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El Kilombo Intergaláctico announces the:

"BEYOND RESISTANCE: EVERYTHING" BOOK TOUR: The Zapatistas, The Other Campaign and US
to book or for more information: elkilombotour@gmail.com

What: As political parties and their candidates vie for power in the highest ranks of the electoral sphere of US politics above, what is the situation of those below in the United States and the possibilities for doing politics at this level? This tour will look to the Zapatista social movement in Mexico and their national initiative taking form in the Other Campaign as an example of what politics from below looks like, both in Zapatista communities and at the national level, as well as at the level of the "intergalactic" the Zapatistas have proposed for creating a global network. Drawing from the Zapatista model and on historical examples and contemporary movements in the United States, what might a movement from below look like in the US?

Who: Members of El Kilombo Intergaláctico, a social center based in Durham, North Carolina, home to a progressive bilingual bookstore and multiple community programs involving student, working class, migrant and people of color communities.

Why: After two years of the Other Campaign in Mexico, and at a significant electoral, economic, and political moment in the US, this tour also coincides with the launching of El Kilombo's new press, PaperBoat Press, and its first publication entitled Beyond Resistance: Everything, a momentous interview with Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista movement, created and conducted by El Kilombo, in which he discusses Zapatismo in the context of the North American continent, alliances with and the struggle of people of color in the US, and the centrality and importance of the migrant political movement in the current globalized political moment.

When: Spring 2008: February, March, & April

Where: Up and Down the East Coast

***To Book an event at your school or community, or to receive more information, write to: elkilombotour@gmail.com

Full Description:
Amid the sound byte madness of electoral campaigns and the promises of politicians, we have to ask how the current economic and political moment in the United States—the mortgage crisis, the exponential increase in student debt, the signs and impacts of recession, a rising unemployment rate, and a tragic war draining the budget with no end in sight—can be addressed. What is the state of the left today and what are the possibilities for profound social change and politics from below? Where and how can people of color, working class, migrant, and progressive communities orient their collective efforts and political will?

In 2005, after over a decade of Zapatista resistance and construction, the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle came out announcing a new turn in the struggle: a united front of all those "below and to the left" called the Other Campaign against a corrupt political class and a destructive capitalist system. This cross-sector alliance has gathered farmers, workers, students, housewives, sex workers, the unemployed, queer communities, elderly, youth, and many more in a creative alliance to take back space and resources, to maintain differences while creating a new commons, with the insistence that people are capable of collectively organizing themselves and their communities. Liberation from oppression, poverty, and hardship, they said, would not be found in conquering someone or something else, but in opening a collective process of deciding, without hierarchical structures of rule, how they would live.

Taking the model of Zapatista autonomy and self-governance alongside the experiences of social movements in the US—such as the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords Organization, —this tour looks at what an Other Campaign-style movement would look like in the US, a movement of and for people below. Speakers will also share their involvement with El Kilombo Intergaláctico, a social center based in Durham, North Carolina, focused on the concerns of people of color, students, migrants and working class communities. El Kilombo practices its politics by socializing knowledge, creating spaces with the aim of forming new social relations, and making decisions through collective assembly.

***To Book an event, or for more information, please contact: elkilombotour@gmail.com

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