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Three Songs
About Global Networking

Autonomous Community Building
As Pedagogy for Participatory Liberation:
A Comparative Analysis of Chiapas and East Los Angeles

Roberto Flores
San Diego, California

The following poems were presented at an April 16, 2004 workshop of the annual conference of the American Education Research Association, held this year in San Diego. Roberto Flores read the poems aloud and as a form of dialogue four musicians sang and played music. The musicians were Quetzal Flores, Martha Gonzalez, Xochi Flores Ramirez, and Tonantzin Flores Ramirez. The Notes and References were distributed (written) to those who attended the workshop. (Painting on the right: "Escape" by Jose Ramirez.)


Bienvenida Autonomia
 Notes and References
1. Adios Reforma ilusional
2. Tu amistad me hace mal
3. Bienvenida Autonomia
4. digna forma de luchar
 Gustavo Esteva describes Zapatismo as a method of struggle that no longer focuses on changing, reforming or replacing the capitalist system but on building a new one, a parallel one (Esteva cited in Styles, 2001). This entails the educational task of learning how to build one.
5. Adios Vanguardia tu vista al poder
6. Arriba hacia abajo, nunca mas aceptaré
 Zapatistas constantly make reference the lessons learned from previous revolutions and struggles and speak to the lack of democracy in top-down vanguardism and the need for a movement of horizontal relationships (Marcos, 2003).
7. Adios Politico corrupto
8. La traicion es tu conducto
9. Bienvenida Autonomia:
10. Independencia tu producto
 Autonomy questions the statist and structuralist notion that power is located at the top. The Zapatistas saying “Somos un poder politico que no busca el poder,” reveals their non-statist and grassroots political ethic (Estevas, 1998b).
11. Adios Idea Neo liberal
12. Suicidal Competividad
13. Bienvenida Autonomia:
14. In ter sub je ti vi dad
 Autonomy rejects the top-down neoliberal idea of individualism and competitiveness and promotes an intersubjective complementarity (Lenkersdorf, 1996).
15. Vivirlo es lograrlo
16. haci cambiamos hoy
17. El poder esta en mis manos
18. A nadien se lo doy
 In Esteva’s comparison of Zapatismo with Ghandi (1998b) he points out that Zapatismo locates power in each person in civil society. The Zapatistas’ deep understanding of this is expressed by what they call Autonomia de Hecho (Montes, no date), that is a defacto autonomy.
19. Bienvenida Autonomia:
20. Naci con el poder
21. Bienvenida Autonomia:
22. Ya lo puedo ejercer
 “To be Zapatista is to profoundly believe that the solutions are in me,” the words of a Zapatista woman (Film: Zapatista, 1998). Comandante Ramona also contributes to this rebellious notion with “No tenemos que pedir permiso para ser libres.” The autonomous conception of power is not one of attempting to gain power, overthrow it or position oneself into it, it is one of actualizing it.



Caracoles en Chiapas
Notes and References
1. Caracol pa tu mision: la auto educacion
2. De vuestras experencias vuestra vision
3. This is our home -- vuestra decicion
 Zapatistas learned how to govern themselves by incubating a parallel process that has resulted in the establishment of parallel structures called Buen Gobiernos also known as Caracoles. The incubation and protection consists of internal, national and international networks with media and alternative media connections (Castells, 1999).
4. Supremacy of Spanish
5. desde tiempo colonial
6. Tsotzil, Tzeltal, Tojolabal,
7. aqui son principal
8. This is our home: Nuestra igualdad
 The Zapatista bilingual education approach rests on the perspective of equality of languages, but one that privileges the indigenous language to make sure that the mother tongue is the principal tongue through which the child will learn other languages.
9. Government teaches neoliberal domination
10. Autonomous education for liberation.
11. This is our home: Our Declaration
 The ubiquitous use of formal education for domination and hegemony has forced the development of informal or popular education as essential to set up the appropriate system and as a critical contestation of the dominant system.
12. Direct participation a travez de la asamblea,
13. Todos somos lideres no lease quien sea
14. This is our home: Nuestra Gran Idea
 Autonomy challenges dominant discourse of who is in charge and who is the authority. This is challenged through participatory, direct democracy, where the people’s voice counts the most.
15. Mujer, hombre, nino, anciano,
16. el pasamontanas nos hace igual
17. Liders -- diferentes pero ninguno especial
18. Esta nuestra casa --nuestro aspiral
 Zapatistas framework (Marcos, 7 palabras, 2003) points out the role of leadership as one of initiating and facilitating reflection and planning. Foley (in print), points to the development of particular or informal theory in the same manner. This is a slower process but a democratic process (Estevas, 2003 c).
19. Shhh -- Silenciar las armas -- abrir corazon y mente
20. Escucha atentamente las palabras de la gente
 In The Third declaration of the Lancandon Jungle (1994) Zapatistas call for a quieting of arms to allow for dialogue and a democratic process to occur. Castells (1999) points out that the initial use of armed struggle was a tactical ploy to get their message out, a staging of a media event, not a strategy.


Autonomy efforts in Northeast LA
Notes and References
1. Welcome to the Eastside Café -- you got a space?
2. Find yourself in lyrical rhythmic waves of Ska/Raggae
3. Imagine all you really are -- it’s already taking place
 Castells (1999) also talks about the Zapatista use of informational networks as spaces of intersubjective identity. The ethos of Zapatismo is focused on the recognition of who we are, not on who we can become.
4. A place of connection not concentration
5. Building community networks for all needs in all directions
6. Miss, miss, a cup of dialogic reflection?		 The process of building an autonomous parallel structure in East L.A. involves the conscious privileging of natural organic (cultural-social) networks that already exist as well as the privileging of peoples’ ways of knowing and developing wisdom that are already practiced but that are currently oppressed, minimized, downplayed or expropriated for profit.
7. Learning to rebuild community by re- membering itself
8. Relearning how to learn together with everyone else
9. Welcome to our echospace folks, you need some help?		 The goal of the Eastside Café is the democratic process or the reconnecting of severed and weakened community relationships. The eastside café does not see educational process at the starting end preceding some kind of main revolutionary event (like taking over) at the other end. In autonomy the means are the ends. In autonomy there is no separation between process and goals, it is liberation for liberation; emancipatory education for emancipation.
10. Dispersed through migration, lost in translation we roam
11. To Learn who we are -- we’re calling our ancestors home
12. At Eastside Café? -- yes our intellectual coffee is organically grown!		 Globalization of capital has increased the uprooting of immigrant populations throughout the world (Pierce cited in Castells, 1999). Immigrant populations come from great ancestral traditions of self-reliance and sustainability.
13. Nos tiran como basura nos usan como ganado
14. Ningun Humano es illegal -- Todo Ser Sagrado
15. Welcome to the Eastside Cafe -- sientate a mi lado		 Immigrant participation in the creation of an alternative system is essential. Artists from these communities are often organic intellectuals that facilitate the process and are relied to help us remember; that is to strengthen the time-space connections.

Under globalized economies, adult education for the development of human capital (Walters, 2004) doesn’t seem to be reformable.
16. Deconstructing and resisting necessary as they be
17. Reconstructing our community -- our main activity
18. Welcome to the Echospace … A cup of creativity? It’s our specialty		 The focus on resistance is mainly a defensive posture in reaction to oppression. It is usually associated with a reactive effort to defend or reform within the law or take over state power. Autonomy suggests the development of a new conception of governance.
19. Only if we build it ... is Another World possible
20. Your participation is essential … indispensable
21. Connected Autonomous communities make it realizable		 Zapatistas put forward that the setting up or the privileging of horizontal relationships wherever they exist is in itself the revolt. Gramsci’s “War of position,” (cited in Mayo, 1995) in which education is key is more than a preparation for the real revolution but, radical and revolution itself.
22. Sipping our mental mochas will awaken your dreams
23. Open Mics will flows unfold our strategies
24. Youth networks, structures of accountability		 Autonomy is a war of discourse positioning in a Gramcian sense, but it is one that does not emphasize taking over capitalist spaces but, consciously and explicitly occupying the overlapping space civil society already occupies
25. Welcome: Aqui responsabilidad sin rango
26. Bienvenidos : para el sistema un relajo
27. Welcome to our Echospace: One serious big Fandango
 Zapatista’s seem to have a more Ghandian notion of governance, one that is not associated with the present notions of state and one that does not aspire to any type of state power (Estevas, 1998). Zapatistas, instead recognize the power they already have and in the midst of state oppression, create and establish new forms of government which are rooted in intersubjective relationships, a new type of networked state.

Published in In Motion Magazine, May 25, 2004
Martha Gonzalez and Quetzal Flores.
Musicians Martha Gonzalez and Quetzal Flores (both of Quetzal).
References:

Castells, M. (1999) Power of Identity. Blackwell Publishers, Inc. Malden, MA

Comite Clandestino (1995) Tercera Declaracion de la Selva Lancandona. Can be found at http://www.ezln.org/documentos/1995/199501xx.es.htm

Rebeldia (2003) Palabras del Comandante DavidComite Clandestino Indigena Revolucionario EZLN. Spoken at the WTO Demonstration Cancun, Mexico. Can be found at < www.revistarebeldia.org>

Eichart, B. (1998) Zapatista. Big Noise Production. Can be ordered at http://www.positive-youthstore.com/catalog/videos/political.asp

Esteva, G. (1998 a) Grassroots Post-Modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures. Zed Books, London

Esteva, G. (2003) A Flower in the Hands of the People. New Internationalist 360: Reinventing Power/ The Nation-State. Can be found at http://www.newint.org/issue360/flower.htm

Esteva, G. (1998 b) Resistencia Indigena y Filosofia Gandhiana: Entre Autonomia e Independencia. Presentation made at Ex-Convento Santo Domingo, San Cristobal de Las Casas October 24, 1998. can be found at <www.Sipaz.org>

Foley, G. ed. (2004) Dimensions of Adult Learning. Allen & Unwin, 83 Alexander St. Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia.

Foley, G. (1999) Learning in Social Aciton: A Contribution to Understanding Informal Education. Zed Books. London & New York

Freire, P. (1993) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum Press, New York, N.Y.

Lenkersdorf, C. (1996). Los Hombres Verdaderos: Voces y Testimonios Tojolabales. México D.F., México: Siglo Veintiumo Editores.

Mayo, P. (April, 1995) The “Turn to Gramsci” in Adult Education: A Review. International Gramsci Society Newsletter, No. 4 (2-9)

Marcos (May, 2003) Siete Pensamientos en Mayo. can be found at http://www.narconews.com/docs/zapatistas2003.html

Montes, A. R. (no date) La Autonomía: una forma concreta de ejercicio del derecho a la libre
determinación y sus alcances. Ponencia. Can be found at http://www.nodo50.org/kolectivolientur/autonomia.htm#_ftn1 [1].

Sophie Styles, (2001) Interview with Gustavo Estevas on the Zapatista March. Can be
found at <http://www.zmag.org/ZNET.htm>

Walters, Borg, Mayo, Foley (2004) Economics, politics and adult education. In Foley, G ed. (2004) Dimensions of Adult Learning. Allen & Unwin, 83 Alexander St. Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia.