Looking into the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Small Indian Uprising Grows into
Symbol of Anti-Neoliberalism

Mexico's largest civil rights demonstration in decades- a two-week, cross-country caravan demanding better treatment of Mexico's 10 million ingidenous people- reached a thunderous climax in Mexico City' s historic central square on March 11th. With perhaps 100,000 supporters cheering them on, Mexico' s Zapatista rebels and their charismatic leader, known as Subcomandante Marcos, arrived in the vast square shouting "Nevermore a Mexico Without Us.?The Zapatistas left their jungle hideout on a journey to press President Vicente Fox and Congress to pass far-reaching constitutional reforms that would address the anti-Indian discrimination that ignited the rebels?seven-year armed uprising in the southern state of Chiapas. Their stated aim is to lobby Congress for legislation granting Mexico' s 10 million indigenous people autonomy. Members of Congress have agreed to let the rebel leaders appear before the lower house on 21st.

I. The reason behind the Zapztista movement

The Zapatistas are Mayan Indians from eastern Chiapas, who lead an indigenous rebellion against the Mexican government with demands for democracy, justice, liberty, land reform, and the restoration of those traditional Indian rights that their namesake, Emiliano Zapata, won during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation(EZLN) burst on the scene with a violent declaration of war against the Mexican government on New Year's Day 1994, the day (NAFTA) took hold between the US and Mexico and twelve days of fighting with the Mexican Army ensued. Chiapas is one of the poorest states in Mexico, consisting of 26 percent full-blood Indian out of 35 million of people. Most of the indigenous population is illiterate and have not completed primary school nor had any schooling. 60 percent of them live without running water and have no sewer. Among this portion of the population infant mortality is 70 percent higher than the national average.

Originally Chiapa was rich in natural resources- coffee, cocoa, hydroelectricity, and timber. However, the government adopted an open-economy policy in 1982 - abolishing a subsidy, inviting foreign investment and removing tariff barriers and the economic base of the indigenous population collapsed. Zapatista could not endure the mistreatment any longer and rose in revolt. A ceasefire finally ended the war, and since then, the Zapatista leadership has kept a commitment it made to Mexican civic society not to return to violence unless attacked by the Mexican authorities. While their army remains hidden in the rainforest, an eventual guarantor of peace negotiations with the Mexican government, the Zapatista movement is far more than the sum of its military strength. In the last year, the Zapatista also created a multi-ethnic civilian, legal organization, the Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN), which promotes the Zapatista agenda for a transition to full democracy on a national level.

II. Struggle against Neoliberalism.

In the beginning, Zapatista rebels rose against the government, demanding the social and economical reform and the abolishment of discrimination against its people. After realizing that the situation was originated from an offensive of neoliberalism, Zapatista rebels began to criticize it and has been in the vanguard of anti-neoliberalism. Marcos described the world that is overwhelmed by neoliberalism as jigsaw puzzle consisting of the concentration of wealth, the expansion of poverty, the global exploitation by financial capital, and the globalization of corruption and crime. Zapatists insist that the " globalization?of the new war is nothing more than the unification of the entire world in one complete market. This economic globalization is accompanied by a general model of thought- especially the " American way of life?- and now goes hand in hand or hand in computers with financial markets. Subcomandante Marcos said that neoliberalism has been also producing poverty, unemployment and instability of labor structurally and neoliberal beast has accelerated global exploitation.

III. New international solidarity using Internet

The Zapatistas are the first movement of its kind who have understood and used the Internet. The movement against neoliberalism has not operated systematically nor with unity. The Internet is a useful means which helps Non-government organizations (NGOs) and international grass-root organizations that are far apart, systematize and solidify. The FZLN maintains a number of websites on the Internet where the writings of Marcos, the chronologies of developments of the peace talks, and the history and development of key political and social initiatives undertaken in relation to civic society, are permanently available in Spanish, English, and French. " Our words are our weapons,?Zapatista leader subcommandante Marcos has said. From camps deep within the rainforest, Zapatista communicates electronically to an international readership around the globe, bringing the Zapatista communiques, letters, and political and philosophical essays to the outside world. So that in Paris, Madrid, Rome, Melbourne, Capetown, and Dublin, local civic society groups are kept up to date with a constant flow of information and ideas and back them up.

IV. From the bottom to the top

Most significantly in the Zapatista movement is that it was organized by itself and faithful to people's requests rather than compromising with authorities. Rebel leader use the motto - Mander Obediciendo, Manage with Obedience. First, the rebel leaders propose all major decisions affecting war and peace. Strategies of resistance are discussed, voted on, and ratified by the population in their assemblies. It is the Indian way. It is one of the key elements that makes the Zapatista movement so compelling to those outside observers who get close enough to learn its processes. For example, in 1994, while the experts and the politicians sought explanations consistent with an outdated ideological jacket, the people at the grassroots and those who knew the Indians of Chiapashe Catholic Church, local journalists, anthropologists, artists, historians, and linguists were listening to Marcos. And they liked what they heard. It is obvious that they supported in the resistance by Chiapas Indian, Mexican and international NGO's owing to thorough obeidence to the requests of people and is run democratically.

By Kwon Hye-mi
Reporter of International Section