Bringing Each Other to Greatness: Narratives of the Revolutionary Vanguard and Horizontal Alternatives in Zapatista Theory and Practice
Social Sciences
Politics 190D: Early Socialist and Anarchist Thought
The Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional or EZLN, more colloquially known as the Zapatistas, are a movement that defies convention. The ideology of the group incorporates diverse traditions of thought including Marxism and as well as the linguistic and cultural traditions of several indigenous communities. These varying influences have created a conception of the Zapatistas, attributed to the movement by academics and promoted by the group themselves, as rejecting hierarchical structures and integrating other traditions of thought into their own philosophy. This view obscured the way in which Zapatista philosophy is a result of the historical interaction of indigenous peoples and the original Zapatista cause, through which both sides understandings changed and new understanding were born. Feminist practice among Zapatista communities in particular defies narratives of an indigenous perspective transferring knowledge to the Zapatistas without exchange. The Zapatista transmission of theory challenges the traditional academic assumption of vanguardism as an inherent imposition and the essentialization of both indigenous and Marxist thought. Through their historical interaction both the indigenous peoples of Chiapas and the Zapatistas have influenced each other’s concept of theory, creating a non-hierarchical understanding of learning.
