The Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN) is a Wisconsin-based left-of-center organization that organizes study-abroad activism experiences for American undergraduate and graduate students in Mexico and Cuba. ^{1  2} MSN originally began as a Chicago-based organization but has since rebranded under its main project, the Autonomous University Social Movement (AUSM), in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. ^{3  4}

MSN mobilizes its student-activist network across global campaigns against “neoliberalism,” which it defines as “exploitation, privatization of public goods resulting in vast inequalities of wealth and power, and rampant individualism.” MSN aligns itself with the radical socialist Zapatista Army of National Liberation movement in Mexico and promotes its agenda of indigenous autonomy and wealth redistribution. In 2004, MSN was also a member of the steering committee of the ANSWER Coalition, a left-of-center anti-war umbrella organization. ^{5  6}

Background

The Mexico Solidarity Network was founded in 1998 as a student activist organizing group that sought to oppose the influence of “neoliberalism” in Mexico, Central America, and South America. During its activism in Mexico in 2002, MSN aligned itself with the Zapatistas, a violent socialist left-wing revolutionary movement in Mexico, over a coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in an effort to connect with the grassroots “progressive national social movement” instead of “neoliberal” NGOs. The MSN’s partnership with the Zapatistas solidified the group’s focus on so-called indigenous communities, autonomy, and anti-neoliberalism. ^{5  7}

In 2005, MSN began its study abroad programs for students which continue as the central programs and initiatives of the group. ^{5  2}

Activities

Autonomous University of Social Movements (AUSM)

The central initiative of the Mexico Solidarity Network is the Autonomous University of Social Movements (AUSM), which the group uses interchangeably with MSN. ⁸ AUSM is the entity through which MSN operates its Cuba and Mexico study-abroad programs and provides master’s degrees in community organizing with an emphasis on so-called social justice, as well as on “housing rights, health campaigns, barrio-based labor organizing, or anti-deportation and immigrant rights work.” ²

In the 2020s, AUSM stopped offering its Cuba study abroad program, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for the shutdown. ⁹ The school also shut down its Mexico study abroad program for the same reason. Before canceling the programs, the Mexico study abroad program emphasized MSN’s relationship with the Zapatistas and other left-of-center social movements in Mexico. ¹⁰

Before canceling the Cuba program, AUSM professor Stuart Schussler organized the study abroad trip as an opportunity for students to study “the effect of the [United States’s 1962] embargo by exploring both urban and rural Cuba.” ¹¹

Other academic programs offered by AUSM include the Centro Autonomo (also styled Albany Park Autonomous Center) in Chicago, Illinois, a community center in a Latino majority neighborhood of Chicago that trains students in left-of-center activism. ¹²

Zapatista Movement

As early as 2001, the Mexico Solidarity Network and its Autonomous University of Social Movements joined the Zapatista movement’s Caravan for Peace in Mexico City, an effort to expand political control and involvement of the indigenous Chiapas within the Mexican government. The Zapatistas and the MSN activists who joined the caravan demanded an end to the North Atlantic Trade Federation (NAFTA) and other neoliberal policies. The caravan protest movement urged the Mexican government to embrace left-of-center “environmental policies, globalization, and women’s rights.” ¹³

MSN has also supported the Zapatista movement in its efforts to address what it considers “threats to food security” for indigenous communities that the group claims are caused by “neoliberalism.” In place of Western liberalism and free markets, MSN supports the Zapatista agenda for socialism to redistribute food and wealth in Mexico. ¹⁴ MSN leader and AUSM professor Stuart Schussler wrote a dissertation on the importance of supporting the Zapatistas and other socialist movements to combat Western neoliberalism in favor of “Marxist theories.” ¹⁵

MSN and the Zapatista movement also supported the Occupy Wall Street Movement in an attempt to connect global socialist movements in the “fight” against poverty, “housing struggles,” and other forms of so-called “injustice.” ^{16  17}

ANSWER Coalition

In 2004, the Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN) was a member of the ANSWER Coalition’s steering committee. ¹⁸ The ANSWER Coalition is a radical-left anti-war nonprofit organization with alleged ties to the communist Workers World Party (WWP). ^{19  20}

Leadership

As of 2026, Tom Hansen was the executive director and international education director of the Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN). He previously worked as the director of Pastors for Peace and was national coordinator of the Veterans Peace Convoy to Nicaragua. He was also the co-founder of the New York-Nicaragua Construction Brigade. Hansen received his Ph.D. in Rural Development from the UAM-Xochimilco in Mexico City. ²¹ In 1998, the Mexico expelled Hansen from the country for allegedly engaging in political activism while on a tourist visa, though in 2000, the Mexican government overturned Hansen’s expulsion order. ^{22  23}

Stuart Schussler is the former director of international education at MSN. He has worked across left-of-center activist groups in Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia, including with the political branch of the violent left-wing socialist Zapatista National Liberation Army in Mexico. ^{24  7}

Financials

In 2025, the Mexico Solidarity Network reported $4,580 in total revenue, $171,767 in total expenses, and $0 in total assets. ²⁵ This marked a decrease in annual revenue compared to 2024 when MSN reported $187,606 in total revenue, $221,976 in total expenses, and $134,835 in total assets. ²⁶

In 2022, MSN received a $200,000 grant from the Impactassets Inc. ²⁷ In 2015, MSN received a $20,500 grant from the Headwaters Foundation for Justice. ²⁸

1. “About MSN.” Mexico Solidarity Network. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.mexicosolidarity.org/aboutmsn
2. “AUSM / Study Abroad.” Mexico Solidarity Network. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.mexicosolidarity.org/ausmstudyabroad
3. “Home.” Mexico Solidarity Movement. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.mexicosolidarity.org/
4. “Contact Us.” Autonomous University of Social Movements. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://ausm.community/contact-us-3/
5. “History of MSN.” Mexico Solidarity Network. 2009. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.mexicosolidarity.org/about/history
6. “International A.N.S.W.E.R. – Endorsers.” International A.N.S.W.E.R. February 21, 2004. Accessed by Web Archive on March 15, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20040221074040/http:/www.internationalanswer.org/endorsers.html
7. “Zapatista National Liberation Army.” Britannica. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zapatista-National-Liberation-Army
8. “Home.” Autonomous University of Social Movements. Accessed March 15, 2026. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://ausm.community/
9. “Cuba.” Autonomous University of Social Movements. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://ausm.community/cuba/
10. “Mexico.” Autonomous University of Social Movements. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://ausm.community/mexico/
11. Kachrumathur, Nargis “Campus to Cuba: A Trip to Remember.” The DePauw. October 11, 2023. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://thedepauw.com/36926/news/campus-to-cuba-a-trip-to-remember/
12. “Albany Park Autonomous Center.” Mexico Solidarity Movement. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.mexicosolidarity.org/centro-autonomo
13. “REBELS’ TREK GRABS HEARTS AND ATTENTION IN MEXICO.” The Chicago Tribune. March 9, 2001. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2001/03/09/rebels-trek-grabs-hearts-and-attention-in-mexico/
14. Gahman, Levi. “Mexico’s Zapatista Movement May Offer Solutions to Neoliberal Threats to Global Food Security.” Truth Dig. August 21, 2016. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/mexicos-zapatista-movement-may-offer-solutions-to-neoliberal-threats-to-global-food-security/
15. Schussler, Stuart E. “Making Social Movement: The reproductive labour of organizing from Chiapas to Chicago and beyond.” YorkSpace. December 8, 2023. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/items/aeeb8155-0a47-49a8-9b94-fe7ed849075c
16. “Zapatista Revolution Moves Slowly at Home, but Global Appeal Endures.” Tucson Weekly. August 12, 2014. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.tucsonweekly.com/newsopinion/zapatista-revolution-moves-slowly-at-home-but-global-appeal-endures-4801716/
17. “You-Can’t-Evict-a-Movement-Strategies-for-Housing-Justice-in-the-United-States.pdf.” Viewpoint Magazine. January 2017. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://opencuny.org/conortomasreed/files/2017/01/You-Can%E2%80%99t-Evict-a-Movement-Strategies-for-Housing-Justice-in-the-United-States.pdf
18. “International A.N.S.W.E.R. – Endorsers.” International A.N.S.W.E.R. February 21, 2004. Accessed by web archive March 15, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20040221074040/http:/www.internationalanswer.org/endorsers.html
19. Corn, David. “Behind the Placards.” LA Weekly. November 7, 2002. Accessed by web archive March 15, 2026. https://web.archive.org/web/20081103052350/http:/www.laweekly.com/2002-11-07/news/behind-the-placards
20. “Westerman Continues Investigation into Union Station Protests and Hostile Foreign Influences.” House Committee, Chairman Bruce Westerman. October 31, 2024. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://naturalresources.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=416653
21. “People.” Mexico Solidarity Network. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.mexicosolidarity.org/about/people
22. “VIA VIDEO, CHIAPAS NATIVES MAKE LEAP INTO MODERN WORLD.” The Chicago Tribune. October 1, 2000. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2000/10/01/via-video-chiapas-natives-make-leap-into-modern-world/
23. “MEXICO WILL ALLOW U.S. RIGHTS WORKER TO RETURN.” Orlando Sentinel. July 27, 2000. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2000/07/27/mexico-will-allow-us-rights-worker-to-return-2/
24. “About.” Stuart Schussler. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://stuschu.rocks/about/
25. “Mexico Us Solidarity Network – 2025 Federal Form 990EZ.” ProPublica. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/364435604/202630139349201613/full
26. “Mexico Us Solidarity Network – 2024 Federal Form 990EZ.” ProPublica. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/364435604/202500929349201435/full
27. “Impactassets Inc – 2022 Federal Form 990, Schedule I.” ProPublica. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/262048480/202333199349308098/IRS990ScheduleI
28. “Headwaters Foundation For Justice – 2015 Federal Form 990, Schedule I.” ProPublica. Accessed March 15, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/363359386/201643149349302779/IRS990ScheduleI