Together We Face the Storm

To our compañerxs who seek out communication and solidarity with diverse communities and ways of being in a world fraught with division.

To all who defend life against destruction wrought by capitalism and its myriad systems of domination.

As the seasons remind us that yet another year is coming to a close, now is a time to reflect and fortify ourselves. While we might say that 2024 is one for the books (of insanity), it is just one more iteration in a system that cares not for trees, rivers, other-than human creatures or peoples. Whatever we may be feeling in this moment —despair, rage, a desire to flee, or a deep resolve to organize like never before — we are not alone.

In our work every day, we see communities in resistance who persevere in organizing, who continue to work on autonomous education and health in their villages, who keep up the struggle to defend the Earth despite the violence they face (from organized crime, state-subsidized and otherwise). From them, we draw our inspiration. Together, we overcome our fear and we continue to build.

Compañerxs, this year has presented indigenous communities throughout Chiapas with extreme threats to their physical, material and spiritual well-being. On October 16th, the EZLN denounced a series of aggressions, supported by authorities from the municipality of Ocosingo, against one of its support base communities 6 de Octubre, announcing that they would be severing all communications for the foreseeable future.  Then on October 20th, the murder of Padre Marcelo, a beloved priest and defender of life, delivered a knife to the heart of the people. Two weeks later 20,000 people came out in the streets of San Cristóbal to demand justice and an end to the violence.

In the organized indigenous communities of Chiapas and Mexico, we see important models of sustainable autonomy and a struggle which places the defense of territory on the frontlines of the confrontation between the plunder of the Earth and its care. Like these courageous peoples, we must organize to cultivate those spaces of support and strength both in our communities locally and internationally. We share the collective responsibility of caring for one another, and of protecting this beautiful planet we call home. 

With that, we want to thank you for the support you bring to our work with communities in struggle and ask you to continue to hold space for them in your hearts.

In 2024, Schools for Chiapas continues to support the processes of autonomy and community resilience, such as those that we have accompanied in Zapatista territories in the past. The Zapatista caracoles have remained closed to outside collaboration due to the ongoing external threats. However, we have expanded our work with organized non- Zapatista communities aligned with Zapatista principles on the coast of Chiapas, in the highlands, and through numerous collaborations in San Cristóbal. 

Your generous support in 2024, from donations, to taking action, to social media sharing keeps our work vital. There is no end to the work to be done.  So friends, if you can, we ask that you consider making us a part of your regular routine. A one-time or recurring donation, a purchase from our online store, or even just sharing the work that we do helps communities in resistance build autonomy.

Our accompaniment of organized communities continues in these key areas:

Community Health Autonomy

This year we have organized and facilitated three workshops in herbal medicine and health autonomy with the Mujeres en Rebeldía de la Costa (Women in Rebellion of the Coast). The first focused on prevention and treatment of common pulmonary, digestive and insect-borne illness and tincture preparation. The second on treatments for skin and medicinal microdoses. The third, on women’s health. These workshops bring community representatives together to share knowledge, and take control of their own health through preventive and holistic care.

Your generous support provides resources for equipment, expertise, materials and transportation. In the coming year, we will be building on this curriculum and looking to bring more communities together in autonomous health. 

Community Education and Literacy Promotion

In January, as a pilot project for future work, we began working with a Tsotsil educator to develop a curriculum to support community education promoters. In these months, determined parents have gathered for more than 20 workshops in emergent pedagogies to address literacy, mathematics, history and other curriculae. Now, in addition to their day jobs, and the continuation of their learning and teaching, these parents will begin building a schoolhouse of its own.

Your generosity has provided funds for the instruction workshops, materials and now, the school! In the coming year we will be reproducing this work in support of other communities, collectives and organizations with their educational formation for resilience and autonomy.

Sendas

As we enter our third year in Sendas, the collaborative cultural center has continued to be a vital space for organizing, art and community education. As a base of operations alongside other collectives, we use the space to garner support for the thousands displaced by violence in the state and the unjustly incarcerated. On Tuesdays and Thursdays of every week, we offer open conversations on the current political context, migration, and human rights. This year in collaboration with the Frayba Human Rights Center, we have provided orientation and training for 11 groups of human rights observers. Sendas is our home base, and one of the key places that you can look to participate in and support the work that we do. In these precarious times, your donations sustain all of these efforts and  a unique community nucleus.

Women’s Organizing and Autonomy

Indigenous women face disproportionate threats of rising violence against their bodies and communities while bearing the responsibility for maintaining families (feeding, clothing, education of the children). This role puts them at the core of community autonomy and land defense. We are committed to supporting spaces of organizing and analysis where these women can gather to weave stronger networks to share and to nurture one another. This year we offered resources for transportation to two state-wide gatherings of  VI Assembly of the Movement of Women for the Defense of Mother Earth and Our Territories. Organized by Frente Totonalteco and Antseltik Tsunu’un, women from across the state met to analyze their situations in the current context and discuss solutions.

Education and Advocacy

Our work depends on following and analyzing the struggles of indigenous peoples in Chiapas and in Mexico, from local and geopolitical perspectives. In addition we collaborate with networks in Chiapas and the Sexta Grietas del Norte network here in the U.S. to promote solidarity and action. We dedicate ourselves to sharing these perspectives, urgent action alerts in our weekly blog digest, and through educational events in Sendas . Education is power, people power.

Online Store

In tandem with our collaborators in Sendas, ImagenArte, we work with communities in struggle in the development of products for local and international markets to bring in much-needed resources. Our goal is to disseminate the value of solidarity economies, build connection, and strengthen capacity in the communities.

Friends, to all of you who make the sorrows of the earth your own, we thank you for everything that you do in struggle for that world in which all of our humanity and the other beings of the planet can coexist. In this season, we wish you time for reflection, camaraderie, and yes, also celebration as we forge ahead in the work to be done. Even as we face this storm, we prepare for the day after. 

Wishing you the best of the season, in spite of it all. We are humbled by your support.
In solidarity in our common struggle,

All of us at Schools for Chiapas.

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