The Latin American left ar
Braulio Moro asks representatives of three Latin of the leadership of the National Liberation
American parties about the importance of the Movement (MLN) — Tupamaros of Uruguay. Raul Pont
Zapatista revolt in southern Mexico for the Latin is Vice-Prefect of Porto Alegre (Brazil) and a member
American left as a whole. Julio Marenales is a member of the Executive Committee of the Brazilian Workers'
Fifth São Paulo • What have the Zapatistas brought to the Latin-American left since they appeared on 1 January 1995?
Julio Marenales (MLN-Tupamaros,): First, this is a movement where the indigenous ethnic group is very important. This has not been so common in Latin America. All the ethnic groups which make up the various nations of Latin America have contributed to the revolutionary movements, but the only other movement where the indigenous peoples had the same weight in the movement as in the Zapatista movement was in the National Guatemalan Revolutionary Union (URNG). Generally, our movements have been movements of the whites.
Second, there is an aspect which we ourselves did envisage in an older document: the possibility of an armed insurrection which does not have as its goal the taking of power, but the defence of a certain model of democracy and legality. When you look at the programme of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), you don't see any socialist or revolutionary references. What they demand is simply the right to act within the system. A demand in pursuit of which they have had to take up arms! This is something new. In the previous situations, the armed struggle aimed at taking power. We ourselves did raise this new idea, but it is the Zapatistas who put it into practice.
Abel Prieto (Cuban CP): The development of a guerrilla movement in Chiapas state, and all the messages of Sub-commandant Marcos, with their new language, all this shows... that the application of neo-liberal strategies can cause new social explosions, including explosions which take an organised form.
Raul Pont (Brazilian Workers' Party): The Mexican 'miracle' was presented to Brazilians as a positive model, as something to follow. But the Zapatista rebellion is one of the clearest 12
International Viewpoint #268 July 1995 expressions of the crisis which neoliberalism has provoked in Latin America.
"Zapatism' exposes the reality in Latin America, with all its brutal inequalities. It confirms that the situation in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia is the same as in Brazil or Mexico. The orientation of [Argentinean President Carlos] Menem or of the Mexican government is to create a liveable society for 20-30% of the population, while marginalising all the rest.
The Zapatista rebellion proves that everything we were told about the Mexican 'miracle' was an invention of the mass media, reaffirming the 'one true way of thinking' which provides for no alternative to neo-liberalism, be it in Latin America or in the world. • The EZLN does not describe itself as an avant-garde. Does this signify a real change in the tradition of the Latin American left ? And how does this new conception affect the rest of the left?
Julio Marenales (MLN-Tupamaros,): 'Avant-gardism' is not a question of selfaffirmation. Whether you are in fact an avant-garde or not is something different from the question of whether you consider yourself to be an avant-garde or not. Whatever they say about themselves, the Zapatistas do find themselves in pole position in a certain process. No other political force in Mexico has provoked the same kind of social earthquake as the Zapatistas have. So, in a way, they are becoming, at least as long as the current conditions last, an avant-garde despite themselves. All this depends on a practical process, not on a theoretical point of view.
Abel Prieto (Cuban CP): It is too soon to make a judgement about this particular guerrilla movement, and the significance of the change from the so-called 'foco' strategy of guerrilla movements in previous periods. But it is certainly clear that this movement is an instrument of pressure on those in power, but not one which makes constant reference to the classic theory of the taking of power by the guerrilla movement. But there are other programmatic approaches concerning which I find it difficult to make a judgement.
Raul Pont (Brazilian PT): This is a movement which has adopted none of the classic theses of the armed struggle in Latin America: neither the 'foco' strategy, not the 'prolonged war' strategy. What I have read of them suggests a resistance movement which denounces the living conditions of the people. They understand the limits for a more general confrontation at the level of the political struggle in Mexico as a whole, and across Latin America. For me, the importance of the Zapatista movement is that they have broken a certain tendency among a large part of the left, which privileged a purely electoral perspective, and relegated the social movements and spontaneous struggles of the population to second place.
The big question is how to integrate various important experiences into a form adapted to the reality of each specific country. I think our own experience in the PT and the Popular Front (organised for the recent election campaign) also plays a role in creating unity in the face of neoliberalism. In Uruguay, despite all the problems, the Frente Amplio is playing the role of unifying the popular democratic camp, with the goal of building an alternative project to neo-liberalism. This [synthesis and adaptation] is the most important tasks facing us, in each of the countries of Latin America. And the Zapatistas have several important elements of this process. • The Latin American left has been very late in developing its solidarity with the Zapatista struggle and with the indigenous communities which are the social
I the Zapatistas base of the EZLN. Why?
Julio Marenales: Since the decline of the Latin American Solidarity Organisation (OLAS) in the 1960s, we have forgotten the importance of international relations and international solidarity. We are no longer concerned with what is happening in the other countries. As we have said in this Forum, our movements are becoming absorbed by national themes, and not paying enough attention to international problems.
We are also loosing our ability to react. In Uruguay, for example, North American 'consultants' have arrived, without the large demonstrations this would have provoked in the old days. And it was an uphill struggle to get the Frente Amplio to participate in this Forum. I don;t know about the other countries, but I think internationalism had declined a lot.
Abel Prieto: We have very good relations with the [ruling] Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Mexico. We are a party in government, which tries to defend revolutionary ideas, and to maintain governmental relations with parties of differing political orientations, and with conceptions different from our own. We have to maintain this duality — not because we have double standards, but because we are working with other governments to try to break the isolation of Cuba. And we are engaged on a major diplomatic offensive in this regard.
Certainly, this Lapatista explosion has come at a time when the Latin American left has been developing a more moderate discourse ('este tipo de discurso de
São Paulo Forum izquierda light'). At the same time, we are in a period of recomposition following the ideological crisis caused by the collapse of Real Socialism. In other words, this is a phase when the left has not yet found a discourse to oppose to the reactionary post-modernist discourse. We are developing a moderate left, for the consumption of academics in North America, but we haven't analysed the international situation in sufficient depth.
Raul Pont: there have been public protests, and the diffusion of texts issued by the EZLN, but it is true that there should be more solidarity than there has been. The difficulties we have seen illustrate the lack of instruments which unify the struggles in Latin America. I think that this Forum is one attempt to
13 International Viewpoint #268 July 1995
Latin America $15
Rest of world $20 Other Europe 120 FFr/£15 Spanish State 2.000 ESP
Make out cheques and postal orders to the order of Ulises Martínez
Flores, Apartado postal 18-996, Colonia Escandón, México, Distrito
EZLN reinforce solidarity, but it hasn't done so with the urgency which the situation required. I do think that Latin American left parties could transform each action, each condemnation, each important political act into a propaganda initiative, with an echo in the other countries. At this Forum, we have heard extremely serious condemnations of the situation in Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil, and I think we need to create mechanisms for denouncing such things, for taking action, for solidarity, for correspondence, for the exchange of experience and information. We should also talk about our positive experience in municipal government, including the important experience with democratic control over popular resources.
• What initiatives should the São Paulo Forum take in solidarity with the EZLN and the people of Mexico?
Julio Marenales: First of all to decide that the constituent movements of the Forum should try to inform those around them about the conditions in Mexico, and the reality of the Zapatista movement. This is all still relativelv little known. We should explain how the Mexican government exercises total hegemony in all area, including in the workers' movement. We would characterise this government-controlled labour movement as 'yellow', though there are of course valuable exceptions.
We should be thinking about some continent-wide activities. Of course, the São Paulo Forum cannot do very much. But one could imagine a day of action, or some more specific initiative. Incidentally, we shouldn't be confining ourselves to one meeting every year. If something important happens, we should be able to plan solidarity action, a simultaneous strike across Latin America.
Inside the Forum, we have to struggle against the tendency which would reduce the EZLN to a virtually academic question. We should be looking for practical measures, however modest, which could become the beginning of a process, stimulating more important initiatives.
Abel Prieto: Obviously, we should mention the Mexican problem in the final declaration. We will adopt a final declaration in which we express our solidarity and try to sketch out a tentative solution. As far as the Cuban Communist Party is concerned, we have always defended the idea that this problem should be posed in the context of the question of political orientation which may provoke this type of violence and explosion. We have always encouraged peaceful discussion, respectful to the Zapatistas and to our partners.
Raul Pont: The left and the political groups in Mexico should ensure that what happens in Chiapas be known more widely, and that the Zapatista movement not be isolated. It should not be left up to
The PT has reproduced documents of the EZLN and information about Mexico in our internal publications. Marcos' letters have found a large echo in our party. We have even managed to get information on the Zapatistas published in the national media in Brazil. In the PT, there is a very natural solidarity with the Zapatistas and with the struggles which are developing in
[These interviews were carried out separately during the Fifth São Paulo Forum. The responses have been grouped for ease of reading].
Inprecor para América Latina
Revista bimestral de información y análisis
Like International Viewpoint, but in Spanish... Published in Mexico six times a year, covering Latin America and the world. Subscription rates for one year (six issues)
Mexico: 50 pesos
USA: $18
Federal, CP 11800, Mexico
14
International Viewpoint #268 July 1995