Graduation Date
2005
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Master of Arts degree with a major in Sociology
Committee Chair Name
Dr. Judith Little
Committee Chair Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Dr. Manuel Callahan
Third Committee Member Name
Dr. Donna Schafer
Keywords
Sociology
Subject Categories
Sociology
Abstract
This study examines the Ejercito Zapatista Liberación Nacional (EZLN) and Zapatista base communities contributions to an autonomous “revolutionary” theory and practice. The focus of this thesis is the evolution of Zapatismo as elaborated in the Zapatistas’ communiqués following the EZLN’s deceleration of war against the Mexican government on January 1, 1994, the same day that the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico went into effect. This thesis investigates the Zapatistas’ communiqués as part of an effort to more fully engage their strategies of self-representation and articulation of a collective subject in which any number of people can be or are Zapatista. The Zapatistas’ strategic use of the communiqués reveal not only their opposition to neoliberalism, but the political possibilities of a self-valorized collective subject in the context of the Fourth World War, i.e. the current phase of neoliberal globalization. Data uncovered due to a “political” reading of the communiqués suggests that they constitute a body of political theory with specific strategies for creating autonomous alternatives to the crisis of racist capitalist social relations no longer dominated by the Nation State. The research allows for an analysis of Zapatismo, which Subcomandante Marcos—military strategist and spokesperson for the EZLN—argues is less an ideology, set political program, or revolutionary dogma, and more tendencies. This thesis challenges readings of the communiqués which limit Zapatismo to a particular kind of social movement. The thesis iv concludes that the communiqués should be understood as theoretical and practical weapons or tools in the hands of rebels constructing self-valorized collective subjects struggling for human dignity.
Recommended Citation
Camp, Jordan, "Zapatismo and Autonomous Social Movements: Reading the Communiqes Politically" (2005). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2343.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2343