Zapatistas soldiers stand guard in La Realidad. (photo: Getty)
22
Years Ago Today, an Uprising Occurred That Changed the World
By Hilary Klein, teleSUR
01 January 16
The anniversary of the EZLN’s uprising is a chance to reflect on
the Zapatista movement’s achievements and lessons that are still relevant
today.
Jan.
1 marks the 22nd anniversary of the Zapatista uprising and more than 30 years
since the formation of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista
Army of National Liberation, EZLN).
On
January 1, 1994, the EZLN captured the world’s imagination when it rose up to
demand justice and democracy for the indigenous peasants of southern Mexico.
Since that brief armed insurrection, the EZLN has become known more for its
peaceful mobilizations, dialogue with civil society, and structures of
political, economic, and cultural autonomy. Over the past three decades, the
Zapatista movement has won significant changes in its own territory and has
inspired other social movements in Mexico and around the world, offering a
number of key lessons that are still relevant today.
The
date of the Zapatista uprising was chosen for its symbolic importance – as it
was the day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect.
The EZLN was one of the first popular movements to recognize neoliberalism as a
menacing new stage of global capitalism and called NAFTA a death sentence for
the indigenous peasants of Mexico.
As
night fell on Dec. 31, 1993, the armed forces of the EZLN had begun to gather.
It was an army made up almost entirely of indigenous people, and about a third
of the soldiers were women. As dawn broke on New Year’s Day, Zapatista troops
occupied seven towns throughout the eastern half of Chiapas, including San
Cristóbal de las Casas, a quaint colonial city nestled in the misty highlands
of Chiapas and a major tourist destination. The Zapatistas occupied San
Cristóbal for less than 48 hours. They stayed long enough to read their
declaration of war from the balcony of the municipal palace, but slipped away
in time to escape the full brunt of the Mexican military. The uprising would
quickly transform the EZLN into one of the most well-known social movements in
the world, and one that would inspire an extraordinary level of solidarity.
Over
the past two decades, the impact of the Zapatista movement can be seen at the
local, national, and international level. Land takeovers carried out after the
1994 uprising — where large ranches were occupied by the Zapatistas and
reapportioned to landless peasants — impacted the distribution of wealth in
Chiapas and continue to affect living conditions for Zapatista villages farming
on reclaimed land. The Zapatista structures of indigenous autonomy have meant
that rural villages in Chiapas have gained access to rudimentary health care
and education. They exercise self-determination through local and regional
governments, and generate resources back into their communities through
economic cooperatives that organize the production of goods.
At the
national level, the EZLN and the Mexican government signed the San Andrés Peace
Accords in 1996. Although never implemented by the Mexican government, the San
Andrés Accords recognized indigenous rights, promised indigenous autonomy, and
created a framework that the Zapatistas and other indigenous groups throughout
Mexico would implement on their own. The Zapatista movement arguably helped
bring an end to 70 years of one-party rule in Mexico when the Partido
Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI)
lost the presidential elections in 2000. The EZLN continues to be an important
reference point for social movements in Mexico today, such as the protest
movement that emerged after the disappearance of forty-three students from a
rural teachers’ college in 2014.
Around
the world, the Zapatistas catalyzed a wave of solidarity that inspired a
generation of young activists to organize for social justice in their own
contexts. International gatherings organized by the EZLN fostered the
burgeoning global justice movement. Events inspired or influenced by the
Zapatistas include the World Social Forum, an annual global forum for
grassroots activists and organizations, and demonstrations against global
capitalism, such as the 1999 protests in Seattle against the World Trade
Organization. With its ideological critique of neoliberalism and its internal
emphasis on participatory democracy, the EZLN was a precursor to the Occupy and
“We Are the 99 Percent” movements that emerged almost two decades after the Zapatista
uprising. The Zapatista movement also offers a viable example of local
alternatives to global capitalism. The economic cooperatives in Zapatista
communities, for example, are strengthening a local and regional economy based
on collective effort and the well being of the community, rather than
competition and profit.
Anyone
who is 21 years old or younger was born after the Zapatista uprising, and many
young people today have not even heard of the EZLN. In addition to
understanding the significant achievements in Zapatista territory and their
ripple effect around the world, this anniversary is also an opportunity to
reflect on the qualities of the Zapatista movement that made it such a
compelling and successful social movement.
One
such quality is the EZLN’s remarkable ability to draw from different
historical, political and cultural traditions. The founding members of the EZLN
were Marxist guerrillas who sought to overthrow the Mexican government through
armed struggle. In Chiapas, however, they encountered a centuries-long history
of indigenous resistance and a well-organized peasant movement fighting for
land reform. They also encountered the influence of the Catholic Diocese of San
Cristóbal and several Maoist organizations. Instead of holding onto a rigid
ideological orientation, the EZLN’s leadership in those early years learned
from these different traditions and began weaving them into a political praxis
we now know as Zapatismo. This fluidity can also be seen in the blending of
indigenous traditions and Western knowledge within the structures of indigenous
autonomy. The autonomous health care system, for example, integrates knowledge
of medicinal plants and includes traditional healers like midwives and
bone-setters, but also makes use of Western medicine and relies on doctors to
train the community health promoters.
Another
important element of the Zapatista movement is women’s leadership and the
commitment to women’s rights and equality. Women’s involvement in the EZLN has
helped shape the Zapatista movement, which, in turn, opened new spaces for
women and led to dramatic changes in their lives. When the EZLN began
organizing in the rural villages of Chiapas, women there were experiencing an
extraordinary level of violence and discrimination. But gender roles were
radically redefined in the context of the Zapatista movement, as women became
guerrilla insurgents and political leaders, healers and educators, and members
of economic cooperatives. The tremendous changes in women’s lives include public
roles of leadership and participation in community affairs, the ability to
choose their romantic partner and decide how many children to have, and a
significant decrease in alcohol consumption and domestic violence. The great
strides made towards women’s liberation within the Zapatista movement offer an
array of insights about how gender transformations can be achieved.
The
final quality of the Zapatista movement that I would like to point to is a
poignant combination of humility and passion. The Zapatistas are humble enough
to know that none of us have all the answers. “Caminando preguntamos,” they say
– “walking we ask questions.” In spite of all they have gained, they readily
acknowledge that theirs is a long-term struggle. They want to live in a world of
justice and dignity and are working on building it, step by step. A Zapatista
elder named Eva once told me, “The path of this struggle is long and there is
still much we want to accomplish. We don’t know how long it will take. There
are many things we will probably not achieve ourselves. It will be up to our
grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, and our great-great-grandchildren.”
None
of this, however, has stopped the Zapatistas from dreaming big dreams or taking
on the most intimidating of foes. They had the courage to declare war on the
Mexican government, to take on global capitalism, and to ask themselves what it
would mean to dismantle patriarchy in Zapatista territory. If there is one
thing about the Zapatista movement I would hope to see contemporary social
movements emulate, it would be this combination of humility and chutzpah – the
understanding of the enduring nature of this work and the patience and
unflinching commitment that comes along with it.
C 2015 Reader Supported News
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to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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