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Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

The Fire and the Word: The Most Complete History of the Zapatista Movement (Book Review)

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/...mplete-history-zapatista-movement

Excerpt:

The Fire and the Word is a project that was accountable to the Zapatistas. Before sending it to press, Muñoz delivered the manuscript to the EZLN for its approval. She therefore omits some history that the Zapatistas would rather not discuss. A notable example is the arrest of the mestizo Comandante Daniel (Salvador Morales Garibay) whose tell-all thirteen-page confession revealed the identities of Subcomandante Marcos, the Comandancia, and the FLN members who helped found the EZLN. As a result of Morales’ treachery, various Zapatista supporters were imprisoned and tortured, and Mexican military intelligence made Morales a second captain. The EZLN hasn’t uttered Daniel’s name since, and neither does Muñoz in The Fire and the Word. Ross’ work, however, was not accountable to the EZLN, so he isn’t afraid to broach subjects that are uncomfortable for the Zapatistas, like ex-Comandante Daniel.
...

For those activists who find themselves inspired by the Zapatista struggle, the most important component of The Fire and the Word is Muñoz’s truly Zapatista perspective. Thanks to Muñoz’s intimate understanding of zapatismo and the EZLN’s input in the book’s editing stage, readers understand the most important lesson the Zapatistas have to offer activists struggling against neoliberalism: how to build a movement against the government that makes demands of the government without being co-opted by the government. In a communiqué dated March 13, 2001, the Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Committee writes, “We do not accept a shameful dialogue with the legislature, off in a corner with a small group of legislators….” The Zapatistas have achieved so much in fourteen years because they refuse to allow the NGOification of their movement, something that plagues the US left. The Zapatistas will never play the government’s games designed to trick them into thinking that they’re gaining ground when really they’re just treading water while their demands barely (or rarely) stay afloat.