Oct 29, 2006 New York City

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Brad Will was killed on October 27, 2006, in Oaxaca, Mexico, while working as a journalist for the global Indymedia network. He was shot in the torso while documenting an armed, paramilitary assault on the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, a fusion of striking local teachers and other community organizations demanding democracy in Mexico.

The members of the New York City Independent Media Center mourn the loss of this inspiring colleague and friend. We want to thank everyone who has sent condolences to our office and posted remembrances to www.nyc.indymedia.org. We share our grief with the people of our city and beyond who lived, worked, and struggled with Brad over the course of his dynamic but short life. We can only imagine the pain of the people of Oaxaca who have lost seven of their neighbors to this fight, including Emilio Alonso Fabian, a teacher, and who now face an invasion by federal troops.

All we want in compensation for his death is the only thing Brad ever wanted to see in this world: justice.
We, along with all of Brad's friends, reject the use of further state-sponsored violence in Oaxaca.
The New York City Independent Media Center supports the demand of Reporters Without Borders for a full and complete investigation by Mexican authorities into Oaxaca State Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz's continued use of plain-clothed municipal police as a political paramilitary force. The arrest of his assailants is not enough. The NYC IMC also supports the call of Zapatista Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos "to compañeros and compañeras in other countries to unite and to demand justice for this dead compañero." Marcos issued this call "especially to all of the alternative media, and free media here in Mexico and in all the world."

Indymedia was born from the Zapatista vision of a global network of alternative communication against neoliberalism and for humanity. To believe in Indymedia is to believe that journalism is either in the service of justice or it is a cause of injustice. We speak and listen, resist and struggle. In that spirit, Brad Will was both a journalist and a human rights activist.

He was a part of this movement of independent journalists who go where the corporate media do not or stay long after they are gone. Perhaps Brad's death would have been prevented if Mexican, international, and US media corporations had told the story of the Oaxacan people. Then those of us who live in comfort would not only be learning now about this 5 month old strike, or about this 500 year old struggle.

And then Brad might not have felt the need to face down those assassins in Oaxaca holding merely the ineffective shields of his US passport and prensa extranjera badge. Then Brad would not have joined the fast-growing list of journalists killed in action, or the much longer list of those killed in recent years by troops defending entrenched, unjust power in Latin America.

Still, those of us who knew Brad know that his work would never have been completed. From the community gardens of the Lower East Side to the Movimento Sem Terra encampments of Brazil, he would have continued to travel to where the people who make this world a beautiful place are resisting those who would cause it further death and destruction. Now, in his memory, we will all travel those roads. We are the network, all of us who speak and listen, all of us who resist.

The New York City Independent Media Center
www.nyc.indymedia.org
4 W. 43rd St., Suite 311
New York, N.Y. 10036
USA / EEUU
212-221-0521

From: miami.indymedia.org
Fed up with broken government promises and stolen money, activists and residents took over the vacant publicly owned land on 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami. Miami police tried to evict us, but, having done our research in advance with lawyers, we had the law on our side.

We fed over 50 people and housed about 20. Today and through the week, we will continue to build our city. Our objective is not just to make a statement, it is to directly provide housing to poor Black people, to do for our community what the government and market are unwilling and uncapable of doing.

South Florida has suffered under a critical shortage of affordable housing. However, instead of creating more affordable housing, local government officials have been busy decreasing the number of affordable housing units, through bad public policy, such as the HOPE VI project, which destroyed 851 units of public housing, replacing it with 80 units; and the intentional vacancies in public housing. Following a series of media reports detailing practices of stealing from the poor to deliver to the rich, county officials have given virtually nothing to the community to compensate for the lost housing, stolen money or broken trust. The reality is this: far from providing a solution to the housing crisis, Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami officials are exacerbating the crisis.

Poor Black people in need of housing are suffering disproportionately and unnecessarily, just so that a few officials and developers can line their own pockets. Therefore, the Black community can no longer depend on the government to provide basic human services for us. Consequently, we must provide it ourselves. We must 'Take Back the Land' so that we can circumvent the problem and implement our own solution.

As of 3pm Monday, October 23, 2006, we are liberating public land on the NE corner of 62nd St. and NW 17th Avenue in the Liberty City section of Miami, to build a shanty town to feed and house the homeless and those living in squalor. WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Come out RIGHT NOW to support the drive for community control over community land. Your support could be the difference between success and failure. We need people there now to show support for this important and historic effort. Do your part to ensure this land belongs to the community, and is not given away to wealthy developers. With your support, we will be there all night, all week, all year, providing basic food and shelter for the homeless.

Once again, WE NEED YOUR HELP! Come to 62nd St. and NW 17th Avenue in Liberty City now and all of this week.

Please show your support by coming to our shanty town any evening you can. We are also in need of donations: wood, building materials, blankets, tarps, tents, food, money and your time. We must show that the concept of direct people control over land is an idea with support.

View two media pieces from yesterday:

* Read the newspaper article "Housing activists set up camp in Liberty City" at
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/15833004.htm

Hundreds of protesters marched on October 7th against the 3rd International Biotechnology Conference in Greece, organised by EuropaBio Hellas, the legal representatives of the EuropaBio lobby group in Greece. Several independent, anti-authoritarian and environmental-groups from all over the country had gathered to form a common front against the Greek biotech lobby pushing for corporate control and profits dressed up as scientific progress.

EuropaBio Hellas is the other name of Bionova Ltd (www.bionova.gr) a consulting company set up by a boiotech entrepreneur, which has been assigned the task of pushing the agenda of the European biotechnology industry, including issues like the introduction of GM crops into Greek agriculture, influencing the media, "knowledge transfer", patenting knowledge, and increasing corporate collaboration with the academic world.

The International Biotechnology Conference in Greece (www.igbf.gr) is a classic example of the industry's attempts to gain a hold over a national economy, its agriculture and its scientific research despite fierce public opposition. The opposition to the introduction of GM crops into Greece has enjoyed huge public support and all its municipalities have declared themselves GM-free.

It's also of note that one of the main issues presented at the conference was bio-fuels and its relation to biotechnology, revealing again the intention of the biotech industry to use this issue as a "green Trojan horse", in order to bypass the suspicions of farmers and consumers.

Reports on the real character of the biotech conference, and the counter-demonstration, appeared in the national press, focusing especially to the plethora of state sponsors of the conference, including four ministries as well as two embassies (US and Israeli). Attention was also drawn by the the speech of the Minister of Education, Ms Marietta Giannakou, whose privatisation and neo-liberal politics fired up the student movement last spring, leading to extensive faculty occupations and mass demonstrations. Her presence at the conference reinforces how the state and biotech lobbyists collaborate to undermine people's suspicions regarding genetic engineering.

The exposure of the true character of the forces pushing biotechnology in Greece lays the groundwork for resistance.

More:

Download the video of the demonstration (in English): http://files.filefront.com/3o_synedrio_bio_engwmv/;6042199;;/fileinfo.html

Watch the video in Greek: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-I5rM3gOgE

Download it: http://files.filefront.com/3o+synedrio+biowmv/;6042153;;/fileinfo.html

Article regarding the conference and the demonstration (in Greek): http://www.enet.gr/online/online_text/c=112,dt=15.10.2006,id=37873172

Article on biotech-indymedia (Greek and English): http://biotech.indymedia.org/or/2006/03/4880.shtml

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biohazard_01@lists.riseup.net
https://lists.riseup.net/www

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danielsan has published an audio interview, in spanish, with two Oaxacan teachers 
recorded on October 14th, 2006, at La Ley Barricade which protects an occupied radio 
station in Oaxaca City. An english language transcript of the interview has been provided 
thanks to Emilyn, Ariel, & Daniel(san).

Audio (en español): Baje el mp3 (36:34 minutos / 16.7 MB)
http://indybay.org/uploads/2006/10/17/maestros-barricada_10.14.06.mp3

During the interview, one of the teachers explains that, “The most valiant victory 
of this movement is what we’re learning from it, those who are participating, and 
those who are watching too. Oaxaca will never be the same again, after all of this. 
Because the people know what it is, a popular struggle.They know what it costs–the 
blood spilled. They know the need of organizing themselves.People see the need to organize 
just to feed the barricades! To sustain them!”
 

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Question: How are you all this evening?

Teacher 1- good, good.

Teacher 2- good. we are a little afraid

Q: why?

2- because there has been a wave of repression against us, against these corners. already we have had eight deaths, so its kind of dangerous.

Q: eight deaths at this barricade?

2- no, on this barricade we’ve had one death. he died there, where that car is up the street. they shot him in the back.

2- and yesterday another death.

1- yesterday another.

2- at the barricade in the street to the airport, another death. so we’re feeling a little fearful because of all this. because every night there are thugs from the government agressing upon the people at the barricades. But we’re in a struggle here, and we have hope, not only that the tyrant [ulises ruiz ortiz, state governor] will fall, but also we hope to build an organization that will include all the political powers of this state, that will include everyone. especially those that haven’t had a voice

2- the people with the least protection

1- yes, the most vulnerable sectors of society. the excluded ones, we say. now they can be part of this project. that’s the long-term goal. In the short term, we are focussing on the fall of this structure, the structure now headed by ulises ruiz. and in the middle, between short-term and long-term goals, we want to strengthen our organizations, to unify ourselves, so that everyone can participate in the democratic process. We have been in this struggle for twenty-six years now, and in twenty-six years we have learned alot. and we have felt the solidarity of the people, not only in our state, not only with workers, but also we have felt the solidarity of the whole country, including you, who offer solidarity on an international level. people have protested in the streets, not only our indigenous companeros from latin america, but also people from germany

2- austria

1- europe, lots of europeans, and north americans as well have been present with us. canada, the united states. they have been part of our struggle. and they have been in solidarity with us, which is the most important thing. this is what sustains us, because without this [international] solidarity, what we’re doing here would not have had the impact that it has had. thus we make good use of this media, because our fellow oaxaquenos listening in santa cruz, in salinas, in monterey, in seaside, in milpitas, are lending their strength to our struggle as well. we know that they [oaxacans in the us] send us large amounts of money, which transforms the well-being of our communities here. also we can use this medium to tell them that we are with them, that we condemn the use of military force by the united states government in open agression against migrant workers. we here condemn that agression, and we know that history will judge the tyrant there [in the states]. sooner or later, he will be judged by history, because of his ignominity and irresponsibility. so we are with them, here in the barricades of oaxaca, and the medium of radio has allowed us to enter into their communities, to send our message–that right now is really important–into the community, so that we all join the struggle. And its a fact, that barricades are a demonstration of this. Here’s the community–here are the people, involved, offering their bravest and strongest, in solidarity, present, to demonstrate to Fox and URO that this community can’t be torn apart. The people are here, giving to the struggle, giving to the battle on every corner and at every barricade. Not just these fires [which burn throughout the night in the middle of intersections], but the internal fire, the fire of hope.

2- the heat of the struggle.

1- the heat of the struggle.

Q: It looks to me like this movement is only growing. More and more people every day. When the marches pass by, people pour out of their homes to join and support. How do we keep bringing people in? Beyond identifying as teachers, or as workers, but how do we include the whole of society, and continue to expand the movement?

1- Well, it’s not easy. In reality, these 26 years, the struggle has been seen as criminal. Nonetheless, in these months of struggle, like my friend said, there is a new hope in the community, that these structures can change. It’s been 77 years that Oax has been ruled by one party, the PRI. Seems like we’re reaching the limit, not just with the state government but with the federal government too. For us, a lot of these things are new–the barricades for example–something we’re going into for the first time. And not just us, in the center, but in the outlying areas joining the fight.

Q: The colonias (’suburbs’)

2- Like my friend here said, it’s been years of grievances, many years of forgotten wrongs. Until now, when the gov’t is forced to remember, that there’s an uprising, that there’s poverty, that there’s fraud, not just economic but political fraud. They’ve broken us to the point where there are places with no medicine, with no roads.

1- It’s strange but to look at maps of Oaxaca, there’s a drawing of a paved highway, that’s what it says. But you visit, and it’s a dirt road.

Q: It’s like that with schools, too, right?

2- Schools too.

Q: I’ve heard that Ulises says in some towns there are schools and when you visit there are none.

1- Or if you visit a new hospital, there aren’t any medical instruments. No beds. No medicine. The result is a type of surrealism.

Q: Creativity

2- Yes, because va coraje a ver Que se paren el cuello. As we say here… With jobs, or projects or whatever. In this manner we see public works that aren’t necessary, when other more important things are lacking. It’s a grievance that just builds. This is why people support us, why they’re sympathetic. You see how they pass by the barricades, for example recently a guy came by who holds a certain economic position, which is to say he doesn’t really have money problems, and he had sympathy, because people realize what’s happening, and see the long list of grievances. They don’t pass through to disparage us. Here they’ve been taxed by the municiple authorities, by the representatives, by the governor, who’s in office as a result of fraud–he wasn’t elected. It was really Questionable, his election. This makes it illegitimate, like a lot of the elections. Here in some municipalities of Oaxaca, there are those who rule by custom, and who have corrupted the social structures of the indigenous population. And we feel like this accumulates. It’s simmered and fermented until we have a soup that’s favorable to the situation that we’ve got now–that’s boiling over right now.

1- And because of this they’re worried. They’re seriously worried. They know that this struggle isn’t going away with the fall of URO, this struggle will keep going, it’s obvious. Like Samuel Ruiz said, the archbishop, this, in Oaxaca, is a birth, he says. Painful, yes, but a birth. From which will emerge, well, at least a proposal for the country. And we think that he’s right, because we see the conditions, for the people of the whole country to value what we’re living through, assimilation. We live in a very polarized society. The north of Mexico, which is quite industrialized, but with such misery, and also oppression. And we have the south, on the other hand, with such natural wealth, incredible biodiversity. Oax represents, at a national and intern’l level, a place where more species of flora and fauna… an enormous biodiversity. Nonetheless, it has the lowest per capita income. It’s a shame to even say it, but that’s how it is. That’s how the system has had us. We see, in the indigenous communities, that they maintain their resistance, safeguarding their resources. They defend their resources to the point of giving their lives. In the southern mountains, for example, there was deforestation for years. Only in the last ten years have communitiesstopped the practice, and defended sustainable projects in their own interest.

Q: Speaking of natural resources, maps and industry, what can you tell us about the role of Plan Puebla Panama in Oaxacan life, and for URO, the role of Oaxaca in the neoliberal plan?

2- The PPP intends, as its name says, to take all that is Central America [firework blast]; they’re alarm signals (the fireworks).

2- They would be three (if it were an alert)

Q: yah, three blasts, right?

2- One blast is just to keep us all alert, awake. it’s quite common here at the barricades. it’s also a form of, well, if we see someone suspicious, a suspicious vehicle, like for example here we’ve had some problems here with aggressive motorcycle riders… We orient each other about where they are.

1- Anyhow, we were talking about Plan Puebla Panama. Here, the public opinion for the state of mexico is basically to go along with the dominant economy. Here, with the hegemonic role of the U.S. in the world economy, president Fox has essentially bowed down to them. Within the context of Plan Puebla Panama they seek not only natural resources, but strategically this zone in relation to the Itsmo canal. If the Panama canal stopped being useful to the US, they would use the canal of Itsmo Tauantapec which is strategic for the market economy and communication. There you have the canal of Itsmo Tahuantapec. The canal is useful for transport from Salina cruz (on the coast) to Veracruz: The transport of goods directly across Mexico, through Oaxaca to Veracruz and the Gulf. This won’t leave our environment in peace, because on one hand it’ll disrupt the ecosystem. On the other hand it’ll disrupt the way of life for the people, for our towns. And its a model that will be repeated in other countries, with repercussions from development and the imposition of simple communication infrastructure. It’s not like we’re against bringing infrastructure to the pueblos, but when it’s done for profit, done at the will of the market, that’s when the process is perverted.

2- And effectively, for the establishment of the PPP they had to use strategies we hadn’t seen, maybe some analysts had, but the modification of Article 27 is a clear example. Previously, rural communities didn’t have formal title to land (the ‘ejido’ system). With this system, the land couldn’t be sold. With the changes to Arcticle 27, land became a commodity to be bought and sold. So they said to the campesino: Now it’s yours! Now it belongs to you! But then multinational corporations came to BUY. This was the strategy to implement their plans. So now they pressure poor rural farmers around places like Salina Cruz to sell their land, and at unreasonable prices, too. Seven or even five pesos (fifty cents US) for a square meter of land. All these strategies they’ve used, but we haven’t always had the tools to see them for what they are. But like my friend here was saying, in the last ten years or so, people have been rising up to stop this, to defend themselves, but at the cost of so many lives. So many deaths. we’ve seen new beginnings and errors, and clean starts on the path. But with this change to the consitution, they achieved a change in ownership–to foreign companies. And this has been an aggression against the people. Unfortunately we just haven’t always had the vision to realize it’s happening. I think that right now we’re seeing we’ve improved in this aspect. Now we’re seeing through all this. And the teacher plays an important role in this process–awakening the people. Laying bare the strategies used by capitalism and imperialism, the strategies used to subjugate people. Right now we can see that our Public Universities are a disaster, and that they’d prefer Private Universities. Why? Because they want to rent out our education. Why? Because they’re doing the same with healthcare. Little by little, to privitize them both. And so the role of the teacher is fundamental, in this struggle even more so. It’ll be harder for imperialism to subjugate our country because our consciousness, well, we’re opening our eyes to what they are, to what’s happening.

Q: And if you think of the lessons being learned by students right now, through this struggle,…

1- This is one of those primary things that the movement does, independent of driving out Ulises, an immediate success, the most valiant victory of this movement is what we’re learning from it, those who are participating, and those who are watching too. Oaxaca will never be the same again, after all of this. Because the people know what it is, a popular struggle. They know what it costs–the blood spilled. They know the need of organizing themselves. People see the need to organize just to feed the barricades! To sustain them!

2- And people like you, no longer come with an idea of Oaxaca from the books, with pictures of folkloric dance, of cute little indians, of everything all pretty. They’ll know that Oaxaca is a place of rebellion. That right now it’s a place of injustice and inequality. Where the rich rule, and don’t permit industry because they want a Oaxaca that is for tourists.

1- No one was seeing our true culture here. They’ve created an image of culture that is the total opposite of what we are. Like what he was just saying, the guetalguetza [an annual folklorico festival that brings many tourists], for many tourists, is just dancing. There’s more to it! Dancing is a small part of the guelaguetza that we live.

2- This is the guelaguetza–to share.

1- Yes, when people arrive with some tortillas and cheese, with some beans and a rice dish, this is a form of guelaguetza. We await the day that this corresponds to what we have to give. This tortilla, this chile, this rice that we offer, someday it’ll match in our pueblos. But the big tourist outfits have made it

2- have distorted it

1- have distorted it to the point where our tradition is just some dancing and giving gifts. When someone dies, like the citizen at the barricades

2- our comrade

1- people are going to come with a bottle of mezcal,

2- some candles

1- candles, beans, whatever they bring to accompany the body, to show solidarity. THIS is the guelaguetza. What’s happened is those in power have

2- they’ve distorted it, they’ve disempowered it

Q: Well there’s obviously more to a culture than dancing and food. But for tourism that’s it. One writer said that Oaxaca is, for some, an ‘indigenous disneyland’ (Jill Friedberg), that’s the image that some have.

2- The colors!

Q: Yes, flavor and color, nothing else.

2- No, this isn’t Oaxaca.

Q: Oaxaca has a history of struggle, and now is writing a new chapter in that history.

1- Oaxaca is historically a state that has developed

Q: Revolutionaries

1- That’s it–(Benito) Juarez, Porfirio Diaz, Ricardo Flores Magon, and it’s not just about personalities. Beyond those who’ve left with their name, many more have given their blood to defend this country, and beyond that there are things much more valiant, if we go to the towns, know the places, and learn the relationships they have with their citizens, it’s an issue that, well, what we’re living now is the big picture, a macro of what’s going on in the smaller communities. [blast, dogs barking]

1- well, that’s how it is here in Oaxaca. Apart from the biodiversity, the environment, there’s the rich resources we have, physical ones.

Q: Yah like the fireworks, the heat…

[laughter] 1- This struggle is a symbol, no?

[pause; what happened? it’s just a plane]

that’s how it is at the barricades.

2- But we’ve recieved the support of the people. These last two months, without pay,

Q-How have you done it?

2- Well, with whatever people bring. What there is, we eat. What we can eat, we eat.

Q: Do you have kids?

2- We’ve got kids. We all do, but like my friend said, we’ve got faith, we’ve got confidence

1- Valor

2- that we can change the situation, that we can see equality, that we can see justice, and that is what keeps us going even though we know we can lose our lives here. But that doesn’t make us afraid, because if that is what brings change, then it’s welcome, come what may. Because like my friend here said, Oaxaca will never be the same. Oaxaca will be a different place. And we don’t lose our faith, we know the tyrant will fall. The people just have to reclaim the power structure and make it equitable with those now marginalized and forgotten.

1- We’re so grateful to see the solidarity of the people, because like you asked, well, I have two kids. And just to go and see them, well, I have to ask friends for a loan, for gas, for food, you know? But people don’t deny us this resource. We help ourselves, for example here we cook for each other. With ten pesos [1 dollar US] we make a dish for everyone. I was recently in a Zapotec community in the valley called ‘yoquescxa[?] de aldam’ and it surprised me, a woman in indigenous dress, and also with all the marks of poverty, gave me half a kilo of beans. What she was going to use, she gave to us. And just like that, people bring bottles of water, they come with onions and fruit, whatever they can. And that’s how we’re surviving. And we haven’t gone hungry–we’ve been able to count on the help of the people. and that’s the fuel that keeps us going.

2- like yesterday, thursday, something exceptional happened to me. it was amazing because one of my co-madres (neighbors who helped raise me) came to the barricades when we were eating, and she handed me a nylon bag, and inside? A barbeque. ‘I brought it for you all to eat,’ she said. I asked her if she bought it for herself, and she said “no, I bought it because I know there have been days you haven’t had any meat.” But I felt bad. I felt bad and she said “take it–you all are getting like skinny cows at the barricades. you can pay me back someday.” But you see the solidarity, because everyone knows we’re in a tough economic place right now, we’ve got kids, I’ve got two in college, so it’s, well it’s complicated, daily. And I don’t quite know how it’s working, but it is. We keep going. We’re at day 146 today, of struggle, and at times, to be honest, we lose heart, with no resources, but somehow we know it’s worth it.

1- My friend put emphasis on this point–losing heart. Sometimes little conflicts come up, because of course spending this much time together we see each other’s faults, our differences… and this sometimes creates friction between us, but it makes us reflect on the need to stay united, no? We know that if we divide we make it easier for the enemy. it’s just a symptom of what happens, cohabiting for so long, little problems are inevitable. But we surmount this, and like I say the most important thing is like with this little recorder we have in front of us, we know we’ll be heard in another place. we know that up there in santa cruz, like daniel says, up in alta california, there are our fellow mexicans, in the fields picking strawberries, lettuce, artichokes,

Q: …sprouts (which we had to explain, since they don’t grow in Oaxaca)

1- They’re washing dishes, because they had to. They crossed out of necessity. They crossed illegally, my brothers specifically, who told me how they crossed: in piles, one on top of the other, for hours. And this is the experience all of them have lived through. And they left here because there are no opportunities here. They left such richness here to know another culture, and they aren’t always welcome, but they’re there, maybe enriching oaxacan culture by bringing it with them, bringing our tortillas, our chapulines, our customs and our richness to the other side. And the result is we’re grateful to hear that the media like your radio station in Santa Cruz wants to hear about the problems we face here, that there’s interest and that people are in solidarity. And this too, is what allows us to keep going. For the people who have no hope, who haven’t seen one ray of concrete hope that the tyrant will fall, what keeps us going is the solidarity we see and feel. And I hope you two send this message to all who hear it, all the teachers up there.

2- Well like the space you’ve got up there [free radio santa cruz], you know they’re not free, that you have to fight to keep them open. They’ve been censured, persecuted. That’s why we’re here, why this barricade is here, protecting a radio antenna. It’s a space where information gets to the people, and so, greetings to everyone up there…

Translated by Emilyn, Ariel, & Daniel

source: http://indybay.org/newsitems/2006/10/16/18320774.php

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Oaxaca, the struggle continues

We have been with 9 people from Belgium and the Netherlands in Oaxaca for 8 days, wrote a lot about it for mainly indymedia.nl. Almost every night people from our group slept in the streets to be able to observe if there should be an attack, either by the army or by PRI or paramilitary people. The atmosphere in Oaxaca is great. For me it was very inspiring to be there. People of Oaxaca are very poor, and the touristindustry is very important. At the moment there are hardly tourists and some of the people are not working for 4 months. But they are planning to stay, take their lives in their own hands and fight for their rights.
It is really a pity we had to leave, i would have stayed if i could.

Some backgroundinformation

In may this year the teachersunion SNTE of Oaxaca, one of the poorest states of Mexico, went to the streets to demand better workconditions and improvement of the schoolsystem. There were a lot of big demnstrations. In june they occupied the centrum square in Oaxaca.
In the night of the 14th of june the police evicted the protesters with a lot of violence. They came for instance with a lot of teargass in the unionbuilding and destroyed all equipment of the legal radiostation Radio Planton and jailed all the people who were present at that time.

After the police left the square the people of Oaxaca came with big masses to occupy it again. A few days later, on the 17th of june, they founded APPO (Asamblea Popular de Pueblos de Oaxaca) and they are still occupying the citycentre of Oaxaca, 4 months later. One of the main demands is the resignation of the gouvernor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. He is from the PRI. Besides this demand APPO want more democracy, freedom and equality for everyone, especially for the indigenas, and a better scholingsystem. They occupied all stateradiostations and the tvstations. Most of them were abandoned soon after. Now only Radio La Ley del Pueblo is still in hands of APPO. The state destroyed the tvtransmitter and one of the radiotransmitters.
Radio La Ley is still in the air and on internet (via the website of APPO, http://www.asambleapopulardeoaxaca.com).

Three weeks ago APPO and the teachers started a march to Mexico city. They reached Mexico city this monday, they walked ca 500 km in 20 days, and there was a big demonstration together with people from Atenco and La Otra Campaρa.
During this time the state send the army and a part of the navy to be close to the city. They also send Zeta΄s in, a kind of undercover armydivision, which is know for its extreme violence.
The citycentre is barricaded by night and partly by day, a lot of people are sleeping on the streets every night, for 4 months now, to defend the city when the army will come.

In Mexico city APPO started to talk about founding an Asamblea Popular de Pueblos de Mexico. There are also talks with the parlement and the gouvernment. Yesterday several members of parlement were visiting Oaxaca to see the situation and talk with the people. During this visit APPO occupied several statebuildings outside the centre. At one of this action securityguards shot at the protesters and 2 people were injured.

So:
It is very unclear what will happen now, the situation can not stay this way for longer, perhaps there will be some kind of agreement between the central gouvernment and APPO or the army can try to take back the city. When the army will invade Oaxaca, there will be a lot of people coming to the city and help. It will be a bloodbath...

So if you are able to help, if you can do an action or anything, please do. I think this to be an crucial moment

Carla

As we commemorate the 70 years since the Spanish Revolution, we should remember political prisoners in Spain today

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http://www.karcelona.revolt.org/

In the early morning hours of February 4th, a group of young people left the 
house of some friends after a night of celebration. Some were on their way to 
the metro, others were on their way to another party that was being held in the 
closeby street of Sant Pere Mes Baix. Once in Sant Pere, they saw 
a group of people having a discussion with the Guardia Urbana (one of the many 
police forces in this area) outside of the Anarko Penya, the squat where the 
other party was taking place. As the group approached this discussion, the police 
charged suddenly and without warning, beating people severely. The young people 
tried to leave the area, but could not escape the police blows. In the midst of 
this, all kinds of objects were being thrown from the balconies of the Anarko Penya. 
When the initial chaos of the situation had passed, seven people had been arrested and a 
policeman was in a coma. Two more people were arrested later in hospital, where they 
had gone to seek treatment due to bicycle accidents. They had not been in Sant Pere 
Mes Baix at all that night, they were simply arrested due to their "squatter-like" 
appearence (or so perceived by the police) and the fact that they had injuries. All 
of the nine who were arrested were tortured by two different police forces : 
the Guardia Urbana and the Mossos d'Esquadra. They were beaten and tortured at the 
moment of their arrest and continuously in the police station, hospitals and police 
vans. They suffered multiple injuries all over their bodies,blows to the head,black eyes,
and two have broken arms.

The first "official" press release from the city council said that a flower pot, 
thrown from the balcony of the Anarko Penya, had hit the policeman. The "official" 
version then went through a variety of changes before arriving at the final conclusion 
that the three people still in prison had supposedly thrown stones at the police from 
the street with the intention to kill.

The only evidence--stones--were gathered outside of the direct crime scene and were 
"chosen in an arbitrary manner", as stated by the police officer in charge; they 
containted no fingerprints, tissue, or blood. The "crime" scene wasn't cordoned and the 
local city cleaners actually came and cleaned the street before scientific evidence could 
be taken. Furthermore, specialists opinion is that the wound received by the policeman 
is too serious to have been caused by a stone thrown from the street.

How can the police keep three people in jail with such a lack of evidence? The police 
blatantly lie in their declarations about the incident in order to cover up the 
responsability of the Council, who is the owner of the Anarko Penya building. If the 
policeman was actually injured by an object thrown from the building, this too would 
be their responsibility. Another factor is the Anarko Penya itself. A mafia-style 
operation more than an "anarko" squat, the building had been controlled for some years 
by two or three individuals who had used it to frequently mount huge commercial raves for 
their own gain. Furthermore, these individuals had little or no contact with political 
squatters in the area. Despite these mafia-style practices, or maybe specifically BECAUSE 
of these mafia-style practices, the Council had spent nearly four years turning a blind 
eye to the ongoing complaints from neighbours fed up with constant problems caused by the 
raves. How convenient that this same passivity on the part of the Council now allows them 
to criminalize the more political part of the Barcelona squatting movement, of which the 
Anarko Penya formed little part.

Shortly before the 4th of February, the Council gained new legal powers in the form of a new 
set of so-called "civic" laws, aimed at eleminating unsightly elements of the city such as 
skateboarders, squatters, prostitutes, graffiti, etc. These laws give new impunity to the 
police to act in whatever manner they choose against people who they are suspicious of 
(see above list of undesirables).

The City Council has taken advantage of the suffering of four families(the three families 
of the detainees and the family of the police officer) to advance their political agenda. 
The president of el Partido Popular de Barcelona, Alberto Fernandez Diaz, together with 
the mayor of Barcelona, Joan Clos, are trying to rid Barcelona of the "squatter menace" 
and whatever other group of people who goes against the established order.

-What happened in Sant Pere Mes Baix is a "carte blanche" for increased repression in 
Barcelona.
-What happened in Sant Pere Mes Baix could have happened to any one of us.
-We are all guilty of being poor, immigrant, excluded, dispossessed, exploited, and 
marginalized.

FREEDOM FOR THE PRISONERS OF THE 4TH OF FEBRUARY !!!
  

August23,2006 +Read Full Article

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Children are still being recruited by the Sudanese army and various armed groups, despite the signing of formal peace and ceasefire agreements, a United Nations report has found.

Visit www.youthagainstpoverty.org for more news on child poverty.

by Peller/Tonak Wednesday Aug 9th, 2006

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An interview with a member of the Red Anarchist Skinheads in Lebanon. The group has been carrying 80 pounds of food and medication to remote villages in southern Lebanon. Total Running Time: 14:37

audio: http://indybay.org/uploads/2006/08/09/peller_tonak-walkingintofirewithwater.mp3 MP3 at 10.0 mebibytes