WEBVTT - Anarchism In Mexico feat. Andrew, Pt.1 

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<v Speaker 1>All the media.

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<v Speaker 2>Hello, and welcome to it can happen here. This may

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<v Speaker 2>be my final episode on Latin American anarchism. That is,

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<v Speaker 2>we've covered Peru, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, the many

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<v Speaker 2>countries of Central America, the former countries of Grand Columbia,

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<v Speaker 2>and the Spaniphone Islands the Caribbean. Now we'll finally getting

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<v Speaker 2>to the big one, Mexico. And I say we because

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<v Speaker 2>I'm here with Garrison Davis.

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<v Speaker 3>Hello, is this has been It's got to be like

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<v Speaker 3>a year long series now right.

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<v Speaker 4>At this point.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's been going on for some time with breaks

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<v Speaker 2>in between and everything.

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<v Speaker 3>I'm very very excited.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, to introduce myself real quick, I'm Andrew Sage. You

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<v Speaker 2>can find me on YouTube androism and we should to

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<v Speaker 2>check out the show notes for all the references, including

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<v Speaker 2>and hell capalities anarchism in Latin America, which was an

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<v Speaker 2>indispensable resource for the entire.

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<v Speaker 4>Of this project.

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<v Speaker 2>Without further Ado faminos, we have a lot to cover.

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<v Speaker 2>Mexico is a massive and storied country, so I can

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<v Speaker 2>only really give you a gist of its pre colonial

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<v Speaker 2>and colonial history. For the necessary context, we have to

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<v Speaker 2>start thousands of years before the name Mexico or Mexico

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<v Speaker 2>even existed. Of course, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the

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<v Speaker 2>land we now call Mexico is home to some of

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<v Speaker 2>the world's most unique ancient civilizations. Whose came the Almechs,

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<v Speaker 2>often called the mother culture of Mesoamerica, known for their

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<v Speaker 2>colossal stoneheads and influence on later cultures. Then the Maya

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<v Speaker 2>with their dazzline cities, mathematics and calendars, and eventually the Aztecs,

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<v Speaker 2>who built the Grand Empire settled onto nour stietland which

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<v Speaker 2>is now Mexico City. Unfortunately, we can't spend much time

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<v Speaker 2>on this rich history. We must progress to the time

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<v Speaker 2>of European contact. In fifteen nineteen, everything changed Spanish Conquistra

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<v Speaker 2>and nan Cortez, and within just two years the mighty

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<v Speaker 2>Aztec Empire fell disease. Alliances with native enemies of the Aztecs,

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<v Speaker 2>Technological advantages and brutal warfare aided the Spaniards to overthrowing

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<v Speaker 2>the civilization of millions. What followed was three centuries of

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<v Speaker 2>colonial rule under New Spain, marked by extraction, Catholic conversion,

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<v Speaker 2>and the mixing, often violently, of indigenous European and African peoples.

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<v Speaker 2>By the early eighteen hundreds, the winds of independence were

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<v Speaker 2>finally blowing. A Catholic priest named Miguel Hidago sparked the

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<v Speaker 2>fight with a cry for freedom in eighteen ten. Specifically,

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<v Speaker 2>he sought the end of rule by Spanish peninsulars, which

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<v Speaker 2>are the people who came from Spain and ruled over Mexico.

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<v Speaker 2>He called for the equality of races, and he called

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<v Speaker 2>for the redistribution of land. As a hill capility put

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<v Speaker 2>it in anarchism in Latin, a miracle. Hidago proposed to abolish,

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<v Speaker 2>even if by gentle and gradual means, what he called,

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<v Speaker 2>in almost Prudonian terms, the horrible right of territorial property, perpetual,

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<v Speaker 2>preditory and exclusive. This whole land topic is going to

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<v Speaker 2>come up a lot in the history. By the way,

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<v Speaker 2>you may be familiar with the phrase land and freedom

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<v Speaker 2>pierre libertad that comes from Mexico.

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<v Speaker 4>Anyway, it took.

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<v Speaker 2>More than a decade of war, but by eighteen twenty

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<v Speaker 2>one Mexico had finally broken free from Spain.

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<v Speaker 4>Freedom, though didn't mean stability.

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<v Speaker 2>The nineteenth century saw emperors come and go because there

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<v Speaker 2>was actually a time when Mexico as a monarchy, foreign

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<v Speaker 2>invasions by the United States via the Manifest Destiny and

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<v Speaker 2>Napoleon's France via monarchical Latin League, and internal power struggles.

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<v Speaker 2>The Zapateec president Benito Juarez, who from eighteen sixty four

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<v Speaker 2>to eighteen sixty seven had resisted foreign occupation by Napoleon's

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<v Speaker 2>Emperor Maximilian and fought for constitutional reform, sought to stabilize, secularize,

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<v Speaker 2>and modernize the country. In the mid eighteen hundreds, figures

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<v Speaker 2>like Quarez led a sweeping movement against the old powers

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<v Speaker 2>of Mexico, the Catholic Church and the military, which had

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<v Speaker 2>long dominated both land and politics. To the layers their reforma.

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<v Speaker 2>They seized church property, secularized education, and promised a new

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<v Speaker 2>era of rights and equality. But there was a catch,

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<v Speaker 2>because to weaken the Church, the liberals sold off its land,

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<v Speaker 2>not to the peasants or indigenous communities who had worked

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<v Speaker 2>on it for generations, but to wealthy buyers e heroes.

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<v Speaker 2>The communal lands of indigenous peoples were privatized under this

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<v Speaker 2>liberal banner freedom and progress. They created a new class

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<v Speaker 2>of landlords and pushed rural people deeper into poverty. But

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<v Speaker 2>Nita Juarez died, but his legacy lived on with those

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<v Speaker 2>reforms to cement the separation of church and state, freedom

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<v Speaker 2>of religion, the prohibition of forced labor, and so on.

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<v Speaker 2>But following him came the Porfiriato earth thirty year long

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<v Speaker 2>dictatorship under the mixed tech president Portfyrio Dias, who continued

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<v Speaker 2>the modernization of the country but also deepened its long

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<v Speaker 2>standing inequalities. Portfolio DEAs surrounded himself with intellectuals known as

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<v Speaker 2>the scientific Coos. They were positivists, as in adherents of

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<v Speaker 2>the positivist school of philosophy, which advocated for rational planning

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<v Speaker 2>and economic development as a path of social progress. His

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<v Speaker 2>slogan was ban Opalo the bread or the stick, and

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<v Speaker 2>reflected the policy of rewarding compliance with prosperity while punishing

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<v Speaker 2>dissent with severe consequences. The liberty order and progress equation

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<v Speaker 2>sacrificed liberty as the Mexican people were expected to trade

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<v Speaker 2>freedom for the benefits of these policies. Workers ended up

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<v Speaker 2>facing low wages, long hours, and of course lacked rights,

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<v Speaker 2>while estate laborers were landless and under the arbitrary rule

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<v Speaker 2>of Mao demos. Education was largely restricted to elites in

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<v Speaker 2>major cities, groups like the Yaqi Indians were forcibly relocated

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<v Speaker 2>as cheap labor to plantations. Governors, those supposedly elected, were

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<v Speaker 2>effectively presidential appointees, monitored by Heife's politicals, who intervened the

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<v Speaker 2>local affairs. The rulatis and elite constabulary maintained order, but

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<v Speaker 2>often disregarded due process, which fostered a whole reign of

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<v Speaker 2>terror in the rural areas. Diaza's popularity eventually waned as

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<v Speaker 2>prosperity was monopolized by a small, often foreign elite. This

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<v Speaker 2>elite emulated European customs, which created a stark divide with

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<v Speaker 2>the growing proletariat and middle classes. By the second half

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<v Speaker 2>of the nineteenth century, Mexico was caught in a contradiction

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<v Speaker 2>a state that promised emancipation through property rights while dispossessing

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<v Speaker 2>the very people it claimed to free. The liberal project

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<v Speaker 2>have feeled them, and in its failure, space opened for

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<v Speaker 2>deeper critiques of property power and the state itself. A

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<v Speaker 2>younger generation began questioning the system, and with this rise

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<v Speaker 2>in criticism, gim rise and repression, which set this stage

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<v Speaker 2>for the Mexican Revolution of nineteen ten.

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<v Speaker 3>This whole era of the of like the turn of

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<v Speaker 3>the millennia and the start of the twentieth century has

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<v Speaker 3>like so much of this same stuff happening all over

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<v Speaker 3>the world. Like that's kind of one of the biggest

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<v Speaker 3>trends that we've been able to see throughout your Latin

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<v Speaker 3>American anarchism series, is like how how much they all

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<v Speaker 3>mirror each other, and like how much of like a

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<v Speaker 3>global movements used to exist, like not like a organized fashion,

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<v Speaker 3>but like there's like some like other force that is

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<v Speaker 3>that is like a driving these like global trends of

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<v Speaker 3>like revoltant revolution. Yeah, and like we see this a

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<v Speaker 3>lot in like the yeah, like the nineteen ten to

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<v Speaker 3>nineteen twenty time period, I mean even just in Latin America.

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<v Speaker 4>Absolutely.

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<v Speaker 2>I also think, of course, it's really easy to notice

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<v Speaker 2>these trends and notice these tides of history in retrospect.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, when you submerged in it, it's just like,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, all these conversations and stuff happening, for sure,

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<v Speaker 2>all these events and stuff happening around you. But when

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<v Speaker 2>by looking in the past you could say, oh wow,

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<v Speaker 2>this is like a global pattern. You know some I'm

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<v Speaker 2>always curious to see, like when we look back, I mean,

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<v Speaker 2>the twenty tens are already over. The narratives around it are

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<v Speaker 2>still formulated, right, We're still in the midst of the

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen twenty in the nineteen twenties, the twenty twenties, say,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, the narratives around it will still be developing

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<v Speaker 2>all now. But we're already halfway through, and I'm sure

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<v Speaker 2>people have already seen certain trends that are going to

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<v Speaker 2>make for some excellent retrospective commentary.

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<v Speaker 4>Definitely.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Like the past ten years we've seen this like

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<v Speaker 3>global far right power grab and this like rebirth of

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<v Speaker 3>right wing populism sweeping a whole bunch of neoliberal democracies,

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<v Speaker 3>like post nineties, post War on Terror, post end of

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<v Speaker 3>history stuff where you see like the full extent of

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<v Speaker 3>like the Clinton, Reagan Thatcher economics completely completely crumble with

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<v Speaker 3>far right populism like taking taking over the reins of

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<v Speaker 3>most popular consciousness. Yeah, to the point where even like

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<v Speaker 3>the more like liberal parties are being quote unquote forced

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<v Speaker 3>to adopt like similar rhetoric looking at like like like

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<v Speaker 3>the Labor Party in the UK and hear in the States,

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<v Speaker 3>how how much like the Democratic Party last year, like

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<v Speaker 3>completely caved on like far right populist talking points on

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<v Speaker 3>immigration and stuff.

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<v Speaker 4>Exactly exactly.

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<v Speaker 2>I think part of it as well as a failure

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<v Speaker 2>to advance a positive, totally direction and a positive program.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, when we allow the tunes of discourse, the

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<v Speaker 2>arena discussion to be dictated by the right, when we

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<v Speaker 2>simply react to what they are saying, when we simply

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<v Speaker 2>respond to their policies and their efforts, you know, we they.

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<v Speaker 4>Slew down the progress of their goals.

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<v Speaker 2>But ultimately, as long as we are engaged in dialogue

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<v Speaker 2>with their goals, they are stoly inching their goals closer

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<v Speaker 2>and closer to reality.

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that is certainly the trend that I've been seeing

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<v Speaker 3>the past ten years, and I'm sure sure many people have.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean, the overturn windows pretty much entirely dictated

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<v Speaker 2>by what they decide. You know, I think I've mentioned

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<v Speaker 2>this before. The right to decided they wanted to talk

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<v Speaker 2>about critical race theory, and then critical race theory became

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<v Speaker 2>the center of conversation.

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<v Speaker 4>The right decided they wanted to target.

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<v Speaker 3>DEI gender ideology.

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<v Speaker 2>Right, Yeah, and then that becomes the whole thing is

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<v Speaker 2>the whole center of discussion. They're not putting forward the

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<v Speaker 2>policies that are going to hurt pretty much everybody as

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<v Speaker 2>the center of their policy.

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<v Speaker 4>That's more like an aside.

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<v Speaker 2>When they give themselves, you know, salary raises and they

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<v Speaker 2>cut taxes on the ridge. That's not the center of

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<v Speaker 2>their political messages.

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<v Speaker 4>Center the plical messages.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, various culture related issues that they can use

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<v Speaker 2>silly their base, but it's nothing that's actually benefiting people,

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<v Speaker 2>you know. And instead of circumventing that that effort to

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<v Speaker 2>dictate the course of conversation and dictate our own conversations

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<v Speaker 2>instead what it's kind of following along the tail. But

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<v Speaker 2>that's a bit outside the scope of this a bit

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<v Speaker 2>of a digression here. But before we get to the

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<v Speaker 2>point of the Mexican Revolution, though, we should really take

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<v Speaker 2>a look at the slow and sell development of radical

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<v Speaker 2>ideas in Mexico during the nineteenth century. You see, indigenous

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<v Speaker 2>resistance persisted throughout Mexico's history through often quiet, revolved acts

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<v Speaker 2>of non cooperation that would steadily ensure that Spain could

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<v Speaker 2>never fully establish his dominion even after independence. The cldinal

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<v Speaker 2>structure lived on in the haciendas, the church, and the state.

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<v Speaker 2>So the indigenous communities would continue to resist, sometimes in

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<v Speaker 2>profoundly anti authoritarian ways, by the nineteenth century. And this

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<v Speaker 2>history is courtesy Anahill Cappialities anarchism Latin America. As I

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<v Speaker 2>mentioned in eighteen sixty one, a man arrived in Mexico

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<v Speaker 2>with a very distinct name. He was Platino Constantino Rourkanati.

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<v Speaker 2>He was a Greek immigrant, radicalized by the revolutions in

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<v Speaker 2>Europe and steeped in the works of Furia. Was a

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<v Speaker 2>utopian socialist and prudon who was an anarchist Fuist anarchist.

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<v Speaker 2>He had fled the counter revolutionary tide crashing over the

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<v Speaker 2>continent with a mission. Rocannati believed Mexico, with its long

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<v Speaker 2>standing indigenous traditions of communal landholding and mutual aid, was

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<v Speaker 2>the perfect place to plant the seeds of a new

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<v Speaker 2>utopian society. And in a lot of ways he was right.

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<v Speaker 4>You know.

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<v Speaker 2>He saw in the hero system the indigenous Kuna lan

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<v Speaker 2>Tenniel a living echo of the kind of society utopians

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<v Speaker 2>in Europe could only dream of. Where the liberally saw backwardness,

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<v Speaker 2>Rourkanati saw potential. His aim wasn't to civilize these communities,

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<v Speaker 2>but to learn from them and held them protect their

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<v Speaker 2>autonoity from the encroaching state through political philosophy and practice.

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<v Speaker 2>He seems to be a very interesting fellow, by the way,

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<v Speaker 2>I mean. He apparently spoke seven languages. He practiced medicine

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<v Speaker 2>by day and philosophy by night. He was a Christian,

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<v Speaker 2>but not anything like the Christians that dominated Mexico at

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<v Speaker 2>the time, because as an hil Caplite, he puts it

0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.800
<v Speaker 2>for him, the essence of Christianity is charity, that is

0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.360
<v Speaker 2>love for all, as it is taught in the Gospels,

0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.120
<v Speaker 2>and that essence is the moral foundation of socialism and

0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:35.000
<v Speaker 2>revolution as well. Pure Christianity, he wrote, is the religion

0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.640
<v Speaker 2>that will regenerate the world when people finally come to

0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:41.679
<v Speaker 2>understand the power of its basic principles liberty, equality, and fraternity.

0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:45.560
<v Speaker 2>But it is Christianity without dogma like Saint Simon's and

0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:50.120
<v Speaker 2>without priesthood, liturgy, or hierarchical organization, the model for which

0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.600
<v Speaker 2>he finds in the life of Jesus and his earliest followers.

0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.880
<v Speaker 2>Primitive Christianity is authentic Christianity, but has been entirely degraded

0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.560
<v Speaker 2>by the Catholic and Protestant churches, and has nothing to

0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:03.199
<v Speaker 2>do with so many sects that call themselves Christian end quote.

0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.400
<v Speaker 2>A few months after his arrival in eighteen sixty one,

0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.679
<v Speaker 2>he published a socialist primary in Mexico that marked him

0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:13.720
<v Speaker 2>as the first anarchist to put forward distinctly anarchist theory

0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.720
<v Speaker 2>in the country. In the mid eighteen sixties, he formed

0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:19.200
<v Speaker 2>a group called Lass Socil the goal of spreading the

0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:24.280
<v Speaker 2>ideas of mutualism, free association, anti capitalist cooperation through books,

0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:28.960
<v Speaker 2>pamphlets and education. Barucannati and his collaborators launched workers schools

0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:33.080
<v Speaker 2>aimed the promoting literacy, political consciousness, and autonomy. Once at

0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:37.680
<v Speaker 2>school was the Esquila de Rio id Socialismo, the School

0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:43.720
<v Speaker 2>of Lightning and Socialism Hellier. It combined moral instruction with

0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:48.080
<v Speaker 2>a deep critique of the exploitative labor system. This was,

0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:50.480
<v Speaker 2>you know, education as a rebellion, not just to read,

0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:55.520
<v Speaker 2>but to recognize the exploitation and to imagine alternatives. Rotconnati

0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:58.320
<v Speaker 2>thought of his socialism as the fullest expression of the

0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:02.640
<v Speaker 2>French revolutionary motto of liber equality and fraternity, which no

0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:06.440
<v Speaker 2>half measure like liberalism could ever reach. He recognized that

0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:10.240
<v Speaker 2>the immediate objective must be quote, the extinction of poverty,

0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:14.520
<v Speaker 2>the distribution and increase to the commonwealth, the abolition of prostitution,

0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:18.760
<v Speaker 2>and the conservation of all our faculties, including the intellectual, physical,

0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:22.760
<v Speaker 2>and moral ones, for the transformation of humanity through science, beauty,

0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:24.440
<v Speaker 2>and virtue end quote.

0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:26.800
<v Speaker 4>One of those things was not like the others.

0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:31.240
<v Speaker 2>I'm surely you noticed there was a standout in inclusion there,

0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:35.240
<v Speaker 2>but it makes sense considering his background. He also saw

0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.760
<v Speaker 2>himself as a cosmopolitan, perhaps owing in part to his

0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.160
<v Speaker 2>unique circumstances as a man with a Greek father, Austrian mother,

0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.920
<v Speaker 2>a French education, and Mexican who He said, quote, we

0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:51.240
<v Speaker 2>are Cosmopolitans by nature, citizens of all nations, and contemporaries

0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.720
<v Speaker 2>to all the asias. The greatest and most heroic human

0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:59.800
<v Speaker 2>actions belong equally to all end quote. In other words,

0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.800
<v Speaker 2>our country is the entire world, and all men are brothers.

0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.520
<v Speaker 2>He also wrote that the abolition of all government in

0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.880
<v Speaker 2>the nations, which frightens you and you consider impossible and absurd,

0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:13.800
<v Speaker 2>they have never tried it will usher in a totally

0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.440
<v Speaker 2>new world of institutions in which the peoples of the

0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:30.720
<v Speaker 2>world will live in happiness end quote. Brouclati was a

0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:34.360
<v Speaker 2>pacifist and as a prosch anarchism, which bought his original instruction

0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.880
<v Speaker 2>of socialism being via Charles Furia. But eventually he came

0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.400
<v Speaker 2>to understand the need for a class struggle, as he said, quote,

0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.520
<v Speaker 2>a social revolution in which many heroic victims will be

0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.720
<v Speaker 2>sacrificed in the sacred altar to restore the justice denied

0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:52.520
<v Speaker 2>it to the people end quote. His work attracted young radicals,

0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:54.920
<v Speaker 2>many of whom would later play key roles in the

0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:58.920
<v Speaker 2>development of Mexico's labor movement. Before he started Lass social

0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.760
<v Speaker 2>he had initiated the first group or is Sudiante Socialistas,

0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.320
<v Speaker 2>from which game figures such as Santiago Vilenueva, who tried

0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:11.080
<v Speaker 2>to organize the worker's movement, Permeneghillo, Phil Vicencio and Francisco's

0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.479
<v Speaker 2>at a Costa a leader of rural masses. It's the

0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.440
<v Speaker 2>core of this group that would help him to create

0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.879
<v Speaker 2>lessocl which would educate and agitate but also assist workers

0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.119
<v Speaker 2>beyond mutual aid to an active class struggle posture in

0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:27.440
<v Speaker 2>defense of the interests against bosses. So basically he took

0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.439
<v Speaker 2>these mutual aid societies and made sure that they didn't

0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:35.680
<v Speaker 2>stay mutual aid societies, that they were radicalized into resistance societies,

0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.760
<v Speaker 2>because those sort of mutual aid associations were very common

0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.360
<v Speaker 2>in Latin America at the time. You know, workers would

0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:43.480
<v Speaker 2>create these little groups where they would try and support

0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:45.679
<v Speaker 2>each other. But it's very easy to fall back on

0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:47.959
<v Speaker 2>that and to assume, you know, that's all you have

0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.959
<v Speaker 2>to do. Making sure that they have a radical posture,

0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.840
<v Speaker 2>a revolutionary posture. It's important to ensure that you're not

0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.480
<v Speaker 2>just rest in your laurels and expecting change to come

0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:01.199
<v Speaker 2>to you, and indeed they did not expect the change

0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.720
<v Speaker 2>to come to them. In June eighteen sixty five, these

0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:09.960
<v Speaker 2>resistant societies supported the first industrial strike in Mexico. Unfortunately,

0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:12.159
<v Speaker 2>it was crushed by the leader of the country at

0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:16.040
<v Speaker 2>the time, Emperor Maximilian, but it was his occupation and

0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.760
<v Speaker 2>the economic harshness of it all that fermented the spread

0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:23.000
<v Speaker 2>of anarchist ideas. Another student tut of Rocannati school came

0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:27.120
<v Speaker 2>Julio Chavez, a precursor to the more famous Emiliano Zapata

0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.479
<v Speaker 2>and a fervent anarchist communist. He agitated for a peasant

0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.520
<v Speaker 2>rebellion and engaged in land expropriations, which grew in popularity

0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.399
<v Speaker 2>wherever he was active, from the chalcot Tex Soco region

0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.360
<v Speaker 2>where he began, to all the states of Quebler and Morellia,

0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:45.879
<v Speaker 2>as Capelletti recounts, quote, the federal army finally moved against

0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.960
<v Speaker 2>him and defeated and imprisoned. He was executed in eighteen

0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:53.320
<v Speaker 2>sixty nine by order of President Benito Juarez. Before he died,

0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:59.159
<v Speaker 2>Chavez cried out, long live Socialism end quote. His manifesto,

0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:01.480
<v Speaker 2>which was written of few months before he died, would

0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:04.000
<v Speaker 2>help introduce more masses in the Mexican movement to the

0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:06.840
<v Speaker 2>idea of class struggle, and like a light bulb over

0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.679
<v Speaker 2>one's head, it immediately made it clear who was responsible

0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.920
<v Speaker 2>for their suffering. Santiago vid and Weever, and a fellow

0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:17.159
<v Speaker 2>student Rocanati named Vila Vitensio worked arduously to organize the

0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:21.720
<v Speaker 2>artisans and workers in Mexico City, and they definitely had

0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.800
<v Speaker 2>the cards stacked against them, but they helped to organize

0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.320
<v Speaker 2>an industrial strike in a textile mill in eighteen sixty eight,

0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.800
<v Speaker 2>and in eighteen sixty nine they established a Circulo Peraltario

0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.680
<v Speaker 2>and in eighteen seventy the Grand Seculio de Obreros de

0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:37.240
<v Speaker 2>Mexico and in eighteen seventy one the newspaper Al Socialista.

0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.120
<v Speaker 2>And this is when the red and black so famously

0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:44.359
<v Speaker 2>associated with anarchism came into the Mexican workers movement. The

0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:48.560
<v Speaker 2>eighteen seventies saw struggles between radical and moderate factions among workers,

0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:52.040
<v Speaker 2>proletarian presses making a name for themselves, and the first

0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:54.719
<v Speaker 2>Convention of the General Workers Congress of the Mexican Republic

0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.639
<v Speaker 2>in eighteen seventy six with a manifesto that indicated the

0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:02.080
<v Speaker 2>crown influence of libertarian ideology in Mexico. Of course, there

0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.359
<v Speaker 2>was a tension in that Congress between the socialists and

0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:10.040
<v Speaker 2>the anarchists, but water is wet. Sadly, Mexico wasn't ready

0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:15.600
<v Speaker 2>for revolution, or rather, the ruling class wasn't. While Rovercinnati

0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.600
<v Speaker 2>and others sold seeds among students and workers, the country

0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:21.240
<v Speaker 2>was swinging toward reaction.

0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:23.280
<v Speaker 4>As I mentioned.

0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:25.760
<v Speaker 2>Earlier, with the rise of Porphilrio Diaz in eighteen seventy six,

0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:30.000
<v Speaker 2>any space for radical thought began to close. Diaz, the

0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.960
<v Speaker 2>strong man of Oneization, was obsessed with order and progress.

0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:38.439
<v Speaker 2>He welcomed foreign capital, built railroads across the nation, and

0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.960
<v Speaker 2>gutted the countryside to make room for exports, and he

0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:47.240
<v Speaker 2>crushed dissent. While Rocnati avoided outright persecution thanks in parties

0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:51.120
<v Speaker 2>foreign status and pacifist leanings, the educational projects he inspired

0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.879
<v Speaker 2>were dismantled or sidelined. The more confrontational elements of the

0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.440
<v Speaker 2>early anarchists current went underground. Those who spoke of abolishing

0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.520
<v Speaker 2>property or questioned the Porphyria vision of modernity were met

0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:06.520
<v Speaker 2>with jail, exile, or worse. Rotcarati's allies, Alacosta, through his

0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:11.199
<v Speaker 2>newspaper Like International, promoted a twelve point socialist agenda, advocated

0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:17.320
<v Speaker 2>and universal social republic, municipal autonomy, workers' rights, workers associations,

0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:22.919
<v Speaker 2>wage avolition, and property equality. Despite Diaz's rise in eighteen

0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:26.000
<v Speaker 2>seventy seven, he led a present uprising in Sierra Gorda

0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:30.399
<v Speaker 2>and planets to La Baranca, battling federal forces until eighteen eighty.

0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.080
<v Speaker 2>Despite his defeat and imprisonment in eighteen eighty one, the

0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:39.720
<v Speaker 2>rebellion persisted. Salacosta's ally, Colonel Alberto Santa Fe, introduced the

0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:43.359
<v Speaker 2>Lays del Pueblo, Influenced by Mercunan's ideas. Though not a

0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:50.360
<v Speaker 2>purely anarchist manifesto, this document emphasized land distribution, national industry promotion,

0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:55.840
<v Speaker 2>army suppression, and free education. Salafe argued that true Mexican

0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.760
<v Speaker 2>independence depended on reclaiming stolen lands, a movement which, of

0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:04.200
<v Speaker 2>course ski in traction among the peasants. General Negrete supported

0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:06.959
<v Speaker 2>Santa Fe's revolutionary efforts, just as he had backed Chavez,

0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:11.280
<v Speaker 2>Lopez and Sanlacosta earlier. Santa Fe's resistance against Diaza's dictatorship

0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:15.080
<v Speaker 2>was more radical than mayor electoral opposition. It aimed at

0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:20.880
<v Speaker 2>transferring sovereignty to local municipalities and land to peasant collectors. However,

0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:25.240
<v Speaker 2>by the eighteen nineties, Diaz effectively suppressed most worker movements

0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:29.359
<v Speaker 2>through bribery and repression. While industrial workers and miners fared

0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:33.280
<v Speaker 2>slightly better than the peasant, wages steadily declined after eighteen

0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:37.720
<v Speaker 2>ninety eight. Rodocanati left Mexico in eighteen eighty six after

0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:40.159
<v Speaker 2>giving over two decades of his life to the cause,

0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:42.920
<v Speaker 2>But as two decades of so and seeds would eventually

0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:46.320
<v Speaker 2>flourish in the Mexican Revolution. What will be covering in

0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:51.080
<v Speaker 2>the next episode Thanks for tuninen A madrasage. You can

0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:54.240
<v Speaker 2>follow me on YouTube at andrewism and patron dot com

0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:55.080
<v Speaker 2>slash Saint Drew.

0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:59.280
<v Speaker 4>Thanks again. This is it Could Happen Here. All power

0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:01.040
<v Speaker 4>to all the people peace.

0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:07.240
<v Speaker 1>It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media.

0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:10.480
<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website

0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:14.120
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<v Speaker 1>now find sources for it Could Happen Here listed directly

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