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United Resistance

by Pachuco Monday, Jun. 20, 2005 at 2:32 PM

Chicano Artist commemorates flag to Alhambra Resistance

United Resistance...
alhambra_united_resistance.png, image/png, 350x225

Chicano artist Ernest M. Saenz has designed and commemorated a flag to those noble persons that stood up in united resistance against racism and in defense of vulnerable world citizens on Saturday June 18, 2005 in the City of Alhambra, California.

The name Alhambra means “the red one”, referring to the mountain on which the Alhambra in Spain was built. On June 18th, that mountain was represented by the counter-demonstrators’ determination to oppose hostile forces in their community. At the center of this flag is the City of Alhambra’s municipal seal – a replica of an arch from the Alhambra in Spain. At the Alhambra in Spain there are two arches, one is called the Puerta de las Armas (Gate of Arms) and another Puerta de Justicia (Gate of Justice).

The Gate of Arms was the only gate connecting the Alhambra to Granada, symbolically to the outside world, and the Gate of Justice was where offenders of the divine being’s laws were chastised.

In the City of Alhambra, the SOSMM ventured through the Gate of Arms, and quickly found themselves at the Gate of Justice.

The colors of this Alhambra United Resistance flag are blue – representing freedom, white – purity of heart, and green – our mother earth. These colors reflect the ideals that the counter-demonstrators defended in Alhambra.
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Flag

by Fed Up Monday, Jun. 20, 2005 at 5:57 PM

Don't you think we have enough flags already?
United?
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Not one racist remark.

by Patriot Monday, Jun. 20, 2005 at 6:20 PM

We want all illegal immigrants deported.

We protest more agressively against illegal Mexican aliens, because they make up 80% of the illegal aliens in our midst, and you are still coming.

Now, what I am having a problem with, is understanding where the racism is.

What racist remark is in these words: ILLEGAL MEXICAN ALIEN?

We call them illegal, because they are criminals, here without our legal permission.

We call them Mexican, BECAUSE THEY COME FROM MEXICO.

Is ALIEN, the racist word? ALIEN means foreign, does not belong.

I have met alot of Mexicans that are white, and alot of Mexicans that are a shade or two darker.

Mexican is not even a race, it is a nationality.

I do not think you know what racist means.

NOW LA RAZA AND MALDEF, they are racist, they definately hate white people.

Now, see, if you even wanted to, you cannot hate a Mexican for the color of their skin, because, they are white, tan, a little dark and darker.

I have heard some Mexicans, refer to their own Mexican president Vincente Fox as being white.

We do not even hate Mexicans. WE HATE ILLEGAL MEXICANS.

The ones who hate us. You know the ones who come here full of contempt for us, by breaking our immigration laws.

I suggest you get a dictionary, and look up the word racist.
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History 101

by Fed Up Monday, Jun. 20, 2005 at 6:39 PM

History:
Alhambra's story begins in 1874, when Benjamin Wilson bought 275 acres of land and laid out lots for residential farming. Charmed by a book written by Washington Erving's in 1832" Tales of the Alhambra," Wilson named his subdivision the Alhambra Tract.

When the Santa Fe Railroad completed its transcontinental line to Los Angeles in 1880, Alhambra quickly became home to thousands of new Californians. Benjamin Wilson's carefully designed irrigation system provided Alhambra's new citizens with water for the orange groves, vineyards, and lush gardens that sprang up everywhere.

The intersection of Main and Garfield was the young community's center of commerce by 1895. And, following the completion of railroad lines from Alhambra to Los Angeles in 1903, the year of Alhambra's incorporation - thousands of California "bungalow" residences were built, securing forever the new city's role as a residential haven in an urban metropolis.

By the 1950's, Alhambra's Main Street shopping district - still the center of this residential community - had taken on the upscale, prosperous look of Wilshire Boulevard's Miracle Mile. Main Street, Alhambra was the place to go in the San Gabriel Valley.

Just trying to help.
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Interesting

by johnk Monday, Jun. 20, 2005 at 6:42 PM

Never really thought of flags this way., commemorating the past, rather than a defined border.

Maybe there can be a way to commemorate the first Baldwin Park, too.

This reminded me of the Red and Black that's flying. I was never much of a flags guy, but I do like the ideas referenced by the red and black.

The Red and Black refers to Anarcho Communism, and probably the strain described by Kropotkin in Anarchist Communism, and the followup Anarchist Morality, as well as Mutual Aid.

I'm reading AM right now, and it's pretty simple stuff. Kropotkin basically justifies the "Golden Rule" and expands it to all people, and even animals. He also presents a biological argument for mutual aid and cooperation.

"The moral sense is a natural faculty in us like the sense of smell or of touch.... By flinging overboard law, religion, and authority, mankind can regain possession of the moral principle which has been taken from them."

Maybe that's why law, religion, and authority have so many insults for Anarchism.

Here's something for everyone:

"...It is in the ardent revolutionist to whon the joys of art, of science, even of family life, seem bitter, so long as they cannot be shared by all, and who works despite misery and persecution for the regeneration of the world. It is in the youth who, hearing of the atrocities of invasion, and taking literally the heroic legends of patriotism, inscribes himself in a volunteer corps and marches bravely through snow and hunger until he falls beneath the bullets. It was in the Paris street Arab, with his quick intelligence and bright choice of aversions and sympathies, who ran to the ramparts with his little brother, stood steady amid the rain of shells, and died murmuring: "long live the Commune!" It is in the man who is revolted at the sight of a wrong without waiting to ask what will be its result to himself, and when all backs are bent stands up to unmask the iniquity and brand the exploiter, the petty despot of a factory or great tyrant of an empire. Finally, it is in all those numberless acts of devotion, less strking and therefore unknown and almost always misprised, which may be continually observed, especially among women, if we will take the trouble to open our eyes and notice what lies at the very foundation of human life, and enables it to enfold itself one way or another in spite of the exploitation and oppression it undergoes."

Has much really changed in why we do what we do, in the 108 years since those words were written?
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Since there is no way to edit

by Fed Up Monday, Jun. 20, 2005 at 6:45 PM

Irving, Washington
3 April 1783 - 28 November 1859

Often regarded as the originator of the American short story, Irving produced a number of sketches of life in the Hudson River Valley of New York, and of life in England and Spain; these were popular enough that Irving is often said to be the first American author to earn a living solely from his writing. Like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Irving was acutely aware of America's cultural roots in Europe, and much of his work reflects both a nostalgia for and an updating of European life and folkways, as does the fact Irving spent a considerable portion of his adult life—over 20 years—living in Europe. Irving's "transitional" status is also evident in his powerful interest in American beginnings: a (largely comic) History of New York, a biography of Columbus (the literal "finder" of America, at least in popular myth), and a biography of George Washington (one of America's political "founders" and the man after whom Irving was named).

Many of Irving's tales have a supernaturalist element, though Irving's gentle humor and rationalist skepticism often hedge that supernaturalism considerably, especially in the American tales.
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Skid Row

by Pachuco Monday, Jun. 20, 2005 at 6:50 PM

Skid Row...
skid_row.jpg, image/jpeg, 480x322

[Quote]

We do not even hate Mexicans. WE HATE ILLEGAL MEXICANS

[End Quote]

You don't see anything racist in that remark alone?

First, you support an organization that posts racist remarks, advocates kidnapping and murder, has members that are known to be in cahoots with Race Supremacy groups – your mere association makes you guilty of aiding and abetting racist activities.

Secondly, there is only one type of Mexican, not two as you state - one legal and one illegal. What you create by implying that there are illegal Mexicans is suspicion of all persons perceived to be Mexican because there is no way of knowing what constitutes legal or illegal. That is racism.

Thirdly, if people tell you that you are racist and in your explanation of why you are not racist you use a statement like “I suggest you get a dictionary, and look up the word racist.” - you are in denial. That is the same as an alcoholic denying his problem because he is not on skid row.
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Racism

by johnk Monday, Jun. 20, 2005 at 6:52 PM

> What racist remark is in these words: ILLEGAL MEXICAN ALIEN?

It's in the use of the word "illegal". The term used in the immigration law is "undocumented immigrant." Some people have said it's Political Correctness, but it's not. It's the language of the law.

> Mexican is not even a race, it is a nationality.
> I do not think you know what racist means.

Jewish people are "white" and they were and are victims of racism.

Irish people are *real* pale white, but they still suffer racism from the English. They suffered it in this country too.

Bosnians and Croatians are white, aren't they? They learned to be racist against each other.

> I have heard some Mexicans, refer to their own Mexican president Vincente Fox as being white.

He is white. He's half white American, and half Italian. He's not like the majority of Mexicans, who are indigenous.

> We do not even hate Mexicans. WE HATE ILLEGAL MEXICANS.

There you go with the "illegal" again.

The "hate" too.

You should reserve hate for individuals, if even them. It's not wise to hate large groups of people classified by some label they never even chose.

> The ones who hate us. You know the ones who come here full of contempt for us, by breaking our immigration laws.

Well, for what its worth, our immigration laws have contempt for the people of the world. It's been that way for over a century.
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May 14, 2005 BP Flag

by Pachuco Monday, Jun. 20, 2005 at 7:00 PM

May 14, 2005 BP Flag...
aztlan_flag_14-mayo.pnghdqlq5.png, image/png, 244x157

Ernest M. Saenz also designed the above flag in commemoration of Baldwin Park Counter-Demonstrators May 14, 2005.

Link: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/128210.php
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Alhambra Resistance Flag

by lynda Monday, Jun. 20, 2005 at 8:18 PM
llamaslynda@yahoo.com

What would it take to have these flags, both the Baldwin Park and Alhambra Flag, (others?) fabricated so as to fly them, at peace vigils, and future actions in our communities.
Standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with all our neighbors
for Peace and Justice,
lynda
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We Stand In Solidarity

by 1Planet1People Monday, Jun. 20, 2005 at 10:08 PM

Neoliberalism caused the situation SOS is against. If they would pull their heads out of their rears for two seconds, maybe they would see this. Here is an older speech from the great Marco that speaks of our unity and our dedication to make a livable world....
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ezln.org/documentos/1996/19960803.en.htm

Words of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in the closing act of the First Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism (read by Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos).


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Through my voice speaks the voice of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
*La Realidad (Reality), Planet Earth.
August 3rd, 1996.

Brothers and sisters of the whole world: Brothers and sisters of Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania: Brothers and sisters attending the First Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism: Welcome to the Zapatista R/reality. Welcome to this territory in struggle for humanity. Welcome to this territory in rebellion against neoliberalism.

The Zapatistas greet all who attended this encounter. Here, in the mountains of the Mexican Southeast, when a collectivity greets whoever comes with good words, it is applauded. We ask that everyone greet each other and that everyone greet the delegations from: Italy, Brazil, Great Britain, Paraguay, Chile, Filippines, Germany, Peru, Argentina, Austria, Uruguay, Guatemala, Belgium, Venezuela, Iran, Denmark, Nicaragua, Zaire, France, Haiti, Ecuador, Greece, Japan, Kurdistan, Ireland, Costa Rica, Cuba, Sweden, The Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, The United States, The Basque Country, Turkey, Canada, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Australia, Mauritania, Mexico ["Norway!" and "Colombia!" were called out from the crowd].

Welcome, all men, women, children, and elders from the five continents who have responded to the invitation of the Zapatista indigenous to search for hope for humanity, against neoliberalism.

Brothers and sisters:

When this dream that today awakens in R/reality began to be dreamed by us, we thought it would be a failure. We thought that, maybe, we could gather here a few dozen persons from several countries. We were wrong. As always we were wrong. It wasn't a few dozen, but thousands of human beings, those who came from the five continents to find themselves in R/reality at the close of the twentieth century.

The word born within these mountains, these Zapatista mountains, found ears that gave it cover, that cared for and launched it anew, so that it might arrive far away and circle the world. The crazy insanity of a convocation of the five continents to reflect critically on our past, our present, and our future, found that it wasn't alone in its delirium, and soon insanities from the whole planet began to work on bringing the dream to rest in Reality, to bathe it in the mud, grow it under the rain, moisten it under the sun, speak it with the other, go drawing it, giving it form and body.

As to what happened in these days, much will be written later. Today we can say that we are certain of at least one thing. A dream dreamed in the five continents can come to make itself real in R/reality. Who now will be able to tell us that dreaming is lovely but futile? Who now will be able to argue that dreams, however many the dreamers, cannot become a reality?

How is joy dreamed in Africa? What marvels walk in the European dream? How many tomorrows does the dream enclose in Asia? To what music does the American dream dance? How does the heart speak that dreams in Oceania?

To whom does it matter how and what we dream here or in any part of the world? Who are they who dare to convene with their dream all the dreams of the world? What's happening in the mountains of the Mexican Southeast that finds echo and mirror in the streets of Europe, suburbs of Asia, rural areas of America, townships of Africa, and houses of Oceania? What's happening with the peoples of these five continents that, so we are all told, only encountered each other to make war or compete? Wasn't this turn of the century synonymous with despair, bitterness, and cynicism? From where and how did all these dreams arrive at R/reality?

May Europe speak and recount the long bridge of its gaze that crossed the Atlantic and history in order to rediscover itself in R/reality.

May Asia speak and explain the gigantic leap of its heart to arrive and beat in R/reality. May Africa speak and describe the lengthy sailing of its restless image to come to reflect upon itself in R/reality. May Oceania speak and tell of the multiple flight of its thought to go rebounding away until it rested in R/reality. May America speak and remember the increased feeling of its hope to arrive, remembering, to the point of renewing itself in R/reality.

May the five continents speak and everyone listen. May humanity suspend for a moment its silence of shame and anguish. May humanity speak. May humanity listen....

In the world of those who live in the Power and kill for the Power, the human being doesn't fit, there is no space for hope, no place for tomorrow. Slavery or death is the alternative that their world offers all worlds. The world of money, their world, governs from the stock exchanges. Speculation is today the principal source of enrichment and, at the same time, the best demonstration of the atrophy of the human being's capacity to work. Work is no longer necessary in order to produce wealth; now all that's needed is speculation.

Crimes and wars are carried out so that the global stock exchanges may be pillaged by one or another.

Meanwhile, millions of women, millions of youths, millions of indigenous, millions of homosexuals, millions of human beings of all races and colors only participate in the financial markets as a devalued currency worth always less and less, the currency of their blood making profits.

The globalization of markets is erasing borders for specula-tion and crime and multiplying them for human beings. Countries are obligated to erase their national borders when it comes to the circulation of money but to multiply their internal borders.

Neoliberalism doesn't turn countries into only one country, it turns each one of them into many countries.

The lie of unipolarity and internationalization turns itself into a nightmare of war, a fragmented war, again and again, so many times that nations are pulverized. In this world that the Power is globalizing in order to get around the obstacles to its war of conquest, national governments are turned into the military underlings of a new world war against humanity.

From the stupid career of nuclear armament, destined to annihilate humanity in one blow with nuclear weapons, it has gone to the absurd militarization of all aspects of the life of national societies, a militarization destined to annihilate humanity in many blows, in many places, and in many ways. What were formerly known as "national armies" are turning into simple units of a greater army, the one that neoliberalism arms and leads against humanity. The end of the so-called Cold War didn't stop the arming of the world, it only changed the model of this mortal merchandizing: weapons of all sizes and for all kinds of criminal tastes. More and more, not only are the so-called "institutional" armies armed, but also the armies that drug trafficking builds up to assure its empire. More or less rapidly, national societies are being militarized and the armies suposedly created to protect their borders from foreign enemies are turning their cannons and rifles around and aiming them inward.

It is not possible for neoliberalism to become the world's reality without the argument of death served up by institutional and private armies, without the gag served up by prisons, without the blows and assassinations served up by the military and police. National repression is the necessary premise for the globalization that neoliberalism imposes.

The more neoliberalism advances as a global system, the more numerous grow the weapons and the ranks of the armies and national police. The numbers of the imprisoned, the disappeared, and the assassinated in different countries also grows.

A world war: the most brutal, the most complete, the most universal, the most effective.

Each country, each city, each rural area, each house, each person, everything is a large or small battleground. On the one side is neoliberalism with all its repressive power and all its machinery of death; on the other side is the human being.

There are those who resign themselves to being one more number in the huge bolsa--pouch/purse/exchange--of Power. There are those who resign themselves to being slaves. He who is also master to other slaves cynically walks the slave's horizontal ladder. In exchange for the bad life and the crumbs that Power hands out, there are those who sell themselves, resign themselves, surrender themselves. In any part of the world, there are slaves who say they are happy being slaves. In any part of the world there are men and women who stop being human and take their place in the gigantic market that trades in diginities.

But there are those who do not resign themselves, there are those who decide to be uncomfortable, there are those who do not sell themselves, there are those who do not surrender themselves. There are, around the world, those who resist being annihilated in this war. There are those who decide to fight.

In any place in the world, anytime, any man or woman rebels to the point of tearing off the clothes that resignation has woven for them and that cynicism has dyed grey. Any man, any woman, of whatever color in whatever tongue, says and says to himself, to herself, "Enough already"--Ya Basta!

Enough already of lies. Enough already of crime. Enough already of death. "Enough already of war," any man, any woman, says and says to himself, to herself.

In whatever part of any of the five continents any man, any woman, eagerly resists the Power and constructs his own, her own, road that doesn't imply the loss of dignity and hope.

Any man or any woman decides to live and struggle for his part, her part, in history. No longer does the Power dictate his steps, her steps; no longer does the Power administer life and decide death.

Any man or any woman responds to death with life. And responds to the nightmare by dreaming and struggling against war, against neoliberalism, for humanity....

For struggling for a better world all of us are fenced in, threatened with death. The fence is reproduced globally. In every continent, every city, every rural area, every house, the Power's fence of war closes in on the rebels whom humanity always thanks.

But fences are broken. In every house, in every rural area, in every city, in every state, in every country, on every continent the rebels, that the history of humanity repeats along its entire course to assure itself of hope, struggle and the fence shakes.

The rebels search each other out. They walk towards one another. They find each other and together break other fences. In the rural areas and cities, in the states, in the nations, on the continents, the rebels begin to recognize themselves, to know themselves to be equal and different. They continue on their fatiguing walk, walking as it is now necessary to walk, that is to say, struggling....

A R/reality spoke to them then. Rebels from the five continents heard it and set off walking.

To arrive at the intercontinental R/reality, each one has had to make his own, her own, road. From the five arms of the star of the world, the step of men and women, whose dignified word searched for the place to be spoken and heard, has arrived at R/reality, the place of the encounter.

It was necessary to break through many fences to arrive to break through the fence around R/reality. There are different fences. In ours, one must get past the police, customs officials, tanks, cannons, trenches, planes, helicopters, rain, mud, insects. Each one of the rebels from the five continents has his own, her own, fence, own struggle, and a broken fence to add to the memory of other rebels.

So it was that this intercontinental encounter began. It was initiated on all the continents, in all the countries, in all the places where any man or woman began to say and say to themselves, "Enough already!"

Who can say in what precise locale, and at what exact hour and date this intercontinental encounter for humanity and against neoliberalism began? We don't know. But we do know who initiated it. All the rebels around the world started it. Here, we are only a small part of those rebels, it's true. But to all the diverse fences that all the rebels of the world break every day, you have added one more rupture, that of the fence around the Zapatista R/reality.

In order to achieve that, you had to struggle against your respective governments and then confront the "fence" of papers and procedures with which the Mexican government thought to detain you. You are all fighters, men and women who break through fences of all kinds. That's why you made it to R/reality. Maybe you can't yet see the greatness of your achievement, but we do see it.

That is why we want to ask your forgiveness for the stupidity of the Mexican government that, by means of its immigration agents, has done everything possible to impede your arrival at these Zapatista lands. These agents of idiocy-made-government believe that passports and permits are still necessary in order to speak and listen to dignity. We are sure that all of you will know how to comprehend why this imbecility believes that nationality divides human beings. We ask that you pardon them. After all, we have to thank the Mexican government that has reminded us that we are all different, even though it has done so with this poor exhibition. But we also have to thank the indigenous communities who received us these days, they who have reminded us that we are all equal.

That is why we, the Zapatistas, have proposed to struggle for a better government here in Mexico. We are struggling to have a government that is even a little intelligent and that understands that dignity doesn't know about passports, visas, and other absurdities. This is what we are about now, and we will surely achieve it.

But while this is going on, we ask in the name of the indigenous communities, when you pass the immigration checkpoints on your way out that you do us the favor of congratulating the Mexican government on the success it achieved with the fence put up against an indigenous rebel movement that, it is plainly evident, only has any influence in four municipalities of the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas.

Some of the best rebels from the five continents arrived in the mountains of the Mexican Southeast. All of them brought their ideas, their hearts, their worlds. To find themselves among other ideas, other reasons, other worlds, for that they arrived at R/reality.

A world made of many worlds found itself these days in the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

A world made of many worlds opened a space and established its right to be possible, raised the banner of being necessary, fastened to the middle of the earth's R/reality to announce a better future. A world of all the worlds that rebel and resist the Power, a world of all the worlds that inhabit this world opposing cynicism, a world that struggles for humanity and against neoliberalism. This was the world that we lived these days; this is the world that we found here....

This encounter doesn't end in R/reality. It just so happens that now it must search for a place to continue on.

But what next?

A new number in the useless enumeration of the numerous international orders?
A new scheme that calms and alleviates the anguish of a lack of recipes?

A global program for world revolution?

A theorization of Utopia so that it can continue to maintain a prudent distance from the reality that anguishes us?

An "organigram" that assures all of us a position, a task, a title, and no work?

The echo continues, the reflected image of the possible and forgotten: the possibility and necessity of speaking and listening.

Not the echo that peters out or the force that decreases after its highest apex.

Yes, the echo that breaks barriers and continues.

The echo of small distinction, the local and particular, reverberating in the echo of great distinction, the intercontinental and galactic.

The echo that recognizes the existence of the other and does not overpower or attempt to silence the other.

The echo that takes its place and speaks its own voice and speaks the voice of the other.

The echo that reproduces its own sound and opens itself to the sound of the other.

The echo of this rebel voice transforming itself and renewing itself in other voices.

An echo that turns itself into many voices, into a network of voices that, before the deafness of the Power, opts to speak to itself, knowing itself to be one and many, acknowledging itself to be equal in its desire to listen and be listened to, recognizing itself as different in the tonalities and levels of voices forming it.

A network of voices that resist the war that the Power wages on them.

A network of voices that not only speak, but also struggle and resist for humanity and agianst neoliberalism.

A network of voices that are born resisting, reproducing their resistance in other even quieter or lonelier voices.

A network that covers the five continents and helps to resist the death that the Power promises us.

The great pocket of voices, sounds that search for their place, fitting with others continues.

The great torn pocket, that keeps the best of itself and opens itself for what's better to be born and to grow continues.

The mirror-pocket of voices, the world in which sounds may be listened to separately, recognizing their specificity, the world in which sounds may include themselves in one great sound continues.

The reproduction of resistances, the "I am not resigned," the "I am a rebel" continues.

The world with the many worlds that the world needs continues.

Humanity, recognizing itself to be plural, different, inclusive, tolerant of itself, with hope continues.

The human and rebel voice, consulted on the five continents in order to become a network of voices and of resistances continues.

The voice of all the people we are, the voice that speaks this Second Declaration of Reality for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism continues.


Brothers and sisters of Africa, Asia, America, Europe, and Oceania:

Considering that we are:

Against the international order of death, against the globalization of war and armaments.
Against dictatorships, against authoritarianism, against repression.

Against the politics of economic liberalization, against hunger, against poverty, against robbery, against corruption.

Against patriarchy, against xenophobia, against discrimination, against racism, against crime, against the destruction of the environment, against militarism.

Against stupidity, against lies, against ignorance.

Against slavery, against intolerance, against injustice, against marginalization, against forgetfulness.

Against neoliberalism.

Considering that we are:
For the international order of hope, for a new, just, and dignified peace.
For a new politics, for democracy, for political liberties.

For justice, for life, and dignified work.

For civil society, for full rights for women in every aspect, for the respect of elders, youth, and children, for the defense and protection of the environment.

For intelligence, for culture, for education, for truth.

For liberty, for tolerance, for inclusion, for having memory.

For humanity.


We declare:
First. That we will make a collective network of all our particular struggles and resistances. An intercontinental network of resistance against neoliberalism, an intercontinental network of resistance for humanity.

This intercontinental network of resistance, recognizing differences and acknowledging similarities, will search to find itself with other resistances around the world. This interconti-nental network of resistance will be the medium in which distinct resistances may support one another. This intercontinental network of resistance is not an organizing structure; it doesn't have a central head or decision maker; it has no central command or hierarchies. We are the network, all of us who resist.

Second. That we will make a network of communication among all our struggles and resistances. An intercontinental network of alternative communication against neoliberalism, an intercontinental network of alternative communication for humanity.

This intercontinental network of alternative communication will search to weave the channels so that words may travel all the roads that resist. This intercontinental network of alternative communication will be the medium by which distinct resistances communicate with one another.

This intercontinental network of alternative communication is not an organizing structure, nor has a central head or decision maker, nor does it have a central command or hierarchies. We are the network, all of us who speak and listen.

This we declare:

To speak and to listen for humanity and against neoliberalism. To resist and struggle for humanity and against neoliberalism.

For the whole world: Democracy! Liberty! Justice! From whatever reality of whichever continent!

Brothers and sisters:

We do not propose that those of us who are present here sign this declaration and that this encounter end today.

We propose that the intercontinental encounter for humanity and against neoliberalism continue on every continent, in every country, in each rural area and city, in each house, school or workplace where human beings live who want a better world.

The indigenous communities have taught us that to resolve a problem, no matter how great it may be, it is always good to consult all of the people we are. That is why we propose that this declaration be distributed around the world and that a consultation be carried out, at least in all the countries in attendance, on the following question:

Do you agree to subscribe to this Second Declaration of La Realidad for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism?

We propose that this "Intercontinental Consultation for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism" be realized on the five continents during the first two weeks of December, 1996.

We propose that we organize this consultation in the same way that this encounter was organized, that all of us who attended and those who couldn't attend but who accompanied us from afar in this encounter, organize and carry out the consultation. We propose that we make use of all the possible and impossible media in order to consult with the greatest number of human beings on the five continents. The intercontinental consultation is part of the resistance we are organizing and one way of making contacts and encounters with other resistances. Part of a new way of doing political work in the world, that is what the intercontinental consultation wants to be.

Not only that. We also propose that we aleady call people to the Second Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism.

We propose that it be carried out in the second half of 1997 and that it be on the European continent. We propose that the exact date and place of the encuentro be defined by the brothers and sisters of Europe in a meeting they hold after this first encounter.

We all hope that there will be this second intercontinental encounter and that it be held, of course, on another continent. When this second encounter is held, we want to make it clear from this moment on that we will find the way to participate directly, wherever it is held.

Brothers and sisters:

We continue to be uncomfortable. What the theorists of neoliberalism tell us is false: that everything is under control, including everything that isn't under control.

We are not the escape valve for the rebellion that could destabilize neoliberalism. It is false that our rebel existence legitimates the Power.

The Power fears us. That is why it pursues us and fences us in. That is why it jails and kills us.

In R/reality, we are the possibility that it can be defeated and made to disappear.

Maybe there are not so many of us, but we are men and women who struggle for humanity, who struggle against neoliberalism.

We are men and women who struggle around the world.

We are men and women who want for the five continents:


Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

The Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee--General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

La Realidad (Reality), planet Earth, August, 1996.

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Whose land?

by EZLN - repost, IMC-Chiapas Wednesday, Jun. 22, 2005 at 2:46 PM

Here's to white Californians - all of us - who brought the English language, culture and literature - in short civilization - to the lowlife ingrates that call themselves 'Indigenous' people' Like the latter day children of Israel, we have made the desert bloom.

As always,
Patriot.
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Pretend ignorance compounds the stupidity

by Fredric L. Rice Wednesday, Jun. 22, 2005 at 4:25 PM
frice@skeptictank.org

> Now, what I am having a problem with, is
> understanding where the racism is.

I wonder why people pretend to ignorance when their overwhelming, legitimate ignorance should be plenty enough for them.

Someone seems to want to pretend he or she hasn't noticed the Nazis, Skinheads, Storm Fronters, National Vanguard / Alliance et al. white supremists that are counted among the SOSMM ranks at a number of these race hate festivals, or the growing violence the peacefuil anti-hate protesters are being subjected to:

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?aid=13

I wonder what this poor unfortunate individual makes of his poor, misunderstood buddies calling people "mongrels" and telling Americans to "go home" just because they have dark skin:

http://www.thedarkwind.org/bppart3.mwv

Maybe it's a "Socialist Communist" left-wing conspiracy or something involving Clinton's penis.

Still, I suppose there's always got to be a handful of unfortunates who want to play pretend so they can try to convince themselves they're not palling around with white supremists, looks like to me. Indeed, it's a good thing to see people doing so since it indicates that they're aware it's bad public relations to be seen with known and recognized white supremist groups.

My opinions only, of course, yet the abject refusal to abandon a mistaken cause once one learns one's cause is virtually indistinguishable from that of the Klu Klux Klan is a foreign concept to my mind. If I discovered that I was advocating the same ideals and morals as any such repugnant group, I'd work to divest myself of any involvement -- and strike out on my own or find another group that really does stand for what I do. I certainly wouldn't stick around and try to defend them -- or claim they don't exist.

Now SOSMM et al. can point at the white supremists among them and glibly proclaim, "We didn't invite them" but there's never been a successful, reasoned, legitimate explanation or excuse coming from these individuals as to why or how the groups they're pointing at are at core and fundamentally different than what the themselves are in fact inciting.

Cries of "It's not my fault!" never ring true in the face of overwhelming, daming evidence to the contrary, in my opinion.

I've also yet to see any of these sick scumbags even attempt to denounce what Hal Netkin did; I've seen excuses, denials, and justifications yet I've not seen any denouncements. Good, honest, real American citizens would stand up in their chairs and loudly denounce such things, and they would throw such people out of the nest, issueing press releases to all major news outlets across the country denouncing such people and such actions. _Real_ American citizens would.

My opinion is that all of these groups are indistinguishable when evaluating what they stand for, what they advocate, and what their increasingly violent actions predicate. The recent glib demands by the SOSMM that they'll ignore the Baldwin Park City rules deliberately to try to cause the City grief for their audacity of keeping the peace in a civilized, American way is further evidence of what it is these people stand for.

My opinions only, of course. I believe the evidence is with me.
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