Chiapas of Today: Land of Dignity and Resistance

Without waiting for the government to fulfill the San Andres Accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture, despite the existence of 215 military posts, the majority located in Zapatista territory; of the existence of a series of official projects with the counter-insurgence logic to divide, co-opt, break, and corrupt Zapatista communities; the government also pushed and strengthened paramilitary groups; despite the existence of 12,000 displaced people in the high and northern zones, the government closed off means of communication to the Chiapan reality; despite the fact that academics and intellectuals had events and forums to evaluate the ten years of struggle saying that the communities are worse off than before because they receive neither money nor projects from the government; for all its attempts to disparage the EZLN and despite the difficult situation in the communities, despite having all the official machinery in place against it, the EZLN continues with a series of initiatives and reaffirms its autonomy.  The EZLN has passed through three major stages of its struggle and journey: the first is the armed struggle, the twelve days of combat and military confrontation with the federal army; the second is dialogue with different sectors of national and international society; and the third is the construction of alternatives and the beginning of autonomy and the practice of Good Government.

In this logic, its most recent strategy is that of August 9^th, 2003, with the death of Aguascalientes and the rise of the five Caracoles, which perform the function of administrators of the Zapatista government.  That is to say, the EZLN does not need to take power; the coordination of community strength is already a power, which has already broken with official structures and the power of domination that local powers and caciques maintained in at least 38 constitutional municipalities.

All of this, the EZLN has achieved thanks to the fact that the voice of civil society was heard when it was unwilling to see the Zapatistas exterminated.  This priority of dialogue with local actors (even when they are militant PRI communities or have other differences from the Zapatistas) has given as a result that Zapatism is locally positioned in front of other actors and around a territory and its control (because the Zapatistas are from there and do not have a reason to leave); even though there is a military occupation by the federal army, this does not occupy the mind of the thousands of Zapatistas living in the communities who have conscience, dignity and rebelliousness against a bad government after the Mexican Revolution, which has been exploiting them for more than 75 years… this long history of exploitation actually goes back more than 512 years.

In this way, the Caracoles are an open door for international and national civil society to dialogue with the EZLN through the Juntas de Buen Gobierno (Councils of Good Government), and after one year, has been a very positive initiative, because international and national solidarity have been able to maintain a permanent dialogue with Zapatism, have presented their initiative, have arrived to great and live in solidarity with the Zapatistas; even if it’s just to take a photo and say that they were with the Juntas de Buen Gobierno, the important thing is that this contact brings a rebirth and strengthens the hope of those who come and go on the curves of the Caracoles, paving the way for a new dawn of a more just world.

This power is declared not just in rebellion and disobedience against the official government, it is important because it has been placed to construct an alternative in favor of the communities around the basic commands that have caused the uprising from the beginning.

The possibility of having constructed more than 40 clinics, mini-clinics, and health buildings in the hands of health promoters, with their own resources and international solidarity; to have constructed more than 500 autonomous schools with education promoters that not only teach reading and writing, but also consciousness of the reality in which we live...  All of this speaks of the construction of an alternative and a project of life, as opposed to the project of neoliberal death.

The existence of cooperatives for the production of organic coffee that are now capable of competing on an international level in the markets of Hamburg, London, Paris, Zurich and anywhere else in the world, represents an alternative achieved by Zapatism.

The Zapatista women artisans who weave their crafts as they weave their history, who today have the capacity to overtake local and international markets with the sale of their products, which are not only beautiful, but also symbols of dignity, resistance, and rebellion sustained for more than 512 years.  At the same time, they generate organization, structure, and decision-making in community collectives, whether it be as a cooperative, a store, or a community organization.

All the organizational processes of Zapatista collectives for the production of shoes, candlesticks, artistic ironwork, bicycle workshops, crafts, production of cane and molasses, of fertilizers and organic production, of carpentry, of mechanic and painting workshops, of education, etc., that without receiving either projects or money from the Mexican government, speak to us of an ample organizational process that has been the product of not only these ten years of struggle, but since many years and many earlier struggles, strengthened in recent years by the participation of national and international solidarity, and that is showing us the construction of an alternative model that has already begun.  This process is irreversible and is like the Caracol, which does not know how to retreat; this autonomy advances without asking anyone’s permission.

During the last year and after the rise of the Caracoles, and to maintain informed and please the heart of those who would listen, the EZLN offers songs, tales, information, commentary, and analysis of our reality through Radio Insurgente, Radio Amanacer de los Pueblos Indigenas, Radio Zapata, and Radio Rebelde, that transmit from the mountains of southeast Mexico.  It is common now to hear these radio stations played amongst the people: amongst taxi drivers, car washers, in the stands of masons, in the markets, with the street vendors – that is to say, amongst all those excluded from the system, who listen to the stations of “the Voice of those who Do not Have a Voice” and feel that something new is springing up in the hearts of the poorest of the poor and those forgotten by the system.

On the other hand, if it’s true that not all in Chiapas is the EZLN, there are other organizational processes of civil society, sometimes organized and others isolated; but the important thing is that they are ongoing.  There exist community processes worthy of acknowledgement where men, women, and children, are pushing organizational processes, whether it be in coffee cooperatives, organic honey cooperatives, where they reject the so-called “improved” transgenic seeds; they push productive projects, such as vegetable plots, popular stores, health projects, education projects, carpentry, saddle and harness makers, tortilla vendors, etc., which show us the way of life, of the search for freedom and the construction of peace, against a government that offers only war and repression, but also against the imposition of the dominant and unjust economic model.

In this sense it is necessary to acknowledge the work of organizations such as Roads Without Borders in the Comitan region, the Chiapan Front Against Repression; UMIRSI and CIRSA in the Simojovel region, Women of Corn in Resistance; “Las Abejas” Civil Society Organization in Chenalhó and Maya Winik; Civil Society Coordinators in Resistance; indigenous doctors and midwives grouped together in the Organization of Indigenous Doctors of Chiapas (OMIECH) and the Council of Indigenous Doctors and Midwives of Chiapas (COMPITCH); the networks of defenders of human rights of the communities.  These and many more tell us that the communities are constructing their own alternatives for life, for resistance, for better health, and for a better future.

The Chiapas of Tomorrow: That of Everyone

It is true that today there exist these organizational processes from the bases, from the communities, but none of these are recognized by either state or federal government, because they do not generate profits and capital gains; so in the future, all these processes will find themselves in some moment in the history of Chiapas and of national life, when we have reached our utopia, where we are all together, but not scrambled, when what has been constructed will be recognized by the government elected by the people, when there is democracy, liberty and justice for all Mexicans and Chiapans.

When communities participate in the preparation and planning, execution and evaluation of their development plans and projects to construct their live.  When we have an inclusive Chiapas and Mexico, dignified, with respect for all.  We do not see this as far on the horizon, now that the loss of prestige of the political parties, of the candidates for popular elections and presidential candidates for 2006, from the corruption on all levels of government, to the lies and blackmail with which we are governed, to the video scandals that some functionaries and party leaders have been caught up in, to the un-governability, to the economic, political and social crisis that our country is in, are symptoms that something is wrong.

For this our country needs dialogue of all sectors who aspire to a new nation, to have a new transition government that commits to redeeming the county and not handing it over to neoliberal nations, to re-found the nation and have a new Mexican political constitution that emanates from the people, and that we do not depend on Federal Congress where the law is written for the benefit of all.  With a Mexico for all, we will have a Chiapas for all.

[1] Hidalgo Domínguez, Onésimo, “Tras Los Pasos De Una Guerra Inconclusa”

(The Militarization and its effects on ten years of war in Chiapas), study soon to be published.

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