{"id":1392,"date":"2008-01-01T17:16:55","date_gmt":"2008-01-02T01:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/background\/simon"},"modified":"2020-07-29T00:55:18","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T07:55:18","slug":"simon","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/elenemigocomun.net\/banda\/simon\/","title":{"rendered":"Sim\u00f3n Sedillo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" Sim\u00f3n Sedillo<\/strong> teaches geopolitics and political economy and he also coordinates a study abroad program in Oaxaca, Mexico for native students from the USA. He has been teaching geopolitics and political economy in the US and Mexico for the last 15 years. Sim\u00f3n has a growing archive of workshops, lectures, articles, and documentary films about the effects of and community based resistance to neoliberalism, militarism, and white supremacy.<\/p>\n

\nWorkshops and Films
\n<\/h2>\n

Neoliberal Fascism 101:<\/p>\n

This is a participatory workshop through which we define neoliberal fascism collectively, then make a list of institutions, industries, other entities, and global political and economic policies that make up the neoliberal military political economy. <\/p>\n

Militarism and Paramilitarism:<\/p>\n

Through a participatory discussion we will take a brief look at the history of the U.S Military\u2019s role in an ongoing campaign against indigenous people with a particular focus on the USA and Mexico. We will dig in deeper into an ongoing military strategy to criminalize indigenous land tenure and identity in order to secure political and economic interests as seen in the state of Oaxaca. Finally we will begin a discussion on the phenomenon of Narco-Paramilitarim, as seen in the State of Michoacan.<\/p>\n

Weapons, Drugs, and Neoliberalism
\nCrime and Corruption in the US\/Mexico Political Economy<\/p>\n

Sedillo will give a breakdown of the neoliberal political economy currently functioning between Mexico and the United States. From transnational resource exploitation to militarism to institutional corruption, Sedillo maps out the relationships between neoliberalism, militarism and organized crime in the USA and Mexico. Sedillo will give an updated account of the current political actors and the ongoing strategies of violence and coercion taking place across a common border.<\/p>\n

Self Defense Training <\/p>\n

One to 3 day workshop series that would include a talk about racial and gender violence in general and 1-3 2 hour practical physical self defense trainings. This workshop\/training will a) provide a powerful perspective from which to build consciousness around the issue of violence against people based upon race, gender, sexuality, or religious beliefs and b) provide very useful trainings that will give participants practical skills for defending themselves physically in real life situations.<\/p>\n

Know Your Rights and Copwatch \/ Migrawatch Training<\/p>\n

This workshop presentation is intended for grassroots work in communities, which are confronted by ICE raids, police brutality, and the systemic criminalization of people of color and poor people in general. The Know Your Rights training is a basic overview of your rights during any interaction with the police, strategies for legal defense and avoiding harassment and arrest. The Copwatch\/Migrawatch training is intended to support organized community members with strategies for the legal observation of the police and Immigration officials, during interactions with the community. This workshop along with the know your rights training can be a useful tool for community based organizing against police brutality and abuses of power.<\/p>\n

Self Defense Against White Supremacy and Neoliberal Fascism <\/p>\n

One of the greatest barriers to community based self defense has been a very powerful shift towards pacifism and non-violence as a primary means of political expression in Europe and the USA. We should all be open to diversity of tactics, and we cannot expect everybody to show up in the same way as everybody else. Not everybody has the same possibilities to take the same risks as everyone else. Non-violent direct action is a valid form of political resistance. However, the dilemma comes about when proponents of non-violence and pacifism criticize, prohibit, and criminalize community based self-defense as violent. We must understand that non-violence comes from a position of privilege where-in its practitioners have a choice in the matter, while so many other people on the planet exist in choice-less situations where in non-violence could and does very well mean death. Pacifists who put their lives and liberty on the line have all my respect, but we have to recognize the difference between pacifism and passivity. We must begin to understand that self-defense is non-violent. Self-defense is a valid and key element of self determination. It is a tool for survival not for violence. <\/p>\n

Indigenous Strategies for Community Liberation<\/p>\n

This work shop will begin by defining and clarifying our understanding of 3 basic concepts for community based liberation: Self determination, Self Defense, and Autonomy. These key terms will be a recurring theme throughout the process of the workshop\/presentation.<\/p>\n

We will look at several examples (with short video clips when possible) of traditional forms of self governance taking place in Mexico. We will begin with the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas and working our way through different examples in Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Michoac\u00e1n. These examples will include general assembly structures and practices as well as an overview of necessary attitudes and world views necessary to carry out these forms of self governance. These examples will also include an analysis of power, powerlessness, and the exercising of collective power as strategy of attaining self determination.<\/p>\n

A common theme through out mesoamerica in particular, has to do with a living list of indigenous principles for unity and resistance. These principles are a toolbox for day to day community organizing as well as for moments of resistance or direct action. We will go over the principles in detail and review how we can apply them to the set of goals we set up for ourselves earlier in the discussion.<\/p>\n

To conclude we can go over the 3 basic concepts for community liberation: Self determination, Self Defense, and Autonomy once again, and begin to discuss what forms of traditional self governance we can translate into our community goals and aspirations in neighborhoods, the workplace, and in our hood.<\/p>\n

These can be depressing and scary times in the USA, but this is also a really good opportunity to dissect our realities and begin to figure out what we are going to do to build the world in which we do want to live. I hope that this workshop\/presentation will help us learn from one another while pushing one another towards self determination, self defense, and autonomy.<\/p>\n

Film Screenings:<\/p>\n

“El Factor Demarest” (The Demarest Factor) 55 min. 2010<\/p>\n

This film is part of an ongoing investigation which has exposed US military mapping of communally owned indigenous land in the Southern Sierra of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The mapping took place under the auspices of the department of geography from Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas in collaboration with the Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Fort Leavenworth, in Leavenworth, Kansas. The FMSO senior analyst Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey B. Demarest (SOA GRADUATE) declares in several essays and texts that communal ownership of property, leads to crime and insurgency. The film irrefutably exposes an ongoing military strategy to criminalize indigenous land tenure and identity in order to secure political and economic interests in the region.<\/p>\n

“Guarda Bosques” (Forest Keepers) 45 min. 2013<\/p>\n

On April 15th 2011, when organized crime thugs teamed up with the logging industry and different government agencies to pillage precious and sacred forests at gun-point, the indigenous Purepecha community of Cheran, Michoacan, Mexico rose up with sticks, rocks, and bottle rockets against what can only be described as their local narco-government. Since then, they have taken the authorities offices, weapons, and pick-up trucks, ousted all political parties and all local and state police, and have re-established a traditional form of self-governance that includes its own council of elders, a community “police”, known as a “ronda”, and its own forest defense team, or forest keepers, known as the “Guarda Bosques.”<\/p>\n

2012 Film Excerpt<\/h2>\n