Zapatista
beginnings
The manifestations of globalising
resistance take their beginning, in some ways, from the anti nuclear movement
in the 1980s in Europe and the United States, when people organised across
borders and transnationally. More specifically, the current wave of anti
capitalist demonstrations, as we saw in Seattle, Prague, Genoa, and most
recently in Barcelona*, owe their origin to the Zapatista insurgency in Chiapas
in south eastern Mexico which emerged on New Year’s day 1994.
This insurgency was the catalyst
in many ways for what has taken place since because the Zapatistas were
attempting to resist officially the project of neo-liberalism, that is the form
of globalisation that is taking place around the world: privatisation of public
services, the increasing power of multinational corporations, etc. The
Zapatistas were interesting because they had emerged as the first revolutionary
movement in Latin America that had as its leadership, almost exclusively
indigenous people. Traditionally in this area revolutionary movements in Cuba,
in Guatemala, in El Salvador, in Nicaragua and so on have tended to have very
problematic relations with indigenous people.
As pointed out many times by Sub
Commandante Marcos, their spokesperson, they too went into the jungles to
organise peasants and particularly indigenous people (in Chiapas a large
percentage of the population are indigenous) with very preconceived notions.
Marcos describes how they had to learn from indigenous people about their ways
of life, about the jungle, about the terrain, the locality, about the cosmology
or the world view of indigenous people, before they could even begin a
discussion about challenging the system, the state and the power of
international capital in Mexico. In fact the dialogue and organisation that
took place took 10 years before the Zapatistas emerged in 1994.
This is my first important point:
here is an interesting model for other movements to consider. The Zapatistas
emerged very publicly with a very powerful symbolic message. They emerged as
armed, masked , guerrillas from the jungle and occupied towns and the regional
capital of Chiapas, but for only 30 hours , whereupon the rebels went back to
the jungle and disappeared. The image of guerrilla warfare, however, the image
of armed masked rebels, sent a very powerful message to a lot of the
international investors who were beginning to invest in the Mexican economy as
Mexico had been deemed a newly emerging market. They got cold feet and as a
result the peso was devalued, and millions of dollars of investment fled from
Mexico.
Subsequently over the last 8
years, the Zapatistas have continued their struggle, and this brings me to the
second important point about the Zapatistas - they are not attempting to
capture state power. Even though they declared a symbolic war on the Mexican
state they are very different from previous revolutionary movements in that
they are attempting to democratise civil society and in doing so they have
formed coalitions and solidarity networks with a whole series of groups in
Mexico, including trade unions, other peasant movements, the Catholic church,
women’s groups and so on. They are trying to form a broad based coalition of
resistance against globalisation and neo liberal capital and indeed the Mexican
state.
And the third important point,
which leads me to talk about globalising resistance and the big demonstrations
that have taken around the world in the last 4-5 years is that the Zapatistas
attempted to globalise their struggle by communicating to the world via the
internet, though not exclusively. They have wanted to mobilise global civil
society against neo-liberalism, because as they rightly argue, neo-liberal globalisation
is threatening everybody. It is threatening peoples livelihoods, health and
education services all over the planet, albeit in different ways. So for
example, over the last few years in Iran there have been all kind of
demonstrations about similar issues, poor wages or non-payment of wages,
against the privatisation of public services, about safety at work or
conditions at work, and about unemployment. What has inspired people elsewhere
about the Zapatista struggle is that although their struggle is culturally
specific to Mexico in many ways, what they are facing is being faced by people
all over the world. As a result of this in 1996 the Zapatistas set up the first
Encounter in the jungles of Chiapas to invite activists, academics, and media from
throughout the world to discuss these issues and discuss strategies. A second
encounter took place in Spain in 1997 and inspired by the Zapatista message,
and sub-commandante Marcos’ call for there to create a network of struggles
around the world, an active attempt to coordinate struggles around the world,
particularly against the world bank, the IMF , the world trade organisation and
transnational corporations, which are driving this model of neo liberal
globalisation.
In 1998, there was a big
demonstration in Geneva against the World Trade Organisation and against the G8
governments of US, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, Japan and Italy, Russia.
At Geneva at the same time a group of social movements had their own alternative
summit against globalisation and from that summit one of the formations that
emerged to coordinate struggles against globalisation internationally, has been
Peoples’ Global Action (PGA).
PGA is really not an organisation;
it is a convergence of different social movements, struggles from around the
world, including farmers unions, Zapatista support groups, peasant groups from
various parts of Latin America and Indonesia, South Asia, and autonomous
struggles from all over Europe, and direct action groups in the United States.
What is important about PGA is that as a convergence what it has tried to do is
to invite different movements, indigenous peoples movements , women’s
movements, environmental movements and trade unions to converge with one
another to do several things.
Firstly to communicate with one
another, and one of the prime ways of doing this has been over the internet.
Secondly to share information with one another about each other’s struggles.
Thirdly to effect and create links of solidarity to help and support another
struggle although it might be in a very different part of the world. Fourthly
to coordinate struggles, through both regional and international conferences
and various meetings and workshops. Fifthly, to coordinate and plan strategies
for forthcoming struggles and sixthly, to mobilise resources, financial
resources, people resources, and media resources to affect these struggles.
Specifically they have been
involved in, firstly, calling for participation in the global days of action, Seattle
in 1999, subsequent demonstrations against the World Bank and the G8 in Prague
2000, in Genoa in 2001 and more recently in Barcelona, against the policies of
the European Union. These organisations and institutions are targeted because
they are seen as the main proponents and organisers of globalisation. So PGA
has put out calls for these global days of action and has also had three
international conferences. The first in Geneva in 1998, then in Bangalore,
India in 1999 and the third in Cochabamba in Bolivia in September 2001. At
these conferences, activists, usually one or two from particular movements from
round the world have come to the conference for a week or two, had face to face
meetings to share information, to discuss their own struggles and to plan and
coordinate collective struggles for the future. In Cochabamba there were about
250 delegates, 175 were from different movements in Bolivia, including domestic
workers, cocoa farmers, campesino or peasant movements of central Bolivia. But
also movements from Central and Latin America, from Papua New Guinea, various
parts of Asia, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and from
across Europe.
Peoples’ Global Action is trying
to follow a quote by sub-commandant Marcos: “we are all the network, all of us
who resist” and indeed what PGA is trying to do at the moment is engage in a
consulta (consultation ) to do an outreach in Europe to try and find out more
about peoples struggles and to invite them to participate in the convergence. I
am involved in a regional component of People’s Global Action (PGA-Asia) which
at the moment include movements from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and
Thailand. We are very open to talk with people involved in struggles in Iran,
to try and effect some coordination, some linking up and working with people
there. From what I have heard the various struggles involving chemical workers,
textile workers, mine workers, teachers in Iran, are bringing up issues similar
to at least some of those issues being struggled over in other parts of the
world. There is clearly common ground here for links and networks.
The anti capitalist movements are
winning the arguments about the negative impacts of globalisation. Even people
in the advanced capitalist countries can see that their own life world is being
impacted, their health services are declining, their education system
declining, the costs of basic materials such as food are going up. While the
media in Seattle, Genoa, and Barcelona has focussed on these big demonstrations,
what is also important is that there have been simultaneous demonstrations over
the planet. For example, during the Seattle demonstrations there were
demonstrations in over 100 other cities in 40 other countries around the world
on that same day .
The important reality behinds
these days of action, is that they are only the surface of what is really going
on throughout the world. Certainly activists involved in networks are now
getting continuous information about different struggles around the world and
ways they may be able to help these struggles. The movement has been very good,
I think, in sharing information, communicating, and coordinating these big
demonstrations but also in more regional smaller demonstrations. For example
there is a big struggle taking place in Europe regarding refugees and
immigrants, border camps are being set up to open these borders, because one of
the big claims of neo-liberalism is that there are open borders, there is free
trade. Yet these are open for capital but not for people. The border camps,
effectively detention centres, are for those people from the third world, or
eastern Europe, who are trying to find work in Europe because their own
countries economies have been destroyed by neo-liberal policies.
I think one aspect the movement
has to work on is to provide concrete and material support for different
struggles around the world. In this it has not yet been successful. It is a
difficult thing to organise and of course the movement has only been around
really for 4-5 years. It has had phenomenal successes so far. One of the ways
the PGA is addressing the issue is, in addition to these international and
regional meetings, setting up “caravans”. Caravans (and there have been several)
are attempts to move activists through countries or across borders to link-up
with as many struggles as possible, to inform them about PGA and to exchange
information, and invite them into the convergence.
One very successful one was a
caravan of about 400 Indian and Nepalese farmers, brought from India to Europe
in 1999, right across a number of countries in Western Europe, to participate
in rallies and workshops. There have also been caravans in Canada and the
United States , in Latin America, and I was involved in a small one in India.
At the moment struggles are very much focussed in their own localities dealing
with day to day issues and it is difficult for them to put their energies into
supporting movements from across the world. But such problems are being
discussed at regional conferences, workshops and caravans. A success of the
movement has been that for the first time we are now seeing the coordination of
very different types of political formations.
At the global days of action, and
certainly at some of the conferences I have attended, people from indigenous
movements, women’s, movements, environmental struggles, Maoist struggles, trade
Unions, are all coming together. Different groups who were involved in very
sectarian struggles in the last 30-40 years, such as autonomist and
authoritarian left groups, are beginning to realise that it is in their common
interest to join together. This happened in the past in the anti-nuclear
movement in Europe and in the United States in the 1980s but not on such a
great scale. This is because the effects of neo-liberalism are being felt by
people very directly, that people from different struggles - trade unions,
feminists, environmentalists, and anarchists are joining together in common
struggle. Convergences like PGA are attempting to nurture this coming together
of different movements. Of course people have very different views about
tactics and strategies but, in the words of the Zapatistas, we are trying to
create a world of many worlds.
We are trying to join hands across
our differences, while recognising the importance of those differences and
respecting them. We need to recognise that we share common ground, regarding
certain broader goals concerning peoples right to self determination, equality,
and meaningful and creative work. In Bangalore 1999 PGA conference and again in
Cochabamba in Bolivia in 2001 many movements, and indeed many countries, were
not represented. In Bangalore there was nobody from Africa, that changed in
Bolivia, as members of South African unions were present in Cochabamba. But
there are a lot of movements from Asian countries who have not yet been drawn
into the PGA process. One of these is of course Iran. These days you can
communicate without physically crossing borders using the internet. Again the
Zapatistas were one of the first groups to use the internet and email to
organise globally. This is used very much by PGA. There are a whole range of
web sites to tap into to get information about other struggles around the
world, but also to post information about the struggles that are going on in,
say Iran, in order to initiate and begin links with other movements in other
parts of the world.
The Peoples Global Action web site
is www.agp.org. The more regional coordination of PGA is taking place through
an email list which is pga-asia@cupboard.org. This is an email list for people
who are attempting coordinate meetings, conferences, and struggles in Asia.
There are also two very good western based but international emailing lists.
One is social-movements@listserve.heanet.ie and the other allsorts@gn.apc.org
The last two are email lists disseminate news about struggles all over the
world. These are good places to link into, to communicate with others involved
in struggles and begin a dialogue.
* This an abridged version of an interview between Yassamine Mather and Pablo Kala from Peoples' Global Action in 2002. We publish it here as an introduction to the debate over the need to set up a Middle East Social Forum [eds]
From the 23rd to the 26th of
February of 1998, grassroots movements of all continents met in Geneva to
launch a worldwide coordination network of resistance to the global market, a
new alliance of struggle and solidarity called Peoples' Global Action against
“free” trade and the WTO. The defining documents of the PGA are its five hallmarks, its organisational principles and its manifesto. At the conference in Bangalore, India in August 1999 the hallmarks and the organisational principles were amended to reflect discussions about clarifying differences to right-wing anti-globalisers. A new second hallmark was added. The Hallmarks were
changed at the conference in Cochabamba 2001. Visit www.agp.org for an updated
version.