The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Zapatistas

From WolfWikis

NAFTA

On January 1, 1994, the governments of the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed into being the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This treaty removed restrictive tariffs on much of the trade that passed between the three nations, encouraging the international flow of goods and capital. Aside from agricultural concerns, the terms of NAFTA are the same for each country, although the differing economic makeup of the nations makes for various primary effects. As the New York Times put it, "In the first hours of 1994, the Mexican beer that Canadians drink, the Mexican garlic that Americans eat, the American computers on which Mexicans type and the Canadian Christmas trees that strike Mexicans as remarkably sturdy and green could all become slightly cheaper as tariffs on most goods come down by at least half."^[1]

The governments of the three countries, according to the treaty's preamble, agreed to "STRENGTHEN the special bonds of friendship and cooperation among their nations; CONTRIBUTE to the harmonious development and expansion of world trade and provide a catalyst to broader international cooperation; CREATE an expanded and secure market for the goods and services produced in their territories; [and] REDUCE distortions to trade."^[2] These goals, in addition to a desire to aid the corporations and business firms of the three nations, led to the program towards a liberalization of trade that NAFTA brought about.

NAFTA was initially conceived under the first Bush administration, and passed by Clinton and the Democratic Congress after the addition of the North American Agreement for Economic Cooperation (NAAEC) and the North American Agreement for Labor Cooperation (NAALC), which were intended to stabilize environmental and labor efforts throughout the three nations.

The governments of the three nations involved have tended to find NAFTA a complete success. The US Department of Commerce declared in 2004, for instance, that "NAFTA-related trade and investment liberalization has allowed U.S. firms to maximize efficiencies, remain globally competitive, and increase sales and exports as a result. This is further evidence that increased market access through free trade agreements has direct and indirect evidence for U.S. firms and workers." ^[3] The Canadian government, meanwhile, declared that NAFTA and other free trade agreements "had a major positive economic impact on Canada"^[4] while President Zedillo of Mexico dismissed all opponents of NAFTA and the WTO as "globalphobics" and anti-moderns.^[5]

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)

Overview

Inspired by and named for the turn-of-the-century revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, the Zapatistas are based in the Mexican state of Chiapas, which has a high proportion of indigenous residents and an exceedingly poor economy.

In addition to their opposition to NAFTA, the Zapatistas oppose neoliberalism throughout the world, call for a shift from a top-down representative democracy to a bottom-up participatory democracy, and seek to promote the needs and rights of the poor and indigenous peoples of the world.

The most well-known leader of the Zapatistas is Subcomandante Marcos, a man of Caucasian descent who insists that he is only a mouthpiece for the democratic majority of the EZLN. Most of the EZLN wear masks during their activities, and Marcos has never been seen by the outside world without one, and his true identity is still in question. The most commonly accepted theory at this point is that he was once Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente, a professor of political philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The evidence for this is mostly circumstantial, revolving around Guillen's disappearance before Marcos' arrival in Chiapas, and on Marcos' embrace of the theories of Gramscian counter-hegemony and Marcusean repressive tolerance-the logic here being that only a philosophy student could be familiar with or impressed by these ideas.

A Zapatista doll on sale on ebay to support the cause

The movement of the Zapatistas has often been called the first "post-modern" revolution, due both to its occurrence after the end of the Cold War and to the tactics favored by the EZLN. Their activities consisted of an actual armed revolution for only a few days before re-imagining itself as a grassroots political movement, although struggles with counter-revolutionary paramilitary groups continue to this day. Unlike most revolutionary groups, who seek to limit access to their territory, the Zapatistas have invited the world into Chiapas to observe the effects of neoliberalism, and have created an extensive online presence and relationship with the media to publicize their message. It is important to note, however, that the Zapatistas have not become a traditional political party, and in fact they continue to oppose the political process of the Mexican state.

The Uprising

The Mexican Zapatista movement also erupted into the public eye on January 1, 1994. Located in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas and composed primarily of indigenous peoples, the Zapatistas insisted that NAFTA policies would mark a final deathblow to their way of life. On the same day that lawmakers implemented NAFTA, 3,000 Zapatistas occupied six towns and hundreds of ranches. ^[6] The Mexican military counterattacked the next day, leaving at least 145 Indians dead. After massive civil demonstrations against the military actions, the Zapatistas and the government declared a ceasefire.^[7]

Marcos, the group's charismatic and masked leader, declared after the towns had been taken that "[t]oday the North American Free Trade Agreement begins, which is nothing more than a death sentence to the Indigenous ethnicities of Mexico, who are perfectly dispensable in the modernization program of [then President] Salinas de Gortari. Then the companeros decided to rise up on that same day to respond to the decree of death that the Free Trade Agreement gives them, with the decree of life that is given by rising up in arms to demand liberty and democracy, which will take them to the solution to their problems."^[8]

The Anti-NAFTA Ideology

Mexican President Salinas de Gortari, in attempting to modernize the nation prior to the implementation of NAFTA, abolished Article 27, Section VII of the Mexican constitution, in order to "restructure the Mexican economy by removing government involvement and support of sectors thought to be 'anti-modern.'"^[9] This article, included in large part because of Emiliano Zapata's revolutionary activities, stated that "[t]he judicial personality of concentrations of population in communes and communities is recognized, and their property on the land is protected as well as their human character and productive activities. The law will protect the integrity of the lands of indigenous groups." ^[10] In other words, this protected the communal lands of indigenous groups from sales or privatization.

According to historian George Collier, Salinas and his advisors "reached a consensus that Mexico's existing peasantry had to be subjected to major surgery, transformed and absorbed into the modernization of agriculture to increase the productivity of millions of peasant-held hectares used for crops not competitive on world markets, or worked by labor that could be put to more productive use elsewhere."^[11] The Salinas administration, in other words, declared that the traditional indigenous way of life was not compatible with the newly neoliberalized North America, and moved towards the privatization of Indian-held land. It is hard not to understand the insistence of the Zapatistas that NAFTA was a declaration of war on the traditional lifestyle. Collier asserts, moreover, that the infrastructural support removed from the Mexican economy by NAFTA was “needed to facilitate either the modernization of corn production to reach higher yields or the diversification into nontraditional fruits, vegetables, or field crops. Yet economic restructuring has removed the essential government services of credit, technical assistance, insurance, marketing, and agricultural advising precisely at the time when peasants need such services to diversify and modernize their production.” ^[12]

In the Zapatista worldview, after the end of the Cold War the world entered a new struggle that they call the "Fourth World War" (the Cold War being the Third) in which "major financial centers" struggle for "[v]ast territories, wealth, and above all, a huge and available workforce."^[13] In this understanding, neoliberalism and globalization are "merely the totalitarian extension of the logic of the finance markets to all aspects of life." NAFTA, in other words, is "a prelude to the accomplishment of an old dream of US conquest: 'America for the Americans.'"^[14]

The Masks

Subcomandante Marcos of the EZLN

Perhaps the most instantly recognizable facet of a group infamous for their ability to make the most of commodification, the Zapatistas' masks provide a visual signifier of many of their ideological stances. Unsurprisingly, for such a post-modern and chaotic group, members of the EZLN have given many different reasons for their use over the years. On the first day of the uprising, when asked why some rebels were masked and others were not, Marcos explained that "[t]hose of us who are more handsome always have to protect ourselves." ^[15] More seriously, he added, "the officers are those who are masked, for two reasons. The primary one is that we have to watch out for protagonism-in other words, that people do not promote themselves too much" and to promote a collective identity and sense of agency.^[16]

The masks, therefore, allow the leaders of the movement (but specifically Marcos) to become “transparent” and “iconographic.” For the rank and file of the Zapatistas the masks signify the anonymity of the masses marginalized by neoliberalism: by masking themselves, they could “forc[e] the world to stop ignoring their plight, to see their long neglected faces.” As the EZLN command group put it, "Below in the cities, we did not exist. Our lives were worth less than those of machines or animals. We were like stones, like weeds in the road. We were silenced. We were faceless." ^[17]

A Brief Timeline of the Zapatista Movement

1983 Former student activists of the National Liberation Front, including the man who will become Subcomandante Marcos, arrive in Chiapas after the crackdown on dissidents in Mexico City. They begin building the organization that will become the EZLN among the local Indians.

1994 The initial uprising takes places on January 1. Military countermeasures prove enormously unpopular, and the two sides declare a ceasefire on January 12. The government then offers a treaty in February, which is rejected by a vote of the Zapatistas. Zedillo is elected President, and on December 19 the EZLN creates 38 “autonomous indigenous municipalities.”

1995 Beginning in 1995 and lasting the next five years, over 60,000 troops occupy Chiapas. In August, after a vote in which over 1,000,000 people participate, the EZLN reinvents itself as a political rather than military force, initiating the Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN).

1996 The Zapatistas and Zedillo’s administration sign the San Andres Accords in February, which calls for land reform and autonomy and cultural rights for the indigenous. In December, Zedillo renounces his earlier pledge to support the Accords.

2000 National Action Party (PAN) candidate Vicente Fox wins the Presidency of Mexico, the first non-PRI candidate to do so in 71 years. Fox had promised to “resolve the problems in Chiapas in 15 minutes” and releases most of the political prisoners related to the EZLN, in addition to dismantling a few of the army encampments in Chiapas. He fails, however, to implement the San Andres Accords, which he had initially promised to do. ^[18]

2006 The EZLN organize the "Other Campaign" as a tour pitting Subcomandante Marcos (known in this role as Delegate Zero) against the campaign stops of the politicians campaigning for President. The EZLN did this not only to protest against the unfair representative nature of the political structure, but also to continue to draw attention to the plight of the poor and indigenous.

External Links

A videotaped interview with Marcos

Another interview

The Official Zapatista Website (Spanish)

Zapatista items on ebay

References

Annotated Bibliography

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada,"NAFTA: Text of the Agreement"; available from http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/nafta-alena/texte/index.aspx; Internet; accessed 2 December 2007.

The text of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Unfortunately written largely in legalese, but a few phrases here and there are legible and useful to the common man.

Hansen, Tom. "Zapatistas: A Brief Historical Timeline.” In The Zapatista Reader, ed. Tom Hayden, New York, NY: Avalon Publishing Group

An excellent brief overview of the history of the EZLN, stretching all the way back to the "beginning of history." Hansen is the National Coordinator of the Mexico Solidarity Network and co-Directory of the Chiapas Media Project, and his knowledge of this subject is vast. By the nature of its presentation as a timeline, though, this is not an in-depth investigation.

"Testimonies of the First Day” In The Zapatista Reader, ed. Tom Hayden, New York, NY: Avalon Publishing Group

An account of the speeches given by Marcos and some of the other Comandantes on the first day of the uprising. An excellent introduction to Marcos' excellent rhetorical skills.

"The Mexican Constitution"; available from http://www.historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=93#T1C1; Internet; accessed 28 November 2007.

The text of the Mexican Constitution of 1917.

George Collier, Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas (Chicago: Institute for Food and Development Policy, 1999)

Collier's book is perhaps the best historical work yet to be written on the Zapatistas, as it situates them within the indigenous struggle for land going back for centuries. He does a fantastic job of historicizing the movement, which much of the other work on the EZLN fails to do.

Hayden, Tom. "In Chiapas.” In The Zapatista Reader, ed. Tom Hayden, New York, NY: Avalon Publishing Group

A well-written account of Hayden's journeys to and activism on behalf of Chiapas. This is not objective scholarship by any means, but it contains some great points and some more evidence of the excellent rhetoric of Subcomandante Marcos.

Klein, Naomi. "The Unknown Icon.” In The Zapatista Reader, ed. Tom Hayden, New York, NY: Avalon Publishing Group

This falls into the same category as Hayden's work: some great points are made, a lot of sympathy is expressed, but not much objective scholarship is done.

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