This from Professor Share:
I’d appreciate it if you could add a piece on the blog about John Ross’ visit (4 p.m., Tuesday, SUB boardroom). Ross is considered one of the world’s leading experts on the Zapatista uprising in Southern Mexico. His latest book is entitled ZAPATISTAS - Making Another World Possible: Chronicles of Resistance 2000-2006. A description of that book follows:
"On New Year's Day 1994 a small group of Mayan peasants, led by a charismatic former University Professor, grabbed the attention of the world by taking over San Cristobel, the capitol of Chiapas, Mexico and proclaiming 'Basta!' to the prevailing orthodoxy of neo-liberal capitalism that was destroying the infrastructure of the peasant economy. Their cry was heard across the world and in the next decade the Zapatistas became a beacon of hope and a model to hundreds of thousands of activists across the world fighting globalization.
John Ross was there from the beginning, following the Zapatistas on their journey, to the extent that he has been nicknamed 'the Willy Loman of the Zapatistas.' His first book, Rebellion from the Roots was praised by Alma Guillermoprieto in the New York Review of the Books.
This book chronicles the last six years of the rebellion — a phase where the Zapatistas have been below the media radar in many respects, and a period where Ross argues that the Zapatistas have been 'Changing the World Without Taking Power.'
Part John Reed, part magic realist poet, Ross reveals the extraordinary events in Chiapas and explores the unique political experiment the Zapatistas have pioneered."
I’m attaching John Reed’s latest dispatch on Mexico, Oil, and the Halliburton connection for those who would like to get a sense of his outlook. I’m also attaching a piece on the Mexican elections written by Joseph Klesner, a political scientist from Kenyon College, and the forthcoming introduction to a special issue of PS on Mexico’s recent elections. Reed’s analysis represents the left, while Klesner’s reflects mainstream political science analysis.
