Health, Education, Women and Production – Advances in Zapatista Autonomy
La Jornada Correspondent Hermann Bellinghausen writes from Morelia, Chiapas, 17 April 2005: translated by Edinburgh/Chiapas Solidarity Group

In the Zapatista Caracol ‘Whirlwind of Our Words’ everyone is working non-stop, without any fuss. Dozens of indigenous people, members of the autonomous regional municipality or from various committees, take part in courses, meetings, or discussions with other peasants. Sometimes they receive visitors from various parts of the world. Today for example a team of dentists are coming to deliver training and take consultations. According to the Committee of Good Government (JBG) ‘Heart of the Rainbow of Hope’, the most important aspects in the development of autonomy have been health, education, production and the situation of women. And they are doing “what they can” to progress these aspects of governing. The work plan of the JBG is set out on the wall - the office is a room equipped with archives, an old computer, two windows, a round table covered with paper, a lot of benches and some chairs. From 6am – 7am sport, 7-8 work, 8-9 breakfast, 9-12 work, 12-1pm refreshments, 1-3 work, 4-7 work, 7-8, evening meal, 8 rest. A full day - no pay and a lot of responsibility.


In the same way, every day of the week members of different autonomous councils and delegates from committees and work groups, share out cooking duties. This scene – the municipal president serving fried beans or washing plates with his comrades is not common in other places. In an unedited interview with the Buenos Aires (Argentina) /Chiapas solidarity network, this JBG talked about its function and the ideas which fed its particular autonomous government. “The important thing about autonomy in the Zapatista struggle is that it comes from the people, and it is the people themselves who organise to elect their authorities, and who together with the authorities carry out their work plans. We do not have the same job as the official government. In the official government one person or one specialist group dictates what everyone else does. In the Zapatista autonomy everyone governs. Here everyone gets stuck into the work, no-one sits all the time writing at a desk. Everyone reads, writes, plays. Everyone takes part in all the activities. It’s not the same as the official government where the president dictates everything eg ,”You lot go there and you lot come here.”
 
Everyone speaks

Perhaps this is the Caracol where more women (Tojolabal and Tzeltal) participate more significantly in the JBG, the vigilance committee and in the autonomous councils. As a member of the JBG says, “We benefit from this form of government, because it is a collective. Here everyone takes part, everyone speaks and we make decisions jointly. The JBG say, “The people saw the necessity. If you don’t realise, then everything stays the same. For example, health committees were formed. They took courses to learn about the knowledge of our ancestors and we rediscovered our traditional medicines. There is no alternative, because if you go to an official health centre you get no respect. And so our people said, “Why go there to die? We would prefer to die here with dignity with our own medicine. And because of this the people organised themselves, and went about appointing their committee. What is its work? To co-ordinate the health promoters in this village. How are they trained? Amongst ourselves. In addition, there is now more chance that someone from abroad or from another part of Mexico will come and say, “I am a doctor and I want to help.” We say let’s go forward, hand in hand.”

In this way, the Zapatista Juntas, present themselves as an alternative regional government, based on service to others in permanent conditions of resistance. Since 1994 there have been some notable advances like the creation of villages and the establishment of clinics. Today there is a secondary school in each municipality and a primary school in each community. The JBG try to get a fair balance between the autonomous municipalities. They have administered justice and resolved agrarian conflicts. All of this is achieved under military siege and costly counterinsurgency.


“We don’t differentiate between anyone whether they are supporters of the PRI party or not, we don’t just resolve problems between Zapatistas and between Zapatistas and non Zapatistas. We resolve problems between priistas as well. They believe in the official system, but the official government is so corrupt that sometimes even the PRI supporters cannot put up with it, and so they come here to understand.  We simply give them our word of reason. We tell them we want harmony and we don’t ask for anything.
 
One day in the life...
 
On this occasion, the Morelia JBG did not speak to the correspondent for a long time, but allowed him to see everyday activities in a caracol where everything happens in the open. One day in the life of a collective government is a lot of lives but not enough, we need more days. Their work is a constant need to think and make decisions.


“We see it as essential that our children change their way of thinking because if we continue to give them books with the same idiotology of the government, then we are going to turn out more idiots. Our grandparents say, “We are clever. What is it that has made us live up till now on a daily basis with so great injustice? Our wise people talk about this, “What are they going to learn outside? It is only superficial and our life is here. Out there our spirits will die. On the other hand in our villages, we learn about love, sharing and living together|”. In the interview given to solidarity groups in Argentina, this JGB says, “We don’t reject science, but we apply it from the perspective of our history. Here we are building a more humanitarian way of thinking. We are not just developing this in the individual, but we have men and women’s collectives in our villages. Each autonomous municipality has its work to do. For the most part what we produce we use to cover the needs of our municipalities. We work in whatever way we can, we are not guides for others, we are simply making our own reality.”