Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 10:54:18 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave-AT-mundo.eco.utexas.edu>
Subject: [M&Guardian] Zapatistas Offer Alternative to Neoliberalism (fwd)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 06:25:59 -0500 (CDT)
From: lemaitre monique j <tc0mjl1-AT-corn.cso.niu.edu>
To: chiapas-l-AT-profmexis.dgsca.unam.mx
Subject: [M&Guardian] Zapatistas Offer Alternative to Neoliberalism (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 21:56:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mauricio Banda <mbanda-AT-dch.mty.itesm.mx>
To: Multiple Recipients of List Mexico2000 <mexico2000-AT-mep-d.org>
Subject: [M&Guardian] Zapatistas Offer Alternative to Neoliberalism

Summary:

1. ZAPATISTAS OFFER ALTERNATIVE TO NEO-LIBERALISM [Mail & Guardian]
2. TITLE=MEXICO ZAPATISTAS (L-ONLY) [VOA]


1. News source: Mail & Guardian, via Electronic M&G (South African news)
   Source:  http://www.web.co.za/mg/news/96jun2/28jun-zapatistas.html
   Date: 07/05/96


SOUTH AFRICA
 ========
                               ZAPATISTAS OFFER
                                ALTERNATIVE TO
                                NEO-LIBERALISM
  Patrick Bond
   
   
   Pic: Hooded Zapatistas M EXICO'S southeastern mountains and valleys
   still occasionally resonate with the sounds of gunfire and poetry, as
   they did on January 1 1994, the day the North American Free Trade
   Agreement went into effect and the Zapatista peasant army temporarily
   took control of dozens of towns in the state of Chiapas.
   
   But next month the uprising will take on a different flavour as tens
   of thousands of participants from across the world gather at the
   "Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism" in
   La Realidad -- and South Africans opposed to their government's sudden
   lurch towards neo-liberal economics may find some practical examples
   to back their programme, in the jungle town that the Zapatista's have
   turned into a liberated zone.
   
   The Alternative Information for Development Centre (AIDC) in Cape Town
   is arranging for a group of South Africans, mostly from organised
   labour and the civic movement, to attend. There they will focus on the
   development of bottom-up strategies to confront the free-market
   features of globalisation which the Zapatistas argue are central to
   their ongoing oppression -- and are increasingly generalisable to the
   rest of the world.
   
   Says AIDC director Brian Ashley: "The comparisons with Mexico are
   spooky: macroeconomic conditions, our government's allegiance to
   financial overlords, the similar traditions we share in national
   struggles, the sense of needing to keep civil society as strong as
   possible. South Africans can go to Chiapas to both learn and teach."
   Ashley was referring to the way the Zapatistas have created a bridge
   between their local struggle and a general attack on neo-liberalism.
   Organising throughout Mexico is helping to bring urban, worker,
   women's, gay/lesbian and environmentalist concerns into the movement.
   Now an "Alternative Economic Strategy for Mexico" has even been
   mooted.
   
   The Zapatistas' leading economic advisors are Professors Carlos Salas
   and Alejandro Nadal. In a visit to South Africa last month, Professor
   Salas told audiences of parallels he noticed between the two
   countries' underlying structural contradictions.
   
   These include the economic bias toward luxury goods production and
   imports for middle-class, extreme wealth polarisation and
   underdeveloped production to meet basic needs, declining prices for
   the raw materials exports upon which both countries grew dependent,
   and the destructive flood of "hot money" into -- and then out of --
   the stock and bond markets.
   
   Mexico suffered an economic disaster in 1995, including a fall of 6%
   in GDP, a 65% crash of the peso and 50% stock market collapse, 8 000
   firms in bankruptcy, the loss of 1,3-million jobs, a one-third cut in
   real wages, huge increases in interest rates and a national "bond
   boycott"-style popular movement of more than a million debtors from
   all walks of life called "El Barzon" (the yoke).
   
   South Africa's contradictions are nowhere near as serious, but the
   recent 25% collapse of the rand -- which ironically has generated
   calls for further liberalisation, whereas in Mexico even the IMF
   reckoned that tighter regulation of financial flows was in order --
   provides some indication of the turbulence and fragility exacted by
   global economic forces. As in Mexico, the need to soothe foreign
   investors and local financiers apparently motivated much of
   government's "Growth, Employment and Redistribution" strategy.
   
   But while labour and social movements across the world offer
   passionate critiques of neo-liberalism, they have often stumbled in
   posing feasible but still radical alternatives. The Zapatistas may
   provide inspiration to their guests.
   
   From the Zapatistas' jungle HQ where Marcos and tens of thousands of
   civilians and combatants have retreated, a unique challenge to
   neo-liberal economics is emerging that is partly pre-modern, sometimes
   post- modern, partly classical Marxist, and distinctly grounded in
   "civil society" (in other words, neither a political party or
   traditional guerrilla movement). "Zapatismo is not a new political
   ideology or re-fried old ideologies," says Marcos in a recent Internet
   communique. "It serves, only in the way bridges serve, to cross from
   one side to the other."
   
   
   (-- Mail&Guardian Thursday, 27 June 1996) Dr Patrick Bond is a senior
   economist at the National Institute for Economic Policy



2. News source: Voice of America, via VOA Gopher
   Source: gopher://gopher.voa.gov/00/newswire/fri/MEXICO_ZAPATISTAS
   Date: 07/05/96
 

DATE=7/4/96
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
NUMBER=2-199757
TITLE=MEXICO ZAPATISTAS (L-ONLY)
BYLINE=CINDY LAVANDEROS
DATELINE=MEXICO CITY
CONTENTVOICED AT:

INTRO:  THE ZAPATISTAS REBEL MOVEMENT HAS BEEN LAYING THE
GROUNDWORK  FOR ITS FUTURE PARTICIPATION IN MEXICO'S POLITICAL
LIFE DURING A FORUM ON DEMOCRATIC REFORM NOW UNDERWAY IN THE
IMPOVERISHED STATE OF CHIAPAS.  THE FORUM WILL END THIS SATURDAY,
JUST DAYS BEFORE ANOTHER ROUND OF PEACE TALKS WITH THE GOVERNMENT
IS SCHEDULED TO BEGIN.  WE HAVE MORE FROM CINDY LAVANDEROS FROM
MEXOCO CITY.

TEXT:  ZAPATISTA LEADER SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS HAS BEEN SPEAKING
WITH PROMINENT POLITICAL AND CIVIL LEADERS THIS WEEK IN AN EFFORT
TO CREATE A BROAD OPPOSITION FRONT CAPABLE OF BRINGING ABOUT
BADLY NEEDED DEMOCRATIC AND ELECTORAL REFORMS.

EARLY THIS WEEK, HE MET WITH LEADERS OF MEXICO'S MAIN CENTER LEFT
OPPOSITION PARTY TO DISCUSS WORKING TOGETHER TO COMBAT
NEOLIBERALISM, STRENGTHEN DEMOCRACY FOR THE 1997 ELECTIONS AND
IMPROVE PEOPLES LIVING STANDARDS.  THE ZAPATISTAS AND LEADERS OF
THE PARTY OF THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION OR P-R-D AGREED TO
ESTABLISH A FORMAL RELATIONSHIP BASED ON MUTUAL RESPECT FOR EACH
OTHERS ORGANIZATIONS.

SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS LEFT THE LACANDON JUNGLE SATURDAY TO ATTEND
THE SEVEN DAY FORUM IN SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS.  HUNDREDS OF
INTELLECTUALS, LEGISLATORS AND SOCIAL ACTIVISTS ARE PARTICIPATING
IN THE FORUM, SPONSORED BY THE ZAPATISTAS.

IN ADDITION TO TALKING ABOUT THE ZAPATISTAS POLITICAL FUTURE,
PARTICIPANTS ARE ALSO DISCUSSING ISSUES THAT RANGE FROM THE
NATION'S ECONOMIC PROGRAMS TO ITS TRANSITION TO A GREATER
DEMOCRACY.

THE COMMISSION FOR CONCORD AND PEACE COMPROMISED OF FEDERAL
LEGISLATORS FROM FOUR POLITICAL PARTIES ANNOUNCED IT WOULD MAKE
SURE THE RESULTS OF THE FORUM GO BEFORE CONGRESS.

P-R-D DEPUTIES SAID THEY WILL NOT ONLY PRESSURE CONGRESS TO
CONSIDER THE FORUM'S PROPOSAL BUT ALSO TO PUT FEBRUARY'S
INDIGENOUS RIGHTS ACCORDS ON THE BOOKS.  THESE ACCORDS WERE
SIGNED ON FEBRUARY 16TH IN SAN ANDRES LARRAINZAR AFTER MONTHS OF
DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND THE REBELS.  THEY WERE
PRAISED AS THE FIRST TANGIBLE STEP TOWARD PEACE IN THE CHIAPAS
CONFLICT.  BUT SO FAR,LEGISLATORS HAVE YET TO ACT ON THE ACCORDS.
(SIGNED)

NEB/CL/CB-T/PT

04-Jul-96 8:01 PM EDT (0001 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America



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