[diggers350] Re:BGG

[inti ananda]

Obviously its a problem of how it is possible to make meaningful action to try and stem the tide of rampant Capitalism in a country as ULTRA CAPITALIST as the UK where THATCHER and co organised the laws and the economy so as to make revolutionary activity very difficult and so we have been penned into a corner where to stay within the law its necessary to pay for something that should be ours by right... but my point is that rather than accepting that shouldn't we be fighting against that or is that that those prepared to go to the level of rebellion necessary are so few as to be rendered ineffective??? 
For me it is no kind of rebellion to bow the head and pay up.. people need to be more radical.... For me I don't want to see Sieze the Day play a benefit gig to save the BGG.. the BGG is already LOST because the revolution has already been compromised and people don't understand really how grave the situation on this planet is. THE UK is a REALITY BUBBLE where people prefer to pay up because its easier than go to the extreme of risking their life and their liberty in order to stand up against this souless machine that we call civilization... Those compromises mean that the people are losing battles, they are being defeated just as they were defeated when despite the excellent rebellion against the Poll Tax and later accepted the Council Tax which also enables the uneuqal distribution of resource to continue unabated.

Its OK for those that want to keep going their green corner of the UK or Wales or wherever going and I wouldn't want to disturb the enclaves of alternative thought but we need to face REALITY.. our little corner of our once green and pleasant land with teepees and yurts/round houses or whatever is not going to save us from having to face the overall reality of our country and its actions.... do not kid yourselves, England went down the pan through the many many defeats against the people by the rich and powerful... too numerous to mention and list here suffice it to say that FREEBORN JOHN would turn in his grave to know that the "revolutionaries" of today are reduced to coughing up the facist taxes to stage their watered down Green Gathering at a time when more than ever what we need is something stronger.

If the people don't wake up they will be woken up by the crude reality of what is everyday coming more and more.... BIG CHANGES ON PLANET EARTH so don't put your finger in the hole in the dam when the thing is shattered in two and the tidalwave is about to pour through because you'll be washed away in the flood. 

Are you not all falling into the trap of obscuring the revolutionary impulse of the diggers and the TLIO in diplomacies, compromises, laws and other labyrinth like considerations... don't you see that that is precisely what "they" want.. ? 

OK, if the people want to cough up and do all the initiatives being offered in Capitalist style to "save the BGG" then do it if you want but once you compromise with the Capitalist Beast its got you in a corner so when later on the tidalwave of reality washes away everything you know don't bleat or cry about it because it will only be a result of what we didn't do now while we still could.

Perhaps it will take some harsh lessons for people to understand.

Meanwhile I will not be contributing because BGG, Sieze the Day etc have SOLD OUT.  

Inti.


marksimonbrown <mark at tlio.org.uk> wrote:                               inti ananda said: Through various means I have received and come to 
 know of the Big Green Gathering being in trouble financially and was 
 a little disappointed to learn that the "best response" has been to 
 get everyone to put hands in pockets and fork out cash to keep the 
 thing going.
  
 Come on.. wheres the "anti Capitalist" approach in that.
 
 >>> Response:  Perhaps the best anti-capitalist response would have 
 been to not have paid the policing bill last year and gone on with 
 the festival (scaled down) somewhere else, of course entirely 
 impractical in the sense of it being a conventional BGG, instead an 
 entirely different kind of event. But then, maybe a large part of the 
 problem is that it is a convention the Big Green Gathering has become 
 accustomed to being. The policing bill was something £120,000 pound 
 and private security - £250,000 - meaning that the the very nature of 
 the festival is forced to be capitalist to break even, as pitch costs 
 are passed on into inflated prices. The ethos of it being a more 
 participatory event is as it is in the "subsidised" craft/alt tech/
 sus homes areas, by all accounts being what it was more like when it 
 first started (when it was much smaller). It's like one of the main 
 problems which John Papworth usually goes on about, that the problems 
 society faces are due mainly to a preoccupation with scale - that big 
 is beautiful (but that's a huge discussion, so not getting into 
 that!) 
 
 However, I appreciate that what I've just said ain't as simple as all 
 that as well. As was pointed out to me by someone from BGG management 
 crew on Indymedia 2 months ago, smaller events require pretty much 
 the same infrastructure as larger events, in reply to me saying that 
 there should be smaller regional gatherings around the country, akin 
 to the widely praised Earth Wise festival of 2005 & 2006. Ref: http://
 www.realfestivalmusic.co.uk/earthwise.html
 (though it has to be said that, as far as I understand, Earthwise 
 also struggled with money).
 see original comments, at: 
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/09/381245.html?c=on#c181023
 
 M
 
 --- In diggers350 at yahoogroups.com, inti ananda <intiananda at ...> wrote:
 >
 >  
 >   HELLO ALL,
 >    
 >   Through various means I have received and come to know of the Big 
 Green Gathering being in trouble financially and was a little 
 disappointed to learn that the "best response" has been to get 
 everyone to put hands in pockets and fork out cash to keep the thing 
 going.
 >    
 >   Come on.. wheres the "anti Capitalist" approach in that.
 >    
 >   Being green or Ecology brings with by very nature the nessesity 
 of being Anti Capitalist... If the BGG is going bankrupt because the 
 licence fee that is demanded by the local authorities for the 
 privelige of getting together in a field and exchanging ideas, 
 culture etc then THE PEOPLE should be fighting to make the BGG anyway 
 in protest to the way the vaild concerns of thousands if not millions 
 are marginalised and turned into one more product that needs to be 
 regulated by in the end who? Government, big business, banks, 
 policeforce etc. and if its necessary to squat a field and do it 
 illegal then why not.
 >    
 >   ENGLAND our home is dieing in a mire of apathy and lack of real 
 fight ---- perhaps we`re all just too middle class.. or maybe as some 
 supposed famous "revolutionaries" have been to heard to comment.. 
 that we should merely content ourselves with writing to our local MP 
 and forking out for the licence fee.
 >    
 >   Meanwhile around the world in countries like the one I live in 
 (Colombia) people die daily defending their rights.
 >    
 >   Do we not have a duty to stick our necks out just a little bit 
 and spit in the face of the criminal justice bill... or what 
 happened?????
 >    
 >   LONG LIVE THE ZAPATISTAS!!!!
 >    
 >   LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION BOLIVARIANO!!!!
 >    
 >   LONG LIVE THE DIGGERS!!!!
 >    
 >   best wishes. Inti
 >    
 >    
 >   PS : When you realise the effort and organisation with movements 
 like the Zapatistas, the Bolivarianos in Venezuela, The Indigenas in 
 Bolivia where they have and are making significant changes makes you 
 realise that in our country too many people are too comfortable to 
 fight....
 >    
 >     Hi all,
 >  
 > Everyone should try to read this (below). It is long, but it gives 
 a really clear understanding of the international organising process 
 (Zesta International/ Intergalactica) initiated recently by the 
 Zapatistas (SE Mexico rebel communities) , why it is, and how it is. 
 It also goes into land struggles globally a bit and explains the 
 Zapatistas insistence that 'seizing the means of production' (in 
 their case, land, but also they say hopefully factories etc) is the 
 most direct means of anti-capitalist struggle. It lastly gives some 
 idea of what the author thinks 'we' could (or should?) be doing 
 towards this all.....
 > 
 > Cheers, S.
 >  
 > 
 > Towards the Intergalactica
 > Beyond Networking - Building New Autonomous Global Relations of 
 Production, Reproduction and Exchange
 > by Kolya Abramsky
 > 
 > The Zapatistas have called for a Third Intergalactica to take 
 place, "from below and to the left". This call follows two previous 
 Zapatista Intergalacticas, self-organized international gatherings of 
 several thousand people aimed at weaving a global network of 
 grassroots struggles. The invitations to participate in these 
 meetings were humourously extended to participants throughout the 
 galaxy, hence the name. The first took place in 1996 in Chiapas and 
 the second in the folowing year in the Spanish State. The first two 
 Intergalacticas had a profound effect on inspiring, galvanizing and 
 even giving some organizational form to a major new circulation of 
 global struggles, which we have witnessed in the last decade. There 
 are many good reasons to believe that the new process of global 
 convergence and resistance called for by the Zapatista's 6th 
 Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, issued through collective 
 discussion in the Zapatista communities in the summer of 2005, could 
 have
 >  a similarly important inspirational and catalytic effect in 
 creating a space in which the next stages of global resistance can 
 take shape and collectively organize themselves.
 > 
 > The current call comes at a moment in which two major and opposing 
 trends are taking shape.
 > 
 > On the one hand, the last 10 years of global struggle and the War 
 on Terror have provoked a profound loss of legitimacy for established 
 institutions of power, such as international financial institutions, 
 multilateral treaties, the nation state in general and its electoral 
 systems and parties. In particular, the US state and its military 
 apparatus are suffering a crisis of legitimacy, both beyond and 
 within the US itself. As the US military fails to secure its war 
 objectives in the face of Iraqi resistance, the US domestic political 
 landscape has seen a massive surge in migrant (labor) struggles, and 
 the first US Social Forum has taken place (as well as deep fissures 
 evolving within the US military and political elites themselves). In 
 parallel to this loss of legitimacy of established power, and also in 
 response, there has been a great flourishing of self organized 
 efforts to question and resist such power structures, frequently 
 based on a confrontational approach to power
 >  rather than lobbying, and also based in principles of autonomy, 
 diversity and non-hierarchical organizing. And, above all, such 
 resistance is frequently globally networked, or at least 
 internationalist in outlook, and often resonates beyond the immediate 
 locality in which it occurs.
 > 
 > Yet, on the other hand, following on from massive success and 
 visibility, the global networks are nonetheless seemingly incapable 
 of slowing and reversing the rapid lurch towards an authoritarian 
 global politics based on fear, coercion, militarism, racism and 
 religious fundamentalism, a politics that is not just based on the 
 whims of maniacal leaders the world over, but is also undeniably 
 fostering a mass appeal at the expense of and in direct competition 
 with the mass appeal of more emancipatory visions of social change 
 based on autonomy, diversity and self-organization. Worryingly, 
 existing international organizational processes which have played an 
 important role in the last ten years, such as Peoples' Global Action 
 and the World Social Forum, seem to be in a form of at least 
 temporary paralysis, both in terms of immediate activities at the 
 global level, and also in terms of wider strategic, and long-term, 
 approaches. Some people, both within and outside of movements,
 >  have even (boldly, to say the least) declared that the global 
 movements are dead. Yet, in the midst of the supposed death of the 
 global anti-capitalist movements, so too the World Bank, 
 International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization also 
 find themselves in the midst of deep crises, perhaps nearer to their 
 own deaths than emancipatory movements are themselves ready to 
 acknowledge, suggesting that rather than being dead, the movements 
 are actually at a very strong point.
 > 
 > Rather than seeing globally networked anti-capitalist struggles as 
 dead, perhaps it is more useful to recognize that they have reached 
 some kind of limit in their ability to move forward, and are finding 
 it increasingly difficult to go beyond their unexpectedly successful 
 assaults on major summits of many of global capitalism's key 
 institutions (as well as large, but less successful, anti-war 
 protests) in a way that deepens and expands the existing networks in 
 order to make them functional enough to be able to create alternative 
 social relations rather than just denouncing existing relations of 
 power. Perhaps some specific, named organizational processes are 
 dead. Or, perhaps, they can be revived in a useful way. However, 
 ultimately, the names which organizational processes take is not 
 important. What is important is that there is a meaningful process of 
 global resistance. The organizational names will follow the 
 struggles, not the other way around.
 > 
 > Given the enormous potential for new global processes that the 
 current moment offers, it is important that this potential is not 
 lost and that the process through which the Intergalactica is built 
 is as solid and meaningful as possible. Importantly, this means that, 
 despite the fact that time is of the essence, the process should not 
 be rushed. Rather, it is important that it takes shape at the pace 
 necessary to enable a broad participation from many different 
 struggles from around the world.
 > 
 > How can such an invitation be taken up? What obstacles might exist 
 to realizing such a process?
 > 
 > Anticipating Capital and State power's response to autonomous 
 global resistance
 > 
 > Historically, capital and state power have responded to popular 
 resistance through the combined use of 3 major strategies.
 > 
 > Populations have been divided from one another, both within 
 countries and between countries, in order to prevent unity of 
 struggle. Especially important has been capital's ability to prevent 
 global circulation of struggles by maintaining a world-system divided 
 into nation states. The world-wide division of labor has been 
 hierarchically structured, based on imposed (and continually 
 reimposed) divisions based around (especially, but not exclusively) 
 race, ethnicity and gender hierarchies, as well as those between 
 waged and unwaged labor. When considering the global division of 
 labor, certain (minority) sections of the world's population have 
 been implicated in the exploitation and discrimination of certain 
 other (majority) sections of the world's population, due to gaining 
 direct or indirect material rewards from their position in the 
 hierarchy. Another crucial divide throughout history has been the 
 citizen/non- citizen divide. Perhaps the most glaring example of this 
 is the
 >  so-called post-World War II "welfare state" model which has 
 provided large sections of the populations in the capitalist center 
 (especially, but not exclusively, white male unionized workers) with 
 greatly improved material standards of living at the expense of the 
 great majority in peripheral countries, as well as people of color 
 and unwaged (especially women) workers within the core countries 
 themselves.
 > 
 > The second major strategy employed in response to social struggle 
 has been cooptation that has integrated struggles, by partially 
 giving in to certain demands for social, economic and political 
 reforms while not substantially challenging private ownership and 
 profit relations, political decision making, and labor control 
 mechanisms that have defined capitalist (and imperialist, 
 patriarchal, racist
) social relations. In its most ingenious forms, 
 especially post-World War II Keynesiansism and Developmentalism, not 
 only was social struggle bought off, but it was also actually 
 harnessed so that, safely channeled, protest could actually 
 contribute to economic growth.
 > 
 > Last, but not least, has been repression. Those resistances which 
 could not easily be integrated or bought off with reform have simply 
 been crushed and intimidated out of existence, involving mass 
 imprisonments, torture, and political murder, as well as war.
 > 
 > These three strategies are not employed in isolation from one 
 another, but in careful combination. They are implemented with 
 varying degrees of success (from the point of view of capital and 
 state power), and never permanently.
 > 
 > In the current context of global resistance we are already in the 
 whirlwind of these three responses, and this whirlwind is only likely 
 to intensify in the not so distant future. The degree to which 
 emancipatory struggles are able to anticipate, prepare for and 
 confront these strategies will greatly determine how successful the 
 movements are in building viable long term emancipatory social 
 relations.
 > 
 > Perhaps one of the most important goals of the Intergalactica could 
 be to collectively create a global space for struggles from around 
 the world to seriously address these concerns. However, before the 
 Intergalactica process is in a position to do this, it is important 
 that relevant movements and struggles are aware of and participating 
 in this process.
 > 
 > A key question that needs to be addressed before addressing any 
 other question is who will take part in the process of building the 
 Intergalactica and on what basis, and the questions as to how to 
 build the Intergalactica and what its political contents and themes 
 will follow on from there.
 > 
 > Unity against division: who should the Intergalactica strive to 
 include?
 > 
 > For a global process such as the Intergalactica, it is especially 
 important that people from as many countries as possible are 
 involved. In particular, there is the need to pay special attention 
 to overcome divisions that are being fostered within the world-
 economy itself. Unless intentionally addressed by emancipatory 
 struggles these divisions are likely to be reproduced within global 
 networks themselves. In particular 5 types of divisions currently 
 stand out, divisions which are likely to become much deeper and more 
 damaging in the near the future:
 > 
 >       
 >    The so-called "Clash of Civilizations" is a process which could 
 turn out to have similar divisive effects on global struggle as the 
 Cold War did, in which (on a greatly uneven and hierarchical basis) 
 people from "the west" and "the Arab world" are trained to fear, 
 distrust and hate one another, divided by ignorance and encouraged to 
 align themselves to one or the other side of absolute religious and 
 cultural divides based around "good" and "evil". Crucially, until 
 now, "the Arab world" has hardly been involved in (contemporary) 
 secular global networks of anti-capitalist struggles, and within 
 these regions, religious based struggle seems to have had much more 
 of a mass appeal than anti-authoritarian global anti-capitalist 
 networks. Furthermore, these global networks still remain largely 
 ignorant of and isolated from struggles in the Arab world, though the 
 situation in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan is changing this slowly 
 and some interesting links have been made.   
 >    Africa has been exploited and marginalized at the lowest levels 
 of the hierarchical world-economy. Unfortunately, sometimes in global 
 anti-capitalist networking processes, these processes of 
 marginalization have also been reproduced. A discussion of 
 reparations for slavery for Africans and their Diaspora is still very 
 low on the agenda of most global networks, and most discussion around 
 debt is still based in the language of pleading for "debt 
 forgiveness" rather than demanding non-payment of illegitimate debts. 
 The multiple wars in Africa also have very little prominence within 
 global networks. The fact that the last two World Social Forums have 
 taken place in Africa (Nairobi and Bamako, the latter as part of the 
 2006 Polycentric Forum) and that the Forum for Food Sovereignty also 
 took place in Mali last year has perhaps slightly improved this 
 situation. However, African struggles are still highly marginalized 
 within many global anti-capitalist networking processes.   
 >    The Citizen/non- citizen divide, despite sparking a vast amount 
 of self-organized struggles throughout the world, especially in North 
 America and Western Europe, makes it difficult if not impossible for 
 undocumented migrants to travel to international meetings, 
 gatherings, and protests and to make any form of direct exchanges 
 with movements in other countries. Any form of contact with struggles 
 in other countries must, by necessity, always be indirect, either 
 through web, texts, videos, radio etc, or through intermediary 
 (documented) supporters, who may or may not be mandated by the 
 undocumented people concerned. This reliance on indirect and mediated 
 communication presents profound challenges to self-organization and 
 unmediated self-representation . Movements will have to think of 
 creative ways to overcome this division itself. And, perhaps 
 additionally, to fundamentally challenge the concept of expanded 
 citizenship as an emancipatory route. Can citizens even exist
 >  without the parallel existence of non-citizenship?   
 >    Rival power/imperialist blocs. Rivalries between regional power 
 blocs have increased in recent years, and are likely to continue 
 doing so in the future, especially along the lines of tensions 
 between USA, China and EU countries, but also other countries 
 including India, Brazil, Russia, Japan and the Koreas and the 
 alignments that these latter countries' governments and their 
 capitals choose in relation to the former countries. Currently it is 
 still fairly easy for information and people to circulate between 
 these regions, however, regional and national protectionisms (as well 
 as military tensions) could emerge which make such contact more 
 difficult in the future. Importantly, until now, Chinese struggles, 
 which are accelerating rapidly in parallel to China's growth as an 
 economic power, have been more or less entirely absent from global 
 anti-capitalist networking process. However, in recent years there 
 have been some intentional contact making processes outreaching
 >  towards Chinese struggles driven by people active in a range of 
 different global networks, and the fact that the last WTO summit took 
 place in Hong Kong also provided an important moment for connections 
 to be made between different struggles, but there is still a great 
 deal of work to be done in this area.   
 >    The final type of division to be dealt with here are the 
 divisions that exist between activists from countries that have 
 hostile governmental relations to one another. For instance: Israel/
 Palestine, Israel/Lebanon, Israel/Iran, North Korea/South Korea, 
 India/Pakistan, Iran/USA, Iraq/USA. International spaces have great 
 potential to overcome such divisions, as, in practice, the "neutral 
 territory" which they offer may be some of the only spaces where 
 activists in such situations are actually able to come together, 
 since very often it is incredibly difficult (either in practical 
 terms or because it is simply illegal) for them to come together in 
 their own countries. However, while there may have been "bilateral" 
 efforts between two specific conflicting countries, this theme has 
 until now only been rarely addressed within a more global framework 
 of struggles.
 > 
 > As a new global process, it is important that the Intergalactica 
 seeks to overcome some of these divisions as much as possible, or at 
 least acknowledges that they are important global divisions to 
 overcome, in order to strengthen global unity of emancipatory 
 struggles in the face of attempts from capital and state power to 
 divide the global circulations of these struggles and the people 
 involved in them. However, high levels of participation in the 
 Intergalactica from these regions, countries and sectors are very 
 unlikely to happen spontaneously, and may in fact require an 
 intentional and targeted preparation process that seeks out contacts 
 and collaboration with struggles in these parts of the world, not 
 just relying on existing contacts but rather trying to build new 
 relationships where none currently exist. There are many obstacles 
 that will have to be overcome in this process, not least of all 
 language ones.
 > 
 > Beyond networking - building new autonomous global relations of 
 production, reproduction and exchange
 > 
 > Let us move from the question of who will participate in the 
 Intergalactica to the how will the Intergalactica be organized and on 
 what themes.
 > 
 > At the start of this article, it was asserted that current global 
 networks and struggles are not dead, but rather are in the difficult 
 and slow process of reconfiguring themselves in order to build on 
 their big successes and overcome their limits in order to effectively 
 move into a higher phase of struggle. Global networks do work, 
 sometimes extraordinarily well. In a remarkably short time period 
 (the first global day of action against the WTO took place just under 
 ten years ago in May 1998) global networks have been constructed 
 which have become excellent at organizing large global meetings, 
 conferences, global days of action on common themes, calling for 
 emergency solidarity actions in support of particular local 
 struggles, as well as translating and circulating up-to-date and 
 accurate information and news throughout the world in a short space 
 of time. These processes were almost completely unheard of ten years 
 ago. Now they are regular, daily occurrences. Indeed they
 >  have sometimes become so regular that they are often taken for 
 granted, and hardly noticed, to such an extent that people can even 
 boldly proclaim that global networks are dead.
 > 
 > However, while not being dead, these networks are still very 
 limited, and there is very little discussion of the concrete 
 limitations that do exist or of how to overcome them. It is one thing 
 to bring activists from many different countries and struggles 
 together for a face-to-face meeting or protest that takes place over 
 a very short and specific time period, normally of a few days only. 
 However, it is quite another thing to actually build long term deep 
 social relations between struggles at the global level, relations 
 that create fundamentally different relations of production, 
 reproduction of livelihoods and exchange and that go beyond the 
 nation state and market as forms of organizing social relations. 
 Until now, most global relations between struggles in different parts 
 of the world have been quite ephemeral and highly superficial, often 
 relying on small numbers of specific individuals rather than being 
 appropriated by larger numbers in the respective movements. At
 >  this stage in the young networks, this state of affairs is not 
 especially surprising, due to many different barriers including 
 access to resources for travel and regular computer based 
 communication, foreign language skills, detailed knowledge of the 
 world-economy, the ability to take time away from local struggles and 
 immediate day-to-day concerns, etc.
 > 
 > However, while not surprising, this situation is nonetheless highly 
 problematic. It has created a major bottleneck for movements' 
 abilities to go beyond networking and protest (denunciation) in order 
 to construct long term alternative relations. This bottleneck means 
 that global networking processes are not nearly decentralized enough, 
 especially in relation to their own rhetoric of extreme 
 decentralization; nor are they deep enough in terms of their ability 
 to sustain meaningful exchange and mutual support processes. 
 Furthermore, their reliance on small numbers of individuals makes 
 them extremely vulnerable, both to the inactivity of specific 
 individuals and to cooptation and repression (individuals are easier 
 to kill, imprison and buy off than broader collective processes). 
 Above all, global movements are still a very long way from 
 constructing social relations that go beyond both the nation state 
 and world- market, and in many cases (especially in the imperialist
 >  countries with a strong social-welfare state), there is still 
 great dependency on state structures.
 > 
 > While the construction of alternative relations of production, 
 reproduction of livelihoods and exchange are frequently at the centre 
 of specific local struggles (especially land related struggles in 
 Southern countries), these relations almost never extend to the 
 regional or global level, and where they do (such as direct exchange 
 coffee) they still have a very small reach and are limited to 
 specific products (often artesanal). Global networks are still far 
 better at spreading news and coordinating protests in different parts 
 of the world than they are at spreading products, people, skills, 
 financial and technical support. (These latter set of activities are 
 often occurring, but still remain, for the most part, within the 
 context of fairly paternalistic NGO activity that is based around the 
 premise of reform and integration into existing power relations 
 rather than in a horizontal politics based on autonomy, solidarity, 
 diversity and a confrontational approach to power).
 >  Overcoming these bottlenecks in global networking processes would 
 take horizontal autonomous self-organization to new levels in terms 
 of building global alternatives that go beyond both the nation state 
 and the market. There is an urgent need for movements to tackle these 
 difficult tasks.
 > 
 > It is in this context that the Zapatista call for another 
 Intergalactica must be understood. The Zapatistas themselves have 
 fought a long social struggle that has spent many years in the 
 laborious and painstaking process of constructing long term 
 autonomous social relations based on collectively taking over land, 
 one of the fundamental means of production and reproduction of 
 people's livelihoods. The invitation to participate in constructing a 
 global Intergalactica "from below and to the left" comes from a clear 
 understanding of the urgent need to intensify and strengthen anti-
 capitalist struggles and the need to deepen the human relations of 
 solidarity on which the networks of struggles that have already been 
 built in recent years are based, going beyond the limitations 
 described above.
 > 
 > Building the Intergalactica slowly but solidly
 > 
 > Until now, the process outlined in the 6th Declaration has got off 
 to a seemingly solid start. The Intergalactica itself is slow in 
 taking shape, arguably a very wise move given that the process is 
 intended as a deep, long-term process rather than a superficial, 
 immediate, "one off" show-event. So far, the process has been 
 predominantly driven forward by the Zapatistas, with a strong 
 response coming from different groups around the world. To date, 
 there have been five main "steps" since the publication of the 6th 
 Declaration in the summer of 2005. These are: the first and second 
 stages of the Other Campaign within Mexico itself, an initiative 
 aimed at building a strong country-wide non-electoral political 
 process from below and to the left, with the first part taking place 
 in parallel to the Mexican Presidential electoral campaign; the first 
 and second Encuentros of the Zapatista Peoples with the Peoples of 
 the World (December 2006/January 2007 and July 2007); and a period
 >  of consultation in which struggles around the world were able to 
 make proposals for the Intergalactica. A number of further steps have 
 been planned for the near future. In October 2007 there will be an 
 Encuentro of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas convened by eight 
 indigenous organizations, including the Zapatistas, in Sonora, 
 Mexico. In December 2007/January 2008, an all women's Encuentro will 
 take place in one of the five Zapatista Caracoles (autonomous self 
 governing bodies), dedicated to Comandanta Ramona who died last year. 
 These events are all events that are important in their own right. 
 However, none of them are the Intergalactica proposed in the 6th 
 Declaration. Rather, they can all be understood as steps along the 
 way to it.
 > 
 > Let us briefly evaluate the international aspects of this process. 
 Narco News, the main English language website following the Other 
 Campaign and developments since the Sixth Declaration was issued, has 
 links to Other Campaign related materials in 8 languages, 
 interestingly, including Farsi. Already, before the first Encuentro 
 of the Zapatista Peoples with the Peoples of the World took place in 
 Chiapas last December/January, a decentralized process of preparatory 
 meetings and other activities had taken shape throughout much of 
 Europe, South, Central and North America in response to the Zapatista 
 call. Between July 2005 and July 2006 (the period of consultation) , 
 19 different activities were reported in 16 cities from 9 countries. 
 Importantly, this included several within the USA, involving close 
 overlap with those involved in the powerful migrant struggles that 
 are erupting there. Many of them are Chican at s and Mexicans involved 
 in the Other Campaign from within the USA,
 >  what has been dubbed "the Other Campaign on the Other Side". 
 Whilst most of these meeting and initiatives have been fairly 
 conventional processes of one-way solidarity to what is occurring in 
 Mexico, some of them have gone further, employing the language and 
 perspectives of the Other Campaign to engage in activities relating 
 to local issues. Three important examples of this have been a local 
 consulta organized by an immigrant organization Movement for Justice 
 in El Barrio, in Spanish Harlem, New York and two different border 
 camps against the US and Mexican border, as well as the 
 complementary, although not explicitly linked, "Another Politics is 
 Possible" presence at the US Social Forum in Atlanta this summer. 
 From these meetings and activities, a number of proposals have 
 emerged for how the future Intergalactic Encuentro should be 
 organized and what its contents should be, which will be addressed 
 later in this article. Although not without its limitations, which 
 will be
 >  addressed later in this article, it is clear that there is a 
 strong international process emerging around the Intergalactica.
 > 
 > The two Encuentros Between the Zapatista Peoples and the Peoples of 
 the World which have occurred to date both drew several thousand 
 people to the autonomous Zapatista Caracoles in Chiapas, about half 
 from Mexico and the other half from close to fifty countries from 
 around the world. The first meeting was held in one of the Caracoles, 
 Oventic, over four days, and the second held in 3 Caracoles (Oventic, 
 La Morelia and La Realidad) over nine days. The two meetings were 
 opportunities for the Zapatistas to present their grassroots 
 achievements of autonomy and self-government to people in struggle 
 from different parts of the world, as well as for the Zapatistas to 
 learn about struggles in other countries.
 > 
 > In the first Encuentro, members of the Juntas de Buen Gobierno 
 (Good Government Councils) presented Zapatista experiences in the 
 following areas: autonomy and other forms of government; the other 
 education; the other health; women; communication, art, culture and 
 the other commerce; and land and territory. The final session of the 
 first Encuentro was devoted to hearing proposals from around the 
 world as to how, when and where to build the Intergalactic Encuentro, 
 proposals which had emerged from the period of international 
 consultation opened by the Zapatistas. Interestingly, the strongest 
 participation from outside Mexico probably came from the USA and 
 Canada, including a large number of Indigenous and First Nations 
 organizations from these countries, as well as organizations active 
 in the Other Campaign on the Other Side.
 > 
 > The second Encuentro built on the first Encuentro, going into 
 greater depth about the nuts and bolts of autonomous organizing, with 
 presentations by promoters and other community activists from each 
 municipality around the themes of autonomy, collective work, health, 
 education, and women. A very impressive delegation of Via Campesina 
 representatives from major peasant organizations worldwide 
 participated in this Encuentro, from: Brazil, Bolivia, Honduras, 
 Dominican Republic, USA, Canada, Quebec, Basque Country, India, 
 Thailand, Korea, and Indonesia. Unfortunately the one African 
 representative, from Madagascar, was denied a visa. One day was 
 devoted to speeches from most of the Via Campesina delegates. The 
 second Encuentro did not have a session devoted to the 
 Intergalactica, and in fact there was almost no mention of the 
 Intergalactica, clearly a deliberate decision on the part of the 
 Zapatistas. On the other hand, there was an important unofficial, and 
 self-organized,
 >  side meeting which involved around 50 people living in the US, and 
 one of the major themes of the discussion in this meeting was the 
 need to have a similar process to the Other Campaign within the USA 
 itself, which rather than focusing on supporting and participating in 
 the process within Mexico (itself a very important task), would aim 
 to start a long term process to building a form of grassroots 
 political process that goes beyond electoral politics within the USA 
 itself. Mexicans and non-Mexicans alike were proposing this.
 > 
 > In a number of ways the second Encuentro built on the first, slowly 
 deepening the global process that these Encuentros aim to be 
 constructing. In addition to a more in depth presentation of how the 
 Zapatistas have organized over the last years, the second Encuentro 
 was a space for greater participation from different Zapatista 
 communities, with people from each municipality presenting, and in 
 three different Caracoles instead of only one. This was an important 
 space to give large numbers of Zapatistas direct experience with 
 international meetings, with the many different forms of 
 participation that this involved, from speaking on a panel before 
 thousands of people, to preparing cultural events, to organizing the 
 logistical side of large international gatherings, to international 
 "baile popular" (popular dance). Perhaps the most important deepening 
 of the process could be seen in the Via Campesina participation, 
 giving the Encuentro the international scope and presence of
 >  mass-based grass roots organizations that the first Encuentro had 
 lacked to a degree (in the first Encuentro there were few, if any, 
 participants from Asia and none from Africa). This process of 
 building specific sectoral alliances along the road to the 
 Intergalactica had been building over time, with Via Campesina having 
 distributed Zapatista corn at the World Forum on Food Sovereignty 
 which took place in Mali earlier this year. The decision to have an 
 indigenous peoples Encuentro and a women's Encuentro later in the 
 year is a further step to building important sectoral links, taking 
 the time necessary to ensure that the process is firmly anchored in 
 real struggles before moving on to the Intergalactica itself.
 > 
 > Another important progression was the deepening of the 
 revolutionary discourse. First of all it is important to point out 
 that neither the Sixth Declaration nor the Encuentros themselves have 
 any trace of lobbying about them, nor of defining people in relation 
 to the state. The word "citizen" is refreshingly completely absent. 
 The first Encuentro repeatedly stressed the need for resistance to 
 find ways of self organizing in order to come together in common 
 struggle. An emphasis was on the need to organize resistance which is 
 already occurring throughout the world. The second Encuentro started 
 with a pre-Encuentro event the night before the Encuentro itself at 
 the indigenous training center, University of the Land in Chiapas, 
 which in no uncertain terms laid out the terms of struggle, setting 
 the scene for the main Encuentro. The Zapatistas recognize that there 
 are three main ways of embarking on anti-capitalist struggle: 
 establishing alternative consumption patterns,
 >  establishing alternative trade patterns or establishing 
 alternative production relations. They have decided to go for 
 establishing alternative production relations, namely collectively 
 taking over the means of production. Having taken over the land, they 
 stressed the importance of rural and urban unity in struggle, so that 
 in addition to taking over land, it will become possible to take over 
 factories in the future. Whilst respectful of the other methods of 
 trying to create non-capitalist relations, taking over the means of 
 production is, in their opinion, the most direct way of struggling 
 against capitalism and creating alternative social relations. For an 
 Intergalactica coming "from below and to the left", such a shift in 
 rhetoric is a very important challenge to global movements who seem 
 very timid around discussing (and above all acting on) the question 
 of means of production. It is an especially challenging discourse for 
 struggles in the capitalist core countries,
 >  where that idea was abandoned years ago in favor of some form of 
 social-democratic welfarism.
 > 
 > On a more critical note, there was virtually no one present from 
 Africa, or the Middle East and Arab world. Furthermore, with the 
 exception of the large Via Campesina organizations, large numbers of 
 the participants came representing small collectives and individuals 
 (who are completely welcome in the process). Another weak point was 
 the proposals made for the Intergalactica during the first Encuentro, 
 the majority of which were quite chaotic, confused and still very 
 superficial, as well as predominantly coming from individuals or 
 small collectives with no real organizational backing. Frustratingly, 
 the Zapatistas remained mysteriously quiet about their own proposals 
 for the Intergalactica, proposals that judging by how the Other 
 Campaign has developed to date in Mexico and how the two 
 international Encuentros have gone, are almost certain to be very 
 highly thought out and inspiring. However, the process, which is a 
 very ambitious one, is only just beginning, so none of
 >  these criticisms are either very surprising, or very worrying.
 > 
 > Next steps towards the Intergalactica
 > 
 > For the Intergalactica to turn into a long term process that 
 significantly contributes to building new social relations at the 
 global level, it will be important that it is a participatory 
 process, driven forward by struggles across the world, constructed 
 through a process of dialogue and exchange. The Zapatistas have set 
 the ball rolling, with a directed invitation. However, the 
 Intergalactica is not just the responsibility of the Zapatistas but 
 of all those who identify with it throughout the world. Active rather 
 than passive participation from these different struggles will be 
 what gives the process real depth and meaning. This includes the need 
 for a collective global discussion and preparation process, based in 
 decentralization and autonomous self-organization that aims to define 
 who will participate in the Intergalactic, the process by which it is 
 organized, what its purpose and contents will be, where it will take 
 place and when.
 > 
 > As mentioned above, it will be particularly important to make 
 efforts to include people from struggles in Arab countries, Africa, 
 China and countries whose governments have mutually hostile relations 
 with one another. This is likely to require going beyond existing 
 contacts, making special efforts at both linguistic and political/
 cultural translation. It will also be important to include 
 undocumented migrants, especially from areas of the world where there 
 are strong movements, such as in the USA, Canada, European Union 
 countries and Australia. Wherever the Intergalactica takes place, it 
 will be very difficult, if not impossible, for undocumented migrants 
 to attend. Solutions to this problem could include making efforts to 
 have participation from as many delegated representatives of 
 undocumented migrants who are able to travel at the Encuentro as 
 possible, as well as organizing parallel and linked Encuentros in 
 countries with large numbers of undocumented migrants for those
 >  unable to travel due to their undocumented status. Discussions and 
 proposals from these more localized Encuentros could feed into the 
 main Intergalactica process, and vice versa. In fact, such a proposal 
 was one of the more interesting proposals which came out of the first 
 Enceuntro of the Zapatista Peoples with the Peoples of the World in 
 the session on the Intergalactica.
 > 
 > Based on the above analysis, I would like to propose that it would 
 seem to make sense for a number of broad thematic strands which could 
 form the basis of the Intergalactica discussions, based on long term 
 strategic and organizational concerns.
 >     
 >    How to both expand and deepen global networks, on the one hand 
 to include geographical (as well as sectoral) areas that are scarcely 
 part of global networks, and on the other hand increasing the 
 functional strength of existing networks, so that they can move 
 beyond exchange of information and coordination of protest towards 
 building long term autonomous and decentralized livelihoods based on 
 collective relations of production, exchange and consumption. This 
 could include initiatives aimed to develop concrete tools for 
 deepening connections between movements, such as: long term activist 
 exchanges (especially South-South) , language training, and exchanges 
 about international networking processes etc.   
 >    Exchange of experience on how to avoid, prepare for and respond 
 to repression in a way that simultaneously is based on a maximum 
 respect for life and dignity, but also in a clear and unequivocal 
 affirmation of oppressed peoples' right to choose what they 
 themselves consider as appropriate means of self-defense against 
 aggression, both from internal repression and from external military 
 aggression.   
 >    Exchange of experiences on how to avoid cooptation – especially 
 new forms of protectionism and racist deals, dangers of regional 
 integration, reforms that grant reforms but do not challenge global 
 market, etc.   
 >    Exchange of experience about differing approaches to the state. 
 Rather than having absolutes about taking state power, or not taking 
 state power, a discussion process about what actually works, how 
 organizations make decisions in terms of how to approach the state, 
 factors to take into account, compromises to make, etc.
 > 
 > However, beyond general frameworks, the contents and methodology of 
 the Intergalactica will need to be decided on through a slow but 
 solid collective and participatory discussion process involving 
 movements from many different social sectors and many different 
 countries, rather than being dreamed up by a few individuals in an 
 office somewhere. This means that it will be important to take the 
 time to build such a grassroots global process long before the 
 Intergalactica occurs. It is unlikely to be effective if it is a last 
 minute process, with organizations, groups and individuals deciding 
 to go to the Intergalactica only one week in advance. Rather, the 
 preparation process itself needs to be built up from really existing 
 relationships, relationships that in many cases perhaps still do not 
 exist, relationships based on real human contact, familiarity and 
 trust, especially between organizations from Southern Countries. This 
 could include, for instance, a series of prior
 >  visits and face to face exchanges between different struggles, as 
 well as possible language training to facilitate the process and cut 
 out the need for intermediaries (who normally come from Western 
 Europe and North America). Such a process, in addition to being time 
 consuming and difficult, is also likely to be very expensive, which 
 is another reason for starting early on the global process of slowly 
 constructing the Intergalactica from below and to the left. Above 
 all, this preparation process should not be seen as just the 
 responsibility of the Zapatistas themselves, nor just of Zapatista 
 solidarity organizations, but of all those organizations and 
 individuals who see themselves as adherents of, or inspired by, the 
 Sixth Declaration.
 > 
 > Similarly, the date and location of the Intergalactica cannot just 
 be dreamed up out of thin air. For it to be an effective and 
 meaningful process, movements themselves will need to offer to host 
 it, and propose the time and location according to a realistic 
 assessment of whether, where and when they themselves are able to 
 organize it. The proposal should not come from outside a country, or 
 a movement. For instance, some of the earlier proposals that were 
 read at the first Encuentro, were Europeans proposing that the 
 Intergalactica should take place in Bolivia and other similar ill-
 thought out proposals.
 > 
 > Concrete immediate steps could include:
 >     
 >    Continuing with already existing efforts at translating and, 
 above all, disseminating of the 6th Declaration and Encuentro 
 materials in different languages. It is already circulating well in 
 the Spanish and English speaking world. Arabic and Chinese could be 
 important next steps.   
 >    Deepening already existing collective discussion processes about 
 what people see as the purpose of the Intergalactica.   
 >    Initiating contact-making visits and exchanges.   
 >    Organizations discussing whether they would like to offer to 
 host the Encuentro, and if so, when.   
 >    Starting on fundraising for travel costs, etc.
 > 
 > The above does not need to be implemented in a centralized way, but 
 rather can take place in a decentralized and autonomous way. However, 
 coordination will be important. The more that different organizations 
 take it on themselves to do inspiring efforts towards the 
 Intergalactica, the faster the ball is likely to roll.
 > 
 > 
 >        
 > ---------------------------------
 >  For ideas on reducing your carbon footprint visit Yahoo! For Good 
 this month.
 >
 
 
     
                               

       
---------------------------------
 Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/private/diggers350/attachments/20071118/0a3c5931/attachment.html>