compa\u00f1era<\/em>, woman in struggle:<\/p>\nWe send you greetings, from the indigenous and Zapatista women that we are.<\/p>\n
Perhaps you remember that at our First Gathering, we made an agreement that we must live. We see of course that the killing and disappearance of women continues\u2014of women of all ages and social positions. We are killed and disappeared because we are women, and then told it is our fault, that these things happen because of how we were dressed, because of where we were walking, because we were out at certain hours in certain places. Both men and women in the bad government utter such stupidities to imply that we shouldn\u2019t go out at all. According to this mindset, women should be shut up in their homes; they shouldn\u2019t go out, shouldn\u2019t study, shouldn\u2019t work, shouldn\u2019t enjoy themselves, shouldn\u2019t be free.<\/p>\n
We see clearly that the capitalist and patriarchal system is like a judge that has declared us guilty of being born women and sentenced us to violence, death, or disappearance.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to put it into words, sister and compa\u00f1eras<\/em>, it\u2019s like an evil so great that it can\u2019t be named. Now they call it \u201cfemicide<\/em>\u201d or whatever but the name doesn\u2019t change anything, the deaths and disappearances continue to accumulate. And then our families, friends, and acquaintances have to fight so that we are not effectively killed and disappeared all over again when our murderers go unpunished, or when it is said that we were merely victims of bad luck; or worse, that we were asking for it.<\/p>\nSister, compa\u00f1era<\/em>, this is extreme stupidity. We fight against discrimination at home, in the street, at school, at work, on public transportation, against both those people we know and those who are strangers, and on top of that they want to tell us we\u2019re asking for it, that we are at fault for dying. No, we aren\u2019t dying, we are being raped, murdered, cut up, and disappeared. Anybody who faults us is sexist, and even women can demonstrate sexist thinking.<\/p>\n-*-<\/strong><\/p>\nCompa\u00f1era<\/em>, sister, given that at the First Gathering we made an agreement to live, now we have to evaluate what we have done or not done to honor this agreement.<\/p>\nThus we are calling for a Second International Encounter of Women Who Struggle, focused on one theme only: violence against women<\/strong>.<\/p>\nWe want to address this theme in two parts: to denounce the violence and to discuss what we are going to do to stop the massacre.<\/p>\n
So we invite you sister, compa\u00f1era<\/em>, to come meet with us so that we may together express our rage and state clearly what is happening to us all over the world.<\/p>\nWe think this is important because we see that they try to scatter our pain: they talk about a woman raped somewhere, a woman beaten somewhere else, a woman disappeared over there, a woman murdered over here. They do that so that we think this is the problem of some woman somewhere out there, but that such a thing wouldn\u2019t happen to us, that the problem isn\u2019t that serious and that the bad governments will handle it.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not true\u2014it will happen to us or to someone close to us, and it is a serious problem, very serious, and the bad governments are not going to do anything other than make declarations and insist that they are going to find the culprits. But by culprits they don\u2019t mean the murderers, rapists, or kidnappers; they mean the women who break windows or graffiti statues out of rage.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how the patriarchal capitalist system works, sister, compa\u00f1era<\/em>: a piece of glass or a graffitied wall are more important than the life of a woman. This simply cannot continue.<\/p>\nWe want to tell you about a time, years ago, before our uprising and the beginning of the war against oblivion, when here on the plantations a chicken was worth more than a woman. Hard to believe? Well that\u2019s how it was, that\u2019s what the plantation owners themselves used to say. Now, shocked and scandalized by a broken window and a graffitied wall, they say even worse things about us women. The truth is that not only are we raped, killed, and disappeared\u2014that\u2019s true\u2014but also that we are not going to be quiet, obedient, and well-behaved as if nothing is wrong.<\/p>\n
We are attacked so consistently that it would seem to be good business for the system: the more women murdered, raped, beaten, or disappeared, the more profit produced. Maybe that\u2019s why they don\u2019t stop the war on women. There is no other way to explain that every day more women are killed or disappeared all over the world and the system just calmly and happily marches on, paying attention only to its bank accounts.<\/p>\n
Could it be that if we live, that if we are not abused and brutalized, that business goes down the drain? It seems like we need to analyze if profits for big capitalists increase with the number of brutalized women in the world, if the number of beaten, disappeared, and murdered women comes out about even to their millions of dollars or euros or whatever currency. We say this because we know very well that the system only cares about whatever affects its profit margin. We also know that the system profits off war and destruction. So we think that our deaths, the violence we suffer, are profitable for the capitalist, and that our lives, our freedom, and our serenity come out as monetary losses for the system.<\/p>\n
So we want you to come and make your denunciation, not for a judge or a police officer or a journalist, but so that you may be heard by another woman, by other women, by many women who struggle. That is how, compa\u00f1era<\/em>, sister, your pain will not be yours alone but will unite with other suffering, and from that suffering comes not only a very big and deep pain, but also a rage that serves as a seed. If that seed is cultivated with organization, then pain and rage can turn into resistance and rebellion, as we say around here, with which we stop waiting to see if we\u2019re going to be personally affected and we start to do something, first to stop the violence against us, and then to win our freedom as women.<\/p>\nThat is our experience and our history as women, as peasant women, as indigenous women, and as Zapatistas. Nobody is going to give us peace, freedom, and justice. We have to fight, sister and compa\u00f1era<\/em>, fight for and wrest our freedom from the ultimate Ruler.<\/p>\nThat is why we say this focus on violence against women is not only to denounce it, but also to say what we are doing, what we have done, and what we can do to stop these crimes.<\/p>\n
We know that as women we have many ways and forms of struggle, because we saw and heard you in the First Gathering. We know that some think their way is best, and that other ways are useless or wrong. It\u2019s fine to debate these things, even without coming to any agreement.<\/p>\n
But the problem that we as Zapatista women see is that in order to discuss and debate who\u2019s more feminist than who, well we have to be alive. And the reality is that we\u2019re being killed and disappeared.<\/p>\n
So the invitation to this gathering is based on one theme alone: violence against women, divided into two parts, denunciation and proposals for how to stop this war against us. It\u2019s not that we\u2019re going to come to an agreement to all struggle the same way; we know everyone has their own ways, calendars and geographies. But listening to different forms of struggle can give us ideas for how to shape our own struggles, according to what we see works for us and what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The system would prefer that we limit ourselves to screaming our pain, desperation, anxiety, and impotence. It\u2019s time to scream together, but now out of rage and indignation. And not each of us on our own, scattered and alone which is how they rape, kill, and disappear us, but together, from our own times, places, and ways.<\/p>\n
What if, compa\u00f1era<\/em> and sister, we learn not only to scream out of pain, but to find the way, place, and time to scream a new world into being? Just think, sister and compa\u00f1era<\/em>, things are so bad that in order to stay alive we have to create another world. That\u2019s how bad the system actually is, that in order to live we have to kill it off\u2014not fix it up a little, or give it a new face, or ask that it be a little more considerate and not so mean. No. We have to destroy it, disappear it, kill it until there is nothing left, not even ashes. That\u2019s how we see the situation, compa\u00f1era<\/em> and sister, it\u2019s either the system or us. And it was the system that made those rules, not us.<\/p>\nWe invite you to arrive to this gathering on December 26, 2019, and stay December 27, 28, and 29 of 2019, with the closing on the 29th<\/sup>.<\/p>\nThe gathering will be held at the Semillero<\/em> that we are going to call \u201cThe Footprints of Comandanta Ramona,<\/em>\u201d in the Caracol<\/em> \u201cWhirlwind of Our Words\u201d in the Tztoz Choj zone (community of Morelia, Autonomous Zapatista Municipality in Rebellion [MAREZ] of 17 de Noviembre). This is the same place where we held the First Gathering.<\/p>\nYou can arrive directly to the caracol<\/em> where you will receive nametags and the program schedule and where the compa\u00f1eras<\/em> who are drivers will take you to the actual semillero<\/em> where no men are allowed, even if they are good men or normal men or whatever men. By that we mean that men will not be able to see, even from afar, our gathering, because the semillero<\/em> is surrounded by mountains.<\/p>\nMen may wait in the caracol<\/em> during our gathering, but only if they are accompanied by a woman who answers for them and who is responsible and accountable for any foolishness they commit. We\u2019re going to call that place \u00abmixed.\u00bb In other words, people who call themselves men and women can all be there. It just might be the case that a commission of Zapatista women attending the gathering in the semillero<\/em> go to the caracol<\/em> to talk to the men about what is being denounced at the gathering, so they know what\u2019s going on. \u00a0And assuming they have any conscience at all those men will go tell other men what was said, most importantly the key thing, which is that we\u2019re not going to wait for them to understand or to behave or to stop fucking up, but that we\u2019re going to organize to defend ourselves first, and then we\u2019re going to change everything. And we mean EVERYTHING.<\/p>\nOne more thing, compa\u00f1era<\/em> and sister, we\u2019re also going to be reviewing what we didn\u2019t do well in the First Gathering. That\u2019s why we want to hold this one in the same place, to see if we can correct our errors.<\/p>\nAnother thing we realized from the First Gathering is that in the registration and programming process there was some favoritism toward the submissions that were most in line with the thinking of those helping out with registration and programming, and that some women and activities were left out. That happened because those working on registration and programming prioritized the activities of those who thought the same way as them and then there wasn\u2019t time or room for the others.<\/p>\n
So that this doesn\u2019t happen again, that some women are valued more than others, we Zapatista indigenous women are going to do everything ourselves, including the registration and programming. We\u2019ve never done it before, but then again, we had never been drivers either and as you can see now we\u2019ve learned how to do that. So we might mess up and the program might not work out perfectly, but that will be because we are learning and not because we like the women who think like us more than the others.<\/p>\n
We are now organizing and distributing tasks so that we ourselves are organizing the gathering in its entirety. So when you send your registration email (we\u2019ll tell you later where and when to send it), you\u2019ll know that it is we as Zapatista indigenous women who are going to open your email and write down your name and your organization, or your group or collective if you have one, or just you as an individual, and we will send you a response so that you know we have you on the list. If your email says you want to do something at the gathering, we\u2019ll put that on the program. That\u2019s why we want to ask you to send your registration in Spanish, because our languages are of Mayan roots and while we know some Spanish we don\u2019t speak other languages. If we mess up and don\u2019t get your name down, don\u2019t worry because you can register when you get here and we\u2019ll give you your nametag for the Second International Gathering of Women Who Struggle.<\/p>\n
Alright now you know the date and the place, and you can go about organizing yourselves to come or to send someone or to put someone in charge of reporting back to you what happened and what we said. Then even if you are far away, you\u2019ll know that our duty as women who struggle is to not let that little light that we gave you go out. You\u2019ll know that that little flame isn\u2019t just for light, but to burn down the whole damned patriarchal capitalist system.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all for now, sister and compa\u00f1era<\/em>. Later we\u2019ll let you know when and where to send your registration email. For now you have the most important information: December 26, 27, 28, and 29, 2019, at the same place as the First Gathering, the very same place from which we write you these words and send you our embrace. That is\u2026<\/p>\nFrom the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,<\/p>\n
Coordinators of the Zapatista Women for the
\nSecond International Gathering of Women Who Struggle<\/strong><\/p>\nSelva-Fronteriza Zone<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\nMarisol
\nYeni
\nMirella
\nNeri
\nYojari
\nArlen
\nErica
\nMariana
\nMayder
\nCleyde
\nEvelin
\nAlejandra
\nNayeli<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chiapas Highlands Zone<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\nYessica
\nZenaida
\nLuc\u00eda
\nTeresa
\nFabiola
\nFlor
\nGabriela
\nLidia
\nFernanda
\nCarla
\nOfelia<\/p>\n
Selva Tzeltal Zone:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nDalia
\nRosalinda
\nMarina
\nCarolina
\nAlejandra
\nLaura
\nAna
\nCecilia
\nJulia
\nEstefan\u00eda
\nOlga
\nEloisa<\/p>\n
Tsots Choj Zone<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\nGabriela
\nElizabeth I
\nMaydel\u00ed I
\nElizabeth II
\nGuadalupe
\nLeydi
\nLauriana
\nAliz
\n\u00c1ngeles
\nMaydel\u00ed II
\nKarina
\nJhanilet
\nFabiola
\nMariela
\nDaniela
\nYadira
\nYolanda
\nMarbella
\nElena
\nElissa<\/p>\n
Chiapas Northern Zone<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\nDiana
\nXimena
\nKelsy
\nJessica
\nAna Mar\u00eda
\nMarina
\nValentina
\nYadira
\nElizabeth<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mexico, September of 2019.[:]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[:es] Fuente: Enlace Zapatista EJ\u00c9RCITO ZAPATISTA DE LIBERACI\u00d3N NACIONAL. M\u00c9XICO. CONVOCATORIA AL SEGUNDO ENCUENTRO INTERNACIONAL DE MUJERES QUE LUCHAN. SEPTIEMBRE DEL 2019. A las mujeres que luchan en todo el mundo: Hermana, compa\u00f1era, mujer que lucha: Te saludamos como mujeres que somos, como ind\u00edgenas y como zapatistas. Tal vez te recuerdas que en el Primer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,6,955,118,961],"tags":[56,41,1180],"class_list":["post-32184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autonomia","category-chiapas","category-ezln-temas","category-ezln","category-mujeres","tag-encuentros","tag-mujeres","tag-mujeres-que-luchan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32223,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32184\/revisions\/32223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}