The Zapatista Social Movement: Innovation and Sustainability
In: Alternatives: global, local, political, Band 35, Heft 3, S. 269-290
ISSN: 2163-3150
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.