THE EZLN AND TPLF: SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR APART

Abstract

For multiple reasons, rebel groups face difficulties in challenging the state. They often need to form coalitions with other groups to pose a significant threat. Rebel groups frequently organize around ethnicities, but when forming coalitions they might have to collaborate beyond their primary ethnicity, which can bring further problems. Rebel groups can utilize ideology, such as Marxism, as a way to ease collaboration between their members. This is the case with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) of Mexico and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) of Ethiopia. Both groups have mobilized different ethnicities largely through the usage of ideology, specifically feminism, democracy, and Marxism. They have each achieved notable successes in organizing, but have seen tremendously different outcomes. The EZLN has generally remained consistent to their ideology and their multiethnic character, while the TPLF has not, instead becoming an authoritarian organization devoid of legitimate multiethnic representation. These divergent outcomes in terms of ideological consistency and commitment may be due, at least in part, to their internal governing structures as well as the role of external influence. The similarities in how the groups mobilized ethnic groups through non-ethnic ideology, and the differences in how they have turned out, provides insight into the role that ideology can play in organizing different groups of people.