[g8-sheffield] Anyone not going to Scotland read on...

Fri Jun 24 18:13:23 BST 2005

Would anyone not going to Scotland like to do anything in Sheffield ?- I was
thinking of street theatrey sort of things.  It would be good to be able to
act spontaneously with solidarity actions if  things kick off in Edinburgh
or at Gleneagles

L
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From: <g8-sheffield-request at lists.aktivix.org>
To: <g8-sheffield at lists.aktivix.org>
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 12:01 PM
Subject: g8-sheffield Digest, Vol 4, Issue 54

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>    1. Re: Visiting the Commonplace. (Alice Collins)
>    2. Zapatistas: a letter of explanation, or perhaps farewell (Dan)
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> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 11:23:34 +0100
> From: "Alice Collins" <Angeltime at btopenworld.com>
> Subject: Re: [g8-sheffield] Visiting the Commonplace.
> To: "Benjamin Major" <complexitybenjamin at hotmail.com>,
> <g8-sheffield at lists.aktivix.org>
> Message-ID: <003f01c578a6$ca592030$9865fea9 at yourylehr3adon>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi Ben and everyone,
> For what its worth - I'm going up to Edinburgh 3rd - 8th on National
Express bus. It cost me £45 return. Don't know if there's still seats
available.
> I'd love to meet up with people in Edinburgh or at convergence centre.
> Love alice
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Benjamin Major
>   To: g8-sheffield at lists.aktivix.org
>   Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 10:55 AM
>   Subject: [g8-sheffield] Visiting the Commonplace.
>
>
>
>   Hi,
>
>   Have got in touch with the Commonplace in Leeds. They should be talking
to someone from the group (they didn't say who on the e-mail, is it Ruth?)
about joining forces at the rural convergence centre. I intend to visit the
Commonplace. I could either go on Sunday evening, when they have an actual
meeting about their G8 plans (this might be a good idea to go along to), or
I could go Thursday on the day of their general meeting. Anybody else
interested in coming along at either of these two times?
>
>   Also, for advice and inspiration, I also intend to do a visit of a
couple of more 'established' squatted social centres in London, but I guess
this'll wait until after the G8 now- but sometime in July def. Anybody up
for that one?
>
>   Finally, what is the latest that anbody on this list is going up to
Scotland? I made a date unwittingly, some time before I even considered
going up to the G8, for Saturday 2nd. I'm not sure how much I really want to
go to this other thing, but it's damn paid for now, but if anybody else is
going up later, i.e on the 3rd or on the 4th (Monday), then let me know.
>
>   All the best,
>   Benjamin.
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 11:36:46 +0100
> From: Dan <dan at aktivix.org>
> Subject: [g8-sheffield] Zapatistas: a letter of explanation, or
> perhaps farewell
> To: g8-sheffield at lists.aktivix.org, Ssf at lists.aktivix.org
> Message-ID: <42BBE23E.90808 at aktivix.org>
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>
> EZLN: A letter of explanation...or, perhaps, farewell
>
> Translated by irlandesa | 24.06.2005 09:06 |
> Globalisation | Social Struggles | Zapatista
> This is not a letter of farewell. At times it is going
> to seem as if it is, that it is a farewell, but it is
> not. It is a letter of explanation. Well, that is what
> we shall attempt.
>
> EZLN: A letter of explanation...or, perhaps, farewell
>
> Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
> ********************************
> Translated by irlandesa
>
>
> Zapatista Army of National Liberation
>
> Mexico.
>
>
> June 21, 2005.
>
> To National and International Civil Society:
>
> Señora, señorita, señor, young person, boy, girl:
>
> This is not a letter of farewell. At times it is going
> to seem as if it is, that it is a farewell, but it is
> not. It is a letter of explanation. Well, that is what
> we shall attempt. This was originally going to go out
> as a communiqué, but we have chosen this form because,
> for good or for bad, when we have spoken with you we
> have almost always done so in this most personal tone.
>
> We are the men, women, children and old ones of the
> Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Perhaps you
> remember us - we rose up in arms on January 1, 1994,
> and ever since then we have kept up our war against
> the forgetting, and we have resisted the war of
> extermination which the different governments have
> waged, unsuccessfully, against us. We live in the
> furthest corner of this country which is called
> Mexico. In that corner which is called "Indian
> Peoples." Yes, like that, plural. Because, for reasons
> we shall not give here, the plural is used in this
> corner for everything: we suffer, we die, we fight, we
> resist.
>
> Now, as you know quite well, it so happens that, ever
> since that dawn of the beginning of '94, we have
> dedicated our struggle - first with fire and then with
> the word - our efforts, our life and our death,
> exclusively to the Indian peoples of Mexico for the
> recognition of their rights and their culture. It was
> natural - we zapatistas are overwhelmingly indigenous.
> Mayan indigenous, to be more precise. But, in
> addition, the indigenous in this country - despite
> having been the foundation of this Nation's great
> transformations - are still the social group which has
> been the most attacked and the most exploited. If they
> have shown no mercy against anyone with their military
> wars and the wars disguised as "political", the wars
> of usurpation, of conquest, of annihilation, of
> marginalization, of ignorance - it has been against
> the indigenous. The war against us has been so intense
> and brutal that it has become routine to think that
> the indigenous will only be able to escape from their
> conditions of marginalization and poverty if they stop
> being indigenous...or if they are dead. We have been
> fighting to not die and to not cease being indigenous.
> We have fought to be - alive and indigenous - part of
> this nation which has been lifted up over our backs.
> The Nation for whom we have been the feet (almost
> always unshod) with which it has walked in its
> decisive moments. The Nation for whom we have been the
> arms and hands which have made the earth bear fruit
> and which have erected the large buildings, edifices,
> churches and palaces that those who have everything
> take such pride in. The Nation of which - through
> word, look and manner, that is, through culture - we
> are the root.
>
> Are we raining insult upon injury? Perhaps it's
> because we are in June, the sixth month of the year.
> Well, we just wanted to point out that the beginning
> of our uprising was not just a "Here we are", shouted
> to a Nation that was deaf and dumb because of the
> authoritarianism above. It was also a "This is what we
> are and shall continue to be...but now with dignity,
> with democracy, with justice, with liberty." You know
> this quite well, because, among other things, you have
> been accompanying us since then.
>
> Unfortunately, after more than 7 years committed to
> that path, in April of 2001, politicians from all the
> parties (primarily the PRI, PAN and PRD) and the
> self-styled "three branches of the Union" (the
> presidency, the congress and the courts) formed an
> alliance in order to deny the Indian peoples of Mexico
> the constitutional recognition of their rights and
> culture. And they did so without caring about the
> great national and international movement which had
> arisen and joined together for that purpose. The great
> majority, including the media, were in agreement that
> that debt should be settled. But the politicians don't
> care about anything that doesn't get them money, and
> they rejected the same proposal that they had approved
> years before when the San Andrés Accords were signed
> and the Cocopa drafted a proposal for constitutional
> reform. They did so because they thought that, after a
> little time had passed, everyone would forget. And
> perhaps many people forgot, but we did not. We have
> memory, and it was they: the PRI, the PAN, the PRD,
> the President of the Republic, the deputies and
> senators and the justices of the Supreme Court of the
> Nation. Yes, the Indian peoples continue today in the
> underbelly of this Nation, and they continue to suffer
> the same racism they have for 500 years. It doesn't
> matter what they are saying now, when they are
> preparing for the elections (in other words, to secure
> positions that will make them profits): they are not
> going to do anything for the good of the majority, nor
> are they going to listen to anything that isn't money.
>
> If we zapatistas pride ourselves on anything it's
> honoring the word, the honest and principled word. All
> this time we have been telling you that we will try
> the path of dialogue and negotiation in order to
> achieve our demands. We told you that we would make
> great efforts in the peaceful struggle. We told you
> that we would focus on the indigenous struggle. And so
> it has been. We have not deceived you.
>
> All the help which you have so generously contributed
> to this noble cause and through those means has been
> for that and for nothing else. We have used nothing
> for anything else. All the humanitarian help and aid
> which we have received from Mexico and from throughout
> the world has been used only for improving the living
> conditions of the zapatista indigenous communities and
> in peaceful initiatives for the recognition of
> indigenous rights and culture. Nothing of what was
> received has been used for the acquisition of arms or
> for any war preparations. Not only because we haven't
> needed it (the EZLN has maintained its military
> capacity intact since 1994), but above all because it
> wouldn't have been honest to tell you that your help
> was for one thing and to use it for another. Not one
> centavo of the help received for peace with justice
> and dignity has been used for war. We have not needed
> help for making war. For peace, yes.
>
> We have, of course, used our word to refer to (and in
> some cases to express our solidarity with) other
> struggles in Mexico and the world, but just that far.
> And many times, knowing that we could do more, we had
> to contain ourselves, because our efforts - as we had
> told you - were exclusively by and for the indigenous.
>
> It has not been easy. Do you remember the March of
> the1,111? The Consulta of 5000 in 1999? The March of
> the Color of the Earth in 2001? Well, imagine then
> what we felt when we saw and heard the injustices and
> the hatred directed against campesinos, workers,
> students, teachers, working persons, homosexuals and
> lesbians, young people, women, old ones, children.
> Imagine what our heart felt.
>
> We were touched by a pain, a fury, an indignation
> which we already knew because it has been, and is,
> ours. But now we were touched by it in the other. And
> we heard the "we" which inspires us wanting to become
> larger, to make itself more collective, more national.
> But no, we had said just the indigenous, and we had to
> honor that. I believe it's because of our way - in
> other words, that we would prefer to die before we
> would betray our word.
>
> Now we are consulting with our heart in order to see
> if we are going to say and do something else. If the
> majority says yes, then we are going to do everything
> possible to honor it. Everything, even dying if it's
> necessary. We do not want to appear dramatic. We are
> only saying it in order to make it clear how far we
> are willing to go.. In other words, not "until they
> give us a position, an amount of money, a promise, a
> candidacy."
>
> Perhaps some may remember how, six months ago, we
> started with the "what is missing is missing." Then
> fine, as is obvious, the hour has arrived to decide
> whether we are going to proceed to find what is
> missing. Not to find, to build. Yes, to build
> "something else."
>
> In some of the communiqués of the past few days, we
> let you know that we have entered into an internal
> consulta. We shall soon have the results, and we will
> inform you of them. Meanwhile then, we are taking the
> opportunity to write you. We have always spoken to you
> with sincerity, and also to those who are our heart
> and guardian, our Votan Zapata, the zapatista
> communities, our collective command.
>
> It will be a difficult and hard decision, just as our
> life and our struggle have been. For four years we
> have been preparing the conditions in order to present
> our peoples with doors and windows so that, when the
> moment comes, everyone had all the ingredients in
> place for choosing which window to peer through and
> which door to open. And that is our way. In other
> words, the EZLN leadership does not lead, rather it
> seeks paths, steps, company, direction, pace,
> destination. Several. And then they present the
> peoples with those paths, and they analyze with them
> what would happen if we follow one or the other
> course. Because, depending on the path we travel,
> there are things which will be good and things which
> will be bad. And then they - the zapatista communities
> - speak their thoughts and decide, after discussing
> and by majority, where we are all going. And then they
> give the order, and then the EZLN leadership has to
> organize the work or prepare what is needed to walk
> that path. Of course the EZLN leadership doesn't just
> look at what happens only to them, but they have to be
> bound to the peoples and to touch their hearts and to
> make themselves, as they say, the same thing. Then it
> becomes all our gazes, all our ear, all our thoughts,
> all our heart. But what if, for whatever reason, the
> leadership does not look, or hear, or think, or feel
> like all of us. Or some parts aren't seen or something
> else isn't heard or other thoughts aren't thought or
> felt. Well, then, that is why everyone is consulted.
> That is why everyone is asked. That is why agreement
> is taken among everyone. If the majority says no, then
> the leadership has to seek another way, and to present
> another way to the peoples in order to propose until
> we collectively reach a decision. In other words, the
> people govern.
>
> Now the collective which we are will make a decision.
> They are weighing the pros and cons. They are
> carefully making the calculations, what is lost and
> what is gained. And, seeing that there is not a little
> to be lost, it will be decided whether it is worth it.
>
> Perhaps, in some people's scales, there will be much
> weight given to what we have achieved. Perhaps, in
> other people's scales, there will be more weight given
> to the indignation and shame caused by seeing our
> earth and skies destroyed by the stupid avarice of
> Power. In any event, we cannot remain passive, just
> contemplating, as a gang of ruffians strips our Patria
> of everything that gives it and everyone existence:
> dignity.
>
> Ah, well, many turns now. We are writing you for what
> may be the last time in order to give you back your
> promised word of support. It is not little that we
> have achieved in the indigenous struggle, and that has
> been - as we have told you in public and in private -
> because of your help. We believe you can be proud,
> without any shame, of all the good that we zapatistas,
> along with you, have built up to this point. And know
> that it has been an honor, undeserved in any light,
> that people like you have walked at our side.
>
> Now we shall decide whether we are going to do
> something else, and we will make the results public at
> the proper time. We are now making clear - in order to
> end the speculations - that this "other thing" does
> not entail any offensive military action on our part.
> We are not, on our part, planning nor discussing
> reinitiating offensive military combat. Ever since
> February-March of 1994 our entire military presence
> has been, and is, defensive. The government should say
> whether, on its part, there are any offensive war
> preparations, whether by the federal forces or by
> their paramilitaries. And the PRI and the PRD should
> say if they are planning any attack against us with
> the paramilitaries they are supporting in Chiapas.
>
> If it is the decision of the zapatista majority, those
> who have helped us up to now in the exclusively
> indigenous struggle can, without any shame or regret,
> distance themselves from the "other thing" to which
> Comandante Tacho referred in the San Cristóbal de Las
> Casas plaza in January of 2003, two and a half years
> ago. In addition, there is a communiqué which
> establishes, from here out, that release and which can
> be presented in a job application, curriculum vitae,
> coffee klatch, editorial office, roundtable,
> grandstand, forum, stage, book jacket, footnote,
> colloquium, candidacy, book of regrets or newspaper
> column and which, in addition, has the advantage of
> being able to be exhibited as defense evidence in any
> court (don't laugh, there's a precedent: in 1994, some
> indigenous detained by the bad government - and who
> weren't zapatistas - were released by a judge,
> validating a letter from the CCRI-CG in which it
> released those persons from what the EZLN had done. In
> other words, as the lawyers say, "there is legal
> precedent").
>
> But those who find in their heart an echo, even if it
> is small, of our new word and who feel themselves
> called by the path, step, pace, company and
> destination which we have chosen, may perhaps decide
> to renew their help (or to participate
> directly)...knowing that it will be "another thing".
> Like that, without tricks, without deceit, without
> hypocrisy, without lies.
>
> We thank the women. All the girls, teenagers, young
> women, señoritas, señoras and old ones (and those who
> were changing from one to the other of those calendars
> throughout these 12 years) who helped us, who
> accompanied us and who, not a few times, made our pain
> and our steps their own. To all of them, Mexicans and
> from other countries, who helped us and who walked
> with us. In everything we did you were the huge
> majority. Perhaps because we share along with you,
> although each in their own way and place,
> discrimination, contempt...and death.
>
> We thank the national indigenous movement, which did
> not sell itself for government posts, for travel
> allowances, for the flattery that the powerful
> classify as "fit for indigenous and animals." The one
> which listened to our word and gave us theirs. The one
> which opened its heart, its home, to us. The one which
> resisted and resists with dignity, raising very high
> the color we are of the earth.
>
> We thank the young men and women of Mexico and of the
> world. Those who were boys, girls or teenagers that
> '94 and who nobly grew up without holding back their
> eyes or their ears. Those who reached youth or,
> despite the pages torn from the calendar, remained
> there, extending the hand of their rebellion to our
> dark hand. Those who chose to come and share days,
> weeks, months, years, our dignified poverty, our
> struggle, our hope and our foolish endeavor.
>
> We thank the homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals,
> transgender persons and "everyone in their own way."
> Those who shared with us their struggle for respect
> for difference, knowing that it is not a defect to be
> hidden. Those who demonstrated that courage has
> nothing to do with testosterone and who, time and
> again, gave us some of the most beautiful lessons of
> dignity and nobility we have received.
>
> We thank the intellectuals, artists and scientists,
> from Mexico and the world, who helped us in the
> struggle for the indigenous. Few movements or
> organizations can pride themselves on having had the
> backing (always critical, and we thank them for that)
> of so much intelligence, ingenuity and creativity. You
> already know that we always listened to you with
> respect and attention, even when we didn't share your
> points of view and that something of the light you
> shone helped to illuminate our dark paths.
>
> We thank the honest workers of the press and the
> decent media who showed, truthfully and to the entire
> world, what they saw and heard, and who respected,
> without distorting, our voice and path. We extend you
> our solidarity in these hard moments you are going
> through in the exercise of your profession, where you
> are risking your lives, you are attacked and, like us,
> you find no justice.
>
> And, so that no one is missed, we thank everyone who,
> honestly and sincerely, helped us.
>
> I said, at the beginning of this letter, that it was
> not a farewell. Well, it so happens that for some
> people it is. Although for others it will be what is,
> in reality, a promise...Because what is missing can
> now be seen...
>
> Vale. Salud and, from heart to heart, thank you for
> everything.
>
> In the name of all the zapatistas of the EZLN.
>
> >From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
>
> Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
>
> Mexico, in the sixth month of the year 2005.
>
> PS - You can see now that we aren't thinking about
> playing football. Or not thinking only about that.
> Because some day we will play against the
> Internazionale of Milan. We, or what is left of us.
>
> Translated by irlandesa
>
>
> https://www4.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/314765.html
>
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