The Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group is one of many groups across the world 
which support the Zapatistas in their struggle. Our main purpose is to raise awareness of the Zapatista struggle and to give practical help wherever possible.
We aim to do this by organising talks, film showings, benefit gigs, street stalls and direct actions as well as publishing articles. We import Zapatista produce such as coffee, clothing and jewellery for sale with the money going directly back to the communities.
In Spring 2004 the Edinburgh-Chiapas Solidarity Group and the Glasgow Zapatista Solidarity Group twinned with the '16 de Febrero' Zapatista autonomous municipality. The municipality is in a poor, rural community which lacked access to basic medical care and education. We have raised funding that enabled the community to build a health clinic in their area and further help is now needed to purchase medical equipment and supplies.
The EdinChiapas group is part of the 'UK Zapatista Network'.
ZAPATISTA NEWS UPDATE Dec 08/Jan 09
Zapatistas in twinned Autonomous Municipality detained and subjected to death threats
Zapatistas in the autonomous municipality "16th February" have been subjected to death threats and detained by the authorities in the village of Las Maravillas. Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group, who are twinned with "16th February", state: "We are very concerned about the situation in Las Maravillas. The authorities, who support the political parties, have threatened to kill the zapatistas because they have stood up for their principles."
Zapatistas convene "Global Festival of Dignity and Rage"
"Now we see and we feel not only the rebellious resistance that, as sister and compañera, stays at our side and encourages our steps.
Now there is something that wasn’t there before, or that we hadn’t been able to see.
There is a creative rage.
A rage that paints all of the colours of the paths down below and on the left on the five continents….
FOR THESE REASONS, AND AS PART OF THE ACTS COMMEMMORATING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF THE ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION, THE 15 YEARS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR AGAINST OBLIVION, THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE JUNTAS DE BUEN GOBIERNO (GOOD GOVERNMENT COUNCILS), AND THE THIRD YEAR OF THE OTHER CAMPAIGN AND THE ZEZTA INTERNAZIONAL, THE MEN, WOMEN, CHILDREN, AND ELDERLY OF THE EZLN CONVOKE ALL OF THE REBELLIOUS OF MEXICO AND THE WORLD TO THE:
FIRST GLOBAL “FESTIVAL DE LA DIGNA RABIA” "
The urgent need for Solidarity with Zapatista communities under attack
The Zapatista communities in resistance, with their autonomous schools, clinics and decision-making structures, have been an inspiration to the anti-capitalist movement. Now Zapatista villages and lands are sustaining increasingly violent attacks by the Mexican state and paramilitaries.
Here we outline the forms the attack by the state is taking - from new military deployments, to paramilitaries, to so-called "eco-tourism". And we describe how the Zapatistas are resisting - from the Other Campaign to The Festival of Dignified Rage.
Mexican Government/Paramilitary Repression Continues to Escalate in Chiapas
Today the situation in Chiapas is more serious than it has been for many years. The attacks on the Zapatista autonomous communities are growing, and many experienced commentators warn that worse may be to come.
The Chiapas-based human rights and investigative body CAPISE has published a new study detailing the extremely alarming growth in military patrols and operations in Chiapas, particularly in the Lacandona Jungle and Northern zone. 'SEDENA: Winds of War' (Spanish only) analyses the new military offensive against the EZLN, the civilian zapatista authorities and the grass-roots zapatista base, the zapatista peoples project of free self-determination, and against the Mexican-wide project of the Other Campaign.
As we write there are warnings of a possible attack on the Zapatistas at the ecological reserve of Huitepec, near San Cristobal, Chiapas.
FIRE AT OVENTIK HOSPITAL, CHIAPAS - APPEAL FOR HELP
Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group has just had bad news from Chiapas. A short circuit has resulted in a fire at the Guadalupana zapatista hospital at Oventik in the Highlands of Chiapas. Luckily no one was hurt patients and health promoters were evacuated in time, but the fire has caused major damage to the whole hospital particularly in five rooms where the health promoters slept, to the operating theatre and the medical supplies store. Smoke damage means that the whole hospital will have to be cleaned and repainted. Medical equipment and materials eg sterilizers, lamps, theatre gowns, bandages, dressings, which have been destroyed all need to be replaced along with everything in the health promoters rooms.
Political prisoners denied food
In its bulletin of 9 July the Fray Bartolemew human rights centre reports that prisoners involved in the Voice of Amate and Zapatista Group in the Amate prison in Chiapas are being refused food by the prison authorities. This repression follows the prisoners' restarting, on 26 June, their peaceful protest demonstration (planton) within the prison. The prisoners have been imprisoned because of their political activity in resistance to the authorities and the government.
The land belongs to those who work it!
Inhabitants of Cruxton, in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas, have denounced a continuing attempt by the Chiapas state to rob them of their land. 70 police invaded the land on 18 June, threatening the local people. The police were accompanied by civilians, to whom it appears the state wishes to give the land. It is also reported that a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company Frontier Development Group has been granted concessions for part of the land.
The inhabitants of Cruxton, adherents to the Other Campaign, have appealed for solidarity to reinforce their struggle for their land.
POLITICAL PRISONERS ON HUNGER-STRIKE IN CHIAPAS, MEXICO
Around 40 indigenous political prisoners in Chiapas Mexico are on hunger strike to demand their liberty. The protest has now spread to 3 jails in Mexico's most southerly state.
UK Zapatista Solidarity Network Statement
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE RESIST STATE ATTACKS IN MEXICO
The Zapatista indigenous movement in Chiapas, Mexico has inspired people world-wide. The one thousand zapatista autonomous communities in resistance are living proof of an alternative to profit-dominated capitalism. But now zapatista villages are suffering violent attacks from paramilitaries and Mexican state forces.
Get Involved
We invite you to join our email list (sign up here) and to attend our regular organising meetings.
Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group,
c/o 17 West Montgomery Place
Edinburgh
EH7 5HA
Scotland
Email: edinchiapas@yahoo.co.uk
The EdinChiapas group is part of the 'UK Zapatista Network': ukzapatistas.wordpress.com
