Zapatista Communities Live!

A Thousand Rages, One Heart: The Zapatista Communities Live! Campaign Launched Today

Today, 24 July 2010, a campaign was launched to put an end to the harassment of the Zapatista communities.

Called "A thousand rages, but one heart: the Zapatista communities live!" its objectives are:

- To counter the strategy of disinformation and lies, and the media silence about the repression and harassment faced by the Zapatista communities.

- To denounce those responsible, whether they are the various levels of government, the political parties, businessmen, plans for "development", repressive state forces, paramilitary groups, etc. That is, exposing the joint strategy in operation in Zapatista territory.

- To spread the word about the struggle of the EZLN, its history, the process of construction of autonomy and the proposal of the Sixth Declaration. To share the importance of the EZLN in the history of our country and the world, and of the possibility it gives us to destroy the capitalist system and build another world. To make clear the relationship between the Zapatista struggle and the various struggles that we conduct as adherents, especially regarding the fight against repression and for the freedom of polítical prisoners. That is, to make of ourselves a mirror and look at Chiapas.

Background

Since the armed uprising of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, the Zapatistas have been the recipients of attacks, harassment and assaults in an attempt by the bad government to put an end to those who have announced the existence of another possible world. However, the resistance and struggle of the Zapatista communities, along with men and women from Mexico and the world, have succeeded not only in thwarting the attacks of the bad government, but also in highlighting the progress made by the compas in building their autonomy. This experience has been, and continues to be, an example to follow for the different struggles of those from below (los de abajo).

The Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle grew out of the organisation of the EZLN, which again and again has built bridges of contact with those from below. The new campaign
transcends those in solidarity with the Zapatistas and calls on all to organize together in a national struggle against capitalism.

Due to the anticapitalist nature of this initiative and the decision of so many to join it, the bad [Mexican] government sees in the Other Campaign a real threat to its power and its system. The government's repressive strategy to slow down the advance of the Other began with the repression of 3 and May 4 in Atenco, while at the same time attacks on the communities escalated.

Throughout the last four years, the acts of repression against the EZLN and the Other Campaign have been steady and on many different levels: from the isolation and lack of information and the lies in the media, to the disappearance and imprisonment of companerxs, and paramilitary harassment, attacks and killings. In the face of this, many different efforts have been made to denounce, resist and counteract the repression that not only seeks to attack those in struggle but also to do away with what they stand for: the defiance that says that people can decide their own destiny. The call of "if they touch one of us they touch all of us", is thus a way to fight together against the repression of our companerxs, while advancing in the struggle against capitalism. It is a fundamental commitment that we have made as adherents to the Sixth Declaration, and is one of the first calls that was made to us by the EZ through the Sixth Commission, in the sense that we can have different struggles and ways of doing things, but it is necessary to organize and fight together against all this repression.

Although the repression has been constant, it increased as 2010 approached. Starting in 2009, with events in Bachajon, a new phase of attacks against the Zapatista communities began. These attacks, in various parts of Zapatista territory in which there are economic interests at stake, are intended to put an end to the Zapatista struggle; the way it is today this struggle shows the real possibility of constructing social relations differently to the capitalist way, and of building another world which is emerging through the experience of autonomy in their communities, and which is projected nationally and internationally through the Sixth Declaration.
Faced by the attacks being experienced by our compas in Chiapas, we think that, as adherents, we must respond. Beyond political considerations, we are inspired by what our compas have taught us with their ethical and political practice: that in the struggle what matters is the road and those who walk it, and that the construction of another world begins with how we relate to each other, in learning how to care for the compañerx. Many initiatives have come out of the Lacandon jungle, through which we have opened this space to say who we are, and what we fight for; the EZ has been a mirror in which we have seen ourselves, we have seen our reflection, and we have discovered ourselves. We think that now it falls to us to take the lead, turning the mirror and showing that in who we are and in what we struggle for, we are also them (i.e. the Zapatistas 'now you are us').

A website has been opened for the campaign, to share materials (drawings, information etc) to use in the campaign, as well as proposing and calling for co-ordinated actions, and reporting actions which have taken place.

The page is milesderabias.blogspot.com. Anything you want to share in this blog, send to milesderabias@gmail.com and they will upload them.

Alternatively, send to the Wellington Zapatista Support Group at zapsolidarity@lists.riseup.net or go to our blog at http://floweroftheword.wordpress.com/

ENDS

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