Rebeldia Zapatista: The Word of the EZLN

Editorial 2: Rebeldia Zapatista: The Word of the EZLN

By Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.

Mexico, April 2014. Twentieth year of the war against oblivion.
Italian:

http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2014/04/25/editorial-2-rebeldia-zapatista-the-word-of-the-ezln

Compañeras and compañeros of the Sixth and the Zapatista Little School:

Here we continue to recount the words of the compañeras and compañeros, families, guardians, and teachers about how they saw and evaluate their students in the Little School.

As we say here in these rebellious lands, there is no rest, one must continue to work hard.

We mention this because there is another round of work coming up, with the compañeras and compañeros of the National Indigenous Congress. So you see, it’s true, there is no rest.

Even when there is a break from these tasks, it is used to work to sustain one’s family, but also to think, study, and make plans for the struggle.

This is important because of the simple fact that the neoliberal capitalists do not take a break from thinking about how to extend their domination into infinity.

As the compañeras and compañeros say in one of the “sharings” that we have had here: in just 19 years we have thrown off the bad system of 520 years of domination, and we now hold our own freedom and democracy in our hands. And we are just a few thousand women and men who govern our own communities; imagine if we organized with the other millions of people in the countryside and the city.

As the same compañeras and compañeros say, this is thanks to the fact that we have organized ourselves and understood what dignity and resistance really mean. We no longer resign ourselves to the leftovers, handouts, or crumbs thrown to us amid deception after deception by the bad government.

As the Zapatista people say, our great great grandparents, our great grandparents, and our grandparents were never given anything to eat. On the contrary, what they produced was taken away from them and they were given a few crumbs to eat that day so that they could return to work for the boss the next day. That’s how they went through life: exploited by the boss and the bad government. Why would we think that the bad government is different now, that it is good, when it is made up of the grandchildren and great grandchildren of those same exploiters, and who are the worst sell-outs of our time?

That is why the new bosses are foreigners, that is, if we let them be—if we the poor men and women of the countryside and the city resign ourselves to this.

It is time for the poor of the countryside and the city to organize ourselves—time for the peoples of the countryside and the city to take their destiny into their own hands. That is, it is time for the people to govern themselves instead of being governed by a few individuals up there who are just trying to get rich. It is easy to see and easy to confirm in practice that this is the only reason they are there.

That is why the compañeras and compañeros of the Zapatista bases of support organized themselves and dreamed and worked together to determine their own destinies, and this destiny is now visible. Their manner of governing themselves as peoples and communities is totally different; they rule as a people and their representatives obey, that is, their government obeys. This is true change, not just a change of colors or logos.

Who says this can’t be done, compañeras and compañeros of the Little School? It can be done, because it is the people themselves deciding, in organized fashion, what they want in all aspects of their lives.

Why are we afraid to let the people themselves decide how they want a new life to be? How can we not fear the great atrocity committed by the three levels of bad government in deciding our future against the good of our peoples? This is where the compañeras and compañeros of the EZLN say that the people must have the power of decision over their own lives, because they make decisions for the good of the people and not to benefit their own vices. And if they make a mistake, well then they correct it. But the three levels of bad government have no ears to hear or eyes to see, they refuse to acknowledge any error within their world of domination and deceit. Let’s leave that world, leave them alone to see if they can survive, stop allowing ourselves to be exploited, and a whole string of etcetera’s.

The compañeras and compañeros of the Zapatista communities have provided an example.

That is why we are continuing to share here the words of the compañeras and compañeros bases of support of the EZLN.

And this will continue and keep going.

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.

Mexico, April 2014. Twentieth year of the war against oblivion.

Mohawk Nation News 'Atleo Quits Corporate Control Grid'

ATLEO QUITS CORPORATE CONTROL GRID

Posted on May 3, 2014

MNN. May 3, 2014. On May 2nd Sean Atleo courageously stepped down as head of the Assembly of First Nations to return to the natural direction we call “tion-heh-kwen”.  

AFN is an agency of the Corporation of Canada. It is not from us. it is from them. Their job is to pretend to speak for the Indigenous people. They illegally sign away our land, resources and rights.

We are watching to see what the other band and tribal councils are going to do now.

Band/tribal councils: “Quick! Get rid of evidence of what we are really doing and sail off to our offshore bank accounts.”

Without this grid, the corporation of Canada will no longer exist. Will the corporate Indians step down and stand with the true natural people as Atleo did? Can they renew their relationship with creation? Mother earth, water, plant life, fish, birds, four legged, the winged ones, all of our natural relatives. If so, the corporation and its shareholders will have no access to us and our natural resources. The world will have to stop doing business with the criminal entity known as Canada. The band council is the fake corporate Indian grid that presents to the world a sense of legality when they extract our natural resources.

The band council theatre helps to pull the wool over our eyes to keep us in constant servitude to the shareholders of the corporation of Canada. The Corporate Injuns stand aside while our land and all our relatives on it are pillaged and raped. Their main job now is to be the last line of defense for the Vatican [Crown] not be criminally charged with genocide regarding the residential school holocaust. They propagate the “owistah” disease in our mind. The problem is me. The solution is we, through the Kaianerekowa.

Keep an eye on those Corporate Injuns.

For Sean. “The mountain is high. The valley is low.  And you’re confused on which way to go. So i’ve come here to give you a hand. And lead you into the promised land. So come on and take a free ride!” Edgar Winter. “Free Ride”.

MNN Mohawk Nation News kahentinetha2@yahoo.com For more news, books, workshops, to donate and sign up for MNN newsletters, go towww.mohawknationnews.com  More stories at MNN Archives.  Address:  Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L thahoketoteh@hotmail.comfor original Mohawk music visit thahoketoteh.ws 

“Atleo quits AFN”  

Eighty activists intercepted Russian tanker carrying first Arctic oil

Early this morning, 80 activists intercepted a Russian oil tanker, delaying it from docking in Rotterdam harbour. The tanker was carrying the very first oil from icy Arctic waters. Among the activists were #Arctic30 members Sini, Faiza, Tomasz, Phil, Gizem, Pete and Anne Mie, who spent 2 months in a Russian prison last year following a peaceful protest at the very same platform this oil came from. The Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior intercepted the tanker as it was entering Rotterdam harbour. As the tanker slowed to turn, the more nimble Warrior slipped in front and put itself in between the dock and the tanker, preventing it from mooring. Dutch police quickly boarded the ship and arrested the crew. Four climbers managed to stay on the tanker for several hours, thus preventing it from offloading its dirty cargo. All activists were released from police custody a few hours after their arrest and spirits are high. This kind of real-world challenge to oil companies is only made possible by the support of people like you. Thanks to over 3,500 donors, we reached our target of raising £75,000 towards our Arctic fight-back. This means we will be able to challenge more oil companies at more locations over the next 20 weeks - I

Video Indigenous Youths Collective Resistance 'Reject and Protect' from Keystone!

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Published on Apr 29, 2014

Indigenous youth and leaders from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the Ponca Nation, and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation speak to their visions and their work. From connecting with the land, to replanting sacred corn, to building energy sovereignty. Their collective resistance to the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Tarsands brought them all together at the Reject and Protect encampment.

John Kane, Mohawk: 'No Honor Among Chiefs or Thieves'

No Honor Among Chiefs or Thieves

By John Karhiio Kane, Mohawk

Censored News

I have to begin my column this week by stating up front that I am Haudenosaunee. I support traditional governance based on the Kaianerehkowa and a culture grounded with the Ohenton Karihwatehkwen (Words Before All Else) and the Tiohateh (the Two Row Wampum). I must emphasize that it is traditional governance I support rather than "traditional government."

There are those who would suggest that the Haudenosaunee have existed with all these things firmly in place in an unbroken testament to our strength and durability as a people. I wish that were true. I wish our people had continued to reject the Bible and the booze. I wish they always held our women in the reverence that we like to claim. I wish we protected and preserved our lands and language for our future generations. I wish we maintained the concepts of governance by the people and the understanding that people who were recognized for the best characteristics were placed as honorable servants to their people rather than rulers placed above them. But most of these wishes would bring me back several hundred years.

We lost our way several times long before the first white man ever appeared before us. Our Thanksgivings are reminders of those times and of the time we came back together to right ourselves. The Kaianerehkowa represents the last time wise men among us reminded us who we were and what we were created for. In it are the descriptions of the characteristics we were to strive for. No, it didn't say don't drink, gamble or dance. It placed honor on a man who proved himself as a husband, a father and an uncle. What that means should be self-evident. The Kaianerehkowa lays out the process to maintain peace and resolve conflicts. It lays out checks and balances and defies any notion that any of us have authority or higher standing than any others of us. It also made clear that all those things that went into the Kaianerehkowa should be retold and recited each year in every Haudenosaunee community and recited at a gathering of all 49 families of the Haudenosaunee and any new families that joined to enjoy the peace under the Kaianerehkowa every five years.

This basic call for maintenance through constant education and "removal of the dust" that accumulates with time surely could have prevented where we now find ourselves. This summer such an event is planned for the Seneca community of Tonawanda and at this point there may be no community in more need. But Tonawanda is certainly not the only community in need. Between assimilated elected councils with pitiful voter turnout and no connection to our culture or what defines us, and councils of "chiefs" that claim to be "traditional" with a twisted view of their authority or privilege, our communities are barely recognizable as Haudenosaunee.

I have seen unspeakable corruption and behavior out of men claiming to be chiefs while loyalists chant "honor the chiefs." As these men hide behind the banner of being "traditional" they discriminate against some and disregard others while consolidating power, wealth and recognition as royal families.

I could review much of the fairly recent ugly history that would explain the mess that is now the Oneida Nation of New York and the current power struggle over leadership, control and federal recognition in Cayuga that involves "traditional" chiefs, their lawyers and reliance on the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Our ways? The Kaianerehkowa? Certainly not! But one of the most blatant abuses of power today by those that claim to be "traditional" is, indeed, in Tonawanda.

Tonawanda is a small Seneca community that claims to be "traditional." The resident population is less than 500 with half of those being non-Native and the majority of the Native population being non-Tonawanda Seneca, meaning only about 20-25 percent of the residents are "enrolled" Tonawanda Seneca. There is a relatively sizeable Christian population with notables that have historically included men like Ely Parker who actually served as a chief on the Tonawanda Chiefs Council. While there is one modest Longhouse and quite nice tribal offices, there is also a sizeable church within the community as well as churches attended by residents off-territory. The contemporary notion that Tonawanda is a "traditional" community has drawn deep lines separating people along family lines, occupations, religious beliefs and even gender. There exists a sense of superiority for these 'traditional" leaders and their loyal followers over the vast majority of the rest of the residents.

None of this could be more exemplified than by the current situation where a Tonawanda Seneca business owner, out of favor with the "chiefs," dies and despite a well documented will that clearly laid out his intent to leave certain significant assets to his Tonawanda Seneca daughter, has those intentions usurped by the deceased's greedy brother, mother and, at least, certain Tonawanda chiefs. Literally, the uncle and grandmother conspired to defraud a young woman out of her inheritance from her father and ultimately they are assisted by corrupt chiefs to pull it off. As it stands today, both the home, valued at over $3 million, and the businesses that have generated significant wealth over the years, have been seized by the chiefs and it is being done under some guise of "traditional" law or custom. The plain and simple truth is that the daughter of the deceased has been determined arbitrarily as undeserving of the inheritance and that is cause enough for a corrupt and dysfunctional "government" to do as it likes against whomever it wishes.

There is nothing in any legitimate or noble culture, traditional or otherwise, that would deny a man the right to leave his daughter assets that she would otherwise have the right to own or receive. And there is nothing in the Kaianerehkowa that would remotely suggest or empower a chief to seize an inheritance. This case is simply a theft by those that believe they are above the people and what is decent and right.

It will be a singular moment of reckoning when men guilty of such a crime have to sit before all of us at a Kaianerehkowa recital knowing the abuse they have inflicted even as that very abuse is being condemned before all. I will sit in anxious anticipation of those days with only one hope — that they will reflect on their actions and correct them before we all come together.

– John Karhiio Kane, Mohawk, a national expert commentator on Native American issues, hosts two weekly radio programs — “Let’s Talk Native…with John Kane,” ESPN Sports Radio WWKB-AM 1520 in Buffalo, N.Y., Sundays, 9-11 p.m. EDT and “First Voices Indigenous Radio,” WBAI-FM 99.5 in New York City, Thursdays, 9-10 a.m. EDT (“First Voices Indigenous Radio” programs are archived in perpetuity at www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org). John is a frequent guest on WGRZ-TV’s (NBC/Buffalo) “2 Sides” and “The Capitol Pressroom with Susan Arbetter” in Albany. John’s “Native Pride” blog can be found at www.letstalknativepride.blogspot.com. He also has a very active "Let's Talk Native...with John Kane" group page on Facebook.

VIDEO Moccasins on the Ground Red Shirt, Lakota homelands April 2014

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'Water is sacred.'

By Unedited Media Published on Apr 28, 2014

Lakota and their allies gather to build solidarity, unity, and skills to protect Sacred Water against the Keystone XL tarsands pipeline.

Watch this wonderful video of voices from all across the nation gathered at Red Shirt, on Lakota lands at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, protecting the Ogallala aquifer and water and land everywhere.