A decade of dissent
Ben Sichel
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photo: Simon Helweg-Larson
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As the Zapatistas celebrate the 10th anniversary of their popular uprising, Montreal students travel to where the antiglobalization movement began
January was a pretty hot month for globally minded activists this year. As protesters with big puppets showed up to world leader summits in Monterrey, Mexico, and Davos, Switzerland, folks of many, many stripes held a huge, chaotic love-in known as the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India. In the midst of it all, a group of Montrealers took a trip down to the place where this kind of opposition arguably began: Chiapas.
In 1994, years before activists began choking on tear gas outside trade meetings in North America and Europe, a group of masked indigenous peasants calling themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army emerged from the jungle in this southern Mexican state and demanded autonomy, dignity, and the means to fulfill their basic needs.
The Zapatistas were chased back into the jungle almost as quickly as they came out. But their media savvy and opposition to neoliberalism made them the darlings of the movement labelled "antiglobalization." Go to any demonstration against the FTAA, WTO, or similar nefarious-sounding acronym, and you're likely to see a Zapatista patch or T-shirt.
OOO
Last month 11 members of the McGill-based Students Taking Action in Chiapas (STAC) spent a week in the tiny town of Oventic learning all there is to know about Zapatismo. Oventic is one of several Zapatista-run "autonomous communities," where the local population has severed all ties with federal and state governments.
The visitors spent most of their time hearing speakers talk about various
aspects of the community: education, health care, co-operative business - all of which are run independent of official Mexican institutions. Marie-Claude Goulet, a medical student at the Université de Montréal, said she was impressed by the way the Zapatistas have "taken possession of their lives from A to Z." As opposed to other revolutionary movements, which work more by "reaction," the Zapatistas don't "wait for the government" to better their lives, she said.The governments of Mexico and Chiapas have in fact been quite hostile to the Zapatistas since their beginnings. The rebels oppose projects like Plan Puebla Panama, a massive, international infrastructure project they say would cut through their lands and destroy their natural heritage. In return, their communities face constant threats and intimidation from military and paramilitary groups.
To outsiders, the military presence in Chiapas is evident in the many checkpoints that dot the roads - checkpoints that are usually not very friendly to foreign Zapatista sympathizers seen to be meddling in Mexican affairs.
STAC had no problems getting around the area, however. As the group made its way to Oventic, hundreds of other visitors were pouring into the community to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Zapatistas' uprising. Gergey Pasztor, on his second trip to the region, said that checkpoints "mysteriously disappear" during any large celebration - nothing unusual going on here, goes the official government line.
OOO
The large number of foreigners in Oventic (about 600, in a town with a population of 250) did make some STAC-ers wonder exactly what they were doing in this small indigenous community. Margo Foster was wary of the "paternalistic attitude" with which some organizations travel to Third World countries - i.e. the notion that we Canadians can go down and, you know, help those Brown People develop a bit.
It's a problem that's plagued well-intentioned development projects for centuries, from the missionary interventions of colonial days to some of the international aid programs of Western governments today. Development agencies either don't grasp the true nature of a problem, or don't consider some important aspect of local culture, or simply treat their hosts with condescending attitudes. Foster would cringe when she saw foreign visitors snapping pictures of local people as if "in a zoo."
The STAC trip was actually run through Schools for Chiapas, a U.S. organization whose name certainly suggests this kind of mentality. But as the Montrealers found out, its main focus is actually on educating its trip participants about life in the Zapatista communities. (It does also help build schools, but Oventic already has one.) "We were learning way more from them than they were from us, which is how it should be," said Foster.
Probably the most important lesson STAC members learned on their trip was that of "bringing the struggle back home," as one speaker put it to them. STAC organizes events throughout the year to educate the public not only about the Zapatistas, but also about how their struggle relates to others around the world. A key concept of Zapatismo is that there is no one-size-fits-all remedy to the world's problems: Communities everywhere need to find local, adapted ways to deal with social issues. Creating "a world," as one of their slogans says, "in which many worlds are possible."
There's no question, though, that an experience like STAC's can be invaluable in understanding this world a little bit better. Which is why the group is already recruiting for its next trip this summer.
More information is available at www.stacmontreal.net.
| Why do the reviewers hate the volunteers so much? |
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Wow, I don't understand why there is so much animosity towards these volunteers. I would like to start by commenting on the assumptions people made about the article. STAC is McGill based. Most volunteers were actually not rich McGill students and some even needed to take out loans to pay for such a trip. Maybe you should check out the STAC website (www.stacmontreal.net) or come to one of our meetings to see that STAC is not just about going on a fun trip to Mexico. We are active within the Montreal community and our work in Chiapas spans much further than just being there (take for example International Human Rights Monitoring).
As for the article, I would like to thank Sichel for publicising the struggle and showing that you don't need to leave Montreal to make a difference in society. The work of STAC is mainly one of popular education. It is precisely by going to Chiapas, gathering 1st hand information (how many times do you hear someone say: "How do you know.you've never been there") and telling people about it here that a change can be brought to happen. Hearing someone tell you about their house being burnt and their friends getting killed as they are escaping is not something that you will assimilate the same way when it is read through Google as when it is told to you 1st hand.
Being able to travel to Chiapas is obviously a privilege not available to everyone, but it is certainly not something bad that deserves condemning. For those who want to hear more about the Zapatistas and hear what some volunteers have to say about their experience, we will be having two movie screenings during the month of March which will both be followed by an open discussion (see website for details).
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Gergey Pasztor
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{6 votes}
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| Learning from Those we wish to Help. |
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I really enjoyed this article it was well written and informative. I have traveled to many third world nations myself and have always taken more than I expected from the experience. In this case we can learn that a community can exist within a country and be completely autonomous from the rest of the country. It shows that not all revolutions have to be bloody or violent. The thing is that we all just want to be able to live in peace and be able to make our lives better. It is very impressive that 650 people made it down to this small village and showed support for a very important little movement. I'm glad that I read this article and learnt more about a subject that I knew very little about and I hope that more people did the same keep up the great and interesting content.
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Jeffrey Bordoff
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{14 votes}
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This article is by no means very informing, but it did whet my appetite to learn more about the Zapatistas. Sounds like they're doing their best to avoid being swept under the rug and globalised. I'm going to read more about them.
My gut reaction is that it's unfortunate there are similar local struggles that do not always get the attention that they deserve. Certainly their are indigenous communities that echo some of the principles of the Zapatistas. It concerns me how little respect for their wishes we seem to have in general.
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Charles Coulombe
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{1 vote}
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lI don't care one way or another where students decide to travel...but I am happy that this issue has been written about since it seems to be tucked away and forgotten.
I was in Mexico at the time of the movement in Chiapas. It was a very dangerous and scary time for everyone and not too much was known about the Zapatistas at the time. But they were just ordinary farmers, workers, family people who decided to revolt against the corruption that was prominent in Mexico for generations. People should know what happened. We have everything so easy here and take freedom of speech and safety for granted. But it is not the case in many countries. It is unfortunate to read that there are still unfriendly checkpoints set up along the roads to intimidate. It is reminiscent of the armies emergence up until the late 1970's throughout Mexico. You couldn't go shopping inside a grocery store without seeing soldiers armed with machine guns as you bought your milk.
Viva the Zapatista's. I'm all for rebelling for a better life for my children.
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Joyce Stemkowsky
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{1 vote}
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| About: A decade of dissent |
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You know, it's kind of depressing to hear that a bunch of already wealthy students got the 'privilege' to go to sunny Mexico for what some may call a course in Zapatista movement why us folks, who also care about the state of our planet, have to freeze our asses in the middle of winter. Couldn't wait 'til spring to get it done, could you? You're so excited about making your voices heard that you jump in the first plane available, direction: a place that don't know the snow, as soon as you could, didn't you? All that in the name of social dissidence... If you say so. I'll try to believe you as hard as I tried to believe Bush, alright?
This whole story, though, stink of self-gratification, if you ask me. What exactly do those kids have receive from the Zapatista National Liberation Army that they couldn't get right here, in cold-weathered Mtl? Even Ben Sichel doesn't really seem clear to what their exact purpose come down to. I have no problem admitting that I'm not what you can call 'in the know' when it's comes to mass-action against our Powers-that-be. I actually get the Zapatista position - for those folks, it's a basic question of survival, nothing less. But, now that they know more about Zapatismo, what will be the course of action for those eleven kids? Will they stayed there to actually help the villagers, or will they just come back home and do... nothing?
It's going to be interesting to see if their new-found knowledge on the subject will actually createdsignificant changes in the way that the STAC do business. But don't expect anything mind-blowing out of it...
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Joseph Belizaire
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{9 votes}
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The Zapatista sound very interesting in this article. However the wannabe white kids from bourgeois homes are not.
I often feel that most of the Montrealers who fight and 'choke on teargas' and think of themselves as professional protestors are more interested in being extremists looking for a fight rather than people who are actually intent on bettering our world.
I have heard such people on the street- proud of their struggle with the authorities organizing the WTO event in Quebec city- eagerly competing with one another for the most dramatic story:
'...oh ya well I helped break the fence...'
'well guess what? I was arrested and beaten...'
Sounds like a gang of teenagers vying to be the 'toughest' in order to get laid. sigh.
I respect those genuinely interesting in solving problems- not the whiny kids who can't string together coherant thoughts or express their own concerns for the world.
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Ada Mullett
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{7 votes}
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Wait, let me see if I've gotten this straight...11 McGill students spent a week in Mexico in January so that they could deepen their knowledge of the Zapatista movement?
Sure, fine whatever...
Far be it for me to doubt the profound intellectual pursuits of a bunch of McGill University students who decide to skip town for a week during one of the harshest coldsnaps on record so that they can deepen their understanding of the Zapatistas in Mexico of all places. Man, what academic commitment. Really. Wish I could muster up that sort of dedication and take a month off researching the intricate socio-cultural aspects of Rio, Cuba or Jamaica.
I'm sorry for my sarcasm, I'm sure the journey was done in earnest and affected them greatly but let's face facts here, there is a dimension here that cannot be ignored. Ben Sichel does one Hell of an excellent job covering this journey and giving us a Reader's Digest version of what's gone down there and why but guess what? We can Google the whole Zapatista thing ourselves and get a whole lot more detail than this article gives us. I imagine the 11 students must have felt really compelled to go on this pilgrimage because they really could have just sent one or two representatives and Googled it too. Like I said, dedication.
By the way, I don't have to be a psychic to tell the backlash coming my way. I'm pretty much expecting it and really couldn't care less. Anyone can respond as they see fit. I stand by what I've written because even if it's wrong or unfair to cast doubt on this whole thing, it doesn't mean nobody else was thinking it. I just happened to be the first one to point out. Maybe the trip was real but there is a certain convenient perception to it.
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Pedro Eggers
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{12 votes}
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