scheduled for 2006. The first phase of consisted primarily of a sort of reconnaissance La Otra tour of the country by Marcos, now renamed Delegate Zero on a motorcycle, accompanied by a a chicken) and various allies. “penguin” (actually discursively, and in practice, marked a shift in the political La Sexta La Otra EZLN’s orientation. Pérez Ruíz (Pérez Ruíz 2005) has argued that was a return to the la Sexta EZLN’s pre-1994 While that characterization oversimplifies the process of political “radical project.” development involved, it is certainly the case that marked a break with the Zapatistas la Sexta focus on the questions of indigenous rights and autonomy and a re-articulation of a vision of a broad extra-electoral and anti-capitalist Mexican left reminiscent of the themes of the First In practice sought, and continues to pursue with mixed results, the linking Declaration. La Otra together of heterogeneous nodes of resistance in order to reconstitute that left. In short, with the founding of the EZLN in 1983 and its subsequent embrace by a large fraction of the indigenous-campesino movement, Zapatismo emerged as a distinct political current within that movement in Chiapas. When the 1994 Zapatista uprising and the rapid initiation of talks with the government compelled the Zapatistas to experiment politically, they were able to draw on the unusual conceptual wealth of both the indigenous-campesino movement, and its indigenous and non-indigenous antecedents, to articulate a very creative response to the new political terrain carved out by neo-liberal globalization, a response that in turn captured the imaginations of the generation of young radical activists who would initiate the alter-globalization movement. The influence of Zapatismo, or rather a particular reading (or as I will argue on certain points, a misreading) of Zapatismo, on the alter-globalization movement and consequently on other movements with roots in the alter-globalization movement suggests the value of a serious historical sociological investigation into the origins and development of the
scheduled for 2006. The first phase of La Otra consisted primarily of a sort of reconnaissance tour of the country by Marcos, now renamed Delegate Zero on a motorcycle, accompanied by a “penguin” (actually a chicken) and various allies. La Sexta discursively, and La Otra in practice, marked a shift in the EZLN’s political orientation. Pérez Ruíz (Pérez Ruíz 2005) has argued that la Sexta was a return to the EZLN’s pre-1994 “radical project.” While that characterization oversimplifies the process of political development involved, it is certainly the case that la Sexta marked a break with the Zapatistas focus on the questions of indigenous rights and autonomy and a re-articulation of a vision of a broad extra-electoral and anti-capitalist Mexican left reminiscent of the themes of the First Declaration. In practice La Otra sought, and continues to pursue with mixed results, the linking together of heterogeneous nodes of resistance in order to reconstitute that left. In short, with the founding of the EZLN in 1983 and its subsequent embrace by a large fraction of the indigenous-campesino movement, Zapatismo emerged as a distinct political current within that movement in Chiapas. When the 1994 Zapatista uprising and the rapid initiation of talks with the government compelled the Zapatistas to experiment politically, they were able to draw on the unusual conceptual wealth of both the indigenous-campesino movement, and its indigenous and non-indigenous antecedents, to articulate a very creative response to the new political terrain carved out by neo-liberal globalization, a response that in turn captured the imaginations of the generation of young radical activists who would initiate the alter-globalization movement. The influence of Zapatismo, or rather a particular reading (or as I will argue on certain points, a misreading) of Zapatismo, on the alter-globalization movement and consequently on other movements with roots in the alter-globalization movement suggests the value of a serious historical sociological investigation into the origins and development of the
PPW-9-Gunderson.docx