Zapatism

The Zapatista Movement

Indigenous rebels in Chiapas, southern Mexico, began quietly organizing in 1983 for a 1994 uprising against neoliberalism, capitalism, and racism. Since then, they have organized themselves according to their own rules, independent of the state.

For 500 years they have resisted colonialism, for 27 years a low-intensity war has been waged against them - on a military, psychological, economic, administrative and media level. They were declared dead 1000 times - but they are alive and rebellious to this day. In their autonomous structures, they organize all areas of life themselves according to grassroots democratic principles - and the struggles of women* play a central role in this.

Again and again they have given worldwide impetus for networking and connecting the struggles from the left and below. Started with Mexico-wide meetings in the rebel areas and the "Intergalactic Meetings" - which were an important starting point for the anti-globalization movement and the formation of structures such as People's Global Action or indymedia.

In 2001, they mobilized millions of people with a delegation trip through Mexico. In recent years they have invited to international women's meetings and passed on their experiences of self-government to thousands of people from all over the world in the "small Zapatista school". Their movement has continued to grow, they have expanded their autonomy, planted seeds of rebellion throughout Mexico and networked closely with all resisting Pueblos Originarios in Mexico through the National Indigenous Congress (CNI).

In 2021 they will leave Mexico for the first time and start a journey to all five continents.

More info at Ya Basta netz

On the occasion of the round trip and to help the Zapatistas »find what makes us the same« we have collected our thematically appropriate articles here - and also (in our opinion) placed a few related content items.