8 La Jornada, January 30, 1996 THE EZLN CALLS FOR INTERCONTINENTAL GATHERING AGAINST NEO-LIBERALISM First Declaration of La Realidad Against Neoliberalism and For Humanity "I have arrived, I am here present, I the singer. Enjoy in good time, come here to present yourselves those who have a hurting heart. I raise my song". Nahuatl Poetry. To the people of the world: Brothers and Sisters: During the last years, the power of money has presented a new mask over its criminal face. Disregarding borders, with no importance given to races or colors, the power of money humiliates dignities, insults honesties and assassinates hopes. Re-named as "neoliberalism", the historic crime in the concentration of privileges, wealth and impunities, democratizes misery and hopelessness. A new world war is waged, but now against the entire humanity. As in all world wars, what is being sought is a new distribution of the world. By the name of "globalization" they call this modern war which assassinates and forgets. The new distribution of the world consists in concentrating power in power and misery in misery. The new distribution of the world excludes "minorities". The indigenous, youth, women, homosexuals, lesbians, people of color, immigrants, workers, peasants; the majority who make up the world basements are presented, for power, as disposable. The new distribution of the world excludes the majorities. The modern army of financial capital and corrupt governments advance conquering in the only way it is capable of: destroying. The new distribution of the world destroys humanity. The new distribution of the world only has one place for money and its servants. Men, women and machines become equal in servitude and in being disposable. The lie governs and it multiplies itself in means and methods. A new lie is sold to us as history. The lie about the defeat of hope, the lie about the defeat of dignity, the lie about the defeat of humanity. The mirror of power offers us an equilibrium in the balance scale: the lie about the victory of cynicism, the lie about the victory of servitude, the lie about the victory of neoliberalism. Instead of humanity, it offers us stock market value indexes, instead of dignity it offers us globalization of misery, instead of hope it offers us an emptiness, instead of life it offers us the international of terror. Against the international of terror representing neoliberalism, we must raise the international of hope. Hope, above borders, languages, colors, cultures, sexes, strategies, and thoughts, of all those who prefer humanity alive. The international of hope. Not the bureaucracy of hope, not the opposite image and, thus, the same as that which annihilates us. Not the power with a new sign or new clothing. A breath like this, the breath of dignity. A flower yes, the flower of hope. A song yes, the song of life. Dignity is that nation without nationality, that rainbow that is also a bridge, that murmur of the heart no matter what blood lives it, that rebel irreverence that mocks borders, customs and wars. Hope is that rejection of conformity and defeat. Life is what they owe us: the right to govern and to govern ourselves, to think and act with a freedom that is not exercised over the slavery of others, the right to give and receive what is just. For all this, along with those who, beyond borders, races and colors, share the song of life, the struggle against death, the flower of hope and the breath of dignity . . . The Zapatista Army of National Liberation Speaks . . . To all who struggle for human values of democracy, liberty and justice. To all who force themselves to resist the world crime known as "Neoliberalism" and aim for humanity and hope to be better, be synonymous of future. To all individuals, groups, collectives, movements, social, civic and political organizations, neighborhood associations, cooperatives, all the lefts known and to be known; non-governmental organizations, groups in solidarity with struggles of the world people, bands, tribes, intellectuals, indigenous people, students, musicians, workers, artists, teachers, peasants, cultural groups, youth movements, alternative communication media, ecologists, tenants, lesbians, homosexuals, feminists, pacifists. To all human beings without a home, without land, without work, without food, without health, without education, without freedom, without justice, without independence, without democracy, without peace, without tomorrow. To all who, with no matter to colors, race or borders, make of hope a weapon and a shield. And calls together to the First Intercontinental Gathering for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism. To be celebrated between the months of April and August of 1996 in the five continents, according the following program of activities: First: Continental preparation assemblies in the month of April of 1996 in the following sites: 1.- European Continent: Site in Berlin, Germany 2.- American Continent: Site in La Realidad, Mexico 3.- Asian Continent: Site in Tokyo, Japan 4.- African Continent: Site to be defined 5.- Oceanic Continent: Site in Sidney, Australia. Note: The continental sites can change if the organizing groups decide to do so. Second: The Intercontinental Gathering for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism, from July 27th to August 3rd of 1996, in the Zapatista "Aguascalientes", Chiapas, Mexico. With the following bases -- Agenda: Table 1.- Economic aspects of how one lives under neoliberalism, how one resists, how one struggles and proposals of struggle against it and for humanity. Table 2.- Political aspects of how one lives under neoliberalism, how one resists, how one struggles and proposals of struggle against it and for humanity. Table 3.- Social aspects of how one lives under neoliberalism, how one resists, how one struggles and proposals of struggle against it and for humanity. Table 4.- Cultural aspects of how one lives under neoliberalism, how one resists, how one struggles and proposals of struggle against it and for humanity. Organization: The preparation meetings in Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania will be organized by the Committees in Solidarity with the Zapatista Rebellion, related organisms, and citizenship groups interested in the struggle against neoliberalism and for humanity. We call upon groups of all countries so that they work united in the organization and achievement of the preparation assemblies. The intercontinental gathering for humanity and against neoliberalism, to be celebrated from July 27th to August 3rd of 1996 in Chiapas, Mexico, will be organized by the EZLN and by citizens and Mexican non- governmental organizations that will be made known in opportune time. Accreditation: The accreditation for the preparation assemblies in the 5 continents will be made by the organizing committees formed in Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and America, respectively. The accreditations for the gathering in Chiapas, Mexico, will be done by the committees in solidarity with the Zapatista rebellion, with the people of Chiapas, and with the people of Mexico, in their respective countries; and in Mexico, by the organizing commission, which will be known in opportune time. General and Intercontinental Note: All which has not been completed by this convocation will be resolved by the respective organizing committees regarding the continental preparation assemblies, and by the intercontinental organizing committees regarding the gathering in Chiapas, Mexico. Brothers and Sisters: humanity lives in the chest of us all and, like the heart, it prefers to be on the left side. We must find it, we must find ourselves. It is not necessary to conquer the world. It is sufficient with making it new. Us. Today. Democracy! Liberty! Justice! >From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast. By the Clandestine Indigenous Revolutionary Committee General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos. Mexico, January of 1996 _______________________________________________________ _ Comite de Solidarite avec les Peuples de Chiapas en Lutte. Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Mexico, January of 1996. To: Those attending the V European Gathering of Solidarity with the Zapatista Rebellion. Paris, France. "This seemed dumb to Alice; so she said nothing, but hurried toward the Red Queen. To her surprise, she immediately lost sight of her and found herself walking again in front of the door. A bit irritated, she went along her steps, and after looking everywhere for the Red Queen (whom she finally saw very far) she thought that on this occasion she would try walking in the opposite direction. Everything happened in the best possible manner. She hadn't even walked a minute when she found herself face to face with the Red Queen, and precisely in front of the hill that she longed to climb. "Where are you coming from?" asked the Red Queen. "And where are you going? Look, speak clearly and don't be moving your fingers all the time." Alice attended to everything she was being told and explained, with as much clarity as she could, that she had lost her way. "I don't understand what you want to say when you speak of your way" said the Queen, "since all the ways here are mine." "On the other side of the mirror. And what Alice found there." Chapter II; "The garden of the living flowers," by Lewis Caroll Brothers and Sisters: In name of my companeros, the men, women, children and elders who make up the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, I write to greet you and greet the celebration of this V European Gathering of Solidarity with the Zapatista Rebellion. You must know that we have not been able to send any of our companeros Zapatistas and that no one takes the EZLN representation before the V Gathering. Currently we find ourselves in the internal process of consultation in the Zapatista indigenous communities to respond to the proposals of accords reached in the dialogue table of San Andres de Sacamch'en de Los Pobres. That is why it has been impossible to attend this, your V Gathering. We have also not been able to ask anyone (nor will we do so) to take our voice to all of you. That is why we must once again use the media so you will listen to us. Annexed to this greeting you will find the First Declaration of La Realidad, which calls for the celebration of the First Intercontinental Gathering for Humanity and against Neoliberalism. We ask that you read it and, if you agree, subscribe to its tenets along with the EZLN so that, united, we can call humanity together to this discovery of itself and the simultaneous discovery of ourselves. We know that you have many issues to take care of in your gathering, but we beg you to take some time for this matter on the gathering which Durito calls "intergalactic". On this point we want to say the following: We propose to you that the Preparation Assembly of the Intercontinental Gathering for Humanity and against Neoliberalism of the European Continent be celebrated in the first week of April of 1996 in Berlin, Germany. Also we say to you that this is only a proposal. Of course we accept if you choose another site. In any case, be it Berlin or another place, we ask that you support the group's choice of the site. We must begin to create a new political culture where unity produces effects. And what better sample of this new politics than this assembly (and those on other continents) to be the result of international work and not only of the site country. Is this not an attempt to form the international of hope? Well, let us undermine the borders in this new sense. I would like to discuss why we propose that the site of the European preparation assembly be Berlin. I could say that I am trying to get the CCRI to send me as a delegate and that I have always wanted to know Germany, or that this is a strategy of narcissistic self promotion (because of the issue with "Marcos"). This is true, but it is not the fundamental reason. As is stated in the First Declaration of La Realidad, the Power has sold us a lie as truth, the lie of our defeat. No matter whether it in fact defeats us, Power has dedicated itself to making us believe that we are defeated. Who? Us, you, all who think it is possible and necessary for a there to be a world where democracy, liberty, and justice abandon their comfortable place in utopias and libraries and come live (and struggle, which is a beautiful form of living) with us. Regarding the lie about our defeat, Power has built a lie about its victory. And Power has chosen the fall of the Berlin Wall as a symbol of its omnipotence and eternity. Over the ruins of the Berlin Wall, Power built a larger and stronger wall: the wall of hopelessness. The wall continues there, it is part of the history but does not mean the defeat of hope nor the victory of cynicism. There is in Berlin a fragment of the broken mirror that we inherited as history. Just as Alice discovers that to reach the Red Queen, she must walk backwards, we must turn to the past to be able to advance and to improve. In the past we can find paths to the future. And we, you, do not have any greater aspiration than the future. That is why the past is important. If something new is born, it is because something old is dying. But in the new, the old extends itself and it can eat the future if we do not attack it, know it, speak to it, listen to it. In short, we must stop fearing it. A symbol? Yes, a symbol. Why not tear off something new from where the old remained? What have we to lose? Nothing, other than the fear, the shame, the regrets . .. . and the nightmares. Why not begin with a symbol? Why not begin by walking there once again? Why not take in our hands that broken piece of the mirror? Maybe we will hurt our hands, but perhaps we will be able to see, through one of the cracks of its reflection, the crystal we are looking for, that we long for, the one we deserve . . . Berlin. The first week of April of the year 1996. 7 years later. 7 times 7 walk the 7. Berlin. Why not? Well, I reiterate to you our greetings and desires for everything to go well in your V European Gathering of Solidarity with the Zapatista Rebellion. Vale. Health and that, together, we find the Red Queen. >From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast. Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos. Mexico, January of 1996. P.S. That alerts the OTAN. Durito has not abandoned the idea of disembarking and initiating the conquest of Europe. He has invited me, but I still have a lot of doubts. The embarkment that he prepares looks a lot like a can of sardines. Also, I fear he wants to take me to serve as a rower, and for me, all humidity that is not feminine produces dizziness . . .