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zapatistas on the move
Mexico is a very racist country. Being poor is a crime but being an Indian is an even worst crime. "Indio" is he who is ignorant, uncultivated, dirty. From thousands of TV screens, gigantic ads, or the presidential chair, the powerful shout at the Indian, "you're worth nothing."
That is the world that the EZLN rejects, and that rejection led it to the Zocalo, the country's central square, on March 11.
Never, since the democratic and pro-socialist movement of 1968, had a social movement crowded the Zocalo like the Zapatistas did. This square is home to four of the country's powers. The Cathedral is there and the federal government's National Palace; the local government has the City Hall, and the bourgeois have many central bank offices.
Close to 300,000 people saw the Zapatista delegation either in the Zocalo or in the streets as they passed, and thousands more saw them in the rallies they held all the next week.
The Zapatista march is part of the struggle that the EZLN has waged against the government since 1994, in defense of Indian rights but also for many popular rights and against neo-liberalism.
After Vicente Fox, from the right-wing opposition party, PAN (National Action Party), came to office last December, many thought that a window to solve the conflict had opened. But it soon became evident that Fox was following the same strategy as his predecessor, President Zedillo-continuing a low-intensity war against the Zapatistas.
The Zapatista guerrillas had three demands for reestablishing peace negotiations with the government-the liberation of all Zapatista political prisoners, the dismantlement of seven of the military bases in the conflict area in Chiapas (there are over 200), and carrying out the agreements between the Zedillo government and the guerrillas, known as "Acuerdos de San Andres" and the law project that came from them.
When the Zapatistas arrived in Mexico City, all Fox had done was dismantle four out of seven military bases, send the law project (Ley Cocopa, or Congress Commission for Peace and Concord Law project) to Congress, and free some of the political prisoners.
But still, Fox and his government claimed that they'd done all they could to satisfy the Zapatistas and that if peace wasn't signed, it was due to Marcos' intransigence and the fact that he pursued different interests than those of the Indians.
A mass media campaign was mounted to defame the Zapatistas, including a massive rock concert with two of Mexico's most popular rock bands singing for "peace."
But the peace the Zapatistas want is quite different from the peace Fox wants. For the Zapatistas, peace is not only the end of the guerrilla struggle, but also of the daily manslaughter that capitalism carries out in most of Mexico's rural areas, where people die from malnutrition and curable illnesses.
After a week in Mexico City, the Zapatistas participated in many political events, including a visit to the National University (UNAM), which held a strike for nine months past year. The Zapatistas then announced that, due to the lack of will for peace that the government showed, they would return to Chiapas.
The key to this was the refusal by Congress to grant a hearing to the Zapatistas so that they could argue in favor of the Cocopa Law project. This refusal was led by the National Action Party representatives, among them the party's moral leader, Diego Fernandez de Ceballos, a lawyer who has accused the Zapatistas of being criminals, the feminist women of going against natural order, and the working masses of being "descalzonados," so poor they can't buy pants.
This right-wing politician, along with his party and some of PRI's (former ruling party for 70 years) representatives, claimed that only Congress members and ministers could talk in Congress - and otherwise we would sink in anarchy.
The Zapatistas, in a master move, held a meeting outside Congress to say farewell to their sympathizers in the capital. The result was marvelous; about 15,000 people showed up, and as seven of the 23 Indian commanders called for a national and international organization for fighting for all poor and working people, Congress voted in favor of giving the Zapatistas a hearing.
By a close margin, the PRI and the center-left PRD, the Green Party, and the Workers Party voted for it, and only National Action voted against.
Now, for the first time in history, an Indian guerrilla will address Congress to speak about the problems of one of the most important and active social groups in Mexico. This will be a step not only to a solution of the Zapatista conflict, but will also strengthen the mass movements.
This article was written by Benjamin A. and first appeared in the April 2001 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.
