💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › moorish-orthodox-radio-crusade-zapatismo.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 12:47:46. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
➡️ Next capture (2024-06-20)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: Zapatismo Author: Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade Date: 1994 Language: en Topics: Zapatistas Source: Retrieved on 22 November 2010 from http://www.oocities.com/heartland/woods/4623/zapatismo.htm
Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade
Feb.14,1994
importance. Despite its small scale it has not yet been crushed,
apparently because the PRI fears public outrage. Moreover,
municipalities in various places in Mexico have been taken over by
various groups in sympathy with the Zapatistas. This news has been
blacked out in the US media, doubtless for reasons connected with NAFTA.
If the PRI begins to totter, US involvement becomes probable.
the RESIST! group in California) reveals a program completely in keeping
with the principles of Emiliano Zapata himself — modified for
contemporary relevance but basically anarcho-agrarian — “Tierra y
Libertad”. As anarchists we should remember that Zapata’s goals were
supported by the Flores Magon brothers, who worked behind the front
organization of the “Mexican Liberal Party”, but were in fact out
revolutionary anarchists. In 1911, European and N. American anarchists
ranging from Individualists to Wobblies participated in the short-lived
Republic of Tijuana. The revolt in Chiapas which began last New Year’s
Eve would appear to be the first non-authoritarian movement with real
revolutionary potential since Paris ’68 or Italy in the early ’70s. We
should not let marxist-leninist groups in the US “monopolize” the
Zapatistas. We should demonstrate our support, and we should make it
clear that we offer this support as anarchists.
movement to join in offering this support. Anarcho-communists,
anarcho-syndicalists, Wobblies, and others with historical reasons to
welcome a rebirth of Zapatismo, will need no convincing. As for the
individualists, post-Situ’s, “Type-3’s”, etc., we should consider that
the Chiapas uprising is a courageous adventure in the spirit of human
freedom. The Zapatistas themselves have evoked the romanticism of revolt
by choosing their name. “Romanticism” is a value despised only by those
too cynical or too tired to remember that — from an “existential” p.o.v.
— revolt is an end in itself.
1989” radical uprising. The involvement of the USSR helped change the
Sandinista movement (also named after and anarchist) into an
authoritarian government. But this time there is no USSR to get
involved. Zapatista documents make no reference to marxist-leninist
forms of organization. (The New York Times even went so far as to call
the Zapatistas “post-modern”!) For the first time since 1916 we don’t
have to watch our backs or protect our flank against leninism. — or
stalinism. Anarchism is free to act.
in the Zapatista movement. But since 1989 the meaning of Liberation
Theology has also changed or shifted. The Vatican, which tacitly
encouraged Lib. Theol. as a wedge into marxism in Latin America, now no
longer needs it and has virtually reduced it to the status of a
near-heresy. In theory, Lib. Theol. must by now be purged of its
“jesuit” wing and its “marxist” wing, leaving only the sincere radicals.
The religious situation in Chiapas is very complex, involving
Mayan/Christian syncretistic cults, and other churches beside the Roman
Catholics. As yet the presence of organized religions in Chiapas seems
to offer no real obstacle top anarchist enthusiasm for Zapatismo.The
Stirnerite anarchist Ret Marut adopted the “existential” position (see
para. 3 above) when he joined the Bavarian Soviet of 1919 with Gustav
Landauer and other anarchists. Escaping a death-sentence in Munich,
Marut fled to Mexico and changed his name to B. Traven. In the early
’20s he lived for a while in Chiapas and wrote a book about it
(unfortunately never translated). Traven went on to write the best of
all anarchist adventure novels — The Deathship, The Wobbly, Treasure of
the Sierra Madre, and above all his Mahogany series, set in Chiapas
during the Mexican Revolution. When Traven died he was buried in San
Cristobal — where the Zapatisa revolt broke out last New Year’s Eve.
Traven is someone we might remember, not only because he was a “gringo”
who loved Chiapas and supported the Revolution, but also because he
transcended all limited “ideological” anarchist tendencies to embrace a
grand vision of human tragedy, endurance, and freedom.As of this writing
the Zapatistas have called on radicals outside Mexico for support but
have not yet specified what form they’d like it to take. Obviously, in
light of the media blackout, spreading the word has top priority.
Sending medicine and supplies, et cetera, may soon become both necessary
and possible. Given the very great chance of US involvement to protect
the PRI and NAFTA, we should begin the organization of domestic
resistance networks now, so as not to be caught napping again. The
anarchist press should remain closely informed, and should provide
background as well as news (one of our members is in Mexico now, looking
for real info). The authors of this letter are prepared to join with any
responsible non-authoritarian support group which might emerge. If you
are organizing or would like to help organize on behalf of Zapatismo, or
if you have information for broadcast, please contact us.
Tierra y Libertad!
Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade
Box 113 WBAI-Pacifica
505 8^(th) Avenue
New York, NY 100 18