Zapatista Comandantes Prepare for Northern Border

EZLN to Initiates the Second Stage of their Direct Participation in the Other Campaign in Mexico

The Delegation will be Formed by Seven Comandantas, Seven Comandates and a Subcomandante

By Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee – General CommandZapatista Army of National Liberation

March 22, 2007
The EZLN, by means of their Sixth Commission, announces to the compañeras and compañeros adherents to the Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign, to the Zezta International and to the people of Mexico and the world the following:
First: Due to the new offensive against the Zapatista communities carried out by paramilitaries affiliated with the PRI and PRD and supported by the state [Democratic Revolution Party] and federal [National Action Party] governments, the Zapatista leadership has had to make some adjustments that will allow continued protection of our communities and at the same time fulfilling their commitments with the Other Campaign.
We will resist the attacks of the paramilitaries in an organized and civil form. With the mobilization of our communities and calling on the solidarity support of the honest people of Mexico and the entire world, we will continue to link our Zapatista struggle for indigenous rights and culture with other Indian peoples of Mexico and the American continent, and with the struggles maintained by organizations, groups, collectives, families and individuals of the Other Campaign in our country.
Second: Furthermore, over the next few days, the Sixth Commission of the EZLN will initiate the second stage of its direct participation in the Other Campaign in Mexico with a delegation consisting of seven comandantas, seven commandantes and one subcomandante.
For their participation in this second stage the Sixth Commission of the EZLN has established a sort of territorial distribution in zones and regions. The different delegations of the Sixth Commission will spread out throughout the entire country, during this year of 2007, to work jointly with the organizations, groups, collectives, families and individuals adhering to the Sixth Declaration.
Third: Simultaneously, in addition to their territorial distribution, the Sixth Commission will have a special delegation that will participate directly in the works undertaken by the compañeros and compañeras of the National Indigenous Congress with the Indian peoples of Mexico.
A delegation from the Sixth Commission will also be present in the international encampment “The Indigenous Peoples in Defense of Life, Culture and Nature: Below and to the Left,” in the territory of the indigenous Cucupá people in the community of El Mayor in Baja California, Mexico, in the months of April and May of this year.
Fourth: This second stage will begin on March 25, 2007 and will start off with the concentration of the delegates in the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. There, together with NGO’s adherent to the Otra in Chiapas, an international solidarity campaign with the Zapatista indigenous communities and in defense of indigenous autonomy will be announced.
Afterwards they will set off to install the delegations of the Sixth Commission to the National Indigenous Congress and the Northern Zone of Mexico. These delegations will be working with the compañeros and compañeras of the Otra in the states of that part of our country until the beginning of June 2007. In the second half of the year, the delegations in the center and southern zones of Mexico will be installed.
Fifth: A delegation of the Sixth Commission will also participate in the mobilizations marking the first anniversary of the repression against the noble people of Atenco, the Popular Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) and the Other Campaign, demanding the freedom of our compañeros and compañeras prisoners in the prisons of Texcoco, Santiaguito and La Palma, which will take place in several places of the other national and international geography, on May 3, 4 and 5, 2007.
Sixth: In spite of the attacks, silences and contempt, the EZLN will carry on with the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona, and, in doing so, demand:
FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ATENCO!
FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR OAXACA!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.For the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National LiberationSixth Commission of the EZLN
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, March 2007

http://www.narconews.com

Photo: Cucapah community of El Mayor, Baja, Mexico/by Brenda Norrell

Zapatistas' Other Campaign: Cucapa Fishing Rights

Support the Cucapah Struggle in Baja
by Manuel Tzunum Aparicio
Thursday March 22, 2007 at 04:23 PM

The Other Campaign at Cucapah El Mayor, Baja California
QuickTime movie at 2.3 mebibytes
The plight of the Cucapah from El Mayor is one of access to dwindling water sources, to be allowed to continue their millenary fishing activity in what is known as the Reserve of the Biosphere of the Upper Gulf of California and the Delta of the Colorado River, for a culturally relevant and fulfilling education for their children, for the legalization and protection of their land, as well as access to medical services to Cucapah El Mayor community. With a population of about 300 Cucapahs, they are facing the disappearance of their people off the face of the earth. They have now chosen to take a stance in claiming their right to exist as Cucapahs. Local, state, and federal agencies continue to ignore their demands and treat them as if they don’t exist. They have been discriminated as indigenous people while their rights continue to be restricted to the maximum, and for many years they have had no real social or economic growth in their community. The predator simply don’t think about El Mayor. In order to solve the historic problem of this continual violation of their fishing, land, cultural, economic, spiritual, and linguistic rights, The Cucapah People of El mayor are taking a stand on defense of their land and the survival of their people at Cucapah El Mayor, Baja California. As a result, a national/international encampment, aligned to the Other Campaign, is currently being established to support their struggle for survival (February-May 2007). This is a call for your support to the Cucapah struggle for self-determination, and ensure a sovereign future for the Cucapah people.
http://www.arizona.indymedia.org
Photo: Manuel Tzunum

Gila River: Toxic Racism Protest

279-5001; (415) 722-5270 (cell phone)

Gila River Indian Community Tribal Members & Environmental Justice Supporters to Hold Rally to Demand Closure of Romic Toxic Waste Plant

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 2007, 12 NOON
We will meet near Romic, 6760 W. Allison Road, Chandler, AZ
Lone Butte Industrial Park, Gila River Indian Community
(look for people, signs and banners near Industrial Park entrance station)

Gila River Indian Community, AZ - Gila River Indian Community tribal members will demand the closure of the Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation hazardous waste plant in a protest Saturday, March 24, 2007 beginning at 12 noon. The protest will be held close to the Romic facility, 6760 W. Allison Road, Chandler, Arizona (look for people, signs and banners near the Industrial Park entrance station). Greenaction, Chandler residents and other environmental justice supporters will join tribal members in this rally for health and environmental justice.

Romic operates a Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment
Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice

For more information:
Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment (520) 315-2169 and (480) 238-8768
Greenaction (602)commercial hazardous waste “treatment” facility at Lone Butte Industrial Park on the Gila River Indian Community, next to Chandler, and “treats” hundreds of toxic chemicals & toxic metals. Tribal members are furious that US EPA allows Romic to operate despite a long history of violations and excessive pollution, including the week-long incident in December when dozens of people were sickened by noxious odors emanating from Romic. Tribal members will blast the EPA for allowing Romic to operate for years on a so-called “interim” permit and without full environmental review, and despite a long track record of serious violations.

Tribal members are also asking the tribal council to reject a new permit for Romic.

The hazardous waste plant has operated since 1975 and has a long history of violations including failing to properly operate, inspect, monitor and maintain records for the air emission control device and hazardous waste storage tanks, storing ignitable wastes less than 50 feet from the property line, storing incompatible wastes next to each other, failing to store hazardous wastes in containers in good condition, storing open containers of hazardous waste, and storing hazardous waste barrels stored in flooded areas. Romic’s violations at Gila River are similar to violations at their other facility located in a low-income community of color in East Palo Alto, California.

Saturday’s rally is sponsored by the Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment and Gila River Environmental Youth, and co-sponsored by Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, O’odham Rights Cultural and Environmental Justice Coalition, Children for a Safe Environment, O’odham Youth Collective, and Youth United for Community Action (YUCA).

Photo: Romic violations

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Iraq war protests lead to arrests throughout US

Sacramento: Seven arrested, including veterans, as they attempt to read the names of war dead in Iraq:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/03/23/18381821.php

United States Selling Indigenous Peoples' DNA

International companies and US patenting and selling DNA:

..."One of the earliest offences involved the US government, which filed patents on DNA cells taken from the Hagahai tribe in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in the early 1990's. Neither the individuals, their communities nor governments were informed; the US government rejected their later objections as inconsequential. Hagahai T cells can be purchased today from American Type Culture Collection for $216."


http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=65632