Narconews: New Reports from the Other Campaign

Four new reports are now online at the web page of the Other Journalism with the Other Campaign. First, correspondents Al Giordano and Bertha Rodriguez Santos report from the Mexican state of Queretaro, historic birthplace of the Mexican independence struggle and now the site of intense struggle both in the fields and on the factory floor.

Giordano reports that while much of the Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos" Other Campaign so far has focused on the struggles of peasant farmers and the indigenous, in Queretaro a major place the urban worker was clearly established in the Other Campaign:

"'We want to understand the struggle of the workers in the city, particularly in the industrial sector,' said Marcos. 'Our roots and our spinal column are the indigenous people of Chiapas. We don't come proposing to be the leaders for other sectors. But in this first stage of the Other Campaign we want to know, and make sure others know, of your resistance and to generate solidarity and support.'

"Marcos then made proposals to these workers, as he did two weeks ago to the ex-bracero workers in Tlaxcala: 'We are asking you as industrial workers... to become teachers in the Other Campaign, to teach us and other sectors what a workers' movement is... You know how to manage contracts. The indigenous, the youths, the others who don't yet know you need to know how to do that... Give us classes, please.'

...

"Delegate Zero also proposed that the union members join him in Mexico City on May 1st - International Workers Day - for a mass march, 'but that it not just be for one day... We need an Other Worker's May.' And he proposed 'a national gathering' of industrial workers 'to be held here in Queretaro, with you as the hosts. And together we can bring together The Other Worker in Mexico."

Read the full story here:

http://www.narconews.com/otroperiodismo/en.html

Rodriguez Santos reports on the rural side of the Queretaro struggle, describing a meeting in the town of Vista Alegre Mixel. In a town that has seen many of its people leave to try to find a better life in the United States, Marcos again spoke of his impending visit to the border:

"Marcos said that a struggle is taking shape in which the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) is joining the local/regional struggles of 'so many organizations that this paper is not big enough to list their names, that this country is not big enough to contain their heart. That is going to begin to happen... and we may be many or we may be few, but our heart does not fit in the Mexican southeast; that is why we are doing this work. Our heart may not even fit within the border of the Rio Grande, and so we are going to hop over to the United States, to talk with the Mexicans that are on the other side.'"

...

"In terms of the immigration problem, he said, 'the gringos are now saying that they're going to close the border; they don't like so many frijoleros coming in; so many Mexicans crossing. Because what if the Mexicans don't love the gringos, and what if they get the idea up there of rebelling? If they're already inside how will the gringos get them out? They're going to close the border and that's going to make Mexico into a pressure cooker that could explode at any moment.

"Some speakers commented that this struggle is a long-term one, and doubted that they would live to see any real change. To this, the subcomandante responded: "We are going to see it ourselves or no one is going to see it, because if we don't rise up right now on a national level, not just the countryside but the entire republic is going to be destroyed. Neoliberalism is going to make Mexico into a nation where only he who produces and he who has purchasing power is worth anything."

Read this and another story by Rodiguez Santos from earlier this week on the first meetings in Queretaro, here:

http://www.narconews.com/otroperiodismo/en.html

Finally, in the Narcosphere, longtime Oaxaca City resident Nancy Davies looks at the challenge that the Other Campaign left in its wake in Mexico's most indigenous state. She writes:

"In the aftermath of the transit of Delegado Zero and the Zapatistas through Oaxaca in the week of February 7, 2006, dozens of small organizations were obliged to analyze their faults, their strengths, and what their rivalries mean for Oaxaca.

"This may be the most important outcome of the Otra Campana: a heightened sense of the necessity for collaboration, to achieve a united voice."

Read that full story, here:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/3/7/115248/3372

From somewhere in a country called America,

Dan Feder
Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com

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