"Let those who persecute be ashamed!"

[Solon]

It seems like a simple message, I simply don't understand why so many people on DU don't get it. A lot of DUers talk about priorities, they talk about how the economy, poverty, and other issues are much more important than Gay Rights or Dignity.

The quote above isn't mine, it comes from the Zapatista Army of National Liberation's Spokesman Subcomandante Marcos. It was part of a much larger statement on the eve of Mexico's City's 21st Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride march.

What most people should know about the Zapatistas. its this, their first and practically only concern is the oppression of Indigenous people in Mexico. They fought a brief war over this against the Mexican government, to a stalemate, and the Federal Government pretty much ceded control of the Chiapas region to them. The Zapatistas now run a government within a government.

The statement above, very simple, and at the heart of one of their core philosophies can't really be directed at one single persecutor, for the Zapatistas easily extrapolate than when any one group is singled out for oppression, all other groups are open to oppression themselves. They face abject poverty in their region, neo-liberal policies that impoverish them, and yet, they take time out to campaign for the rights of GLBT people.

Here's a fuller statement they made:

http://www.greenleft.org.au/1999/368/18441

Their advocacy for the poor and dispossessed doesn't stop at just one group of people, or two, or to just economic oppression, but to all dispossessed groups. They even speak out against oppression in other nations. You could claim this is PR, to get leftists worldwide on your side, but then again, given Mexico's culture, one of rather extreme homophobia, they face marginalization within that nation, and how would that help them in their primary goal of helping the indigenous in their own nation?

They risk much to not limit their advocacy for oppressed people. Are they perfect? Of course not, some of their attempts at gaining power were ineffective, and some tactics were questionable. You can't even properly say they are the most influential group in even Mexico, but that influence has been growing. Their words against Globalization resonate most with the Mexican people, but they do not neglect their roots, nor do they neglect GLBT people.

Listening to some people on DU, they would probably criticize the Zapatistas and tell them to shut up about GLBT rights, and focus on Anti-Globalization and poverty issues instead. And yet, I don't believe that the Zapatistas agree with this assessment.

But, regardless of what you think of the Zapatistas as a whole, one thing I think we can all agree on, and pardon the wording, it seems that they have their priorities straight already.

I must thank DUer readmoreoften for pointing out how the Zapatistas advocate for GLBT rights. Liked them before for their anti-Globalization message, and the more I know about them, the more I'm impressed at what they were able to accomplish so far. By all rights, they should have been crushed in their infancy, and yet they are still around, still agitating, a truce was called, but a surrender it wasn't.

[readmoreoften]

1. You'd think they have more "important issues" to deal, according to much of the rhetoric here..

But in their fight for survival they *had to* deal with ending sexism and homophobia in their community because it was imminently practical for their survival. Machismo and homophobia had to be overcome. The only prohibitions now are that women cannot formally fight in armed resistance once they realize they are pregnant and decide to continue the pregnancy because if the battle takes months they cannot stop for childbirth. If she wants to have an abortion and fight, she is welcome to do so. All members of the community, including gay people, fight beside one another.