31/12/2006

Today, the second day of the first meeting of the Zapatistas with the people of the world and with the grounds of Oventik still covered in mist, began the first work session on autonomous education - the ‘other education’. The table began with a discussion of the autonomous education system that has been established in Zapatista communities since government teachers were run out of the communities in 2000. Members of the Good Government Councils representing the 5 caracoles – La Realidad, Oventik, La Garrucha, Morelia and Roberto Barrios – along with representatives from the education commissions of many of the autonomous municipalities spoke of both the gains and obstacles of the past 6 years constructing autonomous education. Following this period, which allowed each Council 20 minutes to speak to education in their region, was a short question and answer period and the table was closed with the commentaries and participation of delegates from throughout Mexico and the world.

It made clear the differences in the pace with which the schools and educational promoters are advancing, but also clear was the shared desire for the creation of an educational system of liberation rather than domination. All members addressed the history of education in their communities and the reasons for the rejection of government teachers. In addition to the facts that the teachers often came from the cities and therefore had little real commitment to the communities, couldn’t communicate with the students in their native tongue and were often abusive towards the children, after the uprising in 1994 there were fears that teachers came to the communities as spies and the military was often involved in bringing supplies to the communities. Beyond these problems was the recognition that the material being taught, created by a government that is not only abusive but also ignorant of life in the communities, was not serving either the children or the community to address their own problems.

In 1999, after communities had been meeting to discuss this situation, it was decided in assembly that they would begin to name people from their own communities as educational promoters that would take the place of government teachers. The testimonies shed light on the difficulty of this process, which involves training educational promoters and constructing schools in a situation where resources are scarce, but nevertheless all Councilors demonstrated their commitment to the process as the only way to return dignity and respect to their schools. Although the process continues slowly, the hundreds of educational promoters that are currently providing thousands of Zapatista children with a bilingual education in the basic subjects of mathematics, history, language and natural sciences, as well as special focuses on the Zapatista demands, agroecology, and the integration of the theory of the classroom with the practice of community work and life.

Following this presentation and a brief question and answer period, Otra Campaña adherents from throughout Mexico and the world took the microphone to speak of their own struggles for autonomy in education. Representatives from the autonomous schools of Xinaxcalmecac in Los Angeles, La Platforma Mexicana in Madrid joined members of Ya Basta! from Italy, Acción Zapatista and RadioZapatista from California, U.S.-based Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, the Normal Mactumatzá in Chiapas and representatives of Section XXII of the Teachers Union in Oaxaca to speak to the various struggles that organized communities throughout the world are encountering in education.

Whether with the discourse of autonomy or popular power, there was general agreement that institutions of education only serve to educate within a certain, in this case capitalist, framework. As much in the city as in the countryside, there is a realization that it is only working against or outside of these systems that a truly liberatory and critical education can be achieved. Merely changing the content does not affect the relations of power exercised within the classroom and with that in mind, not only the Zapatistas in Chiapas, but people throughout the world are struggling to teach by learning, speak by listening, and govern by obeying.