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Orientation of agricultural production towards the internal market in order to assure Brazilian food security and boost employment. Application of policies aimed at strengthening small-scale and family-based farms, including policies regarding prices, subsidies, rural credits, and food security. Creation of programs to stimulate rural employment, both in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, and establishment of mechanisms that secure the rights of workers.

Guaranteed access to primary education for all residents of rural areas, as well as improved curriculums and conditions in schools.

Development of policies to protect the environment and natural resources in a manner that is compatible with farm production and that promotes rational use of both solar and hydroelectric power. Implementation of a special development plan for the semi-arid northeast.

Restoration and reorganization of the various agencies that make up the agricultural public sector in order to focus their work on supporting small-scale producers. Research into and development of agricultural technology that is appropriate for Brazilian soil conditions, climate and resources and that promotes an equilibrium between increased productivity and the environmental preservation. Promotion of labor-intensive industry, particularly agro-industries in municipalities around the country.

While not a complete rendering of the MST agenda, it represents major thrusts of the movement. Another important thrust of MST work is the organization of small growers in self-sufficient settlements bound together nationally via farmer-managed supply, distribution, and sale networks. The longer term vision of the MST involves a dramatic reorientation of agricultural production in Brazil, with large latifundia being broken up into small family farms woven together in a cooperative network aimed at meeting domestic needs.

For the most part, however, MST actions and political campaigns focus on the more immediate goal of redistributing unused lands. Political decision-making and allocation of tasks are made by elected committees, which govern all levels of the organization from encampments to state and regional bodies.

Every two years, a national meeting is held with representatives from each state, in which a national commission is elected, and every five years the MST sponsors a congress to engage in political debate. Leaders surface through direct actions taken on behalf of the movement and receive courses and further training. When a large enough group is assembled, logistical tasks are divvied out.

The date of the land invasion initially is kept secret from all except for a few members, but when it is announced whole families participate in setting up an encampment on or near the properties in question before the break of dawn. As of December , an estimated , families were camped on roadsides and along unused properties in MST-organized operations.

Ultimately, the success of an occupation depends on whether INCRA makes an inspection of the property and decides to expropriate it. An invasion by a small number of squatters, on the other hand, often results in a violent response from the landowner. Beyond occupations, the MST also aims to improve the lives of farmers it has helped win lands.

Since , the MST has helped approximately , families acquire land, establishing some 1, settlements in the process. The rebel, on the contrary, seeks to question and erode power, and refuses to obey authority from above. However, this definition does not deny the social and political transformation that the rebellion has produced. This has come on the heels of a violent uprising of the masses to build a government of its own destiny, which is one of the classic definitions of a revolution. The rebellion is also an insurgent movement, an expression of those who have collectively declared themselves against the authorities and struggle against them.

They embody a growing sentiment: the vigilance of fundamental rights and values against the violations of the present system. Insurgents do not always finish a movement they start, but they remain in history as actors of founding processes. Whether the insurrection lasts or is squelched, nothing remains as before. Mentalities have changed, new horizons have opened up, everyone suddenly sees realities that nobody saw before. Whatever the final destiny of the Zapatista insurrection, its role in fermenting new forms of seeing social change has been permanently established.

III Resistance and Utopia Zapatismo does not aim to occupy government or take power; it confronts power and resists it. It is not an opposition party, it does not speak their language, it does not move in the terrain of traditional political institutions. Because it is not a party, it does not seek to substitute one team of government for another, and refuses to behave itself according to the rules of the game of power like opposition parties do.

The opposition opposes a government but not power, while the rebellion opposes power and rejects the current rules of the game. The rebels are another player that instead of moving the chess pieces of institutional politics, checkmates adversaries by upsetting the table.

The rebels resist and organize resistance. They are the player that makes civil disobedience not the act of a hero but a collective resource. It defends the rights and values that power tramples, represses, and denies. It resists, from its singularity, the proposals of social formatting from the constituted order. It resists the injustice that exists. It survives and resists simultaneously, and assumes an attitude coherent with the age it lives in; it resists and encourages Utopia.

Resists and reconquers life. The resistance anticipates the possibility of carrying out another kind of political and program. Far from rejecting the possibilities of profound social transformation, it makes it possible. That this politics does not exist fully today does not mean it will never exist. Its presence is contained in the resistance around the world.

Emancipation constitutes the only viable foundation of politics today—whereas neoliberalism is patently part of a moribund framework of politics that is deepening a crisis of civilization. These acts of resistance are not the outgrowth of an inherited doctrine, but rather give life to strong values and principles lived out in a new way of acting and thinking.

They do not try to change things by pushing their proposal but by underscoring their capacity for doing. They not only think change, they live it. They distinguish their struggle from their objectives. They come from a new social and political actor. Zapatismo has simultaneous roots in local conditions and a planetary perspective. The struggle against neoliberalism, the value of the community, the recognition of collective creation, the demand for identities, the defense of nature, the liberation of women and international solidarity are part of its storehouse.

It emerges from the convergence of various social processes and political currents. Among the ingredients of this mix are Indian utopias, the agrarian struggle inspired by the original Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, the movement of Che Guevara, and the liberation theology of progressive Catholics, and especially Indian theology. The result is, however, different than any of them. For years the Mexican left has had a schizophrenic discourse. Its words and deeds do not correspond to each other.

It defends radical proposals but develops narrow sectoral and economic practices. It raises the banner of full citizenship but deals in corporatist politics. It defends moral renovation but is guided by opportunistic pragmatism. Mexico — Industry. A number of the folders contain IRC notes on the respective subjects.

This series will be useful to people researching the states and societies of Latin America and US intervention public and private in those countries. The Publications series also includes single issue reports, guides for activists and immigrants, as well as scripts to some IRC slide shows. Also contained in this series are earlier publications from New Mexico People and Energy.

The Slides series contains slide shows that IRC produced and distributed. Mostly on Central America and the Caribbean and US intervention there , the slide shows were activist tools meant to allow people to raise awareness among their friends, neighbors and colleagues. Each slide show was to be shown in combination with an IRC-produced audio recording see below , creating an audio-visual educational experience.

Of interest to researchers are images of propaganda signs from Nicaragua and Grenada. It includes the audio component of IRC slide shows see above. Language of Materials English Spanish. While its staff and writers remained involved in some of these projects, IRC closed its doors.

From the description of Interhemispheric Resource Center records, University of New Mexico-Main Campus. WorldCat record id: SNAC is a discovery service for persons, families, and organizations found within archival collections at cultural heritage institutions. The Andrew W. Toggle navigation snac. Interhemispheric Resource Center Variant names.

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