Chiapas

"You don't mess with the government, idiots": Six killed at archealogical site occupation in Chiapas, Mexico

Mexican police on Friday shot and killed six peasants during and after an operation to end the popular occupation of an archealogical tourist site near Miguel Hidalgo, Chiapas.

The site at Chinkultic had been occupied by members of its surrounding villages since 7 September, following what villagers saw as its neglect by the INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia) - the state institution charged with maintaining the country's thousands of ruins sites - and the concentration of profits from tourism in the municipality (one of the poorest in Mexico) ou

The Sixth Declaration, the Zapatistas, nationalism and the state

A short examination of the Zapatistas and nationalism written in late 2007 as a discussion document by a then-member of a local UK Zapatista solidarity group.

Understanding exactly what is meant by the Sixth Declaration is a difficult task. While the Declaration opens with a reference to it being the ‘simple word’(1) of the EZLN there is a certain, perhaps deliberate, lack of theoretical clarity. This can, completely understandably, cause problems interpreting the document and the Zapatista position.

A critique of the Zapatista "Other Campaign" - Grupo Socialista Libertario

A critique by the Mexican "Libertarian Socialist Group" of recent EZLN "Zapatista" policies centred on the "Other Campaign", including the political campaigning and cult of celebrity of Marcos; and analysis of their political programme as left-capitalist constitutional reformism, i.e., only a defence of Mexican domestic capital and state - "bourgeois protectionism" - against the encroachments of international neo-liberalism.

State terror and dirty war: a year of state recuperation in Mexico

State violence and police terror, this picture from Cuidad de Oaxaca

An in-depth look at the contemporary situation in Mexico in the aftermath of recent state offensives against movements in Chiapas, Oaxaca and San Salvador Atenco.

Following a heady 18 months of diverse and popular struggles up down the country, the Mexican state is using familiar tactics to reassert itself as the country’s main authority.

1994: The Zapatista uprising

A brief history of the rebellion in Chiapas in the jungles of Mexico, where hundreds of thousands of people rose up against the Mexican state and organised themselves into libertarian-inspired federated communes, which are still in existence today.

“¡Ya Basta!” ("Enough is Enough!") declared the EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army - named after the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata), as they burst to international attention on New Years day 1994.

Traven, B., 1890-1969

A short biography of B. Traven, German underground author, anarchist and writer of the Treasure of Sierra Madre. [This article is largely factually inaccurate and is displayed here mainly to illustrate the many myths and half truths that have circulated concerning the mysterious B. Traven. For example, the date and location of birth given here are entirely speculative. For the known facts concerning Traven and a far more accurate account, see here; http://libcom.org/library/b-traven-anti-biography]

B. Traven, aka Ret Marut, Hal Croves, Traven Torsvan, Bruno Traven, Arnold, Barker, Otto Feige, Kraus, Lainger, Wienecke, and Ziegelbrenner
Born 5 March 1890 - Chicago, USA, died 26 March 1969 - Mexico City, Mexico

A Commune in Chiapas? Mexico and the Zapatista Rebellion, 1994-2000

Since the occupation of January 1994, many have projected their hopes onto this 'exotic' struggle against 'neo-liberalism'. We examine the nature of the Zapatista uprising by moving beyond the bluster of the EZLN communiqués, on which so many base their analysis.

[b]Not proletarian, yet not entirely peasant, the Zapatistas' political ideas are riven with contradictions. We reject the academics' argument of Zapatismo's centrality as the new revolutionary subject, just as we reject the assertions of the 'ultra-left' that because the Zapatistas do not have a communist programme they are simply complicit with capital.

The Chiapas Uprising and the Future of Class Struggle in the New World Order

Autonomist Marxist, Harry Cleaver, analyses the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas and its relevence to class struggle in the era of globalisation.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE: This article was written for the Italian journal RIFF-RAFF published in Padova, Italy. Revised versions have also been published in STUDIES IN POLITICAL ECONOMY and in CANADIAN DIMENSION. THE CHIAPAS UPRISING AND THE FUTURE OF CLASS STRUGGLE IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER by Harry Cleaver, University of Texas at Austin hmcleave@mundo.eco.utexas.edu

The Zapatistas and the International Circulation of Struggle - Lessons Suggested and Problems Raised

A variation of this Paper, originally prepared for the conference on "Globalization from Below" at Duke in February 1998, presented to the INET'98 Conference in Geneva in July 1998.

For a long, long time many activists have recognized two things: first, that capitalism operates on a global level and second, that to achieve enough power to overthrow capitalism the working class must find ways to organize its own struggles at the same level.

The Zapatistas and the Electronic Fabric of Struggle DRAFT

What follows is a DRAFT of a chapter of a book on the Zapatistas and revolution at the beginning of the XXIst Century. The book, edited by John Holloway in Mexico City, will consist of a collection of new articles, mostly from Mexican scholars and political analysts. This essay should be quoted only with permission from the author.

The Zapatistas And The Electronic Fabric Of Struggle(*)