Sweatshirt Zapatista Women

Zapatista Women

The design for march 2026 celebrates the more than one thousand women who participated in the “First International Political, Artistic, Sports and Cultural Gathering of Women that Struggle” (Primer Encuentro Internacional, Político, Artístico, Deportivo y Cultural de mujeres que Luchan), which was held for International Women’s Day, March 8 to 10, 2018 in the Caracol of Morelia, Chiapas, in southern Mexico. Among them were indigenous women from all over the Zapatista controlled areas respectively Caracoles, i.e. the official name given to centres of local, indigenous-led self-government after the 1994 Zapatista uprising. Women also joined from 27 other Mexican states and 34 countries of the world.

The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) had called for this gathering to be held with “women that struggle, resist and rebel against the machista and patriarchal capitalist system”. The convocation, published in December 2017, added: “We know well that the bad system not only exploits us, represses us, robs us and despises us as human beings, it also exploits, represses, robs and despises us again as women.” And now, it continued: “we know because it’s worse, because now, all over the world they kill us. And the murderers, who are always the macho-faced system, don’t care if they kill us, because the police, the judges, the communications media, the bad governments, all those that are up above are what they are at the expense of our pains, they cover them up, hide them and even award them. But we are not afraid as it wants, or if we are, we control it, and we don’t surrender, and we don’t sell out and we don’t give up.”

Men were not invited to this event, the only ones present being the masked Zapatistas who were in charge of cooking, cleaning and of whatever was needed to ensure the well-functioning and safety of the gathering including vigilance on the outskirts.

The programme of the gathering was made up of more than 200 pre-registered proposals in different disciplines such as music, dance, theatre, circus, poetry, storytelling, book presentations, drawing, photography, cinema, football and volleyball. Furthermore, workshops and talks about various topics were held including gender violence, the woman’s body, forms of resistance, human rights defence and promotion of culture, anti-machismo education, the experience of surviving violence, abortion, stencil, genetic clay, feminist manifestos, cooperative games, evaluation and use of menstrual blood, painting as a means of healing, sensitization, agro-ecology, production of personal hygiene articles, murals, women of colour feminism, deconstructing genders, cyber-feminism, body work, workshop on self-massage, free writing, engraving and many more.

The Zapatista women have fundamentally changed the structure of the movement are key actors in the indigenous resistance in Mexico, fighting for emancipation and collective rights. With the so-called "Revolutionary Women's Law" of 1993, they won rights to participate in political life, work, education, and bodily autonomy. They shape the movement through grassroots democratic structures and resistance to neoliberalism and patriarchal violence.

Design by the Hong Kong based Endless Lilin.

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Brand: Earth Positive, Continental Clothing

Material: 100 percent organic cotton

Printing & Finishing: High quality skin and ecofriendly direct-to-garment prints

Care: Important care instructions are available at the bottom of our website.