Project HIP-HOP

Each summer since 1993, groups of Boston-area high-school students have journeyed 5,000 miles to visit historic Civil Rights movement sites and meet with movement veterans. To date, 125 students have taken part in Project HIP-HOP (Highways Into the Past: History, Organizing and Power), which is based at the ACLU of Massachusetts' Bill of Rights Education Project. In 1996, a group of students who had made the journey south in previous years traveled to South Africa to learn about the struggle to overthrow apartheid. In a story in Rethinking Schools (Spring '01), project director Nancy Murray writes that by the end of each trip, students have felt "that the torch has been passed to them by movement veterans and with it the responsibility to make a better society."

"We were put in touch not just with the struggles of the past," wrote one student, "but with the urgent tasks of the present and future, and now see ourselves as critical pieces in the puzzle of how to achieve social justice."

Another student, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, wrote: "I no longer feel like an outcast in society. Through this summer, I have become more than just a 'kid.' I have broken out of the mold that society has put me in and have become a working part of society itself. Now I am part of 'we, the people,' the people the Constitution was created to serve and protect, and I refuse to let it be twisted up and used against me."

"On their return, the youth have made presentations to an estimated 25,000 of their peers in nearly 300 visits to schools, community centers and churches," Murray wrote. "They have helped create a Project HIP-HOP curriculum for high-school students, and now have their own newspaper, Rising Times. Started in 1998, the newspaper features articles about a variety of social and educational issues. It has a special focus called ACTION for Justice -- "our campaign of telling the truth about racism and plain injustice in the criminal justice system, and of demanding decent education, not incarceration, for our generation."

Chiapas setback

The peace process in Chiapas suffered a setback with the passage of an indigenous rights bill that is seen as too limited, according to a May report from SIPAZ.

"During the first five months of President Vicente Fox's term, important progress was made toward reinvigorating the stalled peace process in Chiapas," the report summary states. "However, the hopes raised were seriously challenged when the Mexican Congress approved a bill of constitutional reforms on indigenous rights and culture that was promptly and vehemently rejected by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). The law differs significantly from the bill drafted by the congressional Commission on Agreement and Pacification (COCOPA) and backed by the EZLN. The COCOPA bill sought to implement the San Andres Accords, signed in 1996 by the federal government and the EZLN. That was the bill President Fox submitted to Congress shortly after assuming office.

"The bill that was finally approved includes positive elements prohibiting discrimination of any kind and recognizing the autonomy of indigenous peoples in certain respects. However, as indigenous leaders, academic experts and others pointed out, it fails to grant a variety of legal rights to indigenous peoples without which, they argue, it would be difficult to make autonomy meaningful in practice.

"In the end, it seems to reflect the historic gap between the reality of the indigenous peoples and that of the political class in Mexico. The bill was passed by a large majority in Congress, and legislators from the PRI and PAN parties have defended it as an important, albeit limited, step forward. However, the long-awaited passage of this bill was greeted as much by criticism from those it is supposed to benefit and their supporters as it was by praise from other quarters. Moreover, as the limitations of the bill became known, the criticism from key indigenous groups took the form of cries of outrage and betrayal. Some pledged to oppose ratification of the reforms by the state legislatures. Even President Fox, responding to the mounting criticism, was moved to state, 'Clearly more thorough work is required on central aspects, such as autonomy and self-determination.'

"The sense of disappointment and betrayal was perhaps greater as a result of the hopes raised by the remarkable events of the preceding months. In late February, 24 EZLN leaders undertook a two-week caravan through 12 states that culminated with a rally of approximately 200,000 people in Mexico City's main square. The central objective of the march was to lobby Congress on behalf of the COCOPA bill. While the Zapatistas delegates encountered some hostility, they were generally received enthusiastically along their route. Moreover, the caravan propelled the Chiapas conflict back to the center of public attention. En route, they participated in the third National Indigenous Congress (CNI). The 5,000 representatives of 42 indigenous peoples accepted the COCOPA bill as their own and recognized the EZLN as fully representative of the CNI. Given the broad representation of the CNI, its action undermines efforts to cast the EZLN as an isolated group and the Chiapas conflict as a local matter.

"The Fox administration contributed to the positive climate by welcoming the Zapatista caravan, pledging to secure peace and prosperity in Chiapas, and partially addressing the three conditions set by the EZLN for the renewal of talks: closure of seven Mexican Army camps, release of EZLN prisoners, and approval of the COCOPA bill on indigenous rights and culture. A lengthy polemic over whether the EZLN would be allowed to address legislators from the floor of Congress led to an EZLN threat to return to Chiapas. At that point, President Fox intervened to take further steps to fulfill the EZLN's conditions and to lean on Congress, where opposition had already been weakened by the growing momentum created by the Zapatista caravan. Finally the Chamber of Deputies voted to open its doors to the Zapatistas.

"On March 28, in an historic event, EZLN and CNI leaders spoke in Congress. The EZLN leaders seemed to mark the opening of a new stage when they affirmed the Zapatistas option for political struggle and stated, 'Now is no longer the time for arms.' Once back in Chiapas, Subcommander Marcos summed up their hopeful assessment: 'Today dialogue is closer and confrontation is more distant.'

"Meanwhile, events in Chiapas underscored the urgent need for progress in the peace process. Social and political killings continued. In one unresolved case, eight indigenous peasants were ambushed and killed. There were multiple incidents of violent confrontation between groups with rival land claims. Ranchers and others marched in opposition to the Zapatistas and the COCOPA bill and demanded a role in peace talks. And the new governor, Pablo Salazar, continued to face a power struggle with the state legislature and judiciary while he was simultaneously besieged by sometimes competing demands from a wide variety of social groups.

"Hopes that progress in the peace process would alleviate tensions in Chiapas and establish the basis for dealing with their underlying causes were dashed by the negative reactions to the indigenous rights bill, which included a decision by the EZLN to suspend contact between its intermediary and the federal government.

"In this deteriorating environment, Chiapas governor Pablo Salazar called upon President Fox and the EZLN to maintain their commitment to peace and to rise above the interests and visions of those who place obstacles in the path of the measures needed to get the peace process back on track. Recommended Actions:

1. Write President Fox, COCOPA, the Subcommittee for Analysis of Indigenous Initiatives, and the EZLN, expressing: a) concern about this new obstacle to renewed peace talks whose prospects until recently had seemed to be improving; and b) the hope of the international community that the key participants will find the vision and the courage to meet this challenge that has put the entire peace process at risk.

2. Write to President Fox: Note that the bill approved by Congress dramatically limits the exercise of the right of self-determination of the indigenous peoples and its expression, indigenous autonomy, and that he himself stated, "Clearly more thorough work is required on central aspects, such as autonomy and self-determination." Appeal to him to find the appropriate manner to use his executive power to ensure that, as soon as possible, Congress reconsiders the issue of indigenous rights and culture and approves the remaining elements of the COCOPA bill that he presented to Congress in December.

3. Circulate information, such as the contents of this Report, on the situation in Chiapas.

(The full text of the SIPAZ report can be found at: http://www.sipaz.org.)

Lic. Vicente Fox, Presidente de la República
Residencial Oficial de los Pinos
Colonia M. Chapultepec,
Delegación M. Hidalgo
Fax: (+52)(5)515 1794
Internet site for comments: http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/?P=17

Comisión de Concordia y Pacificación (COCOPA)
Reforma No.10,
Torre Caballitos, Piso 18
06030 México, D.F., México
Fax: (+52)(5)345 3288

Subcomisión de Análisis de las Iniciativas de Ley de Derechos y Cultura Indígenas
c/o C. Senador Manuel Bartlett Díaz
Reforma No. 10
Torre Caballitos, Piso 16
06030 México, D.F., México
Fax: (+52)(5)345 3296 ext. 5329
E-mail: mbartlett.spri@senado.gob.mx

Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional c/o Centro de Información Zapatista
Avenida Ignacio Allende No. 22-A
Barrio San Antonio
29250 San Cristóbal de las Casas,
Chiapas, México
Fax: (+52)(9)678 1013