"All we want is dignity and selfrespect, to live in each other’s glow, to not have to eat shit."

Celebration of Memory Is Also
A Celebration of Tomorrow
Subcommandante Marcos
*
SupMarcos is speaking to you,
in the name of all the men,
women, children and old ones of
the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation.
Our most ancient ones taught
us that the celebration of memory
is also a celebration of tomorrow.
They told us that memory is not
turning one's head and heart
towards the past. It is not a sterile
remembrance which speaks
laughter or tears. Memory, they
told us, is one of the seven guides
which the human heart needs in
order to make its journey. The
other six are truth, pride,
consistency, honesty, respect for
oneself and for the other, and love.
That is why, they say, memory
always points towards tomorrow,
and that paradox is what prevents
nightmares from be repeated in
that tomorrow, and so that the
joys - which also exist in the
inventory of the collective memory
- will be new.
Memory is, above all, say our
most first ones, a powerful
antidote for death, and an
indispensable food for life. That is
why the one who cares for and
guards memory is caring for and
guarding life. And the one who
does not have memory is dead.
The ones who were power above
bequeathed us a pile of broken
pieces: deaths here and there,
impunity and cynicism, absences,
faces and histories blotted out,
despairs. And that pile of rubble is
what they are offering us as an
identity card, so that saying "I am"
and "we are" will be an
embarrassment.
But there were those who were,
and are, below. They bequeathed
us, not a new world, complete and English, the Mau Mau
against the British
Empire, the Algerians
against the French, the
Vietcong against the
United States, the ANC
against apartheid
South Africa, and the
Intifada against Israel.
In our own country, we
take inspiration from
the stillborn national
liberation movements
of the Black Panthers,
the Young Lords, the
Brown Berets, and the
American Indian Movement.
We know that these animating
ideas of nationhood are the most
potent challenge to the tyranny of
market rule, but we are also aware
of the limitations inherent in
nationalism – that of patriarchal
control of women and crippling
heterosexism, of ethnic fratricide
and tragic partition. Tie down the
corporate enterprises and erase
the national borders where people
are concerned. Trace out in the
paths of migration a radical
solidarity. To transcend the pitfall
of national chauvinism and
retrenchment of Empire in the
form of neocolonialism, we
embrace the Irish Republican idea
of “home rule” and the Zapatista
idea of “Autonomy.” To this end,
worker’s syndicate, the food
cooperative, the housing collective,
the professional guild, and the
local defense committee can be the
church of solidarity and the
leveraged force for contesting
power relations.
In at least this respect, we are
sure we have the advantage: the
free market ideology of the bottomline
profit as the highest value
engenders mediocrity, craven
subservience, and pitiable morale.
On our own merits, with only our
voluntary associations and
creative impetus, we will build
something better.
All we want is dignity and selfrespect,
to live in each other’s
glow, to not have to eat shit.