BEHIND THE BALACLAVAS
OF SOUTH-EAST MEXICO

Footnotes

* Translators' Note (T.N.): This is a translation from the French version. The English-language version, published in 'The Kidnapped Saint and other stories', reads: "Such speedy enthusiasms and speedily acquired convictions are seldom the salt to be used as seasoning in cases like these." We prefer the above. The text continues: "The real need is not to persuade the great masses, to whip them up to flaming enthusiasm, to move them to adopt a resolution. Rather the great need is to convince individual human beings. The people of the future, and the people who are preparing for that which is to come, should not be argued into this without thinking things out; they should not believe unconditionally; rather they should be filled with the consciousness that this Revolution is right and feasible, whereas that other bourgeois order is wrong and not feasible. The people who today carry within them the will to future development, should not work for the coming society by relying on the mind of a clever Führer, but rather with their own minds, with their own hearts, and with their own souls. But this they can do only when they know what it is all about, and when they also know and understand exactly what they themselves want."

1. For a pertinent analysis of "indigenous culture" as a commodity in the service of the tourist industry and of political manipulation, read 'El Indigenismo desde arriba: traficando politicamente y commercialmente en el nombre del pueblo' in the Columbian review 'Contrafluxo' (no.1, Medelin, 1995), text re-printed in "Etcetera' (no.24, April 1994, Barcelona)

2. See: J.Eric S.Thompson, 'Grandeur and Decadence of Mayan Civilisation', Paris, Bibliotheque Historique Payot, 1993.

3. 'Witness of the Ancient Word', p.48, translated from Nuhauti by Jacqueline de Thirand-Forest, Paris, La Difference , 1995.

4. Ruggiero Romano, 'The mechanisms of Colonial Conquest: the Conquistadores' (p.46), Paris, Flammarion.

5. See B.Traven's text "From the Mountains Of South-East Mexico", Paris, Insomniac, 1994.

6. B,Traven 'In the Freest State in the World', Paris, Insomniac,1995

7. Americo Nunes, "The Revolutions of Mexico" (p.151), Paris, Flammarion, 1975.In this brilliant critique of the myths of progressives about the Mexican Revolution, the author shows, in particular, that "the libertarian slogan 'Land & Liberty' was falsely attributed to the Zapatista movement" when in fact it had been devised by the liberal party of the Magon brothers. See also, 'The Mexican Revolution' by Ricardo Flores Magon, Paris, Spartacus, 1979.

8.Ibid, page 148 and p.150.

9. Based in the State of Sonora (north-west Mexico) the Yacqui tribe revolted again and again against the expropriation of the land. It was finally crushed militarily, in 1926, by Obregon, a revolutionary general who had been allied... to the Zapatistas (T.N.: This is no worse than Makhno allying with Trotsky).

10.Antonio Garcia de Léon, "Los motivos de Chiapas", Barcelona, Etcetera, November 1995.

11. The poor peasants of Chiapas, where historically the frontiers have little sense, are becoming "Mexican Indians" thanks to bureaucratic thinking. Who is Indian? Who's Mexican? Who's Guatemalan? Once more, a problem which seems to escape the devotees of the Zapatista cause.

12. 'Rebellion from the roots', John Ross, Common Courage Press,1995, p.257.

13. An example: the municipality of Ocosingo had a population of 12,000 people in 1960, and one of 250 ,OOO in 1990. See John Ross, ibid.

14. A. Garcia de Leon, op.cit.

15. In this part of the text I have largely used the "work of John Ross's "Rebellion from the Roots" op.cit. See especially the chapters "Back to the Jungle" and "Into the Zapatista Zone".

16. It's in this way that the connection between the cacique Indians of the government party, the PRI, and some chiefs of the Politica Popular can be established. Two big Maoist bosses of that epoch are today high-up managers of the PRI in its official peasant organisation)fl...See, in relation to this, "Revolution from the Roots", op.cit. p.276.

17. "Rebellion from the Roots", op.cit p.278.

18. See the interesting analysis of Julio Nogel, in La Jornada, 19th June, 1994, cited by John Ross, op.cit.

19. Antonio Garcia de Leon, op. cit.

20. Interview "The True Legend of Sub-Commandante Marcos", a film by T.Brissac and C.Castillo, La Sept/Arte, Paris,1995.

21. For a caricature of an example, see "The Zapatista insurgents talk about a year of revolt in Chiapas", Editions Dagorno, Paris 1995.

22. Regis Debray, "Tomorrow Zapata", Le Monde, May 1995.

23. H.Cleaver: "Zapatistas - documents of the new Mexican revolution", 1995. Caudillismo = Leaderism.

24. Interview, op.cit.

25. John Ross, "Rebellion from the Roots", op.cit

26. Marcos, "La fleur promise", Le Monde, April 1st 1995

27. Since the signing of NAFTA the peso has lost 50% of its value, more than 6000 factories have closed, a million workers have teen made redundant, and consumption has gone down 25% (Le Monde, August 9th 1995).

28. Despite the reinforcement of controls, the Mexican-US border is like a sieve. Millions of Mexicans live and work in the USA where their militant engagement is increasingly noticed in the schools, where they live and in their workplaces.

29. Regis Debray, op.cit.

30. Ricardo Flores Magon, La guerre sociale,1911, published by Spartacus, op.cit,

"Beyond the Balaclavas"
Antagonism