Víctor M. Toledo
L
or who dreamed thinkers Left radicals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries can it become concrete and verifiable reality? The answer is affirmative and has a name: Acapatzingo, a project carried out by the popular organization Francisco Villa de Left Independiente in the heart of Iztapalapa, the most violent and dangerous area of Mexico City. Cooperation, mutual aid and communality guided a set of 600 families of social marginalized to force nine hectares of vacant land in 1996, to build, maintain and reproduce a collective project out of series. The first thing that this set of poor families did was delimit and control the entry and exit of their territory. Today there are only two entries under strict surveillance and all, including municipal, state and federal governments, respect this self -defense decision.
Invited as part of a set of academics and leaders of organizations to visit the experience, for six hours I knew what is undoubtedly the most important urban project of self -government, self -management and self -defense in the country. Acapatzingo forms an oasis of resistance and dignity with enormous political and civilizational impacts that announce the way to follow for all humanity. These are families of workers who work in various parts of Mexico City, and who also fulfill tasks in the cooperative they have created. Three instances maintain the communal order: the General Assembly, the brigades and commissions and the families. Each family complies with a regulation approved by the Assembly and its respective sanctions, and complies with diverse tasks for the community. Each family has a housing of 130 square meters: three bedrooms on the upper floor and kitchen, living room and dining room on the ground floor. Each house is painted pink, lilac, green, tango, blue or yellow, in addition to pots with plants and flowers in the front gardens (https://desinformemonos.org/acapatzingo-el-otro-mundo-en-medio-de-la-ciudad/).
This group that has been maintained for 29 years has and enjoys the following benefits: surveillance and security. A clinic that since 2005 offers low -cost medications, and addresses problems of all ages, including mental health. Therefore, the COVID-19 only infected 34 cooperatives of the almost 3 thousand inhabitants, who were treated and cared for by the collective. An education and culture commission initiated in 2001 organizes workshops for children, events that reinforce collective consciousness and have a library. Another commission dedicated to sport that encourages non -competitive consciousness and organizes diverse workshops and activities.
Of great importance is the Communication Commission that began with the use of speakers and that today has a Facebook page, in addition to a press office in charge of propaganda and a community radio called La Voz de Villa in 91.7 of FM (https://opfvii.org/radio/).
Water management includes rain capture for the subsoil, two water treatment plants that offer drinking water rich in minerals, and gray water recycling through a community cistern. There is also a solar energy project to heat water and produce electricity. In addition, the community has five greenhouses, where the Commission for Agriculture and Agroforestry formed by 28 people, cultivate and produce food, without agrochemicals and using wormwood, such as chard, radish Medicinal and fruit trees. The commission already uses the concept of agroecology.
Finally, for five years the cooperative has the talega, a savings bank that aims to break with the monetary control of the banks and the system, and give the people of the community to access a loan without so many problems. This experience has also spread in two other sites: Iztacalco in four buildings and a total of 180 families, and in Pantitlán adding another 360 families (see: https://opfvii.org/). In the end we are talking about a total of thousand 140 families!
Consciousness, mutual help and solidarity are the values that Acapatzingo launches as a challenge and example to reproduce everywhere. They have clearly and forcefully demonstrated that it is possible to build and maintain social, popular or citizen power, which we consider is the way to follow to overcome the tremendous crisis that the contemporary world lives today. This is a model to be reproduced throughout the national territory (the next stage of the 4T?), But above all is a gift for the world.
