Despite the discreet silence about such things in our domesticated media, Mexico continues to teeter on the verge of revolution.

The Zapatista EZLN, remains, in their forest hideouts, under siege and out of the limelight. But their continuing existence continues as a beacon inspiring innumerable movements, factions and popular fronts.

So long as these movements remain separate groups (often politically at odds), Mexico's (and the U.S.'s) comfortable national consciousness can pretend that nothing important is happening. As one Mexican observer declares: "What seems to be in [the ruling class of] Mexico's favor right now is that there is not any subversive movement of national range. If the country were compared to a ship, a unified guerrilla movement would be like a giant torpedo which could cause great damage in an instant."

Continuing the ship analogy, he mentions that, however, the small rebellions are like fissures in the hull. These keep weakening different regions, slowly, imperceptibly, and may, by cumulative effect, sink the ship as surely as a single torpedo.

Seemingly every day a new insurgent group appears. And each new group, short-lived or small-scale as it may be, inspires yet others. There are active guerrilla movements in eight states, including Chiapas, Oaxaca, Puebla, Nayarit, Guerrro and Veracruz. Strong and vocal social protest movements exist in eight more: Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Mexico, Colima, Michoacan, Chijuaja, Hidalgo, Baja and the Federal District around Mexico City. These movements encompass all regions of the country, south to north, and all segments of society, including indigenous campesinos, students, and even the electricians' union.

In Mexico City, the Autonomous University of Mexico--the largest university in the world--has been closed by a student strike since April. The student blockade of the campus has existed this long only because of broad support throughout the civil society. While they have many demands, the main impetus is the gradual erosion of the constitution, one sentence at a time.

Rumors that the strike committee are stockpiling arms fuels speculation that the strike could turn violent at any time--especially should the police or military attempt to reopen the campus by force. That this accusation was first leveled by the ruling party's front-runner presidential candidate makes its truthfulness suspect, to say the least. But it does give an indication of the weather of discourse.

One thing that is certain is that the strike committee and the EZLN have traded endorsements. In many ways, the apparently isolated regions and movements are developing a common voice.

There is anti-authoritarian activity everywhere in Mexico. In the pueblos, in the churches, in the streets, and in mainstream politics. The left-leaning PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution) has recently captured the Mayor's seat in the tourist paradise of Aucapulco, in an election marred by apparently state-sanctioned violence.

October 2nd is the anniversary of the infamous Mexico City Massacre of 1968, when army troops opened fire on a crowd of student activists and killed hundreds of people. This year, on the 31st anniversary of the massacre, tens of thousands of (as the news said) "students and former students" marched in commemoration ... and in recognition that the demands of the people remain the same today: an end to the endless cycles of poverty and repression in the name of "progress" and "economics."

Similar, if smaller, marches took place in cities all across Mexico. They remember their history. They remember that the architects of neo-liberal economics get their inspiration from, us, the United States.

A boisterous march in Oaxaca of several hundred students, workers, and black-clad (and masked) anarchists took the streets under a banner fashioned from an American flag. A swastika was painted where the stars would be. When the march ended at the Palace of the governor at the edge of the city square, that flag was burned; among the fresh graffiti on the palace walls was this familiar phrase in English: "Yankee go home!"

We might not pay much attention to Mexico, but she is acutely aware of us.

Those of us in the U.S. who are activists sometimes despair that our voices are drowned in the silence of the ocean that is "Business as Usual." In the Great American Myopia, we might not remember that we have allies elsewhere. That even a small change in the USA might have an enormous affect elsewhere. The U.S. has its hands in everything, everywhere. Our country's history is full of greed and betrayal, so often invisible at home. We might remember the popular struggles next door where, despite our great amnesia, they don't forget so easily.

Finally, these words from the Coordinadora Punk Oaxaca: "The present cannot negate the past. Basta Bastardos!"