The Zapatistas have arrived in Vigo, Spain, to start their tour of Europe where they will meet up with several progressive organisations. At DiEM25 we are excited to welcome the Zapatistas and wish them a wonderful journey.

500 years after the invasion of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City) by Europeans, and while the Mexican government is now working on the disastrous anti-developmental and unsustainable “mega projects” in the southern part of Mexico, the Zapatistas are “invading” and “rediscovering” Europe.

They are coming to listen, talk and interact with the progressive movements in Europe, to learn from each other’s struggles and to create a global progressive front, and to prove that there is a different alternative and that another world is possible. Does this sound familiar? How could DiEM25 be out of this magnificent initiative?

Read our previous correspondence with the Zapatistas here and here. Below is our latest response:

Hi comrades,

Thank you very much for your letter and your questions. Our members from various geographies in Europe are very excited to welcome you and we have created a special group within DiEM25 to coordinate this project. It is called DSC Democracy in Action-Zapatista Tour to Europe.

Since we are a group with members in various geographies, we thought that it would be better if we joined the existing coordination groups in order to be part of the trip. This is already the case in the Netherlands and Sweden, where we have members participating in the national coordination groups and we are also in contact with the coordination groups in the territories of Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. In addition, we participate and contact the working groups of the European coordination and we are seeking to connect with more solidarity groups in Europe and make this trip successful for everyone.

These are some of the events that we would like to organise in collaboration with the networks that DiEM25 is in and to which we would like to invite you:

• Arts:

• • Europe: We will participate in the initiative of the European coordination of the collective art exhibition “a mountain sailing at dawn”.

• Sciences:

• • Sweden: An event at Stockholm University with the Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies

• Feminism:

• • Sweden: A rugby match with an LGBTQ team from Stockholm and an event with feminist organizations

• Environment:

• • Sweden: An event with Fridays for Future (Friday for the future) and workers-communities-collectives against mines in Sweden and communities and collectives that fight against deforestation in Sweden

• Indigenous populations:

• • Sweden: An event with the Sami and the Mapuches

• Autonomy / free spaces:

• • Europe: we are part of #Rentvolution, a campaign that seeks that people can have a decent home and we can organize an event based on this campaign.

Also, we would be very happy to organise meetings with our activists in Berlin, Germany and in Brussels, Belgium. We are in contact with the coordination groups in these geographies and as soon as we know of the dates of your arrival there, we could coordinate and help with accommodation and necessary logistics.

Additionally, we can also support by organising digital events through our platforms and through our social media, which are active throughout Europe. Last year we launched DiEM TV which reached several million views across the world and we would be excited to host a special online show with some of you.

It can be either in Spanish or English. Best would be to propose some comrades whom we can contact directly and find a suitable date.

We hope we can support your important trip to Europe with logistics, translation and dissemination of news and with whatever may be needed. We are at your service and we are very happy to talk, learn and listen to you and share some beautiful and fruitful time together.

A hug and have a very nice trip.

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