[Peace] FW: About a Mexican town that was taken over by the people

[Sakolsky, Ron]

FYI...

okay so im real sorry about this mass email stupid shit but man, im sitting
in an autonomous town right now, a town without authority for 7 months, a
town covered in political graffitti and beautiful murals of resistence,
filled with amazing friendly people who have us living in their former
municipal auditorium who have a free food spot going on like 24 hours a day,
who only ask of us that we get the word out, that we let people on the
outside know of this struggle cause in many ways their lives depend on
outside support. this whole situtation is so amazing and beautiful and
inspirational and reminds me of organizing before globilazation protests but
this is permenant and for real, and all i can really do is ask all of the
people i have ever known in my life to please listen, we spent so many hours
writing this and translating the second part and fighting with the disk and
shit, this place is so amazing i cant even begin to tell you, just imagine a
permant autonoumous city. it is that intense and more. please, if there is
anything you can do, put this info on indymedia in every city, put this info
in your zines, talk about it at shows and parties and bars and your parents
house and at work and everything, this info needs to get out, to the whole
world and i feel so helpless about it right now, the people here are really
in a lot of danger and we who claim to want to stop globalization and all
that crap, here it is people really putting their whole lives on the line
and if we really ever mean what we  say we will do all we can to support a
real action happening so close, please do whatever you can to spread the
word and be in touch with these people, their email is at the end of this
and if anyone knows how to make a web page for them that would be so
unbelievably awesome, if you have any other ideas for what can be done
please share them, im so tired and cant think straight anymore, i just want
this town to live on forever, everywhere........less ranting, more
info.........
 
 
So we just arrived here in San Salvador Atenco, just outside Mexico City,
and we are very quickly learning about the political situation here, and
about the amazing actions of people in resistance. 
Back in October, a bill was signed that sold a very large piece of land in
the city of Texcoco, to the east of Mexico City, for the building of a new
airport. This along with a recent string of privatizations and
appropriations of land all around Mexico is all a part of the process of
globalization pushed by Fox as part of his Plan Puebla Panama, a plan
created for the continued industrialization of the southwest portions of
Mexico. 
The people found out after their land was sold. The president of the town,
giving no opportunity for public input, made agreements with the government
to the selling of the land without informing the people. The people of San
Salvador Atenco came together in resistance and took over the city. These
are not political activists, they are people that just want to live with
their land and be left alone by the governments greed. They had no previous
experience with organized resistance and used no arms but they raised the
machetes already in their hands as a symbol of struggle. The government says
the people of Atenco have weapons but the people tell us that their
determination and numbers are bulletproof and they do not need weapons. With
or without whatever you want to consider a weapon, the people of Atenco took
back their city, kicked out the president and the rest of the government,
literally chased out the police, and have kept it an autonomous zone for
over half a year. When they hear of police hanging around the entrance to
the city, they go and chase them away. Sometimes the people of Atenco make
the police walk home, keeping their shoes, clothes, and other useful things.

The government is using an old technique to fight the struggle here. They
are attempting to create division and disagreement within the communities
involved in the struggle. The government is making many different promises,
including drinkable tap water, if the communities will comply with the plan
for the airport. Many of the communities are not allowing the government to
reel them in, but the problem, as usual, is education. The people willing to
compromise do not realize that the use of the 5000 hectares now ¨owned¨ by
the government of Mexico City, is going to create urbanized spread across
much more of the surrounding land. The plan includes much more than just a
large airport. It includes new highways that will tear through what are now
peoples homes, the expansion of the metro lines, the building of hotels and
restaurants, and most of all the creation of huge new industrial zones,
called maquiladoras, like those surrounding the borders of the USA. These
¨free trade¨ zones create low wage jobs in order to create products, usually
destined for the USA or European countries. 
This airport plan affects 13 municipalities. These are not small towns,
35,000 people are being affected. Today, we explored the targeted land and
we were educated about endangered species and 30 different types of birds
that only live in this area. They were singing their rare songs today when
we arrived around 3 o'clock. They normally only sing in the morning but
today they had a message that needed to be heard. The land also includes
ancient ruins; rock carvings and compasses centuries old, that we were
amazed to not have to pay a museum entrance fee to look at, yet they were
hard to see through the tears of future knowledge. Within reach of our feet
were obsidian fossils of what were once knives of the rich pre-Hispanic
history. 
Already the government, and President Fox in particular, are suppressing the
voice of dissent. The people of this struggle have held several successful
marches but at one in particular, May 1st, foreigners were photographed
participating and because it is illegal, they were quickly deported, 18 in
total, back to the USA. This among other tricks are being used against the
people from Atenco. On May 9th, Cayo Vicente, a comrade in this struggle,
was being harassed by the police when he was waiting for his bus back to the
city. The police are always stopping their vehicles when they have to attend
marches. Security denies the people of Atenco entrance to some universities
when the student community invites them to their conferences. These are only
some of the examples of the low intensity war. 
This airport is part one of a three part plan known as Plan Puebla Panama,
possibly, at this time, the epitomy of the globalization of gentrification.
This struggle mirrors those all across the world, where the rich are pouring
more and more cement that only the rich can walk on. The people here are
doing what they have to do to stop the destruction of their lives, their
traditions, and their culture. They are determined not to live to see an
airport take their land. Expropriation or eminent domain, in every town we
are facing the privatization of our land for their use. 
.The following is a translation of the manifesto of the people struggling
here in San Salvador Atenco. 
No to the Airport in Texcoco! 
Vicente Fox Quesada, president of Mexico, signed a decree last October 22nd
2001, which expropriates more than 5 thousand hectares from the counties of
San Salvador Atenco, Chimalhuacan and Texcoco for the construction of an
international airport complemented with an exclusive hotel and commercial
zone. 
We are more than 35 thousand people living in the expropriated land,
descendents from the original founders that populated the region before the
Spanish Conquistadores. We live mainly from the products of our land, like
alfalfa, squashes, corn, and beans. This is our land, we live from it,
therefore we have decided not to sell it. We don't negotiate our dignity. 
The arguments that the government gives for the construction of the airport
are absurd and unjustifiable. Just 3% of the national population has access
to this service. The benefits and progress that this project promises are an
illusion for the town. The developing and growing that they describe in this
project excludes the people. It only responds to the profit of the national
and foreign oligarchy. The airport will benefit the groups Atlacomulco, the
ICA, Tribasa, ARA, CEMEX and MITRE enterprises among others. 
The decree of expropriation is completely illegal and illegitimate because
it violates the articles 27 and 115 of the constitution, among others laws
and treaties like the 169 Convenium of the International Organization of the
Work in its articles 4 and 6 that are about the original towns and their
rights to keep their land, culture and traditions. The decree is also
plagued with irregularities because it does not justify the public utility
and it violates the right of audience. The federal government and the state
never consulted us. 
The affected towns had a public debate with Vicente Fox in the National
Auditorium the 4th and 11th of March this year. It was an appointment that
Fox didn't attend, showing that he doesn't have arguments and that he
doesn't wanna listen the people. His last declarations are in the favor of
the construction of the airport against any will of the people. His position
evidences himself as authoritarian and despotic. 
We have been almost 6 months in demanding Vicente Fox to be sensible and
revoke the expropriation decree, but instead of solutions we have had
repression in the form of infiltrators, army and federal police (PFP)
helicopters flying over our homes and land, court suits on our comrades,
invasions with tractors on our lands, etc. We demand solutions; our families
are in a desperate situation. We suffer violation of our human rights by the
constant harassment and repression. 
The construction of the airport in our lands will bring ecological imbalance
in the zone, will destroy the water mirrors and with it the more than 200
thousand different kinds of birds that live there, will reduce the recharge
areas for water reserves increasing the lack of water, saltification of the
ground and the flooding of the coast and south of the capital city, D.F. 
We have the rights to defend our land because we have the right to live on
our land and be farmers. We don't want to go from our towns. The
expropriation is a theft and we hold President Vicente Fox responsible for
the origin, length, and ending of this problem. 
¡LA TIERRA NO SE VENDE, SE AMA Y SE DEFIENDE! 
THE LAND IS NOT FOR SALE, LOVE IT AND DEFEND IT! 
Frente de pueblos en defensa de la tierra 
(Town front in defense of the land) 
e-mail: atencorebelde1910 at yahoo.com.mx
<mailto:atencorebelde1910 at yahoo.com.mx>