www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, February-March 2006Zapatista womenEditor's note: Gabriela Martinez Lopez, on a national speaking tour, spoke in Memphis on "Women Confronting Globalization." She traveled with her translator, Jennifer Miller, who represented the Mexico Solidarity Network and contributed to the discussion. We print excerpts of Ms. Lopez's talk. * * * I'm a sociologist living and working in the Zapatista community since 1997. I feel this is my struggle too, it includes everybody. The indigenous women in rebellion in Chiapas appear as part of an insurgent army where they have gained a place in discussion and action in order to denounce the injustices that men and women have suffered for over 513 years. With the Zapatista uprising, a space was opened for women to change their own mentality, to reevaluate who they are as women and as indigenous communities. As one indigenous, Commandant Esther, said, "The woman is exploited three times: for being indigenous, for being poor, and for being a woman. And she is exploited equally by her companion." In a meeting with the maximum authority of the EZLN in March 1993, the insurgent women presented what became known as the "Zapatista Women's Revolutionary Law (WRL)" to reclaim their right to decide when, and with whom, they would marry, and to decide about their own bodies. This is a revolution inside the indigenous community. The women walked from community to community for about ten years, asking women what they would like changed. They put together the demands of thousands and the WRL was born and guides life in the liberated communities. Women now have autonomy to make political, economic, social, and cultural decisions for their communities and country. For example, in many indigenous languages, if it's a "custom" that a man hits a woman, it's considered his "right," and there are many things women assimilate in the same way. But changes have been achieved by women speaking among themselves, helping each other overcome fear and defend themselves from injustices they face in their everyday lives. Some injustices include: forced humility, not laughing out loud, not showing your teeth when you laugh, not participating in politics, having to marry who you don't want, and to have as many children as God commands. In the first peace dialogue held between the EZLN and the government, the demand the women made was to construct infrastructures for preventive sexual and reproductive health, because many indigenous women die for lack of basic healthcare. Today the Zapatistas are constructing five health clinics for women, run by indigenous women. Many women Zapatistas organized themselves in artisan cooperatives like the one we represent, Women For Dignity. Many women's husbands are away, working in cities for the organization. So they better their families' lives by selling their artistry. The Zapatistas have embarked on a new national political campaign, the Sixth Declaration. They hope to consult with social bases of all of Mexico to construct a struggle under new principles and methods of clear changes of action and definition of the Left, anti-neo-liberal, anti-patriarchal, anti-capitalist, anti-racist. It is, in part, against the power of money, and false values that are introduced by the discrimination of women and ethnicities. |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
