[NetBehaviour] Unmasking the Zapatistas.

[marc]

Unmasking the Zapatistas.

By Melancholic Troglodytes.
www.metamute.org

No other group has had such a catalysing influence on the new political 
forms and tactics espoused by the anti-globalisation movement, yet there 
has been too little critical analysis of the Zapatistas' politics and 
the relationship of western activists to their guerilla icons. 
Melancholic Troglodytes review Mihalis Mentinis' book Zapatistas: The 
Chiapas Revolt and What It Means for Radical Politics and discovers some 
ugly nationalist features behind the mask.

Despite its hackneyed front cover, Mentinis’ Zapatistas proves to be a 
gem of a book. In our view, it represents the most original analysis of 
the Chiapas revolt currently available in the English language. 
Furthermore, it may even have wider implications for radical politics 
beyond the confines of the Zapatistas.

The Zapatistas have proved themselves smarter and more durable than the 
one-dimensional Che Guevara. They were realistic enough to acknowledge 
they were no match for the encircling Mexican army and flexible enough 
to alter strategy. They have tried hard to prevent the militarisation of 
the struggle, not so much as a matter of principle but as a matter of 
survival (ibid, p 12). By 1995, having found their magic lamp, they 
pleaded with the genie of ‘civil society’ to form a movement of national 
liberation. This was their first wish and the wish was partially granted 
in the national consultations they had with a million Mexicans. But the 
success was only partial and soon the Zapatistas found themselves 
isolated again. Their second wish was for a wider consultation with 
‘international civil society’ about indigenous rights and other related 
issues. This took place on a number of occasions and succeeded in 
temporarily widening their portfolio abroad. Finally, the Zapatistas 
asked the genie to bring them closer to student and working class 
Mexicans whose struggles seemed pregnant with possibilities. All three 
wishes exhausted, the Zapatistas were left alone again to rue their 
marginalisation. Soon they entered a period of ‘prolonged silence’ which 
they have broken only recently.
marc wrote:

> What is the 1% rule?
>
> Charles Arthur
> The Guardian.
>
> It's an emerging rule of thumb that suggests that if you get a group 
> of 100 people online then one will create content, 10 will "interact" 
> with it (commenting or offering improvements) and the other 89 will 
> just view it.
>
> It's a meme that emerges strongly in statistics from YouTube, which in 
> just 18 months has gone from zero to 60% of all online video viewing.
>
> The numbers are revealing: each day there are 100 million downloads 
> and 65,000 uploads - which as Antony Mayfield (at 
> http://open.typepad.com/open) points out, is 1,538 downloads per 
> upload - and 20m unique users per month.
>
> That puts the "creator to consumer" ratio at just 0.5%, but it's early 
> days yet; not everyone has discovered YouTube (and it does make 
> downloading much easier than uploading, because any web page can host 
> a YouTube link).
>
> Consider, too, some statistics from that other community content 
> generation project, Wikipedia: 50% of all Wikipedia article edits are 
> done by 0.7% of users, and more than 70% of all articles have been 
> written by just 1.8% of all users, according to the Church of the 
> Customer blog (http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/blog/).
>
> Earlier metrics garnered from community sites suggested that about 80% 
> of content was produced by 20% of the users, but the growing number of 
> data points is creating a clearer picture of how Web 2.0 groups need 
> to think. For instance, a site that demands too much interaction and 
> content generation from users will see nine out of 10 people just pass 
> by.
>
> more...
> http://linkme2.net/98
> _______________________________________________
> NetBehaviour mailing list
> NetBehaviour at netbehaviour.org
> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
>
>


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