Re: AUT: more on Zapatismo

[Forrest T Hylton <fthst+@xxxxxxxx>]

To kick in my $.02 worth on Zapatismo:

First of all, in Marcos: Historia y Palabra, Marcos says that he and five
others came to Chiapas with the intention of overthrowing the Mexican
state in order to establish a proletarian state.  Pretty straightforward.
Then he says that after '92, so many young indigenous began to join the
EZLN that its relationship with the communities changed.  Marcos is frank
about the vertical style of decision making within the EZLN that prevailed
until '92 or so, when they still only had 1,000 or so troops.  He says
that it was only after they abandoned their verticalism and embraced the
"horizontalism" of the communities that their ranks really began to swell.
Do we think the EZLN could have become as large as it did without
overcoming its verticalism?  Or is it just another example of cunning
Leninism?

So, to repeat Paul's question: what is the big deal? Does Marcos really
seem to be hiding something?  Do we think the two Parisians have uncovered
it? Should it surprise us that the Zapatista communities and the EZLN are
wrestling with contradictions?  This whole business about Maoism seems a
bit silly to me, I must confess.  Has anyone else read Monty et al.'s
piece, Towards a New Commons?  Perhaps we could discuss Charles and
Sylvie's piece with reference to Monty et al's, i.e. with reference to
Mexican class composition and struggle.

Re: the comrade's comment about "the nest of vipers": I heard some
disturbing stories about a few of the CA. groups when I was living in
Portland, OR, and participating in Zapa solidarity work there.  Our group
was small and mainly ineffectual, certainly no more "advanced" than any
other group on the left, and with many of the same problems.  However,
none of the companieros had participated in the Central American
solidarity work, because the ones old enough to have done so were
suspicious of the uncritical acceptance of the vanguardism of the
FMLN/URNG/FSLN.  For the most part we had good relations with each other
and with other left groups in the area-- we supported them and they
supported us, though some groups were known to drag their feet.  Before I
started working with Zapa group, there had been problems with the FBI,
who apparently didnt like the idea of Chicano-Native American-Zapatista
sympathizer unity.  The harassment resulted in some divisions within the
group, but they were eventually overcome.  I put this out there merely to
demonstrate that it is difficult to generalize about the Zapa solidarity
movement.  Here in Pittsburgh, ZAP is composed of an aging peace activist,
an aging catholic worker and his French wife, and a number of
anarchist-punks under 22.  Small and mostly ineffectual, sure, but hardly
a nest of vipers.  The history department in which I study, on the other
hand, is definitely a nest of vipers.  As is every other department that
I'm aware of here at Pitt.

Forrest



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