Presentation: Since late Summer, the Zapatistas have issued a spate of communiqués leading up to a series of seminars at the end of December marking 31 years of their above-ground existence. Together, the communiques and seminars present their analysis of the current desolate situation of Mexico and the world (the “coming storm”) as well as their proposals for survival and resistance (the “day after”). (How) has the ascension of Claudia Scheinbaum to the presidency affected their situation and their outlook? Is it even relevant? Has anything changed in Chiapas under Scheinbaum following the murder of a beloved indigenous priest or four migrants shot dead by soldiers? Why not? What do the Zapatistas have to offer us as we face climate catastrophe, escalating war in the Middle East, and the consolidation of global fascism?

Presenter: Margaret Cerullo recently retired from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She has been involved in one way or another with the Zapatista movement since its public emergence in January of 1994, including organizing field study courses in Chiapas for the last 20 years. She is a member of the Lightning Collective that produced the book Stories for Dreaming An-Other World (PM Press).