Images of Impossible Bridges: II A Book

Ago282024

Images of Impossible Bridges: II A Book

Images of Impossible Bridges:

A Book.

August 2024.

The book arrived a few days before. At that time the Zapatista leaders were in a meeting. They analyze, evaluate, propose. The theme is the common. Hopefully, Insurgent Subcommander Moisés will one day let you know the result of the evaluation. In other words, how is all this common thing in Zapatista lands going?

The thing is that I was preparing a talk that I had to give. And then the book arrived. I just skimmed it. It is in a language that we do not know, that I do not know, and that, after researching, I found out it was “Slovenian.” I guess there is an English edition (you can tell because of the index), but they sent us the “Slovenian” edition.

I then took the book to the meeting and showed it to the bosses. I asked them why or what had happened for their word, as Zapatistas, to appear in a language that, more than 30 years ago, we did not even know existed.

I waited a few seconds and continued: “I’m going to tell you why. And I’m going to tell you a story. Your story of you. The story of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.”

-*-

At the end of the talk and at the time of the pozol, they gathered around the book. I asked them what the book said. Smiling, they replied that they didn’t know. I told them: “What if they are insulting us and we don’t know, because we don’t understand that language.” “I don’t think so,” replied one of them, part of the delegation, “because they invited us and they don’t even know us, they fed us, they hosted us in their places and they showed us what their struggle is like. They taught us, then. So it means that they respect us, just as we respect them. I don’t think they are speaking wrongly in this book.”

A compañera, also a delegate, was staring at the book. She took it in her hands and told me, with a challenging look: “Oi, captain sup, of course I tell you that we do not understand their word that is written here. But we know and we understand their struggle because these people showed it to us. So we saw it and learned it. So it doesn’t matter what those people’s language is, what matters is what they are. And what we saw is that they are people who fight.”

Another compa intervenes: “and they are like us the Zapatista peoples, because they don’t care if you are from “another” planet, what matters is that you fight against the Hydra. Because the system does not pay attention to what language you speak, but rather exploits you, represses you, steals from you, despises you.”

A compañera hasn’t stopped laughing. She tells me: “How can you believe that, captain sup, they received us very nicely, with songs and fireworks. It was clear that they were very happy and that their heart was content.”

-*-

“It turns out that when we arrived at that place we were afraid, sad. We were afraid to speak. Because we saw that the people there are very different. That is to say, I mean, they are very tall and we are very short. They are also light-skinned and we are dark-skinned. What was more difficult for us is that they do not speak Spanish, they only speak their language. At the time we had to give the talk, another team of compas were with us, those compas encouraged us to start giving the talk and we did start. Although the truth is it was difficult for us, because when we were explaining, the translator stopped us every time because he had to translate each part. That’s how we settled in slowly. We had to speak little by little so that it could be translated well and completely. And the translator there are words in Castile that he does not understand. We had to be very attentive and focused so as not to lose in our heads what we have to explain. That is to say, they are different in everything, but they are like us in the struggle.”

-*-

“It is in the Balkans,” Subcommander Insurgent Moisés clarified to me before. “They did not organize themselves as countries for the Tour for Life, but rather for an entire area that they call the Balkans. They were well organized. Since they do not recognize borders, then they are not fighting whether you are from a certain country or in such a way. When I was talking to them about Zapatismo, I told them that they accused us of wanting to “balkanize” the country. And then they clapped and shouted. Later I understood that for them that word meant “unite when there is agreement,” because, despite very fierce wars, they fight together, but separately. They unite in the fight against the division that those above them put on them. But it’s not that there is someone who commands and someone who obeys, no. They agree. So they coordinate. And they also work the land. In other words, they also fight for life. For us, with the trip, that is the Tour, what changed is that before we did not know that there are other peoples like us who do not surrender to the monster and who rebel. The Balkans were a very good learning experience, because they unite, but they do not lose their independence, that is, their particularity. When there is something common, then they quickly come to an agreement and, without losing what each person is, they become one. In other words, they are separated, but together. If anyone will understand the commonality that we propose, it will be those sister organizations. “On the Balkan route there was the whole and the parts.”

-*-

Subcommander Insurgent Moisés continues: “As also did the Saami people, they did not present themselves as a country, I met with them to see how they wanted to be named. They responded things like this:”

“For us, the correct wording is the Balkan route. This is not (only) geographical description, but mainly a political one.

For centuries, the Balkans have been the Other of Europe, the wild, untamed, uncivilized part of Europe: a testing ground for all sorts of colonial, warlike, capitalist and extractivist exploitation, on the one hand, and a space in which every orientalist stereotype of Europe is present, projected onto the other.

It has been a space of great nationalist conflicts, resulting in many wars, including the one in the 90s, which was for our generation, born in the last decade of socialist Yugoslavia, a very formative experience when we were children.

So when we, as anarchists, anti-fascists and anti-authoritarians began to be politically active, the Balkan perspective was always clear to us: the only way to overcome nationalist divisions and hatred is to build the Balkans from below, connecting every collective and movement to the Balkans. During the last two decades (from the years of anti-globalization), the fight against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and later all the struggles of workers, students, migrant solidarity, feminists, environmental, etc., were carried out through the Balkans.

We are not connected in one organization, rather, we function as independent collectives in each territory (known as different Balkan states, such as Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, etc.). We have a common event once a year (Balkan anarchist Bookfair), which is a space of meeting and reflection for all collectives that otherwise operate in their own territories. Sometimes, as in the case of the Zapatista visit, or the migrant route in 2015, we work together in this decentralized network of Balkan solidarity.

So, in summary, for us the concept of the Balkan Route is a political concept, and we prefer to use it, instead of talking about activities in each country. The preparation of the Zapatista visit was done through common meetings of all the national coordinations in different territories, and always had that Balkan international feeling, to work together and create a common space of struggle.

-*-

Okay. Good health and that attempts at hegemony and homogenization do not ruin everything… again.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.