Sixteenth and final installment of the special commemorating the public appearance of the EZLN three decades ago. The author focuses on three possible lessons that “unsubmissive Europe” could have learned from the Zapatista Tour of 2021.
ELVIRA MEGÍAS
And, when, on any given day, someone asks you “what did the Zapatistas come for?,” together we can answer, without shame for you and without shame for us, “they came to learn.”
500 years later, the Zapatista communities came to listen to us.
Escuadrón 421, August 13, just 500 years later
This weekend marked the third anniversary of the arrival of the Zapatista airborne delegation, La Extemporánea, to Vienna, Austria, to begin the Journey for Life – Europe Chapter. 177 delegates, including Zapatista children, adults and grandparents, traveled through hundreds of cities of the so-called old continent, now renamed by the Zapatistas as Slumil k’ajxemk’op – which in Maya Tsotsil means Unsubmissive Land, or Land that does not resign itself, that does not give up. They were accompanied by a delegation from the National Indigenous Congress, in which the spokesperson María de Jesús Patricio, Marichuy, and different members of the country’s struggles participated. The Zapatista and CNI delegations toured a continent with a long heritage of exploitation and colonialism in what is now called the “Global South,” but which also has a different history of struggles from below and to the left, in solidarity with the dispossessed of the earth. It is with this Other Europe that they wanted to meet, not to reproach, to demand empty historical apologies or charity, but to find what makes us equal.
What began with shocking news on October 5, 2020, the announcement of the trip during a global pandemic in the communiqué Una Montaña en Altamar (A Mountain on the High Seas), today is crystallizing in a series of reflections of “impossible bridges,” gradually shared by the Zapatista communities in the latest communiqués at the end of 2023 and so far in 2024. It has also materialized in changes at an internal level in the communities, with the experience of the Zapatista journey serving as a tool for a diagnosis that they had been preparing for years in order to advance in their autonomy. It has also materialized in the consolidation and creation of old and new networks of resistance, respectively, not only between the Zapatista and CNI communities with the struggles of the Other Europe – such as the subsequent tours of “The South Resists” and “the Tour of the CNI and the ‘Frayba1’ for a climate of rebellion, 2023,” but also between and within the geographies of Slumil k’ajxemk’op; the Zapatistas wanted to infect us “with the virus of resistance and rebellion” and so it was. The fruits of the also called Zapatista Tour begin to be seen after three years, as in Mayan times, in their own time, resting, settling, flowering – or withering that which was meant to be.
This text is not exhaustive of what happened during the Zapatista Tour, but focuses solely on three possible lessons, presented as ‘photo-stories’ of the Journey, which I believe the inhabitants of unsubmissive Europe were able to experience with the passage of the rebel communities. Warning to sailors: it does not represent more than my opinion and experience. Despite having actively participated in the organization of, and during, the Travesía por la Vida, as well as in the subsequent reflections and evaluations of it, what is said here does not represent any collective consensus. This is an incomplete text, just a glimpse; a first rehearsal of other possible ones.
A (Zapatista) spiral staircase in Madrid
December 4, 2021, 11AM. In a few hours the women’s soccer match between Ixchel Ramona and the Independiente de Vallecas sports club begins. We are in an occupied hotel in Madrid, getting ready to leave for the soccer field in the historic working class neighborhood of Vallecas, in the south of the city. Have you seen this iconic photograph of the cover of the Beatles’ first album, Please Please Me, 1963, at EMI House in Manchester Square? The one with the four “bitles” peering down a flight of stairs. Imagine that image now multiplied by 177. I am in the hotel lobby, I look up and there is the photograph: the Zapatista delegation perfectly organized, with their covid-19 protection equipment judiciously placed, occupying the long four-story spiral staircase, waiting to leave for the gathering. The preparation and organization of the Zapatista delegations, maritime and airborne, was admirable.
They prepared months in advance at the “Semillero Comandanta Ramona2A quarantine construction in the caracol of Morelia, built specifically to for the journey[/efn_note” not only to travel during a global pandemic – many delegates had never left their community – but to break through all the bureaucratic, structural, racist and classist barriers of the Mexican system in order to leave the country. They came to Europe ready not only to share their word – a detailed history that spanned from their grandparents’ slavery in the fincas (plantations), to autonomy, resistance and rebellion today – to hear the stories of Unsubmissive Europe (as they were called before the French left used the term), but to record and document it; the tercios compas, the independent Zapatista media, captured every moment. Their level of organization may have short-circuited the ways of some activists in the old continent, to whom they may have seemed a bit “strict.” Nevertheless, we learned from their organization and discipline. The strong commitment to their communities and resistance was clear to us. Now we see that many of the indigenous delegates of the Zapatista Tour are the new generations who will take the baton – the baton – of the resistance of the rebellious indigenous peoples in Mexico. The Zapatista Tour was a leg in this relay.
One hot afternoon in Madrid, or the racist Europe that we are
Madrid, August 13, 2021. Weather alert: 39º in the shade, 43º in the sun. A sea of people sail against the intense heat to accompany an indigenous vessel. Squadron 421 returns to sea. A humble caravel makes its way through the streets of colonial and fascist heritage, with 7 Zapatistas on the bow. The Zapatista demonstration was hugely successful. In spite of the media blackout, this demonstration will go down in history; a group of indigenous Mayans took the Plaza de Colon 500 years after the fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan to say No Nos Conquistaron (We Were Not Conquered). The speech of the Zapatista maritime delegation was accompanied by thousands of people, convinced of the decolonial discourse and practice, necessary in a continent once again haunted by neo-fascism and neo-colonialism. At the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Mexican president insisted that Spain offer forgiveness to Mexico for the Conquest, while opening the way for European transnational corporations to continue plundering the country’s resources. Contrary to the inflammatory rhetoric of these times, the Zapatistas, upon arriving in Europe, thought only of expressing their gratitude: “above all, to thank them for having agreed to what we are doing today, in spite of their differences and contradictions. It may seem little to you, but for us, the Zapatista peoples, it is very big.”
But have we learned to listen? As the demonstration began, a fellow racialized migrant was assaulted and little was done to support her. During the Journey for Life, the tension between Eurocentric practices and colonial thinking, and the inclusion of and listening to migrant voices and practices was a constant. In different territories, racialized collectives denounced the exclusion and disregard in the organization of the Zapatista Tour. Paternalism, romanticization and condescension towards indigenous peoples also appeared during the tour. In “Una Montaña en Altamar” (A Mountain on the High Seas), the Zapatistas emphasized that they did not come to reproach or make judgments against the colonizers, but to listen to us. However, at times, the discourse of some activists was more similar to that of the Mexican president. Zapatismo does not strive for a romantic, contemplative relationship with Mother Earth, but launches a critique of the imminent capitalist destruction of the planet and urges action; it does not ask to defend the usos y costumbres (traditional community governance practices) recognized by the capitalist state but proposes a radical democratic practice that stems from autonomy. It proposes to be an agent of change and transformation and not a relic. (Ironically, in some communiqués such as the recent “Ahí va el golpe, joven,”(Sorry for the blow, lad) they critique this romantic vision of the loss of the indigenous identity of the Zapatistas, and express the hope that “Hopefully the anthropologists will arrive soon to save us”).
These tensions, however, allowed us to realize that Eurocentrism and the colonial gaze, in many cases, permeates our approach to indigenous struggles and those of the Global South in general. In some territories it made possible a conversation whereby it was understood that the struggle for Another Europe must be undeniably anti-racist and anti-colonial; the Legalization Now campaign, of which many people of the Zapatista Tour are participants, is a clear example. The words shared by the Zapatista and indigenous communities during the tour also invited us to rethink how we act and from where we think about resistance. Instead of falling into the discussion frameworks of capital and the ultra-right, the Zapatistas invite us to explore other paths: It’s not Putin or Zelenski, it’s not Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. It is not watching another apocalyptic movie and learning how we can destroy ourselves in order to survive; it is imagining and walking another possible world where we do not devastate the planet and we stop our possible extinction from El Común (that which is shared, or common).
A farewell, an early morning, a tomorrow
It is two o’clock in the morning at the beginning of December and I am touring the upper floors of the place that hosts the extemporaneous Zapatista delegation. Although it is not northern Europe, in Madrid it feels freezing cold, even more so without heating and with broken windows. Let’s remember that it is a hotel squat and, although we made our best effort to get it ready, there are some spaces through which the cold whistling wind blows. I notice that, in all the corridors, the mobile boilers are on to keep the internal walls warm. The corridors and landings are heavily used by our guests. I turn the corner to reach the last entrance on the top floor that I have to check, and here is the last picture I wanted to share with you: despite the cold and the tiredness, there are several compas in a room, all of them sheltered under the light of a small lamp, telling anecdotes that make you laugh, while they complete the work logs of the Travesía por la Vida (Journey for Life). I do not stop out of respect and it would that, despite the demands of the journey they have just completed, they find the strength to continue working until the last moment -of course, with guitar in hand everything is more enjoyable-.
Others, as they prepare to leave, perfectly arrange the sleeping bags donated for the Travesía on the wall of the main entrance, so that they do not get in the way. Although it was a donation for La Extemporánea, they think it is better that they stay and “serve for other compas”. (Some time later I learn that most of them were donated to the displaced people in Ukraine). The wall resembles a quilted swarm of bees and they, a perfect swarm of work. This image-story that I share is just a reflection of the human and moral quality of a movement that, against all odds and against every system of oppression and exclusion, manages to move forward an initiative that seeks to weave networks for life worldwide; without marking paths, strategies or ideals of what should be, but being receptive, learning along the way and asking, listening, with a human quality and radical discipline that has been seen little. Ingredients to change the world. With the Journey for Life, Zapatismo demonstrates once again its vocation as a local and internationalist movement, both anti-systemic and anti-capitalist, for life. It does not stop at the media strategy or the conjuncture of the moment, but walks building, yes, with its sights set on a new world, a world where many worlds fit, at least 120 years from now.
*We would like to greatly appreciate the support of the compañeros and compañeras of El Salto for the production and dissemination of this special series for the 30th anniversary of the EZLN uprising.
Original text by Everardo Pérez of Yretiemble published in El Salto on September 15th, 2024.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.