Scottish ZAPATISTAS HIT STARBUCKS : Houston Indymedia

A group by the name of ‘Friends of Zanetti’ completed an action at the Starbucks café in Stockbridge last night, 30/06/05. Stencils of a Zapatista woman with the slogan ‘2% fair trade, 98% exploitation’ were spray-painted over the windows, letters were pasted onto the door and posted through the letterbox, and the locks were glued shut just for good measure. The action was designed to highlight and condemn Starbucks business relationship with ‘Conservation International’, the notorious ‘greenwash’ company responsible for procuring ‘fair trade’ coffee for Starbucks.

This action followed on from a previous action 2 weeks ago at the Starbucks premises in Forrest Road where all the windows where fly-posted with corporate ASBO’s (anti-social behaviour orders) and the locks were glued to impede business. The actions were said to highlight Starbucks continuing relationship with ‘Conservation International’ the supposedly environmental agency whose funders include such ‘eco-friendly’ multinational giants as, Monsanto, BP and McDonalds among many others, as well as a host of US state department agencies operating in Latin America under the mantle of 'development'.

‘Friends of Zanetti’ have called for an immediate cessation of Starbucks relationship with Conservation International, suggesting, somewhat enigmatically, that the scale and level of actions may increase over time should this request be ignored (read letter below for more details of the 'relationship').

The action also co-incides with a series of communiqués, an open letter, and most recently the ‘Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle’, which have recently appeared ‘from the mountains of South-East Mexico’. After a lengthy consultation process with 'the communities in resistance', a 98% majority within Zapatista-held territories in Chiapas Mexico, have agreed with a proposal by the EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army) to practically widen the struggle of the Zapatistas beyond the indigenous movement in the state of Chiapas, to other struggles in Mexico and beyond.

This move marks a significant and exciting change in tactics by the Zapatistas, signifying a hard-fought for consolidation of autonomy within Chiapas and a desire, taking full account of all the risks, to broaden the scope of it’s continuing challenge to the neo-liberal economic agenda of ‘integrated world capitalism’.

The letter submitted to Starbucks at both premises is re-printed below, as is the third part of the 'Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle' which outlines the Zapatistas forthcoming plans,(both texts are long, but well worth the time).

LETTER TO STARBUCKS.

TO; All the staff at Forrest Road / Stockbridge Starbucks.

First of all we shall address all the staff of this outlet. We hope that we have not inconvenienced you too much with this little stunt. It is your employers that we intend to inconvenience and we attempt to do this in the only way they will feel it; by reducing- if only slightly- the profit they will make today. This is because profit is the sole motivation for your employers. They do not care about you, as was demonstrated, by the persecution of your colleagues attempting to unionise in New York. They also do not care about the coffee growers (98% of Starbucks coffee comes from underpaid growers).
Therefore we try to target the only areas that will affect them, two interconnected areas; profit and public image.
As you can see, we are not expert saboteurs and you may find this crude act insignificant. It was drawn to our attention that our actions today equate to a tiny mosquito biting a huge beast. If this is the case then we are happy to be mosquitoes because we know that we are many and we hope that the giant beast that is Starbucks will soon develop an allergy to our bites.
For an explanation of our reasons read on…… but for now we wish you all good health and better working conditions.

Salut

The Friends of Javier Zanetti

TO; The national and international management of Starbucks and the infamous Zionist, Howard Schultz.

First of all allow us to introduce ourselves.
We are the Friends of Javier Zanetti (he’s not bad at footie, by the way) and we believe that many things are necessary to make this world a better place; the destruction of capitalism, imperialism and negative globalisation for a start. Do we ask for a lot?
We also believe in political and economic decentralisation and direct democracy.
You may already see some of our quarrels with your corporation emerging. However, we will keep this to specifics. Allow us to make a few requests….

1. The severance of all ties between Starbucks and Conservation International.
Conservation International (CI) is a prominent ‘greenwash’ company which seeks to blame poor peasant and indigenous communities for environmental destruction and loss of habitat while allying itself with the true offenders; corporations such as MacDonald’s or British Petroleum. CI is currently campaigning to evict indigenous communities from the Montes Azules region of Chiapas, the southernmost and poorest state in Mexico.
These small villages are self-declared ‘Communities in Resistance’ who have taken up the 500 year struggle for indigenous rights, autonomy and control over their own resources which was re-ignited by the Zapatista rebellion of 1994 and then further advanced by the establishment of the Autonomous Municipalities.
The Zapatista’s requests were simple; recognition of indigenous rights, liberty, justice and direct democracy. When these requests fell on deaf ears the people stopped asking and took control of their own lives, introducing all these things themselves in the autonomous communities of Chiapas.
Conservation International along with the Mexican Government accuse the small Zapatista communities that exist within the Montes Azules National Park of ecological destruction. This is in spite of the fact that indigenous farmers practice the ancient techniques of ‘sharecropping’ and organic cultivation to avoid the negative effects of monocultures and slash and burn farming.
This is also in spite of the fact that the Zapatistas themselves introduced a law stating that if one tree is cut down then two must be planted in its place.
CI along with its corporate backers- including yourselves- wishes to evict these communities to open up the Montes Azules National Park to the plunder of its natural resources by multi-national corporations as part of the Plan Puebla Panama.

Firstly we request that Orin Smith, the Chief Executive Officer of Starbucks Coffee Company resigns from his position on the board of Conservation International and secondly, that Starbucks withdraws all funding from CI projects (no more $650 000 donations, please).

2. That Starbucks becomes a true fair-trade company.
Starbucks makes a lot of its fair trade credentials despite the fact that only 2% of its coffee comes from fair trade sources and even these do not meet internationally recognised standards.
Most of the coffee that Starbucks claims to be fair trade comes from the El Triumfo biosphere reserve in Chiapas, Mexico. This is guaranteed as fair trade not by internationally recognised standards but by the word of- yes, you guessed it- Conservation International. Yourselves and CI practice political discrimination by only buying from farmers who are approved by the government, continuing the old Chiapaneco tradition of buying political loyalty and thus excluding the environmentally friendly autonomous communities from this program. This program does not comply with the fair-trade standard that all fair-trade producing organisations must be co-operatives that are “democratically run and accountable to their members” and it doesn’t guarantee coffee producers the minimum prices defined by internationally recognised fair-trade standards.
What is notable is not that Starbucks sells fair-trade coffee but that, by your own admission, 98% of the coffee you sell comes from underpaid, exploited producers.
We ask that you guarantee all coffee sold in your cafes comes from producers who paid fairly.
We also ask that you withdraw from any projects that discriminate on the grounds of political affiliation.

We hope that you will listen to our words but we doubt it very much. This is why our words are accompanied with action. Maybe you will never hear from us again. Or maybe our actions will grow in significance and imaginativeness and spread across the country and across the world. Javier Zanetti has friends everywhere!
Either way, we hope you have listened.

Vale. Salud and we wish you good luck (with your consciences, not your profits!).

From The Friends of Javier Zanetti

'SIXTH DECLARATION OF THE LACANDON JUNGLE' 3rd, and final part.

What We Want to Do
How We Are Going to Do It

By the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Translated by Narco News
July 1, 2005

ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION, MEXICO.

(SIXTH DECLARATION OF THE LACANDON JUNGLE)

V. WHAT WE WANT TO DO

(Translated by Narco News)

Well, now we are going to say what we want to do in
the world and in Mexico, because we cannot look at
everything that happens on our planet and just stay
quiet, as if we are the only ones who are in the
situation that we are in.

Well, to the world what we want is to say to you is:
to all who resist and fight in your own ways and in
your countries, that you are not alone, that we are
the Zapatistas, and although we are very small we
support you and we are going to see how to help you in
your struggles and how to speak with you so we can
learn, because, it’s clear, what we have learned is
how to learn.

And we want to say to you, to the Latin American
peoples, that, for us, we are proud to be part of you,
although we are a small part. We remember well when
years ago the continent was lit up by a light named
Che Guevara, just as that light was named Bolívar
beforehand, because, at times, the peoples take up a
name in order to show that they carry a flag.

And we want to say to the people of Cuba, who already
have spent years in their path of resistance, that you
are not alone and that we do not agree with the
blockade against you and that we are going to look for
the way to send you something, even if it is just
corn, to support your resistance.

And we want to say to the people of the United States
that we don’t confuse you with the evil governments
that you have and that harm the whole world, and that
we know that there are North Americans who fight in
your country and work in solidarity with the struggles
of other peoples.

And we want to say to our Mapuche brothers and sisters
in Chile that we see and we learn from your struggles.

And to the Venezuelan people, that we watch very
carefully your way of defending your sovereignty and
your right to be a nation and to decide where you will
go.

And to the indigenous brothers and sisters of Ecuador
and Bolivia we say to you that you are giving an
excellent history lesson to all of Latin America
because right now you are putting a stop to neoliberal
globalization.

And to the piqueteros and the youth of Argentina we
want to say that we love you.

And to those in Uruguay who want a better country, we
admire you.

And to the landless of Brazil we respect you.

And to all the youths of Latin America, it’s so great
that you are doing what you are doing and you give us
great hope.

And we want to say to the brothers and sisters of
Social Europe, that is to say the Europe that is
rebellious and has dignity, that you are not alone.
Your large movements against neoliberal wars make us
very happy. We watch, attentively, your ways of
organizing yourselves and your styles of fighting so
that perhaps we can learn something. We are looking
for a way to support you in your struggles but we’re
not going to send Euros because they are devaluating
due to the chaos in the European Union, but maybe we
can send you some crafts and coffee so that you can
sell them and this will help you a little bit in your
work for the struggle. And maybe we will also send you
some pozol soup which gives a lot of strength in the
struggle. But who knows if we will send it, because
pozol is more of our own style and it could be that it
gives you a pain in the belly and weakens your
struggles and the neoliberals would then defeat you.

And we want to say to the brothers and sisters of
Africa, Asia and Oceania that we want to get to know
your ideas and your ways better.

And we want to say to the world that we want to make
it bigger, so big that it fits all the worlds that
resist because the neoliberals want to destroy them
and because they don’t leave them alone only because
they fight for all humankind.

Well, then, in Mexico what we want to create is an
agreement with people and organizations that are
decidedly of the left, because we believe that it is
on the political left where the idea of resisting
against neoliberal globalization really lives, and the
struggle to make justice, democracy, and freedom in
any country wherever it would be, where there is only
freedom for big business and there is only democracy
to put up election campaign signs. And because we
believe that only the left can come up with a combat
plan so that our country, Mexico, does not die.

And, then, what we believe is that, with these people
and organizations of the left, we will chart a course
to go to every corner or Mexico where there are humble
and simple people like ourselves.

And we don’t come to you to tell you what you should
do nor to give you orders.

Nor are we going to ask you to vote for a candidate,
since we already know that the only candidates are
neoliberals.

Nor are we going to tell you to do what we do, nor
that you should rise up in arms.

What we are going to do is ask you how your lives are
going, your fight, your thoughts about how our country
is doing and about what we can do so that they don’t
defeat us.

What we are going to do is listen to your thoughts,
those of the simple and humble people, and maybe we
will find there the same love that we have for our
country.

And maybe we will come to agreement among us, we who
are simple and humble and, together, we will organize
throughout the entire country and come to an agreement
between our struggles that, right now, fight alone,
separated from one another, and we will come up with a
plan about how we will continue with this program that
includes what we all want, and a plan for how we are
going to achieve this program, that is named “the
national plan of struggle,” so that it is achieved.

And then, by agreement of the majority of these people
to whom we are going to listen, we ought join forces
in a struggle with everyone here: with indigenous,
workers, farmers, students, teachers, employees,
women, children, senior citizens, men, and with
everyone who is blessed of heart and has an interest
in fighting so that our country named “Mexico” will
not be sold, destroyed and ended, and that it remains
here between the Rio Bravo and the Rio Suchiate, and
that it has on one side the Pacific Ocean and on the
other the Atlantic.

VI. HOW WE ARE GOING TO DO IT

And, well, this is our simple word that we speak to
the humble and simple people of Mexico and of the
world, and it is through this word that we now call:

The Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle.

And here we are to say, with our simple word, that:

The EZLN continues its commitment toward an offensive
cease-fire and will not attack any governmental force
nor carry out offensive military maneuvers;

The EZLN continues, still, its commitment to insisting
on the path of political struggle with this peaceful
proposal that we now make. As such, the EZLN will
continue in its belief in not making any secret
alliance with national politico-military organizations
nor those of other countries;

The EZLN reiterates it commitment to defend, support,
and obey the Zapatista indigenous communities that
create it and that are its supreme command, and,
without interfering in its internal democratic
processes and in the measurement of its possibilities,
to contribute to the strengthening of its autonomy,
good government, and improvement of living conditions.

That is to say, what we are going to create in Mexico
and in the world we will create without weapons,
through a peaceful, through a peaceful civil movement,
yet without ignoring nor abandoning our communities.

Therefore:

In the world…

1. We will build more relationships of respect and
mutual aid with people and organizations that resist
and fight against neoliberalism and for humankind.

2. In accordance with our abilities we will send
material support such as food and crafts to those
brothers and sisters who struggle throughout the
world.

To begin, we are going to ask the Good Government
Council of La Realidad to lend us the bus named
“Chompiras” with a capacity of something like eight
tons, and we will fill it with corn and maybe with two
tanks, each with two liters of gasoline or oil,
depending on what is called for, and we are going to
deliver it to the Cuban embassy in Mexico to send to
the Cuban people as aid from the Zapatistas during the
United States’ blockade.

Or perhaps there is a place closer to here where we
can deliver it because it’s a long trip to Mexico City
and what happens if the good bus “Chompiras” breaks
down? We would be in bad sorts. And it would stay that
way until the harvest that right now is growing green
in the cornfield and, if they don’t attack us, we will
send corn on the cob in the months to come which
doesn’t ship well in the form of tamales, so it’s
better to send it in November or December, the people
say.

And we will also make a deal with the women’s crafts
cooperatives to send some knits to the Europes that
might already not be a Union, and maybe we’ll also
send some organic coffee from the Zapatista
cooperative so that they can sell it and make a little
money to pay for their struggle. And if it doesn’t
sell, well, they can always make a little coffee and
discuss the fight against neoliberalism, and if it
gets cold they can cover themselves with the Zapatista
knittings so that they won’t fade of color after being
stonewashed.

And to the indigenous brothers and sisters of Bolivia
and Ecuador we will also send a little non-transgenic
corn but we still don’t know where to send it so that
it arrives at its destination but we are ready to send
this little bit of aid.

3. And to everyone throughout the world who resists we
say that there have to be other intercontinental
gatherings, even if there is only one. Maybe in
December of this year or in January of next year, we
have to think about it. We don’t want to give an exact
date, or place, or decide who comes or how it is done,
because this is about making horizontal agreements
among us all. But we don’t want it with a stage from
where just a few speak and everyone else listens, but,
rather, that there not be a stage, that it all be at
ground-level, but well ordered because if not well
organized there will just be a lot of noise and no one
will understand the word. And with a good
organization, everyone can listen, and they can write
down in their notebooks the words of resistance that
others tell so that later each participant can talk it
over with their colleagues in their worlds.

And we think that it ought to be in a place where
there is a very big prison, because it could be that
they repress us and jail us, and that we not all be on
horseback but, rather, prisoners, but, in any case,
well organized. And from there in jail we can continue
the intercontinental gathering for humankind and
against neoliberalism.

So, in the future we will announce how we can come to
agreement on this. Well, that is how we think about
doing what we want to do in the world. On to the next
point…

In Mexico…

1. We will continue fighting for the Indian peoples of
Mexico but not only for them nor only with them, but,
rather, for all the exploited and dispossessed in
Mexico, with all of them, and throughout the entire
country. And when we speak of all the exploited of
Mexico we are also speaking of the brothers and
sisters who have had to go to the United States to
seek work in order to survive.

2. We are going to listen to and speak directly,
without middlemen nor mediations, to the simple and
humble Mexican people, and depending on what we hear
and learn, we will construct, together with these
people who are like us, humble and simple, a national
fight plan, but a plan that will, clearly, be of the
left, which is to say anti-capitalist, or
anti-neoliberal, or which is also to say in favor of
justice, democracy and freedom for the Mexican people.

3. We will try to construct or reconstruct another way
of practicing politics, in the spirit of serving
others, without material interests, with sacrifice,
with dedication, with honesty, a way that keeps it
word, or, that is to say, in the same way that
militants of the left – who were not stopped by
violence, jail or death, and much less with offers of dollar bills – have done it.

4. We will also keep looking at ways to rise up; a
fight to demand that we create a new Constitution, or, that is to say, new laws that take our demands, those of the Mexican people, into account, which are:
housing, land, work, food, health, education,
information, culture, independence, democracy,
justice, freedom and peace. A new Constitution that recognizes the rights and liberties of the people, and that defends the weak against the powerful.

Therefore:

The EZLN will send a delegation to do this job
throughout national territory, for an undefined period of time. This Zapatista delegation, together with people of the left who join with this Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, will go to those places to where we are expressly invited.

We also announce that the EZLN will establish a policy of having alliances with non-electoral movements and organizations that define themselves, in theory and practice, as of the left, according to the following conditions:

No making of agreements from above to impose upon
those below, but, rather, they should make agreements to advance together and to listen and to organize indignation;

No to beginning movements that will be later
negotiated away behind the backs of those who made
them, but, rather, they should take into account,
always, the opinions of those who participate in them;

No to seeking little gifts, jobs, advantages,
patronage, of Power or of those who aspire to it, but, rather, they should go farther than the electoral calendars allow;

No to trying to resolve from above the problems of our Nation, but, rather, they must construct FROM BELOW AND FOR BELOW an alternative to neoliberal
destruction, an alternative of the left for Mexico.

Yes to mutual respect for autonomy and independence of organizations, of their ways of fighting, of their way of organizing themselves, of their internal decision-making processes, of their legitimate representatives, of their aspirations and demands;

And, yes, to mutual respect and autonomy and
independence and yes to a clear commitment of mutual and coordinated defense of national sovereignty, and with intransigent opposition to the attempts to privatize electricity, oil, water and natural
resources.

Here is the bottom line, as they say: We invite
political and social organizations of the left that are not registered with any government, and individual people who believe in the resurrection of the left that do not belong to political parties recognized by any state, to meet with us in the time, place, and style that we propose, to organize a national campaign, visiting every possible corner of our country, to listen and organize the word of our people. This is, thus, another campaign, but a very different one, because it is not electoral.

Brothers and Sisters:

This is our word and we declare:

Throughout the world we will build a bigger
brotherhood with the resistance fights against
neoliberalism and for humankind.

And we will support, even if just a little, those
struggles.

And we will, with mutual respect, exchange
experiences, histories, ideas, dreams.

In Mexico, we will cover the entire country, through all the ruins that the neoliberal war has left, and for the resistances that, from the trenches, bloom.

We will seek, and we will find, someone who loves
these lands and these roots as much as we do.

We will seek, from La Realidad to Tijuana, he and she who wants to be organized, to fight, to construct what may be the last hope for this Nation that has existed at least since the time when the eagle landed on a nopal cactus to devour a serpent, so that this nation does not die.

We are going for another kind of politics, for a
program of the left, and for a new Constitution.

We invite the indigenous, the workers, the farmers, the teachers, the students, the housewives, the neighbors, the small property owners, the small businesspersons, the retired, the handicapped, the religious men and women, the scientists, the artists, the intellectuals, the youths, the women, the elders, the homosexuals and lesbians, the boys and girls, so that, individually or collectively, you participate directly with the Zapatistas in this NATIONAL CAMPAIGN
for the construction of another way of making
politics, of a program of national struggle that is of the left, and for a new Constitution.

This is our word regarding what we are going to do and how we are going to do it. What remains to be seen is if you want to enter it.

And we say to the men and women who have your thoughts well placed in your hearts, who agree with this word that we offer, and who are not afraid, or who are afraid but who have it under control, that you publicly say that you are in agreement with this idea that we are declaring and so that we see, once and for all, with who, and how, and where, and when, we will take this new step in the struggle.

And while you think it over, we say to you that today, in the sixth month of 2005, the men, women, children and elders of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation have already decided and have already signed this Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, and those who know how to write have signed it, and those who don’t know how to write have affixed their fingerprints, but the number of those who don’t know how to write is already much smaller because education has advanced in this rebel territory for humankind and against neoliberalism, which is to say, in the heavens and on the earth of the Zapatistas.

And that has been our simple word spoken to the noble hearts of the simple and humble people who resist and who rebel against injustice throughout the world.

Democracy!
Freedom!
Justice!

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,

The Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Committee, General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Mexico, in the sixth month, which is to say in June, of the year 2005.