PACIFIC OCEAN / OAXACA

Void Network people travelling at the Pacific Ocean, at the paradise beach of Oaxaca Mazunte and Zipolite…We made a lot of conversations by the seaside and it was really creative….We recorded one ¨Void Network Assembly Panamerican¨ talking about Social Anarchism, Freedom of Consciousness and the creative paradigm of Autonomous Social Centers that soon will published on this blog…We talked also about the preparations of Total Freedom Festivals in Mexico capital city in November as also a new tour in Mexico during December-January. We start making all contacts through internet cafes in the Ocean bay…We had also an amazing experience in Ventanillia, a lagoon with crocodiles….It is alive Utopia here…Paradise beach, beatifull polite and happy people, the sea, the moon, the nature…and all the good friends sharing some of the best days of their lives…FROM NOW ON FRIENDSHIP WILL BE REVOLUTIONARY…

VISIO TRANCE LUNAR FESTIVAL IN SAN CRISTOBAL MOUNTAINS / AUGUST FULL MOON / VOID NETWORK PARTICIPATION IN CHILL OUT AREA

We found out that a festival was happenning in the full moon night outside of San Cristobal de la Casas in Mexico / Chiapas. It was a great opportunity for us to enjoy all together a wonderfull party on the mountains and to have a last moment participation to the festival...We shared our space out dub/psychedelic emotional ambient with the Mexican freaks...It was a beatifull night and a great morning by the river...D.J. Crystal Zero and D.J. Sissy Stardust played together for more than 6 hours!!...Everybody loved it...

SOLIDARITY TO INDIGENOUS ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES

During our staying in Chiapas we followed a programme of EZLN for visiting a number of Autonomus self organized villages of zapatistas indigenous people....This was maybe the most important experience of this travelling...Most of imformation we found in Chiapas you can found it in internet...But the experience of the happiness and the welcoming of these people to us you can not find it in internet or in any underground blog, or in the magazines...

The children that shouts Zapatista songs, the shy girls with the red traditional mask on the face, the mask of the revolution of Emiliano Zapata in the beginnings of 20th century, still, the same mask, the same revolution...The boys with the black masks, all the village masked, everybody smiling, you feel the smile, bellow of the mask, there is exising a great smile...And you feel the power of solidarity, they fight for our dignity also, they fight for the end of capitalism with us, they fight in our side

...And we stayed there with them, eating boiled black beans and corn tortillias, like they eat for the last 20.000 years, maybe more, the masked people, with the colourfull Mayan cloths, the same people, in the same land, for the last thousands of years...

Most of the times they took us for a long walk in the fields, a silent walk...And in the end of the way always was the house of the "Padron", the feudalist, and the house was always destroyed completely, and the "padron" was always missing away, and the house was destroyed, destroyed so no one will ever live in there anymore in the future...Never! Never Again!

And then men and women were speaking about their life before 1994...The "padron" had captured for himself the best land, and the tribal people was always forced to stay up on the mountain, with no water and no land to cultivate...The feudalist had pistoleros to protect him and his family, and the tribal people was obliged to work from early in the morning until the end of the day...And they were payed 5 pessos per week (0,30 euro per week)...They made all kind of works for him and if they tried to escape they put them in trial, and if they asked to pass through the land with their animals they were killing their animals, and if they were trying to take clean water they were shooting them, and if the padron liked a girl from the village was taking her as a house maid and he was raping her, and if he liked to use the tribal people for fun he was making fun of them, humliating them, for their language, their cloths, their faces...like animals, like slaves, all their life were working for the "padron", like slaves of the feudalist, the feudalist, the same like any European colonialist in any place of Earth...And they had very bad life, and there was no government, no law, no politician, no policeman, no judge to protect them...Cause all governments, all laws, all police, all judgements were designed by the rich to protect their interests...Like everywhere in the Planet...Like in Chiapas...

Until the arising of the organization, until the moment that appeared these ghosts in the villages and started to speak to each one of them in the begginning, and they were looking like the ghosts of their fathers and their grandmothers....Until the moment all the village becomes Zapatista no one speak openly about the organization...And then all village came to the organization, and the girls and the boys left to the mountain to start the millitary exercises, and all the village was happy, and preparing, and then the next village, and the next village, for ten years preparing, and dreaming, preparing silently and dreaming....Until one day the women of the villages appeared and said "That's Enough! Now is the time!"...And the time was 1st Jenuary of 1994...And the Thunder of Zapatista indigenious people stroke in the sky of Chiapas....and the feudals were not feudals anymore, and the slaves were not slaves anymore...and the ghosts of the grandfathers, and the ghosts of the grandmothers were happy, and free...and the children were happy and healthy and they had all together the land, the water, the sky, the sun and they shared their future, they fight, they resist, they defend their dignity, they defend their Autonomia...

When you hear a masked old woman say you all these, infront of the demolished house of the feudalist...you understand that information doesn't comes from the computer, comes from the sky, the water, the heart of the people...Revolutionary dreams and actions are not information...There are our life!...Our days and nights, our travellings and our fights, our moments and our years...This is not information...This is your Life!

...and then spoke an old man for second time...and he said:

"...Now for the most of us that we made this fight and we took our land and our life back is becoming more difficult...We become old...We can not climb fast on the mounatins and our power slowly slowly going...But here are our children...strong, healthy, happy and ready to fight better than us...And I see those children, and I feel happy...and I think about my father, and my mother, all this difficult life they had...And I said to myself...It was good that we made this fight...And all our ancestors are happy for us...And our children will have all life in their hands...And they will never surrender...For the government to take back our land again, he has to kill all of us...But they will never succeed to do it!...Cause now they have to kill you also...All you, friends, that you came from the far away lands...And tha't why I am happy....Cause I know that our children will have all life and all the future in their own hands..."

HISTORY AND FUTURE OF ZAPATISTAS MOVEMENT SPEACH BY Subcomandante Insurgente MARCOS FOR THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CARAVAN IN CARRUCHA CARACOL

Suddenly in the middle of the rain appeared Marcos, Moises and other EZLN insuractioneries like ghosts in the mist, armed and riding strong horses like coming from the world of shadows...
The people gathered and the lecture started...They spoke for about one hour...SCI Marcos made an intoduction mentioning that the International Commitie of Human Rights that visited the areas of Zapatista the last months announced wrongly that the para/military attacks happening in the zapatista communities is not organized by the government
He said that in the next days many people from the caravan they will travel to a Zapatista community that the army and the government accuse the movement that cultivates marihuana and even though there is not any tree of marihuana there they use it as an excuse of repression...He explained about the story of Zapatistas, the process of the building of a political theory through dialogue and action with the indigeneious people, tranformed through the influence of the indigenious from an orthodox marxist army, a minority that believes that ‘will change the society’ into a social non hierarchical and participatory eqalitarian indigenious autonomus movement...He spoke about the critisism that Zapatistas do to the orthodox left logik , to the left parties and organizations... ‘The zapatistas don’t fit in the left puzzle, that’s why they exclude us as they always exclude anyone that doesn't fit to their puzzle’, he said...He spoke about the “radical” hierarchical and paternalistic left organizations that even though participated in the solidarity of Zapatistas were keeping the movement in distance to the people manifesting an elit of Zapatismo, about the “Zapatologos” intellectuals, artists, university teachers that were using the movement for personal interests and were working as medium between the movement and the people of the world... He explained all those elements of Zapatista movement that changed through 6th Declaration...
After him Tte. Coronell Moises spoke about the building of the Autonomia in the communities and the way that functioning the process of the self / governence, the assemblies and comissions of Zapatista communities

A rough translation of the speach of Marcos for the ´´National and International Caravan of Observation and Solidarity to the Zapatista Communities´´ in English

How it all started...15 years ago, a small group of urban people came from the city to an area inside the jungle, further on, in Montes Assules...In the jungle their were animals with four legs and we were the only big animals with two legs...In 83/84 our logic was the same as the logic of the tradition of the left armed guerrillas, the same with all this that believe in fukism, the belief that a small army of people can become the saviours of a society that follows them and by this way they capture the government...We had no knowledge of the armed guerrilla....Some of us got killed during fights with the police and the Mexican state secret agencies...In that time, no one on this mountain knew these people...This area was completely forgotten by the state...This was a great advantage for us in those times...We were forgotten about and this gave us the opportunity to exist...We were humans and we became monkeys...That’s why we put masks on our faces...Under the mask we are ugly, very ugly...
This group survived mainly cause of the moral weight of the assassinated comrades...But then we had to decide what we will become...A group on the mountains waiting for something to happen, for the society to wake up or we had to become, in the end, normal orthodox left leaders, institutionalised people, candidates in elections and members of a government? This that saved us was our meeting with the indigenous people that transformed an orthodox marxist army to indigenous people’s army...This made us a 99% indigenous army and 1% mexican army....By this way defeated completely our logic of political avand-guardism, the idea that there can be some people that will save the society....We realised that when we were speaking to the indigenous people they were not understanding what we were trying to explain to them and their proposition was much better than ours...We realised that they were a movement of life that had survived from all colonialisms of history, the spanish, the germans, the french, the english, the americans...all colonialisms and empires of the world....They survived, and this proves that they know how to resist...This has to do with the moral weight, with their culture, the nature and their alternative proposition of struggle...We became students of their struggle that was going on for the last 500 years...We found a way, we found escort , we found a velocity. The velocity of our dreams. EZLN owns a lot to the international solidarity movement, and also owns a lot of the indigenous heart. The first contact we made with the indigenous people was based on the classical guerrilla attitude , like if there were in ignorance. But then we found a bridge, we changed the way we speak, we think, we changed our position. From the point of serving the masses to the point of serving the communities. This process was a process of learning that was much stronger than the electroshock that is usually made in the psychiatric clinics. Many of us didn’t survive from this shock, some of us are still under the influence of this shock. But this transformation turned us from a six comrade group, to a revolutionary army of 6000 fighters, determined to take the guns and fight for dignity and freedom. The clear mind analysis of the international situation was telling us that the political conditioning was unsuitable. The socialism had just fallen, the left was crying for the death of Guattari, any logical human being would have said to us not to take the arms. But something was existing inside us that was telling to us to not count on this analysis, to not observe the political geography from upside, but from below. There have been agricultural reforms that issued the rights of the peasants to the earth. But the indigenous people had left always with the bad earth and many diseases were killing their children. Between1990 and 1992 most of the children didn’t survive older than the 5 years old and they were dying from curable diseases like tuberculosis, typhoid and simple fever. In the big cities with the overpopulation problem many people say that “less is better“ but for the indigenous people, this is completely different, as the children become old and they sustain the culture. It was not the revolutionary army that forced the communities into rebellion, it was the women who forced us to take the guns as they were looking at their children dying. They spread all over the mountains the rumour “Ya Basta!” (That’s Enough!) and to this rumour two main women comrades helped a lot. One of them was Ramona, one woman comrade who now is dead. The preparation of the rebellion was creating anxiety and disturbance. We did what we could do. In 1992 we did a consultation without TV, without government members, without politicians, from village to village and from assembly to assembly, we were issuing the problem of, if we will take the guns or not. If we were taking the guns, we would have been defeated, but, it was also possible to improve our lives. If we were not taking the guns, we will be disappeared as indigenous people. The logic of our death didn’t leave us any other choice. After all these years, we say that it is better that we didn’t have any other choice. The people took care of and increased the army, it was not the army which took care of the people. We were making the military preparations and exercises on the mountains and we were thinking what to do. We knew that if we were starting this path, we would not have a way back. And we knew that if we ask the people to take up arms that they would. After 1994, starts a period of armed resistance, instead of an armed battleship, a period of organizing a peaceful resistance. During this period, the change of attitude towards the authority, characterized the EZLN and Zapatistas deeply. The solutions are always a build up from the ground, up. The propositions of the orthodox left, all have had the opposite direction. This change means a lot for us; it means not to vote but to organize, it means to go back to the school, this was what the indigenous explained to us : “The building of the autonomy.”

In the last 12 years, Marcos tried to destroy the image that most of the people had for him, while others took distance from the movement, becoming anti-Zapatistas, many of them that they were going to many different forums and caravans with paid tickets, acting like Zapatologists. In this land we call coyote, the inter-mediums, who buy our products cheap and then resell them more expensive to the market. All around us appeared inter-mediums of solidarity after the revolt. These are the people who they say have the “red telephone” to communicate directly with Sub Commander Marcos and have created a political capital from their solidarity. The appearance of these inter mediums was hiding from us much more important things…We were feeling that was existing something important out there…The insurrection of certain Greeks, Spanish, or Basque were existing but we couldn’t see it. These “coyotes”, the inter mediums, were organising many things as long as we were in fashion and they had their own profit from us…
It is the same as those that come for free with paid expenses from their professional political organisations. We never tried to be something like that…We never wanted to be a hegemonic political power of Mexico or the world…In Italy or as in Mexico, there are those that are still building hope for the traditional left. They have expectations of change on the possibility of the traditional left arriving in the government…In Europe we have understood that whoever is radical before he transforms into something different when he comes to the government. The system will digest you or will defecate you…When there was a possibility of authority the procedure of digestion started to happen to the Zapatistas. For us, maybe, the centre is not the centre, the centre is stuck to the right…And the traditional left has always believed that a small group of enlightened leaders will change society or that 40 thugs on the mountain can save them….It is not that we don’t like this logic, it is that we don’t believe it, we can not be like that…And this is a rupture…When we were saying those things the left was saying that we stand in the right side, now everybody repeats our logic, but still our perception can not fit in the puzzle of the left…For the left is always excluding anything that doesn’t fit in the puzzle and we can not fit, we can not obey to the traditional left logic…Powerful relations were built with the social Italy, with the insurrected Greece…We continue to do not want the authority…We thing that we have to work and organize from bellow…This solidarity inter mediums go to the right, because the authority has specific rules to be maintained...We built an upside down geography…We understood that those they are far away are closer to us…We searched the world and after the 6th Declaration appeared…We searched Mexico and all the world for other people to be like us but to be different…Zapatistas resigned from to be an hegemony…We don’t want all be indigenous…We want our place, to decide what we want to do…We want to built relations of companionship with people like us…This is the 6th Declaration and the Other Campaign…Relations without inter mediums…People from India, Malaysia, Brazil came to Realidad…We saw a meeting of leaders…If our people will not meet then there is no meaning…If you want you can take just some photos…We can not anyway travel to Greece….But we don’t want to beg for help, we don’t want people to feel sorry for us…We want international comrades, in Greece, in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Basque…
Our moral heritage is our struggle for Justice, Freedom and Democracy…We don’t want relations with artists, intellectuals, political representatives…We owe a lot to those who died…We have to be capable to say to our dead people that we didn’t resigned, we didn’t sell out, we didn’t fell…

ZAPATISTA WOMEN SPEAKING TO THE INTERNATIONAL CARAVAN OF OBSERVATION AND SOLIDARITY TO THE ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES

A meeting and representation took place in Garroucha Caracol where Zapatistas women from 4 different autonomous self – organised municipalities of Garrucha Caracol came,
as they mentioned
“to get organised better so none goverment can stop them”.
During their reprsentation they said :
“Many women didn´t manage to arrive to the meeting as they didn´t have the money to travel , to take the bus. With law or without law we will manage everythng , with state law or without state law we will maintain our indigenious cultures. We don’t need to ask anything from any political party or state , we can do anything we need by ourselves, that´s why we organize, that´s why we have to be organized better and better, that’s why we came here to express directly to you all our friends our needs.We work with all Zapatista women they want to participate, their participation is not obligatory. We work in 3 sections. The cultivation of corn and potatoes. The sustaining of knowledge and use of the local medical plants. The Health programmes, genocologia and giving birth process. ”

“We don´t want to loose what our ancestors have given to us. Our ancestors knew how to use the leafs , the seeds , the branches , the roots of the plants. Our ancestors were not taking pills when they got sick but they were using the medical plants. The goverment wants to eliminate the plants, to destroy the plants, to eliminate our culture and our knowledge.We will defend our plants, our earth, our knowledge.We will continue to learn more and more about each specific plant and how we can use it.Some botanologists help us. Many of us don´t remember anymore, we learn, we will learn better and better. We have decided to learn about the medical plants because we don´t want to buy medicines from the goverment´s pharmacy.We struggle for the right of women , we struggle for the right of women to health and not being alone and locked in their house when they are sick.We fight for the right of the abused women.Our ancestors cannot see us but we will continue to resist.”

As , they want to save their civilazation that their grandfathers left behind the zapatistas men make a documentary video archive for the medical plants of Chiapas and the history of their efforts to resist and create.As they told :
“Our kids have to know about their culture and their historty , this documentary archive video and the book is important for them.We , the Zapatistas men , are in resistance together with the Zaopatistas women about the medical plants.We work together with the women as a media infromation”.
Also they want to create a book about the plants so their kids and all the people will know how to use the medical plants.

They explained to us their specific needs :
1) medicines
2) surgury instruments for birth process
3) clinic instruments, beds and bed sheets
4) blankets
5) water tanks
6) financial help for the nurses
7) specific doctor knife for the cutting of omphalus during birth process
8) hospital chairs for the handicaped and the unable

for the nurses that are responsible for the birth process:
1) gloves
2) needles
3) stithoscopio

for the medical plants project
1) instruments and material to create paste and various herball liquids
2) bottles for herball liquids
3) stickers for labels of the products
4) a building to accomodate properly their work

WE TRAVELL IN CHIAPAS TO THE AUTONOMUS INDIGENIOUS COMMUNITIES OF ZAPATISTAS

We travel from San Christoball into the jungle of Chiapas.
We travel from the autonomous university of Zapatistas to the autonomous indigenious communities in Chiapas, to the autonomous Caracol (civil centre) of Garrucha, a place without state control , outside the racism and the dictatorhip of the state autority. We travel to the land of the revolved indigenious people who fight to save their culture, who want to save the civilization of their ancestors,a civilazation of resistance for the last 500 years. We travel from capital cities with luminous advertisments of beautifull women, cars, mobiles and luxury markets to autonomous villages with colourful graffiti painted walls, autonomous hospital, self-organised dentist, pharmacist, doctor, nurses, teachers, autonomus school, a christian church of ´´catholicism of liberation´´.
Caracol Garrucha is one of the 4 existing Caracolls that are the civil centers of the Autonomus Municipalities of the Zapatista Indigenious people, the local center of Assemblies of Good Covernance the open space of dialogue, decision and practise for Autonomia.
We travel from the luxury of the west civilazation into the woods and the corn plantations... sleeping in hammacs, cooking, eating, speaking and living together with inssurected indigenious zapatistas.
We met people who fight to live in dignity, who struggle against the exploitation of goverment, who fight because they don’t want to follow the plans of neoliberalism, a life structured by the state and the economic elites. We live with people that they only have their bodies, their spirit, their imagination, the power of their culture to resist, dream and fight back.
Zapatistas have put in practice the Autonomia cause they are an enemy of the state. They are an enemy of the state because they are putting in practice the Autonomia. Zapatistas Indigenious people manage to take back the Earth that belongs to them from rich feuodalists and members of the local state goverment.
For the Zapatistas ,
WITHOUT THE EARTH
THERE IS NOT EXISTING
AUTONOMIA.
With Autonomia and Revolt they have now more than they even dreamt but now they have to defend theirselves, to defend their plans, their projects, their future.
We travel from cities with people wearing the mask of capitalism to autonomous communities with people wearing the black masks of revolutionaries and we see their true face through their big smiles...
IN THE BACK SIDE
OF THE BLACK MASKS
EXISTS
A WIDE OPEN SMILE.