Acción Zapatista

Acción Zapatista de Humboldt (AZ) is a political space that is part of a growing network committed to responding to the unique invitation of the Zapatistas, which has asked diverse communities, constituencies and sectors within Mexican civil society and around the globe to share their own local struggles, strategies of resistance, and histories; to intensify their local struggles against neo-liberalism; and to discover commonalities and differences within and between communities through sustained democratic spaces
for dialogue and coordinated action.

Regarding the Zapatistas as offering profound new political strategies and alternatives whose relevance goes well beyond their own locale, AZ interprets Zapatismo as being embodied by several key political principles, including the following: Ya Basta! (Enough!), or direct action; encuentro (encounter), or the political space necessary for an ongoing encounter between and within constituencies and the sharing of “the word”; dignity and hope, or the claim for respect through a recognition of difference; and autonomy, or independent action and analysis through collective processes of dialogue and consensus in the context of community obligations.

AZ gathers and redistributes writings by and information about the Zapatistas as well as the struggle for radical democracy in Mexico. In addition to protesting U.S. support of the Mexican government and supporting solidarity efforts on behalf of the EZLN and the Zapatista base communities, AZ celebrates the Zapatistas’ autonomous projects such as their municipal governing centers, Juntas de Buen Gobierno (Good Government Juntas) and the regional centers that receive civil society, the Caracoles, as well as their autonomous schools, health clinics, and factories. AZ enthusiastically supports the most recent developments with the Sexta Declaracion de la Selva Lacadona (Sixth Declaration of the Lacadon Jungle), the Otra Campaña (the Other Campaign) and the approaching Intercontinental Encounter as critical initiatives calling for a dialogue among those seeking alternatives to neoliberalism and capitalism outside of the spectacle of party politics both in and outside of Mexico.

AZ additionally facilitates the sharing of experiences, information and resources by activists traveling from or to
Mexico. In order to explore and enact Zapatismo locally, and because events in different regions are related by the brutal logic of global capital or neo-liberalism, AZ participates in a diverse community of rebels, insurgents and “refuseniks,” pursuing radical possibilities of direct action, encounter, consensual decision-making, and collective autonomy.