Zapatista Supporters Attacked in Retaliation for Building an Autonomous School

8/8/2019 Zapatista Supporters Attacked in Retaliation for Building an Autonomous School

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Zapatista Supporters Attacked in Retaliation for Building an Autonomous School

Written by Jessica Davies

Tuesday, 14 September 2010 15:13

Members of the Mexican political parties PRI, PRD and PVEM (the green party) attacked 170Zapatista supporters and expelled them from their homes in the Tzeltal community of San

Marcos Avils, in the municipality of Chiln, Chiapas, in retaliation for the construction of an

autonomous school in the early morning hours of Sept. 9.

The Zapatista Good Government Junta (JBG) based in Oventik, denounced the attack, which

was led by Lorenzo Ruiz Gmez and Vicente Ruiz Lpez, and said the attackers were armed

with guns, machetes and sticks, and broke into two houses where they tried to sexually assault

two women. So as not to respond with violence to these acts of severe provocation, the

Zapatista men, women, children and old people left their homes and belongings and fled to the

mountain "where they suffer hunger, cold, sleeplessness and fear."

Zapatistas from Pamal, in the municipality of Sital, had previously informed the JBG that, at

the end of August, a compa from their community, Manuel Vzquez, had been forcibly ordered

by the authorities and leaders of the political parties in San Marcos and Pamal to dismantle the

autonomous school. The authorities told him that they were then going to attack other

communities which had autonomous schools. The JBG stated that "the purpose of these

attacks is to prevent the education of our children and to stop the progress of construction of our

autonomy."

Manuel Vzquez was thrown into prison on the 21st August, where he was threatened,harassed and intimidated in an attempt to force him to abandon the project of autonomous

education. When Pedro Cruz Gmez came from another nearby community to try to help

Manuel Vzquez, he was also imprisoned. A knife was planted in his trousers in an attempt to

accuse him of intention to murder. When the prisoners were freed, they were told to abandon

the Zapatista organisation and to leave the lands they had bought ten years ago. Threats were

made to cancel the land rights of fifteen families.

On the August 24 and 25 the aggressors seized 29 hectares of land with 5,850 coffee trees, 10

hectares of maize, along with beans, cattle, horses and three houses, and destroyed a banana

plantation. On the 8th September, they took cattle, pulled down fences and fired shots into the

air. They threatened to "take the land next, and to evict the men, kidnap the women and

children, and burn the houses".

"The three levels of the bad government don't know how to stop the Zapatista struggle for

national liberation, so they are trying to stop our autonomous education," stated the JBG.

"However, we are going to continue with autonomous education throughout Zapatista territory;

our sons and daughters will no longer attend the official schools where they will never be taught

the truth about how we live as indigenous people, and how all the poor of Mexico live. We

demand that our evicted companer@s be allowed to return home and be treated with respect."

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The Network for Solidarity and Against Repression immediately issued a statement "This act of

barbarity, designed to destroy the autonomous school, has led to the displacement of 170

people from the lands they have worked for ten years....If it were not for our Zapatista compas,

there would be no schools in these indigenous communities.....Lies, deceit and repression are

the way the state government constantly behaves....Zapatista education in the autonomouscommunities is an example of how another Mexico is possible, where with honest hard work a

level of community development can be achieved which those from above neither understand

nor accept. To fight power and its money with learning and knowledge is the best way to build

the foundations of a new Mexico."

On Monday 13th September, Other Campaign adherents set up roadblocks in Chiapas as a

protest against "the threats, robberies, evictions and attacks being made against Zapatista

communities by the government, ..... paramilitaries, political parties, local leaders and

businessmen."

A march took place in Tonal, in the coastal zone, to demand that the Zapatista supporters from

San Marcos Avils be allowed to return to their lands, and to insist that "their way of life and

process of autonomy, with their schools and clinics, must be respected." They also demanded

"the expulsion of paramilitary groups from Chiapas and the punishment of the material and

intellectual authors of the attacks on the communities."

Another roadblock was set up near Mitziton, where, along with the departure of the

paramilitaries, the participants also called for "the cancellation of all the projects, such as the

highway from San Cristbal to Palenque, and the ecotourism park in Bachajn, which cause

conflict in the indigenous communities, and threaten the environment and the traditional ways ofliving of the communities."

Autonomous Education in the Zapatista Communities: Schools to Cure Ignorance

Antonio dreams that the land he works belongs to him. He dreams that his sweat earns him

justice and truth; he dreams of schools to cure ignorance and medicines to frighten death. Hedreams that his house has light and that his table is full; he dreams that the land is free and that

his people reasonably govern themselves. He dreams that he is at peace with himself and with

the world. He dreams that he has to struggle to have this dream... from Chiapas: The

Southeast in Two Winds - A Storm and a Prophecy

In July 2010, a European Solidarity Brigade visited the Zapatista communities and Caracoles of

Chiapas and reported on the current situation there.2 One aspect of their reports was

autonomous education, which for the Zapatistas is an important part of their construction of

autonomy and resistance to capitalism. The school is only a part of the education process,

along with sharing and working in the community throughout life. It is based on the ancientand fundamental principle of caring for the earth and its natural resources. Food sovereignty

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depends on the principles of agro-ecology, the rejection of chemicals and the conservation of

native seeds. Everything we take from the earth, we must return.3

A letter written by the Zapatistas in 1994 to some schoolchildren in Guadalajara describes the

life of an indigenous child in Chiapas: For our children there are no schools or medicines, noclothes or food, not even a dignified roof under which we can store our poverty ... For our boys

and girls there is only work, ignorance and death ... Our children have to begin work at a very

young age ... our childrens toys are the hoe, the machete, and the axe; when they are barely

able to walk, playing and suffering, they go out looking for firewood, clearing brush and planting

...They cannot go to school to learn Spanish because work kills the days and sickness kills the

nights. This is how our children have lived and died for 501 years.

Indigenous peoples suffer from a lack of proper education, in particular education based on their

own languages, traditions, customs, history and beliefs. In the bad government schools they do

not teach the language and culture of the peoples. The bad government sends teachers togovernment schools for two or three days and then the teachers leave without worrying about

the children left without classes. They also make them wear uniforms.

The bad government didnt give us our schools, we built them ourselves.

So the autonomous communities set up their own schools, where children learn their own

language and become aware of their own culture. They can wear traditional dress. They aretaught in their own language and learn their own history, rather than the version of their

conquerors. They learn not to pollute the environment and to care for the forests, because

without that there is no life. The stories of the older people play a vital role in education. People

can go to school at any age, and children from non-Zapatista communities can also attend.

Teachers are known as "education promoters" because all work together and teach each other,

based on the belief that everyone has something to contribute to the understanding and

teaching of every subject -- so the promoters are learning alongside the students. Promoters

receive no salary. They are chosen, housed and fed by the community, and the position is an

honour. It is seen as a "cargo", based on the ancient Mayan idea whereby individuals arechosen to provide unpaid service for the good of the community. The cargo of promoter is

especially demanding; the communities are very poor, and the work to raise consciousness in

the communities is very hard. Experienced promoters go on to teach new promoters and so the

system grows. "Being in resistance we have severe shortages of school supplies, but that does

not prevent us from organizing our educational system."

The Brigade visited all five regional areas, or Caracoles, and found each area had its regional

differences, while being based on the same principles.

Caracol I, La Realidad

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The promoters explained to the Brigade that here they have four levels of education, each level

lasting as long as the individual needs. The pre-school level is called Wake up, and starts at

the age of 4-5, with songs, games and group activities. The second level is called New Dawn,

the third New Creation, and the fourth Path towards the Future.

From the second level, students learn reading, writing, maths, life and environment, languages

and history. Classes are held three days a week from 7am until 1 pm, with a break for breakfast.

Classes are organised according to peoples needs, so sometimes there is a holiday during the

coffee harvest. All classes are open to children from non-Zapatista families.

Education promoters receive two levels of training over six years, in the fifth year they learn how

to teach reading and writing to adults. The promoters do not work for money, but through their

sense of esponsibility.

We have spent a long time discussing and analysing the subject of education. Education isessential for the construction of autonomy, to prepare for the struggle. It is easy to deceive

someone who cannot read, so classes are compulsory for children and adults, all learning

together.

Caracol II, Oventik

Oventik has two levels of education: primary, lasting around six years, and secondary, which

takes another three. The secondary school opened in 2000. After completing secondary school,

a student is ready to take on the role of promoter, and this is why since 2003 they have had a

primary school in every municipality.

The promoters emphasised to their visitors the need to provide a model of education which will

meet the needs of the people in the communities. The government schools force children to

speak Spanish even though they have no knowledge of the language. The result is a failure of

education in indigenous communities and impoverishment of the native languages.

In the autonomous schools, the children speak their mother tongue (mainly Tzotzil in this area),

but the students also learn Spanish in order to speak with people from other communities who

speak other languages. They believe that the autonomous schools must take on the role of

preserving the indigenous languages in their spoken and written forms.

The promoters emphasised to the Brigade the prime importance of developing political,

economic and cultural awareness through the development of analytical, critical and creative

skills. Studying their own history is extremely important: knowledge of their origins, their

traditional culture, ways of living and beliefs, and the history of colonisation and resistance, the

history that is hidden in the official schools. The autonomous schools also teach social and

natural sciences, rooted in the reality of the community, learning to work the land, and to cook

the food they have grown.

In Oventik, schools are open five days a week. Breaks in the school year are known as changeof activities, when the children are needed to help with work at home or in the community.

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Primary education is compulsory for young children and adolescents, but at present secondary

education exists only within the Caracol itself. Each secondary student goes home every fifteen

days and brings back enough food to cover the following two weeks. Classes last from 8am to

3pm, and in the evening students do sports, art and craft activities or read. In the future, the

compas hope to extend secondary education to all, and to develop a third level of learning.They would also like to offer adult literacy classes to everyone.

Caracol III, La Garrucha

The members of the Education Commission from La Garrucha explained to the Brigade

members that their education arose from the needs and demands of the rebel communities,providing an alternative model of education in resistance. This means that education, as part of

daily life in the communities, is anchored in the daily struggle. Within all the four municipalities,

the main aim is one of sharing, of learning together, of learning from everyone.

Education in this zone has since 2008 been called Little Seeds of the Sun, and is being

organised on three levels, although only two are functioning in all the schools in the

communities. At the first level, children learn to read, write and draw. The second level covers

the Zapatista demands, and in the third level texts, reports, communiqus, denuncias,

government strategies, why we fight, and the construction of autonomy are all studied.

All levels cover four main areas: history, languages, life and environment, and mathematics.

History shows how the ancestors cared for the earth and the natural world, and how this

tradition must be continued, preserving indigenous culture. They study past and current history,

different ways of working, how to save native seeds, and the need to work together to build and

strengthen the community and the resistance. Life and environment covers the care and

conservation of the land and nature, natural resources, pollution, and sustainable land

management. In mathematics the children learn from attacks and exploitation of indigenous

peoples.

The study of languages starts with the mother tongue; in this zone four indigenous languages

are spoken tzeltal (the most numerous), tzotzil, chol and tojolabal. Texts are studied in all

these languages as well as in Spanish; studies include law, autonomy, defence of natural

resources, writing reports and translations.

Schools are open Monday to Thursday from 8.30 am to 2pm, with a break from 11 until 12.

There are no exams or grades, and children or adults can join at any age. It is forbidden to hit,

punish, or disrespect the children. Education is a right and a duty. If parents fail to send their

children to school they must explain why to the authorities. Children go to school in order to

serve the community, not to go away and work for the capitalists. They hope to implement the

third level (secondary) education throughout the zone as soon as possible, at the request of the

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communities.

There are two levels of training for promoters and two training centres one in the Caracol of

La Garrucha, and the other Companero Manuel Centre in La Culebra, autonomous

municipality Ricardo Flores Magon. After completing the two levels, promoters can train newpromoters. Four one-month periods of training are run each year at each centre, and promoters

need to study for two years. They work together collectively, sharing their knowledge ready to

take it to the community. All are equal, and all learn the same things. We believe that we do

everything for everyone. We have to do it together.

Caracol IV Morelia

Education, the promoters told the Brigade, is compulsory until old age, as it is essential for

the construction of autonomy. Education begins at the age of three or four and is also available

to adults. There are three compulsory levels of primary education, and three more of secondary.Each level takes as long as the student needs. Each child must complete at least two levels of

primary education. After completing secondary school, students can become education

promoters.

The schools operate through the community assembly, which is where the people choose their

own education promoters who receive special training workshops. The community works

together to provide for the needs of their promoters, such as beans and maize. Some

communities also work the fields of the promoter.

Classes are held from Monday to Thursday. Each region has its own secondary school, withdormitories for the students who often have to travel a long distance to the schools. Every two

weeks, the students return to their communities for a two-week period. Classes are in the

students own language, but at a later level they can also study Spanish. The areas covered are

reading and writing, maths, natural history, geography, political studies, traditional history and

culture, art and music. In the secondary schools there are gardens for growing vegetables and

plants. This system of education began in 1999.

Caracol V, Roberto Barrios

The teaching is not good in the bad government schools, and some areas dont have schoolsat all. This is why, in 1999, each community chose its own education promoters... The promoter

comes from the community, and it is the people of the community who decide what is taught.

Now every community has promoters to co-ordinate the work, and every six months they all

meet together to share ideas and discuss how things are going.

There are two levels of education. The first is called Little Seeds of the Sun, and the second is

CCETAZ (the Zapatista Cultural Centre for Autonomous Education and Technology). School

starts at the age of four or five, with pupils studying three levels. After six years of primary

education they can progress, if they wish, to the second level. There are no comparisons, no

tests, no final scores and no failures. Education is open to all.

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The CCETAZ has only been open for a year, so the levels have not been defined yet, but there

are to be six terms, of which so far only two have been completed. The college is for young

people up to the age of fourteen.

Teaching is in Tzeltal, Chol and Zoque, if we lose our language, we will lose our culture, beliefsand customs. Craftspeople are being trained as their grandparents were. Young people learn

to be critical of the way of life that is being imposed on them, and of the problems of the

communities. They are taught maths and history, but also how to work the land, how to improve

the harvest. The schools have a small field where they grow corn and beans to eat. They do not

use chemicals or genetically modified crops, because these are the tools of a system which

threatens the campesino. They value working in the field so as to have good food to eat.4

Education Open to All, With No Failures: We learn as we walk, side by side with our

education.

The Brigades reports reveal an astonishing achievement. All this from a people living in dire

poverty, many of them under constant attack and harassment, never knowing when their crops

and houses will be burned, and many of them unable to read or write or to speak Spanish when

the rebellion erupted in 1994. They know they still have a long way to go; they would like to

extend secondary education throughout, to have more materials, supplies and equipment. In

many communities, there is only one promoter, so the older children teach the younger ones.

There are no resources to build new schools, but one day, they dream there will be a Zapatista

university.

Throughout the process of building schools the communities have been supported by nationaland international civil society. Groups from many countries including Spain, Italy, Japan and the

USA have been involved.

The strength of the system is in the community, the collective way of living and working.

Children go to school carrying maize, beans and firewood. They know that if they go to the

government schools they will lose their identity, their culture, language and tradition. In the

government schools they are taught as individuals, in order to lose their sense of community as

the basis of life. The government teachers dont teach what our children want to learn. We

want our children to learn about freedom, dignity, and to value all human beings, both men and

women.5 This is truly education from below.

An Education for the World

The Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Secondary School (ESRAZ), at Oventik, also operates the

Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Spanish and Maya Languages Centre (CELMRAZ) where

students come from throughout the world to study Spanish and Tzotzil in the context of the

reality of the indigenous people in resistance. All the fees paid go towards supporting the

secondary school.

In presenting the project, the statement reads: To educate is to learn, which is to say, toeducate by learning. We can educate students who educate us- so that those of us who are in

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favour of life can educate each other mutually and so construct those many worlds of which we

all dream. We can say that we know how to educate those who educate us, that is why our

school is for the entire world and is why we say for everyone everything, nothing for us.

This is the form of the autonomy of our people, of our culture, and in this way we can recreatethe different languages that have never existed for those who dominate, while our faces have

been denied for being the color of earth.6

Notes:

[1] http://www.schoolsforchiapas.org/ Early Zapatista school in Oventik, with roof markings to

avoid attacks from the air.

[2] http://www.europazapatista.org/NOTICIAS-DESTACADAS-Brigada.html

[3] http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/07/17/index.php?section=politica&article=017n1pol

Resistencia al capitalismo, escuela para la libertad zapatista: brigada europea.

[4] http://www.europazapatista.org/IMG/pdf/BRIGADA_2010_folleto_2.pdf

[5] http://www.narconews.com/Issue44/article2487.html

[6] http://www.serazln-altos.org/eng/celm.html

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http://www.schoolsforchiapas.org/http://www.europazapatista.org/NOTICIAS-DESTACADAS-Brigada.htmlhttp://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/07/17/index.php?section=politica&article=017n1polhttp://www.europazapatista.org/IMG/pdf/BRIGADA_2010_folleto_2.pdfhttp://www.narconews.com/Issue44/article2487.htmlhttp://www.serazln-altos.org/eng/celm.htmlhttp://www.serazln-altos.org/eng/celm.htmlhttp://www.narconews.com/Issue44/article2487.htmlhttp://www.europazapatista.org/IMG/pdf/BRIGADA_2010_folleto_2.pdfhttp://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/07/17/index.php?section=politica&article=017n1polhttp://www.europazapatista.org/NOTICIAS-DESTACADAS-Brigada.htmlhttp://www.schoolsforchiapas.org/

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Zapatista Supporters Attacked in Retaliation for Building an Autonomous School