THERE WILL BE NO LANDSCAPE AFTER THE BATTLE (Words by the EZLN on the invasion of the Russian army into Ukraine)

ZAPATISTA SIXTH COMMISSION. Mexico. March 2, 2022. As Zapatistas we do not support one State or the other, but those who fight for life against the system.

⏳ 5 minutes.

ZAPATISTA SIXTH COMMISSION. Mexico.

THERE WILL BE NO LANDSCAPE AFTER THE BATTLE (On the invasion of the Russian army into Ukraine).

March 2, 2022.

To those who signed the Declaration for Life:

To the national and international Sexta:

Comrades and Sisters:

We give you our words and thoughts on what is currently happening in the geography they call Europe:

FIRST.- There is an aggressive force, the Russian army. There are interests of big capital at stake, on both sides. Those who are suffering now because of the delusions of some and the crafty economic calculations of others are the peoples of Russia and Ukraine (and, perhaps soon, those of other geographies near and far away).

As Zapatistas we do not support one State or the other, but those who fight for life against the system.

With the multinational invasion of Iraq — almost 19 years ago — led by the US army, there were mobilizations all over the world against that war. No one in their right mind thought that to oppose the invasion was to side with Saddam Hussein. Now the situation seems similar, though not the same. Neither Zelenskyy nor Putin. Stop the war.

SECOND.- Different governments have sided with one faction or the other, and have done so on the basis of economic calculations. There is no appeal to humanity in them. For these governments and their ideologues, there are good and bad interventions-invasions-destructions.

The good ones are those carried out by their supporters, and the bad ones are those perpetrated by their opponents. The applause for Putin's criminal argument to justify the military invasion of Ukraine will turn into a lament when, by the same words, the invasion of other peoples whose processes do not please big capital will be justified.

They will invade other geographies to save them from "the neo-Nazi tyranny" or they will claim it is all to put an end to neighboring "narco-states". They will then repeat the same words muttered by Putin: "we are going to denazify" (or its equivalent); from there a vast amount of "rationalization" regarding "the danger posed by the people in such territories".

And then, as our comrades in Russia tell us: "Russian bombs, rockets, bullets – they all fly towards Ukrainian citizens, and these weapons do not ask them about their political ideology, or the language they speak", but the "nationality" of one or the other will change.

THIRD.- Big capital and its “Western” regimes sat back and watched — and even encouraged — the situation as it deteriorated. Then, once the invasion had begun, they waited to see if Ukraine would resist, calculating what they could get out of one result or the other. As Ukraine persisted, then they began to issue "aid" invoices to be charged later. Putin is not the only one surprised by the Ukrainian resistance.

Those who win in this war are the big weapon-manufacturing consortiums, and the big capitals that see this opportunity to conquer: to destroy-reconstruct territories, that is to say, to create new markets of commodities and consumers, of human lives.

FOURTH.- Instead of turning to what the media and the social networks of the respective sides disseminate — and which both present as "news" — or to the "analyses" in the sudden proliferation of alleged experts in geopolitics, sudden fanatics of the Warsaw Pact and NATO – instead, we decided to seek out and ask those who, like us, are engaged in the struggle for life in Ukraine and Russia.

After several attempts, the Sixth Zapatista Commission¹ managed to make contact with our family-in-resistance-and-rebellion in the geographies they call Russia and Ukraine.

FIFTH.- In summary, these, our relatives, who also raise the flag of the libertarian-@, remain firm in resistance: those who are in Donbass, in Ukraine; and in rebellion, those who work and walk the streets and fields of Russia. Those arrested and beaten in Russia for protesting against the war. Those killed in Ukraine by the Russian army.

They are united with each other, and with us, not only in their rejection of the war, but in their repudiation with the idea of "aligning" themselves with governments that oppress their people.

Amidst the confusion and chaos on both sides, they stand firm in their convictions: their struggle for autonomy, their repudiation of borders and their nation-states, and the respective oppression that only changes its flags.

Our duty is to support them to the best of our ability. A word, an image, a tune, a dance, a fist raised, an embrace — even from distant geographies — are also a form of support that will encourage their hearts.

To resist is to persist and to prevail. Let us support our relatives in their resistance, that is, in their struggle for life. We owe them this, and we owe it to ourselves.

SIXTH.- Therefore, we call upon [people in struggle], those members of the national and international Sexta who yet have not done so to manifest themselves — according to their calendars, geographies ways and possibilities — against the war, and in support of the Ukrainians and Russians who struggle in their geographies for a world with freedom.

We also appeal to unify and aid through financial support for the resistance in the territory known as Ukraine, in the accounts that will be indicated to us in due course.

As for the Sixth Commission of the EZLN, it is doing as it must, sending the small amount of help it can to those in Russia and Ukraine who are fighting against the war. Contacts have also been initiated with our relatives in SLUMIL K'AJXEMK'OP to create a common economic fund to support those in resistance.

Without bending, defiantly, we shout and call to clamor, demanding: Russian Army out of Ukraine!

The war must be stopped now. If it continues and, as expected, escalates, then perhaps there will be no one to account for the landscape after the battle.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés. SupGaleano.

Sixth Commission of the EZLN². March 2022.

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«Private ownership of the means of production forms the nucleus of the system. Built upon this class division (the owner of private property and the dispossessed)» – Sub Galeano (300, Part I: A Plantation, a World, a War, Slim Chances Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, SupGaleano). Illustration by taller ahuehuete.

Illustration by taller ahuehuete in solidarity. Archive: ahuehuete.org

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Zapatista Army of National Liberation.Mexico. Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona.

“The EZLN will establish a policy of alliances with non-electoral organizations and movements which define themselves, in theory and practice, as being of the left, in accordance with the following conditions:

Not to make agreements from above to be imposed below, but to make accords to go together to listen and to organize outrage. Not to raise movements which are later negotiated behind the backs of those who made them, but to always take into account the opinions of those participating.

Not to seek gifts, positions, advantages, public positions, from the Power or those who aspire to it, but to go beyond the election calendar. Not to try to resolve from above the problems of our Nation, but to build FROM BELOW AND FOR BELOW an alternative to neoliberal destruction, an alternative of the left.

Yes to reciprocal respect for the autonomy and independence of organizations, for their methods of struggle, for their ways of organizing, for their internal decision making processes, for their legitimate representations. And yes to a clear commitment for joint and coordinated defense of national sovereignty, with intransigent opposition to privatization attempts of electricity, oil, water and natural resources.

In other words, we are inviting the unregistered political and social organizations of the left, and those persons who lay claim to the left and who do not belong to registered political parties, to meet with us, at the time, place and manner in which we shall propose at the proper time, to organize a national campaign, visiting all possible corners, in order to listen to and organize the word of our people. It is like a campaign, then, but very otherly, because it is not electoral.

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To read the original in Mexican-Castilian, please refer to this entry on Enlace Zapatista.