The festival: CompARTE FOR LIFE AND LIBERTY, “Paint little caracoles to the bad governments, past, present and future,” convoked by the EZLN’s support bases, starts today in the Zapatista Caracol of Morelia. From August 6-9, in the Caracol located in the municipality of Altamirano, you will be able to appreciate musicians, actors, dancers, painters, sculptors, poets, etcetera, from the Zapatista communities in resistance and rebellion, the Sixth Commission of the EZ communicated. Artistic expressions from national and international attendees will also be presented.

This August 6, on the principal stage of the Caracol de Morelia, they will present theater works from the Zapatista Caracol of Oventic, Altos region: “The seven principles of Govern Obeying;” “Environmental and social destruction” and “The new way of Self-governing.”

From the Zapatista Caracol of Roberto Barrios, will entertain with mariachi music from the following groups: The Five Stars; Zapatista Pride; The People’s Voice; Rebel Youth and Chol Maya Renaissance. The soloists Chántee, The Rebel; King Being; Women’s Voice; Valero and My Root will also give presentations. We can’t lack a music trio, so therefore this Monday we’re going to hear the groups: The Flower and Seed of Freedom. In this start of the festival you will be able to enjoy the duo “Life’s Path” and the interpreters of Rap music: For Life and Here I Am.
Young men and women from the host Caracol will present a theater piece that invites reflection called: “Working to live or Working to Die?

From the Caracol of La Realidad, you can enjoy the music of groups like: Strugglers of the People; Cro Eleazar; Los Bamex; Cro Manayer; Touch me of you can, capitalist; Rebel Creators of the South; Rebel Dúc; Rebel Trio; Los Primos; Cro Yorch; Sons of the People; Butterfly of the South; Rebel Youth and Followers of the Struggle.

Prior to the start of the festival on Sunday afternoon August 5, at the end of the Gathering of support networks for the Indigenous Governing Council (Concejo Indígena de Gobierno, CIG), of the National Indigenous Congress (Congreso Nacional Indígena, CNI), upon speaking to those in attendance, Subcomandante Moisés repeated the reading about what the Zapatistas give to the current national and international context. The Zapatista spokesperson was blunt when he said that there is no “good boss,” in reference to the different forms of capitalist exploitation and dispossession and its representatives, who he equated with “Overseers” (neoliberal presidents), “Foremen” (governors) and “Supervisors” (municipal presidents).

Subcomandante Galeano, following the words of Subcomandante Moisés, indicated that any overseer “is going to be confronted;” that upon seeing that capitalism is returning to the methods that gave it origin, “war for the conquest of new territories.” By giving priority to consumption, the predatory global economy “will destroy as much as it can,” Galeano warned. He also pointed out that the new “merchandise” of capitalism, is in the territory of the Native peoples and includes: water, land and air, among others. Faced with the crisis that the system produces, like migration and natural catastrophes, “capitalism is testing an inward withdrawal as an anti-globalization to be able to defend itself,” the Zapatista spokesperson said. Different walls are going to continue to rise and will proliferate like archipelagos for separating the rich from the poor, he added.
Galeano also emphasized the role of the different collectives that worked in support of the CIG and its spokesperson María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, on collecting signatures so that “Marichuy” would attain her registration as a candidate to the presidency of the republic. “With everything against you, the collectives and the spokesperson, denounced the predatory system,” the insurgent expressed. Despite the fact that official registration was not attained, he said that together with the National Indigenous Congress (Congreso Nacional Indígena, CNI) and the support groups, they will now consult about how to make the Council larger, so that this initiative “doesn’t absorb and annul differences; but rather that it strengthens them,” on the international level. “Our call is not only to Native peoples, but rather to all those who are rebelling in all corners of the world,” the Chiapas rebel shared.