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

[adriana]

What a good idea, by the way i've got a bib to return, i'll be there if
there is any informal gathering before Thursday July 12 please tell me.



Dan wrote:
> For a start, there'll be Thursday 7th July 12 to 1 slot on Sheffield
>  Live - the Filthy Radical Show again.  It's been suggested we get
> one or two people to call in from Scotland to tell the nice people of
> Sheffield (i.e. all two of our listeners...!) what's happening. It'll
> be on webcast too, and I'll upload em to Indymedia as I've done for
> the last three shows.  So there's one thing.
> 
> Mmm.
> 
> Dan ----
> 
> Lesley wrote:
> 
>> 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 ----- Original Message ----- 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
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> Send g8-sheffield mailing list submissions to 
>>> g8-sheffield at lists.aktivix.org
>>> 
>>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit 
>>> http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/g8-sheffield or, via
>>> email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to 
>>> g8-sheffield-request at lists.aktivix.org
>>> 
>>> You can reach the person managing the list at 
>>> g8-sheffield-owner at lists.aktivix.org
>>> 
>>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more
>>> specific than "Re: Contents of g8-sheffield digest..."
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Today's Topics:
>>> 
>>> 1. Re: Visiting the Commonplace. (Alice Collins) 2. Zapatistas: a
>>> letter of explanation, or perhaps farewell (Dan)
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 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.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> ----
>> 
>> 
>>> _______________________________________________ 
>>> http://www.sheffield.dissent.org.uk/ 
>>> http://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/G8 g8-sheffield mailing
>>> list g8-sheffield at lists.aktivix.org 
>>> http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/g8-sheffield
>>> 
>>> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was
>>> scrubbed... URL:
>>> 
>> 
>> http://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/g8-sheffield/attachments/20050624/4b0794c
>> 
>> 
>> a/attachment-0001.html
>> 
>> 
>>> ------------------------------
>>> 
>>> 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> Content-Type: text/plain;
>>> charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed
>>> 
>>> 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
>>> 
>>> __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!?
>>>  Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
>>> http://mail.yahoo.com
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________ 
>>> http://www.sheffield.dissent.org.uk/ 
>>> http://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/G8 g8-sheffield mailing
>>> list g8-sheffield at lists.aktivix.org 
>>> http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/g8-sheffield
>>> 
>>> 
>>> End of g8-sheffield Digest, Vol 4, Issue 54 
>>> *******************************************
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________ 
>> http://www.sheffield.dissent.org.uk/ 
>> http://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/G8 g8-sheffield mailing
>> list g8-sheffield at lists.aktivix.org 
>> http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/g8-sheffield
>> 
>> 
> 
> _______________________________________________ 
> http://www.sheffield.dissent.org.uk/ 
> http://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/G8 g8-sheffield mailing list 
> g8-sheffield at lists.aktivix.org 
> http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/g8-sheffield
> 
> 


-- 
"Porque o único sentido oculto das cousas
    É elas não terem sentido oculto nenhum" (A. Caeiro)

http://www.sheffield.dissent.org.uk/
http://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/G8
g8-sheffield mailing list
g8-sheffield at lists.aktivix.org
http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/g8-sheffield