On the occasion of its 20th anniversary the Mexican daily paper La Jornada has published a special supplement entitled Chiapas : The Resistance. Written by Gloria Munõz Ramirez, this collection of articles takes us on a journey through the different Caracoles (zapatista centres) in each of the five zones of the Zapatista resistance. The ongoing projects are evaluated and the political context analysed. We learn of the dreams which have become reality, and the dreams which are still to be realised.
Taken from Indymedia Chiapas - www.chiapas.indymedia.org - September 2004, and translated by Edinburgh-Chiapas Solidarity Group
by Gloria Munõ Ramirez, La Jornada
On the occasion of its 20th anniversary the Mexican daily paper La Jornada has published a special supplement entitled Chiapas : The Resistance. Written by Gloria Munõz Ramirez, this collection of articles takes us on a journey through the different Caracoles (zapatista centres) in each of the five zones of the Zapatista resistance. The ongoing projects are evaluated and the political context analysed. We learn of the dreams which have become reality, and the dreams which are still to be realised.
Taken from Indymedia Chiapas - www.chiapas.indymedia.org - September 2004, and translated by Edinburgh-Chiapas Solidarity Group.
The caracol of La Realidad, the first space built by zapatistas to organise its autonomy, has already celebrated its first anniversary. The rains are in full flood, mud begins to fill the roads, the maize has been harvested and the indigenous people have doubled their maize seed. Perhaps there is not less hunger than before. The situation is difficult in these jungle lands, but a journey through the zone allows us to see and sense something which 10 years ago, when us reporters first penetrated the into this territory, simply did not exist.
At the entrance to this significant place of the junta of good government towards hope, there is a small wooden clinic painted in green with dozens of people around it. A white card advertises different methods of contraception and vaccination campaigns for kids and adults. "We are fighting diphtheria and tetanus," the health promotor, a middle-aged indigenous man says proudly. In the queue women carry autonomous vaccination cards for their children.
Doroteo - a member of the junta of good government says, "From before our uprising, the zapatistas had begun to organise their healthcare, because health is one of the main demands of our struggle, we need it to live and our struggle is for life".
This mother caracol of the sea of our dreams, is famous in the world of resistance because here in 1996 took place one of the founding moments of the anti-globablisation struggle. The most recent attainment in health here is the functioning of the operating theatre. They have had the theatre for three years but not used it because they have not had doctors and also, they recognise, due to a lack of organisation in the four autonomous municipalities in the region : San Pedro de Michoacan, General Emiliano Zapata, Libertad de Los Pueblos Mayas and Tierra y Libertad.
"We have just operated on two men, one with a hernia, the other with a tumour, and a women with a cyst. . . so now we are operating in this zone," says Doroteo. Meanwhile the women who has recently had the operation is recuperating well. "How many indigenous women with cysts are waiting in this zone for an operation?" The answer is worrying, but as they say, "Now we have started."
Health is one of the areas which has progressed most in the zapatista territory. This jungle area on the Guatemala frontier is not without its problems, both internal and external, but preventative medicine campaigns are multiplying. For example, cleaning the latrines with lime is done weekly in many communities by a health commission. In some areas however, there are others who, "still do not understand the importance of cleaning and we have to explain that health is the biggest and most precious thing you can give the struggle"
This zone has one of the two biggest autonomous hospitals in rebel territory. It is called 'The hospital Pedro : the first hope of the faceless ones', in honour of Subcommante Pedro. He was killed in combat in January 1994 and he was a leader and comrade of the people of these villages.
The hospital is in the community of San Jose del Rio, separated by a bridge from the village and in the middle of lots of vegetation. It serves the four municipal authorities but like all resistance projects has been problematic for the zapatista communities. It cost a lot of work to organise rotas of the thousands who helped in its construction over three years. They have faced many problems : they don't have nor did they have doctors of natural medicine. They have only started using the operating theatre; on one occasion they had to close for a whole month; they spent a lot of money supporting health promotors and there is a long list of other predictable problems and unimaginable obstacles.
But the hospital exists and now competes with the big state hospital in Guadalupe Tepeyac set up in 1993 just before the uprising by the then President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. This white elephant was temporarily run by the Red Cross until February 1995 when it was scandalously taken over by the Mexican army, before eventually being handed back to the state health sector.
In the hospital at Guadalupe Tepeyac, say the Zapatistas, "Sometimes they do not want to give us medical attention if we say we are zapatistas or they ask us a lot of questions to find out about our organisation, or they treat us like the government treats us, that is with contempt like they treat all indigenous people. Because of that we do not want to go there and now even the Priistas prefer to come to our hospital or microclinics. We see everyone there zapatista or no and treat them with respect as human beings."
It is common to meet priistas or members of other organisations in the autonomous hospital. They have chosen not to go to the huge hospital at Guadalupe Tepeyac because, "being indigenous, they too are treated very badly, or they tell them there is no medicine". In the autonmous clinics those who are not zapatistas only pay 10 pesos for a consultation and "if we have got donated medicines we give them that for free and if we only have medicines we had to buy, then we charge the cost price. We do not make a commercial business out of health," Doroteo says.
The challenge of providing health care not only to the bases of support, but to all the population in the area is gigantic. The junta says, "A lot of work is needed because the need is great, sometimes it seems as if we need to do a lot more, it feels as if we need to do twice as much, but other times it feels as if we are getting there".
The hospital at San Jose is also a school for health promotors. It has been constructed with the support of an Italian organisatin and has dental and herbal clinics and a clinical lab. In addition there are three municipal clincis, one in Tierra y Libertad, onein Libertad de Los Pueblos Mayas and another in San Pedro de Michoacan.
In the entire zone there are 118 health promotors dealing with primary illnesses in the same number of community health houses. In the main hospital, in the three municipal clinics and in the 100 plus community health houses the bases of support are provided with free consultations and, when it is available, free medicine .
The health promotors explain that up to some months ago the hospital functioned with health promotors who were supported economically by the four municipalities. They were given 800 pesos a month each to stay at the hospital full time. In total the communities spent more than 100 thousand pesos over three years. The money came from a warehouse project we have in the zone.
But now with the junta, we have decided to ask the villages for volunteers, who would work full-time to care for people's health in the hospital. Three men and three women answered the call and they have left their families and are now working as interns. The junta supports them with food, their travel, shoes and clothes. We buy them what they need, but they are not paid a wage or given money. These interns are conscientious and working for their people and benefiting from the opportunity to learn about health.
Midwives, bone healers and herbalists strengthen traditional medicine.
At the side of the caracol in La Realidad there is a new building, nearly ready - it is a herbalist's lab and house of preserved foods, it is joining up with a health project which is the pride of this zone. It signals the empowering of more than 300 women herbalists, bone healers and midwives.
"This dream", they explain, "began when we realised that we were losing the knowledge of our old men and women. They know how to cure bones and sprains, the use of herbs, how to deliver children, but all this tradition was being lost because of the use of pharmaceutical medicines. So we agreed in the villages to make a call to those men and women who know traditional cures. It was not easy. At first many did not want to share their knowledge. They said that it was a gift which could not be passed on because it comes from within. We then helped awareness raising in the villages with discussions on health and as a result many people changed their minds and decided to participate in the courses. There were 20 men and women, great people from our villages, who were appointed as masters of traditional medicine with 350 pupils, most of them women comrades. As a result the number of midwives, bone healers and herbalists in our communities has multiplied.
The new herbalist laboratory also has a story. "An Italian footballer who died left in his will money to build a football pitch on zapatista territory. This pitch was only going to benefit the people of Guadalupe Teyepac and so we talked with the community and explained that we had other more urgent needs which would benefit all communities, like a space where comrades could work on traditional health. The village understood and agreed that it was fair to use the money for the health of everyone. The second stage was to talk the donors. At first they did not want the money to be used for anything else, but later they said it was ok".
More than 300 education promotores give classes in their villages.
"For us education of our children is the foundation of our resistance. The idea came about because most of us have not been educated or if we have been it was very bad state education. There were no schools in the communities and when there was we did not have a teacher and if we had a teacher they would not turn up and then there were no classes. That was before." explain the autonomous authorities in the region. In 1997 we began to work on our plans and programmes of study. And seven years later we now have three lots of education promotors able to give classes in their villages. "In our schools we teach the history of Mexico, but real history, what has happened to those who struggle in this country. We also teach children about the zapatista struggle, the struggle of the people," says Fidelio, an educaion promotor.
"|Most of the villages now have education promotors, only 30 communities don't have and we have in all villages of the four municipalities". the junta say. In this region in La Realidad we organised the first zapatista education in 1997. In 1999 and 2001 we taught other groups of promotors, finishing with more than 300 indigenous people able to teach classes in their villages. Nevertheless the junta say, "We have a problem that some single promotors lose interest when they marry, or because the village does not give them much support ; or there are some who go to work in the US. We are trying to resolve this because there is a problem with promotors leaving.
While the interview was taking place with the junta a course with more than 70 promotors was coming to an end in La Realidad. "Those you see walking about the caracol are taking a course needed to bring everyone's knowledge up to the same level, then they will go through a second course, like a secondary course although we don't call it that", explains Doroteo.
In the four rebel municipalities in the jungle zone there are 42 new community schools. Ten in Libertad de Los Pueblos Mayas, four in General Emiliano Zapata, 20 in San Pedro de Michoacan and eight in Tierra y Libertad. The schools have a cement floor and a laminate roof with wooden walls. They all have a blackboard, desks, the mexican flag and of course the zapatista flag and some have tape recorders and other teaching tools.
In order to provide for the education needs of the 30 communities without a promotor, the junta is to task the responsables, "to raise awareness of the importance of this work. We will not force this, the villages need to understand the importance and apply this in their villages because they are convinved of its use. "
Most of the communities in this region have two schools, one offical, the other autonomous, and the zapatistas say that in their schools, "our children learn to read and write first and they are more hard working. We do not blame the state teachers, but they leave their classes a lot because they say they have to attend meetings, but our promotors do not take breaks not do they get paid."
Only one woman is part of the autonomous government.
The junta of good government towards the hope has seven men and only one woman. Three out of the four autonomous councils do not have a woman and only one municipality Tierra y Libertad has a woman member. Out of over 100 education promotors only six are woman (five from Tierra y Libertad and one from San Pedro de Michoacan). The other two municipalities in this zone, General Emiliano Zapata y Libertad de Los Pueblos Mayas donot have a woman rsponsible for education. In the area of health it is no better for women. There are only seven promotors in the four municipalities, five in Libertad de Los Pueblos Mayas and two in Tiera y Libertad. "We are aware, " say the junta, "that in this zone there is still very little participation by women but we see a small improvement because in the past it was not thought that any woman would participate. We need more women to participate, but the change must begin in the family. We need to do more political work in the villages with families. Unfortunately there is still a belief that if daughters leave the village they will get up to no good. Because of this we need to strengthen discussion and work. We in the junta have a woman comrade and she goes with us everywhere and we have never had a problem because we respect her and she respects us. Many women in the villages still think that women could encounter problems if they go and work with men but it is not the case. And so we need to raise awareness more amongst husbands and fathers. They need to get into their heads that men and women have the same rights.
Fighting the coyote, another challenge
In the community of Veracruz the zapatistas run a warehouse which supplies hundreds of small community shops, both zapatista and non zapatista. This store, named "Everything for Everybody" exists so that the shopkeepers in the villages are spared the trip to get supplies from Margaritas or Comitan After the success of this store, another one was opened in Betania and another in Playa Azul. These stores supply the whole zone and supply oil, soap, salt, sugar and beans, maize and coffee to the villages.
During the past three and a half years the profits from the Veracruz store have gone to support the health promotors in the main hospital. One hundred thousand and 641 pesos were used for this. The profits also go to support the travel of the Autonomous councils and other parts of the organisation. In total 116 thousand 614 pesos was spent to support various activities. In these same stores maize bought by the junta is traded, in a project aiming to stop intermediaries (coyotes) buying maize at low prices and selling at high prices. Profits from the sale goes towards the work of the junta and the four autonomous municipalities in the region.
"This first year we bought more than 500 bails of maize, around 44 tonnes. Already we have sold half of it, and the rest has been stored in the warehouse and we are trading it...." explains Doroteo.
In the caracol, just in front of the junta's office there is a big red vehicle. It is called Chompiras. It is a lorry the junta has recently acquired to use for their goods. Chompiras runs through the jungle, as far as the coast and Los Altos to distribute their products. They also have a passenger lorry which travels from Margaritas to San Quintin. Its first profits went towards the creation of a regional food shop.
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The difficulties never end... However now we even have the internet, and we are learning to use it to directly manage our communication. What we feel most is that we have a lot of responsibility. Sometimes we feel the world on our shoulders because it is difficult to govern, above all to carry out what the people ask, to govern by obeying, and we don't have resources. Sometimes we think we are addicted to these problems, or that we like them, but we go on learning to overcome them".
A report by Gloria Munoz Ramirez in the Mexican daily newspaper La Jornada on the situation of the zapatista movement in the Highlands of Chiapas. Taken from Indymedia Chiapas September 2004 and translated by Edinburgh-Chiapas Solidarity Group.
It's midsummer and the dawn and dusk in Oventic is accompanied by a cold mist which totally covers the caracol of the Altos zone. The home of tzotszil zapatistas. It is a rebel region of poverty and extreme marginalisation and the zapatista territory which is most visited by people from all over the world. In the first year of automonous self government, 4,458 visitors came here from all parts of the world. It's not a coincidence that this caracol has had the largest number of visitors. It is the nearest to San Cristobal de las Casas and from there you can reach Oventic in an hour along a tarmac road. It's not only the fact that it is so close that attracts civil society. It is also because of the mystique of this zone, a special indigenous presence, a rebelliousness visible in every tzotzil face.
This caracol has the largest number of buildings and is possibly the largest of the five caracoles. On every visit to Oventic new buildings appear beside the long road which goes through the caracol, (co-operatives, the offices of the autonomous municipality and of the junta of good government, the health clinic, the auditorium and dormitories). The road ends up at the basketball pitch and at the zapatista primary/secondary school which bears the name of SERAZLN - The autonomous education system of the zapatista national liberation. The School
|Josue and Ofelia are graduates of SERAZLN and are currently members of its general co-ordinating body. They explain that education is one of the demands of the EZLN and since 1994 the zapatistas have looked for a way of organising education in their communities. In the beginning, they contacted teachers who worked in the state schools and invited them to participate in a zapatista kind of education. More than 100 state school teachers came to this meeting, but it was difficult to work with them, not because the teachers did not want to work with us, but because they were used to being paid.
Because of this the zapatistas invited young people in the zone to come on 12 December 1998 to Oventic. They were students who were still not accustomed to earning a wage. Nineteen young people came on that day. They were convinced of the need for education and they received training over the following two years before enlisting in the secondary school. At last in September 2000 classes for the primary/secondary school were started. These classes were supported by people from civil society.
Planning for the courses was carried out collectively. There were endless meetings where people from all over the zone discussed the needs of the communities and planned for the courses and study programmes. In the secondary school there are classes in language, communication, maths, social sciences, natural sciences, humanities, tzotzil and production. In humanities, Josue explains, "we study the philosophy of zapatismo, reflect on our struggle and so the main aim is that young people finish their studies with a different vision for their lives . . . that is that they do not live for themselves alone but that they work for the collective good of the community and that they understand more about our struggle and who has ruled over and exploited us.
The education co-ordinators explain that after three years of study,"We can see that there is a greater understanding of the reality of our lives, that there is a growth in awareness and that students leave with a different mindset. It is not that they come here to be convinced about our struggle, what happens is that here they gain the tools to be able to recognise their rights and to stand up for themselves. Without any doubt education motivates our struggle and strengthens the autonomy of our people. The Church tells us that we are poor because it is God's will. State education tells us that there are poor people and rich people and that poverty is our lot. But that is not so and education helps us to understand this".
Josue and Ofelia realise that in spite of all their efforts there are not enough resources to educate all the people but their dream is "that everybody has a chance of studying, both indigenous and non indigenous people, zapatistas and non zapatistas. We all have a right to be educated".
In Los Altos zone, when students finish their secondary education they are asked as part of their graduation what they can do to help their community. They choose to help in areas such as agroecology, primary education, supporting the offices of commerce, working in pharmacies etc. All are obliged to share with their community what they have learned. Two lots of students have now graduated. Out of the first lot of 21 pupils only three were female and only five females were in the second lot of 19 pupils. This is very little but Ofelia, a co-ordinator with SERAZLN says,"it is a small advance in communities where previously women have not had the right to be educated. There are communities where it is still the belief that women only exist to get married and raise children . . . that they cannot study or work outside the home. But little by little women are waking up and realizing that they have a right to take part in other experiences."
And it is precisely through education that tzotzil women are beginning to see other opportunities. Ofelia explains,"We see that women have rights and we see the need to change some customs. So education makes men and women realize the importance of women's work. This isn't easy because people have to change how they think, but we are beginning to ... autonomous education is the basis of the consciousness of our communities and arising from that we can change the situation of the indigenous woman, who is capable of doing any kind of work, not only being a mother and making handicrafts".
This is the only one of the five zones which run secondary education (the other four have primary only). Josue says," firstly we had to prepare promotors or teachers for the primaries. Now some of those who have graduated from secondary school give classes in the newly created primary schools. Thoughout this time the autonomous municipalities which make up Los Altos zone: San Andrew Sacamch'en de Los Pobres, San Juan de la Libertad, San Pedro Polho, Santa Catarina, Magdalenda de La Paz and San Juan Apostol Cancuc, organised primary education independent of each other with different projects. In the last year since the advent of the juntas of good government they have organised one education system for the whole zone. Now more than 100 education promotors give classes in as many communities.
This zone faces a different problem as regards education from the other zones. In Los Altos many state schoolteachers abandoned their schools and those schools were then run by the autonomous authorities. Many other schools have been built in the meantime and more are due to be built.
The secondary school was built by means of the US Schools for Chiapas project. It is a project with many challenges and is not without its problems, eg in order for pupils to board at school we need to feed the pupils and there aren't enough resources, neither are there resources for all the school books and equipment needed. To lessen these problems the secondary school also runs courses in tzotzil for foreigners and the income from this is used to provide food for the students who also pay five pesos a month and a kilo of beans each fortnight towards their upkeep.
A new system of autonomous education is not without its difficulties but is is also a source of satisfaction and joy. "We are very happy because the graduates from secondary school are now giving classes in our primary schools, because the zapatista education system starts from below, because it is for all our communities and because the situation is not as bad as it was before".
Autonomous education has to be for everyone, not only for indigenous people and not only for zapatistas. And not only for children. We also have an adult education system in this zone." Josue and Ofelia explain that the aim is to change circumstances. Our communities have an obligation to struggle for change because we cannot wait for others to come and take charge of us and in this way education is the most powerful weapon our people possess. Healthcare
There are more than 100 people seen every day at the Guadalupana clinic in Oventic. Anastasio, an old zapatista tzotzil, is the general health co-ordinator at the clinic which was one of the first set up with only eight health promotors by the EZLN on 28 February 1992 before the armed uprising. Anastasio has only two years of primary schooling and says that it is now over12 years since the community asked him if he would undertake work in healthcare. He agreed to help the community and the struggle and is now the co-ordinator of one of the most ambitious zapatista health projects.
Nothing remains any more of the small clinic which looked after the insurgentes wounded during the war. But in the same place there is now a hospital clinic with an operating theatre, a dental room, a laboratory for clinical analysis, an eye clinic, a gynaecology clinic, a herbal laboratory, a pharmacy and hospital rooms. In this clinic and in two other health training centres in Magdalena and in Polho, more than 200 health promotors have studied and now work with the communities. Like other zapatista promotors none of them are paid although the community helps them by giving them food and supporting them when they go on courses. The promotors study anatomy, physiology, symptoms, diagnosis and treatments and above all preventative medicine, personal and collective hygiene and vaccination.
The nearby state hospitals Anastasio says, "do not take in those who are seriously ill, they would rather that they die somewhere else. We do take take them in this clinic whether they are zapatista or not and it is only if we cannot help them that we would take them elsewhere; that is why we need an ambulance".
The clinic relies on the support of doctors and students who help with surgery and with teaching the promotors. "But when no one comes from outside we have to get on with it ourselves and so we study any medical books we can get," says Lucio a health promotor who left his community, his family and his land to work full time in the clinic for the last eight years. He says, "Before we had nothing and many people died, most of them from illnesses which could be treated if caught in time. Many children died and because of this we began to organise our own healthcare because we could expect nothing from the state. Now there is a clinic in all eight of the municipalities in Los Altos as well as more than 300 community health houses which offer basic medicines. (Edinchiapas note : In fact our twinned autonomous municipality "16 de Febrero" in Los Altos are still working towards building their own clinic) The consultations are free for all who support the EZLN and others are only asked for a small contribution.
Anastasio explains that they are only able to perform minor surgery because they lack the equipment for major operations. This clinic with all its challenges is still one of the best organised and equipped in zapatista territory, and because of this they also treat zapatistas from other regions, from the jungle and the north of the state. The organisation of autonomous health has been resisted by state health projects to the extent that when a zapatista clinic starts up a state clinic is set up soon after nearby. Anastasio says, "they do this to put pressure on us hoping that people will go to them, but our people don't go because they are treated badly in state clinics; they are not treated with respect and they are not given medicine and while they build these new government clinics, then they are always closed. Our clinics on the other hand operate 24 hours a day and everyone is treated the same".
TB, respiratory problems, rheumatism, skin infections, malaria and typhoid are some of the illnesses of poverty we suffer and women also suffer miscarriages brought on by malnutrition and lack of prenatal care. Lucio says though, "Not so many people die as before, we have saved many lives, we take seriously ill people into hospital, we promote vaccination, we prepare our health promotors and in this way we move forward."
Coffee, Honey, handicrafts: Commerce in Resistance
The zapatista communities in Los Altos have set up two coffee co-operatives - Mut Vitz (Hill of the Bird in Tzotzil) and Ya'chil Xojobal Chu'lcha'n (New Light of the Sky).
Mut Vitz was set up in 1997 with 694 members from the seven municipalities in the zone. Their coffee is certified as organic and is legalised for export from the port of Veracruz to Germany, the US, France, Spain, Switzerland and Italy. Unfortunately they have been unable to expand into the Mexican market other than into the state of Puebla. They don't have equipment to grind and toast the coffee so the beans are transported whole.
The New Light of the Sky co-operative has around 900 members of whom 600 are refugees at Polho. They have just begun to export coffee and are working to open up markets.
The women also work collectively. Famous throughout the world for sewing and handicrafts, the tzotzil zapatista women who before the war offered their goods for sale in the racist streets of San Cristobal de Las Casas have now organised into co-operatives where they make and sell their products. The co-operatives Xulum Chon and Women for Dignity sell their textiles for fair prices earning income which is an important part of their family's economy.
Polho: Seven years from home, isolated by violence.
More than 9,000 refugees who fled paramilitary violence live in Polho. They survive without land to cultivate and food and medicine is always scarce. The Red Cross has now left this zone, they say there is no longer a war and there is a lot of work to be done in Iraq. Here the displacement has created new forms of resistance and autonomy. Education and health is organised and co-operatives and other means of survival are created. In the last 12 months the autonomous authorities in this zone gave 2 and a half million pesos to feed the refugees in Polho, a not insubstantial sum of money but still not enough to feed the thousands who for the last seven years have been dreaming of returning home. According to the junta of good government, it is not easy to organise autonomy and even less so in conditions like in Polho.
The junta of good government say that after a year it is clear that they are able to govern, to work, to see and recognize problems. They have learned not to fall for the provocations of the state and political parties. Their experience has shown that those who first raise their fists, then lose politically. "We are holding on to the idea of resisting through peaceful means, although we know how to defend ourselves."
Over the last year the junta says, "What we have learnt most is to negotiate, to co-ordinate the work of the junta with the municipalities. We know we can't do it alone without the support of civil society nationally and internationally. We work from Monday to Sunday 24 hours a day and still we can't catch up with everything but we are learning. Obeying and fulfilling our commitments. It is not easy. Nothing is easy.
We did not conduct a campaign nor propaganda to become a junta of good government. The people chose us as honest people and now we are committed. We do not have a fixed period of office in the junta, if the people say that we are no longer doing the job properly, then they will get rid of us and and replace us with others.
We dream that one day our rights will be recognised, that there will be a total change not only for indigenous people but for all the poor people of the world. This is not over yet. Here other people will be born, nor will they ask permission to follow their own path. That is what we dream."
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ZAPATISTA CARACOL 3 - LA GARRUCHA, TZELTAL JUNGLE ZONE, CHIAPAS, MEXICO
A report by Gloria Munoz Ramirez in the Mexican daily newspaper La Jornada on the situation of the zapatista movement in the Tzeltal Lacandona jungle zone of Chiapas. Taken from Indymedia Chiapas September 2004 and translated by Edinburgh-Chiapas Solidarity Group.
Communication technology has arrived in the Lacandon jungle. The Internet Cafe Cyber-Pozol, is the only public interenet in the Patiwitz canyon, and in the whole of the territories of resistance. As well as the cybernet service in the co-operative cafe in resistance 'Smaliyel", there is zapatista music, videos, bandanas, handicrafts, sweets, petrol and food for sale. Smaliyel is in the Caracol 'Resistance towards a New Dawn' in the first rebel zone opened to journalists in 1994. From here the whole world learnt about the Indian people who had taken up arms, the insurrection, their reasons and their sorrows. Today more than ten years later, there is another panorama.
When journalists first came to La Garrucha there was no internet, not even electricity. There was no autonomous clinic with dentist's equipment, no autonomous laboratory, no ambulance, the school didn't function, while a library was unimaginable. After the murder of Luis Donaldo Colosio in 1994 the future seemed more uncertain, the territory was shut off and the searchlights of the press moved out of the canada.
Miguel, three years old, is strolling through the zapatista shop and declares that Spiderman "is a Compa" (comrade). When the daily convoy of state soldiers passes, Miguel, now transformed into Spiderman, throws his webs at the soldiers from his hiding place in the bushes. His mother tells him off and he cries that he will tell the Junta of good government about her.
The military patrol which Miguel sees passing by does not exist according to the state, but, at least as long as we were here, they passed four times every day. A convoy of lorries full of soldiers with their weapons in combat position is routine in these militarized lands.
Moises, the same tzeltal man who met the press ten years ago, is now the autonomous video maker. He takes pictures with his mini camera which are later edited on an Apple Mac. He is currently finishing work on a video about zapatista women and a building is under construction which will house a media project.
As in the rest of the territories in resistance there is a vaccination campaign in the villages. Mothers with children in their arms line up in the autonomous clinic which has been open since 1995. The International Red Cross which was working in the community of San Miguel since 1994 has now left the zone. "They say there is no war here, that there needs to be deaths here for them to stay longer". Previously the vaccination campaigns were run by the international body. Today the zapatistas run them and the Red Cross only deals with some communities.
With the aim of organising a health service for all the zapatistas, in this zone the families carry a health pass which identifies them as zapatistas. This allows them to have free consultations and free medicine at the clinic. In the small and functional clinical lab the specialist health promoters work on blood analysis, urine tests, tests for parasites and other basic tests. "What we do most is tests for malaria and TB, because these are widespread illnesses in this zone", explains one of the lab workers.
The clinic is painted in mexican pink and is decorated with murals about the resistance. "Here we scatter the wind of hope, life and dignity", is written on a mural which shows a snail (caracol) and the face of Zapata. Recently painted, the autonomous health centre deals with about 30 consultations every day. The most common illnesses in the Tzeltal jungle are parasites, malaria, skin infections and TB. They also have a dentist's consultation room, a pharmacy and more recently hospital rooms. Just as in other Zapatista clinics, indigenous members of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) are also seen by the health promoters. "We charge the priistas 25 pesos for the consultation and medicine to recover some of the cost".
The four autonomous municipalities in the tzeltal zone are Francisco Gomez, San Manuel, Francisco Villa and Ricardo Flores Magon. In all of these there is a health service in resistance and in Francisco Gomez alone 78 health promoters treat basic illnesses in the villages. In spite of these advances, the junta of good government, 'the Way of the Future', know that the situation is still far from the ideal. Francisco Villa eg does not have a clinic, not even a pharmacy and its general development is very much behind that of the Ricardo Flores Magon municipality. It is the job of the junta to even out the development.
The main clinic in the zone is supported by an Italian organisation and the ambulance was donated by Doctors without Frontiers. The promotors are not paid a wage and are only supported by being given food. Often, say the autonomous authorities, many promotors do not attend courses because they do not have money for the journey. "They provide a service to the community, but we think they need to be supported more in their work".
To resolve this and other problems there is a health representative in each of the four autonomous municipalities, who meet every two months to co-ordinate the work in the zone.
Real Education
Even with delays in the construction of schools and in the preparation of promoters, there are now four municipalities with autonomous education in its communities. The members of the junta say, "Our education comes out of the thoughts of the people. Nothing comes from outside and it's not like state education where indigenous history is not respected". The communities in the tzeltal jungle have two centres of learning for promotors of education, one recently opened in the community of La Culebra, in the autonomous municipality of Ricardo Flores Magon and another in La Garrucha in the Francisco Gomez municipality.
Julio who comes from Ricardo Flores Magon explains the meaning of zapatista autonomous education. "It relates to an awareness of the 13 demands of the zapatista struggle. It is not that someone from outside tells us how to make this link. We are the ones who live here, who suffer and struggle here and so it is us who know how everything is related. The people have the knowledge, they know many things and from there consciousness and knowledge is rescued and redeemed." He explains that one of education's main aims is to strengthen the indigenous identity and to respond to the needs of the people. "It is not a question of teaching indigenous people to be indigenous, we know that already. What we need to know is our history, our past . . that is real education.
" In our schools we also look at the national situation, at our struggle, the life of our people. The aim of our education is not to depart from the politics and the path of the zapatista struggle and the respect of every community, its language and everything. Our education promotors reflect on the problem of the displacement of the people of Montes Azules, the government's plans about Plan Puebla Panama; the problem of genetically modified seeds, factory owners, the government's political counter-attack, the resistance of our people, the San Andres Accords, the war of low intensity, the government's manipulation by buying communities with aid programmes such as Procede, or school meals or agricultural grants. All of these issues are looked at in our autonomous schools.
An education promotor is chosen by the people who ask them if they want to participate. "You can agree, but also you can say no because you have other work and duties, because autonomy involves other work, not only education", explains Hortensia an education promotor. She explains that there are promotors who begin this work and don't know how to read and write and so they begin with nothing . . some are very happy to be promotors and here they grow and learn and later return to their villages. There are also voluntary promotors who are not elected by the village, but come of their own accord. There are those who don't know anything, the spanish language - nothing, and here they learn everything."
Like in other indigenous areas, zapatista and non zapatista, women still suffer from inequality. Most of the promotors and pupils in autonomous schools are still male because Hortensia points out, "It costs something to make a change. In our villages women promotors who leave the house to go on courses are still the subject of jokes in the villages, as are their parents or husbands who are asked why they let their daughter go, that she is not doing good things and other such inventions. This is because it is not the custom for women to leave their villages. But this does not get us down even though they make fun of us or make out we are doing things that we are not doing, as promotors we have to continue with our work. We must try hard to see where we are going to, because it is our right. If we leave our work it means that the jokes have beaten us.
"The zapatista women are the first to come out to defend their community when the army enter the villages, they are on the front line, so if they are capable of defending the community then they are capable of studying. We cannot keep our mouths shut about this situation because if we do things won't change. We are creating a very different kind of education."
And it was in fact a woman, Rosalinda, who gave the speech on the first anniversary of this junta of good government : "No longer do we need to ask permission to govern ourselves. Already we see what we can do and we see that in this first year of work we have learned a lot. We stand here. We are not going to sell out," said the only woman in the autonomous government here.
BICYCLES
A donation of bicycles has reached the Caracol 'Resistance towards a new dawn'. Now there is an autonomous workshop which both rents out and repairs bikes, and the money made goes to the autonomous municipality.
A shoe-making workshop has also been operating for some years ....on the walls there is a huge mural of Zapata with an open book , in which you can read "Imagination, creativity, informality, improvisation...."
At the foot of the Third Caracol of the zapatista resistance, you can see an old machine for milling coffee, and, to one side, the peace camp visited all year round by hundreds of people from all over the world. Three women's co-operatives, a general dormitory, two storehouses, the health clinic, a school and a library complete the buildings.
In this way the zapatistas are building their autonomy, a process which Julio says, "comes from our history, our own customs, our own system of justice, our own cultivations ... A process that is like travelling alone. Yes, we know how to travel . . although we may make mistakes, they are our own mistakes and not those imposed on us."
by Gloria Munõ Ramirez, La Jornada
Zapatista Caracol 3
La Garrucha, Tzetal Jungle Zone, Chiapas, Mexico
A report by Gloria Munoz Ramirez in the Mexican daily newspaper La Jornada on the situation of the zapatista movement in the Tzeltal Lacandona jungle zone of Chiapas. Taken from Indymedia Chiapas September 2004 and translated by Edinburgh-Chiapas Solidarity Group.
Communication technology has arrived in the Lacandon jungle. The Internet Cafe Cyber-Pozol, is the only public internet in the Patiwitz canyon, and in the whole of the territories of resistance. As well as the cybernet service in the co-operative cafe in resistance 'Smaliyel", there is zapatista music, videos, bandanas, handicrafts, sweets, petrol and food for sale. Smaliyel is in the Caracol 'Resistance towards a New Dawn' in the first rebel zone opened to journalists in 1994. From here the whole world learnt about the Indian people who had taken up arms, the insurrection, their reasons and their sorrows. Today more than ten years later, there is another panorama.
When journalists first came to La Garrucha there was no internet, not even electricity. There was no autonomous clinic with dentist's equipment, no autonomous laboratory, no ambulance, the school didn't function, while a library was unimaginable. After the murder of Luis Donaldo Colosio in 1994 the future seemed more uncertain, the territory was shut off and the searchlights of the press moved out of the canada.
Miguel, three years old, is strolling through the zapatista shop and declares that Spiderman "is a Compa" (comrade). When the daily convoy of state soldiers passes, Miguel, now transformed into Spiderman, throws his webs at the soldiers from his hiding place in the bushes. His mother tells him off and he cries that he will tell the Junta of good government about her.
The military patrol which Miguel sees passing by does not exist according to the state, but, at least as long as we were here, they passed four times every day. A convoy of lorries full of soldiers with their weapons in combat position is routine in these militarized lands.
Moises, the same tzeltal man who met the press ten years ago, is now the autonomous video maker. He takes pictures with his mini camera which are later edited on an Apple Mac. He is currently finishing work on a video about zapatista women and a building is under construction which will house a media project.
As in the rest of the territories in resistance there is a vaccination campaign in the villages. Mothers with children in their arms line up in the autonomous clinic which has been open since 1995. The International Red Cross which was working in the community of San Miguel since 1994 has now left the zone. "They say there is no war here, that there needs to be deaths here for them to stay longer". Previously the vaccination campaigns were run by the international body. Today the zapatistas run them and the Red Cross only deals with some communities.
With the aim of organising a health service for all the zapatistas, in this zone the families carry a health pass which identifies them as zapatistas. This allows them to have free consultations and free medicine at the clinic. In the small and functional clinical lab the specialist health promoters work on blood analysis, urine tests, tests for parasites and other basic tests. "What we do most is tests for malaria and TB, because these are widespread illnesses in this zone", explains one of the lab workers.
The clinic is painted in mexican pink and is decorated with murals about the resistance. "Here we scatter the wind of hope, life and dignity", is written on a mural which shows a snail (caracol) and the face of Zapata. Recently painted, the autonomous health centre deals with about 30 consultations every day. The most common illnesses in the Tzeltal jungle are parasites, malaria, skin infections and TB. They also have a dentist's consultation room, a pharmacy and more recently hospital rooms. Just as in other Zapatista clinics, indigenous members of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) are also seen by the health promoters. "We charge the priistas 25 pesos for the consultation and medicine to recover some of the cost".
The four autonomous municipalities in the tzeltal zone are Francisco Gomez, San Manuel, Francisco Villa and Ricardo Flores Magon. In all of these there is a health service in resistance and in Francisco Gomez alone 78 health promoters treat basic illnesses in the villages. In spite of these advances, the junta of good government, 'the Way of the Future', know that the situation is still far from the ideal. Francisco Villa eg does not have a clinic, not even a pharmacy and its general development is very much behind that of the Ricardo Flores Magon municipality. It is the job of the junta to even out the development.
The main clinic in the zone is supported by an Italian organisation and the ambulance was donated by Doctors without Frontiers. The promotors are not paid a wage and are only supported by being given food. Often, say the autonomous authorities, many promotors do not attend courses because they do not have money for the journey. "They provide a service to the community, but we think they need to be supported more in their work".
To resolve this and other problems there is a health representative in each of the four autonomous municipalities, who meet every two months to co-ordinate the work in the zone.
Real Education
Even with delays in the construction of schools and in the preparation of promoters, there are now four municipalities with autonomous education in its communities. The members of the junta say, "Our education comes out of the thoughts of the people. Nothing comes from outside and it's not like state education where indigenous history is not respected". The communities in the tzeltal jungle have two centres of learning for promotors of education, one recently opened in the community of La Culebra, in the autonomous municipality of Ricardo Flores Magon and another in La Garrucha in the Francisco Gomez municipality.
Julio who comes from Ricardo Flores Magon explains the meaning of zapatista autonomous education. "It relates to an awareness of the 13 demands of the zapatista struggle. It is not that someone from outside tells us how to make this link. We are the ones who live here, who suffer and struggle here and so it is us who know how everything is related. The people have the knowledge, they know many things and from there consciousness and knowledge is rescued and redeemed." He explains that one of education's main aims is to strengthen the indigenous identity and to respond to the needs of the people. "It is not a question of teaching indigenous people to be indigenous, we know that already. What we need to know is our history, our past . . that is real education.
" In our schools we also look at the national situation, at our struggle, the life of our people. The aim of our education is not to depart from the politics and the path of the zapatista struggle and the respect of every community, its language and everything. Our education promotors reflect on the problem of the displacement of the people of Montes Azules, the government's plans about Plan Puebla Panama; the problem of genetically modified seeds, factory owners, the government's political counter-attack, the resistance of our people, the San Andres Accords, the war of low intensity, the government's manipulation by buying communities with aid programmes such as Procede, or school meals or agricultural grants. All of these issues are looked at in our autonomous schools.
An education promotor is chosen by the people who ask them if they want to participate. "You can agree, but also you can say no because you have other work and duties, because autonomy involves other work, not only education", explains Hortensia an education promotor. She explains that there are promotors who begin this work and don't know how to read and write and so they begin with nothing . . some are very happy to be promotors and here they grow and learn and later return to their villages. There are also voluntary promotors who are not elected by the village, but come of their own accord. There are those who don't know anything, the spanish language - nothing, and here they learn everything."
Like in other indigenous areas, zapatista and non zapatista, women still suffer from inequality. Most of the promotors and pupils in autonomous schools are still male because Hortensia points out, "It costs something to make a change. In our villages women promotors who leave the house to go on courses are still the subject of jokes in the villages, as are their parents or husbands who are asked why they let their daughter go, that she is not doing good things and other such inventions. This is because it is not the custom for women to leave their villages. But this does not get us down even though they make fun of us or make out we are doing things that we are not doing, as promotors we have to continue with our work. We must try hard to see where we are going to, because it is our right. If we leave our work it means that the jokes have beaten us.
"The zapatista women are the first to come out to defend their community when the army enter the villages, they are on the front line, so if they are capable of defending the community then they are capable of studying. We cannot keep our mouths shut about this situation because if we do things won't change. We are creating a very different kind of education."
And it was in fact a woman, Rosalinda, who gave the speech on the first anniversary of this junta of good government : "No longer do we need to ask permission to govern ourselves. Already we see what we can do and we see that in this first year of work we have learned a lot. We stand here. We are not going to sell out," said the only woman in the autonomous government here.
BICYCLES
A donation of bicycles has reached the Caracol 'Resistance towards a new dawn'. Now there is an autonomous workshop which both rents out and repairs bikes, and the money made goes to the autonomous municipality.
A shoe-making workshop has also been operating for some years ....on the walls there is a huge mural of Zapata with an open book , in which you can read "Imagination, creativity, informality, improvisation...."
At the foot of the Third Caracol of the zapatista resistance, you can see an old machine for milling coffee, and, to one side, the peace camp visited all year round by hundreds of people from all over the world. Three women's co-operatives, a general dormitory, two storehouses, the health clinic, a school and a library complete the buildings.
In this way the zapatistas are building their autonomy, a process which Julio says, "comes from our history, our own customs, our own system of justice, our own cultivations ... A process that is like travelling alone. Yes, we know how to travel . . although we may make mistakes, they are our own mistakes and not those imposed on us."
by Gloria Munõ Ramirez, La Jornada
Zapatista Caracol 4
Morelia, Chiapas, Mexico
Chiapas: The Resistance continues with a report from the Mexican daily La Jornada on the zapatista movement in the Morelia zone. (translated by Edinchiapas from Indymedia Chiapas, September 2004)
The tree fringed riverside goes through the fourth zapatista caracol, situated in the ejido of Morelia, in Altamirano. It is the tzotz choj region (brave tiger in tzeltzal), a zone of cattle ranchers and paramilitaries, the place where the federal army raped an indigenous woman and tortured and killed three EZLN militants in 1994.
The caracol is situated at the end of the village in a place surrounded by pine trees where in 1996 what is now known as Aguascalientes IV was built - a political and cultural meeting space. Today the place is nothing like it was years ago; at the entrance there is an appropriate technology workshop, in the middle a shoemaking workshop and dormitories, the auditorium is at the back and at the side is situated the office of the junta of good government with its satellite internet connection.
Just the same as in other zapatista caracols the wood and cement buildings are decorated with murals showing revolutionary images. On the walls of one of the dormitories a painting is dedicated to "the martyrs of Morelia, murdered on 7 January 1994", when at the height of the war, the army seized the village and any men found in their homes, took them into the middle of the village, tortured them and then shot them dead. Although it is an old story , it is one which is always alive in the memory of the people here.
Today the atmosphere is different. A group of Catalans from the Collective of Solidarity with the zapatista rebellion have come to the caracol and, taking advantage of the fact that there is a group of education promoters here undergoing a training course, join with them to prepare a puppet show with revolutionary songs and children's stories.
The newest building is the cafeteria "El Paliacate " ("The Bandana") situated at the back of the caracol, where as well getting something to eat, you can get copies of the local autonomous paper. This region was the first to organise its own publications to give voice to the views of the people. A few years ago, they published a small newspaper which sent its indigenous reporters to cover the zapatista marches and mobilisations.
Now they distribute a pamphlet under the stamp of Autonomous Editions in Rebellion which tells the history of the Centre of Commerce "New Dawn of the Rainbow" and another which tells the story of the struggle of the zapatista women in the villages and the women insurgents in the zapatista army. The Centre of Commerce New Dawn of the Rainbow is one of the things to be proud of in this region. It is situated on the Cuxulja crossroads in the Moises Gandhi community, on the land occupied in the past by one of the seven military positions whose withdrawal the EZLN demanded. Now, "in the same place where we fought courageously against the military presence" this collective force has risen and has survived threats of eviction from the state Public Security dept and threats from the priistas and perredistas. This space represents the first work jointly organised by the seven autonomous municipalities in the zone even before the existence of the junta of good government. The seven municipalites are: 1st January, Olga Isabel, 17th Novmeber, Ernesto Che Guevara, Vicente Guerrero, Miguel Hidalgo and Lucio Cabanas.
Another thing which distinguishes the communities in the region is the work of the women. The now famous Commandante Esther is the product of more than ten years political work in these villages where small advances are undeniable, although gender inequality still persists. For example this junta of good government is the only one with a woman in each of the seven autonomous councils. The junta has a total of 28 members, 21 men and seven women, so that there is always a woman on each rota who also represents a quarter of the autonomous government. It is not a lot but compared to the other juntas it has the largest presence of women in the government.
The tzeltal, tzotzil and tojolabal women of the seven municipalities are also pioneers of collective work. In the villages there are growing numbers of collectives: of vegetables and horticulture; sewing and embroidery; candle making and bakeries. Maria explains that, "the profit from this work is distributed to the individual women to a small extent, but the largest part is used for communal benefit".
Women's participation in the economy of the family gives them a new space within the community and in this way the women are also gaining the respect of their parents, husbands, brothers and sons.
Seated in the middle of six men in the office of the junta of good government, the only woman on the shift says, " We still need to participate more. Some men who understand the struggle are now learning that women are equal in ability to men in all areas of work, but not all men understand ... many men do not allow their wives or daughters to go on courses or work outside their villages. In villages where men think more progressively, women do a lot of good work".
The influence of indigenous zapatista women who are involved in work has now permeated other organisations. Maria says, "In my village the priista men are beginning to allow their women to go out because the women claim that only the zapatista women are allowed to go out. The priista women tell their husbands that they can also earn money with integrity and so are pushing to be able to go out and work."
Education for Peace and Humanity
While this interview is taking place in the junta office, the players tussle over the ball in the basketball game taking place between male and female education promoters. Gender inequality is also visible in the area of education, but only at the level of promoters, educators or education delegates (here there are three types) In the community schools there are almost the same number of boys as girls. That's to say that most of the teachers are male, but the ratio of male to female pupils is the same. The girls are going to school and now spend less time looking after their young brothers and sisters or making tortillas.
Autonomous education has been functioning here since 1995 and now a total of 280 education delegates give classes to 2,500 pupils in seven municipalities. It is also the only zone which has a training centre for promoters in each autonomous municipality and not just one for the whole zone.
Just as in the other zapatista territories, the children not only learn to read and write, but most importantly, "they learn to struggle, to defend their surroundings, to look after nature and be proud of their culture". The subjects they study are: production, politics, art, culture, reading and writing, health, sport, maths, history and languages, (spanish and mother tongue.) These courses were worked on by 200 indigenous education promoters from the seven municipalities via dozens of meetings.
One strange fact which tells about autonomous education is that to enroll in basic education each child brings a chicken as payment, because the education promotors now rely on a farm with chickens and eggs to provide food to their pupils. Similarly each one of the primary schools was built from the resources in the community with no external support, so there are primary schools made of blocks, planks or cement. The promoters also work in borrowed or temporary houses, with a plastic roof for protection. "A school". they say, "is not the building".
The education programme in the zone is called, Organisation for New Autonomous Education for Peace and Humanity. Nothing more and nothing less. Like all zapatista names it shows that it has been carefully thought out.
The most recent development in education is that this year new secondary school courses started. It is also the only one of the five zapatista zones which has a secondary school in each municipality, seven in total. The first generation of primary children have already graduated and they have now taken courses to enable them to start the following grade. "In the past we could never have dreamed of having a school, and now we have more than 100 primary and seven secondary schools, " say the autonomous authorities.
Many needs and free consultation
The zapatista villages in this region are gradually using less pharmaceutical medicines and are promoting campaigns to use herbal and plant medicines. Natural medicine is growing in importance and medicines are prepared using a variety of natural remedies.
A total of 150 health promoters look after the zapatista and non zapatisas in more than 100 community health houses which rely on basic medicines, some pharmaceutical and some herbal. "Herbal medicine is given free and we only charge the cost-price of pharmaceutical medicines", explain the members of the junta.
There are also seven municipal clinics which offer, like others in the territories in resistance, free consultations to all zapatistas. At the same time a lab for clinical analysis has just started up, run by specialist promotors.
The needs are many. In this zone there is no dental service, no clinics with operating theatres, no hospital services much less an ambulance. When someone becomes seriously ill, he or she has to be transferred to the hospital of San Carlos situated in the regional capital of Altamirano. They are looked after there by nuns who in 1994 were threatened with death by the local bosses and ranchowners who accused them of the terrible crime of opening the hospital doors to anyone who knocked.
Despite these needs, the zapatistas are making advances. They remember when the state clinics gave them out of date medicines, did not treat them with respect and charged them for the consultation and the medicines as if they were private patients.
The incidence of indigenous members of the PRI being treated in the autonomous health clinics is increasing in this zone. Hilario a priista from the municipality Miguel Hidalgo notes that, "Sometimes we do not pay for consultations, but then we don't have money either. Sometimes they give us medicine and don't charge us and yes I think the health clinics are good for urgent matters."
On their part the junta say, "There is no way we will we deny anyone a service. Health is for all. The money the government give to the priistas is spent on alcohol and then the priistas do not have money to look after and feed themselves. For us health is the most important thing and the priistas as indigenous people also need this service."
Each autonomous municipality has a health commission tasked with investigating the situation in all of the communities. Before the existence of the junta of good government, the authorities recognised that, "many communities did not have a community health house, but now they all have. We have a general health plan and every three months the commission meets to see how the work is progressing and to see where communities need a first aid resource, to study which illnesses are presenting a problem, and to give encouragement where work needs to be done.
Driving through the nearby villages, we can see the promotores working on three health campaigns: one about getting rid of parasites, one on vaccination, and one about hygiene to prevent illnesses, "It is important to educate the people about where illness comes from otherwise we will continue to have to treat these illnesses", Daniel, a member of the junta says.
An end to the use of insecticides and chemical fertilizers
The land is one of the themes which most concern the people because, although not without problems, they are beginning to organise production. Now there is a production commission in each municipality which has the aim of organising agricultural and cattle-raising projects. They are also training promotors to learn agroecology and veterinary skills. An example of the former is that some farmers are now clearing infestations with use of machetes only, without insecticides. They are also using organic fertilizers without chemicals.
One year of working as a junta of good government and a lot of collective work has taken place. The zapatistas continue to learn and above all, "to govern ourselves and to resolve our problems. The people learn to command and oversee our work and we learn to obey. The people are wise and know when a mistake is made or when we are diverted from our work. That is how we work." conclude the autonomous authorities.
by Gloria Munõ Ramirez, La Jornada
Zapatista Caracol 5
Roberto Barrios, Northern Zone, Chiapas, Mexico
The next section of "Chiapas: The Resistance" is a report from the Mexican daily La Jornada on the zapatista movement in the northern zone of Chiapas. (translated by Edinchiapas from Indymedia Chiapas, September 2004)
In the middle of the caracol two gangs of nine howler monkeys fight over their territory. This spectacle attracts the members of the junta of good government "New Seed which is going to produce", the peace campers from Argentina, Barcelona and France, the team of indigenous people charged with the autonomous communication project and a group of north americans who are building the zapatista secondary schools.
In the middle of the still lush jungle and very near the beautiful waterfalls coveted by investors both national and foreign, the howler monkeys go down to the water, in these territories devastated by the most bloody paramilitary group in the whole of zapatista territory: the group Paz y Justicia ("Peace and Justice").
The caracol, situated approximately one hour from Palenque is in permanent construction. The internet office is almost ready, from here they will send and receive emails to and from the whole world; and the office of the junta of good government has just been completed. It is made from cement and bloc and decorated with huge colourful zapatista murals.
The caracol "Which speaks for all", in the northern zone of the state of Chiapas, has six autonomous municipalities and three other municipalities are about to be set up. Nature is abundant in this region, "and so we need to defend it, "declares Pedro, a member of the junta who has just explained that the people's autonomy begins with the care of the earth.
So that they can look after natural resources, the zapatistas have just completed a plan to improve the soil. The plan consists of, amongst other things, the gradual elimination of the burning of the "acahuales" (regenerating ex-forest areas used for growing crops), the use of organic fertilizer and ceasing the use of insecticides, with the aim of increasing the land's fertility. "All this is not easy, it takes a lot of work, because the state gives the priistas chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides and so the earth continues to be mistreated. We know however that we can sow the land (organically) without reducing the quality of the land," the autonomous authorities explain.
Since campaigning for environmental improvements began, more and more zapatistas use organic insecticides. They say, "It is not about eliminating infestations, but about putting them to flight". To do this they use arnica which is used both as an insecticide and a fertilizer; they make organic compost and of course, they reject the use of genetically modified seeds.
The children never get zero
The management of agroecology is not new in these villages nor is the system of autonomous education which began five years ago, "when we began to think about the need for education to be in the hands of the people, there were already comrades doing this in La Realidad and so we also decided to do this".
And so began the courses for education promotors in the autonomous programme Seed of the Sun. It's been five years since this was started and there are now four generations of promotors. The seed has grown and now the communities of Huitiupan, Sabanilla and Tila are taking part in these programmes.
Wtih autonomous education, explains another member of the junta, "An alternative to the state system is open to zapatista families. Many people criticise us, they say we are not doing the work well, but the fact is that we now have 352 education promotors giving classes in 159 schools of resistance, of which 37 are totally new schools. In these schools we have educated around 4,000 zapatista boys and girls. In state schools classes are only given in spanish. The zapatistas claim that in state schools, "Our children are taught to stop being indigenous, while in our schools we encourage our identity." So in the northern zone classes are given in spanish, zoque, tzeltal and chol, "and we also talk about our struggle and the children are able to develop their own ideas".
Here they explain, "Those who don't know anything are not given zero marks, rather the group does not move forward until everybody is equal, no-one is told off". At the same time at the end of the courses the indigenous promotors organise a series of activities which they present to their parents, who value their children's learning without them needing to receive a certificate.
The educational process in this region is becoming more and more independent. The first and second generation of promotors were trained with the help of civil society, but the third and fourth generation were trained by the first two lots of graduates without external input. In this area they are more and more dispensing with the need for 'outside' support, although they still still on occasion need to ask outside help to develop teaching materials. On the other hand food for promotors who are undergoing training is provided for by their villages and is not dependent on a project.
At this moment in time there are two training centres for promotors, one in Roberto Barrios and the other in Ak'abal Na. The subjects taught in the primaries are: maths, languages, history and life and our environment, and we relate all subjects to the zapatista demands.
The history we teach our children is not from official texts, but it is the history of our people and our struggle. The promotors and children have prepared the histories of all of their communities and by means of a time line these are continued in the schools of resistance. "The children consult the old people in their villages and together with them they assemble their own teaching materials", says one of the promotors.
The challenge of education is now to relate it to all our projects. In this way the schools also give classes in health and agroecology. In the autonomous municipality of Roberto Barrios, for example, the children learn to care for the earth when they sow the land, and they also learn about issues of hygiene and how to prevent illnesses. At the same time the education promotors organise trips for the children to the mountains and to rivers where they are directly involved in the care for the environment.
The autonomous authorities declare proudly that a secondary education project is already being worked on (the building situated behind the junta office is now ready). Here they will take the same subjects as at primary school adding one subject on culture. In reality it is not really a secondary school, but as its long name indicates a Cultural Centre of Autonomous Zapatista Technical Education.
The idea is that this centre will adapt to the indigenous reality, "it is not about studying to stop being indigenous, but to be indigenous with more ideas". What follows they say, "Will be to one day fulfill the dream of having our own zapatista university. Before, all this that we now have created, it was a dream and look, we already have achieved it".
The six autonomous municipalities in this zone are: El Trabajo, Ak'abal Na, Benito Juarez, Francisco Villa, La Paz and Vicente Guerrero and there are another three regions which operate as autonomous municipalities although they have not yet been formally declared municipalities. In addition there are a series of communities which have still to organise autonomous councils. In the whole of the zone they report an annual income of one million 600,000 pesos and expenditure of approximately one million. This is very little, taking into account the size of the territory and what its needs are, but it is not insignificant considering that everything is progressed by collective means.
The support of La Garriga a small, prosperous area in Barcelona has been very important to this region. La Garriga has been twinned with El Trabajo municipality for some years and is now working together with the autonomous authorities in other municipalities in the zone on education, health and agroecological projects.
Health ... Much is needed
One of the areas of work which is most lagging behind in these villages is health. They recognise that, "We are organising a health service in all the municipalities and regions because health is an urgent need in the communities in resistance. Everything we organise in these villages has the aim of having our own system of community and autonomous health".
For one year since the inauguration of the caracoles and the junta of good government, "the state health centres have increased their hostility towards our supporters. They ask them a lot of questions and do not provide good care. Because of this our people are afraid to go to the state clinics." say the junta, who together with the villages are working on a plan to prevent illnesses.
The work of a small group of women physiotherapists from Catalunya stands out in the northern zone. Working in a small air conditioned room they give therapeutic massage which will help some illnesses without the need for medication. The cultural exchange which happens during these massages is amazing. Indigenous men and women from the villages are not accustomed to touch for therapeutic purposes far less accustomed to taking off their clothes. These young, enthusiastic professionals go from village to village offering massage and training so that when they leave others can carry on their work.
Up to some months ago, the health work in the villages seemed to be very unequal. Each municipality was working on its needs separately and there were some which did not have anything, neither health clinics nor promotors. Today there is already a clinic in each of the six declared municipalities and training courses for promotors in all of the communities. They are working on courses in herbalism and western 'conventional' medicine just like in the other four caracoles.
The autonomous clinics, as in the majority of community centres, do not have doctors or nurses. They are run by village health promotors who have also just finished vaccination and preventative medicine campaigns. The muncipality El Trabajo is the only one which has a doctor in its clinic in Roberto Barrios. This is a student doctor.
Parasitic and respiratory illnesses, skin infections and fever are some of the illnesses now treated by a total of 35 promotors in El Trabajo and 41 in Benito Juarez. Meanwhile in Fransisco Villa they are working on a herbal project and in the others they are carrying out an analysis of the sanitary situation. Meanwhile they are working on campaigns to clean latrines, keeping animals outside the home, personal and community hygiene. "All of this takes work, but the compas are doing it", the health responsable says.
Autonomous Videomakers
Moy, a young zapatista is part of an autonomous media system which includes, in addition to a regional radio station, making videos which tell about their history, record their fiestas and traditions and the violation of human rights. A product of this work is the video the War of Fear: the video talks about the violence of Paz Y Justicia (Peace and Justice), the paramilitary group responsible for murders and other crimes in the northern zone.
Rosaura is the newsreader in the only municipal radio station run by the bases of support (Radio Insurgente is run by insurgents and not by people from the villages). It is a local station called Radio Resistance which transmits on short wave. They are now working on where to locate the radio transmitter so as to increase the transmission.
Children's stories, health campaigns, interviews with the women's co-operatives and local news is what can be heard from the radio station run by a group of young men and women from the villages.
Women in the Northern Zone
In front of the main entrance to the caracol is the peace camp where dozens of men and women of all nationalities accompany the continually beseiged community of Roberto Barrios. At one side of the camp there is a muticoloured building where a group of women dressed in many colours sew both blouses and hopes for the future.
The first co-operative was born as an indirect product of the paramilitary threat. It was the case that for quite long periods the men had to stop their work to guard the caracol (then called Aguascalientes) and because of this the income of families began to fall. Women then organised themselves and started a project which has allowed them, up to the present day, to "pull their families forward".
Over the years the work of the co-operatives has grown substantially and now there are different collective projects run by women, such as the one rearing pigs and chickens; the bakery, food shops, handicraft co-operatives, confectionery and horticulture. The municipality of Benito Juarez is where the collectives have been promoted the most, with 33 women responsible for their organisation.
The work to be done is never-ending. The junta of good government realise that they need much more to even out the work between men and women; that in the area of health they are far from their aims; that not all the villages use agroecology, that in spite of 54 trained education promoters the secondary school still does not function, that the paramilitaries Paz y Justicia continue to operate, that the State Electricity Commission cuts off their electricity; that there are no resources ... "We need a lot and at times it seems more so than in the beginning, but we are are happy as long as we have a life. Nothing is the same as it was before" concludes Pedro, Soledad, Leonael, Conception, Walter, Sofia, Rodolfo and Enrique, the junta of good government.