IN AN “OTHER” GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY…
By Ben Kenobi
1289 words.
From the northern gringo planet of Tucson in the Arizona system, to the
Zapatista rebel encampment of La Realidad in the southern
jungle-mountains of Chiapas bordering the Guatemala system, the
Intergalactic Rebel Alliance caravan has successfully crossed the
Mexico galaxy and has made contact with the Sixth Commission of the
Other Campaign.
The crew; Leia and Luke Skywalker of Road Block EF! from the Indiana
system, together with the militant Wokie battalion of the occupied “Che
Guevara” auditorium of the UNAM-University City deep in the “DF”
system, and Captain Juan Solo, sub-commander of the “Halcon Milinario”,
made an initial rendezvous with the Anarco-Ewoks during the “Encuentro
Anrcogalaktico” that took place this past July at the
CIDECI-Universidad de la Tierra, in San Cristobal de las Casas, a
not-so-secret rebel outpost on the southern fringe of the Mexico
galaxy. The main themes discussed during this enuentro were challenging
patriarchy within the anarcogalactic-movement, the anarchist
perspective and participation within the Other Campaign, and the
intergalactic Imperial security agreement SPP (the Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America).
Their mission, to escort and protect two special envoys from the Zulia
system in the Venezuela galaxy to the Second Gathering of the Zapatista
Communities with the Peoples of the World; two Wayuu indigenous
spokes-persons of the Organization Maikiralasa’lii from the Socuy,
Mache and Cachirí river valleys.
The Wayuu, together with the Yukpa, Barí, and Añu tribes of Zulia, have
maintained their ground in a critical struggle for their lands and
life-ways against colonial and imperial corporate forces. Their
territories, the Guajíra peninsula, the Sierra de Perijá, Lake
Maracaibo, and the islands that pour out into the Gulf of Venezuela
have been invaded for some time by Imperial energy corporations;
multi-national oil and coal-mining firms with capital from regional
development banks, and international financial institutions, “iffys”,
such as the World Bank, the CAF, and the IDB. (read EF! Journal article
What’s so Revolutionary about Venezuelan Coal?)
Colonial forces, represented by the state’s regional development agency
CorpoZulia, and it’s private Brazilian associate Companhia Vale do Rio
Doce, have created a subsidiary coal company CarboSuramerica, which has
funded coal-miners’ recent incursions into tribal territories, opening
roads, ports, rail-lines, and coal-mining concessions in the watershed
of the Sierra de Perijá and the rest their remaining spaces.
Last March, during a cross-county protest-walk to Caracas, the capital
of the Venezuela galaxy, the Wayuu and their supporters received yet
another announcement from the president, Darth Hugo Chavez, that the
coal mines would never open in the Perijá mountain range, a protected
nature reserve. But the tribes of Zulia have heard these types of
announcements before, and insist that the president revoke mining
concessions permits and grant the tribes their ancestral land claims
they have long fought for.
The Wayuu and other tribes continue to see the sinister
“giga”-development project IIRSA take shape on their lands. A long-term
continental infrastructure integration project that seeks to
consolidate the corporate Imperial and neo-colonial control of the
South America’s vast (and still wild) natural resources- fertile lands,
rivers, forests, biodiversity, subterranean fossil-fuels, and people.
Seeing that there only hope to break the silence of their struggle
against Darth Chavez – a supposed champion in the war against the evil
empire (the G8), and the Emperor Bush – is to take their movement
beyond the boundaries of their galaxy Venezuela, and to unite their
movement with the greater intergalactic struggle to save the universe
from Imperial takeover and total extermination. The tribes of Zulia,
together with the Pemon of la Gran Sabana, and the Pume of la Amazonia
of the Venezuela galaxy, have entrusted two Wayuu warriors with the
task of carrying their message of Territory and Autonomy to the people
of the world and to Sixth Commission of the EZLN (Zapatista Army of
National Liberation) of the Other Campaign.
The EZLN have united people the world-over in the struggle against the
Imperial advance of neo-liberal free trade and “politrics”. Their Sixth
Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle calls the people of the Mexico
galaxy, and the people of the universe to come together to create plan
of action, a renewed plan of social organization, and a new social
contract with one another. Hundreds of thousands from all over the
galaxy and universe have adhered to the Zapatista’s call and have given
birth to the Other Campaign- the Other forms of social (and
environmental) struggle for territory and autonomy that abandons the
false hope of political parties and “representative democracy”.
The Sixth Commission of the EZLN for the Other Campaign has already
journeyed to almost every corner of the Mexico galaxy on a listening
campaign in search of rebellions and struggles for land and traditional
life-ways, and has called for a Continental Gathering of Indigenous
People of the Americas, to take place this October 11-15 on the Yaqui
Nation territory of Vicam, in the Sonora system on the northern fringe
of the Mexico galaxy.
Rebel Alliance caravan crewmembers, along with the tribes of the
Venezuela galaxy, and the Ã’ahñu of the National Indigenous Congress of
Mexico (CNI), are preparing for this epic journey and mission to Yaqui
Vicam. “The Millennium Falcon”, a 1988 full-size Blue Bird school bus
and veteran Rising Tide transport, is the lead ship of the rebel fleet.
Converted to run on straight or waste vegetable oil (SVO/WVO), nuestro
camión has been in constant search of varied culinary oils and their
possible recycling. During a run-in with Imperial polices forces in the
Oaxaca system, the Falcon suffered minor damages. A couple blown tires
and a new par of rear shocks top the list of recent cost the crew has
had to overcome to continue their extraordinary mission.
The Intergalactic Rebel Alliance is a collaborative Latin American
solidarity campaign between various groups and created by Marea
Creicente Mexico (Rising Tide Mexico), an autonomous counterpart of the
Rising Tide North America radical climate justice network. Our work is
to bridge the discussion and actions of revolutionary indigenous and
non-indigenous struggles for land, water, and autonomy, between
front-line struggles in Venezuela against the fossil fuel industry
(state and privately owned), and the Zapatista and Mexican indigenous
and campesino struggles of the same cause.
Our goal is to force Darth (Hugo) Chavez into recognizing the inherent
evil of the dark-side of the Force, and to break his contracts and
commitments with Imperial energy companies- agents that seek to
sacrifice tribal lands and peoples in the name of profits from coal and
oil mining in the remaining wild spaces of the Venezuela galaxy.
The successful execution of our mission, and the fulfillment of our
goal would be important example of the creation of autonomous
indigenous territories that are beyond the control of the
nation-state’s interest in economic development. For Latin America, the
successful resistance of the tribes of Zulia to rid their ancestral
spaces of coal miners and oil companies would elevate the indigenous
struggle for cultural-survival and land to the position of priority
that it deserves within the international (galactic) dialogue
surrounding the World War, Climate Change, and the Defense of Life in
all the Universe (Earth).
Please support the efforts of the Intergalactic Rebel Alliance and its
delegation caravan to Vicam, Sonora for the Continental Gathering of
Indigenous Peoples America.
Donations will go to cover food, fuel, independent media expenses, and
any extraordinary cost that this daring mission has to cover to ensure
our special envoys arrive safely and in condition to carryout their
important task of creating the Intergalactic (national) Indigenous
Alliance of struggles against the neo-liberal Empire.
Ben Kenobi is a “Jedi Night of Anarchy” as sung in a Desert Rat song
about a battle in Seattle.