The meeting in the mud
• The meeting took place in "Hot springs," (Aguascalientes) built next to five Indigenous communities. Each has an open-air forum seating up to 4,000 people, and roofed spaces where visitors can hang their hammock. • Rather than isolated guerrilla bases, the EZLN encourages the Maya peasants to create these forums, which are open to Mexican and international rebels. Struggling together rather than fighting in isolation. That's the Zapatista strategy. * • Those of us from Boston, Birmingham and Berlin measure time differently from these rebel Mayas. Preparing the meeting, welcoming us, and listening to what each participant has to say: their patience seems limitless. • Sitting quietly and watching, they notice things which
• After 5 days in La Realidad you learn how to walk with a kilo of clay stuck to each foot. "international politics is like walking in the mud," Marcos said. "Step carefully." The mud didn't stop many delegates from dancing for hours. We went to bed with mud up to our knees. • No alchohol, no drugs. Four hours by jeep to the nearest telephone. And sixteen hours to the nearest bus stop.None of the delegates we saw had a mobile phone. Or a jeep, for that matter. *
•Siting quietly and waning, iney notice things which we miss, as we hurry from one place to another on errands which, in the end, are of limited importance. It took a long time to appreciate this lesson. *