New documentary about student activism and the School of the Americas (SOA)

A group of Richmond High School students produced the documentary "Journey for Justice - Crossing the Line" about the School of the Americas and their trip to the November Vigil to close it down. The film includes footage from the annual protest at the gates of Fort Benning in Georgia, footage from Latin America, interviews with student activists as well as with Guadalupe Chavez and Linda Aguilar, who engaged in nonviolent direct action to close the SOA.

The School of the Americas (SOA), renamed to "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation," is a U.S. military training school for Latin American soldiers that has left a trail of blood and suffering throughout Latin America.

The SOA has trained over 64,000 Latin American soldiers in courses such as counterinsurgency, psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. Graduates of the school have been consistently linked to human rights violations and to the suppression of popular movements in the Americas.

Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. The SOA is the Pentagon's way of controlling the armies of Latin America with the goal of controlling the people and their resources. The SOA provides the military muscle to keep the racist system of domination and exploitation in place - benefiting a few at the expense of many. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared", massacred, and forced into refuge by those trained at the School of Assassins.

For more information, visit SOA Watch on the web at www.SOAW.org

Watch the 3 minute trailer for "Journey to Awareness - Crossing the Line," the Richmond High School documentary about student activism and the SOA:

Spread the Word - Distribute the trailer

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Video URL (for emails and links)
http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1372

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Download the trailer (To share on p2p or save to your computer)
http://media.revver.com/broadcast/73323/download
(right click and choose "Save as")

Buy the DVD:

The DVD will be available in late October/early November. Pre-order now for only $10 incl. shipping and handling ($8 for sutudent activists and educators) You can send a check or money order to:

SOA Watch
P.O. Box 4566
Washington DC 20017

or order it online: [PayPal option coming soon]

Host a Screening:

Gather your members, friends, family and neighbors in your school, community center, religious institution or living room to view, discuss and take action. You can use your screening as a recruitment tool, a fundraiser, a catalyst for organizing an action, as an educational resource--or all of these at once!

Take Action:

Educate yourself and your community about the SOA (download fliers, order books and videos). Mobilize for the November 17-19, vigil and nonviolent direct action at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia. Be part of the growing grassroots movement for justice and accountability.

Enter your email below to receive email alerts from SOA Watch:

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Nov. 17-19, 2006: Converge on Fort Benning, Georgia for a Massive Protest against the School of Assassins and the Militarization of Latin America

From November 17-19, 2006, thousands will converge on Ft. Benning, Georgia for the annual protest against the School of the Americas (SOA). Last year, 19,000 activists gathered in the largest protest ever to demand the closing of the infamous military school where countless Latin American officers have been trained in methods of torture and repression. 41 people were arrested for trespassing after managing to penetrate the razor-wire fences surrounding the base to perform civil disobedience.

Picture Slideshows

The SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. Just after the Zapatista uprising began on January 1, 1994, the number of Mexican soldiers at the School of the Americas (SOA) escalated sharply. Graduates of the SOA have played a key role in the civilian targeted warfare. At least 18 top military officials involved in the conflict are SOA graduates.

Throughout Latin America, SOA graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against the poor and to maintain a racist system of greed and violence. Among those targeted are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.

We are in a period of great change. Social justice movements throughout the Americas are mobilizing tirelessly. Civil Society is increasingly more vocal and we are going to close this school that continues to create death and suffering. Justice is within our reach when we stand up in numbers too big to be ignored -- sending a powerful message by putting our bodies on the line.

Click here for more information

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Memoria Digna

10:37pm Viernes 06 Enero 2006 | chiapas.mediosindependientes.org | download (MP3 • 7,18MB • 7:50 min)

La Memoria Digna consiste en 7 piezas de audio para documentar la historia de las Zapatistas con experiencias y reflexiones de gente de la sociedad civil. Hecho en 2004, era producido en el contexto del 20 aniversario de la formación del Ejército Zapatista y el 10 aniversario del levantamiento zapatista.

Audio 1: Sobre Chiapas antes de 1994, 7.50 minutos

Memoria Digna 2

10:55pm Viernes 06 Enero 2006 | chiapas.mediosindependientes.org | download (MP3 • 13,4MB • 14:38 min)

Audio 2: Sobre los primeros pasos de la lucha, 1994. 14.38 minutos

Memoria Digna 3

11:11pm Viernes 06 Enero 2006 | chiapas.mediosindependientes.org | download (MP3 • 18,8MB • 20:33 min)

Audio 3: Sobre Marzo 1994- Enero 1997; 20.33 minutos

Memoria Digna 4

11:25pm Viernes 06 Enero 2006 | chiapas.mediosindependientes.org | download (MP3 • 18,4MB • 20:09 min)

Audio 4: Sobre a construcción de los municipios autónomos; 20.09 minutos

Memoria Digna 5

11:38pm Viernes 06 Enero 2006 | chiapas.mediosindependientes.org | download (MP3 • 11.7MB • 12:52 min)

Audio 5: Sobre 2001-2003; 12.52 minutos

Memoria Digna 6

11:45pm Viernes 06 Enero 2006 | chiapas.mediosindependientes.org | download (MP3 • 5,42MB • 5:55 min)

Audio 6: Sobre las comunidades autonomas; 5.55 minutos

Memoria Digna 7

11:56pm Viernes 06 Enero 2006 | chiapas.mediosindependientes.org | download (MP3 • 11MB • 12:06 min)

Audio 7: Sobre el futuro del movimiento; 12.06 minutos

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For a compilation of documents about the Other Campaign of the Zapatistas, visit the Chiapas 95 webpage

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"We have seen men and women born in other lands join the fight for peace. We have seen some, in their own lands, start building the long bridge that says, 'You are not alone.' We have seen them take action and cry out their 'Ya basta.'

First we saw them imagine and put into practice their demands for justice, marching like those who sing, writing like those who shout, speaking like those who march. We have seen all these flashes of lightening rebound in the skies and reach our own land with all their various names, with the faces of all those, in all worlds, who want to make a place for everyone."
(Fifth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, July 1998)

Zapatismo and Globalization
One of the most important events in the movement against global capitalism was the Zapatista uprising on January 1st, 1994-the day NAFTA went into effect. The Zapatista uprising sent shock waves around the world and would help inspire and mobilize massive opposition to transnational capitalism. Here was a group of mostly indigenous peasants rising up against both a domestic and international enemy. Although the Zapatista uprising should be viewed as one occurrence of over 500 years of indigenous resistance against the genocide forced upon them by European conquerors, the Zapatista uprising is one of the most significant events in the fight against "free" trade and the global domination of market forces.

How exactly did a group of poor, mostly illiterate and supposedly backward and docile Mayan Indians help inspire worldwide resistance to the evil side of "globalization?" The domestic enemy of the Zapatistas was the state party system of the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI). The PRI was the ruling party of Mexico for nearly 75 years. That is 75 long years of continued repression, racism and poverty. In the analysis of their oppression, however, the Zapatistas realized that the PRI was only a puppet for a larger enemy of neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism is the rebirth of 19th century classical liberalism. Here we are talking about economic liberalism that is a hallmark of both liberal and conservative politics in the United States and should not be confused with the political liberalism of US democrats. Liberalism is free market capitalism characterized by competition, privatization, deregulation and the freedom of capital to move across national borders that results in many social ills including a deterioration of workers' rights, cutbacks in social expenditures, and a rapid destruction of the environment. Liberalism became famous due to Adam Smith and his book "The Wealth of Nations." Liberalism was one of the basic drives for colonialism by Western imperialist powers. Economic liberalism eventually gave way to Keynesian economics that supported government intervention in the economy. Liberalism began to re-surface about twenty-five years ago, hence the name "neoliberalism," and is now the dominant economic model. Neoliberalism began in Chile after the CIA-supported coup and economic restructuring of 1973. Other examples of neoliberalism are the IMF, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and NAFTA. The FTAA is an extension of NAFTA and therefore another neoliberal agenda. An interesting point is that the original liberalism was linked with colonialism. Neoliberalism is also linked with neocolonialism.

In opposition to neoliberalism, the Zapatistas offered the world their vision for humanity as they proclaimed the rebirth of Zapatismo. What should probably technically be called neozapatismo was developed to fight against neoliberalism.

Zapatismo originates from the namesake of the Zapatistas: Emiliano Zapata. Zapata was a hero of the revolutionary war who was popular with peasants and indigenous peoples. Zapata was fighting against a corrupt government and the first wave of liberalism. A very important and significant point about Zapata was that he was indigenous himself and his army was primarily indigenous. Zapata fought for indigenous autonomy, political liberties and rights to land. Zapata's battle cry was "Land and Liberty." This expression was at the basis of Zapatismo. Zapata believed that freedom for poor Mexicans meant throwing off the shackles imposed on them by the ruling classes and redistributing the land to the peasants to work collectively. Zapata located in the struggle for freedom, equality and democracy a dignity that could not be surpassed. Another of his sayings expresses this beautifully: "It is better to die on ones feet than live on one's knees. " A hallmark of Zapatismo is the assertion of the dignity of indigenous Mexicans and their equality.

Unfortunately, the revolution was stolen and true change was thwarted by moderates who betrayed Zapata and Villa and seized power for themselves. Freedom, equality and justice became scarce in Mexico once again although some of Zapata's agrarian reforms were put in place during the Cardenas presidency. Zapata and Zapatismo would continue to play an important role in Mexican history and be significant for average Mexicans, and especially the indigenous peoples of Mexico, as a symbol of hope and resistance.

The 1980's brought with them a new wave of privatization, liberalization and exploitation: neoliberalism. This is synonymous in the US with Reaganomics and Thatcherism in Britain. With neoliberalism comes neocolonialism. The Bush administration worked to develop trade agreements with Canada and Mexico. The Mexican economy was characterized by high levels of state interference, the protection of local industry through tariff and non-tariff barriers, a high degree of social security and a program that strived for stable development to ensure low prices and interest rates. Beginning in 1983, the Mexican ruling class, along with the help of international lending agencies, began to reform the economy along lines of the so-called "free market." The Mexican ruling class readied Mexico to become a first world nation in order to be eligible for the newest trade agreement: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The PRI, under the guidance of the US, pushed the Mexican economy into the future prematurely and drastically.

In order to be eligible for NAFTA, the government changed article 27 of the Mexican constitution that enables the ejido system of collectivized agriculture to be broken up and privatized. This is significant because the majority of indigenous communities and economies are centered around ejidos. The privatization of the ejidos poses the threat of the extermination of the indigenous peoples' land base as well as their culture. A similar event happened in US history. The Dawes Act privatized a large portion of the system of reservations. This is one of the reasons for the erosion of the land base, and therefore the cultures, of native peoples in the United States. The native peoples of Mexico feared the same fate would befall them. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) had been hiding in the jungles of Chiapas, Mexico for about a decade when they decided to openly declare war on the Mexican government. They did so on the day NAFTA went into effect for symbolic purposes. The Zapatistas predicted that NAFTA would be a disaster for Mexico. The Zapatistas were right. The peso devaluated in December of 1994 leading to the crashing of the stock market and a deep depression. Shortly after the devaluation, the level of unemployment doubled. With the dismantling of agriculture subsidies and a huge influx of cheap corn from the US, the economy of Mexico's peasants, including large numbers of indigenous peoples, was destroyed. This paper does not allow for an in depth discussion of NAFTA but it was essentially a disaster. Subcomandante Marcos called NAFTA a death sentence to Mexican Indians. The creation of a peace plan rested around 34 negotiating points. Two points of this plan call for a re-instatement of Article 27 and a re-evaluation of NAFTA.

However, the Mexican government has yet to fulfill these two points. The Zapatista uprising proved to the world that everything is connected and that under neoliberalism this connection spells death. The US gave the Mexican government helicopters, money and training to fight the Zapatistas. Corresponding with the uprising, the number of Mexican soldiers at the School of the Americas (SOA) escalated sharply. Graduates of the SOA have played a key role in the civilian targeted warfare in the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oxaca. At least 18 top military officials involved in the conflict are SOA graduates. e.g. Gen. Jose Ruben Rivas Pena, who took the SOA's elite "Commando and Staff" course authored the army�s "Campaign Plan Chiapas 94" which calls for the "training and support for self-defense forces and other paramilitary organizations." If the connections between the resistance of the Zapatistas and global capitalism weren't clear enough, it became extremely clear when an internal memo of Chase Manhattan Bank was made public. The Chase Manhattan Emerging Markets Group Memo dated January 13, 1995 was an update on the Mexican political situation. In this memo the author stated that the greatest threat to political stability in Mexico was the monetary crisis and the need for a political climate that was conducive to foreign investment. Among the propositions put forward in this memo was that "The government will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate their effective control of the national territory and of security policy." The connections between big business, development and militarization against the poor are blatantly obvious.Because of the symbolic nature of their revolt, their ability to draw connections between local oppression and international structures of institutionalized violence and repression, and their stance on indigenous rights and autonomy, the Zapatistas have been an important part of the struggle against global capitalism. The Zapatistas, the ultimate underdogs, have constantly and effectively battled not only with arms but also with words, ideas and visions for a sustainable and just future. The Zapatistas have inspired the mobilization of civil society in Mexico and around the world in the fight for democracy, liberty and justice.

The Zapatistas began to hold formal gatherings and encounters in Chiapas that people from all over the world have attended. These have been about everything from democratic teaching to indigenous forums to building a global resistance to neoliberalism.

In the Fourth Declaration of the Lancondon Jungle the Zapatistas proposed:

"That we will make a collective network of all our particular struggles and resistances. An intercontinental network of resistance against neoliberalism, an intercontinental network of resistance for humanity. This intercontinental network of resistance, recognizing differences and acknowledging similarities, will search to find itself with other resistances around the world. This intercontinental network of resistance will be the medium in which distinct resistances may support one another. This intercontinental network of resistance is not an organizing structure; it doesn't have a central head or decision maker; it has no central command or hierarchies. We are the network, all of us who resist."

With this plan, the Zapatistas showed the world a different way of resistance that differs from the traditional Marxist-Leninist idea of a vanguard and dictatorship of the proletariat. The alternative to seizing power on behalf of the people by a revolutionary vanguard is to create a space in which people can define and develop their own power. This allows for a more democratic and bottom up approach to internationalism.

With this call the Zapatistas began to organize Intercontinental Encounters for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism. There have been several of these, including one in Brazil and one in Spain. These inspired the creation of organizations such as People's Global Action and movements such as Ya Basta!, as well as reawakening, in the face of a deflated and tired left, the dignity to be found in rebelling and resisting.

People's Global Action is an alliance of struggle against the forces of neoliberalism by grassroots movements unimpeded by the state or NGOs. "This new platform will serve as a global instrument for communication and co-ordination for all those fighting against the destruction of humanity and the planet by the global market, building up local alternatives and people's power." PGA was created by activists from ten of the most innovative social movements in the world: The Zapatistas, the Landless Peasant Movement in Brazil, the Karnataka State Farmers Union in India, and others. PGA was originally inspired by the Zapatistas and the idea was formulated at an encuentro (gathering) for humanity and against neoliberalism in 1996. A document from PGA shows the influence:

"It wasn't in the acrid mist of Seattle's tear gas that this global movement was born, but in the humid mist of the Chiapas jungle, in Southern Mexico on New Years Day 1994. This was the day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, a day when two thousand indigenous peoples from several groups came out from the mountains and forests. Masked, armed and calling themselves Zapatistas, their battle cry was 'Ya Basta'- 'Enough is Enough.' An extraordinary popular uprising, which was to help change the landscape of global resistance, had begun. People everywhere soon heard of the uprising. These masked rebels, from poverty stricken communities, were not only demanding that their own land and lives be given back, neither were they just asking for international support and solidarity; they were talking about neoliberalism, about the 'death sentence' that NAFTA and other free trade agreements would impose on indigenous people. They were demanding the dissolution of power while encouraging others all over the world to take on the fight against the enclosure of our lives by capital. 'Don't join us-do it yourself' was their message."

"Those in authority fear the mask
for their power partly resides in identifying, stamping and cataloguing: in knowing who you are [...]
Masking up releases our commonality, enables us to act together, to shout as one to those who rule and divide us 'we are all fools, deviants, outcasts, clowns and criminals'. Today we shall give this resistance a face; for by putting on our masks we reveal our unity; and by raising our voices in the street together, we speak our anger at the facelessness of power."

- RTS London, July 18 1999

Photos: Raul Ortega

Get Radio Insurgente on the air in your community

Get Radio Insurgente on the air throughout Northamerica! The National Zapatista Liberation Army invites all free and community radio stations to re-transmit Radio Insurgente's program on their local frequencies.


Radio Insurgente
- la voz de los sin voz

Letter to Mumia Abu-Jamal from Subcomandante Marcos
"[...] We are also "people of color" (the same color of our brothers who have Mexican blood and live and struggle in the American Union). We are of the color "brown", the color of the earth, the color from which we take our history, our strength, our wisdom and our hope. But in order to struggle we add another color to the brown: black. We use black ski-masks to show our faces. Only in this way can we be seen and heard. We chose this color as a result of the counsel of an indigenous Mayan elder who explained to us what the color black meant.
The name of this wise elder was Old Man Antonio. He died in these rebel Zapatista lands in March of 1994, victim of tuberculosis which ate his lungs and his breath. Old Man Antonio used to tell us that from black came the light and from there came the stars which light up the sky around the world. He told us a story which said that a long time ago (in those times when no one measured it), the first gods were given the task of giving birth to the world. In one of their meetings they saw it was necessary that the world have life and movement, and for this light was necessary. Then they thought of making the sun in order that the days move and so there would be day and night and time for struggling and time for making love, walking with the days and nights the world would go. The gods had their meeting and made this agreement in front of a large fire, and they knew it was necessary that one of them be sacrificed by throwing himself into the fire in order to become fire himself and fly into the sky. The gods thought that the work of the sun was the most important, so they chose the most beautiful god so that he would fly into the fire and become the sun. But he was afraid. Then the smallest god, the one who was black, said he was not afraid and he threw himself into the fire and became sun. Then the world had light and movement, and there was time for struggle and time for love, and in the day the bodies worked to make the world and in the night the bodies made love and sparkles filled the darkness.
This is what Old Man Antonio told us and that is why we use a black ski mask. So we are of the color brown and of the color black. But we are also of the color yellow, because the first people who walked these lands were made of corn so they would be true. And we are also red because this is the call of blood which has dignity and we are also blue because we are the sky in which we fly, and green for the mountain which is our house and our strength. And we are white because we are paper so that tomorrow can write its story.
So we are 7 colors because there were 7 first gods who birthed the world.
This is what Old Man Antonio said long ago and now I tell you this story so that you may understand the reason for this bridge of paper and ink which I send to you all the way from the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
And also so that you may understand that with this bridge goes pieces of salutes and hugs for Leonard Peltier (who is in the prison at Leavenworth, Kansas), and for the more than 100 political prisoners in the USA who are the victims of injustice, stupidity and authoritarianism [...] "

'In sum, we are an army of dreamers, and therefore invincible. How can we fail to win, with this imagination overturning everything. Or rather, we do not deserve to lose.'
- Subcomandante Marcos