Addressing campesinos.

Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN ************************************ Translated by irlandesa, based on transcription of recording [Comandante Tacho's words in Oventik, August 9, 2003] Campesino brothers and sisters of Mexico: The serious situation which is confronting us, the campesinos of Mexico, is becoming more and more critical. We, those who make up the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, are speaking to all of you, you who are the legitimate owners of the lands which we make produce. Brothers in the history of our country, Mexico: our work, our production, our lands, have often received public recognition for the position occupied by campesino production, the result of our work, sweat and effort. Campesinos have occupied, and continue to occupy, very important positions in everything we produce, because of its fundamental importance in the nutritional life of the Mexican people. The dishonesty of past bad governments, and of those currently in office, have not recognized campesinos for the importance of our work. These bad governments have done the complete opposite, and they have mocked us. We campesinos have been dispossessed of our lands by the judicial police, by other police forces and even by the federal Mexican army. They have held us captive with credit and with extremely high interest rates. They have tried to take away from us what they never gave us. Everything they have done against us is in order to keep the rich happy and their interests secure. They mock, and they continue to mock, those of us who are campesinos. These bad governments know quite well that the recognition of the positions which we occupy in our production belongs to us, the producer campesinos, because we are the ones who know how much it costs to make the land produce. We are the ones who deserve to travel to other sister countries in order to ask for their help in improving production, because they have advanced knowledge regarding production in the countryside. Instead of the unremitting big lies which the governments have told, and continue to tell, with falsehoods and deceptions in other countries, saying that there is no poverty in Mexico, that there is no unemployment, that they are a government of the people. We, the campesinos, know that those are absolute lies. Campesino brothers, these last years the bad governments have tried to deceive the people, and they have especially tried to keep the campesinos happy with the pathetic Procampo, with paltry Progresa or with the discredited small shops. The underlying problems of the campesinos have not been resolved by all these various deceptions, mockeries and incompetence. What these governments are interested in is filling their pockets and getting richer and richer at our, the campesinos', expense, and that is why we are forced to fight, in response to the lack of attention to campesinos and the countryside. That is what they have been doing ever since the traitor Carlos Salinas de Gortari changed Article 27 of the Constitution, leaving campesinos unprotected. Because, previously, all aspects of campesino life and our lands had been protected. The only thing that change [to Article 27 of the Constitution] did was to benefit the interests of the rich. As our poverty increased, they could shove us aside in order to sell our ejidal lands to the rich and so we, the campesinos, would be slaves on our own soil. Today we, the campesinos, are telling those who allowed the sale of ejidal lands through that law that for us, the campesinos, the land is our mother, and a mother is not sold. And, for those who allowed the land to be sold through the laws, they are without a mother. Our circumstances and living conditions have been getting worse because of the poor prices obtained for our products, which was caused by the bad governments of Salinas, Zedillo and Fox. In addition, those tools, provisions and other materials which we, the campesinos, need in order to work, to produce, have become more and more expensive, and we are not able to buy the necessary minimum. Campesino brothers, our circumstances are more and more serious. What we buy is more and more expensive, and what we produce is sold for less and less. Fox's government continues doing the same as his predecessors. Those little governments spend their time traveling in other countries, in order to say that other wealthy people can come to Mexico to make their investments, that there is a good investment climate. In other words, these very governments are allowing our country to be brutally looted. But, on television and in the press, the governments are saying that the investors are going to create jobs, and that is a lie, because there is more and more unemployment, poverty and destitution in Mexico. The government has no interest in improving the prices for our goods. That is what Salinas did, as well as Zedillo, to say nothing of Señor Vicente Fox, who is following his predecessors' plans and seeking the conditions for continuing to benefit the interests of rich Mexicans and foreigners and developing neoliberal plans in our country. Our government's disinterest in the countryside and campesinos is demonstrated whenever there is a natural catastrophe. We know that there are means for fighting forest fires, but nothing is done, even though they say on television and in the press that they are prepared. The truth is they can't even put out a spark. The same thing happens with floods. Not only are they unable to do anything, the truth is they aren't interested. It doesn't matter to them if the selva or the forests are ruined. They are only interested in filling their pockets, and it doesn't matter to them if we campesinos are more and more destitute. Campesino brothers, we do not expect anything good from any of those old kinds of government. There is only one path which remains for us to follow. We have to organize ourselves in order to defend our lands together, anyplace, in any state in the Mexican republic. To help each other with the problems we have. To not trust our government, regardless of how new it is, since they have already proven themselves for 73 years, and it may be another face, but they are still the same. Over the last few years, there has been more scarcity, more unemployment, more poverty, low prices for our products, more destitution, more dislocations, more repression, more militarization. That is why, campesino brothers and sisters of Mexico, we are calling on everyone, as campesinos, to join together and to organize ourselves in order to defend our lands and to fight together for better living conditions. We need all campesinos, we have to fight for ourselves. Real and dignified changes which deal with the needs of the countryside will not come from any government or from any political party. The only path they have left us is that of organizing ourselves in resistance and rebellion. That is all. From the mountains of the Mexican southeast. Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Mexico, August 9, 2003.