Pen-l people:
Sometimes it helps to be outside the money economy of capitalism to
recognize that Freud and Marx were both right (in their own
ways), money is shit. In the following report on the resistance of
Chiapanecos who fled the onslaught of the Mexican military, you will find
some very intuitive, but insightful observations on Money and some of its
its uses in capitalism.
Harry
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1995 14:33:38 -0600 (CST)
From: Harry M. Cleaver <hmcleave@mundo>
To: Chiapas95 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Jornada, Mar. 25 Refugees Refuse to Return (English)
This posting has been forwarded to you as a service of the Austin Comite
de Solidaridad con Chiapas y Mexico.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 1995 18:58:55 -0800
From: National Commission for Democracy in Mexico <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Refugees Refuse to Return (Jorn. 3/25)
Jornada March 25
Jose Gil Olmos, correspondent, Lacandon Jungle, March 24
After 44 days of refuge in the mountains about 4,000 Tzeltal and
Tojobal indigenous ratified the agreement made recently to not
return to their communities because the Mexican Army troops
continue to mobilize in the conflict region and only two days ago
they began to withdraw from some communities in the Lacandon
jungle, including Guadalupe Victoria, where the soliders harassed
the indigenous, destroyed their properties and took possession of
their houses.
Despite the attack of hunger, intestinal and skin infections, the
extreme climate that the meager clothing that they managed to
take from the villages is hardly suitable for, and the scarcity
of medicines in these corners of the world where men, women and
children hide from the military flybys day and night, the
refugees maintain that "they will not give in" before the
governmental forces because their struggle is to achieve a
dignified justice which their parents and grandparents did not
have.
"The government wants to force us to give up and to buy us off.
It makes us an offer that we exchange for our dignity for two
kilos of food. We are very sorry that other brothers and
sisters have accepted it. We will not do it; we are not willing
to return under these conditions. We will continue resisting
until we do not see that there is any security forces", stated
Isaias, during a report on the agreements developed among the
communities, ranches and villages called Morelia, La Grandeza,
Lazaro Cardenas, and Venustiano Carranza.
The mountains stand tall in the background. The heat surpasses
30 degrees Celcius even though it is early in the morning. A
drum sounds, calling the children, women and men to take a plate
of beans and helping of tortillas. From among the "cobachas"
come "malcilentos" faces. The ration has diminished with the
passage of time. Now, a month and a half after having fled, the
quantity of food is measured in handfuls: one of beans and a half
of one of rice in the morning and again in the afternoon.
The drum stops. The meager food is distributed, and with their
hands as trays, the indigenous people take refugee in the shadows
to eat. In the cracks of a palm "cobache" two indigenous people
practically count the number of beans and corn grains that each
has received.
The grains fall in poor cascades from two sacks that are only
one-fourth full. This is the food for 200 people who can not
leave their refuge for fear of the soldiers who marauded, the
cattlemen who have taken away the cows, oxen, horses and mules
although they do not have their brand, helped by day workers who
have injested great quantities of beer and liquor while leaving
behind a trail of glass bottles and aluminum cans that shine on
the dirt road under the sun's rays.
Now another indigenous person from Lazaro Cardenas who speaks
Spanish slowly and sometimes mixes it with Tzeltal. "When the
rain and strong winds come and take away the people's belongings,
the government begins to take applications for credit. They
offer them 3,500 new pesos ($1,366 before the devaluation). But
we are fighting against that now, since in those monies we see
the face of the devil, because first it shows itself and then it
disappears. The government gives something today and then
tomorrow it takes it back. We can't eat money, we can't plant it
like our seeds. What we need most, the government refuses to
give, and what it does give at any given moment, some use it up
to buy drink.
"We know why we are struggling. The sun is going to shine again,
and we want to go forward, not back. It's not only for us; it's
for everyone. Money is the God of the Government and to this God
they want to sacrifice us. This already happened to our
ancestors.
"They killed one of the companeros from La Grandeza so that the
God of Money could come, but this blood is alive and has not
died. We know we are not alone, and that many are with us."
Isaias observes his companeros with sadness and with a certain
impotence, that nostalgia for their villages has created.
"We want to return. It hurts alot because these villages are and
continue to be ours. We have been gone for 44 days, and every
day it is harder because every day the time of heat and drought
draws nearer.
"For us it is a shame to know how some indigenous leaders have
been corrupted. Why does it have to be like that? We are not
ashamed to see the people resisting, even when they are only
eating 2 or 3 beans. We hold our heads high to say that we are
not in agreement with this situation, that with the imposition of
the laws there will not be peace with dignity," says Isaias.
With the scarce information that gets to them about other
communities lost in the jungle, those which no civil observors,
officials, legislators or reporters have reached, the indigenous
representative maintains that with the food bags the government
"tries to hide the soldiers' destruction."
"The analysis that we have made is that the Army had everything
well planned. They came destroying houses, seeds, and animals,
the sustenance of the indigenous communities, our daily bread.
After the soldiers came through, the government began to start up
"Solidarity" programs and had the soldiers do "social service"
work. They began to offer bags of food and signature loans. And
since the people have so much need because hunger is such a
bitch, some accepted it.
" We have been living in this situation. But the government
couldn't fix it with money or Solidarity programs. So they
brought in the displaced people, some of whom had been trained to
create problems. Now they talk again about Solidarity and
credits, but it's all trash, charity works. What we want is a
real justice, with dignity. Until we see that those things
exist, and until the Army leaves, we will continue resisting; we
will not return," said another representative of the refugee
communities who asked not to be identified.
Isaias started talking again under the incandescent sunshine that
dries the streams that flow down the mountains. "They have
called us invadors and transgressors. They have said that we are
always breaking the law, but since the law is on the side of the
cattlemen and landowners, we are always wrong. The government can
not continue treating us this way, we are part of society. All
of us in the region know about the violations that the soldiers
did in La Grandeza and Lazaro Cardenas and if the government
thinks that because of these violations we are going to fall on
our knees, they are wrong. We aren't going to do it. We know how
to defend our rights."
The afternoon passes slowly until some of the men arrive with
canteens of water that they brought back from a trip of several
kilometers. In the mountains the first shadows appear and with
them the sounds of the planes' motors which will continue all
night long. The children hide and some remember the outline that
they were taught in school, in those days when they had classes
two days a week. "Axchaba now", they are heard shouting several
times while their mothers ask them to hide.
(Translated by Cindy ARnold, volunteer, National Commission for
Democracy in Mexico)
