When the theoretical confronted the practical : Zapatista territorial autonomy as opposition to the cooperation of state and capitalism
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Political Science, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Herlich Garber, Elijah
issued: 2023-09-01T13:41:59Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: On January 1st, 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) declared war on the Mexican government in an act of militant opposition to a long history of land dispossession, privatization, and exploitation carried out through the collaboration of the state and private interests in Eastern Chiapas that culminated in the reforms to Article 27 and the implementation of NAFTA. Following the initial uprising on January 1st, and with greater urgency in the following years, the Zapatistas declared their autonomy, which entailed independence from the Mexican government both territorially and organizationally as a way for the creating and practicing ways of living that would otherwise be impeded by the state and capitalism. In this thesis, I argue that through its essential connection to territorial autonomy, the Zapatista political philosophy of power to be provides a significant counter to the Lockean understanding of how land, freedom, and power are connected, which takes private property and its protection by the state as an essential component to creating freedom through territory. Additionally, I argue that despite substantial similarities between the Zapatista movement and prominent European and Mexican notions of Anarchism, there are notable tensions that emerge from theoretical differences on the nature of human-land relations but also from the tendency of some anarchists to dismiss the Zapatista movement or attempt to subsume it under the label of Anarchism without appreciating its distinctiveness and the political potential that its distinctiveness holds. I thus argue that if we turn to Richard J.F. Day’s anarchistic logic of affinity, solidarity between non-state, anti-capitalist movements becomes more feasible, since the revolutionary subject within that logic links with similar struggles or movements, yet is also never totalized. I conclude my discussion of Anarchism and the Zapatistas by arguing that this anarchistic logic of affinity can be found in…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/85766
note: When the Theoretical Confronted the Practical: Zapatista Territorial Autonomy as Opposition to the Cooperation of State and Capitalism by Elijah Herlich Garber H.B.A., University of Toronto, 2021 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Political Science) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2023 ©Elijah Herlich Garber, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: When the Theoretical Confronted the Practical: Zapatista Territorial Autonomy as Opposition to the Cooperation of State and Capitalism submitted by Elijah Herlich Garber in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science Examining Committee: Glen Coulthard, Associate Professor, Political Science and First Nations and Indigenous Studies, UBC Supervisor Anna Jurkevics, Assistant Professor, Political Science, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract On January 1st, 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) declared war on the Mexican government in an act of militant opposition to a long history of land dispossession, privatization, and exploitation carried out through the collaboration of the state and private interests in Eastern Chiapas that culminated in the reforms to Article 27 and the implementation of NAFTA. Following the initial uprising on January 1st, and with greater urgency in the following years, the Zapatistas declared their autonomy, which entailed independence from the Mexican government both territorially and organizationally as a way for the creating and practicing ways of living that would otherwise be impeded by the state and capitalism. In this thesis, I argue that through its essential connection to territorial autonomy, the Zapatista political philosophy of power to be provides a sign…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0435719
language: eng
degree discipline: Political Science
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Coulthard, Glen Sean, 1974-
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85766