Mumia Abu-Jamal on the anniversary of the Zapatista movement in Chiapas: a legacy of education, freedom and struggle
http://fsrn.org/audio/mumia-abu-jamal-anniversary-zapatista-movement-chiapas-a-legacy-education-freedom-and-struggle
(you can listen to an audio of Mumia reading this essay at the original source site)
Fri, 08/16/2013 – 14:55
Mexican and international supporters of the Mayan-led Zapatista movement are returning from the indigenous villages where they spent the past week participating in an initiative known as the Escuelita, or “Little School.” The purpose of the school was to share insights and methods about the Zapatista’s autonomous government. The Zapatistas sent special invitations to a short list of distinguished guests, among them imprisoned journalist and FSRN commentator, Mumia Abu-Jamal. With assistance from Prison Radio, FSRN spoke to Abu-Jamal this week about the escuelita and the anniversary of the Zapatista’s so-called Good Government Councils.
“Far too often, Norteamericanos, even so-called leftists, adopt a superior, in fact, an imperial attitude, as if we should teach others how to struggle or resist. Instead, experience is the best teacher and in the last decade at least, we’ve seen autonomy sprout into communities rich with equality and the dignity of self-governance, in a word: freedom in Chiapas. And Chiapas is the belly-button of empire in Mexico.”
Zapatista good government councils also administer their own system of basic services, including schools and clinics. While the “Little School” for teaching outsiders about their governance system began this week, the Mayan rebels have been running their own education system independent of government funding for years.
“Education in the empire teaches hegemony, false history, racism and that imperialism is a good thing. The Zapatista communities are relearning the knowledge of the first peoples, so-called indigenous people, and teaching a powerful and subversive way of living in the world, of community, of commonality, of balance with all living things, of respect for Mother Nature. Of course, we get the exact opposite in the Empire. We get isolation, materialism and really war against Mother Nature and the whole world. That’s worthy of learning, that’s worthy of teaching. In the words of that great historian, C.L.R. James, every cook can govern, all of us can learn.”
January first will mark the 20-year-anniversary of the uprising in Chiapas. Abu-Jamal noted that it coincides with the passage of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which the rebels called a “death sentence” for Mexico’s indigenous peoples.
“Both Mexico and the US unleashed the dogs of war, Mexican oligarchs in Chiapas, the US in the Middle East. The imperial forces cannot tolerate any spark of resistance to their ownership of the entire world. The Zapatistas are a thorn in their side and they are growing.”
That’s Mumia Abu-Jamal, speaking from SEI Mahanoy Prison in Frackville, Pennsylvania on the anniversary of the inauguration of the Zapatista civilian governance system known as the Good Government Councils. This audio was recorded by Prison Radio’s Noelle Hanrahan.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is the subject of a new feature-length documentary “Long Distance Revolutionary,” opening theatrically in San Francisco on August 23rd.