YA BASTA!

Over the past year, two dates stand out as defining moments of global
resistance against global capitalism: June 18th and November 30th. Events
which the worlds press could not ignore; events which showed that not
everyone was happy with the neo-liberal* agenda being forced down our
throats.

The press like to talk about this globalisation of protest as if its
something new, but what about the international movement against Americas
war in Vietnam? The mass solidarity against South African apartheid? Hey,
some people are even using the Internet to co-ordinate protests across the
globe (This reminds SchNEWS of when the cops were getting all hot under the
collar because new age travellers were using mobile phones to organise
free parties!).

But where did this new movement come from? Where is its inspiration? A good
starting point is the Zapatista uprising which came to the worlds
attention on January 1st, 1994. On the same day the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed, four towns in the Chiapas region of
Mexico were taken over by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN),
and the news was quickly broadcast around the world via the Internet.

SchNEWS recently spoke to someone just returned from Chiapas

Q: CAN YOU GIVE US A BRIEF HISTORY?

A: The Zapitistas chose 1st January 1994 to occupy four major towns in the
state of Chiapas to coincide with the introduction of NAFTA. They only held
them for two or three days before the Mexican army chased them back into
the jungle, but theyd made their point by then! The Zapatista resistance
has been going on ever since.

Q: SO 1994 WAS THE ZAPATISTAS ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE WORLD THAT THEY MEANT

BUSINESS AS WELL AS TWO FINGERS TO THE NAFTA AGREEMENT?

A: Yeah. I think there had been fights with the army the year before, but
the army had decided to not pursue them because the government was trying
to negotiate this NAFTA deal. The government were really keen not to show
there was a guerrilla war in any part of Mexico so they kept it quiet.

Q: SO ITS A SORT OF LOW INTENSITY WAR?

A: Oh yeah, its definitely a war but not one where many people are getting
killed at the moment; and even though we dont hear much about the
Zapatistas at the moment, the movement is as strong as ever, even in the
face of 70,000 Mexican troops constantly surrounding them.

Top

Q: HOW DO THE ZAPATISTAS ORGANISE?

A: The Zapatistas control 35 autonomous municipalities, and each
municipality covers a huge area with thousands of people in it. The scale
of the area is something people dont appreciate. Each municipality is
named after an important revolutionary event or person. So you have the 1st
January, or April 10th when Zapata was assassinated. Or Flores Magon, who
was a Mexican anarchist, and Pancho Villa, who was once an ally of Zapata.
What is important is that the Zapatistas have broken away from the old
guerrilla style of organising where the central committee tells you what to
do. Instead each village in the municipalities has its own assembly to run
its own affairs. For example, some communities have decided on completely
communal ownership of the land, while others have a mixed system with
common and individual land. Each village sends a delegate to the
Clandestine Indigenous Revolutionary Committee, where important military
decisions can only be made after all the communities have been consulted.
For example during the San Andres Peace Accords, when the Zapatistas talked
to the govt, every single community was consulted, and these debates can
go on for days - they talk it out, till everyone who wants to say something
has said it, and then some kind of consensus is made. We were in one
community where they had called a congress to decide the education
structure for the whole of the municipality and the meeting lasted two
days!

Q: TELL US ABOUT THE LAND OCCUPATIONS

A: I think the mainland takeovers started around 1995. Just three landlords
used to control the municipality we were in. The landowners had passed land
to each other for generations, until they were kicked out, and the area put
under Zapatista control. Before, in many places instead of being paid
wages, the Indians were given credit for the landowners shop where
everything was priced really high so reinforcing their poverty. Many
communities have debated what to do with the old landowners houses because
no Zapatistas will live in them. Some have been used as warehouses, some
have been demolished. In one community they took down a house brick by
brick when they heard the landlord and his heavies were coming back. They
sent him a Christmas card with a picture of where the house once stood and
said dont bother - theres nothing to come back to!

Q: WHAT IS THE STANDARD OF LIVING?

A: They are dirt poor, they havent got any money, but they havent got
anyone to tell them what to do now. They always come out with 'we have
dignity'. Their standard of living probably hasnt changed that much since
the uprising, but at least now they are farming the land for themselves.

Q: WHATS THE ATMOSPHERE THERE LIKE?

A: Schizophrenic! You get the feeling from some that they can take on the
whole world, but at the same time army planes are flying really low every
day, theres troop carriers and police helicopters, military bases next to
some municipalities - it all causes a certain desperation. What the army
and police do, is come into some communities on the pretext of looking for
someone. Its always the women who are there, with these big sticks and
little babies on their backs, fighting them off. A Mexican general recently
complained that he didnt join the army to fight women and children!

Q: TELL US ABOUT THE ROLE OF WOMEN
 

A: My experience was that the women are tough as hell. They take part in
the command structures of EZLN, for example the occupation of San Cristobal
was directed by women. One third of the army are women. When I was in San
Cristobal there was this huge womens march against militarisation in
Chiapas. Women insisted on alcohol being banned in the whole of the
Zapatista controlled region. Landowners used to make sure the Indians got
addicted to alcohol, which got them into so much debt until they were
basically slaves. If they tried to leave they would be shot or punished, so
this alcohol thing was a really useful form of control and it had an effect
on the women as there was a lot more domestic violence then. Now, each
community has got a little jail big enough for one or two people and if any
of the men turn up pissed they just stick them in the jail for the night.
And it works, people dont drink. Another example of the influence of women
is the story of one guy who organises clean water projects for the
communities. He put a proposal to the men in one village and said for the
water project to work, it would take a lot of hard work; three weeks of
solid digging a four mile trench from the mountain to the village. The men
decided not to bother, and let the women continue to go down to the river
and bring water back in buckets. However, when he went back to the village
a week later, he was approached and told by one of the elders, that the
women had had a meeting and told the men in no uncertain terms that they
were gonna dig the pipeline! However, in the assemblies there is still a
hierarchy and it is still often the men who do the talking; the womens
revolution has happened, but its not all the way there yet by any means.

Q: DO YOU THINK THE UNITED STATES SEES THE ZAPATISTAS AS A THREAT?

A: Yeah, definitely. The US use the excuse of the war on drugs to arm the
Mexican army and most of that weaponry is being used against the
Zapatistas. And of course the US is worried because the Zapatistas are
setting an example in not accepting poverty and injustice. The Americans
spent millions destroying guerrilla movements in El Salvador, Guatemala and
of course Nicaragua. And now a whole new rebellion has happened in Mexico,
a country the US has always had a high level of control over. The region is
also rich in oil. The Mexican government wants to get its hands on it, but
this revolutionary movement is in its way, so at some point there is gonna
be a conflict . There is also huge bio-diversity in the forests, and the
American bio-tech companies want to get into the jungle and start
copywriting the genetic codes.

Q: HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK THE INTERNET HAS BEEN TO THE STRUGGLE?

A: I had this vision of them all tapping away on their computers in the
jungle and that was rubbish - most communities dont even have electricity.
It is Zapatista supporters in Mexico City and America who have been
invaluable in terms of getting the message out and creating a public mood
where the Mexican government feels it cant intervene because it would be
too controversial.

Q: HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK IT IS THAT PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELVES GO ABROAD
AND VISIT AND SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH THE ZAPATISTAS?

A: To be honest in terms of material support, the most useful thing that
could happen, is some solidarity movement in America to try and stop the
weaponry getting to the Mexican army. In the absence of that, its a morale
booster. We went over as a football team, and every community we visited we
had to get up on stage and introduce ourselves, say where we are from -
theyre all like wheres Europe? However, if their grasp of geography
isnt very good, they are politicised and they understand why we are there.

Q: HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK THE ZAPITISTA STRUGGLE IS FOR INSPIRING
PEOPLE?

A: With the collapse of communism there was glaoting about the triumph of
capitalism. If you want to get rid of the way the world is now being run,
youve got to have some kind of idea about what the new world will be like,

and the Zapatistas are vital because they are not only saying it, theyve
actually done it. Theyre running the municipalities communally, theyre
organising their own education projects, their own water projects, have
their own army, theyre reaching out to the other indigenous people of
Mexico - its inspirational.

Recommended reading:
Zapatista! Documents of the New Mexican Revolution (Autonomedia, New York 95)
Rebellion from the Roots by John Ross (Common Courage 95)
Zapatista! Re-inventing Revolution in Mexico by John Holloway (Pluto Press 99)
Checkout:http://www.eco.utexas.edu:80/Homepages/Faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html

Contact: Chiapas Link, Box 79, 82 Colston Street, Bristol.
Chiapaslink@yahoo.com

SCHNEWS VOCAB WATCH

NEO-LIBERAL: Initially associated with that romantic duo, Reagan and
Thatcher, neo-liberalism has been the dominant economic theory for the past
two decades.

Supporters of neo-liberalism talk of free market policies that encourage
private enterprise, consumer choice and personal initiative, and use these
arguments to justify everything from lowering taxes on the wealthy, to
dismantling education and social welfare programmes and scrapping
environmental regulations.

These well thought out conscientious, economic policies, have resulted in
...a massive increase in social and economic inequality, a marked increase
in severe deprivation for the poorest nations, a disastrous global
environment and unstable global economy - but, and heres the key to its
popularity with its supporters, an unprecedented bonanza for the wealthy.

When these pioneers of righteousness, are presented with some of the rather
large downside, they claim that the spoils of the good life will invariably
spread to the broad mass of the population - as long as the neo-liberal
policies that exacerbated these problems in the first place are not
interfered with! Or as Robert McChesney put it "at their most eloquent,
proponents of neo-liberalism sound as if they are doing poor people, the
environment and everybody else a tremendous service as they enact policies
on behalf of the wealthy few."

Worse still, the neo-liberal zealots loudest message is that humanity has
hit the jackpot and there is no alternative to the status quo.

ITS YER SCHNEWS BLOW BY BLOW ACCOUNT OF GLOBAL RESISTANCE

   * Jan 94: The Zapatistas rise up with the signing of NAFTA (SchNEWS
     174/5 and SchNEWS 200 for effects of NAFTA in Mexico)
   * Sept 96: The First Intergalactic Encuentro for Humanity and Against
     Neo-Liberalism, in Mexico July 97: The second Encuentro in Spain
     (SchNEWS 128)
   * Feb 98: Geneva peoples movements from around the globe met and form
     the Peoples Global Action against 'Free' Trade and theWorld Trade
     Organisation (SchNEWS 156)
   * May 98: Street parties in 40 countries across the globe to protest
     against the G8 meeting in Birmingham (SchNEWS 168)
   * June 18th 99: Carnival against capitalism in the City of London , and
     actions in 27 other countries around the world (SchNEWS 217/218)
   * Aug 99: Peoples Global Action Meeting in Bangalore, India. (SchNEWS
     226)
   * Nov 30th 99: Battle of Seattle: The World Trade Organisations talks
     are de-railed by mass protests, with solidarity actions across the
     world (SchNEWS 240)