My father, the head of the family, was a rural teacher in the days of [Lazaro] Cardenas when, according to him, they cut off teachers' ears for being communists. —Subcomandante Marcos (2001, p. 36) The Third World War has already started—it is a silent war, not for that reason any less sinister. This war is tearing down practically all the Third World. Instead of soldiers dying, there are children dying; instead of millions wounded, there are millions unemployed; instead of the destruction of bridges, there is a tearing down of factories, hospitals, schools and entire economies