Rudy joins Hilary Klein, author of Compañeras: Zapatista Women Stories for a discussion on the history of the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) from its foundation in the 1980s through their 1994 uprising and their continued existence as a social movement that holds power in areas of Chiapas. We focus on the alternative government structures of the movement: participatory democracy, economic cooperatives, transformative justice and Juntas de Buen Gobierno. Other things we discuss are : the rise and fall of Zapatismo as a north star for the American left, how Zapatismo built a mass base, the dynamics of women’s liberation within the Zapatista movement and the broader population, as well as their multiple efforts to win the local population, the local splits between pro-Government and pro-Zapatistas and the future of the movement.
