VivirLatino

Maegan is not the only one at the AMC right now! I, la macha, am also here, and I’m sitting in an auditorium getting ready for the Zapatista press conference. I’ll be live blogging it once the conference gets started!

2:52: woman saying hello introduces the Zapatista campaign: commitment to all in their community including queers, children, etc.

Next speaker calls the Zapatistas a national mexican movement to fight against neo-liberalism. Says that it is a movement with no centralized leaders, one that encourages new members: explains what you should “believe in” to be a Zapatista, including anti-neo liberalist, pro-indigenous, etc.

Speaker talks about using different types of media to transmit their message.

New Speaker: talking about Atenco now, explaining how commercial media has been hiding the truth of Atenco–which is why the documentary we’re now going to watch was made.

Video we are seeing is highlighting the fight between flower vendors in Atenco and the local/national government.

Now showing a scene of Indigenous peoples attacking the police, with the media encouraging government intervention–i.e. the indigenous peoples attack one police officer, so mass violent government crackdown on entire community is now justified.

Next scene: independent reporters that tried to cover the violence police were committing against protestors were attacked, arrested, beaten, had their equipment stolen.

Next scene: shows women getting harassed while a woman testifies about violence committed against her, including: fingers stuck in her mouth and vagina, breasts grabbed, arrest just for being on the street (for “being an idiot”).

Next scene: on May 4th 2006 after the media had relentlessly aired images of one group of men beating a police officer, the government stepped up the violence against Atenco.

Close up scene of police beating person (one of SEVERAL scenes) and you can hear clunking sounds–sound of batons hitting human body…

Police forced a corridor of local/indi media, so that media couldn’t get into the city where the raids were happening.

Police made indiscriminate raids on homes of citizens, arresting and throwing tear gas into homes of people without any disregard to if the citizen had participated in protests or not.

Citizens were trying to get in contact w/red cross and police weren’t letting them….

Movie ends

Next Speaker: Introduces next movie: was created as a way to begin dialogue with people in mexico and outside of mexico about Zapatistas and Chiapas.

Speaker in movie explains why Mexican immigrants in the U.S. are Zapatistas–why so many indigenous peoples are moving to U.s. because of neo-liberal u.s. practices.

From across the border: movement for justice

members of this movement call themselves “displaced”–implying that there was not a *choice* move–that capitalism has displaced them forcibly from their home lands/communities.

((side note: this is a REALLY interesting intervention this org is making into the traditional immigrant narrative))

Multiple immigrants are describing problems with housing…high rents with “inhumane and illegal living conditions”

“we can’t pay high rents because our pay is so low”

“We are displaced from our own countries–and now it’s happening here too”

“we are living through double displacement”

gentrification is a part of immigrant/migration displacement

“we are fighting for dignified housing”

“community has last word about what the fight will be about–a single person will never decide for the entire community”

“we don’t work with politicians because they don’t work with us–we declare ourselves autonomous”

El Barrio is not for sale!

Fight was against Steve kassner–the landlord that was named one of 10 worst landlords in the NY area–his central offices were in London.

campaign decided to evict landlord rather than be evicted.

***

campaign decided to expand their campaign from centralizing on gentrification alone to other forms of struggles as well–reached out to the Zapatistas.

Held a gathering where tenants of the building introduced themselves o the Zapatistas and vise versa.

flashes to Zapatistas fighting military off their land: connecting displacement in two different regions of the world together.

***

now we are watching a video from Atenco made in response to the message created by the camapign in N.Y.C

Marcos: speaking to crowd in Mexico ( i think Atenco) telling crowd that “we will support world wide action against injustice”

People of Atenco are now speaking–holding their machetes with “atenco vive” on them–they say “we will go on in our struggle against injustice because of strength given to them from brothers and sisters across the world”

Now a voice is explaining what happened in atenco in 2006 again. 30 women were raped–or at least as being on record as being raped. Still 13 people in prison right now, all with 112 year sentences.

WHole fight began as a fight keep control of land that govt/corporations were attempting to steal for an airport project. Indigenous peoples are still living off of that land–off of corn, beans, etc created and supported by that land.

Several actions involved blocking the highways, blocking access to land

Current situation of political prisoners: launching a campaign to help them and bring attention to plight: (information from philly IMC website)

“Their crime was to defend their land”