WE HAVE NO CHOICE
Much is said about social movements and their causes. About why the majority of them criticize the political system. In times when representativeness and the exclusive participation of parties are called into question, it is worth clarifying certain doubts.
WE HAVE NO CHOICE
Much is said about social movements and their causes. About why the majority of them criticize the political system. In times when representativeness and the exclusive participation of parties are called into question, it is worth clarifying certain doubts.
1. We recognize that there is a state of affairs — something happening or that may happen — that threatens or deteriorates our lives. Cell towers, the lack of housing, concession highways, the contamination of the territory, and the destruction of ecosystems are situations sufficient to awaken concern, indignation, and helplessness. So we seek each other out, because we cannot do it alone. We seek each other out in order to have power, and that power means changing the situation that threatens us.
In seeking each other out we find each other and come to care for one another. Caring for one another, we work — because we realize that through fraternal, coordinated work it is possible to change reality. And it seems that human beings are always happier in encounter, in celebrating among themselves the simple fact of existing. So social organization begins to feel like a big family — something natural that we always seek.
2. We recognize that this state of affairs that threatens our lives occurred because situations, people, and acts that preceded it allowed it to happen. Our memory — which through relating to one another becomes collective — does not forget the promises or agreements made before the community, nor the political decisions made behind its back.
Behind its back — because we are never invited to participate in essential decisions. Today we live in an upside-down world, because those who have managed political power over the last 40 years have imposed a system far more exclusionary and unequal than the previous one.
And the territory we inhabit is an extension of our body, because it keeps us alive. So profound is this interrelationship that without territory we would not exist. Where would we get our air, our water, our food? To separate us from decisions about our territory is the same as amputating a leg or an arm — without even asking us.
This political amputation has been promoted by virtually all governments and parties, through a State that serves large economic groups, seeking to condemn us to acceptance and silence.
3. We have lost faith in this system, because it violates us and threatens our lives. And because we do not forget, we have lost faith in the charlatans who decide for us.
The current political system, and those who legitimize its mechanisms to benefit themselves, are the primary architects of the plundering of our territory. Election after election, those who have held positions of authority have maintained and deepened this state of affairs.
So voting appears as a vehicle that validates "the same people as always," rather than a tool for change or decision. No matter how many elections are called, it seems there is no choice — since one coalition or another, government and opposition, defend and protect the state of affairs they themselves have created.
4. What is the real choice, then? Because it seems we vote against ourselves, and in favor of a small privileged group that, through laws and positions, seeks to keep everything the same.
The solution to this, beyond continuing to denounce betrayal, is to build a political project from citizenship — a new proposal for life from the people.
A collective life proposal, as an affirmation of the freedom of our species. Because we not only want to change the reality that harms us — we also want to propose a new and better world. One where human beings are not separated from their territory. Where the most essential decisions of our lives are not left in the hands of a few, and our wealth and ways of living are not dictated by a few. The world of the few must disappear.
We have been working on this proposal for several years. As Red, we have begun to be part of these fraternal spaces — common places that are giving birth to the social project we need.
This is why Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera does not endorse any candidate or political party, and in these "new municipal elections" in La Florida, we make no special call to action. Simply because there is no such choice, and all participants in the current political system have been authors or accomplices in the privatization and grave endangerment of our precordillera forests.
We demand sovereignty over our territory. We demand clean air, decent housing, and community spaces. We call on candidates to vote for our proposals — not the other way around.
We will continue fighting for what gives us meaning, and together with our sister organizations, we will build a community project from the people, from below — one that can occupy existing institutions always for the benefit of human beings.
Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera. August 2012.
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