The Zapatistas and People's Power

In examining the Zapatista struggle, this article attempts to describe the content and implications of the Zapatista proposals. It focuses on its contribution to political theory and practice. It examines how the use of the expression ‘civil society’ by the Zapatistas alludes to a new organization of people's struggle, challenging both formal categories and the power structure of the modern nation-state. It also elaborates on the Zapatista notion of democracy, as people's power, and its critique of the ‘democratic’ society, within the nation-state, as a system of domination by capital.