For over two decades, Mexico's Zapatista indigenous movement has
stood as a beacon of hope for activists around the world working
against the havoc that capitalism is wreaking upon the earth.
Subcommander Marcos was their military leader and spokesperson, a
poetic advocate who was, for many, almost indistinguishable from the
movement he championed. On May 25, 2014, in the town of La Realidad,
deep in the Zapatistas' heartland, Subcommander Marcos delivered a
speech before thousands of supporters in which he declared that he
would henceforth "cease to exist," a change that made way
for the movement's indigenous members to assume a more prominent
role.
Readers will find that speech in The Zapatistas' Dignified Rage,
along with fourteen others he gave between the end of the "Other
Campaign" in 2007 and his farewell announcement in 2014. While
he made fewer public appearances during this period, he
simultaneously increased the depth of his analysis. Collected here in
English translation for the first time, these talks include some of
his most explicit, detailed, and inspiring criticisms of capitalism,
political parties, vanguards, electoral democracy, gender and racial
discrimination, disingenuous solidarity, and much more.