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Palestinians and Zapatistas exist in the liminal space at the margins of an oppressive state power, which they resist through their very existence as self-defined peoples. Their everyday resistance practices, reflecting prefigurative politics, forge collective identity and social subjectivity through what the Zapatistas call "dignified rage" and Palestinians call sumud (steadfastness). In the tradition of active nonviolence, both movements creatively employ art, ironic humor, and joy in processes of resistance that strengthen the community. Both movements resist the coloniality of power through initiatives that reinforce self-sufficiency while practicing solidarity to offset the hegemonic power that attempts to divide and isolate them and strip them of their identity. Through the exercise of autonomy, de facto rather than negotiated, they refuse to recognize illegitimate authority. Their autonomous actions counterpose what Hardt and Negri call constituent power, built from below, to the state's offer of a quota of constituted institutional power imposed from above and confined within imposed territorial borders.

"Zapatistas and New Ways of Doing Politics" published on by Oxford University Press.

El artículo examina la identidad colectiva que se va forjando en la vida cotidiana de las comunidades autónomas zapatistas en Chiapas. Se desarrollan tres argumentos: 1. La persistencia del movimiento zapatista, a 20 años de su aparición pública, se debe en gran parte a la construcción de una nueva subjetividad que se manifiesta como una identidad colectiva entre los participantes. 2. Esa identidad se caracteriza más por un proceso de construcción, en las prácticas de relaciones sociales y formas de hacer política en los territorios autónomos, que por un perfil fijo. 3. La autonomía zapatista es un ejemplo de «contrapoder», que puede ser relevante para otros movimientos sociales antisistémicos de América Latina.
RESISTANCE, IDENTITY AND AUTONOMY: TRANSFORMATION IN ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES
This article examines the collective identity forged by everyday life in autonomous Zapatista communities in Chiapas. It develops three arguments: 1. The persistence of the Zapatista movement 20 years after its public emergence largely due to the construction of a new subjectivity expressed as collective identity among participants. 2. This identity is characterized as a construction process through the social relationships and forms of doing politics practiced in autonomous territories, rather than a fixed profile. 3. Zapatista autonomy is an example of «counterpower», which could be of relevance to other anti-establishment social movements in Latin America.

The 1994 Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico, illustrates "glocal" resistance to the neoliberal world order. While rooted in indigenous communities, the rebellion is best understood not in terms of essentialist identities but rather as an ongoing process of creating new social practices in resistance to domination. The sustainability of the movement depends not on the overthrow of the state, but on the effort to continually transform society. Four important contributions emerge from the experiences of the autonomous communities and municipalities in Zapatista-influenced territory: (1) The reframing of the concept of power. (2) The construction of new social subjectivities. (3) A redefinition of the concept of autonomy. (4) Radical democracy.