A supplementary attachment came with this originally- any who want it, let me
(Macdonald) know off list- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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----- Original Message -----
From: Faith Attaguile <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
POCKETS of
RESISTANCE no. 7
a supplement of Dark Night field notes — march 2001
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A March the Color of the Earth
The Zapatista Caravan February 24, 2001-March 29, 2001
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Brothers and Sisters:
We who are the color of the earth, the string in history’s bow,
When slack are a bowstring that watches and waits,
When drawn are the bowstring that will let fly the arrow we are.
The hour has come to draw, for everyone to draw together.
Only so can our desire reach far enough, so far — there! — to the morning.
— Marcos, March 7, 2001, Cuautla, Morelos
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CONTENTS:
Commentary
A March the Color of the Earth
Article
The Chess Match Ain’t Over Yet, by John Ross
February 2001 communiqués
A world the color of humanity (San Cristóbal)
The false god of dried-up dung (Juchitán)
March 2001 communiqués
Hone your hope (Nurio)
A troublesome number (Nurio)
Let money tremble because we move (Milpa Alta)
Chess games and the morning’s bare feet (Mexico City)
The tale of the little beat-up car (Mexico City, Isidro Favela neighborhood)
Up to here and that’s it! (Mexico City, National Polytechnic Institute)
Approach the dawn by looking down (Mexico City, UNAM)
Hope is come (Juchitán)
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Commentary: A March the Color of the Earth
Recent events in Chiapas have catapulted the Zapatistas back into front page news
in Mexico and around the world. This POR brings you a selection of the words the
Zapatistas offered their supporters during their February 24 – March 29 caravan as
they travelled 2,000 miles through 12 states along the route of Emiliano Zapata. John
Ross describes the unfolding drama in Mexico City leading to Mexico’s Chamber of
Deputies’ close vote allowing the EZLN to address the nation from the tribune of the
Congress on March 28th. They made their case for passage of the COCOPA bill with
people from the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), which represents 57 distinct
Indian peoples across Mexico.
To the surprise of most, Marcos was absent that day. Comandanta Esther, who
received a standing ovation after her address and speaking first on behalf of the
EZLN, explained:
Some of you may have expected Sup Marcos to be standing in this tribune, that he
would be the one to give this main message of the zapatistas…. Subcomandante
Insurgente Marcos is just that — a subcomandante, a lieutenant. We are the
Comandantes, the majors, a joint command; we are the ones who govern our peoples by
obeying.We gave the Sup and those who share his hopes and dreams the mission of
bringing us to this tribune…. Now it is our hour…. Those who represent the civil part
of the EZLN are here, the political and organizational leadership of a legitimate,
honest and consistent movement are here….
My name is Esther, but that’s not what’s important now. I am a zapatista, but
that’s not what’s important at this momemt, either. This tribune is symbolic….And it’
s also symbolic that I — a poor, indigenous zapatista woman — have the first word,
and that my message is the main message of our zapatista word.
Speaking of the 7 special EZLN guests who were invited but not present:
Here in this Legislature, are 7 empty places corresponding to the 7 indigenous
who could not be present…. Of the 7 absent, one died in the first days of January,
1994; two others are imprisoned for opposing the felling of trees; another two are in
jail for defending their fishing livelihood and opposing pirate fishermen; the
remaining two have arrest warrants out against them for the same reason.
By now she had the full attention of the Delegates attending this session. She went
on to announce that it would be Marcos’ job to maintain their current position in the
mountains while ensuring no new EZLN military actions would be made. Also, Fernando
Yañez, the EZLN’s COCOPA liaison, would travel with peace commissioner Louis Alvarez
to Chiapas to certify that the Army had withdrawn from 7 military bases named by the
EZLN as one of three conditions for renewing peace talks. She explained that Yañez
would work with Alvarez to insure that the remaining two conditions — release of all
Zapatista prisoners and passage of the COCOPA bill — be fulfilled as soon as
possible. Finally, she requested that the Congress offer a place for the first
meeting between the government and the EZLN liaison Yañez.
For several hours, while Comandantes Esther, David, Tacho and Zebedeo, and three
CNI delegates spoke, much of Mexico, transfixed, tuned in via radio and TV hookups.
In the end Marcos — who like thousands of supporters had been listening by radio
outside the building — gave a short farewell speech. They were ready to go back home,
he said:
…we’re done now. Tomorrow we’re going to pack our knapsacks and leave on our return
journey back to our place.
But we’re not leaving with empty hands. We’re leaving with hands filled with all the
hands we reached out for. The hands we saluted close up or from afar, the hands that
entwined themselves into security cordons to protect us. The hands that made great
efforts to prepare our food, the hands that built and furnished the places we spent
the night in. The hands that wrote us letters and words of support and encouragement.
The hands that cared for us during the nights and in the dawns, the hands that were
lifted high on that March 11 this year in the capital Zócalo. The hands that clenched
in indignation when the stubbornness of a few tried to close the path of dialogue.
The hands that voted yes in the March 22 sessions in the Chamber of Deputies and the
Senate. The hands we did not see but that grew tense sharing our anxiety and that now
clap sharing our joy. Our hands are filled with your hands, and — as everyone knows—
hands are the shape hearts take when they meet.
So pull down the attached document, print it out and take it with you to read
when you have the moments to savor it slowly. With it, you will join the march the
color of the earth through the quirky tales, the exalting speeches, the outrageous
and possible dreams that are the word of the EZLN, the world of the living and the
dead, the world the color of humanity.
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Thanks for reading Pockets of Resistance. With each newsletter, our mailing list has
grown. If you are a reader who signed on before January 2001, you will continue
receiving Pockets of Resistance through number 12 for free. For all readers who sign
on after January 2001, we are suggesting a donation of $12.00 a year, or a dollar a
newsletter to help us cover our expenses. You can send your donation to Dark Night
Press, P.O. Box 3629, Chicago, IL 60690-3629. If you like Pockets of Resistance, you
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http://www.darknightpress.org.
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...resistance against neoliberalism does not only exist in the mountains of the
Mexican Southeast. In other parts of Mexico, in Latin America, in the United States
and Canada, in the Europe of the Treaty of Maastricht, in Africa, in Asia, in
Oceania, pockets of resistance multiply. Each one of them has its own history, its
own differences, equalities, demands, struggles, and accomplishments. If humanity
still has a hope of survival, of improvement, that hope is in the pockets filled with
the excluded ones, the leftovers, the ones who are disposable.... There are as many
shapes as there are resistances, and as many worlds as there are in the world. So
draw the shape you prefer. As far as this thing about pockets goes, they are as rich
in diversity as the shapes resistance takes.
— Subcomandante Marcos, "Seven Loose Pieces of the Global Jigsaw Puzzle," Mexico,
June 1997
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Macdonald Stainsby
Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion.
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--Bertholt Brecht
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