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Zapatista Army Of National Liberation

Zapatista Army of National Liberation

and the communist red star.]] The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) is an armed revolutionary group based in Chiapas, one of the poorest states of Mexico. Their social base is mostly indigenous but they have supporters in urban areas as well as an international web of support. Their most visible leader by far is Subcommander Marcos. Some consider the Zapatista movement the first post-modern revolution: an armed yet non-violent revolutionary group that incorporates modern technologies like satellite telephony and the Internet as a way to obtain domestic and foreign support. They consider themselves part of the wider anti- economic globalization movement.

Brief history

This section highlights some of the most important events in Zapatista's history. The Zapatistas went public in 1994 with the initial goal of overthrowing the Mexican government. Short armed clashes in Chiapas ended two weeks after the uprising and there have been no full-scale confrontations ever since. The Mexican government instead pursued a policy of low-intensity warfare with para-military groups in an attempt to control the rebellion, while the Zapatistas developed a media campaign through numerous newspaper comunicados and over time a set of six "Declarations of the Lacandonian Jungle", with no further military or terrorist actions on their part. A strong international Internet presence has prompted the adherence to the movement of numerous leftist international groups. Government talks with the EZLN culminated in the San Andrés Accords (1996) that granted autonomy and special rights to the indigenous population. President Zedillo however, ignored the agreements and instead increased military presence in the region. With the new government of President Fox the Zapatistas marched in 2000 towards Mexico City to present their case to the Mexican Congress. Watered-down agreements were rejected by the rebels who proceeded to create 32 autonomous municipalities in Chiapas, thus partially implementing the agreements without government support but with some funding from international organizations. In July 2005 the Zapatistas presented the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandonian Jungle. In this new Declaration, the EZLN called for an alternative national campaign in opposition to the current presidential campaign. In preparation for this alternative campaign, the Zapatistas invited to their territory over 600 national leftist organizations, indigenous groups and non-governmental organizations in order to listen to their claims for human rights in a series of biweekly meetings that culminated in a plenary meeting in September 16, the day Mexico celebrates its independence from Spain. In this meeting, Subcomandante Marcos requested official adherence of the organizations to the Sixth Declaration, and detailed a 6 month tour of the Zapatistas through all 32 Mexican states that will take place concurrently with the electoral campaign starting January 2006. Sixth Declaration of the Lacandonian Jungle

Detailed History

The group was founded on November 17, 1983 by former members of different groups, both pacifist and violent. They broke onto the national and international scene on January 1, 1994, the same day that the North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada became operational, as a way of stating the presence of indigenous peoples in the middle of a globalized world. Indigenous fighters, some of them wielding fake rifles made of wood, took hold of five municipalities in Chiapas, officially declared war against the Mexican government, and announced their plans to march towards Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, either defeating the Mexican army or allowing it to surrender and imposing a war tax on the cities that they conquered in their way. MexicoAfter just a few days of localized fighting in the jungle, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, then in his last year in office, offered a cease-fire agreement and opened dialog with the rebels, whose official spokesperson was Subcomandante Marcos. After twelve days, the fighting stopped. The dialogue between the Zapatistas and the government extended over a period of three years and ended with the San Andrés Accords, which entailed modifying the national constitution in order to grant special rights, including autonomy, to indigenous people. A commission of deputies from political parties, called COCOPA, modified slightly the agreements with the acceptance of the EZLN. The new President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, however, said Congress would have to decide whether to pass it or not. Claiming a violation of promises at the negotiating table, the EZLN went back into the jungle while Zedillo increased the military presence in Chiapas to prevent the spread of EZLN's influence zone. An unofficial truce accompanied by EZLN's silence ensued for the next three years, the last in Zedillo's term. Unusually for any revolutionary organisation these laws then defined a right of the people to resist any unjust actions of the EZLN. They defined a right of the people to: "demand that the revolutionary armed forces not intervene in matters of civil order or the disposition of capital relating to agriculture, commerce, finances, and industry, as these are the exclusive domain of the civil authorities, elected freely and democratically." And said that the people should "acquire and possess arms to defend their persons, families and property, according to the laws of disposition of capital of farms, commerce, finance and industry, against the armed attacks committed by the revolutionary forces or those of the government." After the dialogue ended, many accusations were made against the Mexican army and para-military groups due to prosecution, detentions and killings of Zapatistas and supporters; one particular incident was the Massacre of Acteal, where 45 people attending a church service were killed by unknown persons. The motives and the identities of the attackers aren't clear, to the point it might not be related to the EZLN at all (however, the survivors claim that they were attacked by paramilitaries). In 2000 new President Vicente Fox Quesada, the first from the opposition in 72 years, sent the so-called COCOPA Law (constitutional changes) to Congress on one of his first acts of government (December 5, 2000), as he had promised during his campaign. After seeing the criticism and proposed modifications by notable congressmen, Subcommander Marcos and part of his group decided to go, unarmed, to Mexico City in order to speak at congress in support of the original proposal. After a march through seven Mexican states with substantial support from the population and media coverage (and escorted by police to protect the EZLN members), representatives of the EZLN (not including Marcos) spoke at Congress in March, 2001, in a controversial event. The march was nicknamed "Zapatour", and on the day of their arrival an unrelated concert for peace was held. During their stay they visited schools and universities. Soon after the EZLN had returned to Chiapas, Congress approved a different version of the COCOPA Law, which did not include the autonomy clauses, claiming they were in contradiction with some constitutional rights including (private property and secret voting); this was seen as a betrayal by the EZLN and other political groups. These constitutional changes still had to be approved by a majority of state congresses. Many political and ethnic groups filed complaints both against and in favour of the changes, which were finally approved and went into effect on August 14, 2001. This, and the still recent President Fox's electoral victory in 2000 slowed down the movement, which had less media coverage since then. As a last recourse to void the changes, a constitutionality complaint was filed to be resolved by the Supreme Court of Justice, which ruled in September 6, 2002 that since they were constitutional changes made by Congress and not a law as it was wrongly called, it was outside its power to reverse the changes, as that would be an invasion of Congress' sovereignty. Until 2004 many people believed Subcommander Marcos had fled from Chiapas. Attempts to contact him failed or were answered by email or Internet publications. Although Marcos has denied to be the head of the Zapatista movement, presenting himself as a spokesman, he is by far the most prominent figure of the EZLN to the public. There are 23 commanders and 1 subcommander which total 24, the collective leadership of the EZLN, one of its unique characteristics, known as the Comite Clandestino Revolucionario Indígena or CCRI, Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Committee). The communiques of 2004 list accomplishments and failures of their movement. From their own point of view, the Councils of Good Government, or Juntas de Buen Gobierno have been successful, as well as efforts to keep the violence between them and the military to a minimum. Their efforts to increase the role of women in cultural and political matters weren't that successful. From these communiqués it seems Marcos has been following the developments, from wherever he was. He also reiterated their long known opposition to what they see as a worldwide movement towards a neoliberal globalized economy, claiming that the current trend in government policies disempowers the people and establishes a de facto corporate government. The United States war on terror, IMF/World Bank sponsored economic policies, and free trade agreements are seen as an application of these policies. In October 2004, Subcomandante Marcos issued communiques explaining the problems that the EZLN had with the Mexican government. Some Zapatista communities were expelled from their homes. The EZLN claims that this is an attempt to gain control of an area rich in natural resources (biodiversity and oil). These communities were relocated with great difficulty due to lack of resources, something that the EZLN intended to alleviate by calling for international help. The Mexican government maintains a vague stance on the issue, claiming the people were moved for their own benefit. However, the relevance of the EZLN to the national political agenda diminished. The Zapatistas claim that this silent period of their uprising has been an extremely rich effort, centered in organizing their own "good government" and lives autonomously; in particular the organization for an autonomous education and healthcare system, with its own schools, hospitals and pharmacies in places neglected by the Mexican government. Recently, with the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon jungle it seems that the Zapatistas will again enter into the political arena. There are currently 32 "rebel autonomous zapatista municipalities" (independent Zapatista communities, MAREZ from their name in Spanish) in Chiapas.

Controversies

In the late months of 2002, Subcommander Marcos wrote a letter to a Spanish supporter on October 12, the date Columbus arrived to the Americas in 1492, marked by indigents as the beginning of their suffering. In that long letter, Marcos calls Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón a "grotesque clown" for, among other things, banning Batasuna, an independent Basque party on claims it was supporting Spanish terrorist group ETA, and then calling Garzón's attempt to try Chilean General Pinochet for human rights violations against Spanish citizens a "fool-deceiving tale". Marcos also criticized the Spanish monarchy and then Spanish President José María Aznar. After the publication of the letter by the Mexican press in November 25, Marcos and Garzón exchanged many more via the international press, in a not-so-elegant duel of words, which included Marcos' joking acceptance of Garzón's challenge to a debate, betting to reveal his secret identity if he lost against Garzón's commitment to the EZLN cause if he won. The whole incident caused much stir among many of Marcos' supporters. Some were upset about Marcos devoting his time to other causes; others thought the tone of his letters was improper of the official spokesman of the EZLN and finally others interpreted his letters as supporting the ETA. In February 2003, Marcos wrote yet another letter, this time condemning the congressmen of the only party that supported, to some degree, the zapatistas, the Party of the Democratic Revolution, claiming they agreed to approve a modified version of the EZLN-sanctioned COCOPA Law the previous year. That letter and the replies that followed left many of EZLN's strongest and most influential allies ill disposed toward Marcos. Having lost much of his support and with his public image affected, Marcos' communications for the rest of the year went unnoticed. Aside from criticism of political actors, he described EZLN's ongoing work in its zones of influence, and changes in its internal organization.

Political initiatives

Since December 1994, the Zapatistas had been gradually forming several autonomous municipalities, independent of the Mexican government. By August 2003 these municipalities had evolved into local government "juntas", implementing communitarian food-producing programs, health and school systems, supported in part by NGOs. Then several "Juntas of Good Government" formed by representatives of the autonomous municipalities and overseen by the EZLN were created as an upper level of government under the motto mandar obedeciendo (to command obeying). These renegade municipalities had been tolerated by the government despite being a state within the state. Although they do not tax the inhabitants, the zapatistas decide, through assemblies, to work in communitarian projects; when someone does not participate in these communitarian efforts it is discussed and sometimes it is decided to not consider the person a Zapatista. This for example implies that it has to pay for medicine in zapatista pharmacies (although not for medical care). Membership in the Juntas rotates continuously, so that all members of the community have an opportunity to serve the community and also to prevent people in power to become addicted to it or become corrupted.

Communications

The EZLN placed since the beginning a very high priority on communication with the rest of Mexico and the rest of the world. Subcommander Marcos writings (almost the only ones) were initially in plain prose, with references to indigenous cultures and influenced by their style. These declarations and analysis were sent to national and international media. They also made excellent use of technology, in the form of satellite phones and the Internet to communicate with supporters in other countries, helping them gain international solidarity and support from other organizations and people. For some time, on almost every trip abroad the president of Mexico was confronted by small activist groups about "the Chiapas situation". Their public spokesperson is Subcommander Marcos, a pipe-smoking middle-aged man whose real identity, according to the Mexican government, is Rafael Guillén, a middle-class university lecturer. Marcos himself denies this, but keeps his identity secret. His skin tone is paler than that of the average Mexican. He is clearly not indigenous, something his critics use to question his goals and motives. Marcos has been recognized by many as an outstanding and eloquent communicator; his writings, colloquial, ironic, and with references to indigenous stories were eagerly published by the media in the first years. However, after 2001 a long period of silence brought his relationship with the media to a standstill. In 2002 he began writing again, but this time his style was different and his declaration more aggressive, even against former allies. By 2004 the EZLN's communication strategy was not clear. Except for isolated letters and "comunicados" about the political climate, mostly criticism, the EZLN had been silent for almost three years, and the media (except "La Jornada" newspaper) stopped covering them as there was no public interest. For the first half of 2004, Marcos remained silent. By the middle of the year Luis H. Álvarez, Head of COCOPA, the official communication link between the EZLN and the Mexican government, declared Marcos hasn't been seen in Chiapas for some time, and that he didn't know his location. However the EZLN was still active, mostly tending the local governments it has created. In August 2004, Marcos sent to the Mexican press eight brief communiques, the whole set titled "Reading a video", published from August 20 to August 28. They were probably intended as a mocking of the political video scandals earlier in the year, the set beginning and ending as a kind of written description of an imaginary low-budget zapatista video, the rest being Marcos' comments on political events of the year and the EZLN current stance and development. The communiques went mostly unnoticed, partly because of the Olympic Games of Athens 2004 and the Congress reforms to the IMSS pension system, and partly because of loss of interest by the public. In 2005 Marcos made headlines again by comparing Andrés Manuel López Obrador with Carlos Salinas de Gortari (as part of a broad criticism to the three main political parties in Mexico the PAN, PRI and PRD) and publicly declaring the EZLN in "Red Alert". Shortly communiques announced that the EZLN had undergone a restructuring that enabled them to withstand the loss of their public leadership (Marcos and the CCRI). A consultation with the zapatistas support base led to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle.

Ideology

The EZLN claims to represent the rights of the indigenous population, but also sees itself and is seen as part of a wider anti-capitalist movement. The neozapatistas oppose globalization, or neoliberalism, the economic system advocated by the Mexican presidents from 1982 to 2000. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), is an example of neoliberal policy, and spawned the 1994 Zapatista revolution because those who would later become the EZLN believed that it would destroy the rights of Mexico's impoverished indigenous community. The group takes its name from the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata; they see themselves as his ideological heirs, and heirs to 500 years of indigenous resistance against imperialism. The EZLN differs from most revolutionary groups by having stopped military action after the initial uprising in the first two weeks of 1994. They never attempted their announced campaign against the capital, in fact they didn't leave the jungle, but in any case they were no match for the Mexican army. They organized a nationwide vote in which the general public chose to stop armed confrontation and continue through peaceful means as their course of action. They say these channels have been ineffective for the indigenous and for everyone else for too much time (500 years, as they say), thus the EZLN motto: ¡Ya Basta! ("Enough!"). This stance weakened after the electoral victory of Vicente Fox Quesada, who peacefully assumed the presidency as the first president from the opposition in 72 years. However, they have not participated in elections and now propose a non-electoral political front. Vicente Fox Quesada Only once, EZLN representatives have publicly visited (unarmed) Mexico City, marching down the streets, doing press conferences and organizing meetings with the civilian population and some political parties. This great march to Mexico City, described in a different part of this article, was also relatively peaceful, with some minor, mostly verbal, incidents. This peaceful approach is one of the reasons for its longevity and some popularity with the civilian population. The EZLN has been mainly fighting for autonomy of the indigenous population as a solution to poverty ; they promote a kind of state within a state where peoples can retain their ways of government and communal way of life yet receive outside support in needed areas. Many leftist groups have attempted to "adopt" the Zapatistas by portraying them as Trotskyists, Anarchists, Socialists, etc., when in actuality, the Zapatista ideology of autonomy is unique.

Latest news

On June 28, 2005 the EZLN released an installment of what it called the "Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle." According to the communique, the EZLN has reflected on its history and decided that it must make changes in order to continue its struggle. Accordingly, the EZLN has decided to unite with the "workers, farmers, students, teachers, and employees... the workers of the city and the countryside." They propose to do so through a non-electoral front to talk and collectively write a new constitution to establish a new political culture.

Further reading


- Ya Basta! Ten Years of the Zapatista Uprising, selected writings by Subcomandante Marcos; ISBN 1-904859-13-5
- Our Word is Our Weapon, selected writings by Subcomandante Marcos; ISBN 1-85242-814-7
- The Zapatista Reader, edited by Tom Hayden
- Profit Over People, Noam Chomsky; ISBN 1-888363-82-7
- Change the World Without Taking Power, John Holloway -[http://libcom.org/library/change-world-without-taking-power-john-holloway e-text on libcom.org]
- Rebellion in Chiapas, a historical reader, John Womack, Jr.
- The war against oblivion: Zapatista chronicles, 1994-2000, John Ross; ISBN 1-56751-174-0
- "First World, Ha, Ha, Ha! The Zapatista Challenge", edited by Elaine Katzenberger
- The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy, Professor Neil Harvey
- Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas, George A. Collier with Elizabeth L. Quaratiello

External links


- [http://www.ezln.org.mx EZLN' official web of the EZLN]
- [http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx Enlace Zapatista']
- [http://zeztainternzaional.ezln.org.mx EZLN' The EZLN in the world]
- [http://www.zmag.org/chiapas1/index.htm ZNet Chiapas Watch/Zapatista Crisis page with English translations of EZLN documents]
- [http://libcom.org/library/chiapas-aufheben-9 A Commune in Chiapas] - Libertarian Marxist Analysis of the Zapatista Uprising
- [http://chiapas.indymedia.org/ Chiapas Indymedia] More EZLN communiques can be found here. In Spanish, with English sections.
- [http://www.umich.edu/~pwahlen Student Project on Cyberactivism and the EZLN]
- [http://www.zapatistas.org/ Zapatistas Discussion Group]
- [http://zapatista.modblog.com] Zapatista Blog Category:1994 in Mexico Category:Modern Mexico Category:Mexican political organizations Category:Social movements Category:Rebellion Category:National liberation movements Category:Left-wing militant groupsCategory:Anti-globalization

Communist

:This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. For issues regarding Communist organizations, see the Communist party article. For issues regarding Communist Party-run states, see Communist state. Communism refers to a theoretical system of social organization and a political movement based on common ownership of the means of production. As a political movement, communism seeks to establish a classless society. A major force in world politics since the early 20th century, modern communism is generally associated with The Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, according to which the capitalist profit-based system of private ownership is replaced by a communist society in which the means of production are communally owned, such as through a gift economy. Often this process is said initiated by the revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeoisie (see Marxism), passes through a transitional period marked by the preparatory stage of socialism (see Leninism). Pure communism has never been implemented, it remains theoretical: communism is, in Marxist theory, the end-state, or the result of state-socialism. The word is now mainly understood to refer to the political, economic, and social theory of Marxist thinkers, or life under conditions of Communist party rule. In the late 19th century, Marxist theories motivated socialist parties across Europe, although their policies later developed along the lines of "reforming" capitalism, rather than overthrowing it. The exception was the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party. One branch of this party, commonly known as the Bolsheviks and headed by Vladimir Lenin, succeeded in taking control of the country after the toppling of the Provisional Government in the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1918, this party changed its name to the Communist Party; thus establishing the contemporary distinction between communism and socialism. After the success of the October Revolution in Russia, many socialist parties in other countries became communist parties, owing allegiance of varying degrees to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (see Communist International). After World War II, regimes calling themselves communist took power in Eastern Europe. In 1949 the Communists in China, led by Mao Zedong, came to power and established the People's Republic of China. Among the other countries in the Third World that adopted a Communist form of government at some point were Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Angola, and Mozambique. By the early 1980s, almost one-third of the world's population lived under Communist states. Communism never became a popular ideology in the United States, either before or after the establishment of the Communist Party USA in 1919. Since the early 1970s, the term "Eurocommunism" was used to refer to the policies of Communist Parties in Western Europe, which sought to break with the tradition of uncritical and unconditional support of the Soviet Union. Such parties were politically active and electorally significant in France and Italy. With the collapse of the Communist governments in Eastern Europe from the late 1980s and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Communism's influence has decreased dramatically in Europe, but around a quarter of the world's population still lives under Communist Party rule.

Marxism

Like other socialists, Marx and Engels sought an end to capitalism and the exploitation of workers. But whereas earlier socialists often favored longer-term social reform, Marx and Engels believed that popular revolution was all but inevitable, and the only path to socialism. According to the Marxist argument for communism, the main characteristic of human life in class society is alienation; and communism is desirable because it entails the full realization of human freedom. Marx here follows G.W.F. Hegel in conceiving freedom not merely as an absence of constraints but as action having moral content. Not only does communism allow people to do what they want but it puts humans in such conditions and such relations with one another that they would not wish to have need for exploitation. Whereas for Hegel, the unfolding of this ethnical life in history is mainly driven by the realm of ideas, for Marx, communism emerged from material, especially the development of the means of production. Marxism holds that a process of class conflict and revolutionary struggle will result in victory for the proletariat and the establishment of a communist society in which private ownership is abolished over time and the means of production and subsistence belong to the community. Marx himself wrote little about life under communism, giving only the most general indication as to what constituted a communist society. It is clear that it entails abundance in which there is little limit to the projects that humans may undertake. In the popular slogan that was adopted by the communist movement, communism was a world in which 'each gave according to his abilities, and received according to his needs.' The German Ideology (1845) was one of Marx's few writings to elaborate on the communist future: :In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic. [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01a.htm] Marx's lasting vision was to add this vision to a positive scientific theory of how society was moving in a law-governed way toward communism, and, with some tension, a political theory that explained why revolutionary activity was required to bring it about. Some of Marx's contemporaries, such as Mikhail Bakunin, espoused similar ideas, but differed in their views of how to reach to a harmonic society with no classes. To this day there has been a split in the workers movement between Marxists (communists) and anarchists. The anarchists are against, and wish to abolish, every state organisation. Among them, anarchist-communists such as Peter Kropotkin believed in an immediate transition to one society with no classes, while anarcho-syndicalists believe that labor unions, as opposed to Communist parties, are the organizations that can help usher this society.

The growth of modern Communism

Soviet Marxism

In Russia, the modern world's first effort to build socialism or communism on a large scale, following the 1917 October Revolution, led by Lenin's Bolsheviks, raised significant theoretical and practical debates on communism among Marxists themselves. Marx's theory had presumed that revolutions would occur where capitalist development was the most advanced and where a large working class was already in place. Russia, however, was the poorest country in Europe, with an enormous, illiterate peasantry and little industry. Under these circumstances, it was necessary for the communists, according to Marxian theory, to create a working class itself. Nevertheless, some socialists believed that a Russian revolution could be the precursor of workers' revolutions in the west. For this reason, the socialist Mensheviks had opposed Lenin's communist Bolsheviks in their demand for socialist revolution before capitalism had been established. In seizing power, the Bolsheviks found themselves without a program beyond their pragmatic and politically successful slogans "peace, bread, and land," which had tapped the massive public desire for an end to Russian involvement in the First World War and the peasants' demand for land reform. The usage of the terms "communism" and "socialism" shifted after 1917, when the Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party and installed a single-party regime devoted to the implementation of socialist policies. The revolutionary Bolsheviks broke completely with the non-revolutionary social democratic movement, withdrew from the Second International, and formed the Third International, or Comintern, in 1919. Henceforth, the term "Communism" was applied to the objective of the parties founded under the umbrella of the Comintern. Their program called for the uniting of workers of the world for revolution, which would be followed by the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat as well as the development of a socialist economy. Ultimately, their program held, there would develop a harmonious classless society, with the withering away of the state. In the early 1920s, the Soviet Communists formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union, from the former Russian Empire. Following Lenin's democratic centralism, the Communist parties were organized on a hierarchical basis, with active cells of members as the broad base; they were made up only of elite cadres approved by higher members of the party as being reliable and completely subject to party discipline. In 1918-1920, in the middle of the Russian Civil War, the new regime nationalized all productive property. When mutiny and peasant unrest resulted, Lenin declared the New Economic Policy (NEP). However, Joseph Stalin's personal fight for leadership spelled the end of the NEP, and he used his control over personnel to abandon the program. The Soviet Union and other countries ruled by Communist Parties are often described as 'Communist states' with 'state socialist' economic bases. This usage indicates that they proclaim that they have realized part of the socialist program by abolishing private control of the means of production and establishing state control over the economy; however, they do not declare themselves truly communist, as they have not established communal ownership.

Stalinism

The Stalinist version of socialism, with some important modifications, shaped the Soviet Union and influenced Communist Parties worldwide. It was heralded as a possibility of building communism via a massive program of industrialization and collectivization. The rapid development of industry, and above all the victory of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, maintained that vision throughout the world, even around a decade following Stalin's death, when the party adopted a program in which it promised the establishment of communism within thirty years. However, under Stalin's leadership, evidence emerged that dented faith in the possibility of achieving communism within the framework of the Soviet model. Stalin had created in the Soviet Union a repressive state that dominated every aspect of life. After Stalin's death, the Soviet Union's new leader, Nikita Khrushchev admitted the enormity of the repression that took place under Stalin. Later, growth declined, and rent-seeking and corruption by state officials increased, which dented the legitimacy of the Soviet system. Despite the activity of the Comintern, the Soviet Communist Party adopted the Stalinist theory of "socialism in one country" and claimed that, due to the "aggravation of class struggle under socialism," it was possible, even necessary, to build socialism in one country alone. This departure from Marxist internationalism was challenged by Leon Trotsky, whose theory of "permanent revolution" stressed the necessity of world revolution.

Trotskyism

Trotsky and his supporters organized into the "Left Opposition," and their platform became known as Trotskyism. But Stalin eventually succeeded in gaining full control of the Soviet regime, and their attempts to remove Stalin from power resulted in Trotsky's exile from the Soviet Union in 1929. After Trotsky's exile, world communism fractured in two distinct branches: Stalinism and Trotskyism. Trotsky later founded the Fourth International, a Trotskyist rival to the Comintern, in 1938. Though some follow Trotskyism today, Trotsky's theories were never reaccepted in Communist circles in the Soviet bloc, even after Stalin's death; and Trotsky's interpretation of communism has not been successful in leading a political revolution that would overthrow a state. However, Trotskyist ideas have occasionally found an echo among political movements in countries experiencing social upheavals (such is the case of Alan Woods' Trotskyist Committee for a Marxist International, which has had contact with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela), most parties are active in politically stable, developed countries (such as Great Britain, France, Spain and Germany). It is noteworthy that Trotskyists groups that contribute with pro-capitalist parties have not escaped criticism as opportunists from other Trotskyists which are loathe to do so (see Trotskyism).

Cold War years

As the Soviet Union won important allies by victory in the Second World War in Eastern Europe, communism as a movement spread to a number of new countries, and gave rise to a few different branches of its own, such as Maoism. Communism had been vastly strengthened by the winning of many new nations into the sphere of Soviet influence and strength in Eastern Europe. Governments modeled on Soviet Communism were formed in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Romania. A Communist government was also created under Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia, but Tito's independent policies led to the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the Cominform, which had replaced the Comintern, and Titoism, a new branch in the world communist movement, was labeled "deviationist." By 1950 the Chinese Communists held all of China except Taiwan, thus controlling the most populous nation in the world. Other areas where rising Communist strength provoked dissension and in some cases actual fighting include Laos, many nations of the Middle East and Africa, and, especially, Vietnam (see Vietnam War). With varying degrees of success, Communists attempted to unite with nationalist and socialist forces against Western imperialism in these poor countries.

Maoism

After the death of Stalin in 1953, the Soviet Union's new leader, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced Stalin's crimes and his cult of personality. He called for a return to the principles of Lenin, thus presaging some change in Communist methods. However, Khrushchev's reforms heightened ideological differences between China and the Soviet Union, which became increasingly apparent in the 1960s and 1970s. As the Sino-Soviet Split in the international Communist movement turned toward open hostility, Maoist China portrayed itself as a leader of the underdeveloped world against the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, with Maoism gaining recognition worldwide as a new branch of Marxism.

Collapse of the Soviet Union and Communism today

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union and relaxed central control, in accordance with reform policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). The Soviet Union did not intervene as Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary all abandoned Communist rule by 1990. In 1991, the Soviet Union itself dissolved. By the beginning of the 21st century, Communist parties hold power in China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. President Vladimir Voronin of Moldova is a member of the Communist Party of Moldova, but the country is not run under one-party leadership. However, China has reassessed many aspects of the Maoist legacy; and China, Laos, Vietnam, and, to a lesser degree, Cuba have reduced state control of the economy in order to stimulate growth. Communist parties, or their descendent parties, remain politically important in many European countries and throughout the Third World, particularly in India. Theories within Marxism as to why communism in Eastern Europe was not achieved after socialist revolutions pointed to such elements as the pressure of external capitalist states, the relative backwardness of the societies in which the revolutions occurred, and the emergence of a bureaucratic stratum or class that arrested or diverted the transition press in its own interests. Marxist critics of the Soviet Union referred to the Soviet system, along with other Communist states, as "state capitalism," arguing that Soviet system fell far short of Marx's communist ideal. They argued that the state and party bureaucratic elite acted as a surrogate capitalist class in the heavily centralized and repressive political apparatus. Non-Marxists, in contrast, have often applied the term to any society ruled by a Communist Party and to any party aspiring to create a society similar to such existing nation-states. In the social sciences, societies ruled by Communist Parties are distinct for their single party control and their socialist economic bases. While anticommunists applied the concept of "totalitarianism" to these societies, many social scientists identified possibilities for independent political activity within them, and stressed their continued evolution up to the point of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Today, Marxist revolutionaries are active in India, Nepal, and Colombia.

"Communism" or "communism"?

According to the 1996 third edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage, communism and derived words are written with the lowercase "c" except when they refer to a political party of that name, a member of that party, or a government led by such a party, in which case the word "Communist" is written with the uppercase "C".

Criticism of communism

:Main article: Criticisms of communism. A diverse array of writers and political activists have published anticommunist work, such as Soviet bloc dissidents Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vaclav Havel; economists Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman; and historians and social scientists Hannah Arendt, Robert Conquest, Daniel Pipes and R. J. Rummel, to name a few. Some writers such as Conquest go beyond attributing large-scale human rights abuses to Communist regimes, presenting events occurring in these countries, particularly under Stalin, as an argument against the ideology of Communism itself. It should be noted that these are criticisms of Communist parties and states they have ruled, rather than criticisms of communism as such. It should also be noted that many Communist parties outside of the Warsaw Pact (i.e. Communist parties in Western Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa) differed greatly, therefore no single criticism fits all.

See also


- Communist state
- Anti-communism
- Criticisms of communism
- Post-Communism

Schools of communism


- Anarchist communism
- Council communism
- De Leonism
- Eurocommunism
- Hoxhaism
- Juche
- Left communism
- Luxembourgism
- Marxism
- Marxism-Leninism
- Maoism
- Stalinism
- Trotskyism

Organizations and people


- Communist Party
- List of Communist parties
- List of Communists

Further reading


- Fernando Claudin, The Communist Movement: From Comintern to Cominform (1975)
- Pipes, Richard, "Communism", London, (2001), ISBN 0-297-64688-5

External links

Online resources for original Marxist literature


- [http://www.marxists.org Marxists Internet Archive]
- [http://www.libcom.org/library Libertarian Communist Library]
- [http://www.marxist.net Marxist.net]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm?title= Theses on Feuerbach]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm?title= Principles of Communism]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm?title= The Communist Manifesto]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1871/civil-war-france/index.htm?title= The Civil War in France]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm?title= Socialism: Utopian and Scientific]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/deleon/works/1896/960126.htm Reform or Revolution?]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/index.htm?title= What is to be Done?]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1904/onestep/index.htm?title= One Step Forward, Two Steps Back]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1905/two-tact/index.htm?title= Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1908/mec/index.htm?title= Materialism and Empirio-Criticism]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/self-det/index.htm?title= The Right of Nations to Self-Determination]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/index.htm?title= Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/index.htm?title= The State and Revolution]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/miliprog/index.htm?title= The Military Programme of the Proletarian Revolution]
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/tasks/index.htm?title= The Tasks of the Proletariat In Our Revolution] Category:Communism Category:Political theories Category:Society Category:Economic ideologies zh-min-nan:Kiōng-sán-chú-gī ko:공산주의 ms:Komunisme ja:共産主義 simple:Communism

Red star

:For astronomical meanings of "red star", see red dwarf, red giant, and stellar classification. :For the Dragonriders of Pern meaning, see Red Star (Pern). Red Star (Pern) The five-pointed red star (a pentagram without the inner pentagon) is a symbol of Communism and Socialism and represents the five fingers of the worker's hand, as well as five of six inhabited continents. A lesser known suggestion is that the five points on the star were intended to represent the five social groups that would lead the nation to communism. In no particular order, they are: the youth (the future generations), the military (to protect and defend socialism), industrial workers (labourers), agricultural workers (peasantry), and the intelligentsia (to criticize and to improve the ideas and practices of life in order to attain communism). In general, it was the emblem, symbol, and signal that indicated the truth of the new order under the rule and guidance of the Communist Party. The red star is or was used on several flags and coats of arms of communist states, for example on the flag of former Yugoslavia, and in some separatist and socialist movements, like estelada flag in Catalan Countries. Sometimes the hammer and sickle was depicted inside or below the star. Since the fall of the Soviet bloc, the red star has been banned in some countries (e.g. in Hungary, it is a criminal offense to publicly show or use the symbol). The Russian military newspaper is also called the Red Star (Russian Krasnaya Zvezda). Several sporting clubs from communist countries used the red star as a symbol, and at least two named themselves after it:
- FK Red Star (Serbian Crvena Zvezda), Belgrade
- Roter Stern, Leipzig A yellow star, particularly on a red field, often has the same symbolism. ---- A five-pointed red star is also used by California, Heineken, Mozilla, and Macy's, but without any communist connotation. ---- "Red Star" is also the name of the first Kid Twist technopunk album.

See also


- Red flag
- Hammer and Sickle
- Communist symbolism
- Order of the Red Star Category:Star symbols

Revolution

:This article is about revolution in the sense of a drastic change. For other meanings of the word, see revolution (disambiguation). A revolution is a relatively sudden, and absolutely drastic change (a "complete turn-around"). This may be a change in the social or political institutions over a relatively short period of time, or a major change in its culture or economy. Some revolutions are led by the majority of the populace of a nation, others by a small band of revolutionaries. Compare rebellion.

Social and political revolutions

Political revolutions are often characterised by violence, and vast changes in power structures that can often result in further, institutionalised, violence, as in the Russian and French revolutions (with the "Purges" and "the Terror", respectively). A political revolution is the forcible replacement of one set of rulers with another (as happened in France and Russia), while a social revolution is the fundamental change in the social structure of a society, such as the Protestant Reformation or the Renaissance.However, blurring the line between these two categories, most political revolutions wish to carry out social revolutions, and they have basic philosophical or social underpinnings which drive them. The most common revolutions with such underpinnings in the modern world have been liberal revolutions and communist revolutions. In contrast, a coup d'état often seeks to change nothing more than the current ruler. Some political philosophers regard revolutions as the means of achieving their goals. Most anarchists advocate social revolution as the means of breaking down the structures of government and replacing them with non-hierarchal institutions. With Marxist communists, there is a split between those who supported the Soviet Union and other so-called 'communist states' and those who were/are critical of those states (some even rejecting them as non-communist, see state capitalism), for example trotskyists. Social and political revolutions are often "institutionalized" when the ideas, slogans, and personalities of the revolution continue to play a prominent role in a country's political culture, long after the revolution's end. As mentioned, communist nations regularly institutionalize their revolutions to legitimize the actions of their governments. Some non-communist nations, like the United States, France, or Mexico also have institutionalized revolutions, and continue to celebrate the memory of their revolutionary past through holidays, artwork, songs, and other venues.

Ancient revolutions


- Fall of the Qin Dynasty in China, 206 BCE
- Great Jewish Revolt (66-70) and Bar Kokhba's revolt (132-135) against the Roman Empire.
- Popular revolt in late medieval Europe 14th - early 16th century, a series of attempted revolutions against the nobility

Liberal revolutions

(known to Marxists as bourgeois revolutions) :Some of these are Atlantic Revolutions.
- English Revolution – (1642-1653) – Commenced as a civil war between Parliament and King, culminating in the execution of Charles I and the establishment of a republican Protectorate.
- Glorious Revolution – (England in (1688) – Overthrow of King James II and establishment of a Whig-dominated Protestant constitutional monarchy.
- American Revolution – (1774-1783) – Established independence of the 13 colonies from Great Britain, creating the republic of the United States of America
- French Revolution – (1789) – Regarded as one of the most influential of all Revolutions, frequently associated with the rise of the bourgeoisie and the downfall of the aristocracy.
- Irish Rebellion – (1798) – Failed attempt to overthrow British rule in the country.
- Haitian Revolution – (1804) – Successful slave rebellion led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Established Haiti as the first free, black republic.
- July Revolution (1830)
- Belgian Revolution (1830)
- Rebellions of 1837 – (1837-1838) – Failed republican revolutions against British rule in Canada.
- Revolutions of 1848 – (1848) – Wave of failed liberal and republican revolutions that swept Europe.
- Taiping Rebellion – 1851 Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and Manchu domination.
- Indian rebellion of 1857 Also called the War of Independence of 1857 and popularly known in the West as the Sepoy Mutiny, this rebellion was against British imperialism and marks the end of Mughal rule in India.
- Russian Revolution of 1905 – (1905) – Failed bourgeois-liberal revolution against Tsar Nicholas II
- Mexican Revolution – (1910) – Overthrow of dictator Porfirio Díaz, seizure of power by Institutional Revolutionary Party.
- Xinhai Revolution – (1911) – Overthrow of ruling Qing Dynasty and establishment of the Republic of China.
- February Revolution – (1917) – Liberal revolution against Tsar Nicholas II
- German Revolution – (1918) – Overthrow of the Kaiser by a workers' revolution, establishment of the Weimar Republic.

Socialist and/or Communist revolutions


- The Revolutionnary Commune of Paris – 1871
- Russian Revolution – (1917) – The most famous and influential modern revolution, culminating in the Bolshevik seizure of power and the establishment of the Soviet Union.
- German Revolution – (1919)) – Failed revolution in Germany led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
- Hungarian revolutions – 1919 and 1949
- Mongolia – 1921
- Spanish Revolution – 1936
- North Korea – 1948
- Chinese Revolution – (1949) – Victory of Communist-led peasant rebellion under Chairman Mao over the ruling Nationalist Party, establishment of People's Republic of China.
- Algerian Revolution – (1954 – 1962) – Revolutionary war of independence against French imperialism.
- North Vietnam – period of 1945-1954
- Cuban Revolution – (1959) – Fidel Castro-led rebellion against U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista; victory of revolutionary government of Fidel Castro.
- The Congo – 1964 and 1968
- The Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, see [http://home.globalfrontiers.com/Zanzibar/zanzibar_revolution.htm]
- Cultural Revolution – (1966-1976) Maoist led turmoil in People's Republic of China.
- South Yemen – 1967
- France, May 1968 – (1968) – Students' and workers' revolt against the Government of Charles de Gaulle.
- Libya – 1969
- Somalia – 1969
- Benin – 1972
- Ethiopia – 1974
- Carnation Revolution – (1974) in Portugal – Left-wing popular overthrow of right-wing dictatorship.
- Guinea-Bissauan Revolution – 1974
- Cambodia – 1975
- South Vietnam – 1975
- Laos – 1975
- Madagascar – 1975
- Cape Verde – 1975
- Mozambique – 1975
- Angola – 1975
- Afghanistan – 1978
- Grenada – 1979
- Nicaraguan Revolution – (1979) – Popular overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship by progressive/Marxist peasant movement.
- Burkina Faso – 1983
- Bolivarian Revolution – (1998) – Venezuela elects populist Hugo Chávez.

Eastern European anti-Communist revolutions


- Hungarian Revolution – (1956) Workers' and peasants' left-wing revolution against the imposed Communist Party-run state dictatorship, suppressed by Soviet forces.
- Singing Revolution – (1988) Bloodless overthrow of Communist Party-run state in Estonia.
- Romanian Revolution – (1989) Violent overthrow of Communist Party-run state in Romania.
- Velvet Revolution – (1989) Bloodless overthrow of Communist Party-run state in Czechoslovakia.

Islamist revolutions


- Iranian Revolution – (1979) – Popular overthrow of US-backed Shah, culminating in an Islamist cleric-led theocracy.
- Taliban – (1996) – Islamist movement in Afghanistan

Color revolutions

Note that some of these (particularly the rose and orange revolutions) only changed one government with another, and did not modify the political or economic systems of their countries. As such, they are purely political revolutions.
- Rose Revolution in Georgia (2003)
- Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004)
- Cedar Revolution in Lebanon (2005)
- Tulip Revolution or Yellow Revolution in Kyrgyzstan (2005)

Cultural, intellectual, and philosophical revolutions


- Renaissance
- Protestant Reformation
- Scientific revolution
- Sexual revolution
- Quiet Revolution
- Consciousness Revolution

Technological revolutions

(although these revolutions always have an influence on culture)
- Agrarian Revolution
- Digital Revolution
- Neolithic Revolution
- Price revolution
- Industrial Revolution
- Second Industrial Revolution

See also


- Revolt
- Coup d'état
- List of fictional revolutions and coups
- ja:革命

Chiapas

Chiapas is a state in the southeast of Mexico. Chiapas is bordered by the states of Tabasco to the north, Veracruz to the northwest, and Oaxaca to the west. To the east Chiapas borders Guatemala, and to the south the Pacific Ocean. Chiapas has an area of 73,887 km² (28,528 square miles). The 2003 population estimate was 4,224,800 people. The state capital city is Tuxtla Gutiérrez; other cities and towns in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las Casas, Comitán, and Tapachula. Chiapas is also home to the ancient Maya ruins of Palenque, Yaxchilan, Bonampak, Chinkultic, and Tonina. Many of the people in Chiapas are poor, rural small farmers. About one third of the population are of full or predominantly Maya descent, and in rural areas many do not speak Spanish. The state suffers from the highest rate of malnutrition in Mexico, estimated to affect over 40% of the population. Since 1994, Chiapas has been involved in an ongoing civil war or revolution. The two sides are the Mexican Government and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (the EZLN or Zapatistas). There are currently 32 "rebel autonomous zapatista municipalities" (independent Zapatista communities, MAREZ from their name in Spanish) in Chiapas.

History of Chiapas

In Pre-Columbian times Chiapas was part of the heartland of the Maya civilization. Chiapas was conquered by Spain in the early 16th century, and became part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, administered as part of the "Kingdom of Guatemala" (what is now Central America), administered from Antigua Guatemala. When Central America achieved its independence from Mexico in 1823, western Chiapas was annexed to Mexico. More of current day Chiapas was transferred after the disintegration of the Central American Federation in 1842, and the remainder of the current state taken from Guatemala in the early 1880s by President Porfirio Díaz. Chiapas remained one of the parts of Mexico least affected by change, with the descendants of the Spanish continuing to exercise much control over the native Indians through such institutions as debt peonage, despite attempts by the central government to abolish those practices. In 1868 there was an armed native rebellion, led by the Tzotzil Maya as well as Tzeltal, Tojolabal, and Ch'ol; it almost succeeded in taking San Cristóbal, then the state capital, before it was suppressed by the Mexican army. Some people in Chiapas felt that their poor and largely agricultural area had been ignored by the government since enactment of the constitution of 1917. One of the chief complaints was that many Indian farmers were required to pay absentee landlords, despite the fact that since the 1920s the Mexican government had been promising the peasants ownership of the land they had farmed and lived on for generations. Article 27 of the 1917 constitution guaranteed indigenous peoples the right to an "ejido" or communal land. Due to pressure from Stuctural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), 85% of formerly state-owned companies were privatized. With the increasing pressure from the Mexican economic crash and from SAPs put in place by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government (under President José López Portillo and, beginning in 1994, President Carlos Salinas) agreed to repeal the article in the Constitution as a condition to joining the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which was implemented on January 1, 1994. Such dissatisfaction led to the rise of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Zapatistas, or Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional), which began an armed rebellion against the federal government on January 1, 1994 as a response to the negative implications NAFTA had for the indigenous population especially in Southern Mexico. In this year, thousands of supporters of the anti-globalization movement gathered in Chiapas, and it was from this meeting that the modern movement was born. The group is named after the iconic revolutionary General Emiliano Zapata who fought during the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s. Zapata gained enormous respect throughout Latin America for defending the rights of the poor agricultural sector of Mexico. The Zapatistas were in principle a peaceful movement that was pushed to use the force of arms to guarantee the indigenous right to ejidos. Subcomandante Marcos, the face of the Zapatistas, succeeded in attracting international attention, with the innovative use of modern information and communication technologies for the struggle of the indigenous peoples in Chiapas. After the initial seizure of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, there was an armed repression by paramilitaries that was funded by the federal government to put down the organized uprising. A series of massacres followed most notably in 1997 in Acteal where refugees from indigenous communities, mainly women and children, were killed, after a National Peace Accord had been signed. In 2000, the EZLN renewed its revolt, declaring control of a number of villages and sending a delegation into Mexico City. While the delegation was unsuccessful, the villages remain under Zapatista control, in large part due to the resilience of local villagers and their unwavering support of the group. In August 2003, the EZLN declared all Zapatista territory an autonomous government independent of Mexico. Since then, the armed EZLN has been laying low to some extent working on the government level to implement health care and educational institutions in poor rural indigenous communities that had until then been ignored and discriminated against by the central government.

Islam in Chiapas

Long a bastion of Roman Catholicism, the rites of which are frequently syncretized with indigenous practices and beliefs, in recent years southern Mexico has seen major inroads by various protestant and evangelical churches. In addition, since about 2000, Islam has also been gaining a foothold – some 300 Tzotzil Native Americans are reported to have embraced Islam in recent years, and San Cristóbal now boasts two mosques. In contrast, the converts claim to have no interest in political extremism. Rather, they belong to the Sunni, Murabitun sect that was founded by the Scotsman Ian Dallas and is seen as an offshoot of a Moroccan religious order. The Murabitun followers represent a sort of primal Islam: earning interest profits through money-lending is frowned upon, and they preach a literal interpretation of the Koran.

External links on Muslim conversions


- Jens Glusing, [http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,358223,00.html "Praying to Allah in Mexico: Islam is gaining a foothold in Chiapas"], Der Spiegel Online, May 28, 2005.
- Dudley Althaus, [http://hispanicmuslims.com/articles/other/southernmx.html "Islam taking root in southern Mexico"], Houston Chronicle, June 22, 2002.
- Chris Zambelis, [http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369812 "Al-Qaeda's Inroads into the Caribbean"], Jamestown Foundation Terrorism Monitor, Volume 3, Issue 20 (October 21, 2005)
- Chris Zambelis, [http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369844 "Radical Islam in Latin America"], Jamestown Foundation Terrorism Monitor, Volume 3, Issue 22 (December 2, 2005)

Municipalities

Chiapas is subdivided into 118 municipalities (municipios). See municipalities of Chiapas

Mormonism

In Mormon culture, Chiapas is the most popular traditional location of the Book of Mormon land of Zarahemla, though this is not official doctrine of the LDS Church. The popular LDS tourism service, Israel Revealed, has package tours that include various spots in Chiapas.

External links


- [http://www.turismochiapas.gob.mx http://www.turismochiapas.gob.mx] (Español, English, Français, Deutsch, Italiano)
- [http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,358223,00.html Islam is Gaining Foothold in Chiapas] (English) Category:States of Mexico ja:チアパス州

States of Mexico

The United Mexican States or Mexico (Estados Unidos Mexicanos or México) is a federal republic made up of 31 states (estados) and one Federal District, (Distrito Federal), which contains the capital, Mexico City. Mexico City

See also


- List of Mexican state governors
- Ranked list of Mexican states
- Mexican state name etymologies Mexico, States of
- Mexico ko:멕시코의 행정 구역 ja:メキシコの州

1994

1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family.

Events

January


- January 1 - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect
- January 1 - Zapatista Army of National Liberation begins war in Chiapas, Mexico
- January 1 - Bantustans join South Africa
- January 6 - Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding.
- January 8 - Valeri Polyakov began his 437.7 day orbit, eventually setting the world record for days spent in orbit.
- January 11 - Irish government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Fein
- January 14 - U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles to targets and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.
- January 17 - 1994 Northridge Earthquake, magnitude 6.7, hits the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles at 4:31 am.
- January 20 - In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet to attend The Citadel but soon drops out.
- January 26 - A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.
- January 28 - The first trial of accused murderer Lyle Menendez ends in a mistrial. He and his brother Erik are later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
- January 31 - German luxury car manufacturer BMW announces the purchase of Rover from British Aerospace

February


- February 1 - In Portland, Oregon, Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. He accepts a plea bargain admitting to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony against Harding.
- February 3 - William J. Perry was sworn in as the 19th Secretary of Defense of United States
- February 5 - Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers
- February 6 - Serb mortar shell kills 68 civilians and wounds about 200 in a Sarajevo marketplace
- February 9 - Peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina announced (so called Vance-Owen peace plan)
- February 12 - Edvard Munch's painting, "The Scream," is stolen in Oslo. It is recovered on May 7
- February 22 - Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged with spying for the Soviet Union by the United States Department of Justice. Ames would later be convicted to life imprisonment and his wife would receive 5 years in prison
- February 24 - In Gloucester, local police begins excavations at 25 Cromwell Street the home of Frederick West suspected of multiple murders. On February 28, he and his wife are arrested
- February 25 - Kahanist Baruch Goldstein opens fire inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank. He kills 29 Muslims before worshippers beat him to death
- February 27 - Australian Federal Sports & Environment Minister Ros Kelly resigns over "The Sports Rorts Affair", where it was alleged that she apportioned money for community sporting projects in a pork barreling fashion.
- February 28 - US F-16 pilots shoot down four Serbian fighter aircraft over Bosnia for violation of the Operation Deny Flight and its no-fly zone

March


- March 1 - A lone terrorist kills Ari Halberstam on an attack on 14 Jewish students on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. [http://www.arihalberstam.com]
- March 1 - South Africa cedes Walvis Bay to Namibia.
- March 1 - Mary Ellen Withrow begins term of office as Treasurer of the United States, serving under President Bill Clinton.
- March 4 - Four terrorists are convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing which killed six and injured more than a thousand.
- March 6 - Referendum in Moldova results in the electorate voting against possible reunification with Romania.
- March 7 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music that parodies of an original work are generally covered by the doctrine of fair use.
- March 12 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as 'proof' of the Loch Ness monster, is confirmed to be a hoax.
- March 12 - The Church of England ordains its first female priests.
- March 16 - In Portland, Oregon Tonya Harding pleads guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for trying to cover-up an attack on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She is fined $100,000 and banned from the sport.
- March 23 - At an election rally in Tijuana, Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated. Mario Aburto Martinez is arrested for the crime and confesses on the same day.
- March 27 - A tornado outbreak occurs in Southeastern United States. One tornado hits the United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Alabama killing 22. This outbreak is the biggest tornado event of 1994.
- March 28 - In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg killing 18.
- March 31 - The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull (see Human evolution).

April


- April 6 - Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and president of Burundi Cyprien Ntaryamira died when a missile shoots down their jet near Kigali, Rwanda. This is taken as a pretext to begin the Rwandan Genocide
- April 7 - The Rwandan Genocide begins in Kigali, Rwanda.
- April 8 - Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, is found dead in Seattle, Washington. He had committed suicide three days earlier.
- April 16 - Voters in Finland decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
- April 20 - Paul Touvier is found guilty of ordering the execution of 7 Jews when he was serving in the Vichy France Milice
- April 21 - Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi have been killed in Rwanda
- April 22 - Former American President Richard Nixon dies.
- April 25 - End of term for Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu as 9th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- April 26 - Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan becomes the 10th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- April 26 - South Africa holds its first fully multiracial elections.
- April 30 - Formula One driver Roland Ratzenberger of Austria, age 32, dies in a high-speed, single-car crash in the practise session for the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy

May


- May 1 - Formula One driver Ayrton Senna of Brazil, age 34, is killed in a high-speed, single-car accident during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy
- May 6 - The Channel Tunnel, which took 15,000 workers over seven years to complete, opens between England and France. Passengers can now travel between the two countries in 35 minutes.
- May 9 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president
- May 10 - Illinois executes serial killer John Wayne Gacy by lethal injection for the murder of 33 young men and boys
- May 10 - An annular eclipse of the sun is visible across much of North America.
- May 10 - Punk rock band Weezer releases their eponymous debut that goes on to sell more than 3 million copies.
- May 12 - Hockey becomes Canada's official winter sport.
- May 31- Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have dinner at the Granita restaurant in Islington and allegedly make a deal on who will become the leader of the Labour Party, and ultimately, the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

June


- June - Iraq disarmament crisis: UN weapons inspectors Ritter and Smidovitch learn, through Israeli intelligence reports, that Qusay Hussein, Saddam Hussein's son, is the key player in efforts by the Iraqi government to hide the country's alleged illegal weapons
- June 6-8 - Ceasefire negotiations for the Yugoslav War begin in Geneva - they agree to one-month cessation of hostilities (which does not last more than a few days)
- June 12 - Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O. J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in a civil suit.
- June 14 - Hacker Kevin Poulsen pleads guilty to seven counts of mail fraud, wire and computer fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.
- June 14 - The New York Rangers defeat the Vancouver Canucks 4 games to 3 in the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 15 - As of 2004 the third highest grossing animated film of all-time, The Lion King, opens in theatres nationwide.
- June 15 - Israel and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations
- June 17 - NFL star