Re: Zapatistas & Desire for Mod Cons (was Re: Foster responds)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Lou:

>  >The above criticism of Harry Cleaver sounds right, which in no way
> > negates the importance of demands for modernization -- electricity,
> > potable water, education, up-to-date health care, housing with mod
> > cons, investment in infrastructure, etc. -- expressed by the
> > Zapatistas: struggle that is "appropriate to the task at hand, which
> > is extracting reforms from the Mexican government."
> >
> > Yoshie
>
> Thanks for reminding me of this. I am so forgetful. In a moment of lapse, I
> wrote an article that stressed recreating the Mayan past, including human
> sacrifice, ancestor worship and pyramids deep in the jungle built by the
> lower caste.

I don't believe you're into recreating the Mayan past or anything
like that.  It's a matter of emphasis, though.  A searching
indictment of the history of colonialism does nothing without a
movement for a better future, & all such movements -- be they those
for reforms appropriate to the task at hand or hoped-for future
movements that can make a serious bid for state power -- include in
their visions of a better future the desire to make use of the fruits
of modernity, brought to you by capitalism & resistance to it,
without despoiling the environment too much.

Yoshie