Re: YA BASTA! - and French & German strikes & othe

[Zeynep Tufekcioglu <zeynept@xxxxxxxx>]

Companeros y companeras,

Yes, Rahul is right, EZLN is to a great extent influenced by the communal
practices of tribal life. Through their un'der'development, they seemed to
have skipped the individualisation that capitalism advances and imposes.

The leadership, I think, would have been called anarchistic in some senses,
but except for Marcos, there seems to be no "intellectual" leadership. I
think we need to look more into the objective conditions of the Chiapas
people, to understand the EZLN, not what they may have read, as most are
rather illiterate.

Also, I share Doug's contempt for the term civil society. It is often used
to drop class analysis from social issues.

But, in the case of the EZLN: The representatives in Berlin were continuing
their diplomatic attitude, and calling for a broad fronts, crossing
class-boundaries. I and a few others sort of did a bad thing, and as
comradely as possible, inquired -interrogated:-)- about all this civil
society talk, and the mellow positions they sometimes took. Here is my
honest impression from the conversation; they are in a tight spot
militarily. They are being suffocated by the Mexican Army. They say, that
they are fighting, being well aware that this may be the death of their
people, once and for all. They say that at least, they will die standing,
fighting. This broad front of sympathy and international solidarity and
support, and pressure on the Mexican government seems to be their only hope
for some elbow room. One of them, said exactly, "it is our very difficult
position that keeps us from becoming involved in more polemical positions".
It is difficult to lump them together with Euro-communist "civil society"
defenders, isn't it? I admit, I stopped pushing any of them in any public
forum, judging politically, this was not the right thing to do.

Oh, as for the class basis, an internal memo of Chase-Manhattan had leaked
some time ago. It directly calls "for the elimination of the Zapatistas".
The Chase-Manhattan scums, sent the memo to their Mexican counterparts in
the banking industry. I think it is very illuminating, that Chase-Manhattan
finds EZLN a threat. And EZLN is trying to help organise a front against
NAFTA, which again is an important position.

I think, it is important to let them act as cute as they want to get the
international backing they need, and support them as a genuine poor-peasant
movement, if it helps them breathe a bit. Also, there is now some very
important developments in the Mexican trade-union and proletarian movement.
I'll try to post about it, I think it has some relevance to the European
trade-union movement. I gather this will determine the faith of Mexico, in
the last instance, and the EZLN will be but a part of this broader class
movement.

Zeynep











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