from thefreeonline https://wp.me/pIJl9-DQE on 3rd Sept 2024 by Enlace Zapatista .. ( on Telegram t.me/thefreeonline
Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)
Marichuy’s candidacy, the Zapatista tour of Europe and the new reorganization of Zapatista autonomy are part of this new installment of a series of texts with which to learn about and celebrate three decades of Zapatismo
March 2022 .. ZapatistasDemonstration in San Cristóbal de las Casas against wars. March 2022. desinformemonos.org .. Lola Sepúlveda
This text from the 30th Anniversary of the EZLN Uprising series opens with the “surprise” that was Marichuy’s candidacy as an independent candidate for the presidency of Mexico in 2018, continues with the creation of new Autonomous Municipalities and Caracoles in the Zapatista zone and the Journey for Life of the rebels from southeastern Mexico to Europe, Slumil K’ajxemk’op.
And it does not end, but continues with the future: the new reorganization of Zapatista autonomy and “the common people,” ready to move forward and with an eye toward at least one hundred and twenty years…
In 2016, from October 9 to 14, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) held an important meeting, divided into two parts, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of its constitution, on October 12, 1996.
The first part of this meeting ended with the issuance of a statement signed jointly by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and the National Indigenous Congress: “Let the earth tremble at its core.”“Que retiemble en sus centros la tierra”.
video.. Who Are The Zapatistas
The text reviews the struggles and resistance of the indigenous peoples “to stop the capitalist storm and offensive that does not cease but becomes more aggressive every day and has become a civilizational threat not only for the indigenous and peasant peoples but for the people of the cities”.
It considers that this offensive is not going to stop, but on the contrary, will increase, they report that a consultation will be held in each of the towns on an agreement made at that meeting: “to appoint an indigenous governing council whose word will be materialized by an indigenous woman, delegate of the CNI as an independent candidate who will compete on behalf of the National Indigenous Congress and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in the electoral process of 2018 for the presidency of this country”.
With this, the first part of the meeting was closed, which continued at the end of the year, once the consultation was made.
The proposal, which was surprising for many sectors of the national and international population, made its intentions very clear: “We confirm that our struggle is not for power, we do not seek it; but we will call on the indigenous peoples and civil society to organize ourselves to stop this destruction, to strengthen ourselves in our resistance and rebellion, that is, in the defense of the life of each person, each family, collective, community or neighborhood. To build peace and justice by rebuilding ourselves from below, from where we are what we are.”
On January 1, 2017, the Declaration of the V National Indigenous Congress was made public, which was called “And it shook! Report from the epicenter…” “¡Y retembló!, Informe desde el epicentro…” in which the result of the consultation of the peoples was made known;
They agreed to appoint an Indigenous Governing Council with a woman as spokesperson who, in turn, would be an independent candidate to run in the 2018 electoral process for the presidency of Mexico.
On May 28, it was announced that the person chosen for this task was María de Jesús Patricio, also known as Marichuy.
During 2017 and the first months of 2018, Marichuy traveled the country, promoting the collection of signatures so that her name would be on the electoral ballots, but, above all, to support the organization, the struggle and the resistance of the indigenous peoples and of all those who resist from below and on the left.
Although all this work served to involve many people and sectors, beyond the indigenous peoples and the National Indigenous Congress in a civil, peaceful and inclusive struggle, the number of signatures necessary for María de Jesús Patricio to appear on the electoral ballot was not achieved.
Those elections were won, with a large majority of votes, by Andrés Manuel López Obrador (who will end his presidential term next December, 2024), candidate of the Movement of National Regeneration (MORENA).
Since 2017, the Indigenous Government Council, with its spokesperson Marichuy and accompanied by the Zapatista communities, has not stopped proposing and strengthening initiatives for the defense of indigenous peoples, but also of natural resources and territory in Mexico.
Marichuy Zapatistas María de Jesus Patricio being supported by the Zapatista communities in Oventic Chiapas, at the beginning of her campaign to collect signatures for her presidential candidacy (October, 2017) Daliri Oropeza
Over the years and with the silent political and organizational work of the Zapatistas, the advances in their self-government became increasingly evident;
A health system very focused on preventive medicine, ranging from small clinics in the communities to larger regional clinics, including some specific ones, such as the Comandanta Ramona Women’s Clinic, in the Caracol of La Garrucha, as well as clinical analysis laboratories or ophthalmology consultations, all attended by hundreds of health promoters.
Education is not far behind; small community schools and secondary schools, attended by educational promoters, in a teaching very close to the day-to-day work in the communities.
The same occurs with justice, which non-Zapatistas turn to very frequently, because there problems are resolved without money or “bribes” involved, because, as the compañeros and compañeras say, Zapatista justice is done regardless of who it is.
All this organizational work resulted in the need to reorganize the Zapatista territory and in August 2019, the EZLN announced the creation of seven new Caracoles, creación de siete nuevos Caracoles–
The number of Caracoles went from five to twelve and four more Autonomous Municipalities in the areas of Chicomuselo, Motozintla, Amatenango del Valle and Chilón.
In the year of the pandemic, 2020, the Red Alert was declared and the Caracoles were closed due to Covid-19,cierran los Caracoles por el covid-19 not without a call not to let the struggle fall and not to lose human contact “but to temporarily change the ways to know ourselves as compañeras, compañeros, compañeraas, sisters, brothers, hermanosas”.
On October 5 of that same year, the statement “A Mountain on the High Seas” “Una Montaña en Alta Mar”was made public;
In it they affirm, once again, that “we must take to the streets again, yes, but to fight. Because, as we have said before, life, the struggle for life, is not an individual matter, but a collective one” and they say that, after some reflection and seeing that “it is time again for hearts to dance, and that neither their music nor their steps be those of lament and resignation”.
They decided that “various Zapatista delegations, men, women and others of the color of our land, will go out to travel the world, we will walk or sail to remote lands, seas and skies, seeking not difference, not superiority, not affront, much less forgiveness and pity”.
The European continent was chosen as the first destination of this tour, known as “Tour for Life”.
On January 1, 2021, the Declaration for Life was made public, Declaración por la Vida signed by the EZLN, the National Indigenous Congress, and thousands of collectives and people from all over the world, in which a Mexican delegation made up of the CNI-CIG, the Peoples’ Front in Defense of Water and Land of Morelos, Puebla, and Tlaxcala, and the EZLN participated in the Tour.
The first months of 2021 were spent in preparations, in the Zapatista zone and in Europe, for the trip;
There were many inconveniences to overcome, including travel restrictions in different countries, but finally, an advance party of the comrades who were to come, Squadron 421, made up of seven Zapatistas, four women, two men and one otroa, boarded a ship called “La Montaña” on April 30, 2021, and set off for Europe, where they arrived on June 20, on the coasts of Baiona, Galicia, Spain, where they landed two days later, welcomed at sea by hundreds of people.
There, Marijose said: Marijose dijo “On behalf of the women, children, men, the elderly and, of course, otroas Zapatistas, I declare that the name of this land, which its natives now call “Europe,” will from now on be called: SLUMIL K´AJXEMK´OP, which means “Unsubmissive Land,” or “Land that does not resign, that does not faint.” And so it will be known by friends and strangers as long as there is someone here who does not give up, who does not sell out and who does not give in.”
Squadron 421 visited several European cities and participated in the “Many struggles to live, one heart to fight!” meeting that brought together women, trans, inter and non-binary people from all over Europe for two days in the ZAD (Zone to Defend) in Notre Dame des Landes, France.
And on August 13, five hundred years after the fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan to the indigenous-Castilian alliance, under the command of Hernán Cortés, Squadron 421 delivered a historic speech histórico discurso in Madrid’s Plaza de Colón.
On the speech they stated: “We have not come to bring recipes, to impose visions and strategies, to promise bright and instant futures, full squares, immediate solutions. Nor have we come to call you to wonderful unions. We have come to listen to you,” because, according to the thinking of the Zapatista peoples, “in every dissidence, in every rebellion, in every resistance, there is a cry for life. And, according to us Zapatista peoples, that is what it is all about: life.”
On September 14, 2021, the main delegation of almost two hundred people arrived in Austria and spent three months traveling around Europe, meeting hundreds of groups and individuals
Finally, after overcoming the bureaucratic problems of the Mexican government, which tried to deny them passports, on September 14, 2021, a delegation of almost two hundred people, which they called “La Extemporánea”, arrived in the city of Vienna, Austria, joined a few days later by a delegation from the National Indigenous Congress-Indigenous Governing Council and the Front of Peoples in Defense of Land and Water.
For three months, “La Extemporánea” traveled around Europe, meeting hundreds of groups and individuals; they listen, learn and, above all, teach. The delegation returned to Mexico in early December.
In March of the following year, thousands of Zapatistas filled the streets of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Ocosingo, Palenque, Las Margaritas, Altamirano and Yajalón, in the face of the war in Ukraine, with the slogan “Against all wars: all arts, all resistances, all rebellions!”.
March 2022 Zapatistas
A few weeks before celebrating the 30th anniversary of the public appearance of the EZLN, in a series of 20 communiqués, the change in the autonomous structures was announced, the disappearance of the Good Government Councils and the Autonomous Municipalities and the creation of the Local Autonomous Governments.
And, furthermore, with a long-term view, thinking not of the next 30 years, but of the next 120, they propose the constitution of “the commons” and “non-property”: “el común” y la “no propiedad”: “establishing extensions of the recovered land as commons.
That is, without property. Neither private, nor communal, nor federal, nor state, nor corporate, nor anything. A non-ownership of the land. As if to say: “land without papers.”
So, in those lands that are going to be defined, if they ask who that land belongs to or who the owner is, the answer will be: “nobody’s,” that is, “commons.”
Thirty years after their public appearance and 40 years after their existence, the Zapatistas are building the foundations of defense against the storm caused by capitalism
Rhat is what the Zapatistas are doing, 30 years after their public appearance and 40 years after their existence, building the foundations of defense against the storm caused by capitalism, which we already have over our heads.
Thirty, forty years of history are only the first lines of a project that moves forward looking to the future.
What has been recounted here is barely a sketch of what has happened and hopefully it will serve not only to learn and remember, but also to be like those white guides that point out and anticipate the path on a foggy road.
There are still many stories to tell, from the past and the future, from those dreams imagined by men and women like Dení in the seventies, to those imagined today by Dení. Deni is the five years old daughter of a Zapatista indigenous insurgent man and woman, whose future will be reflected in the Denís who are to come in at least the next 120 years.
Little by little, these stories will be told.
But for now, as Subcomandante Marcos said, back in a distant 1994: “Health and more of those dreams that can give birth to realities.”
*************
Read in Español/ Français/ Deutsch/ Ελληνική μετάφραση (Greek) Italiano/ فارسی (Farsi)/ Polskie /English/ Portugês language here. plus 21 Comments
The Free 