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Originally published in Spanish by the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
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Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 26, 2005
To all the compañeros and compañeras of the “Other”:
To the Committees, Coordinators (or however they are called) which are being formed in each state or region in order to help with the first stage of the EZLN’s Sixth Committee national work
To the Security Committees which have been formed, or are being formed, for the accompaniment and security of SubDelegado Zero during this first stage:
Compañeras and compañeros:
Greetings from our compañeros and compañeras of the “Other.” We are writing you in order to propose some criteria for security at the meetings and activities in which SubDelegado Zero will be participating.
First - It is always better (and more effective) to avoid arrogance and grandstanding. It is not about isolating, but about accompanying and protecting. A security team is effective if it does its work without being noticed. In no way will the EZLN’s Sixth Committee accept any persons on their security team who are of any nationality other than Mexican.
Second - The work of security and accompaniment is avoiding problems due to crowds (in the unlikely event that there are any), preventing (as far as possible) any bad acts by some “anti-otra,” and, most importantly, seeing that SubDelegado Zero does not get lost while going from one place to another (for example, making a “mistake,” with obvious trickery, with the door when going to the bathroom and going into the “ladies” instead of the “gents”).
Third - In the event that the bad governments attempt some repressive measure, do not put up any resistance (especially if there are shots), and step aside. In no way should you put your life or liberty at risk. Always have identification with you and the help of human rights, always maintaining the truth, that is, that you are exercising a legal and legitimate civil right. You will not be violating any law by being next to an individual with a ski-mask and an elegant profile (with the contribution of the tummy).
Fourth - In the event of detention, SubDelegado Zero knows what to do and, above all, what not to do. And so do not worry yourselves by imagining what you will do in such and such a horrible event. The response is: run, take shelter, inform, disseminate, mobilize…send me tobacco.
I am, in advance, not authorizing anyone or any organization to assume, WITHOUT MY EXPLICIT VERBAL AND WRITTEN REQUEST, the legal defense of my person.
Fifth - Neither the EZLN nor its Sixth Committee will be asking for any guarantees from federal, state or municipal officials. We do not expect anything, nor will we ask for anything, from those who have always treated us with contempt and disdain. If any Committee or Coordinator from a state or region decides to request from their respective officials respect for the liberties of meeting, association and movement, which are the prerogatives of any citizen, we are respectfully asking that they do so in their name, not in ours. Even if they threaten us from above or promise us detentions, jails, clandestine cellars or cemeteries, we shall go out to do the work which we committed ourselves to in the Sexta.
Sixth - In the event of any major mishap, public statements or not, and the decisions which our organization will take, are the SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE purview of the top command level of the EZLN.
Seventh - Whatever happens, know that it is an honor, and it shall be, to have you as compañeros and compañeras in struggle.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
SubComandante Insurgente Marcos
SubDelegado Zero of the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Mexico, December of 2005
Originally published in Spanish by the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
**********************************************
Translated by irlandesa
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico
December 26, 2005
To the Alternative Media of the “Other”
To those persons, collectives and organizations of the “Other” who are proposing to make films, videos, photographs, reports, research, etcetera concerning or during the first trip by SubDelegado Zero of the EZLN’s Sixth Committee:
Compañeras and compañeros:
Zapatista greetings from compañeros in struggle. I am letting you know that several letters have been received at our post office proposing, or asking for authorization for, projects having to do with Alternative Communication and independent artistic productions. We have the following to say about this:
1. - Neither the EZLN nor its Sixth Committee (including SubDelegado Zero), have any objection to your work. The “Other,” as we have said time and again, belongs to everyone, and, to our way of thinking, it should also be a place for promoting and consolidating the different alternative communication projects which exist below and to the left in Mexico. We think the same way about artistic productions. In this regard, the only thing we should do is welcome your proposals and do everything we can to not be an obstacle to their being carried out.
2 - This first stage of the EZLN’s Sixth Committee’s trip throughout Mexico will concentrate primarily on making direct contact with the greatest possible number of supporters of the Sexta and the “Other.” In some cases it will be possible for us to participate in public events. Given how full the agendas in each state will be, it appears that it will be difficult for us to participate directly in the projects you are proposing. Even so, we will make an effort to participate at some point in something jointly with all the compas who are working in alternative media and in artistic productions.
3 - Given that you are compas, and we need to also make the “Other” a place for communications, dissemination and art, the EZLN’s Sixth Committee is recommending to the committees or coordinators which are being formed in each state that they give preferential treatment to the compañeros from the “Other” who will be “covering” this trip, given that the alternative media are at a disadvantage to the mass media, and, if this is the “Other,” then we should also be “otherly” as regards communication and artistic productions. This preferential treatment does not refer just to their being given access to the meetings and activities in each location, but also that the space be organized so that the alternative compas who record, take photos, films, videos, etcetera, can do their work of news, documentation, research, artistic production, etcetera, with the greatest possible ease.
4 - In return, we are asking you, in turn, to respect the decisions and regulations made on this matter by the committees or coordinators in each state or region.
That’s all for now then, compañeros and compañeras. I hope that, when we pass through the state where you live and work, we will be able to see you and talk to you without a lens-microphone being involved.
Un abrazo.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
SubDelegado Zero of the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
Mexico, December of 2005
Communique of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Mexico.
December 25, 2005.
To the people of Mexico:
To the adherents of the Other Campaign:
To the peoples of he world:
Brothers and sisters:
Compañeras and compañeros:
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation announces the following:
First. With the approaching begin of the direct participation of the EZLN in the Other Campaign through its Sixth Commission and together with thousands of Mexican men and women, the climate of harassment, threats and persecution against those who are committed in this initiative is growing.
Second. In Chiapas, there have been direct attacks and threats against the compañeros Gustavo Jiménez and Gabriel Ramírez, furthermore against the compas from the human rights center Fray Bartolome de Las Casas and the organization “Maderas del Pueblo”. In other parts of our countries similar threats and attacks occurred, such as the detention of Joel Aquino in Oaxaca, the continuing aggressions against the brothers and sisters opposing the construction of the La Parota dam in the state of Guerrero, or the closure or attempted closure of indigenous community radios.
Third. In the chiapanecan zones of the various Zapatista Juntas of Good Government grows the belligerence of the organizations pertaining to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and to its shamefaced brother, the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Fourth. In the case of the PRI, the OPDICCH is advancing in its conformation as paramilitary group, with the consent of the federal and state governments of Chiapas, and launches provocations in diverse points of the Selva Lacandona. In the North zone, PRIsta organizations maintain their threats against Zapatista bases of support and members of other sister organizations.
Fifth. The so called CIOAC-Historical, affiliated to the PRD, tries to present misfortunes caused, encouraged and perpetrated by its own leadership, as carried out by Zapatista bases of support. The leaders of CIOAC-Historical, who belong to the supporters of the campaign of Lopez Obrador in this state, use the deaths of their compañeros (assassinated by members of the same CIOAC), to obtain positions in the next elections in Chiapas, while hundreds of displaced, women, men, children and old people of their organization, are straying around without food or shelter.
Sixth. All this is concealed by the bad and tragicomic comedy of the elections of above, with a double objective: to undo everything that doesn’t fit the logic of above; and to present to the international opinion the semblance of “democratic normality” of the electoral atmosphere.
Seventh. The EZLN calls all adherents to the Sixth and the Other Campaign, to raise their voices in protest, to solidarize themselves with all those who are being attacked persecuted and threatened, and to not stop their works for the construction of a national anti-capitalist movement of the left.
Democracy!
Freedom!
Justice!
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(transl. Dana)
