January 1, 1994

• After 10 years of organizing underground, the Zapatistas took over several towns in Chiapas,, including San Cristobal de Las Casas, Ocosingo, Las Margaritas, Huixtán, Oschuc, Rancho Nuevo, Altamirano and Chanal.
• They liberated prisoners and set fire to police station and army garrisons
• The insurrection was scheduled for January 1, 1994, the day that the NAFTA (free) trade agreements came into effect
• Sent emails to almost every progressive activist in the world. Key to avoid heavier repression

January 2-12, 1994

• The National Army moves in with helicopters and heavy artillery
• The Zapatistas retreat to the jungle and suffer heavy loses
• Theology Liberation Bishop, Samuel Ruiz, negotiates a cease fire
• Zapatistas retain liberated land

1995

• The army breaks the cease fire and attacks the Zapatista villages
• Villages were abandoned and people moved into the jungle
• Military could not seize main leaders
• EZLN intensifies international campaign and starts organizing Encuentros in the Jungle (PGA)

2000

• Zapatistas implement 32 autonomous zones within the Chiapas, with no government support and some international NGO support
• Zapatistas write the 6th Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, calling for a broad global coalition, to the left and from the ground up

Chiapas in Context

• Largest indigenous population in Mexico
• High rates of congenital malnutrition, and infant and adult mortality
• High rate of illiteracy
• Life expectancy in indigenous communities 44 years (vs. National Average of 70)
• 159 babies die over 1,000 in Chiapas (vs. Mexico: 45/1000)
• Half of the population malnourished, girls more affected

Autonomist Movements Not Aimed at State Power

• The state abandoned indigenous people. In return, indigenous people abandoned the state
• Indigenous people created autonomous communities through self governance and popular participation
• Lead by Obeying
• Slave/master challenged. Perspectivism upheld (long decision-making process with the whole community)

First Postmodern, Postcolonial Revolution

• Marxism meets the “overperson” (Nietzsche)
• Indigenous people hold a community-oriented subjectivity (identity)
• Result of the symbiosis of indigenous cultures and Postcultural Marxist praxis
• Poststructural Marxism is about “overdetermination” and diversity (adaptation of Marx)
• A diversity of ways of being in the world

Liberation Theology

• Bartolomé de Las Casas
• Liberation Theology

Zapatistas, Solidarity and the Economy: Surplus Value Stays in the Community

A mural in a cooperative business and community space owned by the Zapatista community.

• Co-created the Anti-Corporate Globalization Movement
• Support of Western Activists against state repression
• Zapatista workshops outside of capitalist relations of production
• Support for the solidarity economy projects

Important Concepts

• Walking Questioning – answers reproduce power domination
• From the grass up and to the left
• Alliances with all oppressed by “bad government”

Women’s Revolutionary Law (1994) – Individual/Collective Tensions

Mujeres Zapatista

• Women, regardless of their race, creed, color or political affiliation, have the right to participate in the revolutionary struggle in any way that their desire and capacity determine.
• Women have the right to work and receive a fair salary.
• Women have the right to decide the number of children they have and care for.
• Women have the right to participate in the matters of the community and hold office if they are free and democratically elected.
• Women and their children have the right to healthcare and nutrition.
• Women have the right to an education.
• Women have the right to choose their partner and are not obliged to enter into marriage.
• Women have the right to be free of violence from both relatives and strangers.

Juntas of Good Government: Chiapas Today

• Members of the government belong to the indigenous communities, campesinos, who toil the land
• They rotate every two weeks
• Men and women are part of it
• Established to diminish the EZLN army’s power and to better distribute and organize international aid
• They drink Coca-cola (oh, no!)
• Still the object of aggressions by government agents and by paramilitary. A teacher was killed when defending a Zapatista school in 2014.

Translation: “Stop the aggression against the Zapatista community”.

Part Eleven Video Lecture

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: http://openbooks.library.umass.edu/radicalsocialtheory/?p=271

“The Zapatista Uprising (20 Years Later)” by Vice.

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: http://openbooks.library.umass.edu/radicalsocialtheory/?p=271

“EZLN Women Revolutionary Law” by thalisal