Them and Us Part VI: The Gazes by Subcomandante Marcos

Them and Us

VI.- The Gazes

1.- Gaze to impose or gaze to listen.

For once I will be able to say

Without anyone saying otherwise

That it is not the same to desire

As it is to covet something

Just as they're not the same words

Said to listen

And said to be obeyed

Nor is it the same to speak to me

To tell me something

As it is to speak to me so that I shut up.

Tomás Segovia.

"Fourth Search" in "Searches and Other Poems" from the publishing house that has the good sense to call itself "No Name."

Thank you and hugs to María Luisa Capella, to Inés and Francisco

(thank goodness for the dignified blood that beats through their hearts)

for the books and the lyrics guide.

To gaze is a form of asking, we say, we the Zapatistas.

Or of searching…

When one gazes at the calendar and at the geography, even though they might be far away from each other, one asks, one interrogates.

And it is in the act of gazing where the other appears.  And it is in the gaze where that other exists, where its profile as strange, as outsider, as enigma, as victim, as judge and executioner, as enemy….or as friend is drawn.

It is in the gaze where fear nests, but also where respect can be born.

If we don't learn to gaze at another's gaze, what is the point of our gaze, our questions?

Who are you?

    What is your history?
       
            Where do you hurt?

                What are your hopes?

But it doesn't just matter what or who is gazed upon.  Also, and above all, it matters from where one is gazing from.

And to choose where to gaze at is also to choose from where.

Or is it the same to gaze from above at the pain of those who lost those whom they love and need, due to absurd, inexplicable, definitive death, as it is to gaze at it from below?

When someone from above gazes upon those below and asks himself, "How many are there?", in reality he's asking, "How much are they worth?"

If if they aren't worth anything, what does it matter how many there are?  To get that untimely number out of the way there are the corporate media outlets, the militaries, the police, the judges, the prisons, the cemeteries. 

And for our gaze, the answers are never simple.

To gaze upon ourselves gazing at that which we gaze at, we give ourselves an identity that has to do with pains and struggles, with our calendars and our geography.

Our strength, if we do have some, is in this recognition: we are who we are, and there are others who are who they are, and there is other for those of us who don't have a word to name it and, nonetheless, is who he is.  When we say "we" we are not absorbing, and in that way subordinating, identities, but rather highlighting  the bridges that exist between the different pains and distinct rebelliousnesses.  We are the same because we are different.

In the Sixth, the Zapatistas reiterate our rejection of any attempt at hegemony, that is, all vanguardism, be it that we're out in front or that they line us up, as they have throughout these centuries, in the rearguard.  

If with the Sixth we seek out people like us in their pains and struggles, without the calendars and geographies that distance us mattering, it is because we know well that the Ruler[1] isn't beaten with just a thought, just one strength, just one directive (no matter how revolutionary, principled, radical, ingenious, numerous, powerful, etc. that directive might be).

It is the lesson of our dead that diversity and difference are not weaknesses for below, but rather strength to give birth, on the ashes of the old, to the new world we want, that we need, that we deserve.

We know well that that world isn't just imagined by us.  But in our dream, that world isn't one, but rather many, different, diverse.  And its richness lies in its diversity.

The repeated attempts to impose unanimity are responsible for the machine going crazy and getting closer, every minute, to the final minute of civilization as we know it up to now.

In the current phase of neoliberal globalization, homogeneity is just mediocrity imposed like a universal uniform.  And if anything sets it apart from Hitler's craziness, it isn't its goal, but rather in the modernity of the manners in which it is achieved.

-*-

And yes, it's not just us that seeks the how, when, where, what.

You all, for example, are not Them.  Well, even though you[2] don't appear to have any problem allying themselves with Them to… deceive them and bring them down from the inside?  To be like Them but not so Them?  To lower the machine's speed, to file down the beast's fangs, to humanize the savage?

Yes, we know.  There's a mountain of arguments to support that.  You could even come up with some examples. 

But…

You tell us that we're equals, that we're in the same situation, that it is the same struggle, the same enemy… Hmm…. no, you don't say "enemy," you say "adversary."  Sure, that also depends on the context.

You tell us that we must all unite because there is no other path: either elections or weapons.  And you, who in that false argument justify your project of invalidating all of that which does not subject itself to the reiterated spectacle of the politics from above, you give us an ultimatum: die or give up.  And you even offer us the alibi, because, you argue, since it's about taking Power, there's only two paths.

Ah!  And we're so disobedient: we didn't die, nor did we give up.  And, as was demonstrated the day the world ended[3]: neither electoral politics nor armed struggle.

And if it's not about taking Power?  Better yet, and if the Power no longer resides in that Nation-State, that Zombie State populated by a parasite political class that pillages the nations' remains?

And if the voters that you obsess over so much (that's why you're captivated by the multitudes) don't do anything but vote for someone who others already elected, as time after time They demonstrate while they have fun with every new trick they play?

Yes, of course, you hide behind your prejudices: those who don't vote?  "It's due to apathy, disinterest, lack of education, they play into the hands of the right"… your ally in so many geographies, in not just a few calendars.  They vote but not for you?  "It's because they're rightwing, ignorant, sellouts, traitors, dying of hunger, they're zombies!"

Note from Marquitos Spoil: Yes, we sympathize with the zombies.  Not just because we look like them (we don't even need makeup and we'd still kick butt in the casting of "The Walking Dead").  Also and above all because we think, like George A. Romero, that in a zombie apocalypse, the craziest brutality would be the work of the surviving civilization, not of the walking dead.  And if some vestige of humanity were to remain, it would shine in those who are already the pariahs, the living dead for whom the apocalypse begins at birth and never ends.  Just as is happening right now in any corner of any of the worlds that exist.  And there is no movie, nor television series that tells its story.

Your gaze is marked by disdain when you look at something (even if it's at the mirror) and of breaths of envy when you look above.

You can't even imagine someone who would be interested in gazing at that "above" for no other reason than to see how to get it off of him.

-*-

Gaze.  Towards where and from where.  There is that which separates us.

You think that you are the only ones, we know that we're one more.

You look above, we look below.

You look at how you can make yourselves useful, we look how to make ourselves useful.

You look at how to lead, we look at how to accompany.

You look at how much is won, we look at how much is lost.

You look at what it is, we look at what it can be.

You look at numbers, we look at people.

You calculate statistics, we calculate histories.

You talk, we listen.

You look at how you look, we look at the gaze.

You look at us and you ream us out for where we were when your calendar was marked with your "historical" urgencies.  We look at you and we don't ask where you have been during these past 500 years of history.

You look at how to take advantage of the current situation, we look at how to create it.

You worry about broken windows, we worry about the rage that broke them.

You look at the many, we look at the few.

You look at insurmountable walls, we look at cracks.

You look at possibilities, we look at that which is impossible only until the eve.

You look for mirrors, we look for crystals.

You and we are not the same.

-*-

You look at the calendar of above and you use it to condition the spring of the mobilizations, the masses, the party, the multitude's rebelliousness, the streets bursting with songs and colors, chants, challenges, those who are already many more than just one hundred and thirty-something[4], the full plazas, the ballot boxes anxious to be filled with votes, and you run quickly because clearly-they-lack-revolutionary-party-leadership-a-politics-of-ample-and-flexible-alliances-because-electoral-politics-is-their-natural-destiny-but-they're-very-young-they're-bourgeois-petitbugies-kids- / -later-lumpen-hoodrats-crew-prole-number-of-potential-voters-potentials-ignorant-novice-ingenious-naive-clumsy-stubborn, above all, stubborn.  And you see in each massive act the culmination of the times.  And afterwards, when there's no longer crowds anxious for a leader, nor ballot boxes, nor parties, you decide that it's over, no more, to see if there will be another occasion, that we have to wait six years[5], six centuries, that we have to look the other way, but always at the calendar of above: the registration, the alliances, the positions.

And we, always with a crooked gaze, we surmount the calendar, we look for the winter, we swim upriver, we pass through the stream, we arrive at the spring.  There we see who begins, those who are few, the lessors.  We don't speak to them, we don't greet them, we don't tell them what to do, we don't tell them what not to do.  Instead, we listen to them, we look at them with respect, with admiration.  And maybe they never notice that small red flower, which looks just like a star, so small that it is barely a pebble, that our hand leaves below, close to their left foot.  Not because that's how we want to tell them that the flower-rock was ours, the Zapatistas'. Not so that they take that pebble and they throw it at something, at someone, although there isn't a lack of willingness or reasons why.  Rather, maybe because it is our way of telling them, them and all of our compas in the Sixth, that the homes and the worlds begin to be built with small pebbles and later they grow and almost nobody remembers those little pieces of rock that start out so small, so nothing, so useless, so alone, and along comes a Zapatista, and she looks at the pebble and she greets it and she sits down beside it and they don't speak, because little rocks, like Zapatistas, don't speak… until they do speak, and then it becomes a matter of if they shut up.  And no, they never shut up, what happens is that sometimes there's not anyone to listen to them.  Or maybe because we looked beyond the calendar and we knew, before, that this night would come.  Or maybe because that's what we told them, even though they don't know it, but we know it, hat they're not alone.  Because its with the few that things get started and restarted.

-*-

You didn't see us before… and you still don't look at us.

And, above all, you didn't see us watching you.

You didn't see us watching you in your arrogance, stupidly destroying the bridges, digging up the roads, allying yourselves with our persecutors, disdaining us.  Convincing yourselves that that which does not exist in the media simply does not exist.

You didn't see us watching you say and say to yourselves that you were standing on solid ground, that what is possible is solid terrain, that you cut the moorings of that absurd boat of absurdities and impossibilities, and that it was those crazies (us) who stayed adrift, isolated, alone, without a destination, paying with our existence the being principled.

You could see the resurgence as part of your victories, and now you ruminate it as one of your losses.

Go, continue on your path.

Don't listen to us, don't look at us.

Because with the Sixth and with the Zapatistas it is not possible to look nor listen with impunity.

And that is our virtue or our curse, depending on where you're looking towards and, above all, from where the gaze is extended.

(to be continued…)

From any corner of any world.

SupMarcos.

Planet Earth.

February 2013.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Reoffenders.  Sevilla rock group, Spanish State.  Manuel J. Pizarro Fernández: Drums.  Fernando Madina Pepper: Bass and vocals.  Juan M. Rodríguez Barea: Guitar and vocals.  Finito de Badajoz "Candy": Guitar and vocals.  Carlos Domíngez Reinhardt: Sound tech.  Rock version of "I call you freedom" in a video dedicated to the heroic struggle of the Mapuche People.



_____________________________

Eduardo Galeano narrates a story from Old Antonio: "The History of the Gazes."



______________________________

Joan Manuel Serrat singing "The South Also Exists" by Mario Benedetti, in concert in Argentina, Latin America.  When he stops singing, Serrat goes behind the curtains and brings Mario Benedetti, so beloved to us, out to the stage (minute 3:01 onward).




Translation from the original Spanish by Kristin Bricker.


Translator's Notes:

1. In previous parts of "Them and Us," the Ruler referred to the United States government.
2. In the original Spanish it isn't clear if this is supposed to be translated as plural "you" or "they," which in this case is written the same in Spanish.
3. Refers to December 21, 2012, when the Zapatistas staged their silent march on five cities in Chiapas.
4. Refers to the #YoSoy132 movement against Enrique Peña Nieto, sparked when 131 university students organized a protest against his visit to their campus.  Following the protest, the media asked, "Who will be number 132?", leading to the "I Am 132" movement.
5. Mexico's elected term.

"We Will Win One Hundred Times Over": Translating the Zapatista Resurgence

by Joshua Stephens, Toward Freedom

Zapatistas march in Ocosingo,
December 21, 2012.
Source: Roarmag.org

On December 21st of last year, as many across the world were speculating about the end of the Mayan calendar, 40,000 actual Mayans marched silently into five cities in Chiapas, Mexico, putting the Zapatistas and the Zapatista Army for National Liberation (EZLN) back into the forefront of grassroots political discourse the world over, and mainstream political discourse in Mexico. A stream of provocative communiques from the EZLN's spokesperson, Subcomandante Marcos, have followed.

For the better part of the last decade, Kristin Bricker has been documenting popular struggle in Mexico, particularly the Zapatista rebellion, and is one of the most prolific English translators of material produced by grassroots social movements across the country. Given the occasion of the seemingly sudden re-emergence of the Zapatistas, and her translations of its almost-daily literary flourishes, it seemed appropriate to catch up with her and solicit her reflections on the moment.

Joshua Stephens: I think a lot of people reading the pieces you've been translating the last month or so are wondering, so I'm just going to ask: Why now? Generally, the Zapatistas have mobilized at this volume in response to discreet events or conditions – North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the post-Institutional Revolution Party (PRI) electoral landscape, and so on. Do you have the sense that something in particular has sparked the resurgence?

Kristin Bricker: The current resurgence began with the December 21st mobilization in which 40,000 Zapatistas staged a silent march in five Chiapan cities. In their December 30th communique, they explained why they decided to step back into the limelight:  "After the media-driven coup d'état that exalted a poorly concealed and even more poorly disguised ignorance to the federal executive branch, we made ourselves present so that you would know that if they never left, neither did we." Here they are referring to the election of Enrique Peña Nieto to the country's presidency.

Peña Nieto is Mexico's George W. Bush. He won the 2012 election thanks to massive vote-buying. Everyone acknowledges that he is impressively stupid and not at all ashamed of it, and for the Left he's the devil incarnate. His godfather and puppet master is former president Carlos Salinas, who was in office when the Zapatistas staged their 1994 uprising. In order to pave the way for NAFTA, Salinas reformed Mexico's Constitution, essentially removing the land rights Emiliano Zapata and his peasant army fought and died for in the Mexican Revolution of 1910. As a result, Salinas continues to be even more unpopular than Peña Nieto's predecessor, Felipe Calderón, who launched the drug war that currently has Mexico embroiled in a deadly quagmire.

As governor of Mexico State, Peña Nieto laid a deadly trap for the People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), a civilian peasant organization that has strong ties to the Zapatistas. In 2006, his government negotiated a deal with the FPDT that allowed flower vendors to sell flowers in the downtown area of Texocol, near Atenco. When the vendors, accompanied by the FPDT, showed up to sell flowers at the agreed-upon time and place, Peña Nieto's riot police were waiting for them. In the clashes that followed, police killed two protesters (including a fourteen-year-old boy, shot in the chest with live ammo) and gang-raped over twenty female detainees on a bus in front of other arrested demonstrators. No police have been punished for these abuses, but some demonstrators spent years in jail. Peña Nieto proudly claimed responsibility for the police's actions.

When he won the presidential election, it meant that the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for seventy years as a one-party dictatorship, would return to power after just a twelve-year hiatus. The Zapatistas were an important factor in the PRI's ouster following the 2000 elections, so it's fitting that they've chosen to go back on the offensive now.

JS: The initial communique following the late December march pretty openly acknowledged a widespread sense that the Zapatistas had eroded – as a force or presence – rather considerably. I remember conversations we had about the ebbing of The Other Campaign, autonomous communities' land-loss, and journalists' claims about Marcos being "put out to pasture". Was the "they don't need us in order to fail" comment simply an artful way to stage a return to visibility, or do you feel like it was taking aim at something?

KB: I actually have a different interpretation of that communique. I interpreted it as a response to all of the chatter in the Mexican and international media over the past few years that the Zapatistas had run out of steam, were losing ground, had failed to make any gains, and that Marcos was either dead or had been fired. As Marcos says in that communique, "We never left, even though media from all over the spectrum have dedicated themselves to making you believe that, and we are reemerging as the indigenous Zapatistas that we are and will be."

It's important to note that while this new set of communiques hopefully means that the Zapatistas are planning something proactive, they haven't been invisible over the past few years. In 2011, Marcos had some public written exchanges with two prominent men, intellectual Luis Villoro and writer-turned-activist Javier Sicilia. That same year, thousands of Zapatistas mobilized to march against the drug war in support of Javier Sicilia's peace movement. So if the Zapatista's disappeared from anywhere, it was from the corporate media's echo chamber. In reality, the Zapatistas never went away.

"They don't need us in order to fail" is an allusion to Karl Marx's assertion that capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. Earlier in that same communique, he argues that the political class is "too incapable and dishonest to see that within themselves they had and have the seeds of their own destruction." Marcos has said that over and over; he even wrote a children's book called "The Story of the Lion and the Mirror" where the lion represents capitalism and the mirror, which kills the lion in the end, represents how capitalism contains the necessary contradictions for its own destruction.

Current and previous presidential administrations have made it very clear that Mexican politicians and their Yankee puppet masters are perfectly capable of failing miserably without the Zapatistas' help. No one can blame the hell that we are living in Mexico on the Zapatistas. The kidnappings, the guns that are held to our heads, the bodies that hang from bridges as we go to work or take our kids to school–the Zapatistas had nothing to do with that. It is a direct result of the United States-backed drug war that former president Felipe Calderón started with guns blazing in order to distract the country from the fact that he'd stolen the election.

JS: Has the resurgence had effects on the ground? There are references in these texts to collaboration with adherents to the Sixth Declaration, but it seemed in recent years as though that network had languished some.

KB: The Other Campaign's success has depended entirely on the people who make up the local collectives and regional networks. Yes, in some areas, collectives have languished somewhat as they wait for the Zapatistas to tell them what to do next. But one thing that you have to keep in mind is that the Other Campaign is comprised of a lot of groups that have been organizing since before the Other Campaign. That's the case in Guerrero, where human rights organizations and autonomist community policing organizations united under the Other Campaign umbrella. They're on the front lines against the dirty war and drug war violence in that state; they don't sit and wait around for the next Zapatista communique to tell them what to do. They're always proactive, because it's a matter of life and death for them.

The Other Campaign also resulted in like-minded individuals coming together under the pro-Zapatista banner to do community organizing that they might have not been doing prior to the Other Campaign. That's the case in Chalco, a poor, crime-ridden area of Mexico State. In 2010, following a foreseeable disaster where a canal burst and covered Chalco with raw sewage (in some areas putting the entire first floor of houses under what the residents politely referred to as "mud"), a collective of Other Campaign adherents in Chalco built relationships with the local church to do the disaster relief the government refused to do. Operating under the Other Campaign mantra of "If they touch one of us, they touch all of us," the Chalco collective called on Other Campaign adherents in the region to help out. The Chalco collective used the church as a base of operations where Other Campaign adherents from Mexico City and surrounding areas could drop off donations and provide free services. A collective of doctors who are adherents to the Other Campaign came out to Chalco to provide medical care to people who were suffering infections due to their exposure to raw sewage. A hairdresser came out to give kids haircuts before they went back to school. Brigades repainted walls to cover up the flood lines that reminded people of the few days they spent living under a few feet of feces. Having the wall of a government-maintained above-ground canal burst and cover your town with poop is just about the most undignified experience a working class community could possibly suffer. The Other Campaign brought dignity back to Chalco, and the collective there is as strong as ever.

The Other Campaign has also strengthened the movement to free political prisoners.  Instead of every jailed Zapatista sympathizer all over the country having to fight for their freedom in isolation, they're essentially guaranteed a support network, not just in Mexico, but all over the world. Just look at how hard the New York-based Movement for Justice in the Barrio has fought for Mexican political prisoners. The release of these political prisoners over the years is a constant tangible win for the Other Campaign. [Interviewer's note: Since the time of this interview, Zapatista political prisonerFrancisco Sántiz has been released, a day after his being mentioned in an EZLN communique.]

That said, so far I haven't seen any tangible effects of this resurgence–just a lot of anticipation. The latest communique from Subcomandante Marcos said "to be continued…" So I think everyone is anxiously waiting to see what the Zapatistas have up their sleeves. I imagine that Other Campaign collectives all over the country are meeting to analyze and discuss the latest communiques.

Personally, I think the new communiques are uplifting. We've suffered so much under the drug war, myself included. It's debilitating to be constantly bombarded with carnage, guns held to your head, kidnappings, extortion… Can you imagine what it is like to be afraid to look out your window to see what that noise was in the street because you're afraid that you'll be seen seeing something you shouldn't have? I think that, for many people outside of Mexico, it's impossible to imagine living under those conditions, much less organizing under them. When 40,000 Zapatistas took the streets and then they began releasing these new communiques, I felt hope and energy for the first time in two years. I think a lot of other people feel the same way. I'm excited to see what they have to say, and I'm excited to be a part of it. If anyone knows how to go through hell and emerge stronger, the Zapatistas do.

JS: I remember seeing middle school-aged kids studying at the Zapatista school in Oventic back in 2008, and realizing that I was looking at 13 and 14 year olds who had effectively always been Zapatistas, inasmuch as they were born after the '94 uprising. By now, those kids have reached adulthood, entirely within those communities and the mode of being cultivated in them. Is what we're seeing reflective of that generation coming into the fold, as it were?

KB: That is something that a lot of people noticed: how many of the Zapatistas who marched on December 21 were young adults. The Zapatista autonomist process officially kicked off in 2003 when the EZLN unilaterally implemented indigenous rights in the territory it controlled. That's when the EZLN, the Zapatista's military apparatus, created the civilian Good Government Councils to govern in the newly created autonomous territory, which was divided into five caracoles, or regional capitals.  Positions on the five Good Government Councils are rotative and decided through the indigenous tradition of choosing leaders based on their prior service to the community.

The Zapatistas who are now reaching adulthood, getting married, and having children of their own were babies during the uprising, and they were about nine when the autonomous governing system was created with its own schools and healthcare. So they still attended government elementary schools and were neglected by government health clinics when they were sick. They grew up with the feeling of being an outsider, different, inferior, or, as the Zapatistas call it, "other."  Part four of Marcos' "Them and Us" communiques talk about that feeling. But these young adults also spent their very important formative years living under an autonomous indigenous governing system where their indigenousness is celebrated, not scorned. That has to be very important for them. And now they're old enough to serve on the Good Government Councils.

JS: Indigenous resistance is increasingly visible, the world over, especially in light of the Idle No More actions coming out of Canada. And that resistance is increasingly networked. Is that part of the conversation on the ground in southern Mexico?

KB: Since their uprising in 1994, the Zapatistas have been at the forefront of globalizing leftist–not just indigenous–struggle in the new information age. Many people have argued that the protests that shut down the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999–an event that radicalized and mobilized my generation–were to some extent inspired by the Zapatista uprising.

Of course, indigenous and anti-colonial struggles have always had a special place in the Zapatistas' hearts. Some of the first people to visit them after the uprising were Irish freedom fighters and leaders from the American Indian Movement. The Zapatistas have organized international meetings of indigenous peoples so that they can share their struggles and strategies. They organized the founding of Mexico's National Indigenous Congress so that the country's indigenous peoples could participate in the indigenous rights negotiations between the Zapatistas and the government. While the Zapatistas haven't specifically mentioned Idle No More (it's still relatively new, and there is a language barrier), Marcos has repeatedly expressed support for Palestinians resisting Israeli colonization. A lot of people in the United States, even leftists, seem to forget that the conflict in Palestine is centered around colonists (although they call themselves settlers) attempting to seize indigenous land and resources by displacing Palestinians and imprisoning them in open-air prisons akin to what the US calls reservations. This fact is not lost on Marcos and the Zapatistas.

The Zapatistas are now closely watching the indigenous Mapuche's struggle for autonomy and indigenous and land rights in Chile. Marcos has mentioned the Mapuches in three of the four "Them and Us" communiques that have been published, at this point. I think we'll see a greater collaboration between those two struggles in the near future.

Video of the Zapatistas' December 21, 2012 march in Chiapas, Mexico:

***

Kristin's translations of the recent Zapatista communiques can be read (along with her coverage of struggle in Mexico more broadly) at My Word is My Weapon. Follow her on Twitter at @kristinbricker.

Joshua Stephens is a writer, editor, activist, and board member with the Institute for Anarchist Studies, and co-editor at Counter Conduct. He splits his time between Brooklyn, NY and the Mediterranean. Follow him on Twitter at @joshuacstephens.

Call for Solidarity: For Kuy, in Coma Following Mexican Presidential Inauguration Protest

Kuy in a coma.

In a recent communique, the Zapatista National Liberation Army called upon their supporters to donate money to help with the medical expenses of Juan Francisco "Kuy" Kuykendall, who was injured by a police projectile during the protests against Enrique Peña Nieto's presidential inauguration on December 1, 2012.  Kuy is in a coma and has undergone multiple surgeries.  He's lost portions of his brain due to the attack and subsequent surgeries, including a recent one where surgeons had to cut out infected brain tissue.

As the communique from the Network Against Repression and For Solidarity states below, supporters within Mexico are asked to deposit donations in a Mexican bank account.  If you're not in Mexico, you can do that, or you can donate through my Paypal account.  If you want to make a very large donation (more than a few hundred dollars), it's probably cheaper to make an international wire transfer directly to that account from your bank.  If you want to make a smaller donation, donating through my Paypal account is almost certainly cheaper.  Paypal charges thirty cents USD + 2.9% of the overall donation.  Any questions?  Email me.  I'll email all donors receipts of cash deposits into the Mexican bank account designated for Kuy's medical expenses.  Please use this special button to donate:

Here is the complete Call to Action from the Network Against Repression and for Solidarity, whom the EZLN designated to coordinate Zapatista supporters' donations in Mexico.

Call to Action: For Kuy

On December 1, 2012, Enrique Peña Nieto's first day as president, was the day of his administration's first repression against those who protested against his imposition.  That repression, that attack which was planned and approved by the outgoing administration of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, executed by Peña Nieto's administration and supported by the outgoing and incoming [mayoral] administration in Mexico City of Marcelo Ebrard and Migual Angel Mancera respectively, still continues.  The attack continues in a hospital bed and carries the name of Fancisco Kuykendall, a compañero of the Other Campaign, now known as the Sixth, who was seriously injured in the head by the cowardice of those above who believe they are untouchable.

Almost two months since the attack, Kuy is still hospitalized and fighting for his life, now forgotten by the cameras and reflectors that that December 1st condemned the protests in order to legitimize, voluntarily or involuntarily, the ignorance, banality, and violence of the recently named president.  Kuy is still alive thanks to the strength and conviction and camaraderie of those who collectively work with Otra Cultura ["Other Culture"] and other collectives, organizations, groups, and individuals who are adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle. 

But compañero Kuy continues to resist, thanks to the strength and conviction and the camaraderie of those who collectively work with Otra Cultura and other collectives, organizations, groups, and individuals who are adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle.

Kuy resists and needs the solidarity of all of the honest and simple people on this planet in order to be able to keep being treated and so that he recuperates, so that as a cultural worker he can continue saying "no" to the above that oppresses, plunders, disdains, and exploits us, and to build that other form of expressing life and dignity, that Other Culture.

From the Network Against Repression and for Solidarity, we call for all those honest and supportive people to support compañero Kuy, demanding justice for him and for all of those who were injured on December 1; and that the harassment through the prosecution of those who protested on that day against injustice cease.  We asked that you also support the indispensable fundraising efforts for the hospitalization and rehabilitation of the compañero Kuy.

Due to the above, we call for:

Campaign: For Kuy

We call on all of the compañeros in the Network against Repression and For Solidarity, in the Sixth, and good-hearted people to protest, organize, and mobilize all over Planet Earth according to your time, means, and methods, to carry out:

• A campaign of solidarity, denouncing the attack our compañero was subjected to, demanding justice for him and for all of those injured on that date, and to demand unconditional freedom for all of those detained in Mexico City and in Guadalajara during the protests against the imposition of Enrique Peña Nieto as head of the federal executive branch.
• According to each of your methods, time, means, and spaces, join us with local, national, and international activities on Sunday, February 17, 2013, as part of the Political-Cultural Day of Action for Kuy.  In Mexico City we will join the cultural-artistic act in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, beginning at noon.
• Ongoing fundraising campaign, to be deposited in the following bank account:  2824024214 BBVA Bancomer, in the name of Eva Palma Pastrana.
• In the Mexico Valley, take shifts guarding the hospital where our compañero is located, and take up collections as needed.
• Support a political-artistic-cultural act [on a date to be announced] that will denounce the Mexican State and demand justice, as proposed by the compañera Eva [Kuy's partner].

It is important to emphasize that each act should highlight the compañero Juan Francisco Kuykendall's life's work, his organizational work in art and culture, elements of which should be present in our protests and mobilizations.  As well as the demand for unconditional freedom for all of our compañeros who were arrested on December 1, 2012, and the repeal of Article 362 of Mexico City's penal code, which permits the incarceration and persecution of activists and any other person who travels on the streets of Mexico City under the pretext of "disturbing the peace," that was promoted and approved during Andrés Manuel López Obrador's administration; the law includes what [Dirty War president] Gustavo Díaz Ordaz called "social dissolution."

For Kuy…

Against plundering and repression:

Soidarity!

Network Against Repression and for Solidarity [Red Contra la Represión y por la Solidaridad]

(RvsR)

You're Invited to a Zapatista Party in August to Celebrate 10 Years of Autonomous Governement

Zapatistas love parties almost as much as they love autonomy.

Today Subcomandante Marcos released a postscript to his "Them and Us" series. I don't have time to translate the whole thing right now, but I do want to let you know about an upcoming party in Zapatista territory that was announced in the postscript.

Marcos acknowledged that a lot of people were upset about the Zapatistas' decision to password-protect some parts of future communiques.  This new postscript jokingly (as is his style) lets everyone know that the decision to password-protect some information will not mean that supporters will be left out of important Zapatista happenings:

"For example, if we put that an invitation that we're extending to you is for August 2013, when the Good Government Councils celebrate 10 years of carrying out free autonomy; and that there will be a small party in the Zapatista communities; and that it rains a lot around those dates, and that here, in addition to dignity, the only other thing there will be a lot of is mud, so those who come should bring what you need so that you don't end up being the color of the earth.  Well, those things, compass, we're going to password-protect, because most people aren't interested in that information, just those in the Sexta and some others who will be invited."

I'll post further details as the EZLN makes them public.  If you want to read the whole postscript in English, El Kilombo will surely have it posted to their site very soon.

Them and Us Part 5: The Sixth by Subcomandante Marcos

Password: marichiweu

THEM AND US

V.- THE SIXTH

ZAPATISTA NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY.

MEXICO.

January 2013.

To: The compañeros adherents to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle all over the world.

From: The Zapatistas from Chiapas, Mexico.

Compañeras, compañeros, and compañeroas:

Compas in the Network Against Repression and for Solidarity:

Everyone, greetings from the women, men, children, and elders of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, the smallest of your compañeros.

We've decided that our first word specially directed at our compañeros [who are adherents to] the Sixth should be made known in a space of struggle, such as the Network Against Repression and for Solidarity.  But the words, feelings, and thoughts that are sketched here are also meant for those who are not here.  And, above all, they're for them.

-*-

We would like to thank the support that you have given to our communities, to our Zapatista support bases and to the prisoners who are adherent compass in Chiapas, throughout all this time.

Your words of encouragement and your collective hand that connected with ours are guarded in our heart.

We are sure that one of the points to be discussed in your meeting will be, or has already been, setting up a campaign to support the compa Kuy, to denounce the attack that he was subjected to, and to demand justice for him and for all of the others who were injured on that day, to demand unconditional freedom for all of the detained in Mexico City and Guadalajara during the protests against the imposition of Enrique Peña Nieto as head of the federal executive branch.

Not just that, but it is also important that this campaign contemplate fundraising to support compa Kuy with his hospital bills, and for the costs of his subsequent recuperation, which the Zapatistas hope will be soon.

To support this fundraising campaign, we've sent a small amount of cash.  We ask you, even though it might be small, to add the money you're able to get together for our compañero in the struggle. As soon as we can put together more money, we will send it to whomever you [the Network Against Repression] designate for this work.

-*-

Hidden Text: Please click here to read the complete text: THEM AND US V - THE SIXTH.

-*-

Hidden Text: Please click here to read the complete text: THEM AND US V - THE SIXTH.

-*-

The Sixth is a Zapatista convocation.  To convoke is not to unite.  We aren't trying to unite under a leadership, neither Zapatista nor any other affiliation.  We do not seek to co-opt, recruit, take anyone's place, feign, fake, cheat, direct, subordinate, use.  The destination is the same, but the different, the heterogeneity, the autonomy of the ways of walking, are the Sixth's richness, they're it's strength.  We offer and will offer respect, and we demand and will demand respect.  One adheres to the Sixth without any other requisite other than the "no" that convokes us  and the commitment to construct the necessary "yeses." 

-*-

Hidden Text: Please click here to read the complete text: THEM AND US V - THE SIXTH.

To end this missive (which, as is evident, has the disadvantage of not having a video or song that accompanies it and completes the written version), we want to send our best hugs (and we only have one) to the men, women, children, and elderly, groups organizations, movements, who however each one of you calls yourselves, who have never during all this time distanced us from your hearts, and resisted and supported as compañeras, compañeras, and compañeroas that we are.

Compas:

We are the Sixth.

It's going to be very difficult.

Our pains won't be lessened by opening ourselves up to those that hurt all over the world.  The path will be the most torturous. 

We will fight.

We will resist.

We will struggle.

Maybe we'll die.

But one, ten, one hundred times, we'll always win always.

For the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee-General Command of the

Zapatista National Liberation Army

The Sixth-EZLN.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.

Chiapas, Mexico, Planet Earth.

January 2013.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Listen and watch the videos that accompany this text:



"Zapatista Cumbia" by the group "Sonido Psicotropical."  Part of the disc "Rola la lucha zapatista."  Move your tush to the cumbia rhythm!



"Nadie mira" [No one looks] by the group "RABIA."  With Iker Moranchel, Guitar and vocals.  Alejandro Franco, Drums and vocals.  Manco, bass.  Camera, Sara Heredia.  Editing, Eduardo Vargas, Recorded and edited in Gekko Audiolab, Mexico City, July 2012.  Also on the disc "Rola la lucha zapatista."  Rrrrrrrrrrrrrock!



Translated from the original Spanish by Kristin Bricker.

Them and Us Part 4: The Pains from Below by Subcomandante Marcos

THEM AND US

IV.- The Pains From Below

January 2013.

How many times have the cops stopped us on the street for the crime of "having a suspicious face" or a mohawk, and then after a beating and extortion they let us go?

"Repression and Criminalizatoin," Anarchist Black Cross-Mexico.  January 2013

-And [what do you say] to the young people who see you as a hero and an example of a person who has been unjustly punished by a repressive system?

-That I'm not a hero.  That every one of the young people who hit the streets every day to organize and change this unjust society and this economic and political system are heroes.  They organize, they defend themselves… That they shouldn't be afraid, that fear is going to change sides--

Alfonso Fernández, detained in prison after N14 in the Spanish State, interviewed by Shangay Lily in Kaos en la Red.  January 2013. [1]

"An enemy is needed to give the people hope. (…) That said, the feeling of identity is based in the hatred of those who aren't the same.  It is necessary to cultivate hate as a civil passion.  The enemy is the people's friend.  They need someone to hate so that they feel justified in their own misery.  Always.  Hatred is the true primordial passion."

Umberto Eco.  The Prague Cemetery.

Where and when did the violence start?

Let's see.

In front of a mirror, on any calendar, and in any geography…

Imagine that you are different from everyone else.

Imagine that you are something very other.

Imagine that you have a certain skin or hair color.

Imagine that they look down on you and make fun of you, that they persecute you, that they jail you, that they kill you because of it, for being different.

Imagine that since the day you were born, the system has repeatedly told you that you are something weird, abnormal, sick, that you should be sorry for who you are and, after blaming it on bad luck or divine justice, you should do everything you can to change this "factory defect."

Juan Francisco "Kuy" Kuykendall

/ And of course, look, we have a product that easily works w-o-n-d-e-r-s with congenital defects.  This way of thinking relieves rebelliousness and that annoying complaining about everything.  This cream changes skin color.  This hair dye gives you a fashionable shade.  This course about "how to win friends and be popular on the internet" gives you everything you need to be a modern person.  This treatment will give you your youth back.  This DVD will show you how to act at the table, on the street, at work, in bed, during illegal muggings (robbers), during legal muggings (banks, government officials, elections, legally established businesses), at social gatherings… what?  Oh, they don't invite you to social gatherings? … ok, it also tells you how to make it so they do invite you.  In short, here you will know the secret of how to succeed in life.  Leave Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber in the dust on Twitter with your number of followers!  It includes a mask of your choosing.  We have them all!  Even a CSG [Carlos Salinas de Gortari] mask… ok, ok, ok, that was a bad example, but we do have one for any need.  So they won't look at you with disgust anymore!  So they no longer call you a degenerate, indian, prole, black, region 4, zombie, zapatistaphile! /

Imagine that, in spite of all your efforts and good deeds, you can't seem to hide your skin or hair color.

Now imagine that a campaign is launched to eliminate all of those who are like you.

Uriel Sandoval

It's not that there's an event to kick it off, or a law that establishes it, but you realize that the whole system starts to work against you, and against people like you.  The whole society turns into a machine whose goal is to annihilate you.

First there's looks of disapproval, disgust, distain.  Then there's the insults, attacks.  Then there's detainees, deportees, prisoners.  Then there's cadavers here and there, legal and illegal.  Finally there's an actual campaign, the machine at full capacity, to disappear you and all of those who are like you.  The identity of those who make up society is maintained through hatred towards you.  Your crime? Being different.

-*-

You still don't see it?

Ok, imagine that you are… (use masculine, feminine, or other pronouns, depending on the case).

Celedonio Prudencio Monroy

An indigenous person in a country dominated by foreigners.  A flock of military helicopters is headed toward your lands.  The press will say that the wind farm occupation impedes the reduction of pollution or that the jungle is being destroyed.  "The eviction was necessary to reduce global warming," says the Interior Minister.

A black man in a nation dominated by whites.  A WASP judge is going to sentence him.  The jury found him guilty.  Amongst the evidence presented by the prosecutor is an analysis of his skin color.

A Jew in Nazi Germany.  The Gestapo officer stares at him.  The next day the official report will say that the human race has been purified.

A Palestinian in present-day Palestine.  The Israeli army's missile is aimed at the school, hospital, neighborhood, house.  Tomorrow the media will say that they took out military targets.

An immigrant on the other side of any border.  The border patrol approaches.  The next day there won't be anything about it in the news.

A priest, nun, layperson who sided with the poor, in the middle of the Vatican's opulence.  The Cardinal's sermon is against those who meddle in worldly affairs.

 Adrián Javier González Villarreal

A street vendor in an exclusive mall in an exclusive residential zone.  A truck full of riot police parks. "We defend free trade," the government delegate will declare.

A woman by herself, day or night, on public transportation full of men.  A small tick in the "gender violence" statistics.  The cop will say: "it's that sometimes they provoke them."

A gay by himself, day or night, on public transportation full of machos.  A small tick in the "homophobic violence" statistics. 

A sex worker on a strange street and someone else's corner… a squad car pulls up.  "The government is cracking down on white slavery," the press will say.

A punk, a Rastafarian, a rudeboy, a cholo, a metal head, on the street at night… another squad card approaches.  "We're putting a stop to antisocial behavior and vandalism," says the elected official.

Cruz Morales Calderón

A graffiti artist "tagging" the World Trade Center… another squad car pulls up.  "We'll do everything necessary in order to have a beautiful and attractive city for tourism," says some official.

A communist at a rightwing fascist party meeting.  "We're against the totalitarianism that has done so much damage around the world," says the party president.

An anarchist in a communist party meeting. "We are against the petit bourgeois deviations that have done so much damage to the global revolution," says the party's chairman.

A segment from the "31 minutos" news broadcast on the CNN news ticker.  Tulio Triviño and Juan Carlos Bodoque look at each other, disturbed, but they don't say anything. [2]

An alternative band trying to sell its CD at a concert starring Lady Gaga, Madonna, Justin Bieber, whoever comes after them.  The cops approach.  The fans scream like crazy.

Juvencio Lascurain

An artist performing traditional indigenous dances outside of the great cultural center where the (yes-gala-invitation-only-we're-sorry-ma'am-you're-getting-in-the-way) Bolshoi ballet company is performing.  Security proceeds to reestablish calm.

An old man in a meeting chaired by Japanese finance minister Taro Aso (he studied at Stanford and just a little while ago asked that the elderly "hurry up and die already" because it's really expensive to keep them alive).  Social spending is cut even further.

An Anonymous criticizing a Microsoft-Apple shareholders meeting about copyrights.  "A dangerous hacker behind bars," the media will say.

A young Mapuche who, in Chile, demands his ancestors' territory as he watches the olive-green offensive roll in with tanks and carabineers.  The bullet that fatally wounds him in the back will not be punished.

Matías Valentín Catrileo Quezada

A youngster and/or student or unemployed worker at a military-police-civil guard-carabineer checkpoint.  The last thing he heard?  "Shoot!"

An indigenous Nahua in the offices of a transnational mining company.  Men in uniforms kidnap him.  "We're investigating," say respective governments.

A dissident in front of a grey metal fence that's been erected, while on the other side the Mexican political class bites their tongues about yet another imposition.  He's hit with a rubber bullet that causes him to lose an eye or break his skull. "It's called uniting for the good of the country.  It's time to put the bickering behind us," say the talking heads on the news.

 Francisco Sántiz López

A peasant in front of an army of lawyers and police hearing that the land that he works, where his parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on were born and grew up, now belongs to a real estate company, and that you're depriving the poor businessmen of something that legally belongs to them.  Jail.

Someone who opposes the electoral fraud sees how 40 thieves and their boot-lickers are exonerated.  The mockery: "We've got to turn over a new leaf and look forward."

A man or woman approaches to see what all the ruckus is about and is suddenly surrounded by law enforcement.  While they shove, beat, and kick her or him as they take her to the squad car, you manage to see that a well-known television channel's cameras are pointed somewhere else.

An indigenous Zapatista in the bad government's (PRI-PAN-PRD-PT-MC) jail for years.[3]  He reads in the newspaper: "Why did the EZLN reappear now that the PRI has returned to power?  Very suspicious."

-*-

Are you still with us?

Now…

Do you feel with certainty that you're out of place?

Do you feel the fear from being ignored, insulted, beaten, mocked, humiliated, raped, imprisoned, murdered just because of who you are?

Do you feel the impotence of not being able to do anything to avoid it, to defend yourself, to be heard?

Do you curse the moment that you went to that place, the day you were born, the hour you began to read this text?

-*-

Several of the aforementioned examples have names, calendars, and geographies:

Juan Francisco Kuykendall Leal.  The compa "Kuy," adherent to the Other Campaign, professor, thespian, director.  Skull smashed open on December 1, 2012, by a shot from "law enforcement."  He planned to do a play about Enrique Peña Nieto.

José Uriel Sandoval Díaz.  Young student at the Autonomous University of Mexico City and member of the Student Struggle Committee.  He lost an eye in the repression on December 1, 2012, as a result of a "law enforcement" attack.  He was planning  to resist the imposition of Enrique Peña Nieto.

Celedonio Prudencio Monroy.  Indigneous Nahua.  Kidnapped on October 23, 2012 by "law enforcement."  He was planning to resist the plundering of Nahua lands by mining companies and loggers.

Adrián Javier González Villareal.  Young student at the National Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon's Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department in Mexico, murdered in January 2013 by "law enforcement."  He was planning to graduate and become a successful professional.

Cruz Morales Calderón and Juvencio Lascurain.  Peasants taken prisoner in Veracruz, 2010-2011, by "law enforcement."  They were planning on resisting the plundering of their lands by real estate companies.

Matías Valentín Catrileo Quezada.  Young indigenous Mapuche, murdered on January 3, 2008, in Chile, Latin America, by "law enforcement."  He was planning on resisting the plundering of Mapuche land by the government, estate owners, and transnational companies.

Francisco Sántiz López, indigenous Zapatista, unjustly imprisoned by "law enforcement."  He was planning on resisting the government counterinsurgency campaign of [former Chiapas governor] Juan Sabines Guerrero and [former president] Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.

-*-

Now… don't despair, we're almost done...

Now imagine that you aren't afraid, or you are but you get it under control.

Imagine that you go and, in front of the mirror, not only do you not hide anything or cover up your difference with makeup, and instead you emphasize it.

Imagine that you turn your difference into a shield and weapon, you defend yourself, you find others like you, you organize, you resist, you struggle, and without even realizing it, you go from "I'm different" to "we're different."

Imagine that you don't hide behind "maturity" and "good judgement," behind "now is not the time," "the conditions aren't right," "we have to wait," "it's useless," "there's no way to fix it."

Imagine that you don't sell out, that you don't give up, that you don't give in.

Can you imagine it?

Ok, well even though neither we nor you know it yet, we're part of a "we" that's bigger and has yet to be built.

(to be continued…)

From any corner of any world.

SupMarcos.
Planet Earth.
January 2013.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen and watch the video that accompanies this text:


"Born Free" by M.I.A. (Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam).  Video director: Romain Gavras (son of Costa Gavras).  Photography: André Chemetoff.  Produced by: Mourad Belkeddar.  Executive Producer: Gaetan Rousseau / Paradoxal.  This video was censored by YouTube due to its content.



"Burnin' an Lootin" by Bob Marley.  Video is the beginning of "La Haine" ("The Hatred"), written and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995.  Subtitles in Spanish.


Translated from the original Spanish by Kristin Bricker.

Translator's Notes:

1. N14: the November 14, 2012, general strike called by Spanish unions.
2. 31 Minutos is a Chilean mock news program anchored by puppets.  Triviño and Boduque are puppets on the show.
3. PRI = Institutional Revolution Party; PAN = rightwing National Action Party; PRD = center-left Democratic Revolution Party; PT = Workers' Party, a front for the PRI; MC = Movimiento Ciudadano, a PRD splinter party.  Marcos mentions all of the major political parties, even the so-called leftist parties, because the Zapatistas oppose all of them.  The PRD ruled Chiapas for years, and during that time the government and PRD party members attacked the Zapatistas (frequently physically) just as the other parties had done.

Read the rest of "Them and Us:"

• Part 1: The (Lack of) Reason from Above
• Part 2: The Machine in Almost Two Pages
• Part 3: The Overseers

Them and Us Part 3: The Overseers by Subcomandante Marcos

THEM AND US

III.- The Overseers

Somewhere in Mexico…

The man hits the table, furious.

-Annihilate them!

-Sir, with all due respect, we've been trying to do that for 500 years.  Each successive empire that has arisen has attempted to do so with all of their era's military might--

-So why are they still there?

-Err…we're still trying to figure that out--the lackey glares reproachfully at the man in a military uniform.

The aforementioned man gets up and, standing at attention, extends his right hand frontward, with his hand out[1], and shouts enthusiastically:

-Heil!… Sorry, I meant to say that I salute you, sir -- After shooting a threatening look that shuts up the snickering from other guests, he continues:

-The problem, sir, is that those heretics don't confront us where we're strong, they turn around and attack us where we're weak.  If it were all just a matter of lead and fire, well, those lands, with their forests, water, minerals, people, would have been conquered a long time ago and you would have been able to offer them up as a tribute to the great Ruler, sir.  Those cowards, instead of confronting us with just their heroic bare chests, or with bows, arrows, and spears, and go down in history as heroes (beaten, yes, but heroes), they prepare, they organize, they reach agreements, they give us the slip, and they hide when they take off their masks.  But we wouldn't be in this situation if you would have listened to me when everything began-- and he glares reproachfully at the guest whose place card says "chupa-cabras version 8.8.1.3."[2]

The aforementioned guest smiles as he says:

-General, with all due respect, we didn't have an atomic bomb.  And even if we could have acquired one from our allies (the guest who has the ambassador place card expresses his thanks for the mention), we would have been able to wipe out the aboriginals, but we would have also destroyed the forests and the water; moreover, the work of mining exploration and operations would have been impossible for, say, a couple of centuries-.

Another one of the lackeys speaks up:

-We offered them songs and poems praising their sacrifice, ballads, movies, roundtables, essays, books, plays, statues, their name in golden letters when they died.  We told them that if they insisted on resisting and staying alive, we would spread rumors and doubts about why they haven't disappeared, why they haven't died, and we would say they were of our own creation, that we were going to bring forth a smear campaign that would even include the support of some intellectuals, artists, and progressive journalists -- The aforementioned guests make a gesture of approval, although more than one appears displeased by so many "-ists."

The man impatiently interrupts:

-And?

-They responded with this gesture -- (the lackey shows them a hand balled into a fist but with the middle finger raised).

The guests squirm indignantly and clamor:

-Proles! Degenerates! Louts! Plebeians! Hood rats! -

The lackey still has his hand up, facing the man.  The man rebukes him:

-I get it! You can put your hand down.

The lackey slowly lowers his hand winks at the rest of the guests.  Then he continues:

-The problem, sir, is that these people don't worship death, but rather life.  We've tried to eliminate their visible leaders, buy them, seduce them.

-And?

-Not only have we not succeeded, we haven't even realized that the bigger problem is the invisible leaders.

-Ok, let's find them.

-We already found them, sir.

-And?

-They're everyone, sir.

-What do you mean, everyone?

-Yes, everyone.  That was one of the messages they sent on the day the world ended.  We managed to keep the media from talking about it, but I think that we can say it here without fearing that someone else will find out.  They used a code so that we would understand: he who is on the stage is the leader.[3]

-What!? 40,000 leaders?

-Err… sir, excuse me, those are the ones we saw, you'd have to add in the many more that we didn't see.

-Then buy them!  I imagine we have enough money - he adds, addressing the guest with the place card that says "non-Automated Teller Machine."

The so-called ATM begins to stammer:

-Well, sir, we'd have to sell off a State asset, but we don't really have anything anymore.

The lackey interrupts:

-Sir, we've tried.

-And?

-They're not for sale.

-Then convince them.

-They don't understand what we say to them.  And to tell you the truth, we don't understand what they say, either.  They talk about dignity, freedom, justice, democracy…

-Ok, then we'll act like they don't exist.  That way they'll die of hunger, curable diseases, a good media blackout, no one will even notice until it's too late.  That's it, let's kill them with oblivion.

The guest who bears a striking resemblance to a chupa-cabras makes a sign of approval.  The man thanks him for the gesture.

-But sir, there's a problem.

-Which?

-Even if we ignore them, they insist on continuing to exist.  Without our charity, sorry, what I meant is without our help, they built schools, they made the land productive, they built clinics and hospitals, they improved their homes and their diets, they lowered crime rates, they did away with alcoholism.  And not only did they prohibit the production, distribution, and consumption of narcotics, they raised their life expectancy and theirs is almost equal to that of big cities.

-Oh, so it's still higher in the cities -- content, the man smiles.

-No, sir, when I said "almost" I meant that theirs is higher.  The life expectancy in the cities went down thanks to your predecessor's strategy, sir.

Everyone turns to look with mockery and reproach at the man with the blue tie.

-You're saying that those rebels live better than those who sell out to us?

-Absolutely, sir.  But you don't have to worry about that, we've initiated an ad hoc media campaign to put a lid on it.

-And?

-The problem is that neither they nor our people watch television, or read our media, or have Twitter, or Facebook, or even a cell phone signal.  They know that they're better off and our people know they're worse off.

The guest with the place card that says "modern left" rises to her feet:

-Sir, if you'll allow me.  With the new program called Solid…sorry, I meant to say "National Crusade"…[4]

The lackey impatiently interrupts:

-Enough, Chayo[4], don't start with another one of your speeches for the media.  All of us agree that the main enemy is those damn indians and not the other unmentionable.  We have that one good and infiltrated and completely fenced in by people who belong to this man here.

The man with the "chupa cabras" place card nods with satisfaction and gratefully accepts the pats on the back that nearby guests give him.

The lackey continues:

-But you and I and everyone else who is here knows that all of this about social programs is a lie, that it doesn't matter how much money is invested, at the end of the bottleneck there's nothing.  Because everyone takes their cut.  After the señor, with all due respect, you take a big chunk, everyone else here does, too, and then the governors, the heads of the military zones, the local legislatures, the mayors, the commissioners, the leaders, those in charge, the cashiers, so little or nothing is left over for those below.

The man intervenes:

-Well we have to do something fast, because if we don't, the Ruler will look for other overseers and you are all well aware, ladies and gentlemen, of what that means: unemployment, ridicule, and maybe even jail or exile. 

The person marked "chupa cabras" shudders and makes an affirmative gesture.

-And it is urgent, because if those indians with the cracked feet… (the man's daughter makes an expression of disgust, the woman sits there, suddenly indisposed, and turns so green that, well, forget about the Green Lantern).  The woman leaves, saying something about a pregnancy.[6]

The man goes on:

-If those fucking indians unite, we'll have serious problems because…

-Ahem, ahem, sir -- the lackey interrupts.

-Yes?

-I'm afraid there's a bigger problem, that is, worse, sir-.

-Bigger?  Worse?  What could be worse than an indian insurrection?

-Well, if they reached an agreement with the others, sir-.

-The Others?  Who are they?

-Hmm… let me see… ok, well, peasants, workers, the unemployed, youth, students, teachers, employees, women, men, the elderly, professionals, fags and dykes, punks, Rastafarians, skaters, rappers, hip-hop artists, rockers, metal heads, chauffeurs, tenant farmers, NGOs, street vendors, crews, races, hood rats, plebes…-

-Enough!  I get it… I think.

The lackeys look at each other with a knowing smile.

-Where are the leaders we bought?  Where are the ones we've convinced that the solution to everything is to be like us?

-They're believing them less and less, sir.  They have less and less control over their people.

-Look for someone to buy!  Offer them money, trips, television programs, candidacies, seats in congress, governments!  But above all money, a lot of money!

-We're doing that, sir, but… -- the lackey looks doubtful.

-And? -- the man prods him on.

-We find more and more…-

-Magnificent!  More money is needed then?

-Sir, what I mean is that we find more and more who won't sell out.

-Terror, then?

-Sir, there's more and more who aren't afraid of us, or if they are, they have it under control.

-Deception?

-Sir, more and more think for themselves.

-We have to finish off all of them, then!

-Sir, if we make everyone disappear, we would disappear, too.  Who would sow the land, who would run the machines, who would work in the corporate media, who would serve us, who would fight in our wars, who would praise us?

-Then we have to convince them that we are as important as they are.

-Sir, not only are more and more people realizing that we're not necessary, it appears that the Ruler is doubting our usefulness, and by "our" I mean all of us.

The guests sitting at the man's table shift uncomfortable in their seats.

-Well then?

-Sir, while we look for another solution, because the "Pact"[7] didn't work at all, and seeing that we have to avoid the embarrassment of once again hiding out in a bathroom[8], we've acquired something better: a "panic room!"[9]

The guests stand up and applaud.  The all crowd around the machine.  The man gets in and takes the controls.

The lackey nervously warns him:

-Sir, just be careful you don't hit the "eject" button.

-This one?

-Nooooooooooo!

The make-up artists and puppeteers run to provide first aid.

The lackey addresses one of the cameramen who recorded everything:

-You have to erase that part… And tell the Ruler to get a replacement doll ready.  This one always needs resetting.

The guests straighten their ties and skirts, comb their hair, cough, trying to draw attention.  The the cameras' clicks and flashes overshadow everything…

(to be continued…)

From any corner of any world.

Sup Marcos.
Planet Earth.
January 2013.

Information from Report #69 of the Autonomous Intelligence Service (SIA in its Spanish abbreviation) regarding what was heard and seen in an ultra-arch-extremely-hyper secret meeting which took place in Mexico City, in the backyard of the United States, latitude 19° 24´ N, longitude 99° 9´ W.  Date: a few hours ago.  Classification: eyes only.  Recommendation: do not make this document public because they'll burn us alive.  Note: send more pozol because Elías[10] drank it all when someone shouted: "Eat while there's lots of food!" and he's skanking to the Nana Pancha cover of the Tijuana No song "Transgresores de la Ley" [Law Breakers].  Yes, the song is cool, but it's tough to go in the mosh pit because Elías is wearing steel-toed boots.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen and watch the video the accompanies this text:



"Luna Negra" [Black Moon].  Lyrics by Arcadio Hidalgo.  Scored and played by Los Cojolites.  The other son jarocho.  ¡A zapatearle en el fandango raza![11]



"En esta tierra que me vio nacer" [On this land where I was born] with MC LOKOTER.  Greetings to the Other Zumpango [town in Mexico State].  Production and photography: Joana López.  Directed and edited by: Ricardo Santillán.  Production: BLASJOY DESIGNER.  Year 2012.
Note: An MC is something like a DJ with noble feelings and cool words, but with a hip-hop rhythm.  Rap!



"Transgresores de la ley" by Tijuana No, covered by Nana Pancha on their album "Flores para los muertos" [Flowers for the dead].  Every time Tijuana No played this song, they dedicated it to the EZLN, even when the Zaps weren't fashionable.  Greetings and a big hug to those who never forgot us.  Skaaaaaaaaaaaaa!  Everybody jump!



Translated from the original Spanish by Kristin Bricker.

Translator's Notes:
The "Ruler" is the United States government, "the man" (el señor) is current president Enrique Peña Nieto, "chupacabras" is former president Carlos Salinas, and the "man with the blue tie" is former president Felipe Calderón.

1. The Mexican military salute looks a lot like the Nazi German military salute.
2. The chupacabras is a mythical Mexican vampire beast that sucks the blood out of goats.  It was allegedly invented by Carlos Salinas to distract people's attention from the fact that he was running the country into the ground.
3. Referring to the December 21, 2012, mobilization in which 40,000 Zapatistas took to the streets in silence.  The Zapatista communique released that day stated: "Did you listen?  It is the sound of their world crumbling.  It is the sound of our world resurging." 
4. "Solidaridad" (Solidarity) was a public works program initiated by Carlos Salinas, who is Enrique Peña Nieto's godfather and widely considered to be the latter's puppet master.  So it was no surprise when Peña Nieto recently announced his new campaign, the National Crusade Against Hunger and Poverty, to which the Zapatistas responded with the middle finger.
5. Chayo is a nickname for a woman named Rosario, in this case referring to Rosario Robles, the head of Sedesol, Mexico's Social Development Agency, which is responsible for implementing the National Crusade.  Here she's referred to as the "modern left" because she defected from the center-left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) to join the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which currently rules Mexico.
6. Mexican indigenous people who live in rural areas often have cracked feet because they walk barefoot.  During the presidential campaign, Enrique Peña Nieto's daughter retweeted a tweet from her boyfriend referring to her father's critics as "a bunch of idiots" and "proles."
7. When Enrique Peña Nieto took office, he announced a "Pact for Mexico" that would supposedly solve the country's problems.  Not many people were particularly impressed.
8. During the presidential campaign, Peña Nieto was confronted by student protesters at the private Ibero-American University…so he hid in a bathroom.  The Ibero protest sparked the massive #YoSoy132 student movement.
9. Panic rooms are being constructed in some Mexican courthouses to protect judges.
10. Comandante Elías Contreras is the EZLN's head of intelligence.  Pozol is a corn drink popular in Chiapas and Tabasco, the two states with confirmed Zapatista presence.
11. Son jarocho is a folksy musical genre from Veracruz.  Zapatear is how one dances to son jarocho; it involves stomping on a wooden platform in hard-soled shoes to make noise.  Fandango is a son jarocho dance party.  

This is Part 3 of a series of communiques from Subcomandante Marcos.  The English translation of Part 1: The (Lack of) Reason from Above and Part 2: The Machine in Almost Two Pages are also available.