Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 16:13:37 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: AUT: Identity, Zapatismo, Reeve


On Wed, 23 Sep 1998, Bill Bartlett wrote:
<snip> 
> I was just stating my impression. At the risk of sounding hopelessly
> unsophisticated, I really can't make head nor tail of anything Marcos
> says.

Bill: OK, let's take a piece of a communique, one from  April 15, 1995
(not long after the Mexican government launched a huge military operation
aimed at destroying the EZLN) that is both a Durito story and deals with
the official labor movement --long dominated in Mexico by company unions
headed by Fidel Velazquez. The events take place two weeks before May 1,
1995 when huge May Day labor celebrations --which the Valazquez called
off--happened anyway. See if you can make "head or tail" of this? 
 
<snip>

     A voice awakens me "A-h-h-hem-m-m!"
It is Durito and he is mounted on the logical reason for his
delay; a turtle! At a pace which Durito has called "elegant trot"
and which, to me appears to be a very prudent and slow one, the
turtle comes toward me.  Mounted on his turtle (they call it
"coc" in tzeltal), Durito turns to look at me and asks "So how do
I look?"

     I gaze at this knight errant who unknown reason has brought
to the solitude of the Lacandon jungle, and keep a respectful
silence.  His appearance is "peculiar".

     Durito baptizes his turtle, excuse me, his horse with a name
which seems hallucinatory: Pegasus.  So that there is no doubt,
Durito writes on the saddle cover of the turtle, with large and
decisive letters "Pegasus. Copy Rights Reserved" and below
"Please fasten your seat belts".  I almost cannot resist the
temptation of making a comparison with the economic recuperation
program, when Durito turns his mount so I can see his other side. 
Pegasus takes his time, even when Durito announces a "vertiginous
turn of his horse", which is only a slow turn.  The turtle does
it so carefully one might think he fears dizziness.  After a few
minutes, one can read on Pegasus' left flank "Smokers Section" 
"Company unions not allowed", "Free advertising space. For
information call Durito's Publishing Company". I believe, I
cannot see much free space because the ad covers all the left and
rear flank of Pegasus.

     After praising the ultra-mini-micro entrepreneurial vision
of Durito, the only way to survive the failures of neoliberalism
and TELECE (phonetic Spanish for NAFTA), I ask him "So where does
your future lead you?"

"Don't be a clown.  That language only belongs to noblemen and
lords and not to vagabonds and commoners who, were it not for my
infinite compassion, would continue in their empty lives and
never be able to dream about the secrets and marvels of errant
knighthood" Durito answers while trying to hold Pegasus back, who
for some strange reason, is impatient to leave.

"It seems to me that, for 2 a.m., I've had enough scoldings" I
say to Durito "Wherever you go, you'll go alone. I don't plan to
go out tonight. Yesterday Camilo found tiger tracks, close by."

     Apparently I found a vulnerable flank on our brave knight,
because his voice shook when he asked, after swallowing saliva
with great difficulty "So what do those tigers eat?"

"Everything.  Guerrillas, soldiers, beetles..and turtles!" I
watch Pegasus reaction, but it must really believe it is a horse,
because it did not seem to be alarmed.  Actually, I though I
heard a soft whinny.

     "Bah! You just want to frighten me, because you know this
armed knight has defeated giants disguised as windmills,
disguised as artillery helicopters, he has conquered the most
impenetrable kingdoms, defeated the resistance of the most demure
princesses, has.."

     I interrupt Durito. It's evident he can spend pages and
pages talking and I'm the one who gets criticized by the editors,
especially when the communiques arrive so late at night.

     "Fine, fine.  But tell me, where are you going?"

     "To the Federal District (Mexico City)" Durito says, bending
his sword.  The Final destination surprised Pegasus, because he
kind of jumped, which, for a turtle is like a discreet sigh.

     "Mexico?" I asked, incredulous.

     "Sure! Do you think that just because Comcopa (government
negotiating body) denied you passage, that would deter me?"

     I wanted to warn Durito about speaking badly about Comcopa
because the legislators are so sensitive and then they get mad
during the TRIBUNA, but Durito continued:

     "You should know I am an knight errant, and more Mexican
than the failure of the neoliberal economy. I have a right,
therefore to go to the "city of palaces". What do they want
palaces for in the DF if they're not so that errant knights like
myself, the most famous, gallant, most respected by men, loved by
women and admired by children, should honor them with my
footstep?"

     "With your many feet, I remind you that besides beings an
knight errant and a Mexican you are a beetle too.." I correct
him.

     "With foot or feet, but a palace without knight errant
arriving, is like a child without a present on April 30th, with a
pipe without tobacco, a book with words, a song without music, an
errant knight without a shield.." and Durito gazes at me steadily
and asks:

     "Are you sure you won't come with me on this intriguing
adventure?"

     "It depends" I say, pretending to be very interested, "It
depends what you mean by interesting adventure"

     "I'm going to the May 1st Parade" Durito says, almost as
though he were announcing a trip to the corner for cigarettes."

     "To the May 1st parade! But there will be none!  Fidel
Velazquez, who has always cared about workers' economics, says
there is no money for the parade.  Some bad tongues are
insinuating that he is afraid that the workers will get out of
control, and instead of being grateful to the supreme one, they
curse him with those words that cartoonists dislike.  But it is a
lie, the Labor Secretary said it was not because of fear, it was
just a v-v-v-ery respectable decision of the workers's sector.."

     "Stop, stop your parade float. I'm going to the May 1st
parade because I am going to propose a duel to Fidel Velazquez
who, as everyone knows, is a fierce ogre who oppresses poor
people.  I will challenge his to fight in the Aztec stadium, in
order to improve box office receipts, because ever since they let
Beenhaker go (don't criticize me if I didn't spell it right, not
even the directors of "America" can spell it, even though they
wrote the checks), not even the vultures will see the "eagles".
Durito was silent for a moment and looked pensively at Pegasus,
who had gone to sleep, because he hadn't moved in a while. Then
Durito asked me.

     "Do you think Fidel Velazquez has a horse?" I doubt a bit.

     "Well he's a CHARRO(literally cowboy, but COMPANY UNION in
Mexican SLANG)..so it's likely he has a horse".

     "Magnificent" says Durito, and digs his spurs into Pegasus.
Pegasus may think he's a horse, but his body is still that of a
turtle and his hard shell proves it, so he doesn't even notice
Durito's whoops as he eggs him on. After struggling a bit, Durito
discovers that by hitting his clip, excuse me, his lance on his
nose, he can make Pegasus go into a gallop.  For a turtle, this
is about 10 centimeters per hour, so Durito will take a while
before he arrives in the D.F.

     "At that rate, they'll arrive when Fidel Velasquez dies" I
say as a parting thought.

     I should never have said anything.  Durito tossed the reins
and pulled his horse back like when Pancho Villa took Torreon. Oh
well, it's a good literary image.  In reality Pegasus stopped,
which, at his rate was almost imperceptible. In contrast to
Pegasus' calm, Durito was furious:

"You are just like the advisors of the labor movement in the last
decades! They recommend patience to the workers, and sit and wait
for the CHARROS (company unions) to fall, and do nothing to make
him fall."

"Well, not all of them have sat down to wait.  Some have really
struggled to make a truly independent labor movement."

"I'm going to see those folks. I'm going to join them so I can
show them that workers have dignity too"  Durito says, and I
recall that once he told me he was a miner in the state of
Hidalgo and an oil worker in Tabasco.

Durito leaves. He takes a few hours to disappear behind the bush
which is a few meters from my plastic roof. I get up and notice
that my right boot is loose. I turn on the flashlight and learn
that..the lace is missing! No wonder Pegasus' reins looked
familiar. Now I have to wait until Durito returns from Mexico. I
look for a reed to tie my boot and remember that I forgot to
recommend that Durito visit that restaurant with the tiles. I lie
down and dawn comes..
     Above me the sky clears, and with reddish blue eyes, is
surprised to find that Mexico is still there, where it was
yesterday.  I light the pipe, look at the last slashes of night
leave the trees, and say to myself that the struggle is long and
it is worth it...
 
Bill: Some commentary.

1)Even without knowing in advance that Valazquez and the "official"
Mexican unions are in the pocket of the state, I think this understanding
comes through clearly in this story. Don't you think?

2)While many other things can be said about Don Durito, his portrayal as
Don Quixote in beetle garb is at least suggestive of one popular view of
the EZLN & Marcos --hopelessly tilting at windmills --sounds a bit like
your comment that one shouldn't expect too much from these people
--except that it comes from them, laughing at their own audacity.

3)In the text we learn that Marcos (and the rest of the EZLN have been
denied the right to travel to Mexico City for the May Day events --or any
other for that matter) so "Durito's trip" is an ersatz substitute
--symbolic representation-- of what the Zaps would have liked to do. And
the stories woven around this are aimed, primarily, at the workers they
can not join.

4) Marcos' comparison between the turtle Pegasus and Zedillo's "economic
reparation program" requires no prior knowledge of the program to
understand that it is slow as molasses in winter in doing anyone any good.

5) The "ultra-mini-micro entrepreneurial vision" of Durito which Marcos
calls "the only way to survive the failures of neoliberalism and NAFTA
pokes gentle fun at various efforts to survive the neoliberal attack on
real income in Mexico --and reminded me forcefully of similar efforts in
Russia. Doesn't this seem straightforward enough?

6.When Marcos says "Some bad tongues are insinuating that he is afraid
that the workers will get out of control" isn't it clear that he is
expressing his own (and others on the Left) interpretation and egging the
workers on? Similarly with the ref to Valasquez as "a fierce ogre who
oppresses poor people"? Leaving the poetic hyperbole out (Valazquez was 94
I think), the condemnation continues while being amusing, non?

7. When Durito says: "You are just like the advisors of the labor movement
in the last decades! They recommend patience to the workers, and sit and
wait for the CHARROS (company unions) to fall, and do nothing to make
him fall." Isn't it obvious that Marcos/Durito is embracing active
struggle to speed the collapase of the old structure of control?

8.On the flip side, isn't the EZLN solidarity with the rank & file
struggle against state obvious in the statement: "Well, not all of them
have sat down to wait. Some have really struggled to make a truly
independent labor movement."

9. Final comment: isn't it obvious that such stories contained within
communiques are aimed at reaching/amusing a wider audience than might be
willing to work its way through leaden prose?

> >> it is an understandable strategy to avoid being classified, but I am
> >> tempted to put such people into the "trying to be all things to all people"
> >> category, rather than the "not trying to be anything to anyone" category.
> >
> >Bill: The statements designed "to avoid being classified" are among the
> >clearest, least subject to misinterpretation --such as the repeated
> >affirmation that they are not a traditional movement out to "seize power"
> >in the usual sense, or their explicit critique of formal electoral
> >politics which make clear they are no social democrats either.
> 
> A bit like Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations with that woman..." eh?
> 
> What the fuck DID you do, you bastard?

Bill: you have shifted the ground here, saying there are not clear
statements about what they ARE, or are for, as opposed to what they are
not.

Well, I'm tempted to ask "at what scale"? They have talked about their
communities, they have organized a rebellion in Chiapas, they called and
helped organize the National Democratic Convention at the national level
and the Interncontinental Encuentro at the world level. In each of these
efforts they have told a lot about "what they are for". They have even
told us about how things work within the EZLN, about command structures,
rules of sex and relationships, etc. I think the only reason you don't
know these things is because you haven't bothered to read the communiques
(and sometimes interviews) where they are spelled out.

<snip>

> 
> > It is obvious
> >that communiques are written to break the silence withwhich the state
> >tries to surround them so they can be destroyed. They would be doing this
> >--as the EPR has done-- even if they were a traditional Maoist guerrilla
> >force.
> 
> Yes, I understand that, I am not implying they are maoists.
> >

Bill: The issue that you raised was not whether they were maoists but you
claimed that the only reason anyone would issue communiques would be to be
"all things to all people". If you understand the point above, then you
should abandon your previous assertion.

> >> Nothing wrong
> >> with that, so long as you don't try to be all things to all men under false
> >> pretenses, that is by implying you are something you are not. Or even by
> >> not telling us what you are.
> >>
> >
> >Bill: I'd like some evidence of this hypocrisy that you imply obtains
> >with the Zapatistas. Show us the passages from their communiques which are
> >in contradiction with their actions --and give us the particular actions
> >which which they are in contradiction as well.
> 
> I confess I cannot. In fact the whole point is that their communiques
> are
> so vague that it is hard to imagine what action could conceivable
> contradict them.
> 

Bill: Just to take the piece of a communique above, isn't it obvious that
sending a letter of embrace/support to Valazquez would contradict what is
said here? Wouldn't a demonstration against rank & file upstarts by Zap
supporters contradict this communique?

> >Also, I'd like some
> >evidence that they try to be all things to all people.
> 
> My only evidence is the vague nature of their politics. If you don't
> accept that evidence then you will not accept the reasoning which leads to
> such a conclusion. And certainly the evidence is hardly conclusive. I'm
> just giving my impression.
> 

Bill: Having, so far, not having given any evidence of the vague
nature of "their politics" that you feel you can substantiate, I have a
hard time grasping your reason for clinging to your crtique.

> >This strikes me as
> >particularly silly given the way the so clearly differntiate themselves
> >from so many different kinds of people/politicos. Reaching out to a
> >variety of struggles that they see are also in movement against
> >neoliberalism and for alternatives is NOT the same as trying to be "all
> >things to all people" --its called trying to build alliances and
> >complementary struggles.
> 
> There's nothing particularly wrong with trying to be all things to all
> people in their circumstances though. They are reaching ou t to a wide
> range
> of possible allies is quite understandable. The concern I have is not
> to do with lending support to their cause, but with having unrealistic
> expectations of their struggle.

Bill: OK, having abandoned the assertion that they issue communiques to be
all things to all people --your earlier explanation of why they issue
communiques at all-- you now shift the terrain from them to their
supporters. Frankly I don't know why you do this because as far as I can
make out the vast majority of their supporters do NOT have "unrealistic
expectations  of their struggle", on the contrary, they are fighting to
keep them from being squashed.
 
> > >Bill: Cite us some gibberish --I already know tons of unambiguous
> >writings. Do you hate poetry or what? Do you think all ~communiques' have
> >to come coded in some standardized leftist language for you not to call
> >the authors frauds?
> 
> I probably would have a great deal of trouble decoding "standard leftist
> language", if there is any such animal. Poetry is OK in its place, hate is
> too strong a word though. I haven't kept any of the Marcos communiques I
> have read, sorry.

Bill: No problem, easy access at http://www.ezln.org/communiques.html
> 
> >Bill: OK, having leveled your charges, let's see some substantiation or
> >retraction.
> 
> I am happy to retract, if I believe I have been wrong, I have no emotional
> committment to what I have said. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if my best
> efforts at reasoning had once again turned out to be a load of codswallop.
> 
> But, as you see, I am not in a position to substantiate either and really
> it is a hard thing to substantiate. How can I prove that my impression was
> that these communications seemed to be deliberately vague, let alone show
> that it would be difficult for anyone else, perhaps of greater intelligence
> than me, to grasp clear meaning that I cannot.
> 

Bill: You could cite textual evidence, thats how. You could take
communiques and point directly to passages you feel are "deliberately
vague" and 1) discuss why they need not have been, 2) show how they might
have been stated in a clearer way and then 3) see what it all adds up to
in the light of other's readings and other texts. There ARE somethings in
the communiques,sometimes, that are not transparent and have to be
deciphered. The question is whether they are characteristic? I think not.
Or whether when they do show up their presence undermines or heightens the
impact of the communique? I think they often do. While as an old Strunck &
White writer myself I tend to prefer clarity over everything, I am not so
devoid of aesthetic sense or intellectual playfulness that I can't enjoy a
good tease from time to time. Communiques that contain Durito Stories or
Old Man Antonio stories etc provide relief from grisly accounts of
atrocities and hope in the midst of repression. If you'd take the time to
read a bunch of these, you might discover that you like them too.

> Bill Bartlett
> Bracknell Tas.
> 
Harry
............................................................................
Harry Cleaver
Department of Economics
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712-1173  USA
Phone Numbers: (hm)  (512) 478-8427
               (off) (512) 475-8535   Fax:(512) 471-3510
E-mail: hmcleave-AT-eco.utexas.edu
Cleaver homepage: 
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/index.html
Chiapas95 homepage:
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html
Accion Zapatista homepage:
http://www.utexas.edu/students/nave/
............................................................................





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