<nettime> en) Chiapas, EZLN: A letter of explanation...or, perhaps, farewell

["dr.woooo" <dr.woooo@nomasters.org>]

from
http://irlandesa.blogspot.com/

please forward widely.


EZLN: A letter of explanation...or, perhaps, farewell
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
********************************
Translated by irlandesa


Zapatista Army of National Liberation

Mexico.


June 21, 2005.

To National and International Civil Society:

Se?ora, se?orita, se?or, young person, boy, girl:

This is not a letter of farewell. At times it is going to seem as if it is, that
it is a farewell, but it is not. It is a letter of explanation. Well, that is
what we shall attempt. This was originally going to go out as a communiqu?, but
we have chosen this form because, for good or for bad, when we have spoken with
you we have almost always done so in this most personal tone.

We are the men, women, children and old ones of the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation. Perhaps you remember us - we rose up in arms on January 1, 1994,
and ever since then we have kept up our war against the forgetting, and we have
resisted the war of extermination which the different governments have waged,
unsuccessfully, against us. We live in the furthest corner of this country
which is called Mexico. In that corner which is called "Indian Peoples." Yes,
like that, plural. Because, for reasons we shall not give here, the plural is
used in this corner for everything: we suffer, we die, we fight, we resist.

Now, as you know quite well, it so happens that, ever since that dawn of the
beginning of '94, we have dedicated our struggle - first with fire and then
with the word - our efforts, our life and our death, exclusively to the Indian
peoples of Mexico for the recognition of their rights and their culture. It was
natural - we zapatistas are overwhelmingly indigenous. Mayan indigenous, to be
more precise. But, in addition, the indigenous in this country - despite having
been the foundation of this Nation's great transformations - are still the
social group which has been the most attacked and the most exploited. If they
have shown no mercy against anyone with their military wars and the wars
disguised as "political", the wars of usurpation, of conquest, of annihilation,
of marginalization, of ignorance - it has been against the indigenous. The war
against us has been so intense and brutal that it has become routine to think
that the indigenous will only be able to escape from their conditions of
marginalization and poverty if they stop being indigenous...or if they are
dead. We have been fighting to not die and to not cease being indigenous. We
have fought to be - alive and indigenous - part of this nation which has been
lifted up over our backs. The Nation for whom we have been the feet (almost
always unshod) with which it has walked in its decisive moments. The Nation for
whom we have been the arms and hands which have made the earth bear fruit and
which have erected the large buildings, edifices, churches and palaces that
those who have everything take such pride in. The Nation of which - through
word, look and manner, that is, through culture - we are the root.

Are we raining insult upon injury? Perhaps it's because we are in June, the
sixth month of the year. Well, we just wanted to point out that the beginning
of our uprising was not just a "Here we are", shouted to a Nation that was deaf
and dumb because of the authoritarianism above. It was also a "This is what we
are and shall continue to be...but now with dignity, with democracy, with
justice, with liberty." You know this quite well, because, among other things,
you have been accompanying us since then.

Unfortunately, after more than 7 years committed to that path, in April of 2001,
politicians from all the parties (primarily the PRI, PAN and PRD) and the
self-styled "three branches of the Union" (the presidency, the congress and the
courts) formed an alliance in order to deny the Indian peoples of Mexico the
constitutional recognition of their rights and culture. And they did so without
caring about the great national and international movement which had arisen and
joined together for that purpose. The great majority, including the media, were
in agreement that that debt should be settled. But the politicians don't care
about anything that doesn't get them money, and they rejected the same proposal
that they had approved years before when the San Andr?s Accords were signed and
the Cocopa drafted a proposal for constitutional reform. They did so because
they thought that, after a little time had passed, everyone would forget. And
perhaps many people forgot, but we did not. We have memory, and it was they:
the PRI, the PAN, the PRD, the President of the Republic, the deputies and
senators and the justices of the Supreme Court of the Nation. Yes, the Indian
peoples continue today in the underbelly of this Nation, and they continue to
suffer the same racism they have for 500 years. It doesn't matter what they are
saying now, when they are preparing for the elections (in other words, to
secure positions that will make them profits): they are not going to do
anything for the good of the majority, nor are they going to listen to anything
that isn't money.

If we zapatistas pride ourselves on anything it's honoring the word, the honest
and principled word. All this time we have been telling you that we will try
the path of dialogue and negotiation in order to achieve our demands. We told
you that we would make great efforts in the peaceful struggle. We told you that
we would focus on the indigenous struggle. And so it has been. We have not
deceived you.

All the help which you have so generously contributed to this noble cause and
through those means has been for that and for nothing else. We have used
nothing for anything else. All the humanitarian help and aid which we have
received from Mexico and from throughout the world has been used only for
improving the living conditions of the zapatista indigenous communities and in
peaceful initiatives for the recognition of indigenous rights and culture.
Nothing of what was received has been used for the acquisition of arms or for
any war preparations. Not only because we haven't needed it (the EZLN has
maintained its military capacity intact since 1994), but above all because it
wouldn't have been honest to tell you that your help was for one thing and to
use it for another. Not one centavo of the help received for peace with justice
and dignity has been used for war. We have not needed help for making war. For
peace, yes.

We have, of course, used our word to refer to (and in some cases to express our
solidarity with) other struggles in Mexico and the world, but just that far.
And many times, knowing that we could do more, we had to contain ourselves,
because our efforts - as we had told you - were exclusively by and for the
indigenous.

It has not been easy. Do you remember the March of the1,111? The Consulta of
5000 in 1999? The March of the Color of the Earth in 2001? Well, imagine then
what we felt when we saw and heard the injustices and the hatred directed
against campesinos, workers, students, teachers, working persons, homosexuals
and lesbians, young people, women, old ones, children. Imagine what our heart
felt.

We were touched by a pain, a fury, an indignation which we already knew because
it has been, and is, ours. But now we were touched by it in the other. And we
heard the "we" which inspires us wanting to become larger, to make itself more
collective, more national. But no, we had said just the indigenous, and we had
to honor that. I believe it's because of our way - in other words, that we
would prefer to die before we would betray our word.

Now we are consulting with our heart in order to see if we are going to say and
do something else. If the majority says yes, then we are going to do everything
possible to honor it. Everything, even dying if it's necessary. We do not want
to appear dramatic. We are only saying it in order to make it clear how far we
are willing to go.. In other words, not "until they give us a position, an
amount of money, a promise, a candidacy."

Perhaps some may remember how, six months ago, we started with the "what is
missing is missing." Then fine, as is obvious, the hour has arrived to decide
whether we are going to proceed to find what is missing. Not to find, to build.
Yes, to build "something else."

In some of the communiqu?s of the past few days, we let you know that we have
entered into an internal consulta. We shall soon have the results, and we will
inform you of them. Meanwhile then, we are taking the opportunity to write you.
We have always spoken to you with sincerity, and also to those who are our
heart and guardian, our Votan Zapata, the zapatista communities, our collective
command.

It will be a difficult and hard decision, just as our life and our struggle have
been. For four years we have been preparing the conditions in order to present
our peoples with doors and windows so that, when the moment comes, everyone had
all the ingredients in place for choosing which window to peer through and
which door to open. And that is our way. In other words, the EZLN leadership
does not lead, rather it seeks paths, steps, company, direction, pace,
destination. Several. And then they present the peoples with those paths, and
they analyze with them what would happen if we follow one or the other course.
Because, depending on the path we travel, there are things which will be good
and things which will be bad. And then they - the zapatista communities - speak
their thoughts and decide, after discussing and by majority, where we are all
going. And then they give the order, and then the EZLN leadership has to
organize the work or prepare what is needed to walk that path. Of course the
EZLN leadership doesn't just look at what happens only to them, but they have
to be bound to the peoples and to touch their hearts and to make themselves, as
they say, the same thing. Then it becomes all our gazes, all our ear, all our
thoughts, all our heart. But what if, for whatever reason, the leadership does
not look, or hear, or think, or feel like all of us. Or some parts aren't seen
or something else isn't heard or other thoughts aren't thought or felt. Well,
then, that is why everyone is consulted. That is why everyone is asked. That is
why agreement is taken among everyone. If the majority says no, then the
leadership has to seek another way, and to present another way to the peoples
in order to propose until we collectively reach a decision. In other words, the
people govern.

Now the collective which we are will make a decision. They are weighing the pros
and cons. They are carefully making the calculations, what is lost and what is
gained. And, seeing that there is not a little to be lost, it will be decided
whether it is worth it.

Perhaps, in some people's scales, there will be much weight given to what we
have achieved. Perhaps, in other people's scales, there will be more weight
given to the indignation and shame caused by seeing our earth and skies
destroyed by the stupid avarice of Power. In any event, we cannot remain
passive, just contemplating, as a gang of ruffians strips our Patria of
everything that gives it and everyone existence: dignity.

Ah, well, many turns now. We are writing you for what may be the last time in
order to give you back your promised word of support. It is not little that we
have achieved in the indigenous struggle, and that has been - as we have told
you in public and in private - because of your help. We believe you can be
proud, without any shame, of all the good that we zapatistas, along with you,
have built up to this point. And know that it has been an honor, undeserved in
any light, that people like you have walked at our side.

Now we shall decide whether we are going to do something else, and we will make
the results public at the proper time. We are now making clear - in order to
end the speculations - that this "other thing" does not entail any offensive
military action on our part. We are not, on our part, planning nor discussing
reinitiating offensive military combat. Ever since February-March of 1994 our
entire military presence has been, and is, defensive. The government should say
whether, on its part, there are any offensive war preparations, whether by the
federal forces or by their paramilitaries. And the PRI and the PRD should say
if they are planning any attack against us with the paramilitaries they are
supporting in Chiapas.

If it is the decision of the zapatista majority, those who have helped us up to
now in the exclusively indigenous struggle can, without any shame or regret,
distance themselves from the "other thing" to which Comandante Tacho referred
in the San Crist?bal de Las Casas plaza in January of 2003, two and a half
years ago. In addition, there is a communiqu? which establishes, from here out,
that release and which can be presented in a job application, curriculum vitae,
coffee klatch, editorial office, roundtable, grandstand, forum, stage, book
jacket, footnote, colloquium, candidacy, book of regrets or newspaper column
and which, in addition, has the advantage of being able to be exhibited as
defense evidence in any court (don't laugh, there's a precedent: in 1994, some
indigenous detained by the bad government - and who weren't zapatistas - were
released by a judge, validating a letter from the CCRI-CG in which it released
those persons from what the EZLN had done. In other words, as the lawyers say,
"there is legal precedent").

But those who find in their heart an echo, even if it is small, of our new word
and who feel themselves called by the path, step, pace, company and destination
which we have chosen, may perhaps decide to renew their help (or to participate
directly)...knowing that it will be "another thing". Like that, without tricks,
without deceit, without hypocrisy, without lies.

We thank the women. All the girls, teenagers, young women, se?oritas, se?oras
and old ones (and those who were changing from one to the other of those
calendars throughout these 12 years) who helped us, who accompanied us and who,
not a few times, made our pain and our steps their own. To all of them,
Mexicans and from other countries, who helped us and who walked with us. In
everything we did you were the huge majority. Perhaps because we share along
with you, although each in their own way and place, discrimination,
contempt...and death.

We thank the national indigenous movement, which did not sell itself for
government posts, for travel allowances, for the flattery that the powerful
classify as "fit for indigenous and animals." The one which listened to our
word and gave us theirs. The one which opened its heart, its home, to us. The
one which resisted and resists with dignity, raising very high the color we are
of the earth.

We thank the young men and women of Mexico and of the world. Those who were
boys, girls or teenagers that '94 and who nobly grew up without holding back
their eyes or their ears. Those who reached youth or, despite the pages torn
from the calendar, remained there, extending the hand of their rebellion to our
dark hand. Those who chose to come and share days, weeks, months, years, our
dignified poverty, our struggle, our hope and our foolish endeavor.

We thank the homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals, transgender persons and
"everyone in their own way." Those who shared with us their struggle for
respect for difference, knowing that it is not a defect to be hidden. Those who
demonstrated that courage has nothing to do with testosterone and who, time and
again, gave us some of the most beautiful lessons of dignity and nobility we
have received.

We thank the intellectuals, artists and scientists, from Mexico and the world,
who helped us in the struggle for the indigenous. Few movements or
organizations can pride themselves on having had the backing (always critical,
and we thank them for that) of so much intelligence, ingenuity and creativity.
You already know that we always listened to you with respect and attention,
even when we didn't share your points of view and that something of the light
you shone helped to illuminate our dark paths.

We thank the honest workers of the press and the decent media who showed,
truthfully and to the entire world, what they saw and heard, and who respected,
without distorting, our voice and path. We extend you our solidarity in these
hard moments you are going through in the exercise of your profession, where
you are risking your lives, you are attacked and, like us, you find no justice.

And, so that no one is missed, we thank everyone who, honestly and sincerely,
helped us.

I said, at the beginning of this letter, that it was not a farewell. Well, it so
happens that for some people it is. Although for others it will be what is, in
reality, a promise...Because what is missing can now be seen...

Vale. Salud and, from heart to heart, thank you for everything.

In the name of all the zapatistas of the EZLN.

>From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos

Mexico, in the sixth month of the year 2005.

PS - You can see now that we aren't thinking about playing football. Or not
thinking only about that. Because some day we will play against the
Internazionale of Milan. We, or what is left of us.

--
sig/
* - / \ | ^ ^^^^
http://www.weareeverywhere.org
http://www.uhc-collective.org.uk/toolbox.htm
http://www.eco-action.org/dod
http://www.noborder.org
http://www.makeworlds.org
http://www.ainfos.ca
http://slash.autonomedia.org
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/index/links.html
http://www.reclaimthestreets.net


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net