Abstract
This chapter traces the development of liberation theology in Latin America, focusing particularly on the Zapatista movement of Mayan indigenous people in Mexico. This evolution takes us beyond the standard platitudes about the desirability of peace to a strategic assessment of the goals of emancipatory political struggles more widely. Having passed through more than one phase involving various kinds of guerrilla warfare familiar to the Western Marxist imaginary, Frausto and Powell argue that the struggle can be re-envisioned in the light of the experiences of indigenous groups who have come to define emancipation in terms of the creation of autonomous zones, territories that resist the imposition of neo-liberal capitalism and conserve culturally defined community, as distinct from class-based forms of struggle.
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Frausto, O., Powell, J. (2022). Liberation Theology, Bishop Samuel Ruiz and Zapatismo: The Origins of the Uprising. In: Kirkpatrick, G., McMylor, P., Fadaee, S. (eds) Marxism, Religion, and Emancipatory Politics. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91642-8_8
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