When Indignation is Organized

January 11
Tonala, Joaquin Amaro, San Isidro.
The effects of long-term politician-paternalism are strong, even where the people have been able to carry forward autonomous struggles. In Tonala, when they see the caravan and all the motion around Delegado 0, some people ask, when will the sandwiches be distributed? What time are they going to start handing out the hats and t-shirts? This is common campaign practice, the candidates pull into town to give their speech, hand out a snack, a t-shirt, maybe a little bit of money, and then continue on to the next town. Sometimes the local people who speak at the events ask Delegado O to represent them, to take their cause to the capital, to defend their rights, to correct the injustices they live with. One woman in Tonala accidentally says “Presidente O” instead of Delegado O. Marcos laughs, but he speaks clearly and bluntly when it is his turn: We can’t fix the electricity or the shrimp price, we can’t fix the bridge here or the taxes on the tricycleros (the public transport via tricyle). But we will take what you have told us here and inform everyone. He continues—the thing is, the politicians won’t fix it either, they don’t care, they won’t follow through, and they can’t resolve what we are talking about here anyway. The people murmur in agreement. Politicians don’t produce anything, the Delegado had pointed out a few days ago in Tuxtla, their job is to direct traffic and they don’t even do that very well. And most importantly, we can do better than this? Why do we go buy these pathetic products at superstores? Why don’t we buy better things from each other directly?

I want to recount some statements here, collected from the past few days in Chiapa de Corzo, Tuxtla, Tonala, Joaquin Amaro, San Isidro where the EZ’s discourse moves from the problems presented to self-organization to the creation of a new common:
The problem with our rebellion is that it is dispersed, loose, he insists. Zapatismo isn’t enough, we need all of us. The only way to survive today is to resist collectively, as individuals they will destroy us. And although the EZLN is a big collective, they can destroy us too if we don’t unite with others....
We have to construct from the beginning (of this campaign) a form of participation and information that keeps us united, as if we were permanently in assembly, like what we’re doing here but at a national level....
This movement doesn’t depend on Delegado O or Subcomandante Marcos or this caravan; it depends on the feeling of rage and indignation that drives all of us to this next step, and what makes those “above” tremble is that this rage and indignation will organized itself....
This feeling of indignation and rebellion needs a destiny, we think, and that destiny is organization in struggle. But the struggle is not just blocking a street or holding a protest or having a meeting, it also has to do with culture, with music, with song, with theater, with movies, texts, poetry, literature, with the media, like those that accompany us now to take your voice to all the others that are in the Otra and make it loud.