Good morning revolution, you nasty cat you!

At this very moment, my partner and her friends, along with hundreds of radical women from around the world, are gathering in Chiapas, Mexico for an encuentro between the Zapatista peoples and the peoples of the world. This is the third encuentro hosted by the Zapatisas since their uprising against the Mexican government and global capitalism in 1994, and the first focusing exclusively on the struggles of women.

Make no bones about it: this gathering is a big deal. The first "Encounter For Humanity and Against Neoliberalism" was held in 1996, bringing together a generation of radicals to discuss what anti-capitalism could mean following the collapse of state socialism. The seminal People's Global Action network emerged from conversations that followed, providing a framework for much of the counter-globalization era.

A second encuentro took place in July of this year, in a political climate characterized by resurgent imperialism, incipient state socialism and an increasingly brutal border regime. It was followed immediately by a call for a women's encuentro on the 14th anniversary of the Zapatista uprising (click here to listen to the announcement and read a translation), named after none other than Comandanta Ramona.

Comandanta Ramona was part of the comandancia of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation--the commanding body that answers only to the Zapatista movement as a whole--and she remains an iconic figure for women around the world thanks to the pivotal role she played in every major chapter in Zapatista history.

Ramona helped establish the Revolutionary Law of Zapatista Women in EZLN support bases prior to the uprising, and then led about 1,000 guerillas in a successful attack on San Cristobal de las Casas on January 1st, 1994. She was later the primary negotiator between the Zapatistas and the Mexican state, and eventually succumbed to kidney cancer in January 2006.

Considering this legacy of struggle, what does the Third Encuentro, the Women's Encuentro, Comandanta Ramona's Encuentro have in store for us? How will it reverberate in the global fabric of social movement?

For those of us who're not currently camping in the mountains of the Mexican southeast, we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I'm re-reading the schedule of discussions, plenaries and themes available on Chiapas Indymedia (and salivating over The Speed of Dreams, a new collection of Subcomandante Marcos' writing co-edited by my friend Canek!)

Crossposted from Lines of Flight.