Anonymous Comrade writes:
Diez De Abril for the 21st century.
Or How a Rebel Community Born of the Zapatista Uprising, Grows and
Consolidates.
By Ramor Ryan.
A little child, big-bellied and mucky, stumbles out of her dirt-floor house
into the sun, and smiles radiantly. This is 4-year-old Rosa, a child of
Diez De Abril, born of two Zapatista Militia volunteers Adelita and
Palestino. It is January 2002 and despite much adversity, Rosa is alive and
well. She lives where she was born, a fertile valley in Chiapas, occupied
by the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) in 1994, and populated
by a Zapatista support base community in 1995. The village is called Diez
De Abril (10th of April) in memory of the anniversary of the death of
Emiliano Zapata.
Land And Freedom, A Reality.
The history of Diez De Abril is one of struggle and resistance. It is an
inspiring example of how a dispossessed people, united by necessity and
will, can organise themselves into a strong representative organisation.
And through this organisation satisfy, using lightening direct action and
long-term community resolve, the demand for land and freedom. Such it was
that landless Tzeltal and Tojolabal indigenous farmers joined with the
EZLN, participated in the insurrection of 1994 and seized this land by
force. They drove the finquero (land estate owner) away and defended the
gains of this local revolution from subsequent police, military and
paramilitary threat with their bodies and political guile. The 4 years of
little Rosa's life have been tumultuous, dramatic and occasionally
traumatic, but like the community, here she is, young and healthy and
looking towards a better future.
