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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, The Return of the Subcommandante - Article﻿</title>﻿
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﻿<b﻿>﻿The Return of the Subcommandante 
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by Paul Hill and Karen Last﻿<br﻿>﻿
﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, August - September 1998﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
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Confounding persistent rumours that he was dead, captured by the Guatemalan army or, most bizarrely, seriously ill in hospital in the upper-class Mexico City district of Polanco, FZLN leader Subcommandante Marcos dramatically broke his six-month silence in July. During the period of Zapatista silence, the government of Ernesto Zedillo has launched a terror campaign against the autonomous municipalities in Chiapas which support the Zapatistas, and also intensified its militarization offensive against peasant communities in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Hidalgo. 
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
The result has been the destruction of several autonomous municipalities; the murder of nearly 30 peasants by the army, state police and death squads; the destruction and looting of hundreds of peasant homes; the imprisonment of dozens of people accused of supporting rebel groups; and a reign of terror which has driven 16,000 people out of their homes, and into pitiful refugee camps. 
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
This campaign, which started last December with the murder of 45 people in the Zapatista community of Acteal, culminated in the second week of June, when eight indigenous campesinos were tortured and executed in the Zapatista community of El Bosque, and 11 people were summarily executed in the Guererro village of El Charco - allegedly attending a meeting organized by a left-wing guerrilla organization, the EPRI (Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People).
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
The pattern of these attacks has become well established. The target rebel village is invaded before dawn by hundreds of troops and state police, often bringing with them pro-government death squads. The peasant houses are systematically smashed up, tools broken and all money and valuables stolen - in a society where poor villagers don't have bank accounts and keep their meager savings in cash at home. Supposed "ring-leaders" are taken away to be tortured, imprisoned or executed. 
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
No one now doubts that the Zedillo government is set on a military solution to crush the Zapatistas, the EPR (Revolutionary Army of the People) and the smaller EPRI, both of which are particularly active in the southern state of Guererro.
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
These spectacular acts of repression are in addition to the daily repression of popular organizations; for example, in the last month three key leaders of the OCSS (Peasants' Organization of the Southern Sierra) have been assassinated by pro-government gunmen. The magazine Convergencia Socialista has listed over 100 people who have been assassinated, "disappeared" or imprisoned for allegedly supporting the EPR in one small district of Guererro alone.
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
In the light of the government's military onslaught, the EZLN silence puzzled many of its sympathizers, and lent credence to the ever more bizarre rumours about the fate of the Subcommandante. On 17 July Marcos made his reply, in the form of a 28-page polemic (Masks and Silences, Mexico mid-1998), which in turn lambasts the government's militarization offensive, the xenophobic campaign against foreign observers and peace activists in Chiapas, neo-liberal globalization at the service of finance capital, the prostration of the Mexican government in front of the demands of the USA and the international financial institutions, privatization and the destruction of social services, the growing impoverishment of the mass of the population in Mexico, and last but not least former leftist intellectuals who now curry favour with the government by demanding a "firm hand" against the guerrillas. 
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
Full of sarcastic wit, the new declaration of the Subcommandante constitutes an all-out critique of modern capitalism. In the service of finance capital, declares the Subcommandante, the world's population is reduced "from a socio-cultural community, to a commodity to be traded on the world market."
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
Taking his cue from criticism of the EZLN silence, and their practice of wearing masks in public, Marcos turns the accusations against the government and capitalist class. The really deceptive mask, he declares, is that worn by those who speak of peace and a negotiated solution, but in practice carry out acts of war and murder. The mask worn by those who speak pompously of a "state based on law", but who are deeply involved in narco-trafficking and daily criminal acts against the poor, and in particular the indigenous people. Silence is imposed on the mass of the population by state manipulation of the media and repression. Marcos speaks out indignantly against the xenophobic campaign against foreign observers:
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
"The destruction of Mexico as an autonomous and independent nation must be covered up. This requires another mask, that of national chauvinism. Hundreds of people, Mexicans and foreigners, have come to south-east Mexico, motivated by a desire for peace and a determination to stop the extermination of the indigenous peoples which the Mexican government has started on the soil of Chiapas. Nothing more upsets the criminals (in the government) than eye-witness reports of the laboratory of extermination
which they have set up on the Indian lands."
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
The Subcommandante waxes ironic about the claim of the neo-liberal PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) government to represent "modernity." What's the use of this modernity?, he asks. Is it attractive, functional, aerodynamic, biodegradable, "cool" or "light" or any of the other things which the neoliberals claim to be modern? Modernity is just another mask, he insists, behind which the destruction of the social gains of the Mexican people is taking place:
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
"Behind the masks of 'industrial reconversion', 'adaption to the needs of the modern times of globalisation', 'the rationalisation of public expenditure', the 'elimination of subsidies which impede free competition and economic development'...Mexican governments since 1992 have conducted a campaign of extermination against the fundamental social basis of national sovereignty". 
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
Marcos' strictures about the effects of neoliberal economics on Mexico come at a time when the government is preparing a new labour law to eliminate fundamental employment rights, is privatizing the social security agency IMSS, privatizing electricity and preparing a partial sell-off of the state oil company, PEMEX.
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
Marcos berates the so-called 'heroism' of the Mexican army:
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
﻿<blockquote﻿>﻿"Look at the federal soldiers: so young, so strong, so well-fed, so well-equipped, so well-trained, so....so. See them fight heroically, with their tanks, their artillery, their helicopters and bomber planes. See their decisiveness and valour confronting the enemy. What heroism! Isn't this admirable? This is so-called patriotism. No matter that the 'enemy' only has machetes, feet, hands and teeth. No matter that the 'enemy' are indigenous Mexicans, the first inhabitants of these lands . . . against whom a war of extermination is being waged by every means."
﻿</blockquote>﻿
The Zapatista autonomous communities live in daily fear, not only of army attack, but of incursions by the more than twenty paramilitary death-squads which the government has set up ﻿in Chiapas under army protection. While the army maintains an effective blockade of the area, detailed information is difficult to come by. But such reports as there are suggest that the self-organized structures of the municipalities are functioning as normally as is possible, continuing to work the land seized after the Zapatista 1994 uprising. Journalist Michael McCaughan reported at the end of June from the autonomous communities in the Morelia district: 
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
﻿<blockquote﻿>﻿"The 200 peasant farmers of Lucio Cabenas never owned land before the Zapatista uprising, and still seem bewildered by the fulfillment of a centuries-old dream....The day's labour is still a rough physical challenge, but at least the fruits belong to them. 'We have our autonomous structures firing ahead here,' says Commander Ramon, gesturing at Morelia's community center equipped with soup kitchen, meeting hall, dormitory, library, vegetable garden and even photographic dark-room....Indian men and women used to walk with heads bowed; now they look you in the eye and discuss world politics. 'Sometimes we go to bed with a sore head from thinking so much' one villager said after a lengthy discussion on the Irish peace process'." (Guardian June 27, 1998).
﻿</blockquote>﻿
The Marcos' message is one of hope and struggle, albeit delivered in the enigmatic and poetic style:
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
﻿<blockquote﻿>﻿"New forms of struggle create their own masks, and forge their own silences. Little by little they are growing and reinforce the dignified mask of resistance...Behind the same mask of anonymity, indigenous people, workers, peasants, housewives, tenant farmers, trade unionists, students, teachers, Christians in base communities, retired people, the disabled, small traders, militants of social and political organizations, women, young people, children and the aged - all of them, day by day, resist...That resistance on the march creates a terrible silence: a silence which both accuses those in authority and signals the future."
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