anne's dispatches from sydney

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So I'm in Chicago now- still kind of weirded out by being in the US.

I wrote this a while back about my purpose in going to the US:

SINCE i am a collector of symbols and detritus from western civilization, I thought i might come to the US, the world's biggest producer of crap.

I find cities to be suitably depressing, and without an american guide to animate my perception of the smog, the suburbia and the squalor, I am little disturbed from it all.

I have to get used to doughnuts, bad coffee and bagels, and now, strange religious sincerity sometimes.

Anyway- went to a conference on Anarchism and Christianity here. My favourite workshop was given by a former black panther, Ashanti Alston, who talked about the Zapatistas, and what we have to learn from them.

Some of my notes-

The Mexican Govt portrays the Zapatista struggle as one of polarised support between Catholics and Protestants- the Catholics supporting the Z's, the P's opposing them. Similar to the portrayal of the Nth Ireland and Palestine conflicts as between religions rather than about imperialism.

Caracoles: the EZLN has made a concerted attempt to decentralise experience of decisionmaking among ordinary people, with the rotation of participants- seeing this as the factor that makes the revolution stronger. It takes the mystical factor out of the leadership positions.

They have been very self-critical, trying to constantly learn from mistakes and to have a more smooth system, and include more women. This is hard because usually the women don't speak spanish- only the men do.

The zapatistas don't call themselves anarchists- since this would label them into a box. Instead they call the decentralisation 'zapatismo' which really just expresses the local distinctiveness that comes out of genuine respect for diversity and decentralisation. They see the unity in diversity as a 'uniting of dignities'.

They see their struggle as a 'struggle to go home'- because home is a place where we are free-
This I find beautiful because the utopia is something known, that is just a recorrecting of destiny- showing that the current world order is an estrangement from ones' roots.

posted by: anneinchaosland at 22:49 | link | comments |

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