and isolated in our position. People will say that we’re irrelevant—that we have placed ourselves outside the great revolution, the supposed fourth transformation, this new religion or whatever you want to call it—and we’ll have to swim against the current yet again.”

But being alone and isolated is nothing new for us. Then we asked ourselves: are we afraid to be alone in what we believe? Are we afraid to hold fast to our convictions and to struggle for them? Are we afraid that the people who previously supported us will turn against us? Are we afraid to refuse to give up, give in, or sell out? We asked ourselves each of these questions and we came to the conclusion that what we were asking was if we were afraid to be Zapatistas.

We aren’t afraid to be Zapatistas and that’s exactly what we are going to continue to be. That was what we asked ourselves, and that was our answer.

We think that, alongside all of you (the support networks), and with everything against us—because we know that throughout this process you didn’t have the support of the media or the masses, nor could you count on pay or popularity (we know you had to use your own money to carry out your work)—we organized ourselves around a collective of originary peoples and a small, brown woman, the color of the earth, to denounce a predatory system and defend our conviction and our struggle.
We’re looking for other people who aren’t afraid. That’s why we want to ask you (the support networks), are you afraid? You decide. If you’re afraid, we’ll look somewhere else.

-*-

We think that we should continue to walk closely with the originary peoples.

Maybe some of you as support networks still think that what you’re doing is supporting the originary peoples. As time goes by you’re going to see that it’s just the opposite: they will support you through their experience and their forms of organization. That is, you will learn, because if anyone is an expert in surviving a storm it’s the originary peoples. They’ve had everything thrown at them and here they still are—here we still are.

But we also think, and compañer@s we want to make this very clear: that won’t be enough. We will have to incorporate into our horizon of struggle all of our own realities and the pain and rage they hold. We will have to move toward a new phase of this process: the construction of a Council that includes the struggles of all of the oppressed, marginalized, disappeared, and murdered, the struggles of political prisoners, of women who have been attacked and harassed, of children who have been prostituted, of all the calendars and geographies that delineate a map that is impossible within the laws of probability and illegible to polls and votes: the contemporary map of rebellion and resistance across the planet.

If we—all of us together—are going to challenge the laws of probability that say there is little to no chance that we will succeed, if we are going to challenge the polls and the millions of votes and the world-in-numbers that Power pulls out to try to demoralize us and make us give up, then we have to make the Council [Indigenous Governing Council, CIG] bigger. At this point this is just a thought that we want to share with you—that we think it is important to build a Council that neither absorbs nor annuls differences, but rather gives each of us the chance to be with others [otros, otras, otroas] who share the same struggle. This is why we think the Council should not be limited by a geography imposed by borders and flags, but should aim to become international.

What we are proposing is that the Indigenous Governing Council cease to be only indigenous and only national in scope.

To that end, as Zapatistas we put forward the following proposals, in addition to the ones already suggested during this gathering, to be consulted with all of your home collectives and organizations:

1. To reaffirm our support for the National Indigenous Congress and the Indigenous Governing Council.

2. To create and maintain open and transparent forms of communication among all of us who have come together on this path of the Indigenous Governing Council and its spokeswoman.

3. To begin or continue our analysis and evaluation of the reality in which we live, and to share with each other these analyses and evaluations as well as our subsequent proposals for coordinated action.

4. Without ceasing our support for the originary peoples, we propose to double down on the work of the CIG Support Networks in order to open our collective heart to all of the rebellions and resistances that emerge and persevere wherever we might be, in the countryside or the city, without regard for borders.

5. To begin or continue the struggle to grow both the demands and dimensions of the Indigenous Governing Council with the goal of extending it beyond originary peoples to include workers of the countryside and city and all of those who have been discarded or marginalized but who have their own history and struggle, that is, their own identity.

6. To begin or continue the analysis and discussion toward the creation of a Coordination or Federation of Networks which avoids any kind of centralized or vertical command and which spares no effort in building solidarity, support, and sisterhood/brotherhood among its participants.

7. Finally, to hold in December of this year an international gathering of networks—we propose that for now we call ourselves the Network of Resistance and Rebellion (and then the name of each collective), but it could be whatever we decide to name ourselves. At that point we will have had the chance to hear, analyze, and evaluate what the National Indigenous Congress and the Indigenous Governing Council decide and propose during their meeting in October, and we will also have the results of the consultation process to be undertaken as a result this meeting we are in right now. We would like to offer one of the Zapatista Caracoles as a location for that upcoming meeting, if you are all in agreement.

Our proposal, then, is not only for the originary peoples, but for everyone [todoas, todas, todos] who resist and rebel in each and every corner of the world, and who challenge every rule, law, mold, dictate, number, and percentage imposed on us.

-*-

First anecdote: During the first days of 1994, the intelligence services of the Mexican army estimated that the self-designated “ee-zee-el-en” consisted of “only” 300 transgressors of the law.
Second anecdote: That same year, as Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León and Esteban Moctezuma Barragán plotted the betrayal and ambush to be carried out against us in February of 1995,i the Nexos group (dedicated at that time to singing the praises of Salinas de Gortari and Zedillo), exclaimed, out of growing frustration and in so many words by Héctor Aguilar Camín, “Why don’t we just obliterate them? There are only 300 of them!”

Third anecdote: Information from the registration table at the Gathering of Support Networks for the CIG and its spokeswoman, held at the Zapatista Caracol “Whirlwind of our Words” August 3-5, 2018: “attendees: 300”.

Fourth anecdote: Profits of the 300 most powerful corporations on the planet: we have no idea, but it could be 300, or any other number, followed by a shitload of zeros, and ending with “millions of dollars”.

Fifth anecdote: “encouraging” quantities and percentages:

The quantitative difference between 300 and 30,113,483 (the number of votes López Obrador the candidate received according to the INE): thirty million, one hundred and thirteen thousand, one hundred and eighty-three.

300 is 0.00099623% of those more than 30 million votes

300 is 0.00052993% of the total votes cast (56,611,027)

300 is 0.00033583% of the total number of registered voters (89,332,032)

300 is 0.00022626% of the total Mexican population (132,593,000, minus the 7 women who, on average, are murdered daily. Over the past decade, a girl, young woman, adult woman, or elderly woman has been murdered, on average, every 4 hours).

300 is 0.00003012% of the population of the American Continent (996,000,000 in 2017)

The probability of destroying the capitalist system is 0.000003929141%, which is the percentage of the world population (7,635,255,247 at 7:54pm on August 20, 2018), represented by the number 300 (that is, of course, if those supposed 300 people don’t give up, give in, or sell out).

Oh I know, not even the tortoise beating Achilles[ii] would be consolation.

What about a caracol?[iii]…

La Bruja Escarlata?[iv]…

The cat-dog?…

All right, enough of that. What keeps us Zapatistas awake is not the challenge presented by this infinitesimal probability of triumph, but the question of what the world that follows, the one that begins to emerge from the still smoking ashes of this system, will be like.

What will be its ways?

Will its colors speak?

What will its theme song be? (Huh? “The Girl with the Red Bow?”[v] No way).

What will be the lineup of Defensa Zapatista’s (finally) full team? Can Esperanza Zapatista’s teddy bear join the lineup and team up with Pedrito? Will they let Pablito wear his cowboy hat and Amado Zapatista, his crocheted helmet? Why doesn’t the damned referee blow his whistle on the Cat-dog who is so obviously off-sides?

Above all, and most importantly, how will that new world dance?

This is why, when we Zapatistas are asked, “What’s next?” Well…how can I explain it? We don’t answer on the spot, it takes us a bit. The truth is, you’ll see, that dancing a new world is less problematic than imagining it.

Sixth anecdote: Oh, you thought the thing about “300”vi was because of the film by that title and the Battle of Thermopylae, and you were ready to get dressed up like Leonidas or Gorgo (to each their own) and start shouting “This is Sparta!” while decimating the “immortal” troops of the Persian King Xerxes? Man, haven’t I been saying? Those Zapatistas, always watching another movie. Or, worse yet, watching and analyzing reality. What can you do…

-*-

That’s all…for now.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.                     Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano.
Mexico, August of 2018.

300.
Part II:
A Continent as a Backyard, a Country as a Cemetery, Pensamiento Únicoi as a Government Program, and a Small, Very Small, Ever So Small Rebellion.

From our analysis of the world we move to the level of the continent.

If we look above…

We see the examples of Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina, where supposedly progressive governments have not only been removed from power but prosecuted, and the governments that have taken their place are ones that have been trained as good overseers—obedient to capital, that is—ready to take on a realignment of the world plantation (though, to be fair, even in their cynicism they’re still pretty clumsy). Take Temer in Brazil, Macri in Argentina, and that guy in Ecuador who was supposed to be good because he was chosen by the now-persecuted Correa (a man of the “citizen’s revolution”, “a leftist” according to the progressive intelligentsia who backed him) but who, it turns out, is actually on the right: Lenin Moreno (yeah, paradoxically his name is Lenin).

Under the watchful eye of the State that has become the policeman of the region—Colombia—threats are issued, destabilization efforts are undertaken and plans are made for provocations that would justify “peace force” invasions. In all of South America, we see a return to the brutal times of the Colonies, now characterized by a “new” extractivism—really just the same ancestral plunder of natural resources, categorized as “raw materials”—but endorsed and promoted among the progressive governments of the region as “Left extractivism”. This is supposed to be something like a Leftist capitalism or a capitalist Left, or who knows what it’s supposed to be because it destroys and dispossesses just the same, only it’s for a “good cause” (??). Any criticism or movement that opposes the destruction of the originary peoples’ territories is written off as having been “promoted by Empire” or “backed by the right-wing”, among other equivalents to being “a conspiracy by the mafia of Power.” In sum, the “backyard” of Capital extends across the continent all the way to Cape Horn.

But if we look below…

We see resistances and rebellions, first and foremost among the originary peoples. It would be unfair to try to name them all since there’s always a risk of leaving some out, but their identities are clear in their struggles. There where the machine encounters resistance to its predatory advance, rebellion dresses in colors so old they’re new again and speaks “strange” languages. Displacement, also disguised as the leasing of lands, tries to impose its commodity logic on those who refer to the Earth as “Mother.” These resistances are accompanied by groups, collectives, and organizations which, while perhaps not themselves composed of originary peoples, share the same effort and the same destiny, that is to say, the same heart. That is why they suffer insults, persecution, imprisonment and, not infrequently, death.

(Continuar leyendo…)

Words of the EZLN’s Sixth Commission at the Gathering of Support Networks for the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG) and its spokeswoman

(Expanded version)

Given time restrictions, we were unable to present these thoughts in full during the gathering. We promised you the full version, and we include the full transcription here, including the parts that were not read at the gathering. You’re welcome. Don’t mention it.

300
Part I:
A Plantation, a World, a War, Slim Chances.

August, 2018.

Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano:

Good morning, thank you for coming, for accepting our invitation and for sharing your words with us.

We are going to begin by explaining our way of doing analysis and evaluation.

We start by analyzing what is happening in the world, then move to what is happening at the continental level, then to what is happening in this country, then to a regional and finally to a local level. From there, we develop an initiative and begin to move back up from a local level to a regional level, then to the national, the continental, and finally the global level.

We think that capitalism is the dominant system at the global level. In order to explain this system both to ourselves and to others, we use the image of a plantation. I’m going to ask Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés to explain this part.

-*-

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés:

Compañeros and compañeras: we interviewed our own compañeros and compañeras who are our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers, some of whom are still alive. The following is what they told us and what they helped us understand: how the rich, the capitalists, want to turn the whole world into their plantation.

(Continuar leyendo…)

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Altamirano, Chiapas. 9 de agosto. La sonrisa de los abuel@s, la reflexión de las mujeres, las miradas llenas de curiosidad de los niñ@s, son imágenes que sobresalen en el Festival CompArte Zapatista 2018. “Nuestros caracoles floreciendo están”, “Nuestra lucha no va a terminar”, “democracia, justicia y libertad”, se escucha en las melodías que interpretan las y los indígenas chiapanecos en este también XV aniversario en el cual celebran su decisión de organizarse en Los Caracoles y las Juntas de Buen Gobierno (JBG).

Desde el Caracol de “Morelia”, con canciones y obras de teatro situaciones cotidianas son recreadas por niños, jóvenes y adultos Bases de Apoyo Zapatistas, para ejemplificar lo que viven las familias que han decidido estar en “resistencia y rebeldía”.

Los programas asistencialistas del gobierno federal y estatal son una constante en las dramatizaciones de los rebeldes chiapanecos, sobre como el Estado “desmoviliza la resistencia”. Frente al hostigamiento gubernamental las y los indígenas chiapanecos han respondido con organización y propuestas en rubros que van desde la salud, la educación, la justicia, la alimentación, la seguridad, entre otros.

De manera lúdica y profunda, las y los zapatistas exponen en sus obras teatrales problemáticas en las que se ven refleja@s niñ@s, adolecentes, jóven@s, mujeres, ancianos y hombres de la comunidad. Tales situaciones tienen que ver con el consumismo y su repercusión en problemas de salud, económicos, sociales y culturales.

En una de las actuaciones en el CompArte 2018, se escenifica claramente la línea que sigue el sistema capitalista al afectar a las comunidades: la mala alimentación enferma a la población, la cual tiene que solicitar atención médica costosa, lo que lleva a mujeres y hombres a vender sus pocas propiedades y hasta la tierra para saldar sus deudas. En la otra cara que muestran los indígenas en resistencia en sus escenificaciones, la salud es para toda la población y no se necesita grandes sumas para ser atendidos en sus clínicas y hospitales autónomos. Y también se convoca a trabajos colectivos para apoyar al enferm@.

La historia también se hace presente dentro del CompArte Zapatista, y son abordados pasajes desde la Revolución hasta las pasadas elecciones presidenciales del mes de julio. Problemas sociales como el desempleo, la explotación, la represión, la criminalización de la protesta social, se exponen en el encuentro de las y los indígenas chiapanecos con asistentes nacionales e internacionales.

En el mensaje principal de la Comandancia del EZLN, participan l@s niñ@s: Amado, Defensa Zapatistas junto con el Gato Perro, Esperanza Zapatista junto con su Oso, y Pablito. En la mesa también se encuentran los Subcomandantes Moisés y Galeano, así como el mando de la zona, el Comandante Zebedeo. El sub Galeano ejemplifica el proceso actual del zapatismo con el cuento: “La última mantecada en el sureste mexicano” (AUDIO).

“Cuidar la esperanza zapatista”, es el mensaje que enfatizó el EZLN, ante Comandant@s y miles de Bases de Apoyo Zapatistas, así como asistentes nacionales e internacionales. Los rebeldes chiapanecos indicaron que si sus “sueños y aspiraciones”, no caben en un mundo, crearán otro. “El mundo no es uno solo”, enfatizaron y añadieron que no se puede seguir un solo esquema o concepto. El mensaje principal a los “capataces (gobiernos capitalistas) pasados, presentes y futuros”, al final de la participación de los insurgentes, fue la mano en forma de caracol.

INFORMACIÓN RELACIONADA: https://www.facebook.com/EnlaceZap/

El problema con el zapatismo, dice el Sup Galeano, es que “si sus sueños y aspiraciones no caben en un mundo, imaginan otro nuevo y sorprenden con sus empeños por lograrlo” (AUDIO).

Tejiendo organización en colectivo – Encuentro de redes en apoyo al CIG

Texto, imágenes y audios tomados de Radio Pozol.

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Altamirano Chiapas. 6 de agosto. Inicia en el caracol zapatista de “Morelia”, el festival: CompARTE POR LA VIDA Y LA LIBERTAD “, Píntale caracolitos a los malos gobiernos pasados, presentes y futuros”, convocado por las Bases de Apoyo del EZLN.

Del 6 al 9 de agosto, en el caracol ubicado en el municipio de Altamirano, se podrán apreciar a musiquer@s, teatrer@s, bailador@s, pintor@s, escultor@s, declamador@s, etceter@s, de las comunidades zapatistas en resistencia y rebeldía, comunicó la Comisión Sexta del EZ. De igual forma se presentarán manifestaciones artísticas de asistentes nacionales e internacionales.

Este 6 de agosto, en el templete principal del Caracol de Morelia, se estarán presentando del caracol zapatista de Oventic, región Altos, las obras de teatro: “Los siete principios del Mandar Obedeciendo”; “la destrucción Ambiental y social” y “La nueva forma de Autogobernarnos”.

Del caracol zapatista de Roberto Barrios, amenizarán con música de mariachi los grupos: Las cinco estrellas; Orgullo Zapatista; La Voz del Pueblo; Jóvenes Rebeldes y Renacimiento Maya Chol. También se presentarán l@s solistas Chántee; El Rebelde; Roy Ser; Voz de las Mujeres; Valero y Mi Raíz. La música de trío no puede hacer falta por lo que este lunes se escucharán a los grupos: La flor y Semilla de la libertad. En este inicio del festival se podrá disfrutar del duo “Camino de la vida” y de l@s intérpretes de música Rap: Por la vida y estoy Aquí.

Otra obra de teatro que invita a la reflexión es la que presentarán Jóvenes y Jóvenas del caracol anfitrión, denominada: “Trabajar para vivir o Trabajar para Morir?.

Del Caracol de la Realidad, se podrá disfrutar de la música de grupos como: Luchadores del Pueblo; Cro Eleazar; Los Bamex; Cro Manayer; Tócame si puedes capitalista; Creadores Rebeldes del Sur; Dúc Rebelde; Trío Rebelde; Los Primos; Cro Yorch; Hijos del Pueblo; Colibrí del sur; Juventud rebelde y Seguidores de la Lucha.

Previo al inicio del festival, la tarde de este domingo cinco de agosto, al término del Encuentro de redes de apoyo al Concejo Indígena de Gobierno (CIG), del Congreso Nacional Indígena (CNI), el Subcomandante Moisés al dirigirse a l@s asistentes, reiteró la lectura que como zapatistas dan al contexto nacional e internacional actual. El vocero zapatista fue tajante al decir que no hay “patrón bueno”, en referencia a las diferentes formas de la explotación y despojo capitalista y sus representantes, a los que equiparó como “Capataces” (presidentes), “Mayordomos” (gobernadores) y “Caporal” (presidentes municipales).

Por su parte el subcomandante Galeano, siguiendo las palabras del subcomandante Moisés, indicó que cualquier capataz “va ser enfrentado”, esto al ver que el capitalismo está volviendo a los métodos que le dieron origen, “la guerra de conquista de nuevos territorios”. Al darle prioridad al consumo la economía mundial predadora, “destruirá lo más que pueda”, alertó Galeano. También señaló que las nuevas “mercancías” del capitalismo, están en territorio de los pueblos originarios y son: el agua, la tierra, el aire, entre otros. Ante las crisis que produce el sistema como la migración y catástrofes naturales, “el capitalismo está ensayando un repliegue hacia dentro como una antiglobalización para poder defenderse”, expuso el vocero zapatista. Diferentes muros van a seguir levantándose y van a proliferar como archipiélagos para separar a los ricos de los pobres, añadió.

Galeano también destacó el papel de los diferentes colectivos que trabajaron en apoyo al CIG y su vocera María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, en la recolección de firmas para que “Marichuy”, lograra su registro como candidata a la presidencia de la república. “Con todo en contra, los colectivos y vocera, denunciaron al sistema depredador”, expresó el insurgente, que pese a que el registro oficial no se logró, externó que junto con el congreso Nacional Indígena (CNI) y los grupos de apoyo, ahora consultarán hacer más grade el Concejo, esto para que esta iniciativa “no absorba y anule las diferencias; sino que las potencie”, a nivel internacional. “Nuestro llamado no es solo a los originarios, sino a tod@s los que se rebelan en todos los rincones del mundo”, compartió el rebelde chiapaneco.

COBERTURA DEL FESTIVAL COMPARTE: https://www.facebook.com/EnlaceZap/?hc_ref=ARQyLElgcLeOImLsA3GuE2NDoPY2lEpyipbCkLY_e0Gd2Z6Iy9-uQ7NoBu2uXZJXjnA&fref=nf

AUDIO DE LA CLAUSURA DEL ENCUENTRO DE REDES EN APOYO AL CIG: https://archive.org/details/ezln_5ago2018_morelia

Texto e imágenes tomadas de Radio Pozol

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés

Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico

To the People of Mexico:
To the People and Governments of the World:
To the Free, Alternative, Autonomous, or whatever they’re called Media:
To the National and International Sixth:
To the National Indigenous Congress and the Indigenous Governing Council:
To the National and International Press:

July 17th, 2018.

Since yesterday and during today, media has been running a story backed by declarations of Mister Alejandro Solalinde (who presents himself as a presbyter, priest, clergyman or however its said, christian, catholic, Roman Apostolic), of a supposed approach between EZLN and Mister Andrés Manuel López Obrador and that “the EZLN already agreed to have a first dialogue” (textual words by Mister Solalinde).

About this lie EZLN declares:

First: The CCRI-CG of EZLN, the political, organizational and military directorate of EZLN, hasn’t agreed to a first dialogue with anyone. As its well know by whoever has the minimum knowledge of EZLN and its ways, a matter like this would have been made public well in advance.

Second: EZLN hasn’t received from Mister Solalinde anything but lies, insults, libel and racist and sexist comments, by assuming just like it was done during the days of Salinismo and Zedillismo, that we are poor ignorant indigenous manipulated by the -quoting his own words- “Caxlanes who administer Zapatismo” that don’t allow us to look down and kneel to the mister whose Solalinde considers the new savior.

Third: We understand Solalinde’s need to be on the spotlight and his demand for our submissiveness, but he is wrong about EZLN’s Zapatismo. Not only he is wrong about that. We don’t know much about it, but it seems like one of the church commandments to whom Mister Solalinde supposedly serves, which goes: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour, and you won’t lie”.

(Continuar leyendo…)

Convocation to a Gathering of Support Networks for the Indigenous Governing Council; to CompARTE[i]  2018, “For Life and Freedom”; and to the Fifteenth Anniversary Event of the Zapatista Caracoles entitled, “Píntale Caracolitos a los malos gobiernos pasados, presentes y futuros” [ii]

July, 2018.

To the individuals, groups, collectives and organizations of the Support Networks for the Indigenous Governing Council:

To the National and International Sixth:

First and last point:

The Grand Finale.

You arrive at the grand stadium. “Monumental,” “colossal,” “an architectonic marvel,” “the concrete giant”—these and similar descriptors roll off the lips of TV broadcasters who, despite the different realities that they describe, all highlight the enormously proud structure.

To get to the magnificent building, you’ve had to wade through rubble, cadavers, and filth. Older folks say that it wasn’t always like this, that it used to be that homes, neighborhoods, businesses, and buildings were erected around the great sporting hub. Rivers of people would rush all the way up to the gigantic entrance, which only opened once in a while and on whose threshold was inscribed, “Welcome [Bienvenido] to the Supreme Game.” Yes, “bienvenido” in the masculine, as if what occurred inside was exclusively a men’s affair, as used to be the case with public bathrooms, bars, the machinery and tools sections of hardware stores…and, of course, soccer.

(Continuar leyendo…)

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Jueves 21 de Junio

7 a 10 am: entrevistas con medios alternativos y comerciales de Mexicali.

11 a 13 horas: Encuentro con los pueblos indígenas de Baja California. Escuela Primaria del poblado El Mayor.

17 a 19 horas: Encuentro con la Red de Apoyo, Colectivos, Organizaciones e Individuos (as-oas) que se adscribieron y decidieron apoyar la propuesta del CIG y su Vocera. Salón Social de los Jubilados Burócratas, calle H # 444, casi esquina con Av. Zaragoza, Colonia Nueva.

Viernes 22 de junio.

15 a 20 horas: Festival Cultural y Encuentro con la Red de Apoyo, Colectivos, Organizaciones e Individuos (as-oas) que se adscribieron y decidieron apoyar la propuesta del CIG y su Vocera. Lugar por confirmar.

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El pasado 19 de mayo se llevó  a cabo el II Encuentro Metropolitano de Redes, Colectivos, Organizaciones, Individu@s y Adherentes a la Sexta en apoyo al CIG y su vocera Marichuy en la Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (ENAH).

(Continuar leyendo…)

Mexico City, 2 May 2018.- Today at noon a press conference was held by the National Indigenous Congress, the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG), and the Sixth Commission of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, where they announced the aggreements of the CIG’s second work session (held on April 28 and 29 in Mexico City).

Communiqué by the CNI-CIG-Sixth Commission of the EZLN, in the voice of María de Jesús Patricio (Marichuy).

Words by Carlos González, of the Indigenous Governing Council.

Evaluation by council members regarding the achievements and difficulties of the CIG’s tour in Mexico (4’33 min.)

Communiqué by the CNI-CIG-Sixth Commission of the EZLN:
(Source: Enlace Zapatista)

WHAT’S MISSING IS YET TO COME

April 2018.

To the CIG and Marichuy Support Networks:
To those who participated in the Civil Association entitled, “The Hour for Our Peoples to Flourish Has Come”:
To the National and International Sixth:
To the Mexican people:
To the free, autonomous, alternative and independent media:
To the national and international press:

Faced with the intensification of war, dispossession, and repression in our communities, and as the electoral process advances, we, in accordance with the path walked by our spokeswoman Marichuy together with the councilmembers of the CIG [Indigenous Governing Council], respectfully address the Mexican people to say:

We hear the pain of all the colors we are, all of the colors which make up Mexico from below.

Under the pretext of collecting signatures, we traveled throughout the indigenous territories of our country where together we grew our political proposal from below, and through this process made visible the struggles, problems, and proposals of many originary peoples.

Through our participation in this electoral process, we reiterated to the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples of Mexico that we will not be silent while those above steal and destroy our land, which we inherited from our grandparents and which we owe to our grandchildren. We will not remain silent while they poison rivers and blow holes in mountains to extract minerals; we will not sit idly by as they turn the peace and life that we have been building every day into war and death via the armed groups that protect their interests. Have no doubt: our response will be organized resistance and rebellion to heal the country.

With the massive mobilization of thousands and thousands of compañeras and compañeros from the support networks around the country, we realized, and it became shamelessly clear, that to get on the ballot we would have had to prove ourselves as bad as or worse than those above. If we collect signatures, they must be fraudulent or else they won’t count; if we spend money it should come from a shady source; if we say anything it has to be a lie; if we come to any serious agreements, they must be with corrupt politicians, extractivist corporations, bankers, or drug cartels, but never, ever, with the Mexican people.

Getting on the ballot is only for those who seek to administer power from above to oppress those below, because the power they seek is rotten to the core.

It’s a competition that can be won with deceit, money, and power, as the political class’ elections are merely a commodity. There is not nor will there ever be room there for the word of those below—those who, whether they are indigenous or not, despise power and build democracy by making collective decisions which then become a form of government in the street, barrio, town, ejido, collective, city, or state.

The electoral process is one big pigsty where the competition is between those who can falsify thousands of signatures and those who have billions of pesos to coerce and buy votes. Meanwhile, the majority of the Mexican people are caught between poverty and misery.

That’s why our proposal isn’t like theirs. That’s why we’re not campaigning, falsifying signatures, or collecting and spending the monies that the people of Mexico need to meet their basic needs. That’s why we don’t need to win any election or get involved with the political class. Rather, we’re in search of power from below, born of the pain of the peoples. That’s why we’re seeking out the suffering of all the colors that make up the Mexican people: that’s where hope lies, in a good government that rules by obeying and which will only be able to emerge from organized dignity.

The racism inherent in the political structure is not the only thing that kept our proposal off the ballot. Well, even if those who oppose the destruction wrought by the capitalist system on the world had different eyes, whether they were blue or red, public policy and this supposed democracy would still be meant to exclude them.

The originary peoples and those of us who walk below and to the left don’t fit in their game. This is not because of our color, race, class, age, culture, gender, thought, or heart, but rather because we are one and the same with the Mother Earth and our struggle is to stop everything from being turned into a commodity, as this will mean the destruction of everything, starting with our destruction as peoples.

This is why we struggle and organize ourselves. This is why not only do we not fit into the structure of the capitalist state, but we also feel more disgust each day for the power above which makes its profound contempt for all Mexicans more obvious by the hour. Our peoples are facing a very serious situation, a situation which has only gotten worse in recent weeks as repression and displacements have increased, and this has been met with complicit silence by every candidate.

As a consequence, and as agreed upon during the second working session of the Indigenous Governing Council which took place April 28-29 in Mexico City, neither the CIG nor our spokeswoman will seek or accept any alliance with any political party or candidate, nor will they call for people to vote nor for people to abstain from voting. Rather, we will continue to seek out those below to dismantle the rancid power above. Whether you vote or not, organize yourselves. We will walk forward by building the keys to heal the world.

Among the originary peoples of this country—where the formation of the Indigenous Governing Council was decided, and where our spokeswoman walked, weaving bridges as she was mandated to do by the general assembly of the CNI—we find the resistances and rebellions that give shape to our proposal for the whole nation. For this reason, we traveled together with the councilmen and councilwomen from every state and region through their geographies, where every day people face war and the invasion of the capitalist monster; where people are expelled from their land so that it can be taken out of collective hands and transferred into the hands of the rich, so their territories can be occupied and destroyed by mining companies, so the aquifers can be devastated by fossil fuel extraction, so the rivers can be poisoned and the water privatized in dams and aqueducts, so the sea and air can be privatized by wind farms and aviation, so native seeds can be contaminated by genetically modified seed and toxic chemicals, so cultures can be turned into folklore, so territories can be configured for the ideal functioning of international drug trafficking, and so that organization from below can be suppressed by the terrorist violence of narcoparamilitaries at the service of the bad governments.

We saw ourselves reflected on paths illuminated by the worlds that have preserved their cultures, where the words and plans of all the indigenous peoples are being drawn, and where from each struggle and each language arise the fundamental reasons for the existence of the Indigenous Governing Council.

That’s where we see the glimmer of hope we set out to find. We also see it in the parts of civil society organized as the Sixth and in the CIG Support Networks and groups that stepped forward not only to show their solidarity and create an agenda for the whole country, but also to build, from below and out of these capitalist ruins, a better country and a better world. We have deep admiration and respect for all of them.

We call on all the women and men of the Mexican people, all the compas from the CIG Support Networks in all the states of the country, and all the compañeras and compañeros who made up the “The Hour for Our Peoples to Flourish Has Come” Civil Association to continue their process of discussing and evaluating our work, making assessments, and finding and walking the paths we decide upon, always organizing ourselves, regardless of whether we vote or abstain from voting for any candidate. Your words, feelings, and proposals are important to us.

We will continue to extend respectful bridges toward those who live and struggle in order to together grow the collective word that helps us resist injustice, destruction, death and dispossession, and to reweave the fabric of the country with the consciousness of those below who dream and rebel with their own geographies, cultures, and customs.

The collective proposal of the peoples contains our word that we share with the world. We will continue walking further below, towards the indigenous peoples, nations and tribes we are. For this reason we call for a General Assembly of the National Indigenous Congress in October 2018 in order to announce the results of the evaluations by the originary peoples who make up the CNI, and to advance on the next step.

Sisters and brothers of the Mexican people and the world, let us continue together, as what’s missing is yet to come.

For the Integral Reconstitution of Our Peoples
Never again a Mexico Without Us

National Indigenous Congress
Indigenous Governing Council
Sixth Commission of the EZLN

May 2, 2018