‘El pueblo manda y el gobierno obedece ’: Decolonising Politics and Constructing Worlds in the Everyday through Zapatista Autonomy

The most known story of the Zapatista uprising tells that on 1 January 1994, a group of Indigenous peoples and peasants rose against the Mexican state to oppose the reforms on land and trade. Those legal modifications were mandatory for the inauguration of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA). Since then, they have declared to be in rebellion and have resisted the spread of capitalist narratives of progress and development. As such, they have argued that capitalist, neo-liberal globalisation threatens their modes of living, as well as of ‘poor and simple people’ all around the world at the margins of that system (EZLN 2005). Locally, they struggle for the preservation of their communities and the defence of their rights and dignity as Indigenous peoples and peasants. Despite changes in the discourses and their political ventures along these years, they have consistently tried to build spaces of autonomy, resistance and dignity. RETRIEVED FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Author(s): Sebastián Granda Henao
Date Published: 2022

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