Democracy Ateneo Announcement 1-19-13

Compañer@s,

The ateneo scheduled for this Saturday, January 19 follows on the heels of the EZLN's mobilization during the early hours of December 21, 2012. The 40,000 strong mobilization flowed in from the five caracoles (La Realidad, Oventik, Morelia, La Garrucha, Roberto Barrios) and assembled in five key municipalities (Ocosingo, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Palenque, Altamirano and Las Margaritas) throughout Chiapas.  This most recent occupation echoes the intervention of January 1, 1994 with the exception of the execution in silence, "without arms, without death, without destruction" and in far greater numbers. (see, Communiqué of the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee—General Command of the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, December 30, 2012 <http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2013/01/02/ezln-announces-the-following-steps-communique-of-december-30-2012/>) The Zapatista's strategic display of force not only speaks to the success of their local autonomy but also to the challenges that remain in fulfilling the mandate of the San Andres Accords, advancing the mobilization begun with La Otra, and transcending the impact of the 4th World War throughout Greater Mexico.

Not surprisingly, the Zapatista's intervention continued in a series of communiqués and commentary generated by the political Zapatista space they made possible. The import of such a profound and strategic intervention was taken up at the Tercer seminario de Reflexión y análisis: Planeta Tierra movimientos antisistémicos <http://seminarioscideci.org/category/3er-seminario/> hosted by CIDECI-Universidad de la Tierra <http://seminarioscideci.org/esta-es-la-pagina-de-los-seminarios-del-cideci/>. "To know, study, and understand the Zapatista experience," Raúl Zibechi reminds us, "is more urgent than ever for those of us who live under the progressive model." (see, <http://mywordismyweapon.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-tenacious-zapatista-persistence.html>).

While Zapatista detractors and critics revive old claims that dismiss the Zapatistas as nothing more than political theater orchestrated by the personage David Ronfeldt and Armando Martinez describe as the "star quality spokesman 'Subcomandante Marcos'" (see, Ronfeldt and Martinez, "A Comment on the Zapatista 'Netwar'" in In Athena’s Camp: Preparing for Conflict in the Information Age <http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR880.html>, others continue walking a path that attempts "to go beyond solidarity." "Our first task is to defend Zapatismo," as Gustavo Esteva has recently remarked, a Zapatismo that no longer only belongs to the Zapatistas. (see, <http://seminarioscideci.org/category/audios-tercer-seminario/>)

Zapatismo, as was said long ago, is an intuition, a political ethos increasingly from below and to the left. Zapatismo continues to erupt in a variety of locales and across an ever growing rhizome of communities of struggle living the future they imagine in the present much in the same way Zapatista autonomous rebel municipalities are spaces where "another way of doing politics is already a reality." (see, Communiqué of the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee—General Command of the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, December 30, 2012, <http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2013/01/02/ezln-announces-the-following-steps-communique-of-december-30-2012/>) We are increasingly aware of the successes of the "one no and many yeses" because dignity always produces knowledge about itself. We benefit from the Zapatistas commitment "to learn to recognize the face and word of our fellow travelers." (quoted in Gloria Muñoz Ramírez <http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/4063-we-are-here-zapatistas-send-silent-message-with-the-return-of-the-pri> )

According to the Zapatistas, "they don't need us in order to fail." But, how do we engage the political decomposition currently underway in Mexico? How do we analyze the political violence that currently engulfs all of Greater Mexico? How do we confront the violence of political corruption, racial exclusions, and daily exploitation that are not contained within the fictions of national boundaries? How do we continue to share information about the multiple advances currently underway and build networks that go beyond capital, the state, and patriarchy.

We will convene the Universidad de la Tierra Califas' Democracy Ateneo, Saturday, January 19, from 2 - 5 p.m. at Casa de Vicky (792 E. Julian St., San Jose <http://www.casavicky.com/>) to continue our regularly scheduled reflection and action space in order to address these and other questions in relation to the struggles mentioned above.

South Bay Crew

NB: If you are not already signed-up and would like to stay connected with the emerging Universidad de la Tierra Califas community please feel free to subscribe to the Universidad de la Tierra Califas listserve at the following url <https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/unitierracalifas>. Also, if you would like to review previous Democracy Ateneo announcements and summaries, they can be accessed from <https://www.box.com/s/liojs7y9zv1fsf19atq1>. For more information on the ateneo more generally, please see <http://ccra.mitotedigital.org/ateneo>.