[News] EZLN: 6th Declaration of the Lacandona,pt 2,Jun 30
News at freedomarchives.org
News at freedomarchives.org
Tue Jul 5 12:19:59 EDT 2005
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 16:11:30 -0500 (CDT)
From: Irl4now at cs.com
To: chiapas at eco.utexas.edu
Subject: En;EZLN:6th Declaration/Part 2
Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Mexico.
(Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona)
III - How We See the World
Now we are going to explain to you how we, the zapatistas, see what is going
on in the world. We see that capitalism is the strongest right now.
Capitalism is a social system, a way in which a society goes about
organizing things
and people, and who has and who has not, and who gives orders and who obeys.
In capitalism, there are some people who have money, or capital, and factories
and stores and fields and many things, and there are others who have nothing
but their strength and knowledge in order to work. In capitalism, those who
have money and things give the orders, and those who only have their ability to
work obey.
Then capitalism means that there a few who have great wealth, but they did
not win a prize, or find a treasure, or inherited from a parent. They obtained
that wealth, rather, by exploiting the work of the many. So capitalism is
based on the exploitation of the workers, which means they exploit the workers
and take out all the profits they can. This is done unjustly, because they do
not pay the worker what his work is worth. Instead they give him a salary that
barely allows him to eat a little and to rest for a bit, and the next day he
goes back to work in exploitation, whether in the countryside or in the city.
And capitalism also makes its wealth from plunder, or theft, because they
take what they want from others, land, for example, and natural resources. So
capitalism is a system where the robbers are free and they are admired and used
as examples.
And, in addition to exploiting and plundering, capitalism represses because
it imprisons and kills those who rebel against injustice.
Capitalism is most interested in merchandise, because when it is bought or
sold, profits are made. And then capitalism turns everything into merchandise,
it makes merchandise of people, of nature, of culture, of history, of
conscience. According to capitalism, everything must be able to be bought
and sold.
And it hides everything behind the merchandise, so we don't see the
exploitation that exists. And then the merchandise is bought and sold in a
market. And
the market, in addition to being used for buying and selling, is also used to
hide the exploitation of the workers. In the market, for example, we see
coffee in its little package or its pretty little jar, but we do not see the
campesino who suffered in order to harvest the coffee, and we do not see the
coyote who paid him so cheaply for his work, and we do not see the workers
in the
large company working their hearts out to package the coffee. Or we see an
appliance for listening to music like cumbias, rancheras or corridos, or
whatever, and we see that it is very good because it has a good sound, but
we do not
see the worker in the maquiladora who struggled for many hours, putting the
cables and the parts of the appliance together, and they barely paid her a
pittance of money, and she lives far away from work and spends a lot on the
trip,
and, in addition, she runs the risk of being kidnapped, raped and killed as
happens in Ciudad Jua'rez in Mexico.
So we see merchandise in the market, but we do not see the exploitation with
which it was made. And then capitalism needs many markets...or a very large
market, a world market.
And so the capitalism of today is not the same as before, when the rich were
content with exploiting the workers in their own countries, but now they are
on a path which is called Neoliberal Globalization. This globalization means
that they no longer control the workers in one or several countries, but the
capitalists are trying to dominate everything all over the world. And the
world, or Planet Earth, is also called the "globe", and that is why they say
"globalization," or the entire world.
And neoliberalism is the idea that capitalism is free to dominate the entire
world, and so tough, you have to resign yourself and conform and not make a
fuss, in other words, not rebel. So neoliberalism is like the theory, the
plan,
of capitalist globalization. And neoliberalism has its economic, political,
military and cultural plans. All of those plans have to do with dominating
everyone, and they repress or separate anyone who doesn't obey so that his
rebellious ideas aren't passed on to others.
Then, in neoliberal globalization, the great capitalists who live in the
countries which are powerful, like the United States, want the entire world
to be
made into a big business where merchandise is produced like a great market. A
world market for buying and selling the entire world and for hiding all the
exploitation from the world. Then the global capitalists insert themselves
everywhere, in all the countries, in order to do their big business, their
great
exploitation. Then they respect nothing, and they meddle wherever they wish.
As if they were conquering other countries. That is why we zapatistas say
that neoliberal globalization is a war of conquest of the entire world, a world
war, a war being waged by capitalism for global domination. Sometimes that
conquest is by armies who invade a country and conquer it by force. But
sometimes it is with the economy, in other words, the big capitalists put
their money
into another country or they lend it money, but on the condition that they
obey what they tell them to do. And they also insert their ideas, with the
capitalist culture which is the culture of merchandise, of profits, of the
market.
Then the one which wages the conquest, capitalism, does as it wants, it
destroys and changes what it does not like and eliminates what gets in its way.
For example, those who do not produce nor buy nor sell modern merchandise
get in
their way, or those who rebel against that order. And they despise those who
are of no use to them. That is why the indigenous get in the way of
neoliberal capitalism, and that is why they despise them and want to
eliminate them.
And neoliberal capitalism also gets rid of the laws which do not allow them to
exploit and to have a lot of profit. They demand that everything can be
bought and sold, and, since capitalism has all the money, it buys everything.
Capitalism destroys the countries it conquers with neoliberal
globalization, but
it also wants to adapt everything, to make it over again, but in its own way,
a way which benefits capitalism and which doesn't allow anything to get in its
way. Then neoliberal globalization, capitalism, destroys what exists in
these countries, it destroys their culture, their language, their economic
system,
their political system, and it also destroys the ways in which those who live
in that country relate to each other. So everything that makes a country a
country is left destroyed.
Then neoliberal globalization wants to destroy the nations of the world so
that only one Nation or country remains, the country of money, of capital. And
capitalism wants everything to be as it wants, in its own way, and it doesn't
like what is different, and it persecutes it and attacks it, or puts it off in
a corner and acts as if it doesn't exist.
Then, in short, the capitalism of global neoliberalism is based on
exploitation, plunder, contempt and repression of those who refuse. The
same as before,
but now globalized, worldwide.
But it is not so easy for neoliberal globalization, because the exploited of
each country become discontented, and they will not say well, too bad, instead
they rebel. And those who remain and who are in the way resist, and they
don't allow themselves to be eliminated. And that is why we see, all over the
world, those who are being screwed over making resistances, not putting up with
it, in other words, they rebel, and not just in one country but wherever they
abound. And so, as there is a neoliberal globalization, there is a
globalization of rebellion.
And it is not just the workers of the countryside and of the city who appear
in this globalization of rebellion, but others also appear who are much
persecuted and despised for the same reason, for not letting themselves be
dominated, like women, young people, the indigenous, homosexuals, lesbians,
transsexual
persons, migrants and many other groups who exist all over the world but who
we do not see until they shout ya basta of being despised, and they raise up,
and then we see them, we hear them, and we learn from them.
And then we see that all those groups of people are fighting against
neoliberalism, against the capitalist globalization plan, and they are
struggling for
humanity.
And we are astonished when we see the stupidity of the neoliberals who want
to destroy all humanity with their wars and exploitations, but it also makes us
quite happy to see resistances and rebellions appearing everywhere, such as
ours, which is a bit small, but here we are. And we see this all over the
world, and now our heart learns that we are not alone.
1V - How We See Our Country Which is Mexico
Now we will talk to you about how we see what is going on in our Mexico.
What we see is our country being governed by neoliberals. So, as we already
explained, our leaders are destroying our nation, our Mexican Patria. And the
work of these bad leaders is not to look after the well-being of the people,
instead they are only concerned with the well-being of the capitalists. For
example, they make laws like the Free Trade Agreement, which end up
leaving many
Mexicans destitute, like campesinos and small producers, because they are
"gobbled up" by the big agro-industrial companies. As well as workers and
small
businesspeople, because they cannot compete with the large transnationals who
come in without anybody saying anything to them and even thanking them, and
they
set their low salaries and their high prices. So some of the economic
foundations of our Mexico, which were the countryside and industry and national
commerce, are being quite destroyed, and just a bit of rubble - which they are
certainly going to sell off - remains.
And these are great disgraces for our Patria. Because food is no longer
being produced in our countryside, just what the big capitalists sell, and the
good lands are being stolen through trickery and with the help of the
politicians. What is happening in the countryside is the same as
Porfirismo, but,
instead of hacendados, now there are a few foreign businesses which have
well and
truly screwed the campesino. And, where before there were credits and price
protections, now there is just charity...and sometimes not even that.
As for the worker in the city, the factories close, and they are left without
work, or they open what are called maquiladoras, which are foreign and which
pay a pittance for many hours of work. And then the price of the goods the
people need doesn't matter, whether they are expensive or cheap, since there is
no money. And if someone was working in a small or midsize business, now they
are not, because it was closed, and it was bought by a big transnational.
And if someone had a small business, it disappeared as well, or they went to
work clandestinely for big businesses which exploit them terribly, and
which even
put boys and girls to work. And if the worker belonged to his union in order
to demand his legal rights, then no, now the same union tells him he will
have to put up with his salary being lowered or his hours or his benefits being
taken away, because, if not, the business will close and move to another
country. And then there is the "microchangarro," which is the government's
economic
program for putting all the city's workers on street corners selling gum or
telephone cards. In other words, absolute economic destruction in the cities
as well.
And then what happens is that, with the people's economy being totally
screwed in the countryside as well as in the city, then many Mexican men
and women
have to leave their Patria, Mexican lands, and go to seek work in another
country, the United States. And they do not treat them well there, instead
they
exploit them, persecute them and treat them with contempt and even kill them.
Under neoliberalism which is being imposed by the bad governments, the economy
has not improved. Quite the opposite, the countryside is in great need, and
there is no work in the cities. What is happening is that Mexico is being
turned into a place where people are working for the wealth of foreigners,
mostly
rich gringos, a place you are just born into for a little while, and in
another little while you die. That is why we say that Mexico is dominated
by the
United States.
Now, it is not just that. Neoliberalism has also changed the Mexican
political class, the politicians, because they made them into something like
employees in a store, who have to do everything possible to sell everything
and to
sell it very cheap. You have already seen that they changed the laws in
order to
remove Article 27 from the Constitution so that ejidal and communal lands
could be sold. That was Salinas de Gortari, and he and his gangs said that it
was for the good of the countryside and the campesino, and that was how they
would prosper and live better. Has it been like that? The Mexican countryside
is worse than ever and the campesinos more screwed than under Porfirio Diaz.
And they also say they are going to privatize - sell to foreigners - the
companies held by the State to help the well-being of the people. Because the
companies don't work well and they need to be modernized, and it would be
better to
sell them. But, instead of improving, the social rights which were won in
the revolution of 1910 now make one sad...and courageous. And they also said
that the borders must be opened so all the foreign capital can enter, that way
all the Mexican businesses will be fixed, and things will be made better. But
now we see that there are not any national businesses, the foreigners gobbled
them all up, and the things that are sold are worse than the those that were
made in Mexico.
And now the Mexican politicians also want to sell PEMEX, the oil which
belongs to all Mexicans, and the only difference is that some say
everything should
be sold and others that only a part of it should be sold. And they also want
to privatize social security, and electricity and water and the forests and
everything, until nothing of Mexico is left, and our country will be a
wasteland
or a place of entertainment for rich people from all over the world, and we
Mexican men and women will be their servants, dependent on what they offer, bad
housing, without roots, without culture, without even a Patria.
So the neoliberals want to kill Mexico, our Mexican Patria. And the
political parties not only do not defend it, they are the first to put
themselves at
the service of foreigners, especially those from the United States, and they
are the ones who are in charge of deceiving us, making us look the other way
while everything is sold, and they are left with the money. All the political
parties that exist right now, not just some of them. Think about whether
anything has been done well, and you will see that no, nothing but theft
and scams.
And look how all the politicians always have their nice houses and their nice
cars and luxuries. And they still want us to thank them and to vote for them
again. And it is obvious, as they say, that they are without shame. And they
are without it because they do not, in fact, have a Patria, they only have
bank accounts.
And we also see that drug trafficking and crime has been increasing a lot.
And sometimes we think that criminals are like they show them in the songs or
movies, and maybe some are like that, but not the real chiefs. The real chiefs
go around very well dressed, they study outside the country, they are
elegant, they do not go around in hiding, they eat in good restaurants and they
appear in the papers, very pretty and well dressed at their parties. They
are, as
they say, "good people", and some are even officials, deputies, senators,
secretaries of state, prosperous businessmen, police chiefs, generals.
Are we saying that politics serves no purpose? No, what we mean is that THAT
politics serves no purpose. And it is useless because it does not take the
people into account. It does not listen to them, it does not pay any
attention to them, it just approaches them when there are elections. And
they do not
even want votes anymore, the polls are enough to say who wins. And then just
promises about what this one is going to do and what the other one is going to
do, then it's bye, I'll see you, but you don't see them again, except when
they appear in the news when they've just stolen a lot of money and nothing is
going to be done to them because the law - which those same politicians made -
protects them.
Because that's another problem, the Constitution is all warped and changed
now. It's no longer the one that had the rights and liberties of working
people. Now there are the rights and liberties of the neoliberals so they
can have
their huge profits. And the judges exist to serve those neoliberals, because
they always rule in favor of them, and those who are not rich get injustice,
jails and cemeteries.
Well, even with all this mess the neoliberals are making, there are Mexican
men and women who are organizing and making a resistance struggle.
And so we found out that there are indigenous, that their lands are far away
from us here in Chiapas, and they are making their autonomy and defending
their culture and caring for their land, forests and water.
And there are workers in the countryside, campesinos, who are organizing and
holding their marches and mobilizations in order to demand credits and aid for
the countryside.
And there are workers in the city who do not let their rights be taken away
or their jobs privatized. They protest and demonstrate so the little they have
isn't taken away from them and so they don't take away from the country what
is, in fact, its own, like electricity, oil, social security, education.
And there are students who don't let education be privatized and who are
fighting for it to be free and popular and scientific, so they don't charge, so
everyone can learn, and so they don't teach stupid things in schools.
And there are women who do not let themselves be treated as an ornament or be
humiliated and despised just for being women, but who are organizing and
fighting for the respect they deserve as the women they are.
And there are young people who don't accept their stultifying them with drugs
or persecuting them for their way of being, but who make themselves aware
with their music and their culture, their rebellion.
And there are homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals and many ways who do not
put up with being ridiculed, despised, mistreated and even killed for having
another way which is different, with being treated like they are abnormal or
criminals, but who make their own organizations in order to defend their
right to
be different.
And there are priests and nuns and those they call laypeople who are not with
the rich and who are not resigned, but who are organizing to accompany the
struggles of the people.
And there are those who are called social activists, who are men and women
who have been fighting all their lives for exploited people, and they are the
same ones who participated in the great strikes and workers' actions, in the
great citizens' mobilizations, in the great campesino movements, and who suffer
great repression, and who, even though some are old now, continue on without
surrendering, and they go everywhere, looking for the struggle, seeking
justice,
and making leftist organizations, non-governmental organizations, human
rights organizations, organizations in defense of political prisoners and
for the
disappeared, leftist publications, organizations of teachers or students,
social struggle, and even political-military organizations, and they are
just not
quiet and they know a lot because they have seen a lot and lived and struggled.
And so we see in general that in our country, which is called Mexico, there
are many people who do not put up with things, who do not surrender, who do not
sell out. Who are dignified. And that makes us very pleased and happy,
because with all those people it's not going to be so easy for the
neoliberals to
win, and perhaps it will be possible to save our Patria from the great thefts
and destruction they are doing. And we think that perhaps our "we" will
include all those rebellions...
(To be continued...)
>From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico, in the sixth month of the year 2005.
--part1_111.4d504e4a.2ff70b58_boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset"ISO-8859-1"
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Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Mexico.
(Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona)
III - How We See the World
Now we are going to explain to you how we, the zapatistas, see what is
going on in the world. We see that capitalism is the strongest right
now. Capitalism is a social system, a way in which a society goes about
organizing things and people, and who has and who has not, and who gives
orders and who obeys. In capitalism, there are some people who have money,
or capital, and factories and stores and fields and many things, and there
are others who have nothing but their strength and knowledge in order to
work. In capitalism, those who have money and things give the orders, and
those who only have their ability to work obey.
Then capitalism means that there a few who have great wealth, but they
did not win a prize, or find a treasure, or inherited from a parent. They
obtained that wealth, rather, by exploiting the work of the many. So
capitalism is based on the exploitation of the workers, which means they
exploit the workers and take out all the profits they can. This is done
unjustly, because they do not pay the worker what his work is
worth. Instead they give him a salary that barely allows him to eat a
little and to rest for a bit, and the next day he goes back to work in
exploitation, whether in the countryside or in the city.
And capitalism also makes its wealth from plunder, or theft, because they
take what they want from others, land, for example, and natural
resources. So capitalism is a system where the robbers are free and they
are admired and used as examples.
And, in addition to exploiting and plundering, capitalism represses
because it imprisons and kills those who rebel against injustice.
Capitalism is most interested in merchandise, because when it is bought
or sold, profits are made. And then capitalism turns everything into
merchandise, it makes merchandise of people, of nature, of culture, of
history, of conscience. According to capitalism, everything must be able
to be bought and sold. And it hides everything behind the merchandise, so
we don't see the exploitation that exists. And then the merchandise is
bought and sold in a market. And the market, in addition to being used for
buying and selling, is also used to hide the exploitation of the
workers. In the market, for example, we see coffee in its little package
or its pretty little jar, but we do not see the campesino who suffered in
order to harvest the coffee, and we do not see the coyote who paid him so
cheaply for his work, and we do not see the workers in the large company
working their hearts out to package the coffee. Or we see an appliance for
listening to music like cumbias, rancheras!
or corridos, or whatever, and we see that it is very good because it has
a good sound, but we do not see the worker in the maquiladora who struggled
for many hours, putting the cables and the parts of the appliance together,
and they barely paid her a pittance of money, and she lives far away from
work and spends a lot on the trip, and, in addition, she runs the risk of
being kidnapped, raped and killed as happens in Ciudad Jua'rez in Mexico.
So we see merchandise in the market, but we do not see the exploitation
with which it was made. And then capitalism needs many markets...or a very
large market, a world market.
And so the capitalism of today is not the same as before, when the rich
were content with exploiting the workers in their own countries, but now
they are on a path which is called Neoliberal Globalization. This
globalization means that they no longer control the workers in one or
several countries, but the capitalists are trying to dominate everything
all over the world. And the world, or Planet Earth, is also called the
"globe", and that is why they say "globalization," or the entire world.
And neoliberalism is the idea that capitalism is free to dominate the
entire world, and so tough, you have to resign yourself and conform and not
make a fuss, in other words, not rebel. So neoliberalism is like the
theory, the plan, of capitalist globalization. And neoliberalism has its
economic, political, military and cultural plans. All of those plans have
to do with dominating everyone, and they repress or separate anyone who
doesn't obey so that his rebellious ideas aren't passed on to others.
Then, in neoliberal globalization, the great capitalists who live in the
countries which are powerful, like the United States, want the entire world
to be made into a big business where merchandise is produced like a great
market. A world market for buying and selling the entire world and for
hiding all the exploitation from the world. Then the global capitalists
insert themselves everywhere, in all the countries, in order to do their
big business, their great exploitation. Then they respect nothing, and
they meddle wherever they wish. As if they were conquering other
countries. That is why we zapatistas say that neoliberal globalization is
a war of conquest of the entire world, a world war, a war being waged by
capitalism for global domination. Sometimes that conquest is by armies who
invade a country and conquer it by force. But sometimes it is with the
economy, in other words, the big capitalists put their money into another
country or they lend it money, but on t!
he condition that they obey what they tell them to do. And they also
insert their ideas, with the capitalist culture which is the culture of
merchandise, of profits, of the market.
Then the one which wages the conquest, capitalism, does as it wants, it
destroys and changes what it does not like and eliminates what gets in its
way. For example, those who do not produce nor buy nor sell modern
merchandise get in their way, or those who rebel against that order. And
they despise those who are of no use to them. That is why the indigenous
get in the way of neoliberal capitalism, and that is why they despise them
and want to eliminate them. And neoliberal capitalism also gets rid of the
laws which do not allow them to exploit and to have a lot of profit. They
demand that everything can be bought and sold, and, since capitalism has
all the money, it buys everything. Capitalism destroys the countries it
conquers with neoliberal globalization, but it also wants to adapt
everything, to make it over again, but in its own way, a way which benefits
capitalism and which doesn't allow anything to get in its way. Then
neoliberal globalization, capitalism, des!
troys what exists in these countries, it destroys their culture, their
language, their economic system, their political system, and it also
destroys the ways in which those who live in that country relate to each
other. So everything that makes a country a country is left destroyed.
Then neoliberal globalization wants to destroy the nations of the world
so that only one Nation or country remains, the country of money, of
capital. And capitalism wants everything to be as it wants, in its own
way, and it doesn't like what is different, and it persecutes it and
attacks it, or puts it off in a corner and acts as if it doesn't exist.
Then, in short, the capitalism of global neoliberalism is based on
exploitation, plunder, contempt and repression of those who refuse. The
same as before, but now globalized, worldwide.
But it is not so easy for neoliberal globalization, because the exploited
of each country become discontented, and they will not say well, too bad,
instead they rebel. And those who remain and who are in the way resist,
and they don't allow themselves to be eliminated. And that is why we see,
all over the world, those who are being screwed over making resistances,
not putting up with it, in other words, they rebel, and not just in one
country but wherever they abound. And so, as there is a neoliberal
globalization, there is a globalization of rebellion.
And it is not just the workers of the countryside and of the city who
appear in this globalization of rebellion, but others also appear who are
much persecuted and despised for the same reason, for not letting
themselves be dominated, like women, young people, the indigenous,
homosexuals, lesbians, transsexual persons, migrants and many other groups
who exist all over the world but who we do not see until they shout ya
basta of being despised, and they raise up, and then we see them, we hear
them, and we learn from them.
And then we see that all those groups of people are fighting against
neoliberalism, against the capitalist globalization plan, and they are
struggling for humanity.
And we are astonished when we see the stupidity of the neoliberals who
want to destroy all humanity with their wars and exploitations, but it also
makes us quite happy to see resistances and rebellions appearing
everywhere, such as ours, which is a bit small, but here we are. And we
see this all over the world, and now our heart learns that we are not alone.
1V - How We See Our Country Which is Mexico
Now we will talk to you about how we see what is going on in our
Mexico. What we see is our country being governed by neoliberals. So, as
we already explained, our leaders are destroying our nation, our Mexican
Patria. And the work of these bad leaders is not to look after the
well-being of the people, instead they are only concerned with the
well-being of the capitalists. For example, they make laws like the Free
Trade Agreement, which end up leaving many Mexicans destitute, like
campesinos and small producers, because they are "gobbled up" by the big
agro-industrial companies. As well as workers and small businesspeople,
because they cannot compete with the large transnationals who come in
without anybody saying anything to them and even thanking them, and they
set their low salaries and their high prices. So some of the economic
foundations of our Mexico, which were the countryside and industry and
national commerce, are being quite destroyed, and just a bit of ru!
bble - which they are certainly going to sell off - remains.
And these are great disgraces for our Patria. Because food is no longer
being produced in our countryside, just what the big capitalists sell, and
the good lands are being stolen through trickery and with the help of the
politicians. What is happening in the countryside is the same as
Porfirismo, but, instead of hacendados, now there are a few foreign
businesses which have well and truly screwed the campesino. And, where
before there were credits and price protections, now there is just
charity...and sometimes not even that.
As for the worker in the city, the factories close, and they are left
without work, or they open what are called maquiladoras, which are foreign
and which pay a pittance for many hours of work. And then the price of the
goods the people need doesn't matter, whether they are expensive or cheap,
since there is no money. And if someone was working in a small or midsize
business, now they are not, because it was closed, and it was bought by a
big transnational. And if someone had a small business, it disappeared as
well, or they went to work clandestinely for big businesses which exploit
them terribly, and which even put boys and girls to work. And if the
worker belonged to his union in order to demand his legal rights, then no,
now the same union tells him he will have to put up with his salary being
lowered or his hours or his benefits being taken away, because, if not, the
business will close and move to another country. And then there is the
"microchangarro," which is !
the government's economic program for putting all the city's workers on
street corners selling gum or telephone cards. In other words, absolute
economic destruction in the cities as well.
And then what happens is that, with the people's economy being totally
screwed in the countryside as well as in the city, then many Mexican men
and women have to leave their Patria, Mexican lands, and go to seek work in
another country, the United States. And they do not treat them well there,
instead they exploit them, persecute them and treat them with contempt and
even kill them. Under neoliberalism which is being imposed by the bad
governments, the economy has not improved. Quite the opposite, the
countryside is in great need, and there is no work in the cities. What is
happening is that Mexico is being turned into a place where people are
working for the wealth of foreigners, mostly rich gringos, a place you are
just born into for a little while, and in another little while you
die. That is why we say that Mexico is dominated by the United States.
Now, it is not just that. Neoliberalism has also changed the Mexican
political class, the politicians, because they made them into something
like employees in a store, who have to do everything possible to sell
everything and to sell it very cheap. You have already seen that they
changed the laws in order to remove Article 27 from the Constitution so
that ejidal and communal lands could be sold. That was Salinas de Gortari,
and he and his gangs said that it was for the good of the countryside and
the campesino, and that was how they would prosper and live better. Has it
been like that? The Mexican countryside is worse than ever and the
campesinos more screwed than under Porfirio Diaz. And they also say they
are going to privatize - sell to foreigners - the companies held by the
State to help the well-being of the people. Because the companies don't
work well and they need to be modernized, and it would be better to sell
them. But, instead of improving, the social ri!
ghts which were won in the revolution of 1910 now make one sad...and
courageous. And they also said that the borders must be opened so all the
foreign capital can enter, that way all the Mexican businesses will be
fixed, and things will be made better. But now we see that there are not
any national businesses, the foreigners gobbled them all up, and the things
that are sold are worse than the those that were made in Mexico.
And now the Mexican politicians also want to sell PEMEX, the oil which
belongs to all Mexicans, and the only difference is that some say
everything should be sold and others that only a part of it should be
sold. And they also want to privatize social security, and electricity and
water and the forests and everything, until nothing of Mexico is left, and
our country will be a wasteland or a place of entertainment for rich people
from all over the world, and we Mexican men and women will be their
servants, dependent on what they offer, bad housing, without roots, without
culture, without even a Patria.
So the neoliberals want to kill Mexico, our Mexican Patria. And the
political parties not only do not defend it, they are the first to put
themselves at the service of foreigners, especially those from the United
States, and they are the ones who are in charge of deceiving us, making us
look the other way while everything is sold, and they are left with the
money. All the political parties that exist right now, not just some of
them. Think about whether anything has been done well, and you will see
that no, nothing but theft and scams. And look how all the politicians
always have their nice houses and their nice cars and luxuries. And they
still want us to thank them and to vote for them again. And it is obvious,
as they say, that they are without shame. And they are without it because
they do not, in fact, have a Patria, they only have bank accounts.
And we also see that drug trafficking and crime has been increasing a
lot. And sometimes we think that criminals are like they show them in the
songs or movies, and maybe some are like that, but not the real
chiefs. The real chiefs go around very well dressed, they study outside
the country, they are elegant, they do not go around in hiding, they eat in
good restaurants and they appear in the papers, very pretty and well
dressed at their parties. They are, as they say, "good people", and some
are even officials, deputies, senators, secretaries of state, prosperous
businessmen, police chiefs, generals.
Are we saying that politics serves no purpose? No, what we mean is that
THAT politics serves no purpose. And it is useless because it does not
take the people into account. It does not listen to them, it does not pay
any attention to them, it just approaches them when there are
elections. And they do not even want votes anymore, the polls are enough
to say who wins. And then just promises about what this one is going to do
and what the other one is going to do, then it's bye, I'll see you, but you
don't see them again, except when they appear in the news when they've just
stolen a lot of money and nothing is going to be done to them because the
law - which those same politicians made - protects them.
Because that's another problem, the Constitution is all warped and
changed now. It's no longer the one that had the rights and liberties of
working people. Now there are the rights and liberties of the neoliberals
so they can have their huge profits. And the judges exist to serve those
neoliberals, because they always rule in favor of them, and those who are
not rich get injustice, jails and cemeteries.
Well, even with all this mess the neoliberals are making, there are
Mexican men and women who are organizing and making a resistance struggle.
And so we found out that there are indigenous, that their lands are far
away from us here in Chiapas, and they are making their autonomy and
defending their culture and caring for their land, forests and water.
And there are workers in the countryside, campesinos, who are organizing
and holding their marches and mobilizations in order to demand credits and
aid for the countryside.
And there are workers in the city who do not let their rights be taken
away or their jobs privatized. They protest and demonstrate so the little
they have isn't taken away from them and so they don't take away from the
country what is, in fact, its own, like electricity, oil, social security,
education.
And there are students who don't let education be privatized and who are
fighting for it to be free and popular and scientific, so they don't
charge, so everyone can learn, and so they don't teach stupid things in
schools.
And there are women who do not let themselves be treated as an ornament
or be humiliated and despised just for being women, but who are organizing
and fighting for the respect they deserve as the women they are.
And there are young people who don't accept their stultifying them with
drugs or persecuting them for their way of being, but who make themselves
aware with their music and their culture, their rebellion.
And there are homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals and many ways who do
not put up with being ridiculed, despised, mistreated and even killed for
having another way which is different, with being treated like they are
abnormal or criminals, but who make their own organizations in order to
defend their right to be different.
And there are priests and nuns and those they call laypeople who are not
with the rich and who are not resigned, but who are organizing to accompany
the struggles of the people.
And there are those who are called social activists, who are men and
women who have been fighting all their lives for exploited people, and they
are the same ones who participated in the great strikes and workers'
actions, in the great citizens' mobilizations, in the great campesino
movements, and who suffer great repression, and who, even though some are
old now, continue on without surrendering, and they go everywhere, looking
for the struggle, seeking justice, and making leftist organizations,
non-governmental organizations, human rights organizations, organizations
in defense of political prisoners and for the disappeared, leftist
publications, organizations of teachers or students, social struggle, and
even political-military organizations, and they are just not quiet and they
know a lot because they have seen a lot and lived and struggled.
And so we see in general that in our country, which is called Mexico,
there are many people who do not put up with things, who do not surrender,
who do not sell out. Who are dignified. And that makes us very pleased
and happy, because with all those people it's not going to be so easy for
the neoliberals to win, and perhaps it will be possible to save our Patria
from the great thefts and destruction they are doing. And we think that
perhaps our "we" will include all those rebellions...
(To be continued...)
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico, in the sixth month of the year 2005.
The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org
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