Palafox's Letter - Programme for Agrarian Anarchism

The Ayala Plan was put forward by Zapata in 1911. It demanded a redistribution of agricultural land. The central idea was to take land from the rich and give it to the peasants who needed it to survive. Originally, the Zapatistas were going to buy the land needed, but as time went by, they decided that land won through the revolution should be kept and that counter-revolutionaries didn't deserve money for unjustly gained land. General Manuel Palafox was a leading member of Zapata's forces. In the following letter to a Mexico City supporter, he explains the goals of the Zapatistas.

...According to your plans, the government would have to lay out large sums of money on land-redistribution measures, especially those relating to new farming settlements. But the country is in no position to make such payments, and it would be unjust to purchase the landholdings which enemies of the Revolution have illegally possessed for many years. The Agrarian Revolution is working with complete justice for the three great principles of the agrarian problem: (1) redistribution of the land to the villages or individuals who lost land in the dark days of bad government; (2) confiscation of property belonging to the enemies of the Ayala Plan; and (3) seizure of land needed for the public good. The Revolution advocated by the Ayala Plan simplifies the agrarian problem into the three preceding principles without wasting one single centavo. Its aim is that tomorrow, when the Revolution forms a government; it will not be necessary for anyone, including the proletariat, to pay a single centavo. Money is not needed to return the land which someone took from another with the support of a bad government; MONEY IS NOT NEEDED to confiscate property from those who, for so many years, have directly or indirectly supported the government in the struggle against advocates of the Ayala Plan...

You will not deny that most land owners in the Republic have committed hostile acts against the Revolution. It is therefore just that their lands be taken without reimbursement. Even though some might say that this system is not noble, it is necessary if the millions of landless Mexicans are to be given something to eat. It is better for humanity that thousands of bourgeoisie, rather than millions of proletarians, should die of hunger - this is what moral sense tells us.

The distribution of land will not take place through breaking it into small plots for individual farmers. Instead, such redistribution will be effected in the most just way, in accordance with the customs of each village. Thus, IF A PARTICULAR VILLAGE WISHES THE COMMUNAL SYSTEM, this is how it will be done; and if another village withes parcellization of the land to establish ITS SMALLHOLDINGS, this will be done. Supported by the Revolution, they will then till the land well. And if after some years have passed, the old land owners seek to get back their confiscated property with the help of some government, they will not succeed. This is because the villages with arms in hand (arms they will always retain) will be able to force their own will on the government and to protect their rights... We are now handing back their land; we are teaching them how to keep it and to ensure that their rights are respected..