ON OUR PARTICIPATION IN BEYOND EUROPE CAMP AND THE MOVEMENT AGAINST GOLD MINING IN SKOURIES

‘’However, as it is always the case in the history of mankind, the dominant story of those who are at the top and within the system is contrasted with the “other” story of those who are at the bottom and outside the established political routines. Alongside the story of obedience and oppression, the history of mobilization and resistance is also written. With the continuous development of exploitation and destruction, there is the story of justice, equality and freedom, solidarity, dignity and autonomy, emerging from the bottom of the social stratification and the margins of the political system.

This “other” story from those who are at the bottom and outside the established political routines might be following an underground route, but it exists. It might not appear in the coloured front pages of newspapers or the central broadcasting TV news, but it emerges from deep within the earth, where the treadmill of production and consumption is based, disrupting its operation and challenging its hegemony. Within the beheaded mountains and clear-cut forests of the North-eastern Chalkidiki, in the area of Skouries, it is not only the story of the rich, rulers and oppressors that is written, but also that of the poor, the weak and the oppressed.

It is in this “other” story that our own struggles also belong to. Alongside these ordinary people and remote communities we also stand, as a small but active part of the anticapitalist and antiauthoritarian movements across the world, who have chosen to take action and demonstrate their solidarity with the struggle for the protection of the area of Skouries in Northeast Chalkidiki.’’
Statement of Syspirosi Atakton
Saturday, 9 November 2013
International Day of Action Against Gold Mines in Chalkidiki
It’s been almost two years since the International Day of Action Against Gold Mines in Chalkidiki, when we decided to join the struggle of the local ecological and social movement, against the plans of the multinational corporation Eldorado – Hellas Gold and the policies of the governments supporting the memorandum of the Greek state.

For us, such a decision could not have been limited to a simple statement or a symbolic action. Our decision was based on a deep awareness that struggles cannot be won through big words and communication stunts, neither through representation, assignment and taking governing power governance.

Thus, we weren’t surprised from the fact that no political party, no government and no institution could stop Eldorado at Skouries nor could protect Kakavos from mining. Historical experience shows clearly that the policies of both liberal and conservative Right and of the social democratic and reformist Left, subordinate to the dictates of the elite and of the capital once they take the governmental ‘throne’.

However, we were pleasantly surprised that the residents and communities chose to carry the fight to save the forest of Skouries, dynamically, with self-organization, and without intermediaries. Their stance is the one that keeps the case Skouries alive and is the one that gives us hope for a different society.

With these considerations, we chose to contribute to the emergence of the “other” story, the one of the bottom and from the outside. Together with our comrades in the transnational network Beyond Europe – an antiauthoritarian platform against capitalism – we organized the international camp from 18 to 25 August 2015, in which people from all over Europe had the chance to experience first-hand what is happening in Skouries, but also to convey their own experiences of other local struggles on the commons and degrowth, self-organization and self-management, social movements and power.

The struggle at Skouries goes on and we will keep being on the side of the local ecological and social movement. Regardless of state repression, police violence and chemical warfare; beatings of demonstrators, prosecutions of activists and attacks against trade unionists; regardless of the government postponements, administrative suspensions and court decisions; and certainly regardless of the investment plans of Eldorado which still thinks that is in charge of the area.

From our small corner of the world, we send our greetings and express our solidarity with the Youth Assemblies and the Coordinating Committees of the Communities of Ierissos, Nea Roda, Ouranoupolis Megali Panagia, which hosted and inspired us.

We do not retreat, we do not compromise; we move on and keep fighting!
No gold mining, never and nowhere!

WE WANT OUR FORESTS, LAND AND WATER
NOT A GRAVE MADE OUT OF GOLD!

Syspirosi Atakton
Nicosia, Cyprus
Saturday, 5 September 2015

1st May 2015

May Day was instituted as a day of honour for the struggles of the workers. Historically, it is connected with the massive strike that began on May 1st 1886 in Chicago, with the participation of 400.000 workers demanding an 8-hour working day.

Since then, a lot of blood was shed, many struggles were won and others were lost. The exploitation of human by human remains the dominant modus operandi of our societies.

Capitalism, in its neoliberal form, being the hegemonic school of thought in the current society, quickly delivers us the elemination of all the economic and social rights that were won and applied in many parts of the world in the past decades. 

Day by day, we also wiwtness the collapse of the hope in the left-wing administration of the system; experience shows us that the state as a mediator of the differences, does not actually exist, and thus it was completely and irrevocably incorporated in the process of capital accumulation. 

What else can it mean, when natural welath and public-interest corporations are privatised? [Things that traditionally belonged to the state, were considered common wealth, but also a source of power for the state, along with army and the police]

The Cypriot experience of Left-wing Administration, as well as the on-going Greek one, shows how difficult it is to enforce anything without the elite’s approval. And this was never about the good intentions of the left-wing reformists or the more radical parties. 

It has to do with the correlation of power in the institutions of governing, that has shifted towards the elite. 

“There’s no alternative”, say the elite in every occasion, using their tools: economists, the media, the politicians. Is it so?

The historical experience shows that things are not static. No power is indestructible. 

Let’s reframe our objectives. Let’s put back in the core of our struggle the overthrow of capitalism, and not the day’s wage that keeps us under constrains. Let’s organise our struggles in horizontal structures, so no self-proclaimed leader can sell us out.

Only then the hope for a society of equality, solitarity and enviromental justice, can be a real prospect.

Only then the humankind and the planet that hosts us will have a future.

                                                                                                                Sispirosi Atakton

Global Day of Action on Military Spending: The Case of the Republic of Cyprus

Campaign Briefing – April 2015
Global Day of Action on Military Spending:
The Case of the Republic of Cyprus

Prepared by Sispirosi Atakton in the  Framework of the
                         Assembly for a Demilitarized Nicosia

Five years into the financial and economic crisis in Cyprus, and there is still an elephant in Nicosia that few are talking about. The elephant is the role of military spending in causing and perpetuating the economic crisis. As social infrastructure is being slashed, spending on weapon systems is hardly being reduced. While pensions and wages have been cut, the arms industry continues to profit from new orders, as well as outstanding debts.

Perversely, the voices that are protesting the loudest in Nicosia are the siren calls of nationalist politicians and military lobbyists, warning of a “disaster” in the case that any further cuts are made to military spending. This report shows that the real disaster has emerged from years of high military spending and corrupt arms deals. This dynamic contributed substantially to the debt crisis and continues to weigh heavy on future budgets. The power of the military-industrial lobby also makes any effective cuts less likely. This is perhaps most starkly shown in how the governments of the richest EU member states, while demanding ever higher sacrifices in social cuts, have been saying nothing and actually have been lobbying behind the scenes against military cuts because of concerns this would affect their own arms industry.

This report reveals how:

• High levels of military spending in a country that is now at the epicentre of the Eurozone financial crisis played a significant role in causing its debt crisis. Although Cyprus is considered to be the most recent casualty of the financial crisis within the Eurozone, it owes some of its debt troubles to a 50% increase in military spending over the past decade, the majority of which came after 2004.
• The debts caused by arms sales were often a result of corrupt deals between government officials, but are being paid for by ordinary people facing savage cuts in social services.
• Military spending has been reduced as the country has been severely affected by the crisis, but the Republic of a Cyprus still has military spending levels comparable to or higher than ten years ago.
• When military spending cuts actually take place, there are cuts almost entirely on people – reductions in personnel, lower wages and pensions – rather than on arms purchases.
• While the richest countries within the Eurozone have insisted on the harshest cuts of social budgets by crisis countries to pay back debts, they have been much less supportive of cuts in military spending that would threaten arms sales.
• Continued high military spending has led to a boom in arms companies’ profits and a further militarisation of our daily lives, while an even more aggressive push of arms sales is ignoring concerns on safeguarding human rights and reunifying the island.
• Investment in the military is the least effective way to create jobs, regardless of the other costs of military spending. At a time of desperate need for investment in job creation, supporting a bloated and wasteful military cannot be justified given how many more real-time jobs such money would create in areas such as public health, education and transport.

Despite the clear evidence of the cost of high military spending, nationalist politicians and military lobbyists continue to push a distorted and preposterous notion that defence cuts threaten the security of the country.

We believe by contrast, that at a time when the EU and Cyprus’ agenda of permanent austerity faces ever-growing challenges, there is one area where both Europe and Cyprus could do much more to impose austerity. And that is the arena of military spending and the arms industry. A permanent reduction of military spending until the final dismantling of all armies based on the island, would save many more millions. Writing off dirty debts caused by arms deals concluded through bribes, would be a good first step to lay the bill for the crisis with those who helped cause it. Such measures would also prove that at a time of crisis, Cyprus prepared to invest in a future desired by its people, rather than its warmongers.

Due to its strategic position and natural resources, Cyprus has been for decades in the eye of the storm. The competition for domination and exploitation in the region of Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East has driven to numerous wars and conflicts. The authoritarian and totalitarian post-colonial regimes that were formed do not represent the interests of the people. We are in solidarity with every movement fighting towards social liberation and political emancipation from local and foreign sovereignty.

Cyprus is one of the most militarized areas on the planet. Those of us who live here, trapped for decades in a nationalist conflict, have allowed the power elites to exercise their authority and implement their interests in the broader area without any serious resistance. It is vital that the hegemony of nationalism and militarism breaks. We will be actively present in any effort to dismantle it.

In our view, militarisation not only strengthens nationalist ideologies and safeguards the division of the island, but also inevitably leads to more institutional discrimination and reinforces racism, sexism and patriarchy. In this – both literally and figuratively – barbed wire of power relations, militarisation supports arms trade and increases military expenditures. At the same time, in an era of a global capitalist crisis, the ‘public debt’ and ‘national deficit’ are growing, whilst wages and pensions are being cut, and public expenditures on vital sectors, such as social welfare and environmental protection, are constantly reduced.

We consider these developments as a huge and continuous failure of the people of Cyprus, who adopted the nationalist narrative and militarist beliefs. By doing that, we were all pushed more and more into a long-term inter-communal conflict and consequently we accepted the status quo that was imposed by nationalist and imperialist forces. We have to understand that the ethnic – religious conflict and the geographical division are the perfect excuses for the rulers to maintain the same peculiar and extended ‘state of exception’. This authoritarian and oppressive regime tries to expand its power and extend its dominance to every aspect of our daily lives. Simply invoking this ‘state of exception’ is enough to suspend our labour, social, political and environmental rights, as well as suppress class struggles and mobilizations of all insubordinate parts of the society, particularly those from the lower classes and marginal groups. In this extra-ordinary but long-established ‘state of emergency’, it is not only our rights that are being violated and ours freedoms that are neglected, but even the provisions of the ‘constitutional legitimacy’ and the principles of the ‘rule of law’ of the so-called ‘liberal democracy’ are suspended.

We firmly believe that the time has come for the people in Cyprus to join forces, mobilize and resist to the dominant nationalist ideologies, the escalating militarisation of our lives, the increasing military expenditure and the rise of far-right political parties. We are against all nationalist and imperialist armies, post-colonial military forces and alliances, as well as states’ repressing mechanisms and authoritarian institutions. Nobody should be a soldier of power elites, never and nowhere; thus, we are not surrendering our lives to any master of capital and war.
Download and read the report here: PDF Document: SA_Campaign_Briefing_Global_Action_Day_on_Military_Spending_Republic_of_Cyprus

March for a demilitarised Nicosia 2015

Why is there a border dividing this city?
Do we really want to harm each other?
Were we ever as different as they taught us to be?

This city wasn’t divided because of the different languages we spoke; it was a power struggle between competing elites.

For a few it was more preferable to have all the power in half an island than share the power in the whole island.

Our daily lives is not their playground. Nobody should be forced to live under constant threat, to live in a city with 5 different armies pointing their guns at us, supposedly protecting us from each other.

Somehow they find space for all their armies in a single strip, but when we try to meet, they dare tell us we block the street.

We are against all nationalist and imperialist armies, post-colonial military forces and alliances, as well as states’ repressing mechanisms and authoritarian institutions. Nobody should be a soldier of power elites, never and nowhere.

Time to reclaim what the armies took from us; Our city,our neighborhoods and our lives.

This month on the 28th lets experience Nicosia as we deserve it.

Meeting points:
Faneromeni Square at 14:00, or
Sarayönü Meydanı at 14:30
Come!

We will walk through the streets of our city, sing a song or two, have a good time and meet at 16:30 at Home for Cooperation (opposite the UN Holiday Squat).

Open discussions, live music, and certainly NO ARMIES!

Assembly for a Demilitarized Nicosia

YKP – Sispirosi Atakton – faq – Granazi – SYRIZA – Dikoinotiki Rizospastiki Aristeri Synergasia/İki Toplumlu Radikal Sol İşbirliği – Ergatiki Dimokratia/Workers’ Democracy – Nea Diethnistiki Aristera/Yeni Enternasyonalist Sol

The Rojava Revolution – Autonomy, direct democracy and radical resistance to religious fundamentalism and civil war in Kurdish communities in Syria (23rd January – Joris Leverink)

In the summer of 2012, sixteen months after the start of the Syrian revolution-turned-civil-war, something extraordinary happened: in the midst of the carnage and destruction of a country in ruins, the Kurdish regions of northern Syria, known as Rojava, declared their autonomy from the central government. In the months that followed, the Rojava revolution silently but with determination started to built an alternative society founded upon the key values of gender equality, horizontal democracy and environmental sustainability that would in time grow into a beacon of hope for all looking for an end to authoritarian governments, Western imperialism and neoliberal capitalism in the Middle East. In this talk, Joris Leverink will explore the origins of the Rojava revolution, analyze its relations to neighboring powers and argue that the Rojava revolution could be our only hope for peace in the Middle East.

Joris Leverink is a freelance journalist with a background in cultural anthropology and political economy. He currently lives in Istanbul from where he covers the Kurdish struggle and social uprisings in Turkey for a number of international media outlets. He is also an editor for ROAR Magazine.

Thrice a Stranger: Hellenism, Kemalism, Zionism – The rise of nationalist ideologies in Salonika and Eastern Mediterranean (8th January – Saffo Papantonopoulou)

https://archive.org/details/thriceastranger

CIRCLE OF EVENTS FOR DEMILITARISED NICOSIA / CYPRUS / EUROPE

This year marks the 51st anniversary of the establishment of the “Green Line” along the historic centre of Nicosia, a result of the bi-communal conflicts of 1963. This line is not only a symbol of the ethnic conflict and the division of the island into separate zones; it reflects the role of the British and the presence of the UN multinational army between the clashing ethnic troops; it refers also to the military coup of the Greek Junta and the invasion of the Turkish army in 1974, the events which have shaped the current status quo.

Militarisation not only strengthens nationalist ideologies and safeguards the division of the island, but also inevitably leads to more institutional discrimination and reinforces racism, sexism and patriarchy. In this – both literally and figuratively – barbed wire of power relations, militarisation supports arms trade and increases military expenditures. At the same time, in an era of a global capitalist crisis, the public debt and national deficit are growing, whilst wages and pensions are being cut, and public expenditures on vital sectors, such as social welfare and environmental protection, are constantly reduced.

We consider these developments as a huge and continuous failure of the people of Cyprus, who adopted the nationalist narrative and militarist beliefs. By doing that, they were pushed more and more into a long-term bi-communal conflict and consequently accepted the status quo that was imposed by nationalist and imperialist forces. We have to understand that the ethnic – religious conflict and the geographical division are the perfect excuses for the rulers to maintain the same peculiar and extended ‘state of exception’. This authoritarian and oppressive regime tries to expand its power and extend its dominance to every aspect of our daily lives. Simply invoking this ‘state of exception’ is enough to suspend our labour, social, political and environmental rights, as well as suppress class struggles and mobilizations of all insubordinate parts of the society, particularly those from the lower classes and marginal groups. In this extra-ordinary but long-established ‘state of emergency’, it is not only our rights that are being violated and ours freedoms that are neglected, but even the provisions of the ‘constitutional legitimacy’ and the principles of the ‘rule of law’ of the so-called ‘liberal democracy’ are suspended.

As an antiauthoritarian group we firmly believe that the time has come for the people in Cyprus to join forces, mobilize and resist to the dominant nationalist ideologies, the escalating militarisation of our lives and the rise of far-right political parties. We are against all nationalist and imperialist armies, post-colonial military forces and alliances, as well as states’ repressing mechanisms and authoritarian institutions. Nobody should be a soldier of power elites, never and nowhere; thus, we are not surrendering our lives to any master of capital and war.

In the context of the forthcoming inter-communal protest march for a ‘De-Militarised Nicosia 2015’, which will be held on both sides of the borders dividing Nicosia on Saturday, 28th of February, Syspirosi Atakton starts a circle of events that will peak on that day. We have planned three interesting discussions in the next weeks:
1. Thrice a Stranger: Hellenism, Kemalism, Zionism – The rise of nationalist ideologies in Salonika and Eastern Mediterranean (8th January – Saffo Papantonopoulou);
2. The Rojava Revolution – Autonomy, direct democracy and radical resistance to religious fundamentalism and civil war in Kurdish communities in Syria (23rd January – Joris Leverink);
3. The conscientious objection movement in the militarized state of Israel (6th February – Sahar M. Vardi)
In solidarity,
Eco-Polis | Working Group for Ecology and the City
Sispirosi Atakton

Heteronormativity is a political regime that needs to be overthrown.

On the occasion of the first Prides (one in the North and one in the South) in Cyprus, we want to share our reflections on matters relating to the acknowledgement of the right to agency that every person should have over their own body, sexuality, and gender identity. Referring mostly to the pride which takes place in the south, we feel that we should clarify this: although it is organised “under the protection” of the institutional authority (so as to exercise social pressure on the issue of acceptance, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression/gender identity), is being carried out first and foremost by the LGBTQ community, claiming visibility for the persons of the LGBTQ community, claiming inclusion for all genders and sexualities that have been oppressed over the years and are still oppressed within the well-established system of heteronormativity. The counteraction of those, who are oppressed, especially when it’s formed and run by the oppressed people themselves, should enjoy support from the whole society and especially from the antiauthoritarian scene: not in recognising the constitutional authorities that may lie behind the organisation of the Pride, but in participating, supporting, and connecting with a community that defends its right to be included in the social representations and claims respect for all, regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

The Pride festival -even the choice of the word Pride- is directly linked to the idea of ‘coming out of the closet’ and the feminist movements that demand the recognition of the personal as political: our very lives, the oppression, the violence, the control, and the power relations we experience on a daily basis in different aspects of our interpersonal relationships – whether we identify as gay, lesbian, trans, bi, or whatever else – is not a personal or private matter confined in the walls of our homes or in our bedrooms. It is a matter, which is mostly political, as it stands critically towards any normative and regulatory system of production of “normal” trends and tendencies, and aspires to deconstruct any patriarcal system where heterosexuality is the norm (and every other sexuality is excluded, deleted, silenced, and oppressed): It aims to expose any system that is sexist, or hierarchical in any other way, any power system, which promotes unequal treatment, oppression, and exclusion and silences and oppresses whatever deviates from the norm.

Exclusion is not a personal matter. The verbal or physical abuse of a trans person, or a homosexual person is not a personal issue. Violence is the product of a mentality, which considers a gender to be superior to other genders, a body more important than other bodies, a voice more resonant than other voices, and a life more worth-living than other lives. The domains of the weak and the powerful, those who are excluded and those who belong, are interchangeable within the system of political and social structures, which we fight. Therefore, Pride festivals are not mere festivities and -what’s more important- they are not mistimed, amid the crisis, as it is claimed by many: these festivals reclaim public space and distort the power of a discourse which operates to shape the represented reality in ways which create domains of abjected beings. These festivals constitute a reminder that all aspects of our lives are diffused with power and authoritarian determinations that segregate us on the basis of arbirtrary prejudices.

Therefore, because we desire to breathe freely, to live participatory, in inclusion and not exclusion, we deconstruct systematically the dominant power relations seeking to jointly shape a common context in which we will un-learn and un-discipline to any form of identification from above and to reclaim, through self-education, the control over our own lives, bodies, responsibilities, and desires.

Syspirosi Atakton
Lefkosia 30/05/2014

 

A first contact with Plan C

• Plan C is quite an unusual name for a leftist organisation. What does it stand for?

The ‘C’ is deliberately ambiguous. The assumption tends to be that it stands for ‘Commons’ or ‘Communism’. Either of these is acceptable but people should feel free to interpret it differently if they wish. It’s a play on the flurry of discourse around ‘Plan A’ and ‘Plan B’ that emerged in the UK once the crisis had dug its heels in after 2007.
At the end of 2009, in a now-classic statement, the prime minister’s spokesperson told us “It is quite normal for government officials to be thinking about alternative scenarios [but] ministers haven’t asked for advice on ‘plan B’ because they are very clear that the plan we have is the right plan.” This plan, Plan A, is the plan that involves massive cuts to public spending, tripling of university fees, the ‘remodeling’ of labour and environmental policy, and tax breaks for the wealthy. In short, a neo-liberal plan focused on making Britain more ‘business-friendly’.
Of course, just because ministers hadn’t gone looking for a plan B doesn’t mean no one else did. There are numerous Plan B’s. Some better than others, but all of them hovering in the vicinity of some form or other of neokeynesianism. We don’t want to unhelpfully dismiss these plan Bs out of hand. We think it’s exciting so many people seem to be questioning the ‘present state of things’ and thinking about alternatives. However, it is crucially important to note the absence of the same social and material conditions that ushered in the golden age of social democracy in the past. In the light of this, the Plan B(s), being called for by everyone from pragmatic capitalist economists to left revolutionary parties, seem little more than pie in the sky. So, we suggest a new plan, Plan C (perhaps centered on commons). We have no desire to present this plan as a prognosis; one of the problems with plan B after all is its inability to meet the dynamism and flux of everyday life under capitalism. We need plans that can change, rapidly if need be. We do however, see this plan as being centered on how we organize our social reproduction. The focus on the question of organization that this necessarily engenders is another aspect of the name. We want to go beyond the plans A and B of political organizing.

• Plan C seems to be looking for new forms of organisation. You want to go beyond the network-based organisation, without falling back on the model of a party. How do you organise? What are the common principles of organising in Plan C?

– The purpose in using ‘soft’ terms such as ‘go beyond’ and ‘without falling back on’ is that there are, of course, many strengths in these forms of organising, many elements of which have yet to be probed. In fact, we’ve elsewhere referred to ourselves as an organisation, a network, and a perspective. Plan C is dedicated to organising in a way that is perpetually experimental. We’re not concerned to finding the ‘correct’ model for organisation, nor do we believe such a thing exists or if it does, it could only ever exist for an instant. Because the possibilities for organisational experiments far exceed both our imaginations and our capacities as an organisation (in fact they tend to the infinite), we find ourselves opposed to the idea of ‘one big working class organisation’, similarly, whilst not condemning the various ‘unity’ projects that spring up from time to time on the left, we are far more interested in developing means of co-ordination and consider unity to be neither likely nor necessarily desirable.
One of the ways in which we try to put this into practice is by organizing together on the basis of engagement rather than agreement. This means two things. Firstly, when we want to work together, the initial operative question becomes not ‘does this plan fit into our grand scheme or ideology?’ but ‘What’s the minimum we need to agree on in order to work collectively here?’ Secondly, we operate what we refer to as a ‘community of reference’ whereby we’re committed to critical support for all struggles in which our members are involved (if they want us to be). This means collectively talking things through, looking for the elements that can be pushed beyond themselves, the cracks, and the potentials for commonality with other struggles.
Another way in which we attempt to ensure an ongoing experimentalism is in allowing each of the groups autonomy in the way they organize. We meet together nationally four times a year. Two large congresses and two delegate meetings. Other than that, interaction between the groups is informal and context specific. So in addition to local groups and national meetings we’ve experimented with topic-specific commissions and task-specific working groups that operate, at least nominally, on a national level. After a couple of years, it has begun to feel useful to us to adopt a more formal membership structure and this does entail becoming a member of the organization as a whole, rather than a local group, but other than agreeing with a basic two hundred word statement about what Plan C is, paying negligible subscription fees, and committing to the ‘community of reference’ idea, there are no rules to which members must strictly adhere.

• Can you tell us something about the situation of the radical left in the UK? How is the situation in the context of the crisis?

The radical left in the UK is in a state of some disorientation and fragmentation. In many ways this is just an instance of a more general post-crisis political disorientation, which stretches far beyond the UK. Ironically it’s the breadth and depth of the disorientation on the left that provides some hope. None of the various segments or traditions on the left are doing well and so at least parts of each tradition are being forced to re-assess the way they do politics. There have been various splits and scandals on the Trotskyist left while what we might call the horizontalist left, which gained such traction in 2010-11 has had it’s limitations exposed. Coming out of this generalized in-effectiveness there have been several attempts at regroupment and recomposition. Plan C is one of those attempts and it has fairly friendly relations to several other attempts at regroupment on both the libertarian and more traditional lefts.

Zapatistas: declaración de solidaridad

Compañeros y Compañeras.

Cuando nos hemos informado sobre el acontecimiento de Galeano, sentimos una vez más los tormentosos vientos que soplan en nuestros calendarios y las geografías de los que están abajo a la izquierda.

Aunque estemos lejos, por muchos relojes y calendarios que nos separen, estamos a lado vuestro, con dolor y rabia, pero sobre todo con solidaridad y respeto.

Porque mientras haya personas sin hogar les proporcionáis techo

Porque mientras haya campesinos les proporcionáis tierras.

Porque mientras haya hambrient@s les alimentáis.

Porque mientras haya pacientes les dais medicamentos y derecho a la salud.

Porque mientras haya anlafabet@s construís escuelas.

Porque mientras haya mano de obra barata en las maquilas y en las granjas continuáis luchando por vuestra autonomía e independencia.

Porque mientras haya marginad@s y excluid@s continuáis luchando por la autogestión y la democracia.

Porque mientras haya explotad@s y explotadores, dominad@s y dominantes insistís en soñar por la libertad.

Porque mientras vuestro mal gobierno proclama la guerra, vosotr@s “habláis de paz”

Y porque mientras otros caen en el olvido, vosotr@s os acordáis todavía de las largas y oscuras noches, y camináis hacia el cambio, lentamente pero con constancia, como unos caracoles en la selva.

Os agradecemos por hacernos recordar al viejo y soñador señor Antonio, tal como soñáis, nosotros y muchos más soñamos junto a vosotr@s.

Es verdad, la hora del despertar se está aproximando, en cuando más se sincronicen las agujas de nuestros relojes con los vuestros, y en cuando las páginas de nuestros diarios se encuentren con los vuestros.

Desde otro pequeño rincón del mundo
Conspiración Rebelde (Syspirosi Atakton)
Nicosia, Chipre
Un amanecer de Mayo, 2014.