Letter From Italy to the EZLN

Luca Casarini, La Jornada, Tuesday, September 17, 2002

Translated by irlandesa

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the EZLN:

The oppressive winds which have been blowing of late from your continent
to ours, that wind which, since September 11, has been bringing bad omens,
of death and destruction, of misery and war, brought us the news about the
decision by the so-called Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.Since it has to do with wind, and one has to know how to listen to the
wind, we received the words which came with it separately, and only by
listening over and over were we able to understand them. First, the wind
brought the word "Supreme." We asked ourselves what it meant, and a
friend of ours, a professor of words, explained to us what it meant:
that it dominates all others, that it is sovereign, that it has the last
word. Then, listening once again, another word was added: "Court." We
inquired, and immediately our learned friend responded: court means a
closed place, a patio, or a tribunal. We continued listening to the wind,
and we received "Justice," which means giving everyone his due and
respecting the rights of others, as our professor explained to us.
Lastly, "of the nation" arrived, which means, it would seem, that it
belongs to the nation.

That wind cannot, however, bring good news: it is the same one that warns
when Se~or Bush decides on a war, or when a corporation decides on the
death of some part of our planet. It is the same one which has awoken us,
in the night, with nightmares about Palestine being occupied by tanks.
The last time, a month ago, the wind recounted something to us about you,
about the paramilitaries who were still killing people in Chiapas, our
people.

Now, word by word, we understood that someone, who calls himself supreme,
who is alone in a court, decided not to listen to the voices of millions
of human beings who belong to a land that belongs to them, but rather to
obey one single voice, that of power, that of the government, that of
Se~or Bush, that of the FTAA treaty, that of the Plan Puebla-Panama, which
all speak in unison, directed by neoliberalism. Our friend the professor
asked us what that neoliberalism was, in order to be able to make such
important persons and programs all speak in unison. We answered him with
the words which you taught us: neoliberalism is a war against humanity, a
global and constant war, and we ran up against it in Genoa, after you had
described it so well in your tales. It is a war which has been declared
against humanity by a sovereign which is called Empire, and which has
ordered the destruction of all the mirrors of this world, making it
impossible for anyone to be able to recover to her own image.

The Empire does not tolerate democrats, but it hates rebels. It is
difficult for democrats, without a mirror, to understand who they are and
what is around them. They always think that the wind is bringing images
from someone faraway, who is not like them. They think that misery and
injustice, war and devastation, concern only a small part of the planet
Earth, of humanity, which has had bad luck. They are in solidarity, the
democrats: they become upset and they weep for what happens to these
unfortunate human beings, but, down deep, they respect the rules. They
think that respecting the rules which are dictated by the Empire is going
to save them.

Rebels, on the other hand, wherever they may be, refuse to recognize the
laws of the Empire. Many of them, since the first of January of 1994,
have learned to respect other laws, those of humanity. The Empire wants
to drag them into war, which is their preferred terrain, because there
they are certain to win. That is why, from Seattle to Prague, from
Gothenburg to Genoa, from Washington to Porto Alegre, some rebels, who
always speak about you, are trying to build mirrors, but not just for
themselves, for democrats as well. They are new mirrors, built out of
wood from the selva, and they have a name: disobedience.

In a few words, sisters and brothers, today, after having heard from the
wind the bad news which is blowing from there, we have set about building
more mirrors. If you observe carefully, you will see the reflections of
the lights which reach us from there. We are ready to depart, in order to
defend the land which makes the trees grow from whose wood we obtain the
mirrors. In order to be with our people, with humanity. In order to
build another possible world. This is the only thing which we recognize.
You say when, with our mirrors turned towards the Sun. We will know how
to understand the signals. In October, the Empire will be inaugurating
the FTAA. In October of 2003, the WTO will meet in Cancun. Know that we
are only white monkeys. But we are also ready to return again, with the
color of the earth at our side.

Hasta pronto,

For the Disobedient and White Monkeys

Luca

PS: For the Sub: I'll provide the coffee.


Translated from the Italian to the Spanish by Alejandra Dupuy