The Zapatistas: Pt 1 &2 by Dan @http://hiidunia.blogspot.com

The Zapatistas - Part One

‘Zapatista lives, the struggle continues!’


‘We are all Marcos!’




These were the cries of the mobilised Mexican masses. The product of a once neutral Mexico City, or the middle classes. Now thanks largely to the spread of the Zapatista movements’ ideals, goals and ambitions, their message was beginning to resonate with other parts of society that had felt the injustices and felt like the indigenous peoples of the Chiapas that they too had no influence on those in power. Housewives, students the unemployed all rallied to the cause.

In the first of two articles Hii Dunia looks at the impact the Zapatistas' movement has had on modern day Mexico and then in Part Two assesses the Zapatistas and the EZLN's shift into being recognised as players within mainstream Civil Society.

The Chiapas rebellion of 1994 drew the attention of the world to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, the long fought struggle of the Zapatista movement and to the thoughts, actions and even poetry of its iconic, pipe smoking figurehead and spokesperson Subcommandante Marcos.

This action by the rebel Zapatista movement and the subsequent counter reaction by the Mexican authorities brought to the fore issues of resistance not only to what was seen as an repressive federal structure but also to issues of a wider nature. These included those of racial and ethnic discrimination as suffered by the indigenous people of Chiapas state, affecting further issues such as economics, education and land rights.

The people of the state were marginalized and isolated. This then became fertile ground for dissent and rebellion. Whether or not the EZLN were the natural purveyors of this rebellion is to some questionable. The critics of the Zapatistas in Mexico itself have often levelled accusations of opportunism and against Subcommandante Marcos. They argue that it's true identity is that of a leftist Marxist revolutionary group, common to those found across Latin and South America. That Marcos is from a middle class Mestizos family and that therefore must surely share little with the indigenous populations.

Whilst true that Marcos had his roots as an urban guerrilla in an organisation known as the National Liberation Forces (FLN). He was an intellectual with a realistic concept of what he called in interviews “the political world”.

It is no accident therefore that the EZLN’s charismatic and well educated spokesman should evoke the image of Emiliano Zapata. General Zapata is an iconic image in Mexico. “This unforgettable photographic image has served as a model for Mexican filmmakers, and had become the archetype of the good revolutionary” wrote Rajchbery and Hian-Lambert; in their 1998 book Zapatista! Marcos used this evocative image and his self belief and skill to align the demands of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) with the plight of the indigenous population of the Chiapas State.

Marcos realised the need amongst the indigenous population. His experience early on in the mountains of Chiapas taught him that highly conflicting westernised notions of how states should be run had little resonance with a people who simply longed for an improvement in their situation. So Marcos used his experience in the mountains to tell another story, that of the indigenous community’s own humiliation. As Neil Harvey wrote in 1998 “It was here that the ideological discourse of Marxism ran up against the distinctive cultural beliefs of the indigenous communities.” The convergence of thought is again played out. Marcos realised the futility of approaching people that have real and pressing needs to explain the politics of Marx. “Your word is very hard, we do not understand it” he was told on occasions. Marcos when questioned about the convergence of ideas that was occurring between the indigenous communities and the Metizos explained;

‘We had a very fixed notion of reality, but when we ran up against it our ideas were turned over. It is like that wheel over there, which rolls over the ground and becomes smoother as it goes, as it comes into contact with the people in the villages. It no longer has any connection to its origins. So, when they ask me “What are you people? Marxist, Leninists, Castroites, Maoists or what?” I answer that I don’t know. I really do not know. We are the product of a hybrid, of a confrontation of a collision in which luckily I believe we lost.’

The grassroots approach to their uprising we can see as being very important to the EZLNCivil Society.

One of the principle reasons for the lack of diversity in Mexico was the stagnation caused by Mexico effectively having a one party state system for much of the 20th Century. With the continuing desire of the establishment in Mexico to encourage and endorse the pre-veiling neo-liberal trade reforms such as those endorsed through the Washington Consensus and those that were deemed as necessary for membership of the North America Free Trade Agreement. Mexico’s lack of regional representation led the Federal government to over look or in the case of the state of Chiapas be hostile to many of the concerns particularly of the Indigenous communities who predicted adverse affects for their way of life if the Federal government was to implement proposed reforms.

This lack of representation given with the historical context of discrimination against the majority indigenous population of Southern Mexico can perhaps be seen as the spark for the rapid mobilization of Civic action for Civic Society not only in the State of Chiapas but across Mexico. The growing strength and influence of the Zapatismo meant that they were able to apply pressure for greater democratic representation.

The formation of the EZLN in la Montana (the mountainous region) was achieved through kinship networks. These networks spread through the indigenous communities. Whilst there was ethnic tension between the ethnic population and settlers in the Chiapas state this was largely created through a preconceived fear from the settlers. Scenes of ethnic conflict that were seen in some parts of Eastern Europe notably in Yugoslavia were not on the whole repeated in Mexico with the emergence of the EZLN. This is because of the duel emergence of a fledgling organisation that was in many ways a Civil Society.


In the next post on the Zapatistas, Hii Dunia will assess the EZLN's ongoing transformation from armed insurgents to an increasingly mainstream civic movement and ask if it can really be thought of now as been a part of 'Civil Society' in Mexico.

(Harvey, 1998) achieving their aims. The EZLN tries to submit itself with a mandate from the indigenous community. It is persistently searching for links to form what can be described as a

The Zapatistas - Part Two

There has long being various definitions as to what Civil Society is how best to conceptualise it. Civil Society it seems and the need to define it has dipped in and out of fashion over the last few centuries. Often today the term Civil Society is attacked by academics as being too loose and ill defined.

In this the second part of an assessment of the role played by the Zapatistas in modern Mexico, Hii Dunia assesses how the Zapatistas and in particular the EZLN compare to contemporary definitions of Civil Society.

In his text The Importance of being Modular, Ernest Gellner argued that man cannot “be bonded into a social organism easily or at will”. That man “can combine into effective associations and institutions without these being total, many stranded, under-written by ritual and made stable through being linked to a whole set of relationships, all of these then being tied in with each other and so immobilized”. This does not perhaps reflect totally the aparent ‘horizontal’ growth through family ties that occurred in the mountains and jungles of the Chiapas state as the Zapatistas began their integration with the indigenous communities. Gellner also notes that the spread of ethnicity is of a much faster pace than that of other aspects of a growth in Civil Society.

The common enemy of the poor of central Mexico was seen to be the Globalisation and opposing this became the unifying force bonding the indigenous communities in Chiapas and beyond. A sense of helplessness and powerlessness galvanised the movement. The neo-liberalNAFTA membership and the debt crisis that followed allowed the activism that had long being present in Mexican society to blossom.

The Zapatistas were able to circumvent much that would define Civil Society in a western context. They represent their following at community, state, nation and international level. The Zapatistas’ ability to recognise the global backlash against Globalisation and through modes of communication such as Fax and especially the internet to contact international sympathizers. Manuel Castells in The Power of Identity recognised that “without the communication capacity enabling the Zapatistas to reach urban Mexico in real time, they may have remained an isolated, localized guerrilla force, as many of those still fighting in Latin America”. Castells in recognising the articulacy of the Zapatistas acknowledges how important that is for a group with a global message. Ironically many other rebel movements in Latin America share the same Neo-Marxist ideals as the Zapatistas and would arguably benefit from the same global reach that the Zapatistas have demonstrated they can achieve. Josee Johnston writing in Global Civil Society and its Limits argues that “effective resistance to globalisation is seen as dependant on transcending national boundaries and establishing a Global Civil Society” This global outreach began to take the movement from of Civil Society within a state to what many now look to when thinking of a Global Civil Society.

Whilst the example of Civil Society in Eastern Europe shows that the emergence of Civil Society was important to the pace of the downfall of Communism as well as a unifying force, in the case of the rebellion in Mexico it is clear that it also was a call to arms against the forces of NAFTA and globalisation.

The embodiment of this was the Aguascalientes’ a series of conventions that took place in Zapatista controlled jungle in the Chiapas. The movement managed to gather thousands of delegates from around the world and construct facilities for them to use. From the second convention was formed the National Convention for Democracy (CND). The CND is Civil Society in a very real sense to the people of Mexico. The EZLN had by this point politicised and the Zapatista movement had now formed into essentially a form of Civil Society because of its interactions with Civic networks though also maintaining in the EZLN an ‘armed-wing’. If the CND is seen as incorporating to a substantial extent the indigenous peoples then the Zapatistas et al might have created what could be considered a shining example what Civil Society can achieve, namely a consensus of popular opinion. As Lynn Stephen writing in Latin American Perspectives in 1995 put it “The CND gave the Zapatistas an opportunity to strengthen their network of support”.

The elections in Mexico in 1994 were given unprecedented levels of scrutiny largely as a result of the uprising. As Lynn Stephen again points out “In some parts of the country, the network created by the convention proved effective in mounting activities, to protest electoral fraud and press the participants other demands”. The CND identified Civil Society as the stalwart of democracy and in doing so has removed political parties form the discourse, the sense of unity felt throughout the movement is enough for now. Lynn Stephen again in her article describes the effect on the discourse thus;

“One of the greatest potential contributions of the CND is a redefinition of democracy in Mexico. During it’s first meeting, it defined democracy as the participation of Civil Society in its own governance by identifying a project of nation building, rather than voting.

The impact of the uprising raised the issue of socio-economic disparities particularly with regard to land distribution. The uprising in the Chiapas state has brought new levels of democratic representation to the state and to the indigenous communities. Not only have the Indians of the south arguably benefited from this but also women have had seen their representation increased dramatically, thanks largely to the National Convention for Democracy. This is Civil Society as Gramsci, Lewis, Gellner et al would have recognised it. A strong and persuasive force representing those with concern over how they are governed.

With what many see as a new radicalisation of development there can be fewer examples of a radical form of development in the way that the Zapatistas have consciously moved from armed struggle to trying to influence the Mexican government and the world to their cause, to battle against the liberal agenda which seems to be that of consolidation of wealth in the rich countries and exclusion to the detriment of the poor. This is a radical Civil Society - a broadening of the term Civil Society undoubtedly.

In 2000 Vicente Fox was elected to lead the Mexican government. His election represented a massive shift in Mexican politics due in no small part to the pressure the Zapatista insurgency placed on the old status quo for change. However Mexico is still following the Neo-Liberal trade reforms practised by previous administrations and to which the Zapatista movement still feel would be too damaging to the poorest in Mexican society. But what legitimacy does the Mexican government have if the laws which are most affecting the people of the Chiapas region are coming from Washington? The Zapatistas are fighting the ‘Washington Consensus’ as much as the Mexican government. This then places them by definition on the world stage and they are ‘civil’ as has been shown with what the CND articulates and they are global through their communications and the international gatherings in the Chiapas jungle. However it is yet to be seen what place they have in an increasingly inter-dependant world where it is not only trade and politics that is global but also what ordinary people lean on to influence it namely Civil Society.

Links & Resources:

The People-Centered Development Forum - A Discussion Paper on the concept of Global Civil Society

The Narco News Bulletin - A recent report from the Chiapas State restructuring of Mexico’s economy to gain