Critical Thought in the Face of the Capitalist Hydra I (Sixth Commission of the EZLN)

Sixth Commission of the EZLN

Critical Thought in the Face of the Capitalist Hydra I (Contributions by the Sixth Commission of the EZLN)

Translated notes on a seminar over a number of days. Starts with some entertaining speeches about the Zapatistas (Zapatista Army for National Liberation, or EZLN) with a personal touch. Then gets a bit more serious and factual which is interesting enough but a little dry with a bit of repetition (although as this was a seminar that's not surprising). Gives a good insight into how the Zapatista's run their affairs indeed sometimes in too much detail. Unless you're using this as a guide for how to live within the Zapatista structure which of course was the purpose of the seminar. Interesting nonetheless.

It's sprinkled with some very odd stories being funny, bizarre and surreal. Some possibly true but some are anecdotes or parables. then there's the practical instruction of how to govern bottom up and role of committees including guidance and instruction. A lot of what we did; why we did it and warnings especially about mainstream political parties. Critical thought means different views and there's a fair bit of philosophical ramblings and political economics lecturing. An example I liked was a musing on whether scientists who experiment on mice brains are in reality "simply channelling psychopathic serial killer tendencies". I'd say yes. There's also a lot of Sherlock Holmes quotes and musings which I wasn't expecting in a Latin American rural anarchist book but maybe his stories are really popular over there. The thread about the football team the small girl the cat-dog and the wall to be destroyed is a weird one although brings you back to the fact that the Zapatista anarchism is both revolutionary and steeped in critical analysis.