EZLN European Tour
Aguascalientes Madrid | 05.02.2003 16:15
Dear brothers and sisters,
The Madrid Aguascalientes keeps on walking, that is walking with all and everyone.
The Aguascalientes is a bridge and an ear and that is how we have learnt that the EZLN has breached the silence they have maintained in the last months of their honourable struggle for freedom, justice and democracy.
We have listened to the proposals that our Zapatista brothers and sisters from Mexico have sent in the last few weeks and we have made them ours. We understand that those proposals are a fundamental challenge that must be understood in a European context and must be taken on by every person and every movement who follows closely the Zapatista adventure and who fight for democracy in Europe and against permanent global war and Neoliberalism.
We believe that a Zapatista delegation's trip to Europe constitutes a good opportunity for the European Zapatistas to get together, with one another and with other movements determined to denounce and fight against the imposition of a permanent logic of war as the new form of governance and domination.
We would like you to take the Zapatista proposals as yours so that we can all work together in order to build the encounter with the EZLN. We believe that the peaceful legal ways to fight for the Law of Indigenous Rights and Culture have been exhausted in Mexico. The threat of imminent military action against the communities in Montes Azules proves once again the Government's will to provoke a military solution to the conflict. All these are elements of the current situation of global permanent war that we suffer as a normalized form of governance and domination by those who have the power. In the face of this situation we deem it essential that those who are trying to do Zapatismo in Europe speak up in order to denounce what is happening and counter the war logic. We must search in dialogue not just a way to solve conflicts but also a way to point out the imperious need for rebellion and disobedience in our times.
As a way of realizing the Zapatista proposal, the Madrid Aguascalientes has launched a Manifesto for the Word, which has been signed already by numerous intellectuals, academics and artists. This Manifesto, which can be accessed in our web page, can still be signed by any person, famous or not, who wishes to join in the initiative launched by the Zapatistas from Mexico.
Moreover, on Sunday 22nd December 2002 the Civil Forum for the Word started walking, as a response by the Madrid Aguascalientes to the Zapatista proposals. As a way of preparing the Lanzarote encounter in April, the Aguascalientes launched a proposal to European civil society to create Civil Forums for the Word wherever possible, with the aim of discussing and debating two questions:
1. How can we prepare and build the encounter proposed by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) for next April in Lanzarote (Canary Islands)?
2. How can we to live and construct rebellion at the time of permanent global war without rebellion becoming war?
From the Madrid Aguascalientes we would like to encourage you to promote this process of creation of Civil Forums for the Word in your territory and in whichever spaces you have access to.
These Forums can register in the web page of the Madrid Aguascalientes www.aguascalientesmadrid.org so that it serves as a bridge and means of communication between them.
Likewise, the Madrid Aguascalientes calls upon the Civil Forums for the Word to hold a meeting in Madrid on the 15th and 16th of February 2003, in order to share the responses to the questions posed and in order to walk together in the preparation of the Lanzarote encounter. You are all included in this invitation and we would very much like it if you could attend and join in each step of the organisation of the Lanzarote encounter. Those dates are important. First, it is the seventh anniversary of the signing of the San Andrés Accords. On the other hand, the European Social Forum held in Florence agreed to carry out mobilisations throughout Europe against the war on Saturday the 15th February.
We would suggest that the meeting of Civil Forums for the Word in Madrid had a strictly operative character, as a first step to coordinate between the various groups and movements in Europe towards the construction of the encounter with the EZLN next April in Europe. An attendance of one or two people per group will more likely be enough to generate a useful and productive outcome.
Shortly, we will call upon the Zapatista groups and movements across Europe to mobilise on the 14th February as a day of direct actions of civil disobedience demanding the implementation of the San Andrés Accords and in support of the EZLN. We hope you will respond to this call and walk it in your territory.
A rebel embrace,
Madrid Aguascalientes
Madrid, Europe, Planet Earth, January 2003
aguascalientes@aguascalientesmadrid.org
The Madrid Aguascalientes keeps on walking, that is walking with all and everyone.
The Aguascalientes is a bridge and an ear and that is how we have learnt that the EZLN has breached the silence they have maintained in the last months of their honourable struggle for freedom, justice and democracy.
We have listened to the proposals that our Zapatista brothers and sisters from Mexico have sent in the last few weeks and we have made them ours. We understand that those proposals are a fundamental challenge that must be understood in a European context and must be taken on by every person and every movement who follows closely the Zapatista adventure and who fight for democracy in Europe and against permanent global war and Neoliberalism.
We believe that a Zapatista delegation's trip to Europe constitutes a good opportunity for the European Zapatistas to get together, with one another and with other movements determined to denounce and fight against the imposition of a permanent logic of war as the new form of governance and domination.
We would like you to take the Zapatista proposals as yours so that we can all work together in order to build the encounter with the EZLN. We believe that the peaceful legal ways to fight for the Law of Indigenous Rights and Culture have been exhausted in Mexico. The threat of imminent military action against the communities in Montes Azules proves once again the Government's will to provoke a military solution to the conflict. All these are elements of the current situation of global permanent war that we suffer as a normalized form of governance and domination by those who have the power. In the face of this situation we deem it essential that those who are trying to do Zapatismo in Europe speak up in order to denounce what is happening and counter the war logic. We must search in dialogue not just a way to solve conflicts but also a way to point out the imperious need for rebellion and disobedience in our times.
As a way of realizing the Zapatista proposal, the Madrid Aguascalientes has launched a Manifesto for the Word, which has been signed already by numerous intellectuals, academics and artists. This Manifesto, which can be accessed in our web page, can still be signed by any person, famous or not, who wishes to join in the initiative launched by the Zapatistas from Mexico.
Moreover, on Sunday 22nd December 2002 the Civil Forum for the Word started walking, as a response by the Madrid Aguascalientes to the Zapatista proposals. As a way of preparing the Lanzarote encounter in April, the Aguascalientes launched a proposal to European civil society to create Civil Forums for the Word wherever possible, with the aim of discussing and debating two questions:
1. How can we prepare and build the encounter proposed by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) for next April in Lanzarote (Canary Islands)?
2. How can we to live and construct rebellion at the time of permanent global war without rebellion becoming war?
From the Madrid Aguascalientes we would like to encourage you to promote this process of creation of Civil Forums for the Word in your territory and in whichever spaces you have access to.
These Forums can register in the web page of the Madrid Aguascalientes www.aguascalientesmadrid.org so that it serves as a bridge and means of communication between them.
Likewise, the Madrid Aguascalientes calls upon the Civil Forums for the Word to hold a meeting in Madrid on the 15th and 16th of February 2003, in order to share the responses to the questions posed and in order to walk together in the preparation of the Lanzarote encounter. You are all included in this invitation and we would very much like it if you could attend and join in each step of the organisation of the Lanzarote encounter. Those dates are important. First, it is the seventh anniversary of the signing of the San Andrés Accords. On the other hand, the European Social Forum held in Florence agreed to carry out mobilisations throughout Europe against the war on Saturday the 15th February.
We would suggest that the meeting of Civil Forums for the Word in Madrid had a strictly operative character, as a first step to coordinate between the various groups and movements in Europe towards the construction of the encounter with the EZLN next April in Europe. An attendance of one or two people per group will more likely be enough to generate a useful and productive outcome.
Shortly, we will call upon the Zapatista groups and movements across Europe to mobilise on the 14th February as a day of direct actions of civil disobedience demanding the implementation of the San Andrés Accords and in support of the EZLN. We hope you will respond to this call and walk it in your territory.
A rebel embrace,
Madrid Aguascalientes
Madrid, Europe, Planet Earth, January 2003
aguascalientes@aguascalientesmadrid.org
Aguascalientes Madrid
e-mail:
aguascalientes@aguascalientesmadrid.org
Homepage:
http://www.aguascalientesmadrid.org/
