The Fanonite

Another documentary by Big Noise Films this time on the Zapatistas of Chiapas Mexico. The Zapatistas (EZLN) are an armed revolutionary group that rose up on New Years day 1994 in opposition to NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). They are ideologically opposed to corporate globalisation and neoliberalism - which they see as exploitative and destructive to their indigenous culture.

They’re also quite famous as the first resistance movement to garner popular global support through innovitive use of the internet. Their charismatic - and media savvy - spokesperson Marcos with his poetic philosophy and stylish image, I believe, played a large role in their success in this area.

Can I speak? Can I speak about our dead at this celebration? After all, they are the ones who made it possible. Can someone say that we are here because they are not? Is that permitted?

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 the before dawn on the 1st of January, 1994. Way before dawn the bullet that 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 any more. 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 whole 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.