The Zaptistas have been an inspiration for thousands of activists. This book provides a different approach to understanding the Zapatista insurrection. It examines the integrity and logic of the Zaptista project with tools from radical political theory, and also looks at the indigenous political theory emerging within the Zapatista movement.

"Zapatistas" provides a bold new approach to understanding the Zapatista insurrection. Firstly, Mentinis critically examines the integrity and logic of the Zaptista project with tools from radical political theory. In particular, he draws on concepts of hegemony from Antonio Gramsci and Ernesto Laclau, and of 'the event' from Alain Badiou. He also employs ideas from Situationism, the 'project of autonomy' of Cornelius Castoriadis and the 'constituent power' of Antonio Negri. Secondly, informed by a nine-month visit to the Zapatista autonomous zone in 2001, Mentinis looks to the indigenous political theory emerging within the Zapatista movement itself, and the importance the movement has had for radical politics and radical subjectivities, to deepen and develop the radical political theory of the academy.

Preface
1. Zapatista Chronicle
1.1 The Early Years: Prehistory of the EZLN
1.2 Zapatista Chronicle 1994-2001
1.3 'Check'!... but not 'Mate'
2. Theories and Perspectives on the Zapatista Insurrection
2.1 Gramscian Approach
2.2 Laclau and Mouffe's Theory of Discourse
2.3 Academic Autonomist Marxist Approach
2.4 Non-Academic Radical Left Perspectives
2.5 Problems and Limitations of the Readings of the Zapatistas
3. The Project of Autonomy, Constituent Power and Empire
3.1 Ontological Theses
3.2 The Imaginary of Autonomy
3.3 From Radical Imaginary to Constituent Power
3.4 Genealogical Moments: The Re-mergence of Autonomy
3.5 Empire: The World Order
4. On Revolutionary Subjectivities
4.1 Fidelity to an Event
4.2 The Event and Constituent Power
4.3 Not Just Any Event
4.4 Constructed Situations
4.5 Zapatistas: An Evental Situation
4.6 The Three Subjects of Fidelity
4.7 Towards a Future Event
5. Reading the Zapatistas Critically
5.1 Revolutionaries or Reformists
5.2 Zapatista Nationalism
5.3 Zapatistas and the State
5.4 Zapatistas and the Global Struggle
5.5 Autonomy's Black Holes
6. Indigenous Imaginary and Zapatista Masks
6.1 Indigenous Metaphysics
6.2 Language and Reality
6.3 Maya Epistemology
6.4 Zapatista Masks
7. Conclusion
7.1 Implications for the future
7.2 Towards a Theory of Militant Subjectivity
References
Index.