Ya Basta Netz - Zapatista Reise Deutschland EZLN

Trip Organization

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What is the current status of the planning?

As things stand, a delegation of compañer@s from the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), the Congreso Nacional Indígena (CNI) and the Frente de Pueblos en Defensa del Agua y la Tierra de Morelos, Tlaxcala y Puebla (FPDTA-MPT) will visit the Europe from below and to the left this summer.

The Zapatistas will mainly send women. Exactly when, for how long, and with how many compañer@s they will visit Germany has not yet been determined. On June 22nd, after six weeks at sea, the Zapatista vanguard “Squadron 421” disembarked in Vigo, Galicia. Afterwards another 177 Zapatistas, 10 CNI Compas and 3 from the FPDTA were supposed to arrive in Paris so that they could develop the trip agenda together with delegates from the regions that have invited them. However, the French government denied them entry, even after international protests, and for a long time the Mexican government didn’t issue all of their passports.

In the end the delegation “The Extemporaneous” has landed on September 14 in Vienna, Austria. It is organized into 28 “Listen and Share our Word” teams (made up of 4-5 compas each) and can thus cover several corners of the European geography simultaneously. The visa for Europe only lasts 3 months, but it’s likely that further “waves” of compas will follow. From 22nd of september till 9th of october a part of the delegation will travel Germany.

All current dates for Germany (and some international) can be found here.

Who is organizing the journey and how is it being done?

In whole Europe groups, collectives and individuals from diferent movements and organizations have united to organize the journey for life. (#LaGiraZapatistaVa). The political consensus of this organization process is expressed in the common Declaration for Life. In Germany we call us the Network of Rebellion (#NetzDerRebellion).

The Ya Basta network since 1996 is linked in solidarity with the Zapatistas and, through the Europe Zapatista Network, with other solidarity networks and organizations in whole Europe. However, in the network of rebellion, much more people and groups outside than inside the Ya Basta network are involved.

Within Germany we organize the planning of the trip as follows:

On the one hand, there are cross-regional working groups (WGs). In the thematic working groups, work is done on the different struggles (feminism, antiracism, climate justice etc.) and delegates from the different movements consider together how exchange and joint actions with the delegation can look like. In addition, there are technical-organizational working groups, called structural groups (SGs), which work, among other things, on financing, translation and transportation.

On the other hand, we organize ourselves by means of local networking: In more than 20 places there is a local/regional networking with groups from below and to the left, with a very broad spectrum of topics. Here we think about what should be organized locally. Interested people can be referred to the working groups if they prefer. These places are also potentially the stations of the delegation within Germany.

The complete list of local networks and working groups can be found below.

The regional networking groups and the thematic working groups as well as the structural groups meet in a common coordination circle, where they send delegates. We are guided by the Zapatista principles, according to which, among other things, decisions are made as much as possible at the grassroots and by consensus.

Both the WGs and the local networks can, in principle, still be expanded but the program proposals already fill the time that will probably be be available to us many times over. Therefore, if you want to participate we would ask you to join the existing groups, because we still need a lot of helping hands. The best way for you to do this is to contact the local network closest to you or the working group to which you want to contribute, at the email address listed below.

If you don’t know where to turn with your questions, ideas or suggestions, please write to us at ya-basta-kontakt@riseup.net. Please bear in mind, however, that we cannot guarantee that all wishes will be able to be taken into account when planning the trip, since the last word goes to the compañer@s whose visit we are preparing.

Already active WGs and their respective contacts:

1. Thematic working groups (struggles).

2. Structure groups (organization & infrastructure)

3. Networking groups (local & regional)