The Other Campaign Is On the Move Up North, Too

Adherents Announce the First Cross-Border Meeting to Support the Struggles of Southern, Central and Northern Mexico

By Margarita Salazar
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign on the Other Side

August 13, 2006

LOS ANGELES: From the heart of the most surprising of contrasts, news of the revolt led by the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) reaches us all the way here up north.

In the midst of barricades and the taste of tlayudas with tasajo and “water chiles,” amidst the smell of sweat from the noble and working Oaxacan people –my people, I think, with a feeling that goes beyond regionalism– amidst cries of brave women who for a moment put on hold their existence as the embodiment of tenderness, while taking over the media media that since up to this point having only transmitted the word of the all-powerful government… “Anything can happen in Mexico,” I tell myself while my fingers fly over the keyboard of a borrowed computer. “I don’t know why,” I write to a friend, “but what is happening in our country resembles so much what Ricardo Flores Magón described on the eve of the Revolution.”

Oaxaca, my root, my essence. The piece of Mexico that is me finds itself amazed by itself. History turns in a spiral, and the Zapatista snail shell (caracol) makes itself present once again. 2010 is just around the corner, and the Sixth Delegation of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), or rather, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, is concentrated in the heart of Mexico to participate in the fight for the release of the men and women political prisoners from Atenco. Meanwhile, in the northern part of the country, steps in the march on the road of the Other Campaign don’t stop.

In mid-July, commissioned delegates of the Other Campaign from Ensenada, Tijuana, Mexicali, and San Quintin, from the state of Baja California, as well Mexicans from Los Angeles and San Diego, on the Other Side, gathered in Ensenada in order to reach accords in step with the Other Campaign.

Among the agreements is the proposal to the EZLN that the Sixth Delegation continue forward through the 11 states it has yet to travel to.

If it be necessary that Subcomandante Marcos continue in the central part of the country, then they propose that the leadership of EZLN name a “sub-commission” that would continue the trip through the states of San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Durango, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Sonora, and Baja California North and South. Also sought after is a way that the Campaign could get to the “Other Side.”

Toward these ends, the First Cross-border Meeting of the Other Campaign will take place –in the city of Tijuana, on the 15th and 16th of September– for the release of all political prisoners of Mexico, including those of Atenco; in support of the popular rebellion of Oaxaca and the struggle of the farm workers of South Central L.A., (whose crops were destroyed by a real estate developer); in protest of the racist aggressions of those involved in the Minuteman Project against the migrant community on the Other Side; and generally, in protest of the anti-immigrant politics of the U.S. government, which every day threaten more directly the civil and human rights of undocumented workers.

At the same time, also discussed was the importance of continuing to utilize all the information media accessible in order to spread the word on the struggle in Mexico through community media, free radio, signs, flyers and all kinds of popular information. Speaking of this work, an idea is being considered to set up “Information Stations” in neighborhoods and other communities where the public can become informed about the overall situation in Mexico.

At the same time, in Southern California, there have been concerts, photography exhibits, and documentaries that show Mexico in struggle.

Also, with such great interest in participating among the “intergalactic” youth, the Other Campaign on the Other Side (L.A.) named a commission that will be responsible for facilitating this for “other” friends in other parts of the world.

With that in mind, for anyone interested, the following contacts are at your disposal: zeztala@gmail.com and the telephone number (310) 424- 7646. You can only leave a message at this phone number; everyone who calls must leave a phone number or email address where they can be contacted.

Just like in Southern and Central Mexico, Mexicans up North are hustling, too, to transform the country from below.

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