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Chiapas Occupation |
Zapatista Update
from The Contact Office for the Consulta Zapatista (NCDM), Mar 15, 1999
¡¿Qué Onda, Compas?!We're glad to report that the Consulta is driving, skiing, marching, and flying ahead, from Georgia to California and Washington to Vermont, and every place in between, Kentucky to Minnesota, Colorado to Tennessee. Things are moving and spreading so fast that sometimes all it looks like from here in Chiapas is a big blur -- yelling "YEPA-YEPA!" while it zooms from coast to coast.We've gotten the feeling lately that a lot of people aren't quite sure how the National Coordinations (Coordinaciones Nacionales) are supposed to be set up or how they're supposed to work. Allright, here it goes. Everyone and anyone, brigades, organizations, or individuals, interested in the Consulta can get together and establish a National Coordination. In order to help everyone along, we've included a list of all the interested brigades in the United States. There can be a Coordination for a neighborhood, a city, a state, a region, or for the whole country. The Coordination will then be responsible for coordinating the installation of voting tables, the vote count, and the report of the results, in addition to continuing to spread and promote the Consulta. We encourage all you brigades to get in touch with each other, put together a Coordination if it seems practical, and talk about how you're going to carry out the vote, what your ballots are going to look like, how you'll publicize the location of the tables, how you'll handle voting by e-mail (keep your eyes open for more on that!), and anything else that might be on your minds. The important thing is to REGISTER your proposal of Coordination right here, with us, in the Contact Office for the Consulta. You can let the other brigades know about your Coordination. Of course, any brigade that wants to can set up their own voting tables and compute the votes they collect by themselves, without being in any National Coordination; but, as with any democratic struggle, a certain amount of popular coordination can be very valuable. To date, there is already a National Coordination that some days ago sent a proposal that's been approved by the EZLN so it's already working!:
NCDM There are two other Coordinations which we know about but they still have to send their working plan:
National Coordination Chiapas Coalition '98
E-mail: hlp@igc.org
National Coordination Libertad y Dignidad Mexico '99 So, lets do it! The most important thing is, once again, to contact other brigades and keep building the Consulta from the ground up. The Brigades:
Brigada La Realidad, Jamaica Estates NY, Radiomarginal@bigplanet.com
Extract from the EZLN communique from February 14a.) So that the Mexicans living abroad can give their opinions, all those within a nation who are interested can get in contact, and, in common accord, organize the installation of tables and centers of computation.For example: all the people and organizations who are interested in the Consultation in the United States get in contact with each other and agree to form the "National Coordination for the USA." With this Coordination, they organize the installation of voting tables wherever they deem best and most convenient, so that the Mexican population living in the US can get to them and give their opinions about the 5 questions. Let's suppose they can install tables in Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, New York, El Paso, Albuquerque, and San Antonio (to mention a few of the cities where there are people interested in the Consultation). Well, then the people and organizations in these cities get in contact, and with people from the other parts of the United States form their "National Coordination," organizing the installation of tables in these and other cities, as well as organizing the tallying of votes. In this example, moreover, there is the advantage that the National Commission for Democracy Mexico-USA (NCDM; email moonlight@igc.apc.org) has been organizing the Consultation there, and people can get in contact with it if they wish, or else organize separately. We suggest that the NCDM could work as the "National Coordination." People and organizations that are not in contact with the NCDM can link up directly with the Oficina de Contacto para la Consulta del EZLN (whose address comes later). As things go, there could exist in the same country several "National Coordinations," because "national" here does not refer to its being the only one, but rather to the fact that it covers all or various parts of the nation in which it is found. b.) These "National Coordinations" are accredited in the Oficina de Contacto, so that we can know in what countries and how the International Consultation is being organized. c.) To send in the vote count that the National Coordination will carry out, you will have to get in contact with the Oficina de Contacto. d.) If any group of people, organization, or group of organizations in a given country want to organize in a different way from the "National Coordination," there's no problem. We just ask you to as well get accredited with the Oficina de Contacto. e.) In addition to going to the tables for the Consultation, one can give one's opinion on the five questions by sending the answers via telephone, fax, internet, email, satellite, boat or paper airplane, intercontinental rocket, carrier pigeon, or by surface, water, or air mail. All this will be directed to the Oficina de Contacto. Attention: all the national coordinations, groups, organizations, and people interested in organizing the consultation in their country must get accredited with the...
Oficina de Contacto para la Consulta
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