Two Examples of Indigenous Protest

1
Two Examples of Indigenous Protest

• Malaysia
• Response to Green Revolution changes
• Localized
• Everyday Acts of Resistance

• Chiapas
• Response to long-standing land crisis
• NAFTA
• Local-National-Global
• Violent and Non-violent protest

2
Zapatista Rebellion
3
Understanding the Moment

• January 1, 1994 Mexicos entrance into NAFTA
• NAFTA was the death certificate of the
  indigenous peoples of Mexico
  Sub-Commandant Marcos

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Why Zapata?

• Emiliano Zapata
• Revolution of 1910move to reestablish communal
  land holding
• Earlier loss of peasant land
• Juaraz gives individual title to landsoon lost
  to peasants
• Diaz (1876-1910) sells huge tracts to investors
  to attract capital

5
Chiapas

• Southernmost state in Mexico
• Poorest State
• Highest malnutrition, illiteracy rates
• 20 population has no income
• 40 has an income less than minimum wage
• Small number of wealthy families dominate economy
  and politics

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History of Repression in Chiapas

• During revolutionary era, local private armies
  maintained control through terror
• 1916-Federal Army repelled by Chiapas militias,
  land reform stifled
• 1993-land held by 6000 2 million peasants
• Rigid control by ruling PRIMayan community
  repeats hierarchies
• Dissent suppressed by vigilantes

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The Crisis Intensifies

• Mayan farmers resettled in deforested areas
• No title to landharassed by vigilantes
• Protestants harasses by Catholic establishment
• Modernization projects (dams, oil drilling) yield
  uneven benefits

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Causes of Poverty

• Communally held land can be sold (Constututional
  Change)
• NAFTA approved
• Decline of agricultural subsidies for poor
  farmers
• Need for peasant agriculture rethought as part of
  restructuring debt (1982)
• Fertilizer subsidy removed
• Coffee price supports removed

9
Zapatista Tactics

• Struggle over legitimacyZapatistas subvert govt
  authority by using rhetoric of the revolution
• Traditional appeals
• Use of technology (internet, media)

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Responses to the Zapatistas

• Government Restraintmilitary response prevented
  by media coverage
• Global financial communityZapatatistas are a
  hazard to confidence in Mexican markets and must
  be removed
• Can government financial aid reach the needy?
• Danger of vigilantes1997 massacre of 45
  Zapatista sympathizers

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Zapatista Information

• www.ezln.org
• www.fzln.org.mx

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Two Examples of Indigenous Protest

• Malaysia
• Response to Green Revolution
• Localized action
• Everyday acts of resistance

• Chiapas
• Response to
• Long-standing land crisis
• NAFTA
• Vigilante
• Local-National-Global consequences
• Violent and Non-Violent

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Peasant Movements Then and Now

• Often resemble each other in tactics
• In contemporary movements, the conditions that
  led to the protests were consequences of the
  globalization of the capitalist economy
• Malaysia
• Chiapas

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Capitalism and Crisis

• Capitalism requires a society of perpetual growth
• Enormous flexibility and adaptability
• Far reaching consequences for patterns of social
  and political relations
• Long-term consequences?

15
Antisystemic Protest
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The Revolution of 1848

• Began in France on Feb 24
• New Republic based on universal sufferage
• Spread to Bavaria, Berlin, southwest Germany most
  of Italy, even Columbia

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Understanding 1848

• Immediately successfulmost governments
  overthrown
• Within 18 months, revolution defeated and old
  regimes restored (except France)
• Worker movements-protest oppression of labor
  under industrial revolution
• National liberation-peripheral nations against
  imperialist and colonial powers
• ModelFrench Revolution of 1789

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Worker Movements-How to Improve the Lives of
Workers

• Fight for the right to vote and form workers
  parties
• Continue to work towards violent revolution
• Organize unions and gain the right to strike
• Nation-States of Europe and America outlawed
  unions and criminalized strikes

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Problem The Aristocracy of Labor

• Two levels of labor emerge in the aftermath of
  1848

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Nationalist Antisystemic Movements

• Peripheral movements led by middle class and
  intelligentsia reaching out to other
  anticapitalist factions
• By the beginning of postwar era, major objectives
  had been met
• Incorporation of new zones
• Political restructuring
• Creation of new modern states

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1968

• Antiwar protests in United States
• DNC riots in Chicago
• Kent State
• Students and Workers in Paris
• Student activism in Japan
• Violence and Olympics in Mexico

22
1968

• United States war against Vietnamese nationalism
• Soviet suppression of Czechoslovakia
• Consequences?

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Where are we now?

• Have the objectives of 1968 been realized?
• From campus boycotts to Seattle protests
• New Social Movements, World Social Forum (Porto
  Alegre)