Neozapatismo
Neozapatismo or neozapatism (sometimes simply Zapatismo) is the political philosophy and practice devised and employed by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Spanish: Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN), who have instituted governments in a number of communities in Chiapas, Mexico, since the beginning of the Chiapas conflict.
For example, according to Richard Stahler-Sholk, a political science professor at Eastern Michigan University, “[t]here are, in effect, at least three Zapatismos: One is the armed insurgency .
[and the] third is the (national and) international network of solidarity inspired by Zapatista ideology and discourse.”[3] Observers have described the EZLN as having Libertarian socialist and Marxist influences.
[5] These were politicised mestizo and Indigenous people with a revolutionary Marxist ideology; many of them had a history with the National Liberation Forces (FLN).
[5][6] Interactions between this group and the Indigenous communities native to the Lacandona Jungle led to transformations in the political-military strategy originally proposed by the EZLN.
[5][6] This integration of socialism with the Mayan cosmology and history of resistance crystallised as neozapatismo during the uprising of 1994. Notable transformations in the EZLN's revolutionary Marxist ideology included reformed ideas about leadership and power, rejecting vanguardism in favor of radical democracy.
It was a mixture of all of this, a cocktail which was mixed in the mountain and crystallized in the combat force of the EZLN…[9]He has also stated: Zapatismo is not an ideology, it is not a bought and paid for doctrine.
Zapatismo simply states the question and stipulates that the response is plural, that the response is inclusive …[10]In 1998, Michael Löwy identified five "threads" of what he referred to as the Zapatismo "carpet":[11] Nick Henck, an associate professor in the Faculty of Law at Keio University in Tokyo, has suggested that Subcommander Marcos combined these non-indigenous elements (i.e. Guevarism, the legacy of Emiliano Zapata, and the democratic demands made by Mexican civil society) into the existing fabric of indigenous thought to create Neozapatismo, while also making his own significant political and philosophical contributions.
[15][16] This approach of "walking while asking questions," was central to the Other Campaign (2006); and sociologist Ramón Grosfoguel describes the approach as a 'Tojolabal Marxism' that sets out as a rearguard movement that listens and asks questions instead of employing the Leninist strategy of a vanguard party that puts forward well-defined programs and theories.
He renders ichbail ta muk' literally as ‘to bring one another to largeness or greatness’ and states that it ‘implies the coming together of a big collective heart’.
[18] Lekil kuxlejal is considered equivalent to Buen Vivir or Sumak Kawsay,[23] which are expressions used in other Indigenous social movements that oppose neoliberalism and extractivism.
[25] The Zapatista Army of National Liberation have made similar Agrarian demands such as land reform mandated by the 1917 Constitution of Mexico.
Crucially, Subcommander Marcos argues that the Zapatistas' Revolutionary Agrarian Law that was imposed following the land takeovers conducted by the EZLN and those indigenous peoples supportive of the movement in the wake of the January 1994 uprising, brought about “ … fundamental changes in the lives of Zapatista indigenous communities … ", adding:…When the land became property of the peasants … when the land passed into the hands of those who work it … [This was] the starting point for advances in government, health, education, housing, nutrition, women’s participation, trade, culture, communication, and information …[it was] was recovering the means of production, in this case, the land, animals, and machines that were in the hands of large property owners.”[27] The Zapatistas’ political stance is anti-capitalist in general and anti-neoliberal in particular.
In these municipalities, an assembly of local representatives forms the Juntas de Buen Gobierno or Councils of Good Government (JBGs).
[37] With the aim of reaching out to those living beyond the borders of Chiapas, and even Mexico, the Zapatistas have organized and hosted many events in their territory to which they invited people from numerous nations, and these have attracted attendees all over the globe.
In summer 2021, a delegation of Zapatistas traveled from Mexico to Europe in a symbolic 'invasion' (as a reversal of the Spanish colonization of the Americas) of Spain and other western European countries.
These are: Thomas Olesen, International Zapatismo: The Construction of Solidarity in the Age of Globalization (London: Zed Books, 2005); Alex Khasnabish, Zapatismo Beyond Borders: New Imaginations of Political Possibility (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008); and Guiomar Rovira, Zapatistas sin fronteras (Mexico City: Ediciones Era, 2009).
In addition, a 2019 volume of the Mexican journal Contrahistorias contains articles detailing the reception, influence, and impact of neozapatismo in Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba and Iran.
