Mexico

“We discovered that resistance is not only resisting one’s enemy, refusing its crumbs or leftovers. Resistance also means resisting the enemy’s threats and provocations…When we resist as a collective, it is done with discipline, that is, through agreement. We make an agreement regarding how we are going to deal with different types of problems…We have been developing this resistance for 20 years. At the beginning it was difficult…We began to see that resistance and rebellion gave our organization security and sustenance…We discovered that with resistance and rebellion we could govern ourselves and with resistance and rebellion we could develop our own initiatives…”

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“Before the Zapatista Army for National Liberation was created, we indigenous from Chiapas didn’t exist for the capitalist system; we weren’t people to it; we weren’t human. We didn’t even exist as trash for it. And we imagine that’s how it was for the other indigenous brothers and sisters in the rest of our country. And that’s how we imagine it is in any country where indigenous people exist.” – Subcomandante Moises

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From May 2nd to May 9th the Zapatistas hosted a tribute to fallen comrades, a celebration of resistance, and a seminar to “provoke thought, reflection, critique.” Comandanta Dalia as well as other compañeras took a moment to remind us of the struggles they have faced as Zapatista women and to share some of the strategies they are putting to practice to help young people understand “that they shouldn’t live exploited by the capitalist system.”

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“People don’t know what ‘fracking’ is and there is little concern about the issue because it’s not visible yet,” said Gabino Vicente, a delegate of one of the municipalities in southern Mexico where exploration for unconventional gas is forging ahead. […]

The three contingents of the Caravan in Defense of Water, of the Land, and of Work and Life converged in Mexico City on May 22. The Yaqui tribe led the caravans, heading out May 11, to traverse the entire country from three routes: northwest, northeast and the south. When they arrived at their destination, their numbers had swelled with hundreds of grassroots activists from many different causes, organizations and locations. […]

The Caravana 43 has emerged as a strategy to circulate struggle, disrupt misinformation, and create a context for a deeper discussion on how state violence and repression has become systematic in Mexico and in other parts of the world. The Caravana 43 has travelled throughout the United States, Canada, several countries in Europe and most recently has crossed through Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

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Toward the end of the visit of Caravan 43 to the United States, a remarkable gathering of dignified struggles took place in New York. Representatives of the relatives of the 43 disappeared students of Ayotzinapa met in an exchange with Mexican migrants from Movement for Justice in El Barrio, and, through video messages, also with the indigenous Tseltal ejidatarios of San Sebastián Bachajón in Chiapas.

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“We are here to say that the struggle around the 43 students is a live struggle, it is alive today, and it’s not something that’s staying in the past and that they’re dead. This is a live struggle.” – Román Hernandez, a human rights defender from the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center in Guerrero, Mexico.

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