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 Editorials | July 2005 
Is Marcos Coming In From the Cold?
 Fred Rosen - The Herald Mexico
Over the past few weeks, following a massive "consultation" with its bases of support in southeastern state of Chiapas, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), the group that rose up in arms on New Years Day, 1994, has let it be known that it is prepared to enter a new phase of political activity.
"We have arrived at a point where we can go no further," reads the Zapatistas' Sixth Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle, a document being issued in installments as we write. "It is possible," reads the declaration, "that we will lose all that we have if we stay as we are and do nothing to move forward."
"But perhaps united with other social sectors that have the same needs as we do it will be possible to get what we need and what we deserve." The announcement of the new phase has been interpreted in some circles as an EZLN offer to lay down its arms, renounce its struggle for indigenous autonomy and enter instead into the campaigning, deal-making and alliances of conventional electoral politics.
Vicente Fox has been one such interpreter. He enthusiastically welcomed the initial Zapatista communiqué, he said, in the sense that it moves toward political action and leaves behind the armed path on the part of the EZLN.
"I not only welcome, but I now invite Señor Marcos," said the president, "so that, together, we can construct a new stage of integration in political life, and integration on behalf of agreements that can benefit communities." He officially invited Señor Marcos political participation in the democratic civil life of Mexico.
But one of the interesting things about the Zapatistas is that they have never seemed all that interested in achieving state power. What the Zapatista rebellion has been mostly about is the right to be left alone, the right to autonomy, the right to build a non-capitalist alternative to modern Mexican life. So it's not at all clear what they have in mind when they say they can go no further without uniting with other social sectors that have similar problems and needs. Do they have some broadening of autonomy in mind? In Mexico?
Ever since the government of Ernesto Zedillo failed to implement the signed provisions of the San Andrés Accords that would have guaranteed significant additional rights and autonomy to indigenous communities, the Zapatistas have distrusted the formal processes of Mexican politics and have opted to pursue a parallel path of local autonomy.
Especially over the past few years, they have concentrated on consolidating their own self-governance.
Now, they are reaching out to like-minded constituencies. "We don't want to fight only for ourselves or only for the indigenous of Chiapas or only for the Indian communities of Mexico," writes the author of the Sixth Declaration, but we want to fight together with all humble and simple people like us who are in great need and who suffer exploitation and the robberies of the rich and their bad governments here in our Mexico and in other countries of the world.
The document declares that the fight is not simply against bad Mexican governments but against a global system whose center of power is outside of Mexico. The fight, it declares, is against global capitalism, a system that "makes commodities out of people, nature, culture, history and conscience, and in particular against neoliberalism, the idea that capitalism is free to dominate the world." The declaration presents the Zapatistas fight as a patriotic one, in defense of "our Mexican homeland."
But they have had no desire to confront either capitalism or bad governments head-on. Rather, they have been withdrawing from the system in order to build their own alternatives. Short of self-defense then, the 'new phase' does not seem to be one in which they will begin directly challenging, much less participating in the structures of the Mexican state.
Certainly, the Zapatistas will not ally with any of the three major political parties, all of whom, they say, "not only did not defend us, but put themselves at the service of foreigners while they sold everything and kept the payment for themselves."
The EZLN seems intent on broadening its struggle across ethnic, regional and national boundaries to confront a global system that, itself, knows no boundaries. Whether, with numerous new allies, they can begin to deal with the global structures of neoliberalism directly, bypassing the structures of all the 'bad governments' present and future, remains to be seen.
In any case, Fox's 'new stage of integration' does not seem to be in the offing.
frosen@terra.com.mx |
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