Democracy Ateneo Announcement 6-14-14

Compañer@s

We will convene the Universidad de la Tierra Califas' Democracy Ateneo, Saturday, June 14, from 2 - 5 p.m. at Casa de Vicky (792 E. Julian St., San Jose <http://www.casavicky.com/>) to resume our regularly scheduled reflection and action space and to explore some of the questions and struggles mentioned below. Please note we have altered the schedule of the Democracy Ateneo so that it falls on the second Saturday of the month.

By now most everyone is familiar with the treacherous attack by government supported Central Independiente de Obreros Agrícolas y Campesinos Histórica (Cioac-H) paramilitaries on the Junta de Buen Gobierno (JBG) in La Realidad resulting in the serious injury of fifteen compañer@s and the assassination of compañero Galeano. This most recent criminal act continues the Mexican government's investment in Low Intensity Conflict through the use of military force, economic aid, misinformation, and media disinformation to attempt to contain the successes of Zapatismo more generally and the achievements of the EZLN and the support bases throughout Chiapas specifically. While the counter insurgency efforts directed against the Zapatistas have been well documented over the years by the Zapatistas themselves through various communiques, interviews, media interventions, marchas, consultas, and, a variety of encuentros, this most recent attack speaks directly to the success of the Escuelita and the most recent phase of Zapatista autonomy. The denunciations by the JBG, communiques from Sub Comandante Marcos and Sub Comandante Moises, and the independent report by Fray Bartolome de las Casas: Centro de Derechos Humanos, Chiapas (FrayBa) all recount an orchestrated plan of attack designed to draw the Zapatista Juntas de Buen Gobierno and the Zapatistas into a military response that can be used as a pretext for a Mexican government final solution directed against the EZLN, the Zapatista support bases, and the caracoles.

The current national and international response to the provocations executed by the CIOAC paramilitary forces intended to disrupt the recent success of the escuelitas and caracoles echoes the earlier outpouring of support from the Zapatista solidarity community in 1995. All of over the world prominent individuals, groups, organizations, and, most importantly, adherents to the Sixth Declaration and participants in the Zapatista escuelitas mobilized to expose the most recent attack against the Zapatistas and the success of Zapatista autonomy. The intensity of the mobilization reverberated here in the Bay Area with a number of efforts that were part of a week of direct actions converging in a variety of street mobilizations, including a protest on May 22 in front of the Mexican consulate and a mitote. The mitote convened a number of groups to reflect on the most recent attack but to do so by also recalling the current efforts underway to implement the wisdoms garnered at the Zapatista escuelita. The mitote hosted compañer@s from across the Bay as well as from La Otra Tijuana and Rebeldía Zapatista to share struggles across regions and compare different efforts to pursue Zapatismo locally. In addition, a number of local projects such as Radio Autonomía dedicated to Zapatismo circulated information creating a profound sense of community --a community that accepts the cargo, or obligation, to enact Zapatismo locally in a variety of ways and to share that struggle.

Probably less well-known has been the specificity of the Zapatista response. Of course, much attention has been focused on the metamorphosis of Subcomandante Marcos into Subcomandante Galeano. Marcos' past performance and present execution as a political strategy to engage the West, including the media, the government, and the less patient Left, speaks to a Zapatista triumph in representing their struggle. It also reveals the Zapatista commitment to take the time to discover a device that advances their autonomy while also working as a vehicle to share their successes. Less examined has been the Zapatista success investigating the incident. The careful execution of the Zapatista investigation into this most recent provocation speaks to a longer history of Zapatista research into the racial regimes and class antagonisms of neoliberal capital. In this instance, the series of communiques issued by the Zapatistas provides a specific analysis of counter insurgency, suggests a strategy to manage these most recent provocations, and invites the participation of the larger Zapatista solidarity community to engage autonomy at a critical moment in a variety of ways.

Most importantly, the demonstration of the sophistication of Zapatista investigations echoes the grassroots efforts of self-organized communities to conduct their own research into all manner of neoliberal violence they have been forced to confront. All across the Bay Area and throughout the state, for example, members of our community have been taken from us by police and community violence. Many argue that in some Bay Area communities the police operate more as an occupying force than a community service. We have become increasingly aware that the hard-won infrastructure of civilian oversight has had little to no impact in curbing police excess. The court system has been all too eager to negotiate deals to manage heavy case loads overlooking systemic occurrences of wrongful convictions. In an era of mass incarceration, militarized policing, and targeted detentions and deportations, the growing phenomenon of police violence continues alongside our efforts to confront each tragic loss to our community. Individuals, groups, organizations, and networks not only remember those taken from us while supporting families who demand justice --committed to putting an end to police excess in our communities. To confront the complex violence at the intersection of mass incarceration and militarized policing many people have begun to invest in efforts to investigate and document police violence in order to share this knowledge across communities; inform larger publics about on-going cases of police excess, mobilize resources to secure justice, and to prevent future incidents. Although we insist on confronting each injustice, we have become increasingly aware that we can no longer address this issue one shooting, in-custody death, wrongful stop, administrative detention, and illegal beating at a time. Our efforts must focus on a broader, collective effort of community safety —a project authored and organized by ourselves, refusing to rely on the police to reform themselves or the courts to take care of us.

The Zapatista success in autonomy and their willingness to share it raises a number of questions for us locally. How must we respond to the recent and increasingly common police shootings from San Jose to Manteca, from Salinas to Stockton where members of our community have been targeted by paramilitary forces, often in the guise of local police, who target compañeros such as Antonio Guzman Lopez (San Jose), Osman Hernandez (Salinas), and Carlos Mejia (Salinas) for death. These compañeros were guilty of encountering police forces who could not see them. Who did not recognize the implements in their hands --all three gripped workman's tools at the moment of their being gunned down. These killings evidence strategies of an ongoing low intensity war waged across Greater Mexico. Communities continue to respond to these killings with forms of rebellion, protest, documentation, analysis, and assembly.

South Bay Crew

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