Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Issue: Environmental and Social Justice

Program Topic: 20th anniversary of the Zapatista uprising; Rally of Unity in Maine

Key Discussion Points:
a) Today we look at the Zapatista movement, on the 20th anniversary of the uprising in Chiapas, on the day the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. The uprising was an accumulated response to centuries of colonization, poverty, repression and authoritarian and neo-liberal structures, particular to the experience of the indigenous people of Chiapas. However, it was not just a push back, or a call for government reform; it explicitly focused on the creation of alternative models. The analysis of the Zapatatista movement and it organizational examples has been profoundly impactful on social movements across the globe.
b) We look at the Zapatista Escuelitas, open to participants outside the community, for the purposes of application to the struggles in the places they’ve come from.
c) We look ahead to the second annual Rally of Unity, in Augusta, coordinated by a broad network of environmental, social justice and democracy groups “Alliance for the Common Good”.

Guests:

A) Tony Nelson, Mexico Solidarity Network, Centro Autonomo and the Autonomous University of Social Movements in Chicago.

www.mexicosolidarity.org/

enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/

Periodismo de abajo

roarmag.org/2013/08/escuelita-zapatista-10-year-autonomy/

B) Chris Buchanan, organizer with Defending Water for Life, and the Stop the East West Corridor

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