“Zapatista” as a Case of Impossible Identification: Subjectification in Rancière and the EZLN

Year 2023, Volume: 30 Issue: 4, 653 - 669, 21.12.2023

Aykut Örküp

https://doi.org/10.18657/yonveek.1272484

Abstract

The Zapatista movement that went public on January 1st, 1994, as a national liberation army occupying several towns in Chiapas, Mexico had long-lasting effects. Apart from inspiring other movements all over the world, the Zapatista movement introduced an alternative to the objective of taking political power through electoral victory or armed struggle. The alternative politics in question was based on equality that entailed a subjectification process. In this way, what allowed for the emergence of the alternative was, in Rancière's terms, politics as subject formation against the police order that attributes the proper places of the parts of society as well as defining the parts themselves. While there is a constant risk of cooptation of the moment of politics by the police order, the continuous subject formation through impossible identification in the Zapatista movement could make the movement the movement of all the excluded by reflecting the struggles of the other excluded groups into the movement and reflecting the movement into those other struggles.
Key Words: Zapatista Movement, Jacques Rancière, Politics, Subjectification, Impossible Identification
JEL Classification: H77, P32

Keywords

Zapatista Movement, Jacques Rancière, Politics, Subjectification, Impossible Identification

Bir İmkânsız Kimlik Örneği olarak “Zapatista”: Rancière'de Öznelleşme ve EZLN

Abstract

1 Ocak 1994'te ulusal bir kurtuluş ordusu olarak Meksika'nın Chiapas kentinde birkaç kasabayı işgal eden Zapatista hareketinin uzun süreli etkileri olmuştur. Zapatista hareketi, tüm dünyadaki diğer hareketlere ilham vermenin yanı sıra, seçim kazanma veya silahlı mücadele yoluyla siyasi iktidarı ele geçirme hedefine bir alternatif sunmuştur. Söz konusu alternatif siyaset, bir öznelleşme sürecini gerektiren eşitliğe dayanmaktadır. Böylelikle bu alternatifin ortaya çıkmasına olanak sağlayan, Rancière'in deyimiyle, toplumun parçalarına uygun yerleri atfederken aynı zamanda parçaların kendilerini de tanımlayan polis düzenine karşı özne oluşumu olarak siyasettir. Siyaset anının polis düzeni tarafından asimilasyonu sürekli gündemde olan bir risk olsa da, Zapatista hareketindeki imkansız kimlik yoluyla sürekli özne oluşumu, hareketi, diğer dışlanan grupların mücadelelerini harekete yansıtarak ve hareketi de diğer tüm bu mücadelelere yansıtarak, hareketi dışlananların tümünün hareketi haline getirebilir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Zapatista Hareketi, Jacques Rancière, Siyaset, Öznelleşme, İmkânsız Kimlik
JEL Sınıflandırması: H77, P32

Keywords

: Zapatista Hareketi, Jacques Rancière, Siyaset, Öznelleşme, İmkânsız Kimlik

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