From: umptyre-AT-riseup.net
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 19:27:41 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [postanarchism] charles reeve on the zapatistas



from http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/beyond.html

...

In the Golden Age of 'actually non-existing socialism' journeys were
organised to the countries of the radiant future. Believers were then
invited to express their enthusiasm for a reality staged by the lords of
the manor. In this way people visited the soviet socialism of the USSR,
the Maoist socialism of China, the miniature socialism of Albania, the
bearded socialism of Cuba, the Sandinista socialism of Nicaragua, etc. Woe
betide those who contested the objective, scientific and unquestionable
character of these fabricated realities. Until the day these systems
collapsed. People thought they had seen but had seen nothing! Were lessons
drawn from this? It would seem not! With a smile slung over their
shoulder, people today again go off "to do revolutionary Chiapas" in
convoys organised by fellow travellers of the Zapatistas. On a well-signed
route, people have to agree to see only what they have to see and to
believe in the leader's words. The irrefutable argument hasn't changed one
iota: because the imperialist forces are threatening and the people are
defence-less, we can only put our trust in commanders. In a world in
crisis the demands for the future are revised downwards! People make
themselves the advocates of realism - they give in to the essential and
side with new oppressive projects.

 The groups of revolutionary tourists, seduced by the exoticism of the
unique Indian culture 1, are incapable of giving out any information or
direct account of what is happening in the Mexican countryside: about the
occupations, the forms of organisation chosen by the peasants in
struggle, their objectives and political perspectives. They are also
incapable of expressing the slightest critical element which could enable
us to deepen our knowledge of the avant-garde organisation running the
armed struggle.

Was it simply the evocation of Zapata's name and the memory of a "Mexico
Above the Volcano" which was enough to mobilise people? How come they can
throw themselves naively in support of a movement which is a vehicle for
the values of ethnic identity and patriotism, which are nowadays at the
heart of the most barbaric tendencies in the world? Those who have more
radical pretensions about the world can only justify their solidarity with
this Zapatista army of national liberation in the name of the tactics of
circumstance. It's in this way that, in the name of tactical support,
people consider as acceptable for others what is unacceptable for
themselves!

Rather than let the charms of the balaclavaed Saviour lull us to sleep,
wouldn't it have been better to analyse what is new in this type of old
organisation? [...]

...

"in august 1919 i left budapest, and of course was quite without money. i
only had one suit when i left, and i continued wearing it throughout 1919
& 1920."  -- georg lukacs

...

http://www.mprsnd.org/drifty