Autonomy Is in Our Hearts

Dylan Eldredge Fitzwater

Description

Following the Zapatista uprising on New Year’s Day 1994, the EZLN communities of Chiapas began the slow process of creating a system of autonomous government that would bring their call for freedom, justice, and democracy from word to reality. Autonomy Is in Our Hearts analyzes this long and arduous process on its own terms, using the conceptual language of Tsotsil, a Mayan language indigenous to the highland Zapatista communities of Chiapas.

The words “Freedom,” “Justice,” and “Democracy” emblazoned on the Zapatista flags are only approximations of the aspirations articulated in the six indigenous languages spoken by the Zapatista communities. They are rough translations of concepts such as ichbail ta muk’ or “mutual recognition and respect among equal persons or peoples,” a’mtel or “collective work done for the good of a community” and lekil kuxlejal or “the life that is good for everyone.” Autonomy Is in Our Hearts provides a fresh perspective on the Zapatistas and a deep engagement with the daily realities of Zapatista autonomous government. Simultaneously an exposition of Tsotsil philosophy and a detailed account of Zapatista governance structures, this book is an indispensable commentary on the Zapatista movement of today.

Sujets

• Post-capitalism
• Political culture
• Indigenous
• Colonialism

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781629635989
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

In ancient Greek philosophy, kairos signifies the right time or the moment of transition. We believe that we live in such a transitional period. The most important task of social science in time of transformation is to transform itself into a force of liberation. Kairos, an editorial imprint of the Anthropology and Social Change department housed in the California Institute of Integral Studies, publishes groundbreaking works in critical social sciences, including anthropology, sociology, geography, theory of education, political ecology, political theory, and history.
Series editor: Andrej Gruba i
Kairos books:
Practical Utopia: Strategies for a Desirable Society by Michael Albert
In, Against, and Beyond Capitalism: The San Francisco Lectures by John Holloway
Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism edited by Jason W. Moore
Birth Work as Care Work: Stories from Activist Birth Communities by Alana Apfel
We Are the Crisis of Capital: A John Holloway Reader by John Holloway
Archive That, Comrade! Left Legacies and the Counter Culture of Remembrance by Phil Cohen
Beyond Crisis: After the Collapse of Institutional Hope in Greece, What? edited by John Holloway, Katerina Nasioka, and Panagiotis Doulos
Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons by Silvia Federici
Occult Features of Anarchism: With Attention to the Conspiracy of Kings and the Conspiracy of the Peoples by Erica Lagalisse
Autonomy Is in Our Hearts: Zapatista Autonomous Government through the Lens of the Tsotsil Language by Dylan Eldredge Fitzwater
The Battle for the Mountain of the Kurds: Self-Determination and Ethnic Cleansing in the Afrin Region of Rojava by Thomas Schmidinger

Autonomy Is in Our Hearts: Zapatista Autonomous Government through the Lens of the Tsotsil Language
Dylan Eldredge Fitzwater
2019 PM Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-62963-580-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018931534
Cover by John Yates / www.stealworks.com
Cover art Autonom a es Vida / Sumisi n es Muerte, screenprint, 2013, by Fernando Marti www.justseeds.org/artist/fernandomarti/
Interior design by briandesign
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PM Press
PO Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
www.pmpress.org
Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan.
www.thomsonshore.com
La autonom a est en nuestros corazones.
Autonomy is in our hearts.
Elena, member of the autonomous consejo , autonomous municipality
Ricardo Flores Mag n, Caracol III La Garrucha 1
Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FOREWORD by John P. Clark Introduction
This Is Our Work : The Escuelita and the Zapatista Experiences of Autonomous Government
The Study of Social Movements in Tsotsil: Pask op
PART ONE
The History of Autonomous Government CHAPTER ONE A Genealogy of Zapatista Political Aspirations: From the Dictatorship of the Proletariat to the Self-Determination of Peoples in Struggle
The Zapatista Form of Liberation
The Struggle for National Liberation
The Revolution Within the Revolution: Zapatista Women s Struggle
The Dangers of the EZLN s Military Hierarchy
Conclusion CHAPTER TWO The Zapatista Clandestine Organization: The Creation of a Collective Heart (O on) and Collective Potentiality (Ch ulel)
The Tsotsil Understanding of Collective Heart (O on) and Potentiality (Ch ulel)
Clandestine Organizing: The Creation of the Collective Heart of the EZLN
Women s Participation in the Organization of the Collective Heart
Strengthening the Collective Heart of the Organization between Communities
Conclusion CHAPTER THREE The Creation of the Caracoles: Relationships of Difference in the Collective Heart (Ko ontik, Ko onkutik)
The Double Sense of Collectivity in Tsotsil
Governing by Obeying: The Creation of the Autonomous Government
Conclusion
PART TWO
The Practice of Autonomous Government CHAPTER FOUR The Community Has the Final Say : The Assembly and the Collective Work of Governance (A mtel)
A mtel: Government as Work for Collective Survival
Creation and Recreation of a Collective Heart: The Assembly of the Zone
The Assembly of the Zone and the Creation of Trabajos Colectivos: An Example from La Realidad
Zapatista Justice
Conclusion CHAPTER FIVE Decolonizing Work: Zapatista Collective Work (A mtel) and the Struggle against Systems of Desperation-Dependence-Displacement (Kanal)
Cycles of Desperation-Dependence-Displacement: The Kanal of the Finca and Its Contemporary Reproduction
The Contradictions of NGO Aid
The A mtel of the Trabajos Colectivos
The Progress of Trabajos Colectivos in the Five Caracoles and the Importance of Autonomous Cows
Inequality in the Development of Trabajos Colectivos and the Struggle of Caracol II Oventik
Conclusion CHAPTER SIX Challenges in the Work of Collective Governance (A mtel): Circumscribing Power, Creating Accountability, and Women s Participation
Elections through the Assembly and the Obligations of Zapatista Authorities
Preventing the Formation of Political and Economic Elites
The Government and Communities Are One and the Same: Rotation Systems in the Five Caracoles
Watching Over the Autonomous Governments: Accountability Structures in the Five Caracoles
The State of Women s Participation in Autonomous Government in the Five Caracoles
How Can We Change if the Compa eros Don t Know How to Make Tortillas? Barriers to Women s Participation in Autonomous Government
Conclusion EPILOGUE Another World Is Possible NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my teachers: the education promoters of the Oventik Escuela de Lenguas, the amazing people from Bats il K op, and of course Margaret, Lisa, and Roosbelinda for being the best editors I could ever hope for. Thank you to Kaden for all the linguistics help, to Maya for the edits and comments, to Gustavo for translating my work and for answering my translation questions, to Alix for the diagrams, and to Quincy for breathing new life into the whole project.
Caracol I La Realidad
1. San Pedro de Michoac n
2. Tierra y Libertad
3. Libertad de los Pueblos Mayas
4. General Emiliano Zapata
Caracol II Oventik
5. San Andr s Sakamchen de los Pobres
6. Magdalena de la Paz
7. San Juan de la Libertad
8. Santa Catarina
9. 16 de Febrero
10. San Juan Ap stol Cancuc
11. San Pedro Polh
Caracol III La Garrucha
12. Francisco G mez
13. San Manuel
14. Ricardo Flores Mag n
15. Francisco Villa
Caracol IV Morelia
16. Lucio Caba as
17. 17 de Noviembre
18. Comandanta Ramona
Caracol V Roberto Barrios
19. Vicente Guerrero
20. El Trabajo
21. Francisco Villa
22. Campesino
23. La Paz
24, Benito Ju rez
25. La Dignidad
26. Acalba a
27. Rub n Jaramillo
A note on the map: it should become apparent when reading this book that it is close to impossible to draw a map of Zapatista autonomous government. The autonomous government system is not a state with set administrative boundaries, passports, and postal codes. A map of Zapatista autonomous governance is really a map of collective decisions, shared work, and the complex shifting relationships between life and land. This web of relationships cannot be captured within sharp territorial boundaries. However, it is also true that the communities that are located in the highland region of Chiapas send authorities to serve on the Good Government Council of Caracol II Oventik and are in turn attended to by those authorities. Even though there are no borders or border crossings, each Caracol and municipality covers a certain geographical area. To put it succinctly, the lines on this map represent the collective agreements of communities that, as the Zapatistas would say, have organized themselves in a certain geography. Although for convenience I represent them as straight lines on a map, their reality is fuzzy, shifting, and changeable.
FOREWORD by John P. Clark
A Politics of Heart and Spirit
For many years, I have been conducting an experiment to investigate the dominant ideology. I have asked people if there was any famous statement by Marx that they could quote from memory. I have found that there has been one almost universal response, namely, that Marx said that religion is the opiate of the masses. What is so striking about this reply is that it cites only part of Marx s famous saying and, rather suspiciously, leaves out what is quite possibly the most important part. The missing part states that religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the spirit of spiritless conditions. 1 Marx implies that religion has been and remains a powerful force in society, because it is a source of heart and spirit. 2
If we think deeply about the implications of Marx s statement, we may learn something very important. It is something that has not been grasped very well by radical and revolutionary movements (including, and perhaps even especially, by those movements called Marxist ). If one wants to replace traditional religion with something else, the result will be a disaster if that something else does not contain at least as much heart and spirit as what is being replaced. The history of the Zapatista movement, as revealed in Dylan Fitzwater s eloquent and illuminating account, is the history