Critical Thought in the Face of the Capitalist Hydra I: Contributions by the Sixth Commission of the EZLN

by Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Contributor)

The idea of this seminar is to look at the different heads of the capitalist system to try to understand whether it has new ways of attacking us or whether they are the same ones as before. If we are interested in other ways of thinking, it is in order to see if we are right about what we think is coming that there will be a tremendous economic crisis that will be added to existing evils and do tremendous damage to everyone everywhere, all over the world. So if it's true that this is coming, or that it's already happening, we need to think about whether it will work to keep doing the same things that have been done before.
—Subcomandante Insurgente Moises

If there are those who think that everything is the same and that things can change through elections, marches, tweets, signatures on change dot org or whatever the hell you call it well no, things aren't going to change like that. We have to find new ways. For what? Well that 'for what' is what we have to answer and we must once again draw the face of the [capitalist] Hydra, because it has changed.
—Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Philosophy, Theory, Indigenous, Social Justice, Feminism

360 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting and engaging insight into the experiences and challenges of the Zapatistas. With wit and great humour they tackle many of the issues they face; murder and disappearances at the hands of the state, hostility from non-Zapatista communities, creating their own autonomous schools and clinics, balancing their local economies through barter and minimising (where possible) the role of money, how they learn from struggles elsewhere in the world - even an interesting tangent on justice since they have no prisons. All of these issues, and the Zapatista responses to them, are interesting and relevant enough in their own right, and all who want to embrace radical pathways to a fairer world would gain something from them.

What elevates this above simply a very useful reflection on praxis and indigenous resilience, however, is the art of the speakers. This is, after all, a collection of speeches delivered during a great seminar/seedbed (a play on words in Spanish, selecting ideas to plant and prosper for the future), and seeing how the speakers play with narratives, words, grammer, and perspective - all with great humour and hope - was uplifting. As members of indigenous communities with indigenous languages, most of the speakers learned Spanish as a second language in order to better communicate their struggle with a wider audience, and communicate across groups and borders, and it was wonderful seeing how they would begin by humbly apologise for any mistakes and miscommunication and then weave a compelling narrative that combines literary illusions, engagement with grammatical debates around gender (all the speakers in the book using "oas" as a suffix to denote the gender spectrum), and a playful magical realism.

This copy ends with a collection of wonderful Zapatista poetry and art. I hope defense Zapatista and catdog get to grow up and see the crack in the wall become a window, and a door, and a goal. Who knows who will be around when the mother head of the hydra is severed.

[Lalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

ABSOLUTE must read. Best book of theory I have ever read. So accessible, so funny. My go-to for any questions I have about praxis.

[Micah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"we begin to gather fractions of minutes, barely seconds, and filter them through the cracks that we open in the wall of history. But if there's no crack, well, we'll make it by scratching, biting, kicking, hitting with our hands, head, and entire body in order to make in history what we are: a wound."

In May 2015, having publicly existed for twenty years already (they've since had another major re-organization), the Zapatistas gathered critical thinkers together to assess the storm they saw coming, the worst storm of the capitalist war on humanity and nature yet. Has the hydra sprouted new heads, is there a mother head, which heads are attacking in what geographies and calendars, and how? Here they center the feminist struggle and interventions by compañeras, and re-affirm in many ways their principles of autonomy (from government, parties, most NGOs) and collective work. A constant theme is their sheer stubbornness and creativity in the face of problems, mistakes, failures; never giving up or selling out, and never mistaking words as a substitute for actions. A lot of good jokes and also a lot of pain (the disappeared of Ayotzinapa are at the forefront of everyone's minds). I think it would be hard to find a better guide for anti-capitalists.

[Dawson Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is certainly an interesting and important book detailing the experiences of the Zapatistas, though it is at times quite slow and rigid. I imagine that the rigidity may come, in part, from translation. Perhaps it reads easier in Spanish. I did not finish the whole book, only part one (152/300). I'll pick it back up and finish it one day.

[fer · Rating 5 out of 5]

otros mundos son posibles