Autonomy is a word that Schools for Chiapas readers and researchers will come across often on the website. It is a key concept of Zapatismo: One will come across autonomous zones, autonomous municipalities, autonomous communities, autonomous education, autonomous health
Autonomy is a word that Schools for Chiapas readers and researchers will come across often on the website. It is a key concept of Zapatismo: One will come across autonomous zones, autonomous municipalities, autonomous communities, autonomous education, autonomous health…even an autonomous ambulance!
The Zapatista project is defined by the demand for autonomy and it is important to have a clear understanding of the term. A recent blog post here is a case in point: A Schools for Chiapas Mural Delegation had the wonderful experience of the community preparing a lavish banquet for them, despite the indigenous families precarious economic situation. Overwhelmed with gratitude for the gesture, the Schools For Chiapas folks thanked their Zapatista hosts, who replied humbly: “This is what our organization means by autonomy.”
Peter Brown continues in the blog post, “So our feast was actually a lesson […] Yes, Zapatista autonomy means producing most of what one consumes while growing strong, healthy children and communities; but Zapatista autonomy also means that these small farming families are neither beholding to local political bosses, nor dependent on networks of corporate food production or international banking systems. And, yes, Zapatista autonomy means having the audacity and reflective strength to mobilize people-of-conscience around the world to build networks – and to forge new paths of resistance – with the absurd goal of collectively healing the holes in the ozone layer and the holes in our hearts.”
So how do we define this audacious thing called autonomy?
A good place to start is with the original meaning of the word: Autonomous (αὐτονομία) is an Ancient Greek word coming from auto- or “self” and nomos, “law”, hence when combined understood to mean “one who gives oneself one’s own law”
Building on that basic formal understanding, the standard dictionary definition is useful:
1. independence or freedom, as of the will or one’s actions: the autonomy of the individual.
2. the state or condition of having independence or freedom, or of being autonomous; self-government, or the right of self-government.
3. a self-governing community.
However, as we have seen above, the Zapatista use and understanding of the term is more nuanced:
“Autonomy is the right to organize and govern ourselves in our indigenous cultures,” explains an indigenous Zapatista during an interview a few years ago. This way of defining the term coincides with the dictionary explanation above, but then he develops the idea in this manner: “For us, autonomy means re-establishing and restoring the culture of self-determination that has been taken away from us as indigenous peoples over the last 500 years. That is, in terms of territory, that as people who live in a region, we get to administer our own economy, our own politics, our own culture and our own resources.”
So we can understand from this that Zapatista autonomy is, in theory, self-government, freedom for the communities, and respect for their traditions.
And in practice, autonomy is territorial power and a form of radical grass-roots and participatory democracy.
We also understand that the Zapatista concept of autonomy is not about separating from the Mexican state. The Zapatistas are not a separatist movement; they do not want their own state like, for example, the small separatist movements in Texas or Vermont, or the desire of the Basque people in the Spanish state. Instead, the Zapatistas are clear that autonomy for them is not about separation but respecting traditions and customs (usos y costumbres) with power being exercised on a community level, as the community sees fit.
Thus, Autonomy is understood as bringing people together, not separating them: building a world in which all worlds have a place, as the Zapatistas say.
A Challenge to the State
The EZLN Autonomous Municipalities declare- Here we are, we are the true representatives of the people, we declare we are autonomous from the corrupt government and demonstrate that we have the right to govern ourselves. And in doing so, they are challenging the power structures of the state government. They are refusing to recognize the authority of the state or participate in the sham of so-called “democratic” elections.
In challenging the authority of the state, the Zapatistas have suffered military and state repression. The army has violently entered the villages, closed down autonomous municipal headquarters, and beaten and arrested hundreds of people. But the more the state represses, the more the people resist and demand their autonomy. They actively reject any presence of the mal gobierno (bad government) in their territory, including rejecting–in principle–any form of state financial assistance or development programs. Nevertheless, the Zapatistas are self-proclaimed patriotic Mexicans, and they say their struggle is a national project that aspires for a better Mexico, and not simply for their own autonomous enclave.
Mexican analyst and Zapatista advisor, Gustavo Esteva elaborates further –
To recover and regenerate peoples’ power, grass-roots groups seek autonomy from the state so that local spaces may exert and govern themselves in their own cultural terms. Radically challenging the ‘Global Project’, they seek to subvert the foundations of modern power structures.
How do the Autonomous Municipalities function?
But how does autonomy function in practice in the Zapatista rebel zone? Grass-roots lawyers from the human rights organization Enlace Civil, 