Neozapatismo or Neozapatism (sometimes simply Zapatismo) is the political philosophy and practice devised and employed by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Spanish: Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN), who have instituted governments in a number of communities in Chiapas, Mexico, since the beginning of the Chiapas conflict. Despite its name, observers have described the EZLN as having libertarian socialist and Marxist influences rather than Zapatista philosophy. As UCL media studies lecturer Anthony Faramelli has written, "Zapatismo is not attempting to inaugurate and/or lead any kind of resistance to neoliberalism, but rather facilitate the meeting of resistance, and allow it to organically form worlds outside of exploitation." Others have proposed a broader conception of Neozapatismo that extends beyond the confines of political philosophy and practice. For example, according to Richard Stahler-Sholk, a political science professor at Eastern Michigan University, "[t]here are, in effect, at least three Zapatismos: One is the armed insurgency ... a second is the project of autonomous government being constructed in Zapatista 'support base communities' ... [and the] third is the (national and) international network of solidarity inspired by Zapatista ideology and discourse."
Origins and basic tenets
Observers have described the EZLN as having libertarian socialist and Marxist influences. It is also influenced by the thought of Emiliano Zapata and Zapatista spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos (who since 2014 has used the pseudonym of Subcomandante Galeano). The first nucleus of guerilla fighters arrived in the Lacandona Jungle to form the EZLN in 1983. These were politicised mestizo and Indigenous people with a revolutionary Marxist ideology; many of them had a history with the National Liberation Forces (FLN). Interactions between this group and the Indigenous communities native to the Lacandona Jungle led to transformations in the political-military strategy originally proposed by the EZLN. This integration of socialism with the Mayan cosmology and history of resistance crystallised as Neozapatismo during the uprising of 1994. Notable transformations in the EZLN's revolutionary Marxist ideology included reformed ideas about leadership and power, rejecting vanguardism in favor of radical democracy.
Subcomandante Marcos has offered some clues as to the origins of Neozapatismo. For example, he states: Zapatismo was not Marxist–Leninist, but it was also Marxist-Leninist. It was not university Marxism, it was not the Marxism of concrete analysis, it was not the history of Mexico, it was not the fundamentalist and millenarian indigenous thought and it was not the indigenous resistance. It was a mixture of all of this, a cocktail which was mixed in the mountain and crystallized in the combat force of the EZLN ... He has also stated:
Zapatismo is not an ideology, it is not a bought and paid for doctrine. It is ... an intuition. Something so open and flexible that it really occurs in all places. Zapatismo poses the question: 'What is it that has excluded me?' 'What is it that has isolated me?'
... In each place the response is different. Zapatismo simply states the question and stipulates that the response is plural, that the response is inclusive ... In 1998, Michael Löwy identified five "threads" of what he referred to as the Zapatismo "carpet":
Guevarism The legacy of Emiliano Zapata Liberation theology The Mayan culture The democratic demands made by Mexican civil society. Nick Henck, an associate professor in the Faculty of Law at Keio University in Tokyo, has suggested that Subcommander Marcos combined these non-indigenous elements (i.e. Guevarism, the legacy of Emiliano Zapata, and the democratic demands made by Mexican civil society) into the existing fabric of indigenous thought to create Neozapatismo, while also making his own significant political and philosophical contributions. These contributions include: an acquaintance with literature that influenced the language of Neozapatismo; the classical Marxism of Marx and Engels; the structural Marxism of Louis Althusser and Nicos Poulantzas; and the post-structural, post-Marxism of Michel Foucault.
Indigenous components Mayan Indigenous cosmology and philosophy make a significant contribution to Neozapatismo. For instance, Tojolabal and Tzeltal ideas about governing by consensus can by found in the Zapatista maxim to "command by obeying": Tzeltal authorities (ja'teletik) must adhere to collective agreements and the authority lies with the community. A practice with Tzotzil origins is a'mtel, which is work that is democratically determined, assigned, administered and carried out. UCLA anthropologist Dylan Eldredge Fitzwater stresses that, "the practice of a'mtel is at the heart of Zapatismo." Another Zapatista practice with origins in Indigenous philosophy is the maxim: preguntando caminamos ("asking we walk"). This approach of "walking while asking questions", was central to the Other Campaign (2006); and sociologist Ramón Grosfoguel describes the approach as a 'Tojolabal Marxism' that sets out as a rearguard movement that listens and asks questions instead of employing the Leninist strategy of a vanguard party that puts forward well-defined programs and theories.
Lekil kuxlejal Fitzwater also discusses the Tzotzil concepts of ichbail ta muk' and lekil kuxlejal. He renders ichbail ta muk' literally as 'to bring one another to largeness or greatness' and states that it 'implies the coming together of a big collective heart'. While this is sometimes rendered simply as 'democracy', Fitzwater prefers to translate it variously as 'to develop a collective heart', 'autonomous democratic governance' and 'a democracy of mutual respect', that arises from concrete practices of self-organization. Fitzwater further notes that ichbail ta muk' promotes lekil kuxlejal, which he renders literally as "the life that is good for everyone", while noting that it is usually translated simply as 'autonomy' or 'dignified life'. Lekil kuxlejal is considered equivalent to Buen Vivir or Sumak Kawsay, which are expressions used in other Indigenous social movements that oppose neoliberalism and extractivism.
Economic components
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