by Daisy Luther
photo credit: kinoluiggi
As violent crime overtakes Mexico, one small town seems to have things figured out. They discovered that the root of all their problems was the politicians and they kicked them out. Not only that, but they’ve also banned elections and gathered up all political propaganda. Politics have been eradicated and so has the crime.
They proved something very important. Humans don’t need “rulers” to survive. We can govern ourselves and do just fine – and often much better – than when we allow corrupt people to have power over us.
The town of Cheran has let the entire country know that political proselytizing is not welcome within their borders. Cheran is located in the state of Michoacán, an incredibly violent area in central-western Mexico.
Checkpoints at the border of Cheran are manned not by police or military, but by local people who are protecting their little town. They haven’t had a murder or violent crime in Cheran since 2011 when they kicked out politics for good.
That was the year that residents, most of them indigenous and poor, waged an insurrection and declared self-rule in hopes of ridding themselves of the ills that plague so much of Mexico: raging violence, corrupt politicians, a toothless justice system and gangs that have expanded from drug smuggling to extortion, kidnapping and illegal logging.
Six years in, against all odds, Cheran’s experiment appears to be working.
“We couldn’t trust the authorities or police anymore,” said Josefina Estrada, a petite grandmother who is among the women who spearheaded the revolt. “We didn’t feel that they protected us or helped us. We saw them as accomplices with the criminals.” (source)
What a surprise. Getting rid of the corrupt politicians who use the system to enrich themselves and definitely not to form a representative government changed everything.
On April 15, 2011, the insurrection began.
Multitudes of people from Cheran had “disappeared” when they resisted the illegal logging that was taking place in their forest. The logging was occurring under the mandate of crime syndicates, and one day, the violence and murders pushed the people of Cheran too far. The residents are mainly Purepecha Indians, one of the only groups that didn’t fall to the Aztec empire.
Maria Juarez Gonzalez, whose beloved husband “disappeared” when he stood up to the loggers, contacted some other women and they decided enough was enough.
On April 15, 2011, before dawn, the people of Cheran sounded the bells at the Roman Catholic Chapel of the Calvary and set off homemade fireworks to summon help. Few had firearms, so they brought picks, shovels and rocks.
Then they struck, seizing the first timber truck of the day, dragging its two crew members from the cab and taking them hostage. Lacking rope, they tied up their prisoners with rebozos, or shawls.
As morepeople responded, an initial crowd of about 30 swelled to more than 200.
Residents dug ditches and placed timber barricades to block entry to the town. As the sun went down, the people of Cheran set tires ablaze and lit campfires to ensure no one would pass.
Eventually, they took five loggers hostage and torched seven of their trucks.
The gangs retreated and hostages were returned.
But the revolt lived on. Known simply as the “uprising,” it entered the lore of violence-plagued Michoacan state… (source)
And that was the beginning of the end of politics in Cheran.
The fight wasn’t over yet.
The people of Cheran realized the most important fact of all: they didn’t need to be ruled by people who are only out for themselves.
Politicians are human beings, just like the rest of us. Why should they be given more power and authority than the rest of us? Why should they be able to enrich themselves by taking that power and using it against us?
They shouldn’t. Not in Mexico and not anywhere else. No one is “better” than you. No one should be able to “govern” you. You are able to govern yourself. We all are.
The townspeople grasped an essential fact: The talamontes were part of a larger criminal network that controlled drug trafficking and worked hand-in-hand with politicians and police.
“To defend ourselves, we had to change the whole system — out with the political parties, out with City Hall, out with the police and everything,” said Pedro Chavez, a teacher and community leader. “We had to organize our own way of living to survive.”
They decided to target the nexus between crime and politics that has haunted Mexico and do away with the police, the mayor, the political parties. (source)
Needless to say, the politicians and political parties weren’t too happy about all this.
The people of Cheran had to plead their case all the way to the Mexican Supreme Court, but they won.
They created an alternative media system.
They have their own media, too.
Cherán’s autonomy is also expressed and strengthened through its use of alternative media. A tangible example is the work that has gone into documenting and protecting the community’s traditions through its blog, Facebook page and YouTube channel. Cherán also has its own community radio, Radio Fogata, launched in 2011 and run by young people; and last November it unveiled TV Cherán, a second broadcast of which is in production to highlight the significant effort being made to ensure the voice of the people of Cherán continues to be heard. (source)
Taking a look at our own divisive mainstream media, it’s no surprise that it was essential to part from the propaganda machine for this to be successful.
Here’s how it is now that Cheran has banned politics and politicians.
The town of Cheran is a peaceful utopia inside a violent state. There are some glaring differences between them and the surrounding areas.
There is no sign of the political slogans and emblems that are ubiquitous in much of the country.
Electioneering is forbidden inside the town limits, as are political parties. Even motorists entering Cheran are obliged to remove or cover up party bumper stickers.
Residents can cast ballots in state and national elections, but they must do so at special booths set up in nearby towns.
Instead of the traditional mayor and city council, each of the town’s four barrios is governed by its own local assembly, whose members are chosen by consensus from 172 block committees known as fogatas — after the campfires that came to symbolize the 2011 rebellion.
Each assembly also sends three representatives — including at least one woman — to serve on a 12-member town council.
The town receives all the funds — the equivalent of about $2.6 million per year, officials say — that are its due from the state and federal governments. Salaries of 200 or so town employees max out at the equivalent of roughly $450 a month, leaving money to help fund the municipal water system and other services, including a trash recycling program that is a rarity in Mexico.
The armed guards at the town entrances are part of a locally selected police force of 120 or so, known as la ronda comunitaria. No one enters or leaves without inspection. (source)
The citizens there have learned they must constantly be on guard to keep politics from intruding and bringing with them crime, hatred, and corruption. The state’s governor has publicly threatened to take Cheran back to court to reverse their system of self-government.
So they are vigilant.
And they are peaceful.
Imagine if we had no political parties here.
Can you imagine how much more peaceful it would be if there weren’t corrupt politicians befouling our communities here in America?
We could focus on the important things instead of media circuses designed to divide us. We could barter, work together, and be neighbors again, without worrying about who has what bumper sticker on their car.
We definitely aren’t choosing the best of the best to “lead” us in this country. Every election is a sh*tshow of deciding which horrible person is the “lesser of two evils.”
Newsflash: If you’re choosing the “lesser of two evils” you are still choosing evil to rule our country. And we don’t need to be ruled. We are all capable of self-governance.
Cheran is a model that shows it can work.
Watch the video below for a glimpse into this revolution of peace.
https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/271855766915613/?hc_ref=ARRWIN103HVN6az46hJ5hPv42sr_ITxf_dPercz_PWbrlite8Dh1dYCsX4pXVyDxnw0&%3B__xts__[0]=68.ARCsEqKVMr0QTJzIO2uesGJd5cgYlU4gvjnT9zx-om_TJRoORZrOGUDmSSqKeDj3X4eK1k2MdqHm70dAuxj7JxpN3CLUnUaz2I-Gu-cxKOjMaUDC6JRj9Dk8EagLJWDYjZmfJr7YKCUk7aqmYxaAX0bxc8Lq3mk7LdenDwuuscCw-sO2PWPziaKospErJbCWqnGOXG4-RQINMRNO0OpffJ0m_EuwsBM5wYTruik&%3B__tn__=FC-R
What would it take to do this here?
A lot of people here are pretty married to their political ideas. They believe we “must” be governed and that we’re incapable of governing ourselves.
But we don’t have to look very far to see protests and rage building across the nation. The tension is palpable. We can’t keep going like we are right now.
What do you think it would take for us to begin to self-govern in the United States of America? How could we begin to get away from the political system that is sure to be the thing that brings our country down?
Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Daisy, a thought provoking article and points you make at the end.
Have to mull that one for a bit.
What would that look like?
My thoughts exactly. These conversations should be taking place somewhere – anywhere- in the US. I believe this is the model originally dreamed of in 1776.
In more than one of the prepper sites I read, I see a desire for an TEOTWAWKI event. Is this vision why? The dream/desire/urge for real self-goverance? Even in this town there is a governing council – I think this is necessary because there needs to be some group with the big picture regarding decisions facing the community. I like that the council members are directly elected by the barrios.
More realistically though, natural leaders emerge. Others follow and eventually we are back to where we started.
@ Polly,
Hard to argue with that.
Even in that little town, they still have a degree of rule of law.
They also seem to have a sense of self preservation and identity.
I know tribalism is a bad word nowadays, but it seems to have worked for them!
While in Afghanistan, there were many tribes. Some had a single leader, who also could be called a warlord. But they had the responsibility for the safety and security of their tribe. They just so happened to be heavily armed as many neighboring could be hostile.
There also were tribes with a council of elders who guided the course of the tribe.
Internal power struggles, sure. As old as time itself.
What would that look like here in the US with so many different ethnic groups, religious groups etc. ?
A hot mess I think.
People have ways to find common ground when it comes down to what really matter: feed themselves and their family, health, security. Where your neighbor comes from, what god he worships do not seem too relevant when real needs are in play. They seem important now when everyone is fed and kept warm, more often than not by the government.
Have you ever question religion, ethnicity or political view of your fellow soldiers when you were under fire and the only people you could count on were the ones closely surrounding you?
The military, or in my case, the Marines, are a totally different animal than American society at large.
We are Americans first and foremost, Marines second, and everything else is usually none my dang biz.
The color of your skin, religion, political view is irrelevant.
Try that one in todays society. Could get you shouted at, asked to leave a restaurant, cornered in a elevator, threats against you and your family, and a whole lot more.
That’s right. The reason because in the Marines you do not care about race and religion is because you know you need to count on each other to survive. The reason that keeps you together is much stronger than what might keep you apart.
In today society were everyday needs, let alone survival, are granted, those difference seem important, existential for some. Some people feels that anyone threatening their way of thinking and living is as deadly as a mortar round and react accordingly.
In today’s society there is a lack of values that I attribute to a too comfortable life style for too many years. Too few people in the USA knows what surviving really means to value real life.
Thank you Daisy.
I have always been in favor of anarchy. Also, I’ve learned something about finance and how it could work for small communities in this country by listening to Katherine Austen Fitts who is a very well known financial and investment advisor. She has designed systems that would feed a community’s wealth back into it’s own neighborhood system. I don’t begin to understand it all as I am not good with numbers or finance! But I do understand the premise and I think it is ingenious. She also measures communities by something she calls the “popsicle index”. In other words, is a child in this community safe enough to walk to the store for a popsicle without adult supervision. That says something in todays fear based world.
I would recommend that everyone listen to what she has to say and also to use our own imaginations within our own communities.
The best way for evil to proliferate and dominate is for good men and women to do nothing at all. I will definitely be voting this year (as I do in every election) for the persons who I believe will do the least evil.
So basically, continuing the cycle of corruption?
That is not the only example of self-government. On a MUCH smaller scale, there is a “community” of snowbirds and homeless people who have been squatting on public land in southern CA since the end of WWII, with no water, electricity, or other normal amenities. It’s illegal, of course, but the authorities have let it be for all these years. There are NO rules and NO rulers. People are merely expected to respect the rights of others. Given the vast differences in backgrounds, religious and political beliefs, income, and values, it’s amazing how well people get along without government. I spent eight winters there as a snowbird and LOVED the place! It had a community feeling that I have never experienced in any other place I’ve lived and I always felt safe there. There are sometimes problems amongst the folks, mainly coming from the hordes of young bums who have heard of this “last free place in America” and arrive with nothing (including ethics), fully expecting their needs to be somehow magically met. However, before the recent wave of grifters, this melting pot of retirees, travelers, drug addicts, drunks, mentally challenged, psychologically damaged, and on-the-lammers got along better than they would have in a normal town and had a lower crime rate. I now believe that anarchy (in the classical sense) is the only solution to society’s ills.
Watching how the political system manipulates and now stirs US citizens to violence(ever growing) sure makes me wonder what it would be like if we were rid of them all! Their agenda seems to be all about dividing and creating chaos for their own gain. All of the politicians stopped truly caring about the people a long time ago. I am convinced they get into politics to gain the money and power they see in the ones already there. Once they get there, they just seem to stay. People don’t vote out the bad ones anymore. They just stick around and stick up the place with their rot!
Of course the whole system is so corrupted by the globalists that it stopped being about the people a long time ago.
What would it take to do this here?
Desperation, blood in the streets, hunger, death; that would it take. Until people continue to live a fairly good life (and the definition of good life is something that shifts over time) nothing will change. Do we really expect that anyone will rise up against the power to be when rising up would mean give up their social security, medicare, medicaid, free and cheap stuff, the illusion of security that Americas military power gives? Long list but that’s only a bit of the whole pie.
Look at the “protester” who get out today to display their dissatisfaction with the system. Carrying their expensive cellphones, wearing their expensive clothes, directed by organizations paid for by billionaires. They are just actor of and for the system; nothing more.
The change will come, no doubt. But the nation is still, or at least feel, way too wealthy and comfortable. The powers to be make sure that that feeling stay for as long as possible. They convince you that you’re doing great if you can have the last iPhone, on credit of course. You’re doing fantastic thanks to your higher education degree; never mind the thousands dollar debt you’re in. You’re safe because the MIC is protecting you; never mind that the MIC is a resources drain and has been the cause of all the international problems the USA has. You’re informed via numerous media because free information is the base of a democracy; never mind that all the media is closely controlled. Your vote count: the ultimate illusion.
The people who see the reality of things are marginalized. They are crazies, tin-hat wearer, conspirators, anti-american. The individualism that was once valued is now thrown upon, replaced by the need to belong to a group. There is strength in numbers but is a group of weak individuals really stronger than a strong person? A flock of sheep is strong in numbers but a lone wolf can still pick the single sheep. But even that sheep can fight when the only options available are to die passively with no way out or die fighting with a hope of surviving.
Americans are mostly sheep, devoted to their shepherd who offers safety, protection, food. He asks just for their wool once in a while and their meat sometimes, but just for the common good. The peaceful environment the sheep live in will be shaken by one of the possible scenario:
1) the people in power will not be able to keep the show going
2) the people in power will get so greedy that they will make the sheep realize that they are no longer safe
3) wolfs will attach the flock
I see signs of all three scenarios becoming reality. The economy of nothing will crumble in a near future. As a consequence the powers to be will try to get more out of the people and give them less, to a point that people will ask themselves why the accept to be governed by them. Other countries will play the part of the wolves and will replace the American power with their own. What I don’t know about the future is if we’ll be able to save the country as those good Mexican people did with their town or if the power to be will burn it down rather than give it away.
I agree with you, up to the point you make, ”
“As a consequence the powers to be will try to get more out of the people and give them less, to a point that people will ask themselves why the accept to be governed by them”
Sheeple being sheeple, it will take the guard dogs to try to shake them awake, and that is a difficult task. Caring for and guiding the misinformed and uninformed will be a formidable task for those who are awake and informed to overcome. And there are those who are on the fringes who will take advantage of that time. Sheeple need leaders. They choose to be uninformed. Or are not educated on how to be informed. So there is a BIG vacuum there.
I am not sure what you suggest. Just another form of government who take care of the sheeple? I do not think there is much chance to have them see the light and change their way. What you suggest seem to me more of a way to change the direction the flock moves rather than changing the flock itself.
In history many leaders came up to guide the flock but what they did was just using the flock to pursue their own interests. Different leader, same final result. Their job is made easy not by the fact that the sheeple are uninformed but by the fact that the sheeple do not think. The sheeple believe that they are informed, as much as you do. But information is just a tool that if you do not know how to use can be more dangerous than no information at all.
If we want to really be a better society, we need everyone to be a thinking, contributing member of it. The ones who do not have the skills to be part of it, will succumb, not be taken care of. It is taking care of the unfit (and with this term I am not referring to people who are disabled or otherwise weak) that has lead us to the kind of society we have today. A society were the unfit rise just because it is not appropriate for them to fail, is destined to fall. And guess who the first victims will be? Those sheeple who do not know how to deal with the new reality because everything has been handed to them until then.
Anarchy: What it really means.
The Greek arkhos, meaning “rulers.” The critical prefix, an, simply denotes “without.”
An-arkhos – Anarchy (noun): without rulers.
I wonder why such beautiful news never reaches the newspapers or tvstations.
Who blocks this, who controls the news we read or are allowed to know. What makes #msm journalists so massively incompetent, iqimpaired and tunnelvisioned that they rarely pick up on news like this. It is an outrage. Everybody has responsability to find news nowadays and to spread it. You did a magnificent job. Women play a big role.
While the example of Cheran is admirable, we have to understand that the revolt was against local criminal bands and local politicians. The self-government of Cheran is within the rules of Mexican law, it is not this rebellion bastion that seems at first reading. They decided to chase the corrupted local politicians out, but they not rebelled against the government who actually approved their new way of administer the town.
Would be something similar possible in the USA? Probably not. The government at all level would fight back. The dependency from government is so high that any town that would try something like that would be immediately killed economically. No need to use the National Guard to get it back in the fold.
I think that it is a great idea, but I don’t believe that it would work here in the United States, for the following reasons:
1) Cheran is a small community of indigenous people with a common mindset and common goals. The US is too big, with so much diversification, as are individual states and almost every town.
2) Even the smallest of communities that tried it would be immediately shut down by the Feds, by whatever means available (ie,martial law, military occupation, disarmament of civilians, rationing of food, water, medical supplies, gasoline, restricted travel, and even incarceration of the “instigators”). It would be easier for a state to succeed from the union than for a town to succeed from a state(see Double Springs, Alabama, during the Civil War; Christopher Sheets; Looney’s Tavern; and the book,THE FREE STATE OF WINSTON).
3) There would be constant conflict within, due to socio-economic status, racial injustice, gender equality, to name only a few.
I’m not saying it is a bad idea, I just don’t believe it could ever happen here. Do you think that Cheran would take in any American refugees? I could live there quite comfortably with just cashing in my 401k!
Citizens are unaware that their government, their biggest enemy, is pursuing politics as a puppet of the axis of evil. Governments have been elected by the psychopathic democracy of the West and the United States. These government puppets in the countries are exploiting their builders. The government is a sower who eats his piglets.
As much as I would like to think that this arrangement is sustainable, I think it’s only a matter of time until a charismatic, smooth talker making lots of promises swoops in and gains power in this town and this grand experiment will end. (charismatic, smooth talker making lots of promises … sounds like hussein obama)
Juhuhu, super, es funktioniert, wenn das Volk richtig gebeutelt ist, dann läßt sich mein uralter Traum von einer spirituellen Anarchie verwirklichen, in der die echte Verbundenheit der Menschen gelebt wird. Der Frieden im Menschen und das dann in der ganzen Gesellschaft.
Der Kommentar ist nicht von mir und gibt leider nicht das wieder, was ich sagen will. Frieden ist möglich, wenn Menschen sich verbinden und immer wieder einigen können. Das ist was ich sagen wollte.