WTO Agricultural Missions Update Sept 10, 2003
Cancun, Mexico


Fatigue is closing in, but the following happened today: The Via Campesina received a message from the Zapatista Commandantes David and Esther, and from the Sub Marcos. In the introduction the Sub requested that any time these statements were read in the mobilizations here in Cancun, that it should be read by a woman. The National Indigenous Congress joined the Farmers and Indigenous Forum with a brass and clarinet band, Mayan rituals and burning of copal to the four directions, and lots of soul. SOUL. And Commandante David: THE POWERFUL DRINK OUR BLOOD AND DEFECATE DOLLARS. But autonomy is a fundamental part guaranteeing our right to think, decide, govern ourselves and guide our own destiny. Self-determination resists on resistance and leads to autonomy. Resistance makes us stronger because we don´t give in, we don´t give up, and collectively we start to develop ourselves. Zapata said the land belongs to the person who works it. Period.

As we were resting out under the big canopy, munching on jalapenyos and black beans, the sound of drums approaching filled the hot and humid air. A student march from their encampment towards Kilometer Zero (the entrance to the long peninsula where the WTO convention would be taking place) roared past us. Mexican youth, European youth, North American youth, and now some indigenous Via Campesina families marched to the beat of drum corps dressed in black and orange, puppets, masked figures from prehistory and lots of beautiful people. About 600-800 strong we walked about 2 kilometers, taking over the roads at will, until we reached the Kukulcan Avenue and a giant police operation with 8 foot tall barricades stretched about 100 yards across a wide intersection just beyond the fountain of the seashells, with myriad identical black helmeted figures lined up behind the iron wall.

There, instead of mixing it up with the police, the youth circled around and a leader of the National Indigenous Congress, speaking into a megaphone and holding ritual objects, spoke to us in his native Otonomi and in Spanish about the voice that our ancestors have given us, the thoughts we have inherited from them, and the truth we wish to live out in resisting the powers that would destroy us, our culture, our lives.

The people in the tourist zone out on the peninsula could not reach Cancun center for hours because of the police blockade, and we are all wondering whether the campesino march planned for tomorrow will be able to get any further than the students did today, though we are likely to be 15,000 strong tomorrow... as I speak buses from all over Mexico are arriving with farmers and indigenous folk.

Tomorrow the WTO opening ceremony is scheduled to take place, at about the same time as we will be marching in the blazing sun toward the Convention Center... an 8 kilometer stretch upon which it is estimated that there will be no less than 8 barricade police blockades in position.

Meanwhile, some 200 Koreans have been having colorful funeral processions for the WTO, with a giant bower that looks like a giant birthday cake, shaded by a cloth, that says, THE WTO, Dead and Gone, as the Korean protesters chanted their most joyous chant of death. Beautiful stuff.

Yesterday was the most beautiful and supreme action that got front pages in all the local, provincial and regional newspapers. Some 30 youth got completely naked and then lay down on the Langosta Beach sands, derrieres in the air, in the form of the letters NO OMC, No WTO in Spanish. This photo was followed by some 10--15 pages of reports about the Campesino Forum, with interviews with the leaders of Via Campesina and photos of the bust of Emiliano Zapata overlooking the amassed indigenous peoples.

So life is not dull in Cancun, and is likely to become even less dull as the week progresses.

I send warm regards from the province of Quintana Roo, Mexico, in the hottest weather I have experienced in a long time... it feels like 99 degrees with 99 percent humidity, and I imagine I am underestimating the heat. Even folk from Managua Nicaragua find it stifling hot here. But spirits are high, and Esther of the Zapatistas gave us words of truth to chew on and march on. Que Viva la Mujer Indigena!

Stephen Bartlett
Cancun Mexico