ELZN, by jay_m_s

ELZN
I just watched a really good documentary called Zapatista.
If you're able to get your hands on it I totally recommend it.

If you aren't aware of what the Zapatistas are or what's being going on in Chiapas, I wrote a short synopsis of a lot of the facts presented in this documentary.


If you weren't aware, there is a civil war in Mexico.
There has been for the past 13 years.

Article 27 of the Mexican constitution created public ownership of all land and water resources, forests, and mineral deposits. It also established the ejido system of communal land tenure.

1991, in preparation for NAFTA, Mexican president Carlos Salinas revised article 27 of the constitution to enable the buying and selling of any parcel of land.

1994 NAFTA is signed into law. The land which used to be communally owned by the people of Mexico has now gone up for sale to first world countries. The resource rich land of Chiapas no longer belongs to the indiginous people who've lived off of it for centuries. Corporations now want stakes in the oil, coffee, corn, and land...
Corporations who would rather determine wages by market demands and not provide a living wage for their workers want nothing more than to exploit the cheap labor in the south east of Mexico. The land that these people used to grow their food and corn is now being used to grow cattle for fast food restaurant, pump oil for Shell, and grow the coffee you buy on your way to work in the morning. All of which creates a profit for the already rich and feed those in first world countries. The people can no longer feed themselves off of what they make on their own land. This is a result of a decisions not made by the people of Mexico but by the world trade organization. This is neo liberalism and the US military enforces it. Our government is responsible for Anti democratic efforts by the WTO to control the world economy.
This is an attempt to buy and sell Mexico and turn the land that these people depend on for their culture and sustainability into a shopping mall.

That same year The Zapatistas National Liberation Army raises up and seizes several cities in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Despite first world armies rallied up against them and US interests in NAFTA The Zapatistas force the Mexican government into negotiations...

Feb 9 1995 the United States announces that it will guarantee a bail out of 47.5 billion dollars from the Mexican economy forcing the Mexican government to end a cease-fire on the Zapatistas and issue arrest warrants for Zapatista leaders. It was the beginning of what it known as the Great Offensive.

The Mexican military is sent in to arrest or assassinate Zapatistas.
Military patrols begin to viciously attack civilians. They've been known to pick up women and interrogate them on the whereabouts of the Zapatistas and torture and rape these women for answers. These attacks become more and more gender specific. Their strategy is to unglue the threads that hold the indigenous people together as they begin to specifically target women and violently attack them, torture them, and rape them.

The Mexican military acts in direct violation to Mexican law that says the military cannot camp or establish itself in civilian populated areas.
Today over 70 thousand troops are in camps surrounding the indigenous communities of Chiapas Oaxaca and Guerrero

Support grows for the Zapatista national liberation army in these areas because, in contrast to the Mexican government and their military, the Zapatista general command is elected out of the communities and every major decision is made by community discussion and direct vote. One half of the general command and a third of their armed forces are comprised of women.

In an attempt to evaporate Zapatista support, the government begins to target the civilian population to intimidate them and make it criminal for them to show support for the uprising. They attack civilian towns and force them to flee into the jungle. Civilian homes are burnd to the ground.

December 22 1997 Families seeking refuge in the town church of Acteal, in the municipality of San Pedro De Chenalho, were attacked by government sponsored paramilitary troops resulting in the death of 45 unarmed indigenous, 36 of whom were women and children.

So what does it mean to be a liberal.
What does free trade mean?
What does the tag on your shirt that says it was manufactured in a "free" trade zone mean?
What does it mean when countries give corporations guarantees that they will not allow their workers to organize?

here and there the struggle will continue.