Open Letter, October 24, 2023
To those from the bottom and to the left who are listening,
In recent months, our network Sexta Grietas del Norte suffered an internal rupture. Four members of Grietas – now former members – made destructive accusations against another member of the network. Our Assembly, the decision-making body of our network, formed an ad-hoc committee that investigated and found the accusations unfounded. All members of Sexta Grietas del Norte accepted the conclusions of this committee, except the four who initiated the accusations. They did not accept the committee’s conclusions, insisted on and added to their accusations, and since then made these public. All of this damaged not only the unjustifiably accused compa, but our network as a whole. The Assembly concluded that the four had violated the network’s trust through actions in line with the criteria we established as the basis for removal:
1. Disclosure of Confidential Network Information;
2. Making threats or personal attacks such as intimidation, harassment, etc.; And
3. Disruptive behavior that prevents our work.
For these reasons, the Assembly decided to expel them.
We had not made this internal rupture public, limiting ourselves only to answering inquiries made by groups who were contacted by these former members. However, it has come to our attention that these former members have appropriated our first journal PDF link, re-issued a redacted version through Paliacate Press, and released a document containing private internal correspondence. We interpret these actions to be retaliation for their expulsion. To clarify, we are not associated with Paliacate Press, the publishing house circulating the redacted first issue of the Grietas journal. If you are interested in obtaining an official, unredacted copy of our journal, you can download it for free or order a hard copy directly from the Sexta Grietas del Norte website.
We know that in addition to our struggles against the capitalist hydra, many of our collectives, organizations and networks must also deal with internal conflict and harm, and strive to find ways to address these in ways that affirm one another’s life and dignity. As a network we adhere to the principles of Mandar Obedeciendo, Leading By Obeying . We followed these principles in the process outlined above, and this statement represents our conclusions. We do not wish to continue in a public back-and-forth, supplant others, or replicate the practices of those that rule from above.
Contact us directly if you have any questions.
Sexta Grietas del Norte Network
Addendum to Open Letter January 16, 2025
As of early January 2025, it has become apparent that the issues outlined in our Open Letter (October 24, 2023) above have continued to escalate with one of the four people referenced in the initial letter engaging in ongoing attacks against Sexta Grietas del Norte. We had hoped to put this behind us, and extended some grace by not initially naming the four individuals who between 2022-2023 had sought to undermine and destabilize the work of Grietas, leading to their eventual expulsion.
Since the expulsion of “the four” we have heard little about three of the four former Grietas members. While public naming is never the first or preferred action, it has come to our attention that one of the four, Linda Quiquivix (also known as Quiqui), has continued to actively undermine the work of our network, in opposition to the Zapatista principle: construir y no destruir, or build and not destroy. There are numerous examples of their harm and slander in the collective lived experience of Grietas members, and we invite anyone with concern about negative accounts of the Grietas network to connect with us for a fuller account of their original actions and Quiqui’s insistent attempts to malign our work. Some of the most recent actions include Linda’s hijacking of Issue #1 of the Grietas journal, which she has re-published in a redacted form (blacking out images she created and an entire article written by another former Grietas member). While they could have established with us that they no longer wanted Grietas to make use of her images or said article, she instead continues selling a redacted version of the journal online in an unauthorized way, with no account of where funds from such sales are going, and without consideration of other authors published in the issue.
We had hoped Linda Quiquivix would eventually acknowledge the harm she has caused to people within the network to move forward toward collective and mutual healing. Such actions, unfortunately, have not occurred despite repeated attempts at restorative mediation that “the four” rejected. Our doors remain open for honest dialogue should Linda or any of “the four” wish to reconcile their actions. In the spirit of learning as we walk, we add to our open letter, hoping for better outcomes and communal cooperation. Please do not hesitate to contact us at grietasdelnorte00@gmail.com with any related questions or considerations regarding what transpired with the above-named individual(s).