The Other Campaign

a.The Other Campaign

Twelve years after New Year's morning,1994, when the Zapatista Army of National Liberation appeared in San Cristobal de Las Casas and other Chiapas communities, Marcos has now announced "The Other Campaign."It began, once more, in San Cristobal de las Casas January 1st, 2006. The masked Marcos, today known as “Delegado Zero” in a sense, lives off the land, that is to say, strictly and only on the support of the simple and humble people of each state. The discussions for the main points that now guide “The Other Campaign” started July 2005, and became official the following September. The roots of these proposals emerge “from below,” from excluded territories and people, growing from and for the left, with peace, civilian power, and anti-capitalist actions. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation now mobilizes throughout the country with street people, artists, independent media, homosexuals, lesbians, transsexual and transgender, feminists, human rights organizations, political prisoners, and individuals. All exploitation, expulsion and oppression is on display, all contempt and depravation is manifested and exposed.

b.TOC in Chiapas

New Years day evening, 2006, left expectators in San Cristobal de las Casas overwhelmed by watching the caravan departing from the Coca Cola Company factory, conformed by the first Zapatista ambulance, a car with speakers encouraging the streets; masked indigenous driving pick-up trucks, and sub-commandante Marcos walking around all this. Street lights operated by he Federal Electricity Commision were being turned off as they passed by. Flags and posters of Che Guevara, Popular Revolutionary Front, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, ruled the streets and the main plaza. Where around five thousand guerilla militants and three thousand civilians came to participate and witness the beginning of this fight. Zapatista leader Comandanta Ramona passed away at the beginning of this campaign. Choking back tears and with a wavering voice, Subcomandante Marcos made the public announcement of Ramona’s death. The campaign continued after some days of recovering from this tragic event. Peoples’ voices in Chiapas have explained to Marcos the problematics of their area. The extremely high electricity bills. The tragic effects of hurricane Wilma and Stan in the coast of Chiapas and Quintana Roo that have destroyed homes and communities. The imposed evacuation of rich agricultural land. The preservation of indigenous culture and their various languages. The respect of basic human rights towards indigenous people and freedom fighters.

c.TOC in Quintana Roo

The majority of the people in this state are migrants. Previously a sparsely populated territory of the Mexican Republic – home to Maya indigenous, farmers and fishermen. Marcos encoutered some of the hundreds of thousands of migrants from other provinces of the Mexican Southeast who flocked to this coast from economically devastated towns in Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Veracruz, Oaxaca and elsewhere in search of work and opportunity. Indeed, as most other Mexican states experience dwindling populations, Quintana Roo is receiving their former residents daily. Many of these migrants – like their counterparts from California to New York island – support their families by wiring earnings back to their home communities, and here, in their own country, they face the same kinds of obstacles and repression as their brothers and sisters to the North. The construction boom along Riviera Maya south of Cancún began with the reconstruction from the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Gilbert in September 1988, which, until Hurricane Wilma arrived last October, had been strongest hurricane ever to hit the Atlantic. Speculators and developers took advantage of the displacement caused by the storm and the Riviera Maya went up brick by brick. Destrying natural resources and arqeological treasures. Construction workers came from throughout southern Mexico and many ended up staying in the region. The discontent, the anger, the nonconformity, the grievances, the explotation, humiliation and discrimination were heard by Marcos in Quintana Roo.

d.TOC in Yucatán

Chablekal is in the northern part of the Mérida municipality. Close by is the Dzibilchaltúm archeological site, but also an elite Catholic university run by the Legion of Christ, as well as the La Ceiba Golf Club, where part of the Yucatán jet set lives in pure capitalist style. The site for the meeting with Marcos was a property called “Uay ja,” which means “haunted water” in the Mayan language. It is owned by the human rights group Indignación. Marcos visit to Chichenitza was short but confirmed his support to Mayan artisans that leave out of their heritage and try to preserve it.

e.TOC in Campeche

"Good morning, my name is Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, from the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional. We would like to thank you for being here with us, standing in the sun to be able to listen to our word and for you to be able to say yours. The message I bring today is, like many of you, Mayan indigenous, of Mayan blood, because we indigenous of the EZLN are one of many towns that gave dignity and Mayan rebellion. And we come here to bring a message that we all know because we know that if there is sun, we get wet with sweat; and if there is rain, we get wet with water; and if there is pain, we get wet with tears of indignation and courage, because of what we see is going on. The indigenous that live in Southeast Mexico are forgotten by the governments and politicians. In first place we have poverty, and we all want to accomplish. all the southeast; Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco the first place of rebellion and dignity. We do not come here to bring solutions, compañeros and compañeras. We come here to bring and listen the proposal of those who bring pain, indignation, fury, and to build a national movement. From the left and anticapitalist, of the excluded people, simple and humble, just as all here present. We know we have many pains, but also many stories of resistance and rebellion. It is not possible that we only appear in the news when a disaster occurs. It is not possible that Campeche, along with Chiapas and other parts of Southeast Mexico, only appear in history, in geography, like the last corner of our country. - words of Subcomandante Marcos

h.TOC in Veracruz

In the world there was bad people, very bad people, so bad that their badness emerged from their bodies and started walking like a ghost. That when good people had a bad dream, a nightmare, they were not dreaming a dream, but that they were dreaming someone else’s dream. In this sense, there is no reason to be afraid of nightmares because what we have to understand is that it is not our dream. And that precisely, it is a nightmare the world we live in, where, as indigenous communities, we were not seen, considered, nor heard. Someone could be born, grow, die and no one will notice, even their name. But there was one dream of justice: that the world was fair, plane, that there was light on the table and food for the word. That people laughed and sang and danced because the world was even and there was no up or down. We often forget this dream, we will not remember it until we see it come true. - words of Don Antonio

f.TOC in Oaxaca

This is one of the poorest states, with diverse indigenous cultures and autonomous communities, natural abundance and exploitation. Corn fields are getting contaminated because of pesticides for a massive production. Wind mills have been planted by foreign investment, this way they create energy for foreign use, not for the people of Oaxaca. To create this wind mills investor take indigenous lands, displace people, and take their energy giving no solution. All these communities lack water, and live in a very conflicted political situation. Marcos heard the voices of political prisoners, displaced families, transsexual individuals that seek for support to stop the impunity in this state.

g.TOC in Puebla

“Imagine that with my hands I loose the hair and desire of an answer, that I hang a sigh to its ear, and, meanwhile, my lips go up and down its hills, to understand that the world is as big as the thirst I have of its heart. That the world is so big that we can make another world, big as the ear needed to hear all the voices from the excluded, the forgotten, the ones below. The world is big as this collective eagerness of swimming counter-current, uniting rebellions. Breaking with separatist solitudes that high classes impose. The world is as big as the plant of indignation we carry today; as big as the flower that will bloom tomorrow.” - words of Sub-comandante Marcos in Puebla

i.TOC in Tlaxcala

Although we were back in the mountains of the Southeast, your voice and fight reached us thanks to companier@s who sent the information on how your fights went. We saw when they were born, we saw how you fought. Today we are here with you, we can call you companier@s already. And we want to say to the National Assembly of Laborers that we are on your side, Your demands for justice are the same as those of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. We see that most of the companier@s here are old. And by this we mean that, back in our lands, the aged people are the ones that bond more, The ones who direct us. I am not commandante, I am a subcommandante. Above me are those who command, the indigenous men and women of the mountains in Chiapas. Men and women like you, simple, humble and hard working people. We always listen to their word with respect and attention. Because their experience is greater, their wisdom, their knowledge of the laws of the soil. We do not care about the people who have studied a lot, or that have a good speech. We see and listen to the people with a simple heart, their words, their work, but, more than anything, for what they really are. We will organize together, we will fight the system and change history, that is what we must do. And for this reason we say that this is Another Campaign, because the speech of the people comes first - their problems, their fights and then, later, with their words and anger we will create a National Programme of Struggle. Our aim is not that somebody comes to Tlaxcala and says what the people must have, but that the people themselves say what is needed. Then we will make a new law, a new Constitution. And then, only then, will we be able to see earth reborn and bloom with dignity. Compañer@s of Tlaxcala: Make a decision, think well, and see your hearts being part of history. Enter to the Other Campaign. Unite to this fight that is the fight of many hearts in all México.

j.TOC in Hidalgo

Supporters and organizers in the region of the following images ended with a big question mark about Marcos and The Other Campaign. The city of Ixmiquilpan is surrounded by 117 indigenous communities, mostly Otomies. In the past years men have left to Clearwater, Florida to money however way is possible and return to provide services for the community. The PRD just won municipal elections and people believe this is a positive change since the members of the party in the state are the same that have worked for the community before getting involved in any political actions. Marcos and the caravan were programmed to stay for a day and sleep-over at El Tephé, a small community located a few kilometers away from Ixmiquilpan. In this community there is a water park that has provided many jobs and strongly integrated the community. People of the community had been preparing for months the welcoming of Marcos with a series of rituals, food, and much energy to receive him with everything they have, and with this let him know the respect and faith they have for him and the Zapatistas. Marcos and the caravan arrived to El Tephé and after a short ceremony where the Zapatista and Mexican Anthem were played he left leaving no explanations to the community. This occurred because some of the organizers are supporters and members of the PRD in the region. It is clear in The Other Campaign, that there will not exist any connection with registered political parties. After Marcos departure people in El Tephé were extremely disappointed.

World Water Forum

March 16th 2006, one day before the opening of the Fourth World Water Forum the “Symposium on Improving Public Water Delivery” brought together more than 200 participants. They discussed the potential of public water delivery as a response to the failures of the privatization decade of the 1990s. As part of the International Forum in the Defense of Water, academics, public sector managers, trade unionists and civil society groups from around the world shared experiences and discussed the potential for improvements in and the empowerment of public service delivery, as the one adequate answer to the world’s water and sanitation crisis. The symposium was co-hosted by the Transnational Institute (TNI), Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Coalition of Mexican Organizations for the Right to Water (COMDA), Friends of the Earth International, Sobrevivencia, Friends of the Earth France, Council of Canadians, World Development Movement (WDM), Bread for the World, and numerous other groups from the Reclaiming Public Water network.

It has been proven over and over that there is no such thing as democracy in Mexico, throughout history its land and culture have been stolen by the corrupted people in power. Zapatismo is today the real struggle and voice for justice in Mexico.

This project is about those who with dignity have lost everything except their dreams and desires for a fair country.

Comments (4)