Nothing for Ourselves: War and Revolution in Chiapas

Edited with an Introduction by Vik Bahl, Manuel Callahan, Jordan Camp and Rebecca Gámez

January 2006

Austin, TX

[This is a draft –please do not circulate or cite]

Our forces are perfectly trained for a confrontation with the Federal Army. Our army is large, because it is made up of the exploited masses.

Major Mario

January, 1994

I have a dead brother. Is there someone here who doesn’t have a dead brother? I have a dead brother. He was killed by a bullet to his head. It was before dawn on the 1st of January, 1994. Way before dawn the bullet was shot. Way before dawn the death that kissed the forehead of my brother. My brother used to laugh a lot but now he doesn’t laugh anymore. I couldn’t keep my brother in my pocket, but I kept the bullet that killed him. On another day before dawn I asked the bullet where it came from. It said: “From the rifle of a soldier of the government of a powerful person who serves another powerful person who serves another powerful person who serves another in the world. The bullet that killed my brother has no nationality. The fight that must be fought to keep our brothers with us, rather than the bullets that have killed them, has no nationality either. For this purpose we Zapatistas have many big pockets in our uniforms. Not for keeping bullets. For keeping brothers.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
September, 1996

We are not fighting with our weapons. Our example and our dignity now fight for us.
Letter to Eric Jauffret (June 20, 1995).

Table of Contents

Introduction [coming soon]

Chiapas: The Southeast in Two Winds, A Storm and a Prophecy | [pdf]

The Long Journey From Despair to Hope | [pdf]

The Book of Mirrors | [pdf]

To The People of The United States of America | [pdf]

The Story of the Sword, the Tree, the Rock and the Water | [pdf]

Of Trees, Transgressors, and Odontology | [pdf]

The Seven Loose Pieces of the Global Jigsaw Puzzle | [pdf]

Above and Below: Masks and Silences | [pdf]

From the Underground Culture to the Culture of Resistance | [pdf]

Chiapas: The War | [pdf]

Oxymoron! (The Intellectual Right and Liberal Fascism) | [pdf]

Another Geography | [pdf]

The World: Seven Thoughts in May 2003 | [pdf]

The Thirteenth Steele | [pdf]

The Speed of Dreams | [pdf]

Reading a Video | [pdf]

Appendix 1:

First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle | [pdf]
Second Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle | [pdf]
Third Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle | [pdf]
Fourth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle | [pdf]
Fifth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle | [pdf]
First Declaration of La Realidad | [pdf]
Second Declaration of La Realidad | [pdf]
Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle | [pdf]

Appendix 2:

Towards a Zapatista Bibliography | [pdf]
Selected Maps | [pdf]