Resistance at the Borders of Power: Reflections on the Zapatista and Palestinian Experiences

Abstract

Palestinians and Zapatistas exist in the liminal space at the margins of an oppressive state power, which they resist through their very existence as self-defined peoples. Their everyday resistance practices, reflecting prefigurative politics, forge collective identity and social subjectivity through what the Zapatistas call “dignified rage” and Palestinians call sumud (steadfastness). In the tradition of active nonviolence, both movements creatively employ art, ironic humor, and joy in processes of resistance that strengthen the community. Both movements resist the coloniality of power through initiatives that reinforce self-sufficiency while practicing solidarity to offset the hegemonic power that attempts to divide and isolate them and strip them of their identity. Through the exercise of autonomy, de facto rather than negotiated, they refuse to recognize illegitimate authority. Their autonomous actions counterpose what Hardt and Negri call constituent power, built from below, to the state’s offer of a quota of constituted institutional power imposed from above and confined within imposed territorial borders.