The Communist Roots of Zapatismo and the Zapatista Uprising

Abstract

This study suggests that communist politics had much deeper roots in the larger indigenous-campesino movement that formed the social base of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (ezln) than has previously been acknowledged. Tracing the political development of the indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico from the late nineteenth century to the founding of the ezln in 1983, it examines the influence of several currents of revolutionary socialist and communist theory and practice on the Zapatistas. It concludes with a call for further investigation into the theoretical status of communism as a category of a critical theory of contentious politics.