I assume there’s a similar section for Zapatista criticisms of the western left? Or does the gaze only go one way?
imagine criticizing the zapatistas instead of wishing them the best and supporting the product of their labor.
I imagine desiring less wage labor, more centralized power for the explicit purpose of state activities like healthcare, environmental protection, foreign affairs, housing assurance, etc. is nice to have. However, asking any movement why isn’t not there yet, or at all, is like asking about the lack of carpeting in the house that you’re building. It’s like WERE NOT AT THAT POINT YET! You don’t just order a communism from Amazon. It’s not like every commune is supposed to be the same; that’s not even what Marxist theory asks for. The directive is to respond to your material conditions. NO BACKSEATING
It’s like WERE NOT AT THAT POINT YET!
I mean, at some point it just feels like a very Westernized wish-list anyway.
You’re talking about a population that’s functionally under siege by the Mexican state military, struggling to engage in productive trade with their neighbors so they can build up capital and modernize infrastructure, handling the steady flow of migrants fleeing violence south of their border, and basically just fighting every day to keep the lights on.
Then you have some cafeteria communist from Seattle wander by an internet chat forum to complain about the Zapatistas not having enough vegan dishes at their local Whole Foods.
This isn’t even a “We’re not at that point yet”. Its just folks couched in the imperial core lobbing criticisms at a community totally divorced from their Settler Colonialist lifestyle. Why not complain about their lack of HSR and over-reliance on fossil fuels, while you’re at it? How many carbon offsets have the Zapatistas purchased recently?
Meanwhile, they’re camped out in bunker-villages trying to maintain a steady supply of guns and ammo against the next wave of state military sponsored drive-bys and kidnappings.
Eloquently put. I may have revealed myself as unfamiliar with the Zapatistas. I understand and have close to my heart the idea that military conflict is ugly and incredibly grizzly. I wholeheartedly agree that it’s hard to think about purchasing carbon offsets while you’re trying to save someone’s son from dying on the front lines. For the context of people embroiled in conflict, perhaps “building a house” isn’t a comprehensive metaphor. All the same, amenities in the light of acknowledgement of our mutual humanity is presumably the endgame and, should they succeed in their struggle, the metaphorical house could have carpet installed at that point, but not while a bunch of woodpeckers and beavers are chewing at the foundation.
That last paragraph really illustrates the need for the Oxford comma
Unless they’re saying plastic is not vegetarian because the microplastics leaching into their food are derived from oil made from decomposed plankton :jesse-wtf:
