solidaridad
We Don’t Need Permission to Fight for Life. Zapatista Women Join the March 9 National Strike
ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO
March 1, 2020
To: Women who struggle in Mexico and around the world
From: The Zapatista indigenous women of the EZLN
Compañera and sister:
We greet you in the name of all of the Zapatista indigenous women of all ages, from the youngest to the wisest—the oldest, that is. We hope you are well and are struggling along with your families, sisters, and compañeras.
Here we are having a lot of problems with the paramilitary forces who now come out of the MORENA party, just like before they came from the PRI, PAN, PRD, and Verde Ecologista parties.
But that’s not what we wanted to talk to you about. We wanted to talk to you about something more urgent and more important: the incredible violence waged against women, which has not only not ceased but actually increased in quantity and in cruelty. The murders and disappearances of women have reached a level that we could not have imagined before, and no woman of any age, class, political affiliation, color, race, or religion is safe. We might think that rich women, women politicians or famous women are safe because they have their security guards and police to protect them, but no, not even they are safe, because the violence that kidnaps, disappears, or kills us often comes from family members, friends, and acquaintances.
We have to stop this violence, wherever it comes from, and that is why we had called for women’s demonstrations on March 8, 2020, in which everyone would organize their actions according to their own ways, times, and places. We had said that the principal demand of these demonstrations should be to stop violence against women, and to declare that we would not forget those murdered and disappeared by all governing administrations, from any party of any color (striped, blue, green, yellow, maroon, orange, brown, or anything else) because they are all the same. We also proposed that we all wear something black on our clothes as a symbol of our mourning for the mass murder of women all over the world and to remind the bad governments and our missing and disappeared compañeras that we would not forget them. The worst part is that even the littlest ones among us are not safe.
Sister and compañera:
A few days ago we learned that a group of feminist sisters from the collective “Witches of the Sea” [Brujas del Mar] in Veracruz had a good idea and called for a women’s strike on March 9, to make clear what things looked and felt like without women. The idea is that we don’t go to work, or buy anything, or move around, that we aren’t seen at all, because that is in fact what it seems like the system is trying to do: annihilate us women as its principal enemy.
Then we saw the reaction of all those patriarchal and macho men and women in the bad government, the political parties, and the big corporations. We saw that they don’t care about the tragedy in which women in Mexico live and die, but only about using that pain for their own gain, then covering it up and arguing over who among them is the biggest badass.
(Español) Convocatoria a acciones dislocadas el 8 de Marzo por el Grupo de Mujeres CNI-CIG
A 26 de Febrero del 2020
A las concejalas del Concejo indígena de Gobierno (CIG)
A todas las compañeras del Congreso Nacional Indígena (CNI)
A todas las mujeres que luchan o se quieren sumar a una lucha anticapitalista y antipatriarcal,
Como grupo de trabajo “Mujeres” del CIG, queremos recordar las palabras de la Comandanta Yesica al finalizar su intervención de clausura del segundo encuentro de mujeres que luchan en el caracol “Torbellino de nuestras palabras” en las montañas zapatistas en resistencia y rebeldía, el 29 de Diciembre del 2019:
“Una ultima cosa antes de terminar y clausurar este segundo encuentro internacional de mujeres que luchan. Es sobre el calendario. Lo sabemos que no importa el día, la semana, el mes o el año, en algún lugar del mundo habrá una mujer que tenga miedo, que sea agredida, que sea desaparecida o que sea asesinada. Ya lo dijimos que no hay descanso para las mujeres que luchan. Entonces, queremos proponer aquí, y a través de quienes nos escuchan o nos leen o nos miran, una propuesta de acción conjunta. Puede ser cualquier día del año, porque ya lo sabemos como es el sistema patriarcal que no descansa para violentarnos”
PROPONEMOS QUE ESA ACCIÓN CONJUNTA DE LAS MUJERES QUE LUCHAN EN TODO EL MUNDO SEA EL PRÓXIMO 8 DE MARZO DEL 2020.
Proponemos que ese día, cada organización, grupo o colectivo haga lo que piense que es mejor. Y que portemos el color o señal que nos identifique, según el pensamiento o modo de cada quien y que todas llevemos un moño negro en señal de dolor y pena por todas las mujeres desaparecidas y asesinadas en todo el mundo, para que así les digamos, en todos los idiomas, en todas las geografías y con todos los calendarios: que no están solas, que nos hacen falta, que las extrañamos, que no las olvidamos, que las necesitamos porque somos mujeres que luchan y nosotras no nos vendemos, no nos rendimos y no claudicamos”.
Para coordinarnos, les invitamos todas a registrar las acciones que realicen en el marco de esta acción conjunta al correo encuentromujcni2019@gmail.com
Nunca más un México sin Nosotras
Grupo de Trabajo de Mujeres del CNI – CIG
