«Against ALL CAPITALIST WARS» a message from the Sixth Zapatista Commission, from the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
Sunday 13. From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast. Mexico, March 2022.
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SUNDAY 13
SIXTH ZAPATISTA COMMISSION. Mexico. March 9, 2022.
To the National and International Sexta:
To those who signed the Declaration for Life1:
To the honest people all over the world:
In agreement with some individuals, groups, collectives, organizations and movements of SLUMIL K'AJXEMK'OP2, the Zapatista communities have agreed to call for mass protests and solidarity gatherings against ALL CAPITALIST WARS, currently underway in several corners of the planet.
It is not only in Ukraine.
It is also in Palestine, Kurdistan, Syria, against the Mapuche people, the indigenous peoples all over the planet, and so many libertarian, autonomous processes under attack, persecuted, slaughtered, silenced, distorted.
In response to this call, we have agreed to join the Sunday actions on March 13, 2022, and continue with the activities against the wars that the system perpetrates around the world.
We propose then to start a worldwide campaign against the wars of capital, whatever their geography. Organize gatherings, gigs, festivals, assemblies, etc. In short, the arts3 against wars.
We call on all honest people, groups, collectives, organizations and movements in Mexico and the world to join in the activities to demand a stop to the wars, beginning on Sunday the 13th — in accordance with their own times and ways — and preserving their independence and autonomy.
For their part, the Zapatista communities will protest on Sunday, March 13, 2022, in their caracoles; in the municipal capitals of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Yajalón, Palenque, Ocosingo, Las Margaritas, Altamirano and in the roadside communities, with a few thousand Zapatistas.
Against all wars: all arts4, all resistances, all rebellions!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
The Sixth Zapatista Commission
Mexico, March 20225.
Enlace Zapatista. Part One: A DECLARATION… FOR LIFE. January 1st, 2021.
«Only very few things unite us:
That we make the pains of the earth our own: violence against women; persecution and contempt of those who are different in their affective, emotional, and sexual identity; annihilation of childhood; genocide against the native peoples; racism; militarism; exploitation; dispossession; the destruction of nature.
The understanding that a system is responsible for these pains. The executioner is an exploitative, patriarchal, pyramidal, racist, thievish and criminal system: capitalism.»
The continental mass previously known as Europe.
Addendum: Due to the possible conflation, we find it necessary to cite Subcomandante Moisés and Galeano, and their remarks in conclusion of the Zapatista’s contribution to the CompArte, in the Caracol of Oventik, on July 29, 2016.
«There is some science and art that is needed immediately, the kind that helps us imagine how to do it. There can be medium term science and art, and there is long term science and art that improves over the course of time.
For example: To even make something tiny that will contribute to the new world requires that we involve ourselves profoundly in the science and art of imagination, in the gaze, in listening and in creativity, patience, and attention. It requires that we think about how to move forward while building and many other things that must be taken into account.
Because what we want, or what we think about, is a new world, a new system. We don’t want a copy of what we have, we don’t want to improve it a little bit. This is a problem, we say, because there is no book or manual that explains how to create this new world. This book or manual hasn’t been written yet, it is still in the heads of those with imagination, in the eyes that are ready to gaze at the new world that they want to see, in the ears that are attentive in order to hear the new world that they want.»
We considered this reference necessary, to separate all commodified notions of “artistic resistance” from the terminology employed by the EZLN. Signed, T. A.
Subcomandante Moisés: «Art, brothers and sisters, compañeras and compañeros, is very important, because it is what provides us with an illustration of something new in life, something that illustrates something very different in real life—it doesn’t lie.
Art is so powerful because it is already real life in the communities where the people command and the government obeys, thanks to the art of the imagination and the knowledge of how to create a new society, how to create a life in common. Our art shows that it is possible to create another form of governing, one that is totally different, that it is possible to create another life working in common to benefit the community itself.»
Translated from the original in Mexican-Castilian by taller ahuehuete in solidarity. To read the original version, please click here. “COMISIÓN SEXTA ZAPATISTA México. 9 de marzo del 2022. DOMINGO 13”, EnlaceZapatista.
What event(s) on the 13th are being referred to? Are protests already taking place or are we being encouraged to organise them?