The revolutionary tourist, who comes on extended stay for 3 months to 1 year or longer, is no less a consumer of culture, a tokenizer of the indigenous, than is the traditional tourist. It’s still all exoticism and image; a superficial, power-laden, exploitive relationship.
-Leila, CASA Collective
We, too, are heading off to Oaxaca this fall [one of us in August, one in Oct.] in search of revolution, and will be volunteers with the organization CASA (Colectivos de Apoyo, Solidaridad y Accion). We are leaving the United States as cousins that grew to know one another and Latin America at the same time – first in Costa Rica and Mexico as tourists in the purest of senses (young, entitled, and bewildered) and then as students and radicals in Nicaragua (young, entitled, and bewildered). But we are traveling to Oaxaca this fall in search of something more, something connecting movements against oppression in our own backyards and in the popular assemblies of Mexico. We will be packing along our experiences in grassroots fundraising, door-to-door community organizing, campaign and action planning, training on dismantling rape culture, corresponding with prisoners stuck in the same neoliberal cages that let NAFTA slip through, and movie production and radio journalism. As two European-descendant white guys we have thought a lot about accountability and how to center the justice we work for. That said, we make lots of mistakes and the above quote from Leila speaks volumes about our anxieties. We appreciate that CASA takes leadership from Mexican social movements in placing volunteers, but ultimately the responsibility of our travels depends on our individual intentions, communication, and work.
To assume the best of ourselves we are asking you to help us frame the work that we will be doing in Oaxaca by answering the following questions. We don’t want to travel entirely alone. We will use your responses to guide us, to post on our blog to help instruct other activists, and to include, with answers we receive to different questions in Mexico, in any written, oral or visual report-back upon our return. We trust your experience, knowledge, and place amongst the struggles that will increasingly tie together those south and north of a fence that dust will one day reclaim as delusion. Thank you.
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What is the most critical information we can bring back from social movements in Mexico?
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How can we be accountable to revolutionary social movements across borders? For example, what connections can be strengthened between organizing in the U.S. and in Mexico?
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What questions would you ask organizers in Oaxaca, e.g. from within APPO?
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Do you have any other thoughts/resources that might serve us while there?
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Is it OK to use your responses to post on our blog, or in an article?
-Jonathan and Patrick
Hey Patrick,
I know there have already been at least several responses to the survey…i found some by following the “our survey” link in the right column…why don’t they also show up here?
I’m gonna shoot from the hip in answering this survey cuz it’s fast and, oftentimes, more honest! Here are my responses:
1. How do the social movements interpret what they see happening in their country and the world. What are the peoples’, and movements’, histories and how do they relate, intersect, run parallel, etc. to the peoples’ and movement’s histories in our locations (and, no doubt, this will reveal that they are sometimes the SAME movements). What are their visions for the future and intentions for struggle…how can we relate to each other, grow closer, connect with each other in a meaningful and respectful way…taking into account our histories, understandings, visions.
2. If we make friendships and commitments with people and to struggles, that we keep them, maintain them, nurture them. This may only mean contact via e-mail a few times a year, to check-in…or it may mean very regular contact and activities -education, fundraising, protests, etc. To see what conditions folks are organizing under in Mexico should make us question what material comfort we’ve grown to expect in life and recognize that the drive to meet these expectations may be holding us back from really acting accountably with respect to building effective struggles in the USA.
3. The movements in Oaxaca, and the APPO, are extremely heterogeneous. In terms of asking questions…mine are gonna be different than yours perhaps and, depending on who you ask, the responses will likely be different as well. A best bet is to talk to as many folks as possible that want to talk with you. Build relationships with the folks with whom things are going well with…with people that you could see yourself being able to sustain a friendship, commitment…you’ll come to know the movements through their eyes -at least a little bit- and this will help inform how to work together.
4. OK, so in following this line of thought, my biggest question whenever encountering a new person or people is: How do we see the world and do we want to do anything together. It’s all about the DIALOGUE…that’s my conclusion i guess. That being said, it’s not just dialogue, but also keeping at the front of your mind the power imbalances of being a gringo who has the resources to arrive and leave with a great level of choice. You may encounter a oaxaqueño in your hometown, as well, but they will likely be there under quite different circumstances, right? These imbalances do not equalize just because you communicate in a “non-violent way” for example. Part of the commitment, and what makes an attempt at dialogue possible, is an authentic commitment to ending these imbalances through shared struggle.
5. I think it has all come off a bit prescriptive but, yes, feel free to share any of this publicly. Please let me know how any of this matches up with your own thoughts, conclusions, experiences…
1) The most critical information that can be brought back from Oaxaca in my opinion is emperical data, hard evidence of the atrocities and how they can be tied to government action/inaction. For example, I work with many Triquis in the US and I have been told that MULT signed a secret agreement with Ulysis Ruiz wherein MULT would be able to continue with business as usual without prosecution as long as they provide the governer with what he wants (votes). Is there a way to confirm this? Furthermore, there is a human rights center in Oaxaca city that has some documentation already. Do you collaborate with them? this is news because MULT has traditionally been anti-PRI, while UBISORT has been state government friendly.
2) Being relavent is the best way to collaborate social movements – in a perfect world we would all do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. However, we are not in a perfect world obviously. Mainstream Grassroot people in the US need to understand how the root causes of these movements affect them on a personal level, or as a “supposed” national security level. This is discussed quite adequately in the book, “Not on our Watch” about Darfur.
5) Feel free – sorry so brief, I just had a couple of minutes.
Dear, well meaning friend,
Please stay the hell out of my home, Oaxaca. We don’t need any revolutionary tourists down here, the ones we have are already plenty annoying. Oaxaca is working out its own destiny in a way that is not entirely related to other parts of the world, especially other ‘revolutionary consciousnesses’ If you do come, try to keep your mind open and your mouth firmly shut. There are too many people already here trying to lead the benighted, ignorant indigenous to reinvent the wheel in a way they find acceptable.