A call to organize delegations and participate in

El Sur Resiste International Gathering

May 6-7, 2023 at the CIDECI/Caracol Jacinto Canek | San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas

March 2023

Dear compañerxs:

We are inviting you and your collectives and organizations to work together to prepare delegations in your regions to participate in the May 6-7, 2023 El Sur Resiste International Gathering being held at the CIDECI/Caracol Jacinto Canek, in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. (In Spanish: First call, Second Call, to El Sur Resiste. Read the Second Call in English here.)

The international gathering is open to the public in solidarity with the demands of the Zapatistas, the National Indigenous Congress and the El Sur Resiste campaign and peoples in resistance to projects of death in their own geographies.

The Sur Resiste is the culminating event at the end of a caravan of indigenous people in resistance to the interconnected megaprojects of the 4T “TREN MAYA – CORREDOR INTEROCEÁNICO” and all the megaprojects of death traveling through the south of Mexico from April 25 – May 5.

Our invitation here is to collaborate and prepare a joint delegation of members of our committees, collectives and organizations to attend the May 6-7 international gathering, to learn together, strengthen our relationships and connect our work for justice in our communities.

The Chiapas Support Committee will host a series of monthly gatherings on-line and in person whenever possible to have educational and political discussions on the situation we are facing and the organizing we are doing in our regions and communities.

We would ask that the collectives and organizations committing to participate to consider how they connect their work in the following areas :

• Connecting movements across regions and borders against capitalist mega-projects: The forced displacement of communities, oil pipelines and the “Maya” train.
• Connecting your local community with the Zapatista communities and Indigenous struggles in your regions
•  Drawing connections between the interest of US capital and the megaprojects affecting the southeast , and  to the criminalization of struggles as a strategy of repression.
• Stopping the militarization of borders, communities, education and policing. Connecting these struggles to denouncing the paramilitary violence against Zapatista and Indigenous communities and demanding an end to the paramilitaries; and
• Supporting the autonomy projects of the Zapatista communities

In order to organize nationally, we would invite each one to organize and hold events, fundraisers and forums on art, science, Indigeneity and indigenous anti-capitalism based on your capacity to build momentum and relationships for the El Sur Resiste gathering

Here are some suggestions for the next five months:

• In memoriam of Acteal December 22, 1997:
  • Every 22nd of every month: Never again Acteal!
  • Stop the paramilitary violence! Disarm and dismantle the rightwing paramilitary groups.
  • Derail the “Maya” Train and Interoceanic Corridor: stop the megaprojects of death

• In solidarity with the Ayotzinapa 43: “Vivos se los llevaron, Vivos los queremos!”
  • Every 26th of every month mobilize in your community, city and region to demand the return with life of the Ayotzinapa disappeared and an end to the neoliberal war on Indigenous people in Mexico and the U.S.

• February 2 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, El nuevo fuego against the triple conquest
• March 8 International Women’s Day and Month
• April 10 Zapata’s anniversary: Defend life, protect mother earth.
• May 6-7. Participate in the El Sur Resiste gathering and work together to organize movements against capitalist megaprojects in the U.S. connected with the Zapatista and Indigenous movements
• June: Connect the memories and dreams of resistance, organize against the mega-projects and for solidarity across communities and borders.

We will also hold at least two online meetings to prepare for the trip and read and discuss together key articles on violence against the Zapatista communities and autonomy, the mega-projects, and the organizing and struggles in your regions to develop and strengthen a shared analysis of the struggles and then work we are carrying to the gathering. [Note: CSC will hold the first of the El Sur Resiste forums on-line on Sunday, March 19, 2023, 4:00pm PST; we will have guest speakers from CNI in Mexico. We will post a registration link here soon.]

For peace & solidarity,

The Chiapas Support Committee