Adriana Sanchez Pillot Letter Home: July, 2016

Indigenous Communities Building Historical Memory to Create Alternative Justice

July 2016: The teacher’s movement and the CompArte

“En ésta casa protestamos contra la Reforma Educativa”

(In this house, we protest against

the Educational Reform)

“Hasta La Victoria CNTE”

(CNTE, Forever, until victory!)

“Si hay que evaluar, Peña va a reprobar”

(If we have to evaluate, Peña is not gonna pass)

- Popular murals in San Cristobal de las Casas,July 2016

“Then we tried to figure out how to support the resistance at the sites where they were putting up roadblocks and sit-ins and we realized that we could support them by providing food. So they started to do the math (i.e division), the accounts as we say, say of how much each zone, MAREZ, region, and community was responsible for. There were a few zones where the commissions failed to meet their goal, they didn’t fail in a bad way, but in a good way, because they had reported that their

commission would provide 2 tons of food and when the time came they actually provided 7 tons more than they had promised, which was the case with the Zapatista bases of support in the North Zone of Chiapas, from the caracol of Roberto Barrios. And so, well, resolving the problem was Art, because no one had even imagined that they could provide 9 tons. We

only had a 3-ton truck. Figuring out how to provide this support is an art of imagination by the Zapatista communities. The “resistance” of the

compañeras and compañeros has gone on for 22 years, and that’s a lot of experience and is a great building block solidarity. It is the demonstration of collectivity. For 22 years we Zapatistas have been in resistance and rebellion against capitalism,

and we’ve had, for 22 years, a new system of governing ourselves where the people command and the government obeys.”

“The Art that is Neither Seen or Heard” – Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, July 19, 2016

In Mexico, like many countries of the South, megaprojects are only one tentacle of the capitalist sea-

creature of dispossession and oppression. Other tentacles clear the way out for megaprojects to be

feasible. These impose policies and reforms that liberalize, deregulate, and privatize national industry

and services. With the arrival of Peña Nieto, the current Mexican president, Congress opened the

floodgates to numerous neoliberal reforms through the so-called Pacto por México (Mexican Pact).

The Pacto por Mexico is a rip-off deal between the largest and most powerful political parties that

advances the privatization of Mexican oil, land and underground resources, even those that lay

Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize

Adriana Sanchez Pillot Letter Home: July, 2016

Indigenous Communities Building Historical Memory to Create Alternative Justice

underneath recognized indigenous and peasant land. These are but a few consequences of what is

called the Energy Reform, but there are ten more.

Among these, the Educational Reform was one of the most controversial and criticized, given that

it does not propose actual change in the educational system, but rather focuses on austerity measures,

de-unionization and the deterioration of teachers’ work in Mexico. It is a labor reform, teachers say.

After this Reform was passed, educational workers began mobilizing to protest and oppose this

decision. This mobilization was organized by the dissident front of the teachers’ union, La Coordinadora

Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) (National Coordinator of Workers in Education). The

CNTE was created in 1979 with the purpose of democratizing the teachers’ national union, the SNTE

(Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion), which has been controlled by the government

since its creation in 1943. The CNTE is characterized by its leftist, sindicalist position as well as for its

direct action methods used to pressure the government into negotiation.

In 2013, teachers belonging to the CNTE and the SNTE began marching and occupying the main

national plaza to denounce the attack that this reform represents not only to them as workers, but also to

the right of Mexican people to free education. The movement has grown ever since, springing up in

different states all over the country even though traditionally it has been stronger in southern, indigenous

states such as Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chiapas.

Although many teachers were fired because they did not present themselves at the evaluation the

reform required of them, marches, occupations, and blockings of streets and highways continued. They

questioned the terms of their evaluation and the regime of contractual hiring they had to submit to.

Aurelio Nuño, the Secretary of Education, on the other hand, continued to threaten and repress

mobilizations, detaining members of the CNTE with fabricated felonies, in some cases, for up to three

years.

Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize

Adriana Sanchez Pillot Letter Home: July, 2016

Indigenous Communities Building Historical Memory to Create Alternative Justice

At different points of the country, teachers implemented highway blockades that stopped traffic and

discriminated semi-trucks from transnational corporations and their merchandise. These blockades also

stopped police forces from coming into strategic points, such as the city of Oaxaca. One of these

blockades was in the town of Asunción de Nochixtlán. The government tried to break this blockade on

Sunday, June 19, with around 800 armed federal and state police that fired against civilians, many of

which sympatized with the CNTE and its demands. That day, 11 people were killed, among them a

middle school student—and more than 50 people were left severely injured. This massacre caused

widespread indignation.

The opposition to the reform became notoriously popular, Nochixtlan transforming into a point of mass

awakening, where people realized the enormous repressive force with which educational reform was

being imposed. Many people thereafter went out into the streets, joined the teachers, denounced the

state for this crime, and demanded the abrogation of the reform.

In San Cristobal de Las Casas, retired teachers, social organizations, and parents organized

three blockades in three access points to the city on June 26; in total, there were 16 blockades in the

state of Chiapas that day alone. The following day, the blockade became indefinite and 3,000 people

arrived to the exit of the highway San Cristobal-Tuxtla, seizing the highway with a kilometer-long

The police that entered Nochixtlán were armed, even if goverment declarations denied so initially, photographies that documented that day were key to attest to what happened. Photos: Animal Politico.

Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize

Adriana Sanchez Pillot Letter Home: July, 2016

Indigenous Communities Building Historical Memory to Create Alternative Justice

encampment. The occupation became the node of popular convergence, where marches, caravans, and

rallies gathered to share their fury and hope, as well as their solidarity with the teachers’ struggle.

Families, neighborhoods, and organizations arrived with food supplies, wood, barricade and tent

material, along with hot food that they shared with everyone present.

Sharing of art

The political climate in San Cristobal de Las Casas converged with a Zapatista initiative, planned and

announced in February. This was the “CompArte for Humanity” Festival, a call to share art with other

people so that we may learn how to build the new world, where many worlds fit. The call was an

When the blockade let some trailers pass, they tagged their demands on them as they went through. Photo: Centro de Medios Libres.

Families, neighbors, and inhabitants of San Cristobal de las Casas arrive to the blockade in solidarity and to denounce the educational reform. July 5th, 2016. Photo: Centro de Medios Libres.

Civil society arrives to the blockade in support. June 30th, 2016. Photo: Centro de Medios Libres.

Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize

Adriana Sanchez Pillot Letter Home: July, 2016

Indigenous Communities Building Historical Memory to Create Alternative Justice

international and national invitation that was to be convened from July 17th to 30th. However, as the

blockade became permanent and popular, the Zapatistas decided that their presence at the art festival,

CompArte, would not overshadow the magisterial movement. Thus they announced they would not

participate in the festival, instead encouraging those planning to come to share their art in the spaces of

the teachers’ movement and support their struggle.

Before CompArte began, a lot of artists came to the blockade and shared what they had prepared with

the teachers. It was a vibrant day with concerts, serigraphy, circus shows, etc.

The camp during the CompArte festival. Photo: Radio Zapatista.

Photos: Koman-Ilel.

Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize

Adriana Sanchez Pillot Letter Home: July, 2016

Indigenous Communities Building Historical Memory to Create Alternative Justice

Days before, the Zapatistas had arrived at the different blockades in the state of Chiapas, and had

delivered around 10 tons of food that they themselves cultivated and prepared for the CompArte festival.

In the blockade of San Cristobal de las Casas, they gave several sacks full of tostadas, beans, non-

perishables, etc. The communiqué that describes the work they did to make this solidarity possible is

described above.

The day after the festival in the blockade, the government sent its repressive forces, which

included municipal, state and federal police, and military patrols, as well as a quasi-paramilitary group

whose members’ faces were all concealed. The government principally provided moral support to this

quasi-paramilitary group as they engaged in the dirty work. As municipal, state and federal police

elements stood guard on the highway, this quasi-paramilitary group chased off protestors with sticks and

gunshots and burned the entire encampment to ground. They cleared out the entire occupation,

including all the food supplies and objects in it. Meanwhile, in the central plaza, teachers,

neighborhoods, social organizations and parents regrouped to determine the appropriate response to

government violence. As people gathered, some, mostly youth not engaged in the movement, broke into

the former city hall and set afire to a room, while others sacked national chains, namely OXXO

convenient stores.

At dusk, police arrived in large numbers and posted themselves around different buildings and

tourist corridors. Although they remained ever-visible, just as in the highway, many bared witness yet

again to the state’s affair with para-military groups. This time they proved entirely complicit in the terror

wrought by a local quasi-paramilitary group. Members of this organization ran through the corridors

shooting their guns to terrify people who had broken into nearby OXXO stores, openly declaring they

were “defending businesses from the vandals”.

Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize

Adriana Sanchez Pillot Letter Home: July, 2016

Indigenous Communities Building Historical Memory to Create Alternative Justice

After this, the teachers who were in the blockade regrouped in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of

Chiapas. While San Cristobal became one of the epicenters for the magisterial movement, the

occupation in Tuxtla did not have the same visibility or popular support.

Eventually, after four months of general strike, teachers went back to the classroom, taking 11

agreements the government offered, among them, the suspension of the application of the reform until

the year 2018 in the state of Chiapas, the year of next presidency.

The government and the CNTE agreed to take a legislative path to seek the abrogation of the

reform. The CNTE also organized upcoming forums where teachers will discuss the reform and their

proposals to transform the educational system, inputs that will be included by the Public Education

Department of Mexico.

All in all, the month of July has been a blast of events: from resistance and convergence, to

repression, and then convergence once more during the CompArte festival. The CompArte festival was

a full week of music, theater, dance, poetry, graffiti, murals, dialogue, film, and many elements that

defied the traditional definitions of art. (Photos of the festival in the Radio Zapatista Website).

The Zapatistas also had prepared to share. They presented dances, concerts, poetry that manifested

their struggle and their identity. This event radiated so much hope and creativity, I can’t express how

many great people I met and how much we shared and exchanged. This festival reminds me how

Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize

Adriana Sanchez Pillot Letter Home: July, 2016

Indigenous Communities Building Historical Memory to Create Alternative Justice

important it is to let art into our struggles, into our daily lives, because it helps us imagine and design

future paths, strategies, dreams; it is a powerful motor to realize our collective and intimate aspirations of

freedom, justice, life, and

happiness.

As my project nears its end, I

feel more and more grateful

to have had the chance to

work in San Cristobal, to

learn so much from the

creativity and the

determination of the peoples of this geography. Learning about their dreams, I become more able to

weave my own. I realize that we share horizons and struggles because we come from that country, that

world, where people intersect. Given this interconnectedness, our struggles are not alien to each other:

they are different sides of a multifaceted rebellion, an insurgence that is fed by millions of people who

understand we’ve had enough of the historical ills of capitalism and colonialism. Although I am finishing

this year off, I continue in awe, with so much to be thankful for. My collaboration and work will not end

here; I have still a lot of work to do that transcends August and hopefully, the years to come.

Cheers and greetings,

Adriana

Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize