Continuation: Mexico – Chronicle of the activities of the 2nd National Meeting of Collectives for New Democracy

We continue our reportage of the 2nd National Meeting of Collectives for New Democracy in Mexico with the 2nd and 3rd part.

Previously we published an unofficial translation of the 1st part:

II

Once the presidium table made up of local and agrarian authorities and the Organizing Committee of the 2nd ENC-ND set up the work, it started off with great force, first with the collective intonation of the Hymn The Internationale, led by comrades from the People’s Youth Brigades (BJP), and later with a civic act ordered by local and agrarian authorities.

The students of the Bilingual School “Emiliano Zapata” participated in this, and in a high anti-imperialist and national liberation gesture they honored the national flag by singing the Toque de Bandera and the National Anthem, which were accompanied by all those present. Later, the authorities ordered the Topiles (1) corps to carry out an internal parade, giving a great example of discipline, firmness and loyalty to the people in resistance under the impressive salute “Topiles Corps… Serve the people, with all your heart!”

The martial conduct of the students of the Bilingual School “Emiliano Zapata” and the participating Topiles corps was well received at the end of their demonstration with strong applause and genuine admiration from all the attendees who once again chanted the slogan “ Serve the people with all your heart, combat troops of the revolution.”

III

Another important aspect of the cultural resistance of our peoples is song and dance, some of which are satires against the Spanish colonizers, against the federal government and against the dandies who have oppressed our peoples. In general, the culture of the oppressed peoples is a weapon of resistance that upholds identity and the fight against colonialism.

Immediately after the civic opening ceremony, the dancing began amidst applause and smiles from all those in attendance.

The first to open the dance floor was the community of Río Espejo, which prepared some numbers through its children and young people. They were followed by comrades from other communities who also prepared some dances and there was even a party that made everyone happy, sharing sweets, dishes and lots of smiles. There, authorities, topiles, residents, children, young people, old people, men, women, everyone, locals and visitors, danced together, knowing that they are comrades in this long struggle for national liberation that lies ahead.

After this came the singing. The People’s Youth Brigades stood on the esplanade in close formation to sing “La Joven Guardia” (The Young Guard). This is a proletarian hymn of French origin that soon became the hymn of the communist youth and was later popularized during the Civil War in Spain by young republican fighters. Other comrades in a martial tone presented the “Canto al Partido” (Song to the Party) by comrade Anthar López, a veteran of the revolutionary movement in Mexico. A hymn in honor of the Communist Party as a heroic fighter of the working class that has become popular from Anáhuac to all the countries of our America.

There were also some speeches evoking the struggle of those who gave their lives for the revolution in progress. The names and faces of the fallen comrades occupied a place of honor on the main wall of the event. In front of them, a comrade recited the poem entitled “Litigante”, written in homage to comrade Dr. Ernesto Sernas García by the poet Martín Martínez Rodríguez, a veteran militant who has accompanied our various struggles in a supportive manner.

IV

The workshops for a New Culture, a New Economy and New Politics took on a significant importance. The participants were divided into four mixed teams that carried out various activities.

The “forest” team went to the community kitchen with the intention of making a mural that would highlight the life, the environment and the struggle of the Río Espejo community.

The “water” team occupied several tables to work on the engraving technique, agreeing on the images to be captured.

The “fire” team occupied the center of the esplanade to build stoves, a kind of quite useful and economical stoves that rationally use the natural resources of agricultural communities, replacing gas stoves and also reducing the burning of coal and firewood.

The “wind” team, made up of girls and boys in general, occupied another space to make kites where they explained a little about their history and usefulness, taking advantage of the talk and the materials to learn about the situation of genocide and heroic resistance in Gaza, making dozens of kites for Palestine.

The teams “Water, Fire and Wind” presented their work that same afternoon. Water made dozens of posters with the faces of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Chairman Mao Tse Tung, which they hope to soon hang on the walls of different regions. Fire presented the result of the witch stove amid the smoke of sawdust mixed with copal; later the stove served as heating in a film screening. Wind flew dozens of kites with the Palestinian flag in the Mexican mountains; not only children, but also young people and adults ran with the little ones making the kites fly, making it clear that Palestine will win!

V

Later we ate together again and just as night fell, Periódico Mural had to present a film that talks about the struggle in other mountains a little further south, in the state of Chiapas. We had some technical difficulties because there is no electricity in Río Espejo, so we brought a fuel-powered electricity generator, as well as our sound and projection equipment, and a huge white blanket that served as a screen. Many of the young people and children from the communities in the mountains told us that they had never been to the movies, and only a few had seen a movie at the home of relatives or friends. So it was a wonderful experience for them and for everyone.

The film is titled “Corazón del tiempo” (Heart of Time), a production by the Zapatista comrades that tells us about the forms of coexistence and social organization in the autonomous communities (Support Bases of the EZLN), the love of a young support base for a young insurgent, and the organized resistance of the communities against the old State.

All the attendees were very attentive, knowing that experience of struggle in a place quite similar to the one we found ourselves in. Another hamlet in the south of the country where there are no roads, no electricity, no public services and the only presence of the State is repressive. Another hamlet in the south of the country where poor peasants, indigenous peoples, have taken their destiny into their own hands, giving birth to what they call “autonomy” and we call self-determination, self-government and self-defense. The three fundamental criteria for the liberation of territories and the exercise of the embryos of New Power.

The comrades laughed a lot at the movie, at the destruction caused by the cow and at the youthful romance. At the end, many applauded the decision of the youth, of the assembly and of the Zapatista leadership. This is how non-antagonistic contradictions should be resolved within the people.

After the film came coffee and then the setting up of the camp, with tents and also with tarpaulins and other improvised materials that demonstrated the great creativity of all those present in solving the immediate problems posed by the struggle.

Now, those who came from hot lands did not leave the witch stove and the bonfires authorized by the local authorities, because being a forest community the risk of fires is great, so the Topiles were very careful in their work as guardians of the community and the forest. Just before dawn the frost fell and both trees and grasslands woke up white with pure ice.

NOTES:

(1) Traditional name given among the different towns of Oaxaca to those elements that provide their service within the community security of a population. In other parts of the country they are called “Community Police, Community Patrol, etc.” In essence they are self-defense bodies or popular militias that act regulated under the mandate of the community assemblies, providing a service within the system of positions of the original communities. The Topil is usually the first position or mandate of a person within his community. The Topil is not a “policeman,” he does not receive a pay, nor does he abuse authority or force. He is a servant of the people who acts as a guardian, as a defender, as a rescuer and in general, as an assistant to the community authority on duty. He is therefore a figure of great respect.

VI

Very early in the morning, local authorities and the Organizing Committee gave instructions to carry out the tequio tasks [Translator’s note: collective tasks for the good of the community] with general cleaning of the place and reforestation.

In an act of gratitude and solidarity with the community of Río Espejo, more than 50 fruit trees were planted on land designated by the agrarian authorities; brigades of volunteers were immediately formed to get to work. Once again, the Topiles groups were a powerful example of discipline and collective work, demonstrating that they fulfill three central tasks: combat, mobilize and produce.

At the end of the collective work, the local authorities indicated that we all had a short time to go to the river and bathe before breakfast before resuming the activities. Each participant received clear instructions not to damage the local vegetation or fauna, not to pollute the river or leave any kind of rubbish.

VII

The work began with the formation of two large teams, “Nueva Democracia” and “Socialismo”, who formed two working groups to collectively study the guiding document “Let us deepen our Rectification Campaign” and take a position on it. We have already published the resolutions on this.

“Nueva Democracia” worked on the esplanade of the “Emiliano Zapata” Bilingual School. “Socialismo” worked on a small hill at the foot of the forest trees.

At the end there were two large demonstrations of popular art.

A silk-screen printing workshop where the attendees were shown the ease of this technique and its viability for agitation and propaganda work… “You can make t-shirts like the one we just made, or mugs and caps like those sold by the comrades from Periódico Mural, or sweatshirts like the comrades from the BJP, or propaganda to put up posters at demonstrations, etc.” At the same time, a legends workshop where it was explained how each legend of each town contains part of its history, its collective life, its sufferings and struggles, showing how these narratives serve to tell of our struggles and our objectives… The crying woman does not actually speak of an evil mother who kills her children, but of Mother Earth, of Coatlicue, of Tonantzin who lamented the suffering caused by Spanish colonization against the peoples of Anáhuac… that is why she said “oh my children” because she knew of the suffering, the genocide and the enslavement that came in the name of the gospel and the alleged civilization of the Europeans .”

The children also held their own piñata and colouring workshops. First, they made piñatas by reusing materials and filling them with sweets to share among themselves. Secondly, they coloured images alluding to the agrarian revolution and the anti-imperialist struggle, playing with paintbrushes, markers and other objects.

In addition to this, during the two days of the 2nd Meeting, the MEP comrades provided health care by taking vital signs, blood pressure, etc. They also provided some medical consultations and attended to some sick comrades; and they also gave optometry consultations, providing reliable results to the comrades who provided these services. The MEP, acting on the mystique of “Study and learn to defend the people” has put its knowledge at the service of the people, as comrade Siqueiros said: “The People to the University, the University to the People”, and in addition to the consultations they also participated with young people and children in different educational activities.

VIII

Later, in the political part of the 2nd Meeting, the Current of the People – Red Sun and the Cultural and Study Center of Science for the Proletarian Revolution presented a discussion for all attendees addressing two different topics. The comrades of the CP-Red Sun shared a work entitled “Maoism and the organization of the masses,” a presentation given in Colombia last year at an internationalist event on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the birth of Chairman Mao Tse-tung. The comrades of the CCE presented the call to commemorate the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Mexico, explaining part of its history and the need for revolutionaries in our country to work for the reconstruction of the Party in the perspective of the revolutionary transformation of society.

During the discussion, there were some comments from those present that mentioned the experience of the agrarian struggle in the different communities present and in others that are also struggling for land, and the need to continue and complete the agrarian revolution, linking it to the national liberation struggle as an immediate task. Other comrades spoke of the need for a United Front with other forces, a debate that we continue to mature within our organizations and where we have rejected the tendency of “unity at all costs”, establishing two central criteria for unity: 1) UNITY WITH PRINCIPLES and 2) UNITY IN ACTION.

Regarding the 105th anniversary of the CPM, there were some interventions that called for more information about its history, recalling that the Party fought hard leading Mexican workers in large processes, accompanying peasant uprisings such as those led by the League of Agrarian Communities. “It was the Party of Comrade Siqueiros, of whom we have spoken so much in this 2nd Meeting, the Party of Rubén Jaramillo who had fought alongside Zapata and who was assassinated by the Mexican army, the Party of Edelmiro Maldonado, of Tereso Gonzales and Camilo Chávez who were expelled for taking a position in favor of the then Mao Tse-tung thought against the Khrushchevite degeneration in the USSR . ”

Many attendees were interested in acquiring the second edition of the essay entitled “One Hundred Years of Communist Struggle in Mexico”, prepared by the comrades of the CCE in 2019 on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of Mexico.

IX

Comrade David Alfaro Siqueiros teaches us that art and culture are not an exclusive matter for the rich in their museums, but must be an active expression of the work, life and struggle of the people, and must give them meaning by putting them at the service of the revolution, taking them to the streets in cities and countryside, reproducing them everywhere because the people are present everywhere. In this way a New Culture will be born.

Almost at the end of the work of the 2nd Meeting, the “forest” team presented us with the result of their mural painted on one of the sides of the community dining room. The mural tells us of a forest landscape where mountains, trees and the river combine, crossed by a bright flash of gold and in the center of everything two Topiles stand out, a woman and a man wearing olive green caps, red bandanas and black jackets, carrying rifles. Around them, coming out from everywhere, a sea of red flags, two of these that say: “Agrarian Revolution” and “National Liberation”, also standing out is the logo of Red Sun and on the other side one with the Sickle and the Hammer. Above all, a horizontal banner where the three fundamental criteria for the liberation of territories and the exercise of embryos of New Power stand out: Self-determination, Self-government and Self-defense.

All members of the forest team were very happy to present and exhibit their work, and all attendees were amazed by this work that took two days to complete and involved the hands of children, young people, men and women, both from the town and from other geographies.

Attendees toasted with coffee to this mural that remains in the community and is a witness to the collective work to give birth to a New Culture in communities that actively struggle for land and national liberation.

X

In the final part, the rapporteurs of the two working tables, the “New Democracy” and “Socialism” teams, presented the conclusions of their respective tables to the plenary, where the resolutions were unanimously approved and proposals were made for agreements and tasks to continue with these meetings in the future, highlighting their importance, the optimism and the vivacity that permeate among their attendees.

The comrades from the hot lands happily proposed “the third Meeting on a beach of resistance” , we all laughed knowing that the cold of these rebellious mountains is strong, but in this one the brave men and women who expelled the parties and defend this territory have been hardened, building day by day the three criteria and forming an embryo of New Power. The comrades from the center of the country also proposed themselves as hosts. We will see how the Organizing Committee matures the matter, but what is a fact is that in 2025 there will be a 3rd National Meeting of Collectives for New Democracy at the service of the construction of the People’s Front as a revolutionary mass front.

New Democracy, New Homeland and Socialism!
2nd National Meeting of Collectivities for New Democracy

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