hello all…
It has been quite some time since I sent out a report from my time here in
Chiapas. I have been working with Frayba, a human rights organization
that sends internationals into Zapatista and other indigenous communities
to do peace observing work, documenting any threats or actions against the
communities by paramilitaries as well as any movement by the Mexican
military. It has been an incredible experience and I am hoping to spend
two more weeks in a community before I begin the long road home. I was
also fortunate to be able to atten the International Zapatista Encounter
that was held at the beginning of this month. I have included my report
back from that event below. In the middle of February I will be returning
to Oaxaca briefly to say goodbye to some folks and learning about the
latest developments in the struggle. I will then be back in the Northwest
for a couple weeks before flying to Sweden.
I am hoping to do at least one public slide show report back in Olympia in
early March. If anyone would like to help out in coordinating or
publicizing that event or if anyone has further ideas of opportunities for
me to share stories from the Oaxaca struggle, please let me know.
Although Even though the movement has been in hiding and happening behind
the scenes now due to the severe governmental repression, I have truly
been re-energized by the people of Oaxaca and want to share that with my
limited time in the states. The creativity and diversity of tactics,
widespread nature of the mobilization and the creation of an alternative
governing structure are incredibly inspiring not to mention Oaxaca needs
the eyes and solidarity work of the international community now as much as
ever.
As my trip is wrapping up I want to thank you all for listening to stories
from my travels and from all the exciting movement building going on here
in Mexico.
with love…
rochelle
Unbreakable Dignity: Report from the Zapatista International Encounter
Prior to the Zapatista uprising, for generations, the 700,000 indigenous
people of Chiapas have lived in oblivion. From the perspective of the
global economy, being neither large consumers or producers, they have been
ignored and simply in the way. The endless appetite of the global economy
has resulted in, according to Subcomandante Marcos (leader of the
Zapatista Army), “the destruction of our land, our culture, our collective
way of working, the destruction of our women, the lack of appreciation for
our elders, and the merchandising of our youth. All of this, including
the lack of maintenance of our educational system and the social security
system is for the benefit of the grand capital extranjero [foreigner].” On
New Years Day 1994, the first day NAFTA took effect, the Zapatista
National Liberation Army rose up and took over municipalities throughout
Chiapas, birthing a movement which today continues not only to resist the
theft of their resources but is also creating alternative autonomous
governing bodies, schools, clinics, cooperatives and means of
communication. On December 29th to January 2nd the Zapatistas invited
internationals from around the world to come together for an Encounter
between the Zapatistas and the people of the World. The invitation stated
“At this encounter the Zapatista communities will speak on the experiences
we have had these past years with our autonomous governments; the
challenges and problems that we have faced constructing this
anti-capitalist project and we will try to, with humility and respect, to
respond, speak and exchange, and above all, share our errors and
stumbling, and also our modest achievements.”
Haves and the Have Nots
The gathering took place in Oventic, one of the five caracoles (municipal
seats) of the 32 Zapatista municipalities. On the way to the gathering,
driving through the rural villages one can clearly see that very little
money is making it to these communities. Federal and state government
policies have benefited the foreign investors that exploit resource rich
Chiapas and in turn line the pockets of the politicians and Mexican elite.
With this setup, the indigenous people are losing land and many have been
forced to migrate to the North, relocate to the urban centers or work on
large agribusiness farms to provide low wage labor. Racism from the
government is also clearly at work in Chiapas as shown in the poverty
statistics. In a community where the indigenous population is less than
10 percent, 18 percent of the people are at or below the poverty line; for
municipalities where the indigenous population is between 10 and 40
percent, 46 percent of the people are poor; and for those where the
indigenous make up more than 70 percent of the population, over 80 percent
are poor. The majority of the Zapatistas are Mayan Indians who live in
wood slat and mud houses with dirt floors and do not have running water
even though Chiapas provides close to 90% of the water consumed by the
rest of Mexico.
Encounter Begins
Recognizing the reality most of the Zapatistas live in it is clear where
the fuel came from to ignite this struggle, and yet with access to so few
resources it is hard to imagine what alternatives they could be capable of
creating. On the first day of the encounter thousands of Zapatistas who
attended the conference set up stick structures covered in black plastic
sheeting to sleep in for the duration of the encounter. In sharp
contrast, the 2,000 internationals from 44 countries began to set up fancy
tents. The structure of the encounter included a series of workshops
providing updates on the progress of the autonomous governments, schools,
health care systems, and cooperatives in each caracoles as well as the
struggles for land and for equality for women. I could feel such strong
unity and pride in the Zapatistas who attended the encounter and it was an
incredible experience to sit with them as the leaders they selected laid
out their accomplishments throughout the workshops.
The tactics of the Zapatistas have been extremely diverse throughout the
thirteen year struggle from the initial armed uprising and government
negotiations to the creation of the autonomous communities. The Mexican
government response has been fairly consistent and limited to the use of
force and intimidation mixed with rhetoric and promises never fulfilled.
Even within this climate, much has been accomplished as in achieving
autonomy as highlighted by the workshops. As one of the representatives
explained “Because we can not change the world we struggle so that the
world will not change us.” Reports from three of the workshops are
included below.
Autonomous Education
From the internationally recognized health clinics to the primary and
secondary schools, many of the communities are receiving services they
never received from the government, often with support of NGOs and
internationals. The Zapatista educational promoters, who are chosen by
their communities to develop schools and train teachers from within the
community, explained that the government schools their children used to
attend were staffed mostly by teachers from the city who spoke only
Spanish. “The government schools discriminated against the indigenous
culture, language and traditions of our youth. They did not respond to
our realities in the villages. They prepared our kids for the city, not
to stay in our communities.” Many parents decided to pull their students
out of the government schools with the hopes of creating autonomous
schools that “teach liberation, not domination” and “the value of being
not having.” Schools have been constructed in all five of the caracoles
and many recently celebrated the graduation of their first class.
Although the teachers are not paid the community provides them with food.
Each region also expressed a lack of resources to train future promoters
and to build new schools. Their eyes lit up as they shared the largest
dream of one day establishing an autonomous university.
Autonomous Governments
The representatives of the caracoles are selected through
their community
for a three year term. They can not run again to give all opportunity for
leadership and to prevent people from becoming disconnected from the
community and power hungry. They too do not receive payment but the
community also provides them with food. Initially when the government
councils were first created they were male dominated but today there are 6
women and 7 men. Although clearly they have the capacity to govern
themselves, the representatives explained that they have faced many
challenges with few resources and villages with great need. The leaders
stressed the huge contrast between themselves and the bad governments,
those who run the state and country. For example, unlike the corrupt
justice system throughout Mexico, the caracol representatives deal with
conflicts by first attempting to find a solution through dialogue and
compromise and if no compromise is reached the one who is found wrong must
complete work to benefit the community, like the construction of a bridge.
Repeatedly the representatives stressed that they “lead by obeying” and
“propose not impose” with “humility and no self promotion.”
Struggle for Land
Due to armed uprising in 1994 many wealthy landowners abandoned their
land. The Zapatistas have reclaimed much of this land to work
collectively to sustain their communities. “The land belong to those who
work it” and “to sell the land, would be to sell our mother.” Each region
faces different struggles over land. The threat of losing land remains
strong and paramilitary activity continues with intimidation and even the
murder of Zapatista community members. Currently in the Aguazul region the
government is attempting to force a Zapatista community off the land by
the creation of an ecotourist destination, which will also allow the
government to exploit water reserves and other resources. Also the
implementation of neoliberal programs by the government, such as PROCEDE,
also work to destroy the possibility of collectively worked lands. “Today
we are living a global offense of exploitation, of being kicked off our
lands, and of a development of politics that will destroy us. The only way
to confront this is by struggling for the impossible, or in other words,
the necessary,” explains Sergio Rodriguez from the Zapatista Rebeldía
magazine. The lands that they have recuperated are farmed organically
without the use of genetically modified seed. Agro-ecology promoters have
recently been selected to educate themselves and then their community on
sustainability practices.
Life of Resistance
On January 1st at close to 2a.m. in the morning, Subcomandante Marcos and
many members of the Zapatista National Liberation Army arrived to
celebrate the thirteenth anniversary of the rebellion. The cultural event
lasted for hours with music and dance. In the indigenous language of
Tzotzil, Marcos stated “What we have learned on the road of our struggle
is that we could not win unless we united with the people who struggle
everywhere.” The Zapatistas need the support of internationals to achieve
their goals in the face of an system that continuously tries to eliminate
them. As they establish stronger and stronger concrete alternatives their
threat to the system grows. The eyes of internationals are critical in
preventing the human rights abuses the Mexican government is notorious
for. We have a long way to go to cross the cultural barriers necessary to
provide the ultimate solidarity but on the last night looking through the
mist out on to the basketball court where thousands of internationals and
Zapatistas were dancing together to traditional music, it felt possible.
As I watched the dancers, many in their early twenties, I realized that
the rebellion began for many of these Zapatistas when they were less than
ten years old, they have truly lived a life of resistance. Throughout the
length of the encounter I was struck by their humble spirit mixed with the
depth of their accomplishments, not only the autonomous governments,
schools, clinics, radio stations, coffee and craft collectives but also
the incredible wealth of beauty in their vision and their unity.