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From El Enemigo Comun

By carolina

Have you ever visited a community space in Mexico City called the Chanti Ollin? Its name means “House in Movement,” and there’s always movement of different kinds here: workshops on urban agriculture, bici-machines, alternative health, massage, video creation, painting, theater, production of educational and artistic materials, and transmission of free and alternative media collectives. It’s a space for playing and enjoying great music and painting incredible murals, for baking bread and giving classes on vegetarian cooking, for screening documentaries and organizing forums on past history and current reality. Members of collectives and peoples in struggle from communities like Atenco, Xochicuatla and Ayotzinapa are invited to tell about their resistance against the plunder of their lands and efforts to eliminate their people. And ongoing resistance is organized at the Chanti Ollin. Maybe you’ve had the good fortune to participate in some of these activities, of if you come from another city or country, maybe you’ve found a place to stay for a while.

The Mexico City government doesn’t want this recovered space to exist as an alternative way of living in the nation’s capital. During the 13 years of its existence, threats against the Chanti Ollin and attempts to eject its members have been common. The most recent, which occurred last Tuesday, was especially violent. A total of 26 people were rounded up and arrested, including five visitors from other countries. As of now, all have been released except one comrade who was deported.

See video: No to the harassment of autonomous territories, produced by the Laboratorio Popular de Medios Libres.

Far from being intimidated by Tuesday’s attack, on Wednesday morning, November 23, several comrades from the Chanti Ollin took the initiative of interrupting an official act of the city government with a performance called “City of the Future” ––a direct challenge to the presentation of legislation regarding a “new city” by the head of the Mexico City government Miguel Mancera and a group of public officials and academicians supporting future gentrification projects.

That same day, independent media reporters were invited to a press conference where the spokesperson for the Chanti collective underscored their support “ for the Zapatista communities and communities all over the country that continue to resist and continue to denounce the ongoing plunder, which is the motor of the accumulation of wealth of the few who live at the expense of the misery and impoverishment of all.”

The compañero further explained that “these individuals supposedly have the power to attack us, yet we continue to show that the power from below, the ability and potential of the poor, the ability and potential of honorable people, is worth more than the power of money”.

In response to a question about the planned destruction of the building by the government, the spokesperson said that a protective writ is being filed to avoid that. He didn’t discard the possibility of working in other spaces but reiterated the intention of the Chanti collective to keep on existing and resisting in the same space that they’ve been constructing for the last 13 years:

“We want to make it clear that we aren’t going to give up this space. It’s a space that we’ve won. It’s a space that has showed that the society can govern itself. This space is here to stay. This space is going to be open again. This space is going to keep on being the Chanti Ollin”.

For now, people haven’t been able to go back into the house and have set up camp outside, while calling on all supportive artists to help defend the space with a cultural barricade.

At the press conference, the following statement was read: