In the face of the inauguration of the orange demon, the silence of the supposed leaders of the left is not only ominous, but scandalous. This was not the case of the Zapatistas, who, since the first period of the boss, took a position on the matter. In a forceful manner in February 2017 they made their position public, when their support bases called for the global campaign: Facing the Walls of Capital. Resistance, rebellion, solidarity and support from below and to the left.
Nor was it the first, perhaps the most symbolic was that during The Other Campaign in 2006, when the then Commander Zero illegally crossed the US border through Chihuahua, emulating Doroteo Arango, to urinate on it and stand in solidarity with migrants around the globe.
Their diagnosis was devastating: “For us, we, the originary Zapatista peoples, the storm, the war, has been going on for centuries…With the passing of time, the sword was modernized and the cross was dethroned by the religion of capital, but our blood continued to be demanded as an offering to the new god: money.”
At that time they did: “to support those who resist arrests and deportations (…. ), we will send them the artistic works created by the indigenous Zapatistas for last year’s CompArte, as well as organic coffee produced by the indigenous Zapatista communities in the mountains of the Mexican southeast, so that, with their sale, they can carry out artistic and cultural activities to concretize the support and solidarity with the migrants and displaced people who, all over the world, see their lives, freedom and goods threatened by the xenophobic campaigns promoted by governments and the ultra-right in the world. ” (in The Walls Above, the Cracks Below (and to the Left), available at Enlace Zapatista). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pVXpno4NpE
Now, voters, whether migrant or working class, who inhabit the decaying empire, are discovering that electing the master does not make them any less slaves. Nor was it a matter of Republicans or Democrats. That Hispanic politicians represent nothing more than their interests and those of the franchises that use them in their balls and palace dinners. That the only punishment vote that exists is the one destined for the voters themselves. That, in the logic of the least worst, the only thing that gets worse is struggle and resistance.While Elon Musk affirms that he will solve the problem of migrant labor with Artificial Intelligence, our politicians, of any persuasion, beg and clamor for the installation of some plant of their companies in our territory. In more than a few schools and educational centers, he and the owners of digital platforms are proclaimed as models and examples to imitate. Anyone can achieve the fortune of these millionaires who started their businesses from a garage with just a little “entrepreneurship,” it is claimed as an origin myth. That is how they mask, justify or minimize their Nazi-fascism.
What the media and socio-digital networks hide is the organization and dignity of migrants in the heart, and in many corners, of the giant. Even in front of Trump Tower itself, marches and rallies have been organized. Meanwhile, the foremen of the farmer are quick to show off (as they did days before in front of Sheinbaum and her Plan Mexico), that they were invited and were there with their peers. The ones that nobody voted for but make the decisions. They are ready to do what they have always done: the surrender of resources, the surrender of what is left of sovereignty. To the anticipated collaboration with the invader that they disguise with euphemisms such as: negotiation.
For the Zapatistas there is no time or place for fatalism. In his “decrepitude” the now Insurgent Captain Marcos advised the youth of Mexico and the world from the Cideci-University of the Earth, in the most recent meeting of Resistances and Rebellions, a few weeks ago the following:
“Enjoy your gender, calendar, geography, class and race crises. Enjoy it, reality will come to confront you, and with it will come despair, it will take you until you find no way out; and then you will have the option of withdrawing into yourselves, locking yourselves in, the emergency exit of suicide; choose the most difficult option: organize your despair. You are going to despair, if you are not already desperate, look for others like you, organize that despair. Maybe you are going to fail, but you are going to have the satisfaction of being a kick in the balls of the system, and that’s exciting believe me, it’s an aphrodisiac.” In La Cofa del Vigía: Señales al mañana also available in Enlace Zapatista (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOWAefJcpYo)
Original article by Oscar García González published by Rebelión with the author’s permission under a Creative Commons license, respecting his freedom to publish it in other sources.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.