Insurgent Subcommander Moisés (EZLN), About Ayotzinapa, the Hysteria Festival as a method of analysis and guide for action

Credit: Peter Rosset

Zapatista Army Of National Liberation
Mexico

December 2014

To the compas of the Sixth national and International:
To the Indigenous National Congress:
To the families and fellow friends of the murdered and disappeared Ayotzinapa Students:

Brothers and Sisters:
Fellow men and women:

There is much we want to tell you. We won't tell them all because we know there are now more urging and pressing matters for all. But even if they're not many, these are still plenty of our words. So we ask for patience and an attentive read.

We, zapatistas are here. And from this place we look, we listen, we read that the words of our brothers and fellow murdered and disappeared from Ayotzinapa starts to fall behind, and that now, for one part of those over there, it's more important if...

the word of others in the stands;the discussion whether the marches and manifestations belong to the well behaved or the uneducated;the discussion about which topic is mentioned faster in the social media;the discussion about tactics and strategies to "transcend" the movement;

And we think that 43 are still missing from Ayotzinapa, the 49 from the ABC nursery, the tenths of thousands national and migrants that have been murdered and disappeared and the political prisoners and disappearances.

And we think truth and justice are still sequestered.

And we also think that legitimacy and autonomy of their movement has to be respected.

Their voices, we zapatistas listen to them face to face. Thousands of zapatista bases supported them and their voices then reached dozens of thousands of indigenous people. Their voice spoke in tzeltal, in chol, in tojolabal, in tzotzil, in zoque and in castellano to our collective heart.

These voices have good judgment, they know what they're talking about, and their heart is just like ours when pain becomes rage. They know their way and they move with it.

They know themselves. They know about our rage and pain. We have nothing to teach them. We have everything to learn from them.

That is why now, when their voice pretends to be shut, silenced, forgotten or torted, we send our word to embrace them.

That's why we say, first thing and urgent is to listen to the families and fellows of the Ayotzinapa murdered and disappeared. These are the voices that have touched the heart of million of people in Mexico and the rest of the world.

These are the voices that have signalled the pain and the rage, that have denounced the crime and  have pinpointed the criminal.

The importance of the voices is that they are recognised, by the government [so much so] that is trying to make them illegitimate; just like vultures, trying to tort them.

Let's look for these voices to take back their place and their path.

These voices resisted the slander, resisted blackmail, resisted bribery. These voices did not sell themselves out, they didn't give up, they didn't falter.

These are solitary voices. We knew, as an example, that when young people were crammed into the jailhouses, and the "well behaved" told those voices to forget about the detainees, that their liberation wasn't important because the government was already "infiltrating" the mobilizations, the firm and dignified voices of the Ayotzinapa families and fellows, more or less said, that for them, the freedom of the detained was part of the struggle for the presentation of the disappeared students. Which, meant, those voices didn't allow bribery or bought the cheap trinket of the "infiltrated".

True, these voices had the fortune to find a receptive population in their basic pair: satiety and empathy. The satiety around the "classic" forms of Power; and the empathy amongst those who go suffer their abuses and customs.

That is why this was inscribed in calendars and diverse geographies. What sets Ayotzinapa in the world map is the dignity of the families and fellow friends of the murdered and disappeared students. Their tenacious and intransigent pervasiveness in the search for truth and honesty.

And in their voice many throughout the planet were acknowledged. Other pains and other rages spoke through their words.

And in their voices they reminded us about many things. For example:

That police doesn't investigate robberies; the police sequesters, tortures, disappears and murders people with or without political affiliation.

That actual institutions are not places to prosecute indignation, the institutions only provoke indignation.

That the system does not have solutions for the problem because the system is the problem.

That, since long ago and in many parts:

governments don't rule, they simulate; 

the representatives don't represent; they forge; 

judges don't impart justice, they sell it; 

politicians don't do politics, the make businesses; 

that public forces of order are not public and they don't impose more order than the one ordered by the one who pays the most and in service of terror 

legality is the disguise of illegitimacy; 

the analysts don't analyse, they project their phobias and it's reality subsidiaries; 

critics don't critique, they assume and spread dogmas; 

the informants don't inform, they produce and distribute mottos; 

thinkers don't think, they commune with the words of fashion; 

crime is not punished, is awarded; 

ignorance is not rejected, it's promoted; 

poverty is the payment for those who produce riches.

Because friends and enemies, it turns out, capitalism nurtures itself from war and destruction.

Because the time where capitals needed peace and social stability is over.

Because, in the new hierarchy set on the capital, speculation rules and reigns, and it's world is one of corruption, impunity and crime.

Because it turns out the Ayotzinapa reality is not local, nor only from the state, not even national. It's global.

Because it turns out it's not only about young people, or young men either. It's a war with many wars: the war against the other, that war against the origins, the war against youth, the war against those who, with their labor, make the world spin, the world against women.

Because it turns out femicide is so old, common and ubiquitous in every ideology, that is considered "natural" death in files.

Because it turns out it's a war that from time to time takes some kind of shape in a calendar and a geography anywhere else. Erika Cassandra Bravo Caro: woman, young, worker, Mexican, 19 years old, tortured, murdered and flayed on the "pacified" (according to the civil, military and mediatic  authorities) state of Michoacán. "A pasional crime", they might say, like someone who says "colateral victims", like someone who says "a local problem in the provincial mexican state of... (insert the name of any federal entity)", like someone who says "it's an isolated case, let's get over it".

Because it turns out Ayotzinapa and Erika are not the exception, but the reaffirmation of the rule in a capitalist war: to destroy the enemy.

Because in this war the enemy is all of us, everyone, everything.

Because it turns out this is what is all about, this is what it's always been about: a war against humanity.

In this war, those from down under found an amplified echo in history of the families and fellow friends of the Ayotzinapa absentees.

Not only on their pain and rage, but mostly in their stubborn desire to find justice.

And with their voice the lies of conformism, of "enduring everything", of "nothing's going on", of "the change is only within" ended.

But, amidst the pain and rage, the vultures flew once again above the extended stain of deaths and mentioned disappearances.

Because where ones count unjust disappearances, others count votes, glasses, charges, letterheads, headlines, marches, signatures, likes, follows.

But let's not leave the account that matters to be left behind.

We, the zapatistas of the EZLN, think it's very important to achieve that the voices of the families and fellow friends of the murdered and disappeared from Ayotzinapa, be heard so here's what we've decided:

1. To yield our place in the First World Festival of Resistance and Rebellion against Capitalism, to the Ayotzinapa families and fellow members of the murdered and disappeared students. We think that in their voices and ears, there will be generous echoes in and for all those who, by being or missing to be there, will participate in the festival. 

2. That is why we're calling all fellow men and women of the National Indigenous Congress in our different jurisdictions, to the Conjunct Commission of the CNI-Sixth for the Cultural Festival, and those who will support our delegation in issues of transportation, lodging, feeding, safety and health, to ask for their dedication and effort towards the families and fellow friends of the murdered and disappeared students from Ayotzinapa and who we're all missing now. That is why we ask them to listen, and talk to them as if they were any of the 20 zapatistas, 10 women and 10 men, who will form our delegation. 

3. That is why, we respectfully ask the family and fellow friends of the murdered and disappeared from Ayotzinapa to accept our invitation and name, amongst them, a delegation of 10 women and 10 men, and partake as honorary guests in the irst World Festival of Resistance and Rebellion against Capitalism to be celebrated from December 21st, 2014 till January 3rd, 2015. For us, male and female zapatistas was of the uttermost importance to listen to them. We believe it will be great if all the people that attend the festival, have the same honor we were granted. And we also believe that all of you will be rewarded from the knowledge of other resistances and brother rebellious systems in Mexico and the world. You will be able to see then, how large and vast is the fact "you are not alone". 

4.The EZLN will participate in the Festival. Our attentive and respectful ear will be there amongst our compas (fellows) of the Sixth. Not in stages nor special spots, we will be like shadows, together with everyone, amongst everyone, behind everyone.

5. Our word to be shared is already [captured] on a video. "The Tercios Compadres" have been ordered to make it available as soon as they can to the different jurisdictions of the Festival and to the Free, Alternative, Independent, Autonomous or whatever they're called media, which come from the Sixth, so they can disseminate it, only if they consider it proper, in their own ways and time frames. 

6. On December 31st, 2014 and the first day of 2015 it will be a honor to receive in the Oventik snail, as special guests to the women and men that, with all their pain and rage, have raised the flag of dignity (of those of us who are down under and to the left) towards the whole world.

7. And not only but also, we are inviting all men and all women to the national and international Sixth, wearing a mask or not, to participate in this great sharing, so they can talk about their histories and listen to one, to the other, to another.

Of the histerical [condition] as a method of analysis and guide for action.

We, as zapatistas, are here. We watch, listen and read you from afar.

In the recent mobilisations for truth and justice for the students in Ayotzinapa, there has been a repetitive dispute against the imposition and the character of the marches, where as of nowadays exists the criminalisation of those who coincide with a stereotype: young men/women with their covered faces, dressed in black and that are or look like anarchists. In sum, they are bad behaved ones. And as such, they have to be expelled, signalled, detained, bound, delivered to the police or to the unjust rage of the progressive sectors.

This has been the outcome with certain coincidental and almost hysterical reactions in some cases, and schizophrenia in others, making it an obstacle for a reasonable argumentation and necessary debate.

Although we had seen this before (in 1999-2000, 2005-2006, 2010-2012 UNAM strikes), the relaunch of this method as an analysis and guide towards the well behaved leftist wing, allows for some reflections:

The families and fellow members of the Ayotzinapa murdered and disappeared, as tenths of thousands of disappeared and murdered, don't ask for charity or pity, they demand truth and justice.

Who is to say these demands, which are the demands of any humean being in any part of the world, have to be expressed in this or other way? Who writes the "manual of good or bad behaviour" to express pain, rage, inconformity?

But well, it can and rather must be debated how to to fully embrace the word "compañer@" (fellow member). With a fatuous tone from a stage or like a broken glass. With a "trending Topic" or with a police patrol in flames. With a blog or a graffiti. Or maybe all of them or none, and each with it's own way, creates, raises it's own way of supporting [the cause].

But not even those who have the moral authority and human stature to sa "this way" or "not this way", that is, the families and fellow friends of those missing from Ayotzinapa, have done so.

Then, who has given the good behaviour commissioners the charges for the support and the solidarity? Where does this happy signalling of these or those others from some "gubernamental agents", "infiltrated" and horror of horrors! "anarchists"?

The argument "these are not students, but anarchists" is ridiculous. Any other anarchist has more cultural experience and scientific / technical knowledge than the average of those, who as police thinkers, signal and ask them to be put into a bonfire. Why do we even bother to talk of those who hoist and take pride in stupidity and illegitimacy as a policial method ("whether someone likes it or not") in Mexico's City government.

But, of course, you can create a puppet (a sort of insurrectional anarchist 4th region) and ridicule it by confectioning a cartoonesque theoretical body, so it can then be disposed of, in any case of trouble around mediatic or judicial public ministries (of course, only if he/she is videotaped in their detention, otherwise, who's going to miss them?). After all, the "journalistic" information comes from trustworthy sources: accusations and poltical police.

It's not the same to signal (those who signal, accuse, judge and condemn, and demand that the police executes the sentence), than to debate. Because for signalling you just need to be in fashion (which is comfortable, easy and, well, if the "likes" and "follows" increase). To signal you don't need an investigation with arguments, a mere "post" with some pictures and that's it.

That's where great romances between the "opinion leaders" and the masses of "followers" are born: upon blind faith synthesized in 140 characters.

From "I follow you and you follow me" to "they lived happily ever after", from then unto "You don't love me because you don't give me RT nor Fav nor Like. I'll change to another Mockingjay".

Investigation needs to be done in order to debate (check out the different anarchisms; and reiterated: "direct action" is not necessarily violent), to think, argument and ahhhhh!, the most dangerous and hard: reason.

Debating is hard and uncomfortable. There are consequences to those who debate (I mean, besides thumbs down, or fingers halfway up and the cascading "unfollows").

Whatever, there are some people that don't walk in life trying to agree, conform, fit, attract.

Behind any critical thinker there's a long list of deserting "followers", moving towards a place there's no room for thinking and the RT does not become an own goal.

And when the progre[ssive] journalism supplies the functions of the public ministries and accuses, interrogates, concludes and condemns, does it signal or debates?

Or is this the way to debate? The an@archists in jails or prosecuted or exiled, and the good consciences in the editorials, the microphones and the blue tweets?

Ok, ok, ok. But do we agree to support the families and fellow friends of the murdered and disappeared of Ayotzinapa, or that doesn't matter anymore?

Neither the toddlers and kids at the ABC daycare, the disappeared in Coahuila, the ignored migrants, the "collateral damages" of war, of murdered and hurt women every day, at every hour in every place, in every ideology?

Does it only matter the name of who sits in the [grand] chair or to promote jobs in the glass crystal and shelves of a company?

To those who insist of the electoral way as an only and excluding option, they have not been accused of "infiltrated", "policemen", "provocateurs" or "soldiers of Sedena [National Defense Secretary] dressed in civilian clothes". They are accused to be unrealistic, naive, dumb, jobseekers, oportunists, intolerant, ambitious, vultures, tyrannic and despotic. Well, fascists too. But not "infiltrated", even though more than one, dutifully complies with the real gubernamental agent profile and political police.

We know that these or the other are great strategists (as a sample, the great accomplishments they have obtained), they think, propose and impose that "mobilisation has to be trascended". Ones with well-attired and educated marches looking for contention and channeling; others with direct action, violent and excluded rage.

These and others with the vanguardist aim, of exclusive elite, of directing, hegemonize and homogenize the diversity in ways, times and places.

From "if you break a glass you're an infiltrated" to "if you don't break it... you're one too".

To these and the others what counts is the geographical center and what converges in it: political, economical and mediatic power.

If it doesn't happen in Mexico City, it does not happen, it has no validity, it doesn't count. The "historical" is their exclusive patrimony.

For them, mobilisations in Guerrero, Oaxaca, Jalisco, Veracruz, Sonora and other small corners of Mexico and the world, don't exist.

But on these both, laziness of critical analysis reigns, and they don't realize that's exactly where Power does not reside.

Up there, things have changed and very much so.

As long as deep and serious analysis is abandoned of the new character of Power, following with their noses the calendars from above (institutional or electoral ones) of one date or another, or with the urging "to do something, whatever" however sterile or useless, the reiteration of the same methods of struggle, the same refluxes, the same defeats will keep happening.

Towards a serious debate:

About the direct actions in the marches in Mexico City, on November 8th, the 20th and December 1st, 2014, seems pertinent to remember the words of Miguel Amorós:

"In such events, the sole presence of citizens and their allies is enough to plant confusion and convert the best radical intentions in pure activism, integrated with no difficulty to showcase and thus, manipulated, as an argument of the government to justify the excess of public forces or as an alibi of the citizens to justify the failure of their expectations. The activism -violent or just ideological- is the largest revealer of obsolescence in a revolt because it reflects theoretical poverty and the strategic weaknesses of the capital and State enemies. Stimulated activists in the need of doing "something" sign up to all the bombings, falling through a spectacular and mediatic set up, that tags them as hooligans or provocateurs. The result is not useful rather to the governments, the political parties or the pseudo movements, rubbish that is created to impede the most remote possibility of an autonomous struggle or of a revolutionary thinking". 

Amorós, Miguel. “El Ocaso de la Revuelta” Octubre del 2001. En “Golpes y Contragolpes” Pepitas de calabaza ed. & Oxígeno dis. España. 2005.

What's Next. Manifestation Requirements:

Men: INE credentials or ID card, proof of address (if you don't own a house, a copy of the rental contract; if you have a mortgage, what are you doing here?), suit and a tie (not a smoking yet, we don't mean to exaggerate, that will be used when we triumphantly cross, carried on top of the crowd's shoulders, the sacred door these ignorants tried to destroy), hands and face clean, without any visible tattoos, no piercings and no weird hairstyles (weird: everything that does not appear in fashion magazines), good shoes (no tennis shoes or boots), sign a letter of compromise where you are obliged to respect any sign of authority or power in any of it's shape or form, and finally to signal any attitude or intention of separate from any of these rules.

Women: the same attire but with a business suit. We're sorry but you do have to get a hairstyle.

Womamen: you don't qualify to manifest. Please proceed to the next closet.

From Proletary Vanguardism and the Well - Bad Behaved


We inform, because we think you ignore this, that the Mexican Syndicate of Electricians (SME) has denied, the CNI and the EZLN, the use of one of their installations for the celebration of the cultural acts, at DF, of the First World Festival of Resistances and Rebellion against Capitalism: "Where the ones up there destroy, and the ones down under reconstruct".

Before the "please behave well and say no to mountain masks" campaign, the SME had generously offered one of their spaces for the cultural part. As the "don't fear the State, just fear what's different" campaign progressed, some pretexts started to show and prepared the following path:"it's just it's vacation period, there will be no one to look after the place, we're not spending Christmas that way".

Finally, they were more clear and told us: "that a sector within the SME was against what was done in solidarity with other struggles, that the assembly had to reconsider the need to cancel this event because of our dealings with the Ayotzinapans, that it was impossible to be, on one side negotiating with the government and on the other side, messing with some pissed off, masked youngsters, that were doing actions just like the ones in Palacio [Government's Palace]; and they had to halt some young men that had decided to make a stop at the sports club (the place that was supposed to be lent), when were the caravans supposed to arrive, that first us (the Sixth and the CNI) and their masked ones (making themselves pass as the EZLN) trying to make the festival, that it wasn't possible, that we would need to look for another place, that they hope we understood".

They said more things, but they were about internal matters of the SME, some of them it's not necessary to repeat or spread.

What about that? The compas (fellows) of the Indigenous National Congress had proposed and SME place as a recognition to the struggle and salute to their resistance, and we supported their idea. And yet, there are still those who think the purging will be until the improbable moment that the proletarian vanguard takes the Power.

And then us, the zapatistas comprehend. But we don't understand. We don't understand how was it that a movement that has gone through all sorts of slandering, lies and hostility (even more than the ones young people, anarchists or not, masked and unmasked, students and diligent students) like the SME, would sum up to the fashion of criminalizing what's different. We don't understand how is that they suscribe to the fashion that's hot and then they decide to go through the "hoop" of good conciense and demarcate of those who not only respect(ted) but also admire(d). Is this demarcation part of the new principles of the party being constructed? Is this also part of your 100 year celebration?

It would have been easier to do just like they do in Mexico city, and set a sign on the entrance that would pray: "no admittance to masked ones" and that's it. We wouldn't have come inside, true, but your struggle would have been enlivened with all the colours of the Earth, the colours that belong to the Indigenous National Congress, along with the diversities of resistance and rebellions that, even they don't have a space to make cultural parties, they flourish in several corners of Mexico and the world.

in any case, in our limited possibilities, we will keep supporting your fair fight. And of course, we are also sending you an invitation to the Festival.

Choose the right answer:

"Vile masked men/women" (or with the new synonyms: "anarchists", infiltrated", "provocateurs", "students", "young"). This was said, tweeted, declared, signed, sung, painted, thought by:

a) an article writer, intellectual, cartoonist, journalist, spokesman/woman of the conservative paid media.
b) an article writer, intellectual, cartoonist, journalist, spokesman/woman of the progressive paid media.
c) a conservative artist.
d) a progressive artist.
e) a federal army general.
f) a patronage leader.
g) a progressive, revolutionary, vanguardist and proletary syndicate worker.
h) a right wing, political party leader.
i) a further right wing, political party leader.
j) an aligned political party leader... Summing it up: any kind of political party leader.
k) Epi.
l) Enrique Krauze.
m) All of the above.

Results: Any letter you have selected is correct. If you chose the last option, you not only have been correct, you have also made an exhaustive monitoring of the social links as well as paid and free media. We don't know if we should congratulate you or give you our condolences. In actual times, this has been stated, if you're not confused then you're not well informed.

[Alas! someone translated the rest before I finished, so here it is...]

On the stage of social media:

A typical tweet from the well-behaved after the November 20, 2014 march in Mexico City: “Why did the police arbitrarily detain civilians instead of detaining the anarchists?” Take note: Not only is it okay to arbitrarily detain the anarchists, they are also not considered “civilians.”A commentary from the well-behaved in seeing a photo of Mexico City police beating up, in the “whetheryoulikeitnot” kind of way, a family on the outskirts of the city’s main square on November 20, 2014: “I know them and they are not anarchists.” Take note: If nobody knows you or if you are an anarchist, you deserve to get beaten up.

An argument from the well-behaved at the beginning of the movement, or maybe after, it doesn’t really matter: “For sure those aytozinacos[vii] were asking for it. Who told them to go around looking like anarchists? Note: no comment.

The impossible dialogue:

“What do you mean you don’t understand this whole thing about how mask-wearers = anarchists = infiltrators? Look, those people are not interested in politics, they only want to create disorder. That’s what “anarchism” means: disorder. This whole covering your face thing is just cowardice. And the thing about the infiltrators is that they’re working for the government. What? Yes, the Zapatistas are also masked, and so are the ones who confronted Ulises Ruiz in Oaxaca, and so are some of the people who are now mobilizing in Guerrero and Oaxaca. Yeah, but they aren’t here in our city (stress on the “our” with a look of alarm). The Zapatistas, the Oaxaquistas, and the people from Guerrero, well, they’re good-hearted little Indians. Of course, without clear political leadership. Plus, they’re far away. We can send them humanitarian assistance—by which we mean getting rid of those things that we no longer want, that are no longer useful, or worse yet, that have gone out of style. But these fucking anarchists are here and they have taken our streets (look of alarmonce again on that “our”) and well, how can I say it? They ruin the scenery. We’re here trying our best to make this place cool, like real retro, like the sixties. You get me? Very peace and love, Age of Aquarius, flowers, songs, soft drugs, smartdrinks, good vibes, you know? Check it out, I have an app on my phone that makes the lights blink to the tune of whatever ringtone I choose. Huh? No, I don’t march with a group, I walk along the sides and I climb on top of a… No, it’s not to get a better view of the march, it’s so that the masses can get a better look at me. Look dude, dudette, whatever you are: protesting should be like going to a club, you get me? It’s not about protesting but about seeing everyone, saying what’s up, and the next day confirming that we are what we are, and not in the media’s social section but in the national section. Besides, this thing in Ayotzi… No, nobody says Ayotzinapa, its way cooler to say “Ayotzi.” Well, as I was saying, Ayotzi has international repercussions, I mean, like it gives us a certain cosmopolitan air. Whatever, with all the attention given to the socialites; that’s for the right. We modern leftists let ourselves be known through these types of events. Next time, if those nacos[viii] don’t step back, we’re thinking about inviting Mijares. That’s right, so that he can sing “Soldier of Love” to us. And to keep with the vibe, Arjona should also come so we can have him belt out “Private Soldier.” Yes, everyone will look amazing marching to the beat, holding hands with the presidential guards and the police. Maybe it would be better at night and we’ll break out our lighters while we sway our arms to the rhythm of “soldier of love / in this war between you and me…” and with Arjona, “I am marking the passage / while I survive / I don’t have anger / oblivion has won out.” Yes, we can see it already, next time Eugenio Derbez will be the keynote speaker. It will be brilliant! We will infiltrate Televisa and get them to switch over to our side! Huh? No, we’re not going to demand the resignation of Peña… Well, because the deadline has passed and now we have to prepare for 2018. Huh? Who cares about those people’s original demands. Sure, poor things, but that’s exactly why they have to accept the direction given by those who know, and by those who know I mean us. Look, what this country needs is not a revolution but a massive “feat,” with us in the lead and only role and the common people in the chorus or backstage. Yes, the story that matters is a “selfie” of us in the front and the masses in the background and below, enchanted by us, hailing us, and… yes, I already know what I’ll say when they beg me to go up on stage… “Hey! Wait! Why do you refuse to engage in dialogue? Fucking anarchist! Yeah, you better put on a mask because you can see the naco on you from a mile away! Ugh, this is exactly why this country doesn’t advance. No worries, I already took his picture and I’ll put it on my Facebook so you all can get a good look at another guy who’s an infiltrator. Or was it a girl?. Well, I didn’t get a good look; they dressed real sloppy, very typical. Oh Mexico, you pain me…”

Other lines of investigation:

1. – The few words that most helped Abarca, under protection in the Altiplano penitentiary, and the house arrest on his Region VI[ix] iron lady—both of them out of the media’s reach—were the words: “it was the feds.” After that, they asked them nothing else. Not because they didn’t want to know, but because they already knew.

2. – Now that those above are seriously considering the possibility of a replacement in Los Pinos (which explains the sudden eloquence from national defense officials and the dizzying strategy of the media to distant itself [from Peña Nieto] are those who before December 1 demanded Peña Nieto’s resignation going to now produce a document called “The Defense of the Institutions and the Rejection of a Presidential Resignation, version June 1996, updated for 2014-2015″?

What singling out and denouncing really looks like

1. – Any analysis that blames the repression on the violent direct actions of “anarchist” groups should be consistent and, in the case of Mexico, also hold responsible the one who broke the so-called “white house” scandal that provoked the ire of the presidential couple (although that person later made up for this by playing prosecutor [to protestors]). But no, distributing blame is also a classed activity, and it is up to the well-behaved to foist the criminalization campaign onto the poor youth (according to the chain of equivalence: infiltrator = masked = anarchist = young = poor), which is exactly what set off the long nightmare that we know today as “Ayotzinapa.”

2. – According to the latest that we’ve seen, read, and heard, actual infiltrators do not hide their faces. Infiltrators working on behalf of the Mexico City government (“the institutional left as an alternative”) and their employees have been filmed attacking protesters, arbitrarily detaining them, and “planting” masks on their victims.

Now then, following a method of analysis guided by hysteria and the impeccable logic of the thought and fashion police, we understand that all the protesters who do not wear masks are potential “infiltrators” and need to be pointed out, detained, and handed over to the authorities “in order to allow the masked protesters to march for their demands.” So now, whenever anyone without a mask is spotted at a march, they should be pointed out and expelled to the sound of the refrain: “No to violence; No to violence.”

3. – Let’s do a bit of remembering: Aren’t the ones who today critique “violent” actions against the “historic,” commercial, and financial patrimony that take place in demonstrations for Ayotzinapa in Mexico City the same people who blocked banks, shopping centers, had that “historic” sit-in on Reforma in 2006, and harassed the employees in the orange uniforms for being “accomplices” of the 2012 electoral fraud? Oh yes, it’s because electoral fraud is more serious than 43 disappeared indigenous people and tens of thousands of persons in the same situation.

4. – The clamor of this hysterical campaign has resonated and now achieved its first victories: a few smooth operators are detained in a toll booth, far from the march, while they collected money for their own benefit; they are tied up and triumphantly displayed in the “taking of Mexico City” on December 6, 2014. Later, through the magic of the media, they become “infiltrators” of the march, and it is claimed that at least one of them was police and one of them military. About the supposed police, nothing more was said. About the supposed military type: he’s 17 years old and “confessed” that he was joining the army in a month. Nobody bothered to recall that all Mexican youth, the moment they turn 18, are obligated to fulfill their National Military Service. Nevertheless, the action was applauded. One hopes that hysteria as a method of analysis and a handbook for action will reach its pinnacle when a lynching takes place. At that point, everyone will look the other way.

The dreaded outcome of a resignation, in six acts (Complete the following names):

1. – A party in terminal crisis. Card_ resigns from the party, declaring: “I will live out my life as an ordinary citizen.” 

2. – In the face of the crisis of the political party system, the “citizen option” begins to be put forward. The press and progressive circles begin talking about the rise of “Social Card_ísmo.”

3. – The movement grows and calls for unconditional unity in support of “citizen” Card_. 

4. – Lop_ refuses.

5. – Another electoral fraud. A massive gathering in the capital’s town square. Among the protesters one notices cardboard signs reproducing the latest cartoons by the progressive cartoonists: “The students from Ayotzinapa were an invention of Salinas” being the common denominator. On stage, Ele_ mentions Lop_. The masses hiss and boo on cue. The next day, Ele_ clarifies that the mention of Lop_ was not intended maliciously and that he personally has a lot of appreciation for him.

6. – After the sit-in de rigueur, Card_ announces that the struggle must go on… creating a new party in order to run in the upcoming elections. No, if victorious, Epi will not be assigned to director of social communications and that idiot from desfiladero[x] will not serve as the presidential spokesperson. Or maybe they will? Gulp.

The story that doesn’t count for the world of progressive happenings:

Yes, there are some who remember that December 6 of this year marked the entry of Villa and Zapata’s armies into Mexico City 100 years ago. We, on the other hand, remember the Zapatistas’ negative gesture and rejection of the presidential throne. It is said that the leader of the Liberation Army of the South had this to say about it: “When a good person sits there, they become evil; when an evil person sits there, they become worse.” And if he didn’t say it, without a doubt he was thinking it.

Unsolicited advice which, of course, nobody will follow:

1. – Enough searching for the mockingjay. Abandon that train of disillusion. Its next stop is “Apathy and Cynicism,” and its final destination: “Defeat.” 

2. – Don’t get caught up in the trending topic or whatever it’s called. Same thing with the tweets coming from the “famous” people, the “opinion shapers,” or the allegedly “intelligent” people. Look for the common people’s tweets. You will find there real literary gems in miniature, the thoughts of those who really matter—that is, those who force us to think. There is no small tweet there. 

The trending topics (the “latest happenings”) only function as a deformed mirror and are as ridiculous as an enormous masturbation salon: everyone comes out beaten and unsatisfied. Soon we will be seeing tweets that look like a porn script: “Oh! Yes, yes, just like that, don’t stop!” Or maybe it’s a real victory to beat out the hashtags #WeLoveYourNewHairJustin or #Sammy?

3. – Valuing somebody for the number of followers they have and not for their thoughts and their actions is pointless and useless. 

If shit had a Facebook account, it would have “likes” (and “licks“) from hundreds of thousands of flies.

4. – In defense of social media, or rather, in defense of using social media, we think that it also counts as a sharing if one chooses where to shift their gaze and their ear.
There are great writers, thinkers, analysts, critics, and social justice fighters who do not appear and will not appear in the paid mass media. And for many of them, it’s not because they haven’t been “discovered,” but because they have chosen a different mode of expressing themselves. This should not only be saluted but also nurtured.

5. – But if the possibilities of social media are great, so are its limits. Besides the obvious, that silences and gazes cannot be tweeted, as gigantic as the social media universe is, a far greater universe remains excluded.

Social media cannot replace basic communication (seeing, speaking, listening, touching, smelling, enjoying), it can only augment it.

“If you aren’t in twitter you don’t exist,” mimics that expired old maxim, “if you aren’t in the media you don’t exist.”

Whether you believe it or not, there exist many worlds outside of cyberspace. And it’s worth lifting one’s head up to take a look.

We’ll be (and have been) seeing you.

Yes, we already know that we make some people uncomfortable. For some, we are radicals; for others, we are reformists.

Everyone, above and below, is going to need to accept this:

Here below, there are more of us each day

who insist on engaging in struggle

without asking forgiveness for being who we are

or asking permission to be it.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.

Mexico, December 12, 2014. In the twentieth year of the war against oblivion.

Note: The monitoring of the paid media, the free, autonomous, independent, alternative or whatever they’re called media, the social media, as well as all the selfless contributions of sarcasm, free psychoanalytic therapy, investigative tips, useless advice, the 140-character long straight jacket in some places and other special effects are courtesy of the “Los Tercios Compas” [Odd Ones Out Compas] who, as their name indicates, are neither media, nor free, nor autonomous, nor alternative, but they are compas. Copyright annulled for using a mask. This text may be cited, recited, and recycled by pointing to the source as an “infiltrator.” Reproduction is authorized in full or in part in front of the police, uniformed or not, whether behind a gun, a shield, a camera, a microphone, a smartphone, a tablet, or in cyberspace.

We have faith:”Winter is coming, so don’t forget your blankets” (that’s something one of the Starks say in the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. Spoiler courtesy of the “Tercios Compas.” Nah, don’t mention it.)
___________

[i] The text uses “todas, todos, todoas” to give a range of possible plural gendered pronouns including male, female, transgender and others.

[ii] The text uses “otra, otro, otroa” to give a range of possible gendered “others” including male, female, transgender and others.

[iii] Region IV refers to Latin America on DVD coding. Referring to someone as “región IV” is a putdown, something like saying “oh, you’re so third world.”

[iv] The text uses “sinsajo,” which is the Spanish translation for mockingjay in the context of The Hunger Games. Could be read to mean switching to a different favorite or hero to root for.

[v] The text uses “ellos, ellas, elloas” again to give a range of possible gendered “others” including male, female, transgender and others.

[vi] Likely refers to Epigmenio Ibarra, producer and journalist, twitter activist, and frequent contributor to Mexico’s “progressive” press. Ibarra carried out the first videotaped interview with then EZLN spokesperson Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos in 1994.

[vii] A play on Ayotzinapa and “naco” which is a derogatory term like “hick,” implying poorly educated, ill-mannered, and with poor taste.

[viii] See footnote iv.

[ix] See footnote iii.

[x] Desfiladero is a column in the Mexican daily newspaper La Jornada.

[source]