Morelos Commune

The Morelos Commune (Spanish: Comuna de Morelos) was the political and economic system established in the Mexican state of Morelos between 1913 and 1917. Led by Emiliano Zapata, the people of Morelos implemented a series of wide-reaching social reforms based on the proposals laid out in the Plan of Ayala.

During the Mexican Revolution, the economy of Morelos was completely reorganised, seeing the nationalisation of its sugar industry and the widespread redistribution of land from haciendas to the peasantry. This process was overseen by local institutions of self-governance, under the defense of Zapata's Liberation Army of the South (ELS).

Established in rebellion against the government of

The term "Morelos Commune" was coined by the Mexican historian Adolfo Gilly, in an invocation of the Paris Commune of 1871. Other historians have compared the period with the Soviets of the Russian Revolution and the Makhnovshchina of Eastern Ukraine. It has also been a point of inspiration for the Zapatista uprising of 1994, which took place in the Mexican state of Chiapas.

The native institutions of

Lands previously held under common ownership were taken over by haciendas, which extracted increasingly high profits from the sugar crop, with many of the state's peasants becoming landless. ^[6] The people of Morelos attempted to resist the seizure of common land through judicial means, but the privatization of land only accelerated. Sugar production increased dramatically with the privatization of land, forcing peasants onto the large estates as agricultural labourers.^[1] Morelos' peasants were forced to work for the haciendas year-round and were only provided with earthen floor huts for accommodation, keeping them in poverty.^[7] Still the people of Morelos managed to maintain some of their traditional self-governance, holding enough property under common ownership as to provide an alternative to the industrial estates.^[1]

The

By the time that Porfirio Díaz was ousted and Madero became President of Mexico, the revolutionary forces had completely taken over the state of Morelos.^[13] President Madero soon went back on his promises of agrarian reform and ordered the Zapatistas to disarm. On 25 November 1911, Zapata responded by issuing the Plan of Ayala, in which he called for the autonomy of Morelos and the immediate redistribution of land from the haciendas to the peasantry.^[14]

Madero attempted to use the Mexican Army to suppress the Zapatistas, but was soon ousted in a coup by the army's commander-in-chief Victoriano Huerta.^[15] Zapata rebelled against Huerta, whom he considered to be a reactionary, and formed an alliance with the Northern rebel Pancho Villa. Huerta subsequently ordered the intensification of the war against the peasantry of Morelos, killing thousands and causing many more to flee, but he was ultimately unable to eliminate the Zapatistas.^[16] Huerta was eventually ousted by a broad revolutionary coalition, consisting of radicals (led by Villa and Zapata) and constitutionalists (led by Venustiano Carranza). But when Zapata demanded that the constitutionalists incorporate his Plan of Ayala into their programme, Carranza refused, rejecting its egalitarian policies of land redistribution.^[17] In September 1914, Zapata and Villa united at the Convention of Aguascalientes, going on to drive the constitutionalists out of the capital.^[18]

By December 1914, a power vacuum had opened up in Mexico, which was left without any centralized government. At that time, Mexico City was occupied by Villa and the Zapatistas, the latter of whom desired to "burn the [presidential] chair to end ambitions".^[19]

On 9 December 1914, Zapata's Liberation Army of the South left the capital for their home state of Morelos, where they established a self-governing and egalitarian society,^[20] historiographically known as the "Morelos Commune".^[21]

Radical

As Morelos itself was completely untouched by American corporate interests, Zapata distinguished himself as one of the only Latin American social revolutionaries that did not attack the United States.^[24] But the Zapatistas' threats against private property nevertheless alarmed the government of the United States, as over one-quarter of Mexican land was held by American corporations. They decided to intervene in the conflict on the side of the Constitutionalists, overseeing the ultimate defeat of the Conventionists.^[25]

Outside of Morelos, the Mexican bourgeoisie consolidated control over the government,^[22] culminating with the promulgation of the Constitution of Mexico in February 1917.^[19] As the constitution included no promise of agrarian reform, Zapata continued his rebellion against the constitutional government of Venustiano Carranza.^[26] In April 1919, Zapata was assassinated by government forces in Chinameca, and the Revolution in Morelos was brought to an end.^[27]

The Zapatistas thereafter shifted their alleigance to Álvaro Obregón, who gained their support by promising to implement their proposed agrarian reforms. Zapata's Liberation Army of the South was incorporated into the Constitutional Army and the war in Morelos was brought to an end, with the Zapatista land reform being reintroduced in the southern state.^[26]

In his 1971 book The Mexican Revolution, Mexican historian Adolfo Gilly called the proto-state established by Zapata the "Morelos Commune".^[21] He drew a direct comparison between it and the Paris Commune of 1871,^[28] due to their shared basis in direct democracy, egalitarianism and the social ownership of the means of production.^[29]

Belgian critical theorist

In contemporary history, the legacy of the Morelos Commune has been claimed by the Zapatista uprising of 1994, during which the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) established communal forms of governance in Chiapas.^[32]