Coca-Cola is present in almost all of the 194 countries that exist in the world today. It is estimated that the average global consumption of Coke is more than 1 billion cans or bottles daily, or about 12,500 per second. And while for many of us, Coke has been a big part of our lives, the corporation that produces it does serious damage to the world's communities and resources. Coca-Cola is notorious for their anti-union stance and their affront on public health and the environment. Here in Mexico, currently the number one Coca-Cola consuming nation in the world, the situation is even more serious. The impact that Coca-Cola has had on the water supply in Mexico, and more specifically here in Chiapas, is astounding, and has created a crisis that shows no sign of improving.

By Monica Wooters

From the Editor- Lilia López

December is here and the holiday season is in full swing in San Cristóbal. The town Christmas tree towers in front of the Cathedral, religious processions are a weekly occurrence and not a night goes by without the crack of fireworks and rockets exploding in the capacious Chiapas sky. But despite all the holiday bustle, the Zapatistas are never far from our thoughts. They have announced a number of new initiatives in recent weeks including a major decision involving the Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN). As a result, we’ve dedicated a special section of this month’s newsletter to EZLN news.

Article written by Melissa Mundt

Miguel stands at the makeshift podium. To his right are the 15 masked men and women of the Zapatista comandancia, in front of him are over 2,000 people from throughout Mexico. He says, "I am a teacher, a revolutionary, and a homosexual." He tells the story of his friend who died of AIDS without anyone knowing he was infected; so great are the levels of shame surrounding the disease. He says, "I have my feminine side too that comes out sometimes, her name is Brenda, and she is beautiful!" The crowd cheers wildly and someone shouts, "Todos Somos Brenda!" (A reference the familiar chant of Zapatista solidarity, "Todos Somos Marcos, " or "We are all Marcos")

This is the first plenary meeting of the Other Campaign, or "Otra Campaña," in the Caracol of La Garucha. It is a time to do the hard work of consolidating a movement. A time to put forth proposals and try to hammer out the ethics of alliances: who they would collaborate with, how they would incorporate difference, how they would work together while maintaining each group's autonomy and strengths. It is by no means easy and meetings are heated and last late into the night. Yet it's a miraculous feat to see artists, homosexuals, animal rights activists, anarchists, Maoists, labor rights activists, indigenous groups, Marxists, women's groups, and university activists (to name just a handful), all sitting in the same room, listening and supporting one another.

Not surprisingly, this experience has made me think a lot about movement building. To paraphrase one participant, "listening needs to be thought of not as a means to an end, but as an ongoing strategy of resistance in and of itself." If anyone can teach us the power of listening, it's the Zapatistas,  who in these last few months have patiently allowed everyone to speak their mind virtually without limitations. The Mexican left is by no means perfect and has nearly insurmountable obstacles to overcome. But the diversity, humility, openness and patience I have seen expressed in the Other Campaign is truly inspiring.

In this newsletter you will find:

• Report Back on the Final Sexta Encuentro, by Rachel Wallis
• Crumbling Cooperatives: High Coffee Prices Destabilize Fair Trade movement - my thoughts on some of the pitfalls and limitations of the Fair Trade coffee movement
• Chimalapas: A struggle for autonomy and a healthy ecology, by Indigo,  a report on communities organizing to defend themselves and their environment in the Chimalapas, Oaxaca
• News Reports on Fox's Plan to Secure Southern Border, Ecologist Filipe Arreaga Freed After 10 Months in Prison,  Mexico’s NMI Under Investigation for Trafficking Undocumented Immigrants
  

All these articles represent different strands in a vast web of people defending their communities, their rights and dignity. How can we all work together-- that's truly the challenge.

Melissa Mundt is the current Peace House field coordinator based in Chiapas.

Article written by Simon Walker

From the Editor, Simon Walker

The period of uncertainty and questioning that the EZLN’s red alert provoked was a time for all of us in the Peace House to step back and examine our work here in Chiapas, both as a group and as individuals. We consulted with NGOs and partner organizations here in San Cristóbal to gauge reactions, and see how we might be of assistance during the alert. For myself, it was a time of relative tranquility, as the red alert put a halt to the work I was doing at the Oventic bicycle workshop.

The flurry of EZLN communiques that was released in July set everything in motion once again. With the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, presented in three parts at the beginning of last month, the Zapatistas have launched an “Other Campaign” of non-electoral politics of the left in Mexico. In the declaration, they propose “to go about building, along with those people who, like us, are humble and simple, a national program of struggle, but a program which will be clearly of the left, or anti-capitalist, or anti-neoliberal, or for justice, democracy and liberty for the Mexican people.”

On July 15, the red alert lifted and the caracoles opened once again. All are welcome once again to take up their labors and projects in Zapatista communities. As for those of us at the Peace House, we have been quite busy. Summer is high season for travelers here, and we’ve been working with several delegations, giving workshops, translating, and also visiting communities in the Chiapas highlands and at the border with Guatemala. This week I will once again travel to Oventic to work with the compañeros at the bike workshop, before moving on to other caracoles in the northern and jungle regions. These are busy days indeed. As the Zapatistas prepare to meet with indigenous peoples, NGOs and civil society groups from Mexico and the international community, we are all anxious to see what shape this “Other Campaign” will take, and how we can plug in.

In this edition of the newsletter, read about the celebration in Oventic after the red alert was lifted, a direct action carried out in Mexico City's zocalo, the resurgence of paramilitary groups in northern Chiapas, and traditional healing techniques practiced at the Museum of Mayan Medicine here in San Cristóbal. 

Contents

• News Updates




• EZLN Lifts Red Alert, by Jen Lawhorne


• July/August Newsbriefs (the PAN comes out against COCOPA, EZLN communities in Montes Azules complete relocation, Mexican Border Patrol Issues ‘Maximum Alert’ to migrants, Paramilitary groups resurface in Chiapas), by Simon Walker




• Volunteer Weblog




• Histories of Violence and Displacement, by Tillie Scrunton




• Essays & Analysis




• A Sacred Space, by Stephanie Crocker






• Widespread Panic: DR-CAFTA's Possible Effects, by Michelle Akane Storey