Margaret Cerullo

Almost 30 years ago, the Zapatistas, a revolutionary indigenous movement, rose in revolt in Chiapas against the Mexican state. Surfacing the same day that NAFTA went into effect-January 1, 1994, they announced a different vision of Mexico's future. On July 1, 2018, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [AMLO] swept to power in the first election of a Leftist president since Mexico's "transition to democracy" in 2000. Today, these two poles of resistance are at odds, as the Zapatistas argue that the capitalist hydra, the "monster without a country" continues to rule despite who has been elected. This course will concentrate on the actions and writings of the Zapatistas. At a moment when most of Mexico is banking on a profound change through capture of the state, focusing on the Zapatistas enables us consider the relevance and value of a radical movement that instead has opted for autonomy, an alternative form of social and political organization that draws its strength from internal participatory and direct democracy. Keywords:Mexico, indigenous politics, revolution, social movements, neoliberalism

This course will be organized around the following themes: 1. Intersectionality of systems of racialized violence in the US: Immigration control and domestic policing; mass incarceration and immigrant detention; 2. Global mobility as intrinsic to the restructuring of contemporary capitalism; therefore, studying "global migrations" is a critical vantage point for understanding contemporary capitalism, including questions of why do migrants leave their homes? And where do they (choose to) go? 3. A critical knowledge of migration governmentality, ie, the ways which people in motion are governed and resist; the power to regulate, regiment, control, and channel, human mobility; and multiple resistances 4. Interrogation of key concepts: citizenship, sovereignty, borders, nation-state, statelessness, belonging. Key Words: Migration, borders, refugees, nation-state

Twenty-five years ago the Zapatistas, a revolutionary indigenous movement, rose in revolt in Chiapas. Surfacing the same day that NAFTA went into effect-January 1, 1994, they announced a different vision of Mexico's future. On July 1, 2018, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [AMLO] swept to power in the first election of a Leftist president since Mexico's "transition to democracy" in 2000. Today, these two poles of resistance are at odds, as the Zapatistas argue that the capitalist hydra, the "monster without a country" continues to rule despite who has been elected. This course will concentrate on the actions and writings of the Zapatistas. At a moment when most of Mexico is banking on a profound change through capture of the state, focusing on the Zapatistas enables us consider the relevance and value of a radical movement that instead has opted for autonomy, an alternative form of social and political organization that draws its strength from internal participatory and direct democracy. Keywords: Mexico, indigenous politics, revolution, social movements, neoliberalism