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Zapatistas in Cyberspace

Zapatistas in Cyberspace. Kevin Chicas ISF100D Research Project. Introduction.

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Zapatistas in Cyberspace

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  1. Zapatistas in Cyberspace Kevin Chicas ISF100D Research Project

  2. Introduction • When the EJERCITO ZAPATISTA DE LIBERACIÓN NACIONAL(EZLN) took over five main Chiapas municipalities to coincide with the enactment of the NAFTA agreement in January 1, 1994, the first informational guerilla movement was born

  3. Introduction • Despite the Mexican army’s efforts to ban press coverage in combat areas, the EZLNdeveloped ingenuous forms of diffusing communiqués and eyewitness accounts of the resistance through non-governmental organizations (NGOs), media outlets, and individuals connected to the Internet.

  4. Introduction • In the past ten years, a once isolated social movement has effectively used the Internet to bring international attention, solidarity, and support for the indigenous peoples of Chiapas.

  5. About Chiapas • Area: 75,600 square kilometers, 3.8% of Mexico’s land surface  • Population: 4 million, about 1/3 indigenous, belonging to nine ethnic groups, each with its own language: Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Tojaolabal, Chol, Mam, Zoque, Mixe, Kakchiquel, and Lacandon

  6. About Chiapas • Chiapas is one of six of Mexico’s 32 states with a high percentage of indigenous people  • Illiteracy of adults: Men- 37% Women- 63% • Malnutrition: 66% of Chiapas population suffer from malnutrition, the highest level in Mexico • Chiapas produces 55% Mexico’s hydroelectric energy, and 20% of Mexico’s electricity.

  7. About Chiapas • Wages are three times lower than the national average. 20% of people have no income • 60% of the population is under 20 • One third of adult deaths are due to curable infectious diseases. 66 of every 1,000 children die before the age of 5, double the national average

  8. Who are the Zapatistas? • The Zapatistas are peasants, mostly Indians, from the communities established since the 1940s in the Lacandon rainforest on the Guatemalan border (Castells) • The Zapatistas are Mexican patriots, up in arms against new forms of foreign domination by American imperialism • They are also democrats, appealing to article 39 of the Mexican Constitution, which proclaims “the right of the people to alter or modify its form of government”

  9. What are the Zapatistas’ motives? • In a quarter-century, transformations brought by modernization and capitalism in Mexico have dismantled Chiapas’ agricultural economy and devastated indigenous life and culture (Burbach) • The Zapatistas are driven by a history that has resulted in hundreds of years of indigenous colonialism and oppression, and view neo-liberalist models of economic modernization such as NAFTA as a reincarnation of the past

  10. What are the Zapatistas’ demands? • The Zapatistas have declared war on the Mexican nation-state since 1994, and are demanding for: • The recognition of indigenous autonomy in Mexican civil society • The recognition of indigenous rights to their land and the use of its natural resources • Women’s rights and a transformation of patriarchical gender relations in Mexico • “Work, land, housing, food, health care, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice, and peace”

  11. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • Communication Strategy • Hand carried messages subvert lines of military encirclement and are electronically uploaded by others to networks of solidarity • Individuals, groups, and Zapatista support bases with Internet access type, scan, upload, and reprint EZLN communiqués, letters, and declarations • The messages are eventually translated into other languages, re-posted onto different email lists, discussion boards, etc. and spread into cyberspace

  12. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • Exploring the network • Mexican based organizations • Non-Mexican based organizations • Email list serves and other websites

  13. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • Mexican based organizations • FZLN (Frente Zapatista de Liberación Nacional • Enlace Civil • CIEPAC • Melel Xojobal

  14. FZLN Website

  15. CIEPAC Website

  16. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • Non-Mexican based organizations • Global Exchange • Mexico Solidarity • S!PAZ

  17. Global Exchange Website

  18. S!PAZ Website

  19. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • Email list serves and websites • Chiapas95 • ¡Ya Basta! • Indymedia Center in Chiapas

  20. Chiapas 95 list serve

  21. ¡Ya Basta! Website

  22. IMC Chiapas

  23. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • Defining the infrastructure • We posit the network “actors” (NGOs, websites, email list serves) in a symbolic five-level structure that reflects the process of providing, gathering, processing, distributing, and consuming information in the network (Oleson)

  24. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • Defining the infrastructure • First level: The indigenous communities of Chiapas are the primary sources concerning social problems, human rights violations, and military/paramilitary activities • Second level: Chiapas and other Mexican-based organizations gather and process information from the first level to audiences outside Chiapas and Mexico

  25. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • Defining the infrastructure • Third level: non-Mexican organizations draw information from second-level actors or Mexican media for non-Mexican audiences, or list serves and websites pass on information from second-level actors in its raw form throughout the Internet

  26. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • Defining the infrastructure • Fourth level: Small groups and individuals receive information from second or third-level actors who do not produce or distribute information on Chiapas • Fifth level: Politicians and representatives of official bodies take part in network activities on an occasional or on-off basis

  27. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • A symbiotic relationship • The relationship between the computer-mediated information circuit and the physical aspect of the network is reciprocal (Oleson) • Published online reports on the heavy military presence in the region and repression in the communities of Chiapas lead to organization and mobilization to stop those actions

  28. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • A symbiotic relationship • Mass demonstrations and delegations to Chiapas bring new nodes into the network through a combination of electronic and physical encounters, such as the First Intercontinental for Humanity and Against Neo-liberalism, which attracted more than 3,000 global participants to the Lacandon Forest

  29. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • A symbiotic relationship • Continuing dialogue on the network has contributed to: • Organizations of trips by NGOs to monitor the conflict • Building of infrastructure for indigenous communities (schools, etc.) • Educating the public about the struggles of peasant life in developing countries

  30. The Zapatista Transnational Solidarity Network • A symbiotic relationship • The Zapatistas depend on this network to: • Stimulate public opinion on the conflict • Encourage national and transnational support • Maintain pressure on the Mexican government to not resort to violent tactics

  31. Is a “Netwar” Taking Place? • The RAND Corporation, a think-tank associated with the U.S. military, has published extensive reports on Chiapas in which they formulate two concepts, cyberwar and netwar, in which the role of information in both is central and critical (Cleaver) • Cyberwar relates to information-oriented military warfare taking place in high or middle-range conflicts • Netwar deals with information-oriented operations other than war, taking place in low-intensity or non-military modes of conflict

  32. Is a “Netwar” taking place? • RAND argues that the Zapatistas are an protagonist in a netwar: • Using network forms of organization, strategies, and technologies attuned to the information age in conflict • Shaping beliefs and attitudes in the conflict (public opinion and mass media) at local and global levels

  33. Is a “Netwar” Taking Place? • Netwars disrupt the nation-state by: • Challenging a government’s sovereignty and legitimacy • Placing pressure on governments to alter their domestic policies and practices • Causing hierarchies of power to have difficulties in fighting networks

  34. Is a “Netwar” Taking Place? • Reactions to RAND’s work has varied: • Castells believes that their reports concur with his analysis on network societies • Froehling argues that the Chiapas uprising is not a netwar, but an action by more-or-less coordinated supporters in different places with different agendas • Wehling finds the research to be beneficial for groups and organizations using IT in social movements

  35. Current Developments in Chiapas • There is much uncertainty and instability that continues to exist in Chiapas since the uprising • Talks between Zapatista delegations and the Mexican government have been promising (San Andres Accords, etc), but have ended in dispute or extended periods of silence

  36. Current Developments in Chiapas • Manipulation of public opinion, increased military barriers around dissidents, and mass arrests of suspected Zapatistas and their support bases are increasingly common • Unconfirmed government and press reports say that the EZLN’s membership and bases are rising

  37. Conclusions and Questions • Are the Zapatistas the first information guerilla movement, as Castells claims? • I argue that the Zapatistas represent the first social movement that successfully co-exists with the development of IT • The internet’s role in the Zapatista struggle has its limitations, but offers promises to social movements in developing societies

  38. Conclusions and Questions • Limitations of the Internet in social movements • At this time, the Internet does not provide solutions to discussions about democracy, revolution, and self-determination, but it can be used as a means to accelerate such solutions • There are problems in creating and recreating effective connections along a growing number of dimensions and directions in movement • The Zapatista transnational solidarity network is not a social movement because it lacks a stronger element of collective identity and commitment

  39. Conclusions and Questions • Promises of the Internet in social movements • The creation and developing of a transnational solidarity network is a positive step towards bridging computer-mediated and physical networks among the global and local supporters in social movements • Through this combination of networks, the Zapatistas have transformed Mexico, inducing a crisis in the nation-state’s politics and economy, while putting forward proposals for democratic reconstruction that are are continually debated off-line and on-line

  40. Conclusions and Questions • While students, activists, NGOs, and Zapatista support groups may all contribute to a global entity online, how will this “Zapatista effect” transcend web pages and computer monitors? • How would have international crises in East Timor, Cambodia, and El Salvador affected public opinion if they were reported and debated on the Internet? • What new forms of counteractions will be developed by governments and institutions in response to networked social movements in the future?

  41. Acknowledgements Alejandro Aldana The ISF 100D Research Group Bonne Chance Scott Hayes

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