zapatistas?

[{GR}Raine]

Someone care to explain to me the goals, the movement, etc to what zapatistas exactly is/are?

[KC]

I THINK, I'm not sure if this is the right group, but I THINK that they're the group in Northern Spain that want to secede. If this is the right group then they're responsible for a bunch of bombings all over Spain. That's all I really know about them.

[Zingu]

Originally posted by [email protected] 31 2005, 05:35 AM
I THINK, I'm not sure if this is the right group, but I THINK that they're the group in Northern Spain that want to secede. If this is the right group then they're responsible for a bunch of bombings all over Spain. That's all I really know about them.
Your thinking of the ETA; Basque Liberation Front.

EZLN is in Southern Mexico.

[Thomas]

ignore the post above me, that was the most idiot thing to say. Although you never committed yourself to it so I won't have anymore of a go at you.

The Zapatistas are a group formed from the Indiginous peoples of Mexico in 1994 to fight against the corrupt puppet regime in place in Mexico. They are socialists (I think) who have the aim to remove all traces of corruption and capitalism from the government, the use armed warfare as a last resort only after peaceful means have failed. I don't want to give you anymore information as I'm not sure on it myself.

Everything for everybody, and nothing for ourselves.

[Zingu]

Originally posted by [email protected] 31 2005, 05:52 AM
Although you never committed yourself to it so I won't have anymore of a go at you.

Tired, kind of late; so just wanted to correct the mistake; I hope no embaressment done; I once mistaken Tories for being left wing once...

[Thomas]

argh not you mate, the guy with the Spain post!

[aztecklaw]

First Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle

EZLN's Declaration of War
"Today we say 'enough is enough!'
(Ya Basta!)"

TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO:
MEXICAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS:

We are a product of 500 years of struggle: first against slavery, then during the War of Independence against Spain led by insurgents, then to avoid being absorbed by North American imperialism, then to promulgate our constitution and expel the French empire from our soil, and later the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz denied us the just application of the Reform laws and the people rebelled and leaders like Villa and Zapata emerged, poor men just like us. We have been denied the most elemental preparation so they can use us as cannon fodder and pillage the wealth of our country. They don't care that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads, no land, no work, no health care, no food nor education. Nor are we able to freely and democratically elect our political representatives, nor is there independence from foreigners, nor is there peace nor justice for ourselves and our children.

But today, we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

We are the inheritors of the true builders of our nation. The dispossessed, we are millions and we thereby call upon our brothers and sisters to join this struggle as the only path, so that we will not die of hunger due to the insatiable ambition of a 70 year dictatorship led by a clique of traitors that represent the most conservative and sell-out groups. They are the same ones that opposed Hidalgo and Morelos, the same ones that betrayed Vicente Guerrero, the same ones that sold half our country to the foreign invader, the same ones that imported a European prince to rule our country, the same ones that formed the "scientific" Porfirsta dictatorship, the same ones that opposed the Petroleum Expropriation, the same ones that massacred the railroad workers in 1958 and the students in 1968, the same ones the today take everything from us, absolutely everything.

To prevent the continuation of the above and as our last hope, after having tried to utilize all legal means based on our Constitution, we go to our Constitution, to apply Article 39 which says:

"National Sovereignty essentially and originally resides in the people. All political power emanates from the people and its purpose is to help the people. The people have, at all times, the inalienable right to alter or modify their form of government."

Therefore, according to our constitution, we declare the following to the Mexican federal army, the pillar of the Mexican dictatorship that we suffer from, monopolized by a one-party system and led by Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the maximum and illegitimate federal executive that today holds power.

According to this Declaration of War, we ask that other powers of the nation advocate to restore the legitimacy and the stability of the nation by overthrowing the dictator.

We also ask that international organizations and the International Red Cross watch over and regulate our battles, so that our efforts are carried out while still protecting our civilian population. We declare now and always that we are subject to the Geneva Accord, forming the EZLN as our fighting arm of our liberation struggle. We have the Mexican people on our side, we have the beloved tri-colored flag highly respected by our insurgent fighters. We use black and red in our uniform as our symbol of our working people on strike. Our flag carries the following letters, "EZLN," Zapatista National Liberation Army, and we always carry our flag into combat.

Beforehand, we refuse any effort to disgrace our just cause by accusing us of being drug traffickers, drug guerrillas, thieves, or other names that might by used by our enemies. Our struggle follows the constitution which is held high by its call for justice and equality.

Therefore, according to this declaration of war, we give our military forces, the EZLN, the following orders:

First: Advance to the capital of the country, overcoming the Mexican federal army, protecting in our advance the civilian population and permitting the people in the liberated area the right to freely and democratically elect their own administrative authorities.

Second: Respect the lives of our prisoners and turn over all wounded to the International Red Cross.

Third: Initiate summary judgments against all soldiers of the Mexican federal army and the political police that have received training or have been paid by foreigners, accused of being traitors to our country, and against all those that have repressed and treated badly the civil population and robbed or stolen from or attempted crimes against the good of the people.

Fourth: Form new troops with all those Mexicans that show their interest in joining our struggle, including those that, being enemy soldiers, turn themselves in without having fought against us, and promise to take orders from the General Command of the Zapatista National Liberation Army.

Fifth: We ask for the unconditional surrender of the enemy's headquarters before we begin any combat to avoid any loss of lives.

Sixth: Suspend the robbery of our natural resources in the areas controlled by the EZLN.

To the People of Mexico: We, the men and women, full and free, are conscious that the war that we have declared is our last resort, but also a just one. The dictators are applying an undeclared genocidal war against our people for many years. Therefore we ask for your participation, your decision to support this plan that struggles for work, land, housing, food, health care, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice and peace. We declare that we will not stop fighting until the basic demands of our people have been met by forming a government of our country that is free and democratic.

JOIN THE INSURGENT FORCES OF THE ZAPATISTA NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY. General Command of the EZLN 1993

[aztecklaw]

Subcomandante Marcos to Mumia Abu Jamal

April of 1999
For - Mumia Abu-Jamal American Union
From - Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico > Mister Mumia:

I am writing to you in the name of the men, women, children and elderly of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in order to congratulate you on April 24, which is your birthday.

Perhaps you have heard of us. We are Mexican, mostly indigenous, and we took up arms on January 1 of 1994 demanding a voice, face and name for the forgotten of the earth.

Since then, the Mexican government has made war on us and pursues us and harasses us seeking our death, our disappearance and our definitive silence. The reason? These lands are rich with oil, uranium and precious lumber. The government wants them for the great transnational companies. We want them for all the Mexicans. The government sees our lands as a business. We see our history written in these lands. In oder to defend our right (and that of all Mexicans) to live with liberty, democracy, justice and dignity we became an army and undertook a name, voice and face that way.

Perhaps you wonder how we know of you, about your birthday, and why it is that we extend this long bridge which goes from the mountains of the Mexican southeast to the prison of Pennsylvania which has imprisoned you unjustly. Many good people from many parts of the world have spoken of you, through them we have learned how you were ambushed by the North American police in December of 1981, of the lies which they constructed in the procedures against you, and of the death sentence in 1982. We learned about your birthday through the international mobilizations which, under the name of "Millions for Mumia", are being prepared this April 24th.

It is harder to explain this bridge which this letter extends, it is more complicated. I could tell you that, for the powerful of Mexico and the government, to be indigenous, or to look indigenous, is reason for disdain, abhorrence, distrust and hatred. The racism which now floods the palaces of Power in Mexico goes to the extreme of carrying out a war of extermination, genocide, against millions of indigenous. I am sure that you will find similarities with what the Power in the United States does with the so-called "people of color" (African-American, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Asians, Northamerican Indians and any other peoples who do not have the insipid color of money.)

We are also "people of color" (the same color of our brothers who have Mexican blood and live and struggle in the American Union). We are of the color "brown", the color of the earth, the color from which we take our history, our strength, our wisdom and our hope. But in order to struggle we add another color to the brown: black. We use black ski-masks to show our faces. Only in this way can we be seen and heard. We chose this color as a result of the counsel of an indigenous Mayan elder who explained to us what the color black meant.

The name of this wise elder was Old Man Antonio. He died in these rebel Zapatista lands in March of 1994, victim of tuberculosis which ate his lungs and his breath. Old Man Antonio used to tell us that from black came the light and from there came the stars which light up the sky around the world. He told us a story which said that a long time ago (in those times when no one measured it), the first gods were given the task of giving birth to the world. In one of their meetings they saw it was necessary that the world have life and movement, and for this light was necessary. Then they thought of making the sun in order that the days move and so there would be day and night and time for struggling and time for making love, walking with the days and nights the world would go. The gods had their meeting and made this agreement in front of a large fire, and they knew it was necessary that one of them be sacrificed by throwing himself into the fire in order to become fire himself and fly into the sky. The gods thought that the work of the sun was the most important, so they chose the most beautiful god so that he would fly into the fire and become the sun. But he was afraid. Then the smallest god, the one who was black, said he was not afraid and he threw himself into the fire and became sun. Then the world had light and movement, and there was time for struggle and time for love, and in the day the bodies worked to make the world and in the night the bodies made love and sparkles filled the darkness.

This is what Old Man Antonio told us and that is why we use a black ski mask. So we are of the color brown and of the color black. But we are also of the color yellow, because the first people who walked these lands were made of corn so they would be true. And we are also red because this is the call of blood which has dignity and we are also blue because we are the sky in which we fly, and green for the mountain which is our house and our strength. And we are white because we are paper so that tomorrow can write its story.

So we are 7 colors because there were 7 first gods who birthed the world.

This is what Old Man Antonio said long ago and now I tell you this story so that you may understand the reason for this bridge of paper and ink which I send to you all the way from the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

And also so that you may understand that with this bridge goes pieces of salutes and hugs for Leonard Peltier (who is in the prison at Leavenworth, Kansas), and for the more than 100 political prisoners in the USA who are the victims of injustice, stupidity and authoritarianism.

And with this letter-bridge walks as well a salute to the Dine (the Navajo), who, in Big Mountain, Arizona, fight against the violations of their traditional Dine religious practices. They struggle against those who prefer the large businesses instead of respect for the religious freedom of Indian peoples, and those who want to destroy sacred grounds and ceremonial sites (as is the case of Peabody Western Coal Company which wants to take lands without reason, history or rights-lands which belong to the Dine and their future generations.)

But there are not only stories of resistance against North American injustice in this letter-bridge. There are the indigenous, from the extreme south of our continent, in Chile, the Mapuche women in the Pewenche Center of Alto Bio-Bio who resist against stupidity. Two indigenous women, Bertha and Nicolasa Quintreman are accused of "mistreating" members of the armed forces of the Chilean government. So there it is. An armed military unit with rifles, sticks, and tear-gas, protected by bulletproof vests, helmets and shields, accuse two indigenous women of "mistreatment". But Bertha is 74 years old and Nicolasa is 60. How is it possible that two elderly people confronted a "heroic" group of heavily-armed military? Because they are Mapuche. The story is the same as that of the brothers and sisters Dine of Arizona, and the same which repeats itself in all America: a company (ENDESA) wants the lands of the Mapuches, and in spite of the law which protects the indigenous, the government is on the side of the companies. The Mapuche students have pointed out that the government and the company made a "study" of military intelligence about the indigenous Mapuche communities and they came to the conclusion that the Mapuche could not think, defend themselves, resist, or construct a better future. The study was wrong apparently.

Now it occurs to me that, perhaps the powerful in North America carried out a "military intelligence" study (this is frankly a contradiction, because those of us who are military are not intelligent, if we were we would not be military) about the case of the Dine in Arizona, about Leonard Peltier, about other political prisoners, about yourself, mister Mumia.

Perhaps they made this study and came to the conclusion that they might be able to violate justice and reason, to assault history and lose the truth. They thought they could do this and no one would say anything. The Dine Indians would stand by and watch the destruction of the most sacred of their history, Leonard Peltier would be alone, and you, Mister Mumia, would be silenced ( and I remember your own words "They not only want my death, they want my silence").

But the studies were wrong. Happy mistake? The Dine resist against those who would kill their memory, Leonard Peltier is accompanied by all those who demand his liberty, and you sir, speak and yell today with all the voices which celebrate your birthday as all birthdays should be celebrated, by struggling.

Mister Mumia:

We have nothing big to give you as a gift for your birthday, it is poor and little, but all of us send you an embrace.

We hope that when you gain your freedom you will come to visit us. Then we will give you a birthday party, even if it isn't April 24th, it will be an unbirthday party.

There will be musicians, dancing and speaking, which are the means by which men and women of all colors understand and know one another, and build bridges over which they walk together, towards history, towards tomorrow.

Happy Birthday!
Vale. We salute you and may justice and truth find their place.
>From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico,
April of 1999

P.S. I read somewhere that you are a father and a grandfather. So I am sending you a gift for your children and grandchildren. It is a little wooden car with Zapatistas dressed in black ski-masks.

Tell your children and grandchildren that it is a gift that we send you, the Zapatistas. Explain to them places that there are people of all colors everywhere, just like you, who want justice, liberty and democracy for people of all colors.

[aztecklaw]

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos to Leonard Peltier

Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional Mexico
October of 1999
For: Leonard Peltier
From: Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos

Leonard,

Through the NCDM and Cecilia Rodriguez we extend greetings from the men, women, children and elders of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

Cecilia has told us about the grave injustice the North American judicial system has committed against you. We understand that the powerful are punishing your spirit of rebellion and your strong fight for the rights of indigenous people in North America.

Stupid as it is, the powerful believe that through humiliation, arrogance and isolation it can break the dignity of those who give thoughts, feelings, life and guidance to the struggle for recognition and respect for the first inhabitants of the land over whom, the vain United States has risen. The heroic resistance that you have maintained in prison, as well as the broad movement of solidarity, that your case and your cause have motivated in the U.S. and the world reveal their mistake.

Knowing of your existence and history, no woman or man if they are honest and conscious can remain silent before such a great injustice. Nor can they remain still in front of a struggle, which like all that is born and grows from below, is necessary, possible, and true.

The Lakota, a people who have the honor and fortune to have you among their blood, have an ethic that recognizes and respects the place of all people and things, respects the relations that mother earth has with herself and other living things that live and die within her and outside of her. An ethic that recognizes generosity as a measure of human worth, the walk of our ancestors and our dead along the paths of today and tomorrow, women and men as part of the universe that have the power of free will to choose paths and seasons, the search for harmony and the struggle against that which breaks and disorders it. All of this, and more that escapes because we are so far away, has a lot to teach the "western" culture which steers, in North America and in the rest of the world, against humanity and against nature.

Probably the determined resistance of Leonard Peltier is incomprehensible to the Powerful in North America, and the world. To never give up, to resist, the powerful call this 'foolishness'. But the foolish are in every corner of the world, and in all of them, resistance flourishes in the fertile ground of the most ancient history.

In sum, what the powerful fail to understand is not only Peltier's resistance, but also the entire worlds, and so they intend to mold the planet into the coffin the system represents, with wars, jails and police officers.

Probably, the powerful in North America think that in jailing and torturing Leonard Peltier, they are jailing and torturing one man.

And so they don't understand how a prisoner can continue to be free, while in prison.

And they don't understand how, being imprisoned, he speaks with so many, and so many listen.

And they don't understand how, in trying to kill him, he has more life.

And they donít understand how one man, alone, is able to resist so much, to represent so much, to be so large.

'Why?' the powerful ask themselves and the answer never reaches their ears:

Because Leonard Peltier is a people, the Lakota, and it is impossible to keep a people imprisoned.

Because Leonard Peltier speaks through the Lakota men and women who are in themselves and in their nature the best of mother earth.

Because the strength that this man and this people have does not come from modern weapons, rather it comes from their history, their roots, their dead.

Because the Lakota know that no one is more alive than the dead.

Because the Lakota, and many other North American Indian people, know that resisting without surrender not only defends their lives and their liberty, but also their history and the nature that gives them origin, home, and destiny.

Because the great ones always seem so small to those who can not see the history that each one keeps inside.

Because the racism that now governs can only imagine the other and the different in jail - or in the trashcan, where two Lakota natives were found last month, murdered, in the community of Pine Ridge. This is justice in North America: those who fight for their people are in jail, those who despise and murder walk unpunished.

What is Leonard Peltier accused of?

Not of a crime he didn't commit. No. He is accused of being other, of being different, of being proud to be other and different.

But for the Powerful, Leonard Peltier's most serious 'crime' is that he seeks to rescue in the past, in his culture, in his roots, the history of his people, the Lakota. And for the powerful, this is a crime, because knowing oneself with history impedes one from being tossed around by this absurd machine that is the system.

If Leonard Peltier is guilty, than we are all guilty because we seek out history, and on its shoulders we fight to have a place in the world, a place of dignity and respect, a place for ourselves exactly as we are, which is also, very much as we were.

If the Indian people of the North and Indian people of Mexico, as well as the indigenous people of the entire continent, know that we have our own place (being who we are, not pretending to be another skin color, another tongue, another culture), what is left is that other colors that populate the entire world know it. And what is left is for the powerful to know it. So that they know it, and learn the lesson so well that they won't forget, many more paths and bridges are needed that are walked from below.

On these paths and bridges, you, Leonard Peltier, have a special place, the best, next to us who are like you.

Salud, Leonard Peltier, receive a hug from one who admires and respects you, and who hopes that one day you will call him 'brother'.

Vale, and health to you and I hope that injustice disappears tomorrow, with yesterday as a weapon and today as a road.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos Mexico, October 1999

[aztecklaw]

We do indeed support the UNAM strike movement

To the national and international press:

Ladies and gentlemen:

The text is off concerning our position on the latest events. In case they get dumped on the internet or you leave them in your house, we are at least letting you know here that something went out. Thanks, then.

We do not have automobiles, nor do we travel around the beltway, but we are lighting candles here to say that that we do indeed support the UNAM strike movement. And it does not matter to us if they continue attacking us with police and soldiers, and if they occupy more towns, or continue arbitrarily detaining indigenous accused of being zapatistas: we are going to continue supporting the university students simply because they have right on their side.

Vale.

Salud and, before you throw the communique in a corner, happy two thousand! Or what?

>From the mountains of the Mexican southeast.
Subcomandante insurgente Marcos.
Mexico, June of 1999.

P.S. Now I don't understand anything. Is it that, for the government, the "New York Times" is the most important and influential newspaper in the world if it applauds Zedillo's economic policies, and, when it mentions the names of Mexican politicians tied to drug trafficking (Liévano, Hank), then it's a pamphlet at the service of obscure interests seeking to harm Mexico? Whatever, and, as consolation, the Secretary of Government went to have his picture taken in the football stands with one of the "alleged," Hank Gonzalez.

P.S. THAT POKES ABOUT. Completely buried under the "eliminate an ultra" (or a university striker), the earthquake, the execution of Paco Stanley, the visit by the country's greatest criminal (Carlos Salinas de Gortari - I say, if the issue is public security, one has to recognize that there are criminals and criminals), Zedillo's little jaunt to hide out in Guadalajara and the financial "armor plate," was the issue of Cabal Peniche's financial support of Zedillo's campaign.

P.S. THAT LOOKS FOR A LIFE PRESERVER. As is known, those ships that are "armor plated"sink.

P.S. CURIOUS. What PRI candidate just stated that he should not be considered as a neo-liberal, and, at the Department of Energy, Mines and Para-State Industries, during the period from 1982 - 1986, took part in the sales of more than 300 state bodies?
2000

"But there is a ray of sun in the struggle
that always leaves the shadow vanquished."
- Miguel Hernandez

June 24, 1999. Now the night of San Juan reigns in the mountains of the Mexican Southeast. And it reigns by law, that is, raining. The sea winds bring a little box of memories to the top of this ceiba. Out of one of the corners of the open mouth of the little jewel case, a streamer of light protrudes, and, with it, a history. Old Antonio suddenly appears, like nocturnal rain, and, as if nothing were going on, asks me for a light to fire his cigar and memory. Above the rough drumming of the rain on the nylon roof, Old Antonio's words are raised, given memories and luminous streamers, to recount

The History of the Milky Way

Before the rain undresses the mountain, a long path of dusty light is seen up above. It comes from there and it goes to there, Old Antonio says, with a slight gesture from one side to the other. "They say it is called the "Milky Way," or they also name it "Santiago's Road." They say there are many stars, and they have joined together, so tiny, making themselves opening and little path in the already riddled sky. They say, but they also say it is not like that. The oldest of our old say that which is seen above is a wounded animal.

Old Antonio pauses, as if waiting for the question I do not ask: a wounded animal?

Much time ago, when the very first gods had already created the world and they were laying around, men and women lived on the earth, working it and throwing it and so they went. But they say that one day there appeared in a town a serpent who fed on men. Or, rather, he only ate males, he did not eat women. And then when he had eaten all the men in a town, he went to another and did the same thing. The towns quickly let each other know of this great horror that was coming to them and they spoke fearfully of that great snake, that was so fat and long that it managed to surround an entire town, like a wall, not allowing anyone to enter or to leave, and he said that if they did not give him all the males, he would not let anyone leave, and so some of them surrendered and others fought, but the snake's strength was great and he always won. The towns lived in fear, merely waiting for the day that it would be their turn for the great snake to come and to eat all the men, as the serpent swallowed them whole. They say that there was a man who managed to escape from the serpent and he went to take refuge in a community that had already been attacked. There, in front of only women, the man spoke of the snake and that they must struggle to defeat it because it was doing much damage in these lands. The women said: what are we going to do if we are women? How are we going to fight him without men? How are we going to attack him if it does not come here now because there are no longer any men, he ate them all?

The women left, very discouraged and sad. But one remained and approached the man and asked him how he thought they could fight the snake. The man said he did not know but that he would have to think. And together, the man and the woman set to thinking and they made a plan and they went to call the women to tell them of the plan and everyone was in agreement.

And then it came to pass that the man began to show himself freely about the town and the serpent saw him from afar, because that snake that saw him from afar had very good eyes. And then the serpent came and surrounded the town with his large body and told the women to bring him that man who was walking about, or otherwise he would not let anyone enter or leave. The women said they would bring him, but they would have to meet in order to make an agreement. That is fine, said the snake. And then the women made a circle around the man and, since there were many of them, the circle was growing larger and larger, until the circle touched the very circle that the serpent's body had made around the town. Then the man said, that is good, deliver me. And he walked to the serpent's head, and when the snake was occupied in eating the man, all the women picked up sharp sticks and began jabbing the snake all over his body, and, since there were many and all over the place, and his mouth was full with the man he was eating, the serpent could not defend himself. And he had never thought that the weak would attack him in such a way and all over, and he was quickly weakened and defeated. And then he said: forgive me, do not kill me. No, said the women, we are going to kill you anyway, because you do much evil and you ate up all of our men. Let's make a deal, said the snake, if you do not kill me once and for all, I will return your men to you because I have them in my belly anyway. And then the women thought that was good, they would not kill him, but that the great serpent would not be living in those lands any longer and he would be expelled. Then the snake said: but where am I going to live and what am I going to eat, there is no deal. And then they were there with this problem when the first woman said they would have to ask the man who had come, to see what he thought and she said to the snake: release the man you have just eaten and we will see if he has an idea of what we can do. The serpent released the man who was already half dead and half alive and the man spoke with difficulty and he said he would have to ask the first gods to see what could be done, and he could go to look for them because now he was half alive and half dead. And the man went and he found the first gods sleeping under a ceiba and he awoke them and he told them of the problem and the gods met together in order to think and to reach a good accord and then they went to see the serpent and the victorious women and they listened and they said the serpent was to blame and he should be punished, that he should then give back the men he had swallowed and he would not die, and the snake brought up all the men from all the towns. And then the gods said the serpent would have to go and live on the highest mountain and, since he would not fit on just one mountain, he would then have to use two mountains, the highest of the world, and he would have his tail on one and his head on the other, and he would have sunlight for food, and the thousands of wounds the warrior women had given him would never close, and then the gods went, and the snake, the great serpent, went sadly to the highest mountains, and on one he put his head and on the other his tail and his large body reached from one side of the sky to the other, and, from then on, by day he feeds on sunlight, and by night that light spills out through all the little holes of his wounds.

The serpent is pale, that is why he is not seen by day, and that is why by night the light can be seen that falls from him and leaves him empty until, the next day, the sun feeds him once again. That is why they say that the large line that shines by night up above, is nothing but a wounded animal

That is what Old Antonio recounted to me and then I understood that the Milky Way is nothing more than a long serpent of light, that feeds by day and bleeds by night.

It has stopped raining on this night of San Juan. The sky quickly turns dark and clear and clearly one can see that a serpent of light hangs from the thick figure of a thousand wounds, from end to end, from one to the other horizon. The silver teardrops fall softly on the top of that ceiba, and another rain drizzles from there further downwards. From the faceless mirror there, the brightness bounces and goes further, to there, to that corner where, behind a shadow, can be seen

I. PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE RIFLE SIGHT

"Life escapes, with such a gesture!
By dying, with such art!"
- Miguel Hernandez

In October 1998, the World Conference of Higher Education was held in Paris, at the UNESCO headquarters. During this meeting, the World Bank established their position regarding how higher education should be reorganized on the planet. Briefly, this is the proposal for the globalization of higher education.

The World Bank considers a "radical" change in higher education to be necessary, through transforming the "classic" or "traditional" university (whose basis is teaching and research) so that it responds to the demands of the neo-liberal market, that is, it defines higher education as private property, like any other goods or service offered by the market. According to this, the actors in the higher education process must be redefined. The "consumers" are the businesses; the "providers" are the administrators and professors, and the "clients" are the students. In this case, the World Bank says, the "providers" do not what is suitable for the market. The "consumers" know better than anyone what it is they are selling, among other reasons, because they are "purchasers."

A first step is converting the university into a self-financing business. In order to accomplish this, the World Bank recommends an increase in school fees, the elimination of full or partial scholarships, charging for all university services and supports, loans and the charging of current interest rates for those loans through private companies, graduated taxes, reorienting the training of professors in order to turn them into businesspersons, the selling of research and courses, and an increase in, and the promotion of, private universities. Decision making within the universities should pass, according to the World Bank, to the consumers.

The World Bank says that governments and universities are not sensitive to the needs of the global market. That is why they propose changing budget allocations from the classic criteria (enrollment and prestige) to performance based criteria as indicated by the consumers. That is, universities should reorient themselves (that is, reassign budgets) according to the needs of the "consumers" (private companies). The World Bank sees the teaching profession as a factor to be "readjusted" according to this mercantile criteria. Academic freedom and determination are a hindrance, the same as unions and academic associations. That is, fewer academics and researchers are needed and "different" academics, researchers and manual and administrative workers. In sum: retraining and restructuring (All of this is gone into detail in the Canadian Association of University Teachers' Bulletin, translated by Luis Bueno Rodriguez, UAM-I).

The agreement is obvious between this proposal and the privatizing and reclassifying offensive the Zedillo government has directed against the country's public universities. The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH), the National Teachers University (UPN) and the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) are now in the government's rifle sights. To different degrees, and with certain variations, these institutions of higher education are suffering the ravages of a "modernization" which is attempting nothing less than the destruction of the concept of the public university.

The privatizing attack that seeks to "retrofit" higher public education has met strong resistance from the students, although it is obvious that the academic, research and administrative sectors are the primary objectives.

The government's choice of the public university as the priority target for their shots is not innocent. By shooting down this target, the others become more easily brought down: history, electricity, petroleum.

The General Law of Cultural Heritage proposal is aimed at privatizing the cultural heritage. Its objective is to redefine the government's cultural policies and to extend the wave of privatizations to Mexico's archeological, artistic and historic monuments and zones. The legislative proposal in question is an absolute hedgehog: it's quills wound not only Mexican cultural historic heritage, but it also threatens anthropological and historic research, teaching, and, obviously, one of the most continuous and spirited student movements in Mexico, that of the National School of Anthropology and History.

That is why the student movement, not just the one at the UNAM, but also those of the National School of Anthropology and History, the UAM, the National Teachers and the Poli are confronting attacks from so many and such varied forces. And ignorance about what is being concealed by these "reforms" that the authorities are promoting is one of the reasons they have not only been given scant support, but have also been attacked by some of the sectors that would be most affected if these "modernizations" meet with success.

Because of that, today

II. UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN THE RIFLE SIGHT

"But the hardest and oldest scar
reverts to a wound at the slightest blow."
- Miguel Hernandez

In the last few days, some press, across the entire political spectrum, have joined with the government and Barnes in stating that the "ultras" (as they call them) are to blame for the strike not having been lifted. The so-called "moderates" - in that hasty giving out of labels with which the "intelligentsia" conceals their ignorance and their lack of serious analysis - clamor for justice. They complain of harassment (they yell, then) and of threats (they call them "strikebreakers"), and they call everyone to a holy crusade against the primary enemy of the university movement. The World Bank? Barnes' policies? No, the "ultras."

The clamor for justice has quickly been echoed by persons with an obvious vocation for democracy, justice and liberty: Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, Francisco Barnes, Diodoro Carrasco, Francisco Labastida, Guillermo Ortega, Abraham Zabludovsky, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, Javier Alatorre, Sergio Sarmiento, and other venerable and venerated "defenders" of the public and free university.

Incapable of winning the student bases to their positions (who are THOSE who started and have maintained the strike), the newly displaced from the assemblies take refuge in some media, in order to try to achieve there what they lost in the student movement, that is, moral authority, legitimacy, credibility. The media, who "rediscovered" in the Stanley case the increase in sales produced by scandals, have joined together in an absurd broad front against striking university students, presenting the overall movement in the image, crafted especially for ridicule, of some students from the most radical wings to be found, along with many others, in the heart of the movement.

The unanimous cries against press lynchings - that were raised when TV Azteca and Televisa used Stanley's execution to mobilize public opinion against Cuauhtemoc Cardenas - have been replaced by this new lynching, against the university students now. Not just that: those who were bitterly complaining yesterday about the manner in which the electronic media were "lynching" Cardenas, are now hurrying to head the slander campaign against the students.

Suddenly the student strikers are uncomplaining sheep being led by a perverse shepherd (who teaches the barriga: horror!), and they are only waiting to be rescued by the clear intelligence that understands that "this-is-not-the-time-for-radicalism." The world turns, the arguments the authorities used against them yesterday (when they headed the movements), are now wielded in front of these "ultra" enemies who are, it is undeniable, very comfortable, give the perfect alibi to justify the lack of arguments for their own positions, and the lack of moral influence in a movement that - don't they realize? - is new in its content and its form.

A little history? When the PRD won the elections in the DF, an entire gang of leaders from the social movements (and with undeniable political influence within them) moved to positions in the Mexico City government. The "ultras" already existed in the university (was there a time when they did not exist?), and their positions and arguments did not vary (or the shouts, or the accusations of "strikebreakers") in many of those today. Nonetheless, the moral influence of the student leaders gives them the majority. By abandoning the university movement to fill, first, positions in the election campaign, and, later, government functions, the university leaders tied to the Revolutionary Democratic Party left an unoccupied space.

Time - is it necessary to remember it? - passes, the space is filled once more. But why do they deceive themselves and deceive, saying that space has been occupied by the "ultras," if they know very well that no group or tendency within the UNAM can maintain an initiative if there is not student support? In this case, not even the "ultras" lead (and they know it), and a new generation is in the university, proposing not only the renovation of the student leadership, but also the concept of that very leadership.

The students are yelling in the assemblies and threatening? And in the Congress of the Union? Aren't the Deputies and Senators the maximum power in the federation? Have they not even come to blows?

The students spend hours and hours in assemblies, discussing without coming to agreements? Was it any different when the "moderates" were leading the movement?

If the "ultras" are a small, sectarian, intolerant and vanguard group, and if it is the "ultras" who are the ones preventing the strike from being lifted: how can a small group keep the facilities on strike, "brigade" (that's how they say it?), close streets, threaten and harass moderates, and, in addition, be present at assemblies that last 12 hours, all at the same time?

A few real incidents that have been "forgotten" by the media: the "ultras" have not raped, beaten or jailed any students; they have not tried to impose a payment system behind the backs of the university community; they have not ordered police actions against the students; they have not promoted extramural classes; and they have not (it is obvious) orchestrated a media campaign against the movement.

The rumors of weapons among them are of the "they say someone says that someone saw them" type, and they are more serious than those that pointed out DF government officials, former student leaders, hiding out in the night to take oranges to the strikers during the first days. Could it not be said, following the criteria set out by the accusations, that the "ultras" are armed, that they want to win with oranges what they cannot win through arguments? But, clearly, no one is persecuted and incarcerated for carrying oranges, but for carrying a weapon...

There is not much to be said about some of the groups with the most radical tendencies, or "ultras" inside the UNAM and their fierce anti-zapatismo, except perhaps to remember a few incidents: Does anyone remember that Alan Arias was one of the so-called "ultra-ultras" during his university days, a fierce opponent of "capitulatory," "dialoguers" and "appeasement" positions of the "reformist" left (then the PCM and the PRT)? Is not Alan Arias today a third or fourth level employee of the Department of Government? And Adolfo Orive? And Raul Salinas de Gortari? Was not "the Wama" the nickname General Chaparro Acosta used at the university, in order to adopt ultra-radical poses and to detect those he would later torture in the clandestine jails of the "White Brigade?"

It will be the actions, and not the discourse, that, with the passage of time, define radical positions and consequences. Then we will see where the "capitulators" are, and the "dialoguers," the "appeasers," - and some others that escape me, but which have not changed much from yesterday to today.

Returning to the perverse strikers who "are holding the UNAM hostage" (which, we now know, belongs to Barnes and his bureaucrats): has the strike won? Didn't they say yesterday - before it was in place - that it was a provocation and it would be a failure, that it was minority, etc. (in fact, those were the arguments that encouraged Barnes)? And now it turns out that the strike did indeed have a reason to exist, and, in addition, it has won now and should be lifted? Isn't that the central argument of Zedillo's June 24 speech? Why are they going to believe it now? How can they clamor for a movement to be over when they have done nothing other than encouraging the slander campaign against it?

Now fine, let us suppose that they succeeded, and that the "ultras" are unanimously repudiated by the population, and the government, sensitive as it is to popular demands, opts to massively crush the movement and to strike at the "ultras" in order to "liberate" the UNAM. What does the face of an "ultra" look like? Are there any credentials or identifications for the "ultras," so that the attack would be against only them? Lastly, if refusing to lift the strike because, as the CGH says, their demands have not been met, is being "ultra: are they not calling for the crushing of the entire CGH, the hundreds of students who are on strike, forming brigades and making contact with other organizations, and the tens of thousands of university students who have attended the demonstrations called by the CGH and who support, without turning on their headlights, the movement for the defense of public and free education?

What is the stature of an organization whose members cannot carry out their political proposals because the "others" are yelling at them and calling them "strikebreakers?"

Has the strike triumphed and should it be lifted now? Should it continue? This is something that belongs to, and will belong to, the student movement, those who made the strike, and who have maintained it despite the worst media harassment campaign that has been seen in the last few years.

They, the young people who are making the movement, are those who will decide. Not the "ultras," nor the "moderates," nor any of the "labels" with which they are trying to reduce what is new about this movement to the comfortable, the useless, scheme of the old.

The "ultras" have won not a few initiatives in the CGH, and lost them in the school and faculty assemblies, and, therefore, in the CGH again. Two examples? The takeovers of highways and the constituent Congress. The majority of the schools did not approve the takeovers of highways, and they came out for a resolutionary Congress.

For one thing, the General Strike Council, in their June 22 manifesto, is emphatic:

"We have maintained throughout our willingness and interest in the opening of dialogue, revindicating a flag that the student movement has revindicated for more than 30 years, that is, public and open dialo gue. () Because we do not have anything to hide, because we want everyone to see us and to listen to us, because we want everyone to know what our arguments are and what those of the authorities are.

"What are they surprised about? That we firmly maintain the nature of this dialogue, that we want to honor the best lessons of the student movement? What surprises them about the planting of basic conditions for dialogue, if what is being asked is to stop being stifled, that the acts be stopped, that the work of the corrupt extramural classes against the strike be stopped? This is what the CGH has proposed."

It seems to be clear.

The zapatistas support the CGH if it decides to continue the strike, and we support them if they decide to lift it. We support them because they legitimately represent the student movement. They have the respect and the legitimacy they have gained working with their people. They are, then, representative.

On the other hand, if those who are now maintaining the UNAM strike are "ultras" who must be exorcised: where will the "ultras" of tomorrow be? In the urban popular movement? In the democratic teachers? In the Mexican Electricians Union? Or in the mountains of the Mexican Southeast? These are questions that those who are running for government should answer.

Concerning the visit a CGH delegation made to La Realidad, and concerning whether or not the EZLN has interfered in the movement, one must be clear: the "ultras" did not come to La Realidad, because for them we are "reformists" and "dialoguers." Nor did the "moderates" come, because for them we are "ultras" and "radicals." University students came here, and, in a long session that lasted 5 hours, in which only they spoke, they expounded on what the CGH thought of the strike. The CGH, and not them in particular (who have their own personal points of view on the movement). The impression they left us with is that they, and those whom they represent, are honest persons, who believe in what they are fighting for, and who live what they think. They understand their movement, and they know that it is those who are at the barricades and in the brigade who give course and direction to the movement. None came to ask what to do (which was a relief, because we do not know), They came to say their word, so that we would know the reasons for their movement. We learned them, we understood them, and we support them.

There is more: we cannot conceal our admiration and respect for them ( and I am referring above all to those who are doing the movement daily, even though they are not on the CGH). That is why we are saying here that we have not interfered at all in the student movement, but we believe the student movement has indeed interfered now in the EZLN (did you read that well, Rabasa? How about this for another statement to the press? Listen, you have to do something to justify your check, no?).

Perhaps it is because of that, because of the admiration we have for them, and for the pride we have at meeting them and knowing of the university students, that the zapatista communities are suffering a new police-military onslaught. Perhaps it is because of that that we are new.

III. ZAPATISTAS IN THE RIFLE SIGHT

"Here life is details: ant, death, affection, sorrow, stone, horizon,
river, light, sheaf, glass, furrow and sand.
Here is the garbage.
In the streets, and not in the hearts.
Here everything is known and murmurs:
The evil creature cannot be concealed,
And evil intentions even less."
- Miguel Hernandez

June 24, 1999, night of San Juan

In the mountains of the Mexican Southeast, there have been completed 2000 days of war, 2000 days repeating "YA BASTA!," 2000 days defying death, the forgetting, the silence, 2000 days supporting life, memory, hope.

And on the 2000th dawn of resistance, zapatista weavers, face of multiple light and multiple name, are toiling. They are weaving and weaving. And weaving struggling. And weaving singing.

There are those who say that what they are weaving is a net so that memory will not escape. There are those who say that it is a cloth of varied colors with which to dress the morning. And there are those who say that what the 2000th dawn is weaving is the morning.

>From the mountains of the Mexican southeast.
Subcomandante insurgente Marcos.
Mexico, June 24, 1999.
On the 2000th dawn of the war against the forgetting.

[aztecklaw]

Statement of Subcomandante Marcos to the Freeing the Media Teach-In organized by the Learning Alliance, Paper Tiger TV, and FAIR in cooperation with the Media & Democracy Congress, January 31 & February 1 1997, NYC.

We're in the mountains of Southeast Mexico in the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas and we want to use this medium with the help of the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico, to send a greeting to the Free the Media Conference that is taking place in New York, where there are brothers and sisters of independent communication media from the US and Canada.

At the Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism we said: A global decomposition is taking place, we call it the Fourth World War-- neoliberalism: the global economic process to eliminate that multitude of people who are not useful to the powerful-- the groups called "minorities" in the mathematics of power, but who happen to be the majority population in the world. We find ourselves in a world system of globalization willing to sacrifice millions of human beings.

The giant communication media: the great monsters of the television industry, the communication satellites, magazines, and newspapers seem determined to present a virtual world, created in the image of what the globalization process requires.

In this sense, the world of contemporary news is a world that exists for the VIP's-- the very important people. Their everyday lives are what is important: if they get married, if they divorce, if they eat, what clothes they wear and what clothes they take off-- these major movie stars and big politicians. But common people only appear for a moment-- when they kill someone, or when they die. For the communication giants and the neoliberal powers, the others, the excluded, only exist when they are dead, or when they are in jail or court. This can't go on. Sooner or later this virtual world clashes with the real world. And that is actually happening: this clash produces results of rebellion and war throughout the entire world, or what is left of the world to even have war.

We have a choice: we can have a cynical attitude in the face of the media, to say that nothing can be done about the dollar power that creates itself in images, words, digital communication, and computer systems that invades not just with an invasion of power, but with a way of seeing that world, of how they think the world should look. We could say, well, "that's the way it is" and do nothing. Or we can simply assume incredulity: we can say that any communication by the media monopolies is a total lie. We can ignore it and go about our lives.

But there is a third option that is neither conformity, nor skepticism, nor distrust: that is to construct a different way-- to show the world what is really happening-- to have a critical world view and to become interested in the truth of what happens to the people who inhabit every corner of this world.

The work of independent media is to tell the history of social struggle in the world, and here in North America-- the US, Canada and Mexico, independent media has, on occasion, been able to open spaces even within the mass media monopolies: to force them to acknowledge news of other social movements.

The problem is not only to know what is occurring in the world, but to understand it and to derive lessons from it-- just as if we were studying history-- a history not of the past, but a history of what is happening at any given moment in whatever part of the world. This is the way to learn who we are, what it is we want, who we can be and what we can do or not do.

By not having to answer to the monster media monopolies, the independent media has a life work, a political project and purpose: to let the truth be known. This is more and more important in the globalization process. This truth becomes a knot of resistance against the lie. It is our only possibility to save the truth, to maintain it, and distribute it, little by little, just as the books were saved in Fahrenheit 451--in which a group of people dedicated themselves to memorize books, to save them from being destroyed, so that the ideas would not be lost.

This same way, independent media tries to save history: the present history-- saving it and trying to share it, so it will not disappear, moreover to distribute it to other places, so that this history is not limited to one country, to one region, to one city or social group. It is necessary not only for independent voices to exchange information and to broaden the channels, but to resist the spreading lies of the monopolies. The truth that we build in our groups, our cities, our regions, our countries, will reach full potential if we join with other truths and realize that what is occurring in other parts of the world also is part of human history.

In August 1996, we called for the creation of a network of independent media, a network of information. We mean a network to resist the power of the lie that sells us this war that we call the Fourth World War. We need this network not only as a tool for our social movements, but for our lives: this is a project of life, of humanity, humanity which has a right to critical and truthful information.

We greet all of you, recognizing the work you have done so that the struggle of indigenous people is known, and that other struggles are known, so that the great events of this world are seen in a critical form. We hope your meeting is a success and that it results in concrete plans for this network, these exchanges, this mutual support that should exist between cultural workers and independent media makers. We hope that one day we can personally attend your meeting, or perhaps that one day you can have your conference in our territory, so we can listen to your words and you can hear ours in person. For now, well, we take advantage of the help of the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico (NCDMUSA) to use this video to send a greeting. This section in English: I don't know if my English is OK but good luck and so long.

[workersunity]

you know you couldve just posted a link?

[aztecklaw]

Originally posted by [email protected] 31 2005, 10:30 PM
you know you couldve just posted a link?
Well, there went my hopes for finding a forum without anal retentive people. :P

Anyways, I got this from a DVD-ROM and had no other way of getting this information on the thread.

I wanted to share this information. Enjoy!

[aberos]

if it is any consolation, i kind of enjoyed it all being in the post aztec

[Elect Marx]

Originally posted by [email protected] 1 2005, 03:06 AM
if it is any consolation, i kind of enjoyed it all being in the post aztec
I agree, the forum color-scheme is easy on the eyes and I get really sick of reading off sights that aren't.

Thanks for sharing and what DVD-ROM is this from exactly?

[workersunity]

alright thats cool about the dvd thing, i didnt know it was on a dvd, ya i just thought it was much to scroll through, didnt mean to sound like a hard ass, if thats how it came out

[aztecklaw]

Originally posted by 313C7 iVi4RX+Apr 1 2005, 10:21 AM--> (313C7 iVi4RX @ Apr 1 2005, 10:21 AM)
[email protected] 1 2005, 03:06 AM
if it is any consolation, i kind of enjoyed it all being in the post aztec
I agree, the forum color-scheme is easy on the eyes and I get really sick of reading off sights that aren't.

Thanks for sharing and what DVD-ROM is this from exactly? [/b]
Okay good deal! Glad you guys liked the info.

I got it from a RAtM DVD! :lol:

Rage Against the Machine: The Battle of Mexico City (2001) (V)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280059/

There's little mini-docu's (sorta in MTV fashion) about NAFTA and education in Mexico and especially the Zapatistas.

There's a great video message from the revolutionary Marcos and there's a great interview with Noam Chomsky describing in better detail how Mexico has been conquered a long time ago.

I have a sincere appreciation for Subcomandante Marcos. He is an intelligent human being. Lots of people say he was a professor at one of the universities in Mexico and saw major flaw in NAFTA that inspired him to take arms in a revolution.

Not only will you get your 'rock' on with this video, but has lots of DVD-ROM info on the disk. If you guys would like I can post the remaining letters from Subcomandante Marcos, his stuff is great reading in my opinion. :ph34r:

[Rage]

Originally posted by [email protected] 2 2005, 07:21 AM


I got it from a RAtM DVD! :lol:

Rage Against the Machine: The Battle of Mexico City (2001) (V)

Thats an awsome DVD man :D

Here is a good site about EZLN.

http://www.geocities.com/alt_politics/EZLN.html

There are some really stupid Guerrilla Movements I hate but this one is proby my favoriet. If I was older and had the money to get there I would go and fight with them.


/,,/
Rock on!

[bushdog]

The Zapitistas are one of the guerilla movments that i think is the most legitimate. I did a project on them in my global issues class (in my small, ultraconservative, hick highschool) and told it like it is and my instructor got super pissed and we argued about it and then he failed me because i talked circles around him infront of the class.