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| Photo: First Zapatista Women's Gathering in Morelia, Chiapas |
ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION.
MEXICO.
CALL FOR THE
SECOND INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF WOMEN WHO FIGHT.
SEPTEMBER 2019.
Spanish and translations
To women who fight around the world:
Sister, partner, woman who fights:
We greet you as women that we are, as indigenous and as Zapatistas.
You may remember that in the First Meeting we made an agreement that we have to be alive. But of course we see that it follows the killing and disappearance of women. Of all ages and all social conditions. They kill us and disappear because we are women. And, in addition, they still tell us that it is our fault, that why we dress as we dress, why we walk where we walk, why at such times in such places. And then, in the bad governments there is no lack who, man or woman, who goes out with stupidity that tells us that then we should no longer leave. According to that thought, then women should always be locked in their homes, they shouldn't go out, they shouldn't study, they shouldn't work, they shouldn't have fun, they shouldn't be free.
As we see it clear that the capitalist and patriarchal system is like a judge who has said that we are guilty of having been born women and therefore our punishment for that crime is violence, death or disappearance.
It costs a lot, sister and companion, to put it into words, because it is like a very bad evil that cannot be named. And if you now say " femicide " or as you put it, you do not see that it changes anything. The dead and the disappearances follow.
And then our families, our friends, our acquaintances, still have to fight because they don't kill us or disappear again, when they leave the culprits without punishment or say we had bad luck or, worse, they say that we are looking for it.
With forgiveness, sister and companion, but that is very big stupidity. Still we have to fight discrimination at home, on the street, at school, at work, in transport, with acquaintances and with strangers, apart from saying that we seek to die. No, not to die, but to rape us, to kill us, to dismember us, to disappear.
Those who say so are macho or female thinking of macho.
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So, partner, sister, like the agreement we had at the First Meeting is to be alive, because as we have to give an account of what we have done or what we have not done to fulfill that agreement.
That is why we are convening this Second International Meeting of Women who struggle with only one theme: violence against women .
And that issue in two parts: One of complaint and another of what we are going to do to stop that massacre they are doing to us.
So, that's what we invite you, sister and partner, to get together and take out all our anger and let's say clearly what they are doing everywhere.
Because what we see is that as if they are pedaling our pain: one raped on one side, one beaten on the other, one missing over there, one murdered over here.
They do this so that we think that it is another woman's problem elsewhere, that it will not touch us, that it is not so serious, that bad governments will solve it.
But we see that it is not so, that it is going to touch us or someone close to us, that it is serious, very serious, and that bad governments will not do anything, they will only make statements and say that they are going to persecute, but not the murderers, the rapists, the kidnappers, but the women who ragefully broke glass or painted a stone.
This is the patriarchal capitalist system, sister and companion. So is the thing that is worth more a glass or a scratched wall , than the life of a woman.
And that can't go on, really.
Look, we tell you that some years ago, before our uprising and the beginning of the war against oblivion, here on farms it was worth more a chicken than the life of an indigenous woman. It can not be believed? Yes, that's how the farmers said. Now they are telling us worse as women than we are, because they whimper and are scandalized by a glass and a graffiti that tells the truth.
And the truth is not just that they are raping us, killing and disappearing. Of course, but also the truth is that we are not going to stay as if nothing happens, well ported and obedient.
They attack us so much that it even seems that it is a system business. If there are more women killed or missing or raped or violated, then there are more gains. Maybe that's why this war against women doesn't stop. Because you can no longer believe that, every day, women are disappeared or murdered everywhere, and the system remains calm, happy, just worried about the pay.
Suddenly it may be that, if we are still alive, if we are not violated, then the business is ruined. As it would also be necessary to analyze if, at the same time as the number of women raped in the world increases, the profits of the great capitalists also rise. So many beaten, so many missing, so many murdered, equal to so many millions of dollars or euros or whatever currency.
Because we know well that the system only addresses what affects the gain. And we also know well that the system makes profits from destruction and wars. So we think that our violence that we have, our deaths, is thus a gain for the capitalist. And our lives, our freedoms, our peace of mind, are losses of money for the system.
So we want you to come and make your complaint clear. Not to be heard by a judge or a policeman or a journalist, but to be heard by another woman, several women, many women who fight. And so, partner and sister, your pain is not alone and that it unites with other pains. And from so many pains that come together, not only a very great pain comes out, there is also a rage that is like a seed. And if that seed is grown in organization, then pain and rage become resistance and rebellion, as we say here, and we stop waiting for misfortune to touch us or not, and we start doing something, first to stop that violence against us, then to conquer our freedom as women we are.
Because that is our experience in our history as women, as peasants, as indigenous and as Zapatistas.
No one is going to get us peace, freedom, justice. We have to fight, sister and partner, fight and snatch them from the Mandón.
That is why the invitation to the issue of Violence against Women is not only to denounce, but also to say what is done or what was done or what can be done to stop these crimes.
We know it, because we listen to it and we look at it in your participation in the First Meeting, that there are many forms or ways of fighting as women we are. We know that some say that their form is better, that the form or mode of others is useless, and many things are said. It is fine if it is discussed even if no agreement is reached.
But the problem that we Zapatistas look at is that in order to discuss and fight who is more feminist, we must first be alive. And they are killing us and disappearing.
So the invitation to this meeting is for a single theme: Violence against women. And with two parts: complaint and proposals on how to stop this war.
It is not that we are going to draw an agreement from everyone to fight in the same way, because everyone has their own ways, their geographies and their times. But to listen to the different ways, because it will give us ideas on how to do, as we see what works for us and what does not.
The system wants us to shout only in pain, in despair, in anguish, in helplessness.
Now it's about shouting together, but of rage, of courage, of outrage. But not everyone on his side, shattered as they rape and kill us and disappear, but together, although each in his time, his place and his way.
And suddenly, partner and sister, how about we learn not only to scream in rage, and also find the way, place and time, to shout a new world.
Look, sister and partner, how are the things that in order to be alive, we have to make another world. That is how the system has come, that we can only live if we kill it at once. Do not fix it a little, or put on a good face, ask him to behave well, not to be so bad, not to pass. No. Destroy it, kill it, disappear it, let nothing remain, or ashes. This is how we see it, companion and sister, which is the system or us. That's how the system put it, not us as women we are.
And the dates we invite you are on December 26, 2019 arrival. December 27, 28 and 29, 2019, are the days of meeting, talking and listening. On December 29, 2019 we close.
The place is in the Semillero that we will now call “ Footprints of the Walking of Comandanta Ramona ”, of the Whirlwind Snail of Our Words, of the Tzots Choj area (in the community of Morelia, MAREZ November 17), the same place where was the First Meeting.
The arrival is in the mere snail, there are the badges and the program, and from there the fellow chauffeurs take you merely to the hotbed where men are not allowed to enter, even if they are good or regular men or modes. In other words, men are not even going to be able to look out or see our meeting from afar, because the seedbed is protected by mountains.
Men can stay in the snail to wait while we meet as women we are, but only if they are accompanied by a woman who responds and is responsible for not making an evening. We are going to tell that place that it is “mixed”, that is, there may be men and women who say so.
There in that place, where they will be able to be men, suddenly, perhaps, a commission of Zapatista women goes from the place of the meeting and gives them a talk about what is being denounced in the hotbed. So that they know it then. And I saw that they have a little shame, they go and tell other men, and they tell them the main thing, that we are not going to wait for them to understand or behave and stop chingaderas , but we will organize ourselves to defend ourselves first, and then to change everything, everything, everything.
Another thing we tell you, partner and sister, is that we have been reviewing what we did wrong in the First Meeting. That is why we want to do it in the same place to see if we can correct our mistakes.
And also that we look at the registration and programming of the First Meeting, as those who think the same as the people who supported registration and programming were favored. That is, activities and women remained without participating, because they put those who thought the same first and when they wanted to accommodate the other, because there was no time or place to do it.
So, so that it does not happen that it is accommodated so that some women are worth more than others, we as Zapatista indigenous women will do everything from the beginning, that is, from the registry and the program.
We have never done it, but neither have we ever been chauffeurs and you see that we have learned. So, maybe we do not do well and we do not accommodate well and the program does not work out, but it will be because we are learning, and not because some women like us because they think like us, and others like us for whatever.
So we are organizing and distributing the works so that it is fully organized by us. So, when you send your email (then we will let you know what email and when the registration begins), you know that it is one of us, Zapatista indigenous women, who opens your email and points your name and your organization, group or group if you have, or only individual; and we answer something so that you already know that we already have it in the list your name. And if your letter says that you are going to do something, there we will put it in the program. That is why we ask that when you register it is with the word of the Spanish language, because we our language is of Mayan root and we know something of Spanish, but we do not know of other languages of the world. And if we are wrong and we do not point your name,
Then you already know the place and the date. So you can start organizing to come or send someone or have someone tell you and tell you how we were and what we said. And so, even if you are far away, you will know that our duty as women who fight is that the little light we gave you does not go out. Because suddenly it is not just to light up, how about it also serves to burn the damn patriarchal capitalist system.
Well, it's all for now, sister and partner. Then we will let you know what the email is and when the registration begins. But you already know the most important thing: it is on December 26, 27, 28 and 29, 2019, and it is in the same place where the First Encounter was, which is where we wrote these words to you and that is where we sent you a hug, that is ...
From the mountains of the mexican southeast.
Zapatista Women Coordinators for the
Second International Meeting of Women who Fight:
Jungle-Border Zone :
Marisol
Yeni
Mirella
Neri
Yojari
Arlen
Erica
Mariana
Mayder
Cleyde
Evelin
Alejandra
Nayeli
Chiapas Highlands :
Yessica
Zenaida
Lucia
Teresa
Fabiola
Flor
Gabriela
Lidia
Fernanda
Carla
Ofelia
Tzeltal Jungle Zone :
Dalia
Rosalinda
Marina
Carolina
Alejandra
Laura
Ana
Cecilia
Julia
Estefanía
Olga
Eloisa
Tsots Choj Zone :
Gabriela
Elizabeth I
Maydelí I
Elizabeth II
Guadalupe
Leydi
Lauriana
Aliz
Ángeles
Maydelí II
Karina
Jhanilet
Fabiola
Mariela
Daniela
Yadira
Yolanda
Marbella
Elena
Elissa
Northern Zone of Chiapas :
Diana
Ximena
Kelsy
Jessica
Ana María
Marina
Valentina
Yadira
Elizabeth
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