Marcos Explains Zapatista Intentions and
Thinking to those on the Left
Originally published in
Spanish by the EZLN
************************************
Translated by irlandesa
[The
following is a transcript of the words of Subcomandante
Insurgente
Marcos, from a recording made on
The Other Campaign Begins
Words
of Subcomandante Insurgente
Marcos
Meeting
with Political Organizations of the Left
Tzeltal Selva Region
I
want to more or less explain to you about the format we're proposing: our
proposal is that first we're going to talk and to explain some questions about
the Sexta, about what we're proposing, and maybe
there we'll be able to respond to some doubts you sent us, like what about López Obrador, like what happened
with the CND, all that, and then we'll have a bit of a rest, and we'll listen
to your words. Then there's two possibilities: those
who want to speak in front of everyone, and those who want to talk with the Zapatista
leadership behind closed doors, with the understanding that the closed door
meetings aren't clandestine. Everything that's said we're going to make public
with all those people who are joining the Sexta, but
there are things that are better presented in brief, then the organizations
which come can agree to speak their word here and have a meeting separately.
Our work is serious, and we're going to be here all day and all night resolving
your questions.
Let
me again repeat the welcome from the compañeros of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous
Committee, the compañeros
and compañeras
who are here, Comandantes
and Comandantas
who are part of the Sexta Committee, in this case
they're compañeros
from the Tzeltal Selva
region, as in this case, there are compañeros and compañeras who were volunteers for the work of the Sexta, from the Border region which is the Tojolabal region, from the region of Los Altos which is the
Tzotzil region, the Northern region which is the Chol region, and the Tzotz choj region, which is the one you know as Altamirano. Some of them will be at some meetings, and
you'll see others at other ones. Their main work is to present all of you, to
inform the support bases as to what is being expressed. My work is to act as a
bridge between the Comandancia
and the Committee or the organizations, persons, groups, who are going to be
working with us in the Sixth Declaration.
Today
the meeting is with political organizations. A political organization is one
which lays claim to being a political organization, as it says in the San Andrés
Accords: indigenous is that which lays claim to being indigenous, political
organization is that which lays claim to being a political organization. We
know there are compañeros
who are planning to come on their own, they'll all be well received, but at every
meeting preference will be given to the word, attention to the proposals being
made, which in this case will be political organizations. If, however, people
come on their own, they'll be welcome, but we ask them to respect the compañeros whose
turn it is, that's how the words will go. Now it's the turn of the political
organizations of the left, and we want to thank them for having come. In the
first place, because the relationship between the EZLN and the political
organizations of the left has been bad, primarily because of our clumsiness and
our inexperience starting in January of 1994 in figuring out what the national
scene was and the work those organizations were doing in different places.
Nonetheless, in spite of the fact that it was basically our fault that our
relationship had been damaged, at no point have we questioned the legitimacy
you have gained in the social movements with the people who have responded. The
recognition and admiration you've provoked in us, at this stage of the game, with
the entire neoliberal and capitalist offensive, people who define themselves as
being leftist to participate no matter what happens, especially when it's the
fashion to be centrist or moderate right. The majority of the organizations of
the left which are present here are engaged in important work, they work with
the base. You have our guarantee that we recognize that work, not only are we
not going to question it, we're going to publicly recognize it when we're
participating.
We
know that you ran risks in coming here, because no matter how much is said, the
EZLN is still a different political-military organization, and it is weighed
down by different kinds of threats - what are they called?..."rule of
law." We know, then, that when you come here to be with us, or to
establish a relationship with us, you are running a risk. I believe all those
organizations which are present here are aware that we are going to be
confronted with a very intense campaign of disparagement, greater than the one
the UNAM Strike movement of 1999 received, and I'm sure that there are many
bets in many places that this is going to fail, and that any attempt to make
accords with the left is destined to failure by definition. And, therefore, the
EZLN's initiative of trying to have relations with
other organizations of the left is bound to fail. We're willing to fail, like
we failed before in our relationship with that party - I believe, I'm not quite
sure, it's the Revolutionary Democratic Party [PRD], with what was cardenismo a long
time ago and with certain sectors, let's say progressives, intellectuals, civil
society.
Starting
with these assumptions, we want to make it clear,
first, that the Sixth Declaration posits two levels of relationship: direct
participation, under equal circumstances with us in the planning and carrying
out of the Other Campaign. I don't know what your thoughts are concerning the
length of time, but we're not thinking about an action like the March of the
1,111 or the Consulta
of '99, nor the March for Indigenous Dignity: we are thinking about political
work of a decade - ten years - to refute the 6 year administration plan - if
it's less, we'll give it our all. In this regard, even though it's being
presented in the face of the 2006 election, what the EZLN is proposing in the
Other Campaign goes beyond that, not just in its political positions, but also
in its calendar, despite the fact that the EZLN comes and goes during the
elections, and it will continue the work independently of what is going on in
the electoral process. The invitation we are extending to those who are joining
in with the Sixth is for them to participate with us under equal circumstances,
in the framework of the preparation meetings, which is what this is right now.
We decided, we're the hosts, we have the order of the
day. Our thinking is that after these meetings are over, it won't be like this
anymore, but in accord with the political and social organizations, NGOs and
with all those people who are going to be coming, a kind of agreement will be
reached, and then we'll be there sometimes in order to clarify things, as the
work is being agreed to.
The
other level of relationship with the EZLN is that of proposing bilateral
relations, they could be separate from participation in the Other Campaign. The
political organizations of the left would be interested in organization to
organization relationships with the EZLN. This could be done through common
accord. It doesn't involve having to be in just one. I would ask you, please,
to announce in your organizations that you can be in both, in just one or in
neither. I would like to repeat that we thank you very much for having passed
through the communities in order to come here or where you're going to pass
through, with the hope that things turn out well.
During
this first meeting, we're going to give preference to those organizations which
have said they support the Sexta. We know there are
organizations which have come to express other problems, but the meeting that
was convened is clear. We don't refuse to speak with others, but first we'll do
so with those who are supporting the Sexta, then, if
there's the time and the means, those who wish to propose something else can do
so, and we're going to listen to them.
I
am telling you clearly that we are going to listen with respect, but any
argument regarding supporting López Obrador's candidacy or the PRD is doomed to failure with
us. If anyone has the patience and the guts to hear arguments in favor of that,
we won't object, not us.
There
have been 12 years of seeing what a party has done. If anyone has any doubts as
to what López Obrador is
proposing, I have here the summary of the interview he gave the New York Times, and the Financial Times, along with the 50
commitments, along with his history as head of the government of DF and along
with the history of the PRD. If anyone says there are bases inside the PRD
which should be rescued, rescue them. Not us.
If
you want to debate the possibility of the PRD and the left, we can bring the compañeros who
were shot by paramilitaries in Zinacantán, all the
committees who turned their backs when the indigenous law was voted on, the compañeros from
these villages who have been attacked by the PRD ORCAO, the compañero who was kidnapped and
tortured by the PRD CIOAC, and all those who have been systematically attacked
by that party which says it's leftist.
We're
not going there.
If
someone wants to tell us something about this, then we'll listen to it and all
that, but we're going above the PRI, against the PAN and against the PRD. No
one should have any room for doubt, but if any of you think you can get a
deputy seat in exchange for raising a leftist movement or has the futile hope
that a large movement will move López Obrador to the left, agreed, we just ask that you be honest
with us and with the people. If you're going to plan that, tell us and tell the
people "our plan is this: we don't believe in López
Obrador, but if we create a big fuss, he might give
us a deputy seat." Agreed, it's a strategy, it can work or not, but be
honest with us. Don't tell us "no, what you're saying is very good. And,
below, what are you going to give us." We're not going to be frightened of
anything, really, but yes, what we're not going to allow is for you to be
dishonest with us, because we are indeed being honest with you. As of now, we
are going to share everything: if a proposal from Fox comes saying he wants to
speak with us, you're going to know. If Martha Sahagún
wants the Other Campaign to support her, you are going to know. If at the very
hour we decide to go with a suitable candidate, you're going to know. In this
regard, anything that could be kept secret, we're not going to keep secret -
we're going to share with you, and we're going to say what our position is. You
might not be accustomed to that, but what the Sexta
says is what it says, there's nothing else hidden.
There
are many definitions still remaining. I believe we're going to be on the same
wavelength - that a definition of the State is lacking, a definition of
position in the face of State power is lacking, of the nature of the organic
composition of capital, social classes, factions, the.... All of that is still
undefined for a simple reason - it's not the place to define them. The Sixth
Declaration doesn't say it's for socialism, because in reality our hidden
agenda is that we want to reimpose feudalism. Any
other definitions which are left unresolved there - in the Sixth Declaration -
we think are going to be the product of two processes: the development process
of the Other Campaign which means...and seeing what happens with the process of
the relationships between the EZLN and the organizations of the left. We think
that all those things which are unresolved in the Sixth Declaration are going
to be defined along with you.
You
can believe us or not, but we have been honest ever since we were born as the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation, in that it is our conviction not only
not to be the vanguard of a movement of transformation in Mexico, but we also
think that the movement of transformation of Mexico is the result of the action
of many political forces of the left, among which we are a part. This action
strongly needs the participation of workers, campesinos, students, workers in
the city and the countryside. We see as legitimate any organization of the left
which aspires to build and to participate in the struggle of all these sectors.
The
EZLN doesn't do work with workers, nor with students, their work is fundamentally with the
indigenous. We are not going to fight with you for the moral direction or
legitimacy which the popular worker campesino movement - or
however you want to call it - has gained. Nor are we going to fight with you
for the leadership of those movements. The Sexta is
quite clear - we want to join our struggles with the struggles of the workers
and campesinos,
we don't want to lead the struggle of the workers and campesinos. You have the work you
have, I'm not going to go into details here, you know, and you have earned the
legitimacy and the recognition of those people. It doesn't matter if you don't
appear in the media. The media and quantitative logic that an organization is
important according to the number of persons it has doesn't go over well with
us. We began with 6. When they say "don't talk with that
organization, because it's very small." If they're more than 6,
it's worthwhile, it can grow. And, if we're going with the quantitative, the
PRI would be seated there - in any event, it's the one that has the most
people. That's what we're asking you, to help us. We're not asking you to
follow us, nor to do what we're going to tell you to do. You have your work
with workers, work with students, with neighbors, with
campesinos,
with popular groups, non-governmental. We're asking you, then, to be the bridge
so the EZLN can listen to what the compañeros have to say about those points. The Sixth
Declaration is clear - when the EZLN comes out, it's not going to say that
wealth was formed because a little bee went and carried pollen to another.
Wealth has its origin in exploitation. We're not going to help you in that - we
want to listen to any word which is in keeping with an anti-capitalist movement
against exploitation.
If
the workers, campesinos,
students and whatever are anarchists, it doesn't matter, we want to talk with
them. If they are Trotskyites, it doesn't matter, we
want to speak with them. Maoists, Stalinists, whatever they
are, as long as they have a project and a proposal along the length of this
great anti-capitalist band. We want to hear it, one, and, two, we want
to see if it's possible to join our struggle with your struggle. That is what
we want, and that's what we're going for. The Other Campaign's proposal is not
one of drawing lines, it's not promoting armed struggle. It is going and asking
the people what they think, how they see things. We're not guided by polls. If
the polls say there's a large movement supporting López
Obrador, it's López Obrador's problem, and the
problem of those people being paid. What we want to hear is what the people
think about their problems, how they're resolving them and, above all, for them
to tell us of their experiences of struggle. You know about them, because
you're working there. We aren't going to tell the compañeros of San Salvador Atenco how to oppose an airport, how to organize a
resistance movement there. Nor are we going to teach the compañeros and compañeras from
the Retired Persons Frente how to resist the
offensive. We want to go and talk with you and to have you tell us what your
history was like and where you see the path, and we might find points in
common. And we're going to go everywhere we're invited. I'm letting you know:
we are going to fulfill the Sixth Declaration even if we're alone and if no one
wants to work with us. We're going to put up a sign that says: "Hammock
cords cut, chickens plucked."
We
would find it completely natural if we were to go to speak with some campesinos in a
region, and the brothers of one organization or another were to say "come
with us." What we aren't going to say is come with the EZLN. We're not
going to do that. The work of the Other Campaign means not promoting the growth
of one organization, but we would find it natural that you would promote it.
Let us make it clear in that regard that the EZLN holds its line, it will
continue promoting the appearance of new social subjects, the appearance of new
organizations, of new forms of organization and of new worlds. We're not going
to offer the people an organizational structure, but we'd find it natural,
normal and necessary for disputes over the campaign's political options to
indeed be offered to the people until they're persuaded and they enter into a
new political program. The Other Campaign is not positing a method for
transforming society - you are indeed clear on that.
We
are not going to promote people entering political organizations, but neither
that they not enter. It's not our problem. Our problem is trying to unite our
struggles. If the struggle of those from San Salvador Atenco
has a political leaning, it doesn't matter. What we want is to join our
struggle with yours, with the pensioners and retired persons of the IMSS, with
the students from UNAM, with the cultural movements, for the struggle for human
rights.
But
the Other Campaign is quite clear - we are not going to promote nor propose, we're not even going to toy with the possibility that
perhaps, who knows, depending on what they give us, we would support the
candidate of any of the parties. We are not going to do that. If someone here
were to tell us I entered the Other Campaign, but López
Obrador must be supported, we're going to be honest,
and we're going to tell you that's how you see it, because we're going all out.
We're not going to bespatter them, without firing a shot, compañeros, without campaign
teams, without image consultants, without paid television ads, and, alive or
dead, free or imprisoned, they're all going to pay for what they've done. We're
either going together to hold them accountable, or we're going alone, but
they're all a bunch of freeloaders, compañeros. They've mocked us and many other people, and
they're going to pay because they're going to pay. It doesn't matter to us if
they promise us something or other. This is what we want to say, and everything
is welcome. We are honest, and we are asking you to be honest, compañeros. We
don't know what's going to happen here, the movement might grow a great deal,
it might not grow at all, we might end up fighting...
The
moment might come when the movement is going to have to define itself at a
certain point. We're prepared to discuss all of this, but with these
principles, that no one tells us "we're going to participate in the Other
Campaign," and, just when they go up on the stage, says "compañeros, López Obrador has to be
supported." We're not going to strike out, but we're going to say
"Don't believe him." We're going to tell him here it is, read La Jornada, but also the New York Times. Then say what he's proposing, at least those who
say he wants to return to the populist past. He doesn't want to return to the
populist past, he's going to give us the knockout punch... In an interview he
gave to the New York Times, they
asked him if he was known for being authoritarian, and he said that social
movements demanded a strong hand...
They
know what happened there with popular urban movement during his government, but
even so, we made a bet. Not only did we lose it, but they betrayed us. Not only
did they betray us: they mocked us, they didn't respect us. We're prepared for
them to kill us, to put us in jail, to disappear us, but not for them to
disrespect us. And that's what we're going to settle, and not just that, if we
keep on hoping he can do it, hoping the other will, there's going to come a
moment when there are no solutions, compañeros. The discussion you're having is serious. If we
don't do anything, it's not going to matter anymore if you're a Trotskyite,
Maoist, there's not going to be a program anymore.
The
other thing we want to tell you is that we're going to respect the people in
this process, like we respect you. We still have to speak with the indigenous,
with the social movements, with NGOs, with collectives, with all of them, and
everything will come from the collective. And there's going to be a whole
series of suggestions and proposals which have to come out of everything that
results from these encuentros.
Now not just with the EZLN, but with the Other. The
EZLN has a position internationally which means, in the case of
I'm
going to tell you a story which I hope might help to answer, among others, the
question asked by the compañeros
En Lucha:
"What happened with the CND?" Because they ask, reasonably, "Why
are those who weren't convened by the CND now the ones being
convened, and those who were convened by the CND, aren't being convened
now?" We explain it like this - with the general idea that the
transformation in
According
to us, what happened later was a process of accelerated decomposition of the
political class which reached the PRD at the moment it won the elections in DF.
That decomposition process was so large it reached the point where personal
commitment as a cardenista
faction and as part of the PRD of promoting the demands of the EZLN and of the
Indian peoples, were no longer worth crap. With a simple political calculation
that went: "It suits us better if the EZLN stays in the mountains of the
Mexican southeast than to have them here, fighting politically like any other
organization." Then they decided: "It doesn't suit us to have them
doing politics, if we recognize the San Andrés Accords, the EZLN will be
engaging in open political work, it's better they stay there." That was
clearly a political calculation made in secret meetings. And at some point, I
don't know how, Cárdenas decided to support this proposal. For us, the breaking
point with the political class, not just with the PRD, was April of 2001, at
the moment when everyone agreed to vote on the Cocopa
law, and, according to us - we could be wrong - they said "no, this is
just the same old crap." According to us, it wasn't crap yet, it was still
in process.
Also
according to us, the decomposition process of the political class is so great
that there is no longer anything to do there. Certainly López
Obrador doesn't steal, but there's more than a
capacity to show it exists, unless they're betting on López
Obrador being a dictator, then yes. We understand,
then, that it's just useful, because a popular movement is going to be
generated around López Obrador.
We think not, but we can understand that some people might make this
calculation. If they want to go, go, we're not. To those who say there are
bases which should be rescued in the PRD, like Mario Saucedo says, that they
wear Zapatista shirts...then keep them well saved. If they're honest people,
then they're going to leave. We're not going to keep waiting, Zedillo, failed,
Fox failed, López Obrador,
hell, failed, and then, who's next, the niño verde?
Many
things are beginning to happen in this process on different sides, social
security.
This
meeting is a symbolic place for us. This was a finca prior to 1994, this symbolic
place. The finquera
lived there (in the building), the peons didn't enter it. The foreman was the
one who gave orders. The people living here are the ones who were the peons.
They are the ones who are now living on these lands. What the EZLN did here was
to run off the finqueros,
and the land was divided up, in collective work. I don't remember who said that
the land belongs to he who works it...We think that is going to be the process
at the national level, for campesinos as well as for workers.
And
that's how it is, there will be many options. We're inviting you to discuss it,
but we're telling you clearly, if you tell us the same thing as in 1994, that
the PRD is an option of the left, there are other platforms, and not with us.
What we saw is that we did everything we could, and we ran out of patience, for
all the support which reached the national and international level, what we
think is that we need to join together with other struggles. That is the spirit
of the Sexta. The other clear definition of the Sexta is that we think that an alternative for
transformation in
The
backbone of the Other Campaign is going to be the Indian peoples. Next week we
have a meeting with them, and we're going to suggest to them that they be the headquarters
for when the Zapatista delegation passes through when it does its work with the
compañeros
and compañeras
who join the Sexta. If the Zapatista delegation wants
to visit UNAM, it will go to those political organizations which it has a
relationship with, which it has worked with. There won't be a committee formed
like before.
We're
going to go about talking with the organizations which participate, but we
won't have any problem with you being in front of us. There are just things we
don't have to put up with. The Sexta's proposals are
to ally itself with other unregistered political organizations. It doesn't say
they don't fight for power, nor that the electoral
struggle isn't part of their strategy. Since the Other Campaign isn't engaging
in elections, we don't want it to be used for registering a candidate by those
who are registered. The problem we see is that, during the elections, they want
to involve that problem of supporting some of their candidates. The first
meeting with you is open, you can decide not to
support the Other Campaign. However, you can have bilateral relations, because
the position and attitude you assume are going to depend on many things.
Because if you decide to involve another area of discussion in the campaign
with the ideological enemies of the same band, they're going screw up, and the
proposals are going to fail, and the people who approached are going to move
away.
We
are proposing places of discussion, which, in the Other Campaign, we are
centering on making a national plan for listening to the main points where
struggles exist. We are not asking you to abandon the work you have in front of
you, but to help us speak with them. That you share your proposal for social
transformation with us, and, as well as in these 2 proposals, we will build
something else - we don't know what it will be. In addition to the penguin, we
are also putting our lives into this process. We're not asking you to risk your
lives nor your organizational structures as organizations. We are asking you to
respect us and to be honest with us. If you want to deceive the gringos and lie
that we're neoliberals, and at just the right time we'll turn around, say so,
and we'll discuss it. Let's be honest, not registered candidates, or NGOs with
registered support, or PRD...be honest...
The
way we're thinking about the campaign in these organizational tasks, we're
asking who's going to come in. Some here are going to say "yes, we're
in," and others "we're not coming," deciding who's coming,
sending delegates to the meetings which follow so they can have their delegates
from their organization for the Sexta.
Once
all the meetings are over, in mid-September we'll put out a document, a pronouncement.
That will no longer be from the EZLN, not just from the EZLN,
instead it will be signed by the organizations, individuals and persons who are
in agreement with it.
Our
idea of the campaign is, first we're going to send a person to measure how deep
the river is - if they don't kill him, if they don't disappear him, or take him
prisoner - according to the agreement we have with you and with other
organizations.
We
have to resolve that problem of what is going to happen to us. That, in broad
strokes, is what the Sexta proposes.
[Please
note: this is taken from a transcription of a verbal presentation, not a written document, and
it reads as such. Except for punctuation, I have
translated it literally - irl]