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MEXICO: the zapatistas started the "Other Campaign"!

zapatista esperanza | 03.01.2006 15:46 | Social Struggles | Zapatista | World

On january the 1th 2006 the zapatistas started the "Other Campaign" with a 20.000 people demonstration in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.
The "Other Campaign" means trying to establish a political counterweight to the ruling class in Mexico - and the world by forming an anarchist network of groups and individuals from below, worldwide...

the arrival of "Delegado Zero" - which is Subcommandante Insurgente Marcos
the arrival of "Delegado Zero" - which is Subcommandante Insurgente Marcos

zapatist in San Cristobal de las Casas
zapatist in San Cristobal de las Casas

the stage before the 20.000 people arrived...
the stage before the 20.000 people arrived...


- "CREATING A WORLD IN WHICH MANY WORLDS FIT" -


"La otra campana", the "Other campaign" is also the counterpart to Mexicos election campaign this year - "candidate" of the "Other Campaign" will be Sucommandante Insurgente Marcos - "delegado zero", wich means "nobody": the zapatistas don´t want to take control, to have power - they want an anticapitalistic, anarchist society. They want to create "a world in wich many worlds fit". "Delegado Zero", Marcos, will travel around all over Mexico and talk to groups and individuals. The city where he first arrived, and where the "Other Campaign" started, was San Cristobal de las Casas - one of the cities that once was occupied by the Zapatistas, when they started their rebellion in 1994.

At about 1 p.m. Zapatistas and supporters from all over the world met in San Cristobal. At 5 p.m. more then 20.000 Zapatistas with masks over their faces stood there without talking. It was a very strange moment. Then "Delegado Zero" arrived: People began to cheer and moved into the city centre, shouting slogans like. ”Zapata vive. La lucha sigue” "Zapata (a revolutionary farmer) lives. The struggle goes on."

A few hours later the City centre was full with Zapatistas. Fom a stage, 5 people, 3 men, and 2 women talked to them. The speeches were held against capitalism, "the culture of death", and aimed towards equality of men and women and towards and anarchist society.

The last who spoke was "Delegado Zero", Sub. Marcos, who stressed that the "Other Campaign" is not political mainstream, is not on the side of the institutionalised left, but is anticapitalist, anarchist and free.
He shouted: “Viva la otra campaña!”

At the moment the whole city of San Cristobal is full with Zapatistas wearing masks, talking, eating, sleeping. A truely surreal scenery.

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pics on:

 http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=116904

 http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=116858

 http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=116869

 http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=116862
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zapatista esperanza

Comments

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isms isms

04.01.2006 02:05

esperanza... you obviously mean well. but perhaps you are misunderstanding some things. im listening to the speeches in san cristobal and the A word is not mentioned by anyone! and i very much doubte that they did!

luna

understanding spanish

04.01.2006 20:45

I was also in the Zapatista caravan and speeches in San Cristobal and actually you're both wrong. Marcos did actually refer to anarchists, in the context of wanting them involved in building the other campaign. However, he absolutely did NOT stress that they were after an anarchist society. In the same context they ARE happy to work with the institutional Left, insofar as they support th aims of the Other Campaign. The whle point of it is that is is non-sectarian and build as broad a base as possible. Whether it would eventually be anarchist is open to interpretation (and no doubt, endless debate). Personally, i think the various Trot parties in Mexico, are very much part of the instutional left. Marcos, merely stresses that they will not cooperate with Stalinists.
Hopew that clears up any confusion, cant be arsed to write any more
cheers.

nick

to be an anarchist or not to be an anarchist....that is not the question

09.01.2006 00:16

Part of the problem of any social classification: defined by themselves or defined (as something) by others.

And anarchism is perhaps even more problematic in this respect because it can embrace those who act in a consistently anarchist fashion (but refuse the label,) and those who strive for it or desire a state without government yet don't act in a manner consistent with whatever variety of anarcho thought they feel they adhere to. And thats not to mention personal delusions and inconsistencies in action or professed aims.

...so even if anarchism was never mentioned i think most observers (plus political culture of organisation and political alliances inside and outside of mexico) point to zapatismo having a close affinity to many traditional strands of anarchism. nuff said?

blabedyblah