EZLN on the move again

[Sasha]

most of the sources i can find at the moment are spanish but it seems that the EZLN seized upon the whole maya doomsday hype by breaking their years of strategical hiding. 40.000 Zapatista's occupied several cities in complete silence today to "celebrate the new mayan era", its rumored that subcommadante marcos will be giving a speech soon;

21 December 2012
To whom it may concern
DID YOU HEAR?
It is the sound of their world collapsing.
It is that of our comeback.
The day that was the day, used to be night.
And night will be the day, that will be the day.
Democracy!
Freedom!
Justice!
From the Mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
On behalf of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee — General Command of the EZLN Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos Mexico, December 2012

[Tim Cornelis]

http://javiersoriaj.wordpress.com/20...san-cristobal/

(google translate)

Zapatista march in Ocosingo, Las Margaritas and San Cristobal
Posted on December 21, 2012 by Station clarity: I come coming
Who said the Zapatistas was not alive?



Well today, as we see in La Jornada, has been mobilizing:

Ocosingo, Chiapas . From the early hours of today thousands of Zapatista supporters from five snails began peacefully occupy the central squares of cities Ocosingo, San Cristobal de las Casas, Las Margaritas, Altamirano and Comitán.
At 6:30 am the reached Ocosingo bases began to congregate near Forest University, and from there began to march towards the city center.
currently in the square bases Ocosingo keep coming and occupy all the spaces woodlands large square from the town hall to the parish of the city.
expected that Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) issued a message in the coming hours.
At the time many believed the world unwary would end, Mayan communities EZLN support bases, with their faces covered, most of them very young, perfectly formed quietly waiting under a persistent drizzle.
Unusually for this time it rained all night.

[ Hermann Bellinghausen, sent 
Published: 21/12/2012


c or, as we read in Process:

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Chiapas. - Thousands of members of indigenous communities EZLN base area of ​​the high jungle and surprised this morning with marches in the towns of Ocosingo, and this municipal Margaritas.

Early on, the natives wearing balaclavas and scarves covering their face left their communities and traveled hundreds of trucks to post themselves at the entrances of the three municipalities.

Without weapons, with the national flag and the Zapatista (black with a red star in the center) the thousands of peasants began demonstrations in these three locations, the same as in 1994 took, but with weapons, to declare war on the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Without the presence of Subcomandante Marcos, the Zapatista indigenous will focus on the municipal to raise awareness about noon a message to the people of Mexico.

Since May 2011 the EZLN support bases did not manifest. On that occasion expressed their support for victims of Felipe Calderón's war against drug trafficking, integrated in the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity led by poet Javier Sicilia.

Now expected a political message because coincidentally manifested in the boot of government of Enrique Peña Nieto and chicpaneco president Manuel Velasco.

[La Guaneña]

Damn, this looks like something straight out of a movie. Epic.

[Let's Get Free]

Now that's a fucking black bloc.

This is the most impressive Zapatista mobilization since May 2011, when — together with the Movement for Peace, Justice, and Dignity of the poet Javier Sicilia — they gathered more than 30.000 people against the “War on Drugs” of Felipe Calderon that has already cost Mexico more than 70.000 deaths.

[Art Vandelay]

I'm not sure why so many communists and anarchists, care so much about the Zapatistas?

As far as the proletarian class goes in its attempts at achieving its historical duty of abolishing itself, the EZLN is useless.

[Sasha]

I'm not sure why so many communists and anarchists, care so much about the Zapatistas?

As far as the proletarian class goes in its attempts at achieving its historical duty of abolishing itself, the EZLN is useless.

because some of us believe this abolition will happen neither through the leftwing of fordism nor the fetishising of armed struggle.
an adaptive movement struggling for a sustainable revolutionary future leading through example instead of dogma.
they are a personification of what was an important slogan in the amsterdam autonomous movement; "autonoom & solidair"

[Let's Get Free]

As far as the proletarian class goes in its attempts at achieving its historical duty of abolishing itself, the EZLN is useless.

That's not exactly their main intent. For centuries Mexicans have been slaves and fodder and treated as less than human. Their past has made them what they are today and in attempting to break this historical trend of exploitation, they have risen up multiple times in attempts to reclaim their humanity and improve their lives. In fighting for these ends, they do what is most effective.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Psssh, bunch of Bakuninists! Everyone knows BAKUNINISTS can't mobilize a real anti-capitalist movement!

...






Thanks psycho and tim cornelius for posting this. I don't think a lot of people appreciate the power, depth and persistence of resistance by the indigenous peasants of southern Mexico, or at least they have forgotten.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I'm not sure why so many communists and anarchists, care so much about the Zapatistas?

As far as the proletarian class goes in its attempts at achieving its historical duty of abolishing itself, the EZLN is useless.

They're way more useful than Marxist-Leninist kiddies playing theoryball on the interwebs. MLs just can't wrap their minds around a successful peasant-based revolution I guess.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

What is their long term goal here? Is demonstrating in a city something which is going to gain them more supporters or more importantly is it even anything more than a single act? I assume these people are not actual fighters in the guerrilla sense (I do not think they would deploy all their fighters to a few cities for a propaganda piece) so it is not military this action. What happens afterwards? Do these people return to their homes or agitate in the city or what? What is the next step here?

[human strike]

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexi...-of-resurgence

[skitty]

[QUOTE=9mm;2553132]I'm not sure why so many communists and anarchists, care so much about the Zapatistas?

If we only associate with people like ourselves will we accomplish anything? The Zapatistas have reached out to, and hosted representatives from, groups all over the world.

[Tim Cornelis]

I'm not sure why so many communists and anarchists, care so much about the Zapatistas?

As far as the proletarian class goes in its attempts at achieving its historical duty of abolishing itself, the EZLN is useless.

Boring, old orthodox class reductionism. Orthodox Marxism is also irrelevant in advancing class struggle since the average worker couldn't care less for boring analyses of social structures.

Sometimes things can be hopeful without fitting the narrow Marxist paradigm.

The Zapatistas represent a practical answer to oppressive structures instead of boring analyses. The Zapatistas represent hope in that they were a new rebellion in a new spirit when the USSR had just collapsed. It shows the possibility of having autonomy, mutual aid, and democracy from below even in isolation. They are a rare and unique social occurrence, after countless revolutions that failed and ended in bloodshed and oppression, we now have a failed revolution that ended in its near opposite.

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexi...-of-resurgence

Woops, didn't see it was already posted above.

Only the resonating echo of rain pattering down on the cobblestone streets of Chiapas' colonial cities sounded as tourists from around the globe awaiting the end of the world in the center of the Mayan Civilization were surprised by the silent marches of more than 40,000 masked Mayan Zapatistas who descended on their apocalyptic misinterpretations of the Mayan 13 Ba´ktun.

A faint sound of a baby's cry would occasionally emerge from a bundle beneath a plastic tarp on the back of a masked Zapatista in the endless lines of Mayan rebels who quietly held formation in the rain. They marched four file booted and bare-footed into the same cities they surprised on a cold new year's eve night 19 years ago, shouting their first YA BASTA!

Yesterday's weapon, differing from the 1994 armed indigenous uprising, was the Zapatista silence, their moral authority, the echo of a unified and deafening silence that shouted YA BASTA! once again. A silence that in their massive presence in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Ocosingo, Altamirano, Las Margaritas and Palenque shouted without a word that the a new Mayan era has begun and the Zapatistas are present. A silence that was meant to remind Mexico's recently inaugurated President Enrique Peña Nieto and his PRI party that the root causes of the Zapatista struggle are as prevalent today as they were 19 years ago: lack of health care, education, housing, land, food, indigenous rights, women's rights, gay rights, dignity, and justice. A silence that reminded the returning PRI that there is a Mexico profundo, a Mexico jodido, a Mexico con hambre, and a Mexico dispuesto a luchar and in struggle. The Zapatistas and the EZLN need not say a word today, their actions and silence said enough. Aqui estamos!

As early as 4 a.m. the Mayan indigenous, Tzeltales, Tzotziles, Tojolobales, Choles, Zoques, and Mames began their mobilizations from their five cultural centers of resistance, known as Caracoles, emerging from the Lacandon jungle, the Chiapas Canyon lands, and the rain soaked highlands. They quietly moved along the mountainous, fog-bearing roads towards the same cities (plus Palenque) that they descended upon when these ill-equipped ragtag rebels launched their armed uprising on January 1st 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement went in to effect.

Yesterday's marches by the Zapatista National Liberation Army comprised of Mexico’s Mayan indigenous peoples was the first mobilization since their May 7, 2011 march demanding an end to the widespread violence and impunity in Mexico. That march echoed Poet Javier Sicilia's movement for justice demanding the end to PANista President Felipe Calderon's US-backed War on Drugs that has claimed up to 80,000 lives over the last six years. Calderon, who departs Mexico leaving a bloodstained country, will follow his predecessor Ernesto Zedillo’s footsteps to a safe haven in US academia, entering Harvard and moving to Cambridge, a town ironically that has one of the world´s lowest per capita murder rates, contrary to a Mexico ranking in the world’s top 10 country’s with major violent death tolls. Today’s Zapatista march, explains award winning Mexican Journalist Jose Gil Olmos, marks a symbolic moment being December 21st on the Gregorian calendar and 13 Ba´ktun, or the end of the 144,000 day Mayan long calendar, silently saying that this is beginning of a new calendar, a new era and the Zapatistas are present:

"The mere presence of the Zapatistas here today just as the new government of Enrique Peña Nieto is getting started and the return of the PRI is a message in and of itself that the EZLN exists and is here, that the EZLN is a social and political force and they are reminding the PRI that things are not good, That the voice of the voiceless and the faceless are saying listen up! There is a forgotten Mexico here, a Mexico that is starving and disparate and the march, a silent march is an emblematic message in and of itself."

There were no visible Zapatista Commanders in the marches, no words spoken, no chants could be heard, nor banners seen. Only two flags accompanied the thousands of Mayan rebels, a Zapatista five pointed red star on black and the Mexican flag. The same scenario could be seen in each of the five cities that the Zapatistas descended upon despite the unusual rains for the beginning of the Chiapas dry season. The Zapatistas arrived, marched on the city centers, built make-shift stages on top of cars and marched thousands of Zapatistas four by four, fists in the air, over the stages in front of their flags. Then, as quickly and quietly as they arrived, the Zapatistas disappeared into the fog and rain that camouflaged their arrival.

Late in the day a one-page communiqué signed by Zapatista rebel leader Sub-Comandante Marcos, El Sup, began to go viral on the internet. The communiqué simply read the following:


Did You Hear?

That is the sound of your world falling apart.

It is the sound of our resurgence.
The day that was the day, was night.

And night will be the day that will be the day.

Democracy!

Liberty!

Justice!

[skitty]

Anyone know what the numbers represent?

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

What is their long term goal here? Is demonstrating in a city something which is going to gain them more supporters or more importantly is it even anything more than a single act? I assume these people are not actual fighters in the guerrilla sense (I do not think they would deploy all their fighters to a few cities for a propaganda piece) so it is not military this action. What happens afterwards? Do these people return to their homes or agitate in the city or what? What is the next step here?

These guys managed to get 40,000 people out (1 out of every 100 in Chiapas) in a deeply impoverished rural state with poor infrastructure for a silent rally on a rainy day, nearly 20 years after they imposed their autonomy on the Mexican government, on the end day of the most recent Mayan calendar cycle. Shit we could barely get a fraction of that in occupy protests at the height of the movement in heavily urbanized areas. I think they understand the endgame and socio-political agitation better than most. Leftists around the world could use some lessons from the EZLN

[human strike]

+ YouTube Video

[TheGodlessUtopian]

These guys managed to get 40,000 people out (1 out of every 100 in Chiapas) in a deeply impoverished rural state with poor infrastructure for a silent rally on a rainy day, nearly 20 years after they imposed their autonomy on the Mexican government, on the end day of the most recent Mayan calendar cycle. Shit we could barely get a fraction of that in occupy protests at the height of the movement in heavily urbanized areas. I think they understand the endgame and socio-political agitation better than most. Leftists around the world could use some lessons from the EZLN

That doesn't answer my question though.

It is good they were able to muster this kind of strength yet what is it going to achieve in the end? Is this action part of a wider campaign? Has anything else been announced yet or has any military offensives been launched in conjunction with the protests? Simply getting people out to the street is only going to do so well in publicity terms, there needs to be something more otherwise what was the point? Rallies happen everyday: from Libya, with tens of thousands supporting Gaddafi to Occupy in New York City, yet, in the end, both of those fizzled out.

Actions disconnected from the wider struggle are only going to achieve so much. So this is my point: what else does the EZLN have planned?

[Sasha]

I think, as proven by this thread, it was a very good PR action. A show of force and a reminder to enemies and friends alike that they are still there but while keeping their actuall cards really close to their chest.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

That doesn't answer my question though.

It is good they were able to muster this kind of strength yet what is it going to achieve in the end? Is this action part of a wider campaign?

It's hard to say what it's meant to achieve, I imagine only the Zapatistas themselves know. It seems to me like a reminder to the people of Chiapas and the rest of Mexico that the EZLN haven't been defeated after 20 years and a reminder to the State that there is a significant organized resistance to their presence. Reminding the people of Mexico that you can rebel against the State and win is important in itself.

Has anything else been announced yet or has any military offensives been launched in conjunction with the protests?

Why would they need or want to initiate a new armed conflict?

Simply getting people out to the street is only going to do so well in publicity terms, there needs to be something more otherwise what was the point?

They have their own communities to take care of, and this rally is happening in the context of substantial social protest against a seemingly cheated election, economic neoliberalism, the drug war and political corruption.

Rallies happen everyday: from Libya, with tens of thousands supporting Gaddafi to Occupy in New York City, yet, in the end, both of those fizzled out.

You can't compare the Zapatistas to scared Libyans demonstrating for their clownish autocrat or the ideologically disparate, internally divided and politically naive occupy movement. The EZLN rebelled and won autonomy from the state through a mix of armed conflict and diplomacy and has been around 20 years as a popular mass movement where they have power. They have the kind of deep, mass support in many communities which neither of the movements you mentioned did because they *are* the communities.

Actions disconnected from the wider struggle are only going to achieve so much. So this is my point: what else does the EZLN have planned?

I think the real question is - why would they risk losing the economic, social and political autonomy they have gained in the past by entering into some kind of armed confrontation with the state on their own? This is more than just a guerrilla group, this is a militia made up of farmers and workers with families to feed, so running into the jungle and possibly dying in combat is not exactly an option. Not to mention they are in a region of Mexico and members of ethnic groups which have historically been remote, isolated and marginalized. The EZLN learned that they cannot inspire a mass revolution on their own in the 90s, however a big show of force plays into the VERY substantial anti-PRI sentiment on the Left in Mexico. So complaining that they lack an endgame is not really a critique that I think the Zapatistas would care about - they have other concerns.

[CallmeKoba]

Looks very peaceful especially for a gathering of this size. Well organized.