TheMorelos Commune (Spanish:Comuna de Morelos) was thepolitical andeconomic system established in the Mexican state ofMorelos between 1913 and 1917. Led byEmiliano Zapata, the people of Morelos implemented a series of wide-reaching social reforms based on the proposals laid out in thePlan of Ayala.
During theMexican Revolution, the economy of Morelos was completely reorganised, seeing thenationalisation of itssugar industry and the widespreadredistribution of land fromhaciendas to thepeasantry. This process was overseen by local institutions ofself-governance, under the defense of Zapata'sLiberation Army of the South (ELS).
Established in rebellion against the government ofVictoriano Huerta, the Commune was officially dissolved by theConstitution of Mexico in 1917 and Zapata himself was killed by theConstitutional Army in 1919. AfterÁlvaro Obregón's rise to power, many of Zapata's proposals were implemented in Morelos by the newgovernment of Mexico and the ELS was integrated into theMexican Army.
The term "Morelos Commune" was coined by the Mexican historianAdolfo Gilly, in an invocation of theParis Commune of 1871. Other historians have compared the period with theSoviets of theRussian Revolution and theMakhnovshchina ofEastern Ukraine. It has also been a point of inspiration for theZapatista uprising of 1994, which took place in the Mexican state ofChiapas.
The native institutions ofMorelos traced their ancestry back to the time of theAztec Empire, before theSpanish conquest of the Americas; the localNahua people held the land in the region undercommon ownership, which guaranteed themautonomy andself-sufficiency.[1] During the 19th century, thesugar industry in Morelos grew increasingly profitable, as foreign demand for the product expanded and new technologies eased production and distribution.[2] In order to grow the Mexican economy, the regime ofPorfirio Díaz oversaw a massconcentration of land ownership intoprivate property,[3] reducing the amount ofcommon land in the country to only 2% of arable land. The state of Morelos, where much of the country'ssugar industry was concentrated, was among the hardest hit by this policy.[4] Only 23.7% of land in Morelos managed to remain outside the private ownership of ahacienda.[5]
Lands previously held undercommon ownership were taken over byhaciendas, which extracted increasingly high profits from the sugar crop, with many of the state's peasants becominglandless.[6] The people of Morelos attempted to resist the seizure of common land through judicial means, but theprivatization 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 thehaciendas year-round and were only provided withearthen floorhuts for accommodation, keeping them inpoverty.[7] Still the people of Morelos managed to maintain some of their traditionalself-governance, holding enough property under common ownership as to provide an alternative to the industrial estates.[1]
TheMexican Revolution broke out in 1910, as several different rebel groups under the leadership ofFrancisco Madero rose up against the established order of thePorfiriato.[8] When the Porifirian sugar estates collapsed, leaving no alternative means of subsistence for their workers, Madero's promises ofagrarian reform won over the peasant leaderEmiliano Zapata,[9] who organised the sugar workers of Morelos to attack thehaciendas and seize the land for their communities.[10] This series of expropriations of privately owned land by armed peasants led to the establishment of theLiberation Army of the South (ELS), which spearheaded the revolutionary uprising in Morelos.[11] On 20 May 1911, the ELS capturedCuautla, and on 21 May, they captured the state capital ofCuernavaca.[12]
By the time that Porfirio Díaz was ousted and Madero becamePresident 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 thePlan of Ayala, in which he called for theautonomy of Morelos and the immediate redistribution of land from thehaciendas to the peasantry.[14]
Madero attempted to use theMexican Army to suppress the Zapatistas, but was soon ousted in a coup by the army's commander-in-chiefVictoriano Huerta.[15] Zapata rebelled against Huerta, whom he considered to be areactionary, and formed an alliance with the Northern rebelPancho 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) andconstitutionalists (led byVenustiano 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 theConvention 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 anycentralized 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'sLiberation Army of the South left the capital for their home state ofMorelos, where they established aself-governing andegalitariansociety,[20] historiographically known as the "Morelos Commune".[21]
Radicalagrarian reforms were carried out byManuel Palafox, who was appointed by Zapata as the state'sSecretary of Agriculture.[20]Municipal councils oflocal elders were convened in order to determine how to break up thehaciendas and redistribute their land holdings, with decisions being passed from the bottom-up to the Zapatista command for enforcement.Workers' cooperatives were also established to manage agricultural output, whilecredit unions were set up in order to support the reorganisation of land ownership.[18]
In October 1915, the Zapatistas passed a series of laws that brought industry understate ownership and redistributed land to thepeasantry. These reforms were implemented in Morelos, but did not extend elsewhere in Mexico, due to theprovincialism of the Zapatistas.[22] The agrarian reforms and thenationalisation of thesugar industry in Morelos encouraged the state's agricultural and industrial workers to unite around the Zapatistas' Ayala Plan, which gave the movement a tendency towardsanti-capitalism.[23]
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 theUnited States.[24] But the Zapatistas' threats against private property nevertheless alarmed thegovernment 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 theConventionists.[25]
Outside of Morelos, the Mexicanbourgeoisie consolidated control over the government,[22] culminating with the promulgation of theConstitution of Mexico in February 1917.[19] As the constitution included no promise of agrarian reform, Zapata continued his rebellion against the constitutional government ofVenustiano Carranza.[26] In April 1919, Zapata was assassinated by government forces inChinameca, and the Revolution in Morelos was brought to an end.[27]
The Zapatistas thereafter shifted their allegiance toÁlvaro Obregón, who gained their support by promising to implement their proposed agrarian reforms. Zapata's Liberation Army of the South was incorporated into theConstitutional 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 bookThe Mexican Revolution, Mexican historianAdolfo Gilly called theproto-state established by Zapata the "Morelos Commune".[21] He drew a direct comparison between it and theParis Commune of 1871,[28] due to their shared basis indirect democracy,egalitarianism and thesocial ownership of themeans of production.[29]
Belgian critical theoristBruno Bosteels would later compare the Morelos Commune to theSoviets of theRussian Revolution, due to thedecentralised andautonomous organisational structure used forcollective decision-making in Morelos.[30] Edward Kantowicz also compared the Commune to theMakhnovshchina ineastern Ukraine, due to similar structures and ideals.[31]
In contemporary history, the legacy of the Morelos Commune has been claimed by theZapatista uprising of 1994, during which theZapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) established communal forms of governance inChiapas.[32]