Now
Available from
CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included)
Today's
Stories
January 7, 2004
Ramon Ryan
Small
Victories and Long Struggles: the 10th Anniversary of the Zapatista
Uprising
January 6, 2004
Dave Lindorff
RNC
Plays the Hitler Card: MoveOn Shouldn't Apologize for Those Ads
Ron Jacobs
Drugs
in Uniform: Hashish and the War on Terrorism
Josh Frank
Coffee and State Authority in Colombia
Doug Giebel
Permanent Bases: Leave Iraq? Hell No, We Won't Go
John Chuckman
Sick Puppies: David Frum's New Neo-Con Manifesto
Rannie Amiri
The Politics of the Iranian Earthquake
John L. Hess
A Record
to Dissent From
Thacher Schmid
A Cheesehead's Musings on the Sunday NYT
David Price
"Like
Slaves": Anthropological Thoughts on Occupation
January 5, 2004
Al Krebs
How
Now Mad Cow!
Kathy Kelly
Squatting
in Baghdad's Bomb Craters
Jordy Cummings
The Dialectic of the Kristol Family: Putting the Neo in the Cons
Fran Shor
Mad Human Disease: Chewing the Fat Down on the Farm
Fidel Castro
"We Shall Overcome": On the 45th Anniversary of the
Cuban Revolution
Gary Leupp
North
Korea for Dummies
January 3 / 4, 2004
Brian Cloughley
Never
Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
The Wrong War at the Wrong Time
William Cook
Failing to Respond to 9/11
Glen Martin
Jesus
vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse
Robert Fisk
Iraqi Humor Amid the Carnage
Ilan Pappe
The Geneva Bubble
Walter Davis
Robert Jay Lifton, or Nostalgia
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft vs. the Left
Mike Whitney
The Padilla Case
Steven Sherman
On Wallerstein's The Decline of American Power
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Taiwan Hypocrisy
William Blum
Codework Orange!
Mitchel Cohen
Learning from Che Guevara
Seth Sandronsky
Mad Cow and Main Street USA
Bruce Jackson
Conversations with Leslie Fiedler
Standard Schaefer
Poet Carl Rakosi Turns 100
Ron Jacobs
Sir Mick
Adam Engel
Hall of Hoaxes
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert & Curtis
January 2, 2004
Stan Cox
Red Alert
2016
Dave Lindorff
Beef, the Meat of Republicans
Jackie Corr
Rule and Ruin: Wall Street and Montana
Norman Solomon
George Will's Ethics: None of Our Business?
David Vest
As the Top Wobbleth
January 1, 2004
Randall Robinson
Honor
Haiti, Honor Ourselves
David Krieger
Looking
Back on 2003
Robert Fisk
War Takes an Inhuman Twist: Roadkill Bombs
Stan Goff
War,
Race and Elections
Hammond Guthrie
2003 Almaniac
Website of the Day
Embody Bags
December 31, 2003
Ray McGovern
Don't
Be Fooled Again: This Isn't an Independent Investigation
Kurt Nimmo
Manufacturing Hysteria
Robert Fisk
The Occupation is Damned
Mike Whitney
Mad Cows and Downer George
Alexander Cockburn
A Great Year Ebbed, Another Ahead
December 30, 2003
Michael Neumann
Criticism
of Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Annie Higgins
When
They Bombed the Hometown of the Virgin Mary
Alan Farago
Bush Bros. Wrecking Co.: Time Runs Out for the Everglades
Dan Bacher
Creatures from the Blacklight Lagoon: From Glofish to Frankenfish
Jeffrey St. Clair
Hard
Time on the Killing Floor: Inside Big Meat
Willie Nelson
Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?
December 29, 2003
Mark Hand
The Washington
Post in the Dock?
David Lindorff
The
Bush Election Strategy
Phillip Cryan
Interested Blindness: Media Omissions in Colombia's War
Richard Trainor
Catellus Development: the Next Octopus?
Uri Avnery
Israel's
Conscientious Objectors
December 27 / 28, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
A
Journey Into Rupert Murdoch's Soul
Kathy Kelly
Christmas Day in Baghdad: A Better World
Saul Landau
Iraq
at the End of the Year
Dave Zirin
A Linebacker for Peace & Justice: an Interview with David
Meggysey
Robert Fisk
Iraq
Through the American Looking Glass
Scott Burchill
The Bad Guys We Once Thought Good: Where Are They Now?
Chris Floyd
Bush's Iraq Plan is Right on Course: Saddam 2.0
Brian J. Foley
Don't Tread on Me: Act Now to Save the Constitution
Seth Sandronsky
Feedlot Sweatshops: Mad Cows and the Market
Susan Davis
Lord
of the (Cash Register) Rings
Ron Jacobs
Cratched Does California
Adam Engel
Crumblecake and Fish
Norman Solomon
The Unpardonable Lenny Bruce
Poets' Basement
Cullen and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Activism Through Music
December 26, 2003
Gary Leupp
Bush
Doings: Doing the Language
December 25, 2003
Diane Christian
The
Christmas Story
Elaine Cassel
This
Christmas, the World is Too Much With Us
Susan Davis
Jinglebells, Hold the Schlock
Kristen Ess
Bethlehem Celebrates Christmas, While Rafah Counts the Dead
Francis Boyle
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
Alexander Cockburn
The
Magnificient 9
Guthrie / Albert
Another Colorful Season
December 24, 2003
M. Shahid Alam
The Semantics
of Empire
William S. Lind
Marley's
List for Santa in Wartime
Josh Frank
Iraqi
Oil: First Come, First Serve
Cpt. Paul Watson
The
Mad Cowboy Was Right
Robert Lopez
Nuance
and Innuendo in the War on Iraq
December 23, 2003
Brian J. Foley
Duck
and Cover-up
Will Youmans
Sharon's
Ultimatum
Michael Donnelly
Here
They Come Again: Another Big Green Fiasco
Uri Avnery
Sharon's
Speech: the Decoded Version
December 22, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Pray
to Play: Bush's Faith-Based National Parks
Patrick Gavin
What Would Lincoln Do?
Marjorie Cohn
How to
Try Saddam: Searching for a Just Venue
Kathy Kelly
The
Two Troublemakers: "Guilty of Being Palestinians in Iraq"
December 20 / 21, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
How
to Kill Saddam
Saul Landau
Bush Tries Farce as Cuba Policy
Rafael Hernandez
Empire and Resistance: an Interview with Tariq Ali
David Vest
Our Ass and Saddam's Hole
Kurt Nimmo
Bush
Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis
Greg Weiher
Lessons from the Israeli School on How to Win Friends in the
Islamic World
Christopher Brauchli
Arrest, Smear, Slink Away: Dr. Lee and Cpt. Yee
Carol Norris
Cheers of a Clown: Saddam and the Gloating Bush
Bruce Jackson
The Nameless and the Detained: Bush's Disappeared
Juliana Fredman
A Sealed Laboratory of Repression
Mickey Z.
Holiday Spirit at the UN
Ron Jacobs
In the Wake of Rebellion: The Prisoner's Rights Movement and
Latino Prisoners
Josh Frank
Sen. Max Baucus: the Slick Swindler
John L. Hess
Slow Train to the Plane
Adam Engel
Black is Indeed Beautiful
Ben Tripp
The Relevance of Art in Times of Crisis
Michael Neumann
Rhythm and Race
Poets' Basement
Cullen, Engel, Albert & Guthrie
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
January
7, 2004
Small Victories and
Long Struggles
The
10th Anniversary of the Zapatista Uprising
By RAMON RYAN
Oventic, Chiapas.
On the eve of the 10th Anniversary of the Zapatista
Uprising, Jan 1 1994, the indigenous rebels had an unexpected
surprise for the thousands of supporters who gathered here in
Chiapas to pay homage--they did nothing.
No spectacular celebration, no mass march
upon San Cristobal, no bold new political initiatives, and certainly
no new armed uprising. Instead there were a series of subdued
celebrations in each of the 5 Zapatista Caracole centers, attended
modestly by rank and file and somewhat more generously by national
and international supporters.
Here in the Zapatista highlands headquarters
of Oventic, some 800 people danced the night away cloaked in
mud and fog. I recalled another New Years Eve here in this very
arena some years ago and that night there were several thousand
rebels out in force. Tonight's demure festivities (midnight passes
without much ado), the lackluster message read out by an unidentified
masked rebel and the empty space enveloping the gathering, prompts
some journalists present to ask - Where have the Zapatistas
gone?
Dialectics
President Fox claims he has ended the
conflict and brought peace to Chiapas, and mainstream political
analysts predict an end to Zapatismo. 1994--2004: The great
illusion, the great frustration, reads the cover of this
weeks Proceso, Mexico's most prestigious political weekly.
Their contention, that the Zapatista Uprising did not deliver
its promises and has brought little but more misery upon the
base communities, is gaining currency. The Zapatistas are a spent
force, have no answer to the new challenges of the 21st century,
are losing ground in the communities and Marcos has gone mad:
these are grist to the mill amongst the critics, but also among
some sympathizers.
"To still be here is a victory,"
said a Zapatista veteran at Oventic.
"Well, a small victory." he
added.
Encircled by the Mexican Army and threatened
by paramilitaries, such small victories can be regarded as quite
an achievement. When one considers the fate of the resistance
movements in neighboring Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua
in the 1980's - the predecessors of the EZLN, then maybe indeed
the victory is to still be here, and not to have been massacred.
A young Zapatista read out the end of year message in Oventic.
It did not address the quite momentous achievements of the previous
10 years of Zapatista resistance but instead concentrated on
the concrete gains of the past year- the consolidation of the
autonomous municipalities, the creation of the 5 Caracoles and
the new Juntas of Good Government.
"We have been able to advance in our struggle, in our different
tasks. During 2003 we made important gains" the masked Zapatista
read. "We ask that the companeros and companeras
in each region and each municipality, simply, continue working."
No rhapsodic communiqués of love
and rage, no poetic convocations to global revolt, none of the
signature tunes of Sub Marcos, just the nuts and bolts of local
resistance, of building radical communities and autonomy in action.
From National Liberation
to Local Autonomy
"You are in Zapatista territory.
Here the people rule and the government obeys," reads the rough sign as you enter the 'Resistance
and Rebellion for Humanity' Zapatista Caracole of Oventic. And
that is the message on this 10th Anniversary.
For this the dead died. Those who fell in the marketplace of
Ocosingo and Rancho Nuevo in '94, or the environs of El Bosque
in '98, and of course, those massacred in Acteal. For this the
thousands of indigenous people of the canyons and highlands and
jungle of Chiapas struggle, to rule themselves and to resist
the attempts of government encroachment over the sovereignty
of the people, their land and their resources.
What began 10 years ago ostensibly as
an old school struggle for national liberation ("We give
our military forces, the EZLN, the following orders: Advance
to the Capital of the country, overcoming the Mexican Federal
Army" Declaration of War, 31st December 1993) became
the long struggle for local autonomy, for really taking control
of their day-to-day lives.
With or without the shadow of Marcos, the Zapatistas move forward
in stealth and cunning, and the end of Zapatismo proclaimed
by pundits may be just the end of Marcos and the more spectacular
Zapatista ventures, for now. And the fictitious peace proclaimed
by Fox may be merely a prelude to a non-violent revolutionary
change of the structure of power in Chiapas that could reverberate
further, nationally, internationally and indeed, intergalactically.
A Foggy Night in Oventic
Fireworks pierced the murky night sky
and the predominantly young crowd danced all night long. Despite
the mud and the cold mountain air, the atmosphere was cheerful
and there is something still very special about this demure festival
of resistance. This day last year 20,000 Zapatistas descended
upon San Cristobal lighting huge bonfires and reminding people
that they hadn't gone away. This year the Zapatistas felt no
need for a big show. To be alive, a small victory, to be capable
of joy and struggle.
"Only in a rebel existence,"
the masked youth reminds us, "Can we continue constructing
our autonomy"
Weekend
Edition Features for January 3 / 4, 2004
Brian Cloughley
Never
Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
The Wrong War at the Wrong Time
William Cook
Failing to Respond to 9/11
Glen Martin
Jesus
vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse
Robert Fisk
Iraqi Humor Amid the Carnage
Ilan Pappe
The Geneva Bubble
Walter Davis
Robert Jay Lifton, or Nostalgia
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft vs. the Left
Mike Whitney
The Padilla Case
Steven Sherman
On Wallerstein's The Decline of American Power
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Taiwan Hypocrisy
William Blum
Codework Orange!
Mitchel Cohen
Learning from Che Guevara
Seth Sandronsky
Mad Cow and Main Street USA
Bruce Jackson
Conversations with Leslie Fiedler
Standard Schaefer
Poet Carl Rakosi Turns 100
Ron Jacobs
Sir Mick
Adam Engel
Hall of Hoaxes
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert & Curtis
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|