¡ INDEPENDENCIA !
Update, Discussion & Merriment

Wed   Sept 16  at  7 pm

Quaker Meeting House
931 N 5th Ave, Tucson

Celebrate Resistance on Mexican Independence Day Featuring
• Short Documentaries about Oaxaca Grassroots Organizing, Immigration and Cross Border Solidarity
• Books and DVDs for sale — proceeds benefit
CASA: Colectivos de Apoyo, Solidaridad y Accion

Us Now

A film project about the power of mass collaboration, government and the internet.

• http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Program_WV.aspx?episode=30344

Several dozen gathered on a chilly, rainy night, many coming directly from protests & pageantry demonstrating opposition to the G20 summit underway across town, where world leaders toasted each other with $500 bottles of wine and pledged their devotion to a new order… free-market capitalism.

Chris explained how CASA came to be involved in Oaxaca, and the political crisis that emerged once APPO and others had effectively taken control of the state capital, with their occupations of radio stations and key intersections. Sylvia elaborated on her experience organizing with others against the state government, and shared insight into the movement’s current position, and her work with Investigadores Descalzos. An audience member asked her about the participation of Mexican communities in the US — and we were fortunate to have a few members of Georgetown University’s MEChA group in the room to help answer the question. Their response was similar to issues raised by Oaxacan families in Harrisonburg the next night; Univision and mainstream media coverage in general were cited as barriers to knowledge of the extent to which the conflict against Ulises Ruiz escalated, to say nothing of organizing ongoing in the state.

The dialogue continued over pumpkin banana chickea curry at a local CASA board member’s house, with a few former CASA Chapulin alums and Latin America solidarity activist friends, before the tour headed south for Harrisonburg.

Chris and Silvia pulled up to my house at about 1:30am on Saturday night in La Vanessa (as they had named their scrapped together, faded white metal van). The last time I had seen either of them was in Oaxaca, and though I knew it certainly possible in this world of surprises and circles, it didn’t occur to me that I’d see them again until I did – getting out of creaked-open doors looking for beds after about a dozen cities and presentations already given. Harrisonburg, Virginia, tucked away in the Shenandoah Valley would be the last before home for Silvia, and before returning to the rode, and to the life and work he left before coordinating the East Coast Teaching Rebellion Book Tour, for Chris. I got the briefest of smiles mentioning our start time of noon the next day, smiles suggesting that they would’ve been fine with an even busier schedule if it meant a connection in this world of seemingly infinite separations.

The morning sunlight hid the cold as we chatted around a breakfast of acorn squash, bacon, eggs, beans, bread with apricot preserves and coffee. It would be a day of eating and a night of discussion. We headed over to the home of Macario and Elvira, who had invited us, some of our friends, and local immigrant leaders along with four or five other Mixteco families from Oaxaca living in Harrisonburg to their house for pozole and an exchange of news from both Oaxaca and displaced Latin American communities here in the U.S. Silvia talked of the repression of a teacher’s strike which became the catalyst for a watershed moment in over 500 years of resistance and creating new worlds – followed here in the U.S. by Oaxacans in 2006 using the clumsy but available tools of Telemundo and Univision. So what happened beyond the burning of buses? And we all listened to stories lived by immigrants here in Harrisonburg. For example, when and how to learn English, and when and how to teach their children Mixteco, a language which has survived Spanish colonization, Mexican industrial expansion, teacher’s rulers on primary student’s hands in rural mountain schools and NAFTA, to find itself in a small southern U.S. city on Horseshoe Lane, tucked away behind the Cassco Ice plant and carving out space beneath the din of Spanish-language music videos. We also listened to immigrant leaders from Guatemala and El Salvador discuss plans for a solidarity potluck on Sunday, November 23rd, looking to find common cause with European-Americans and African-Americans and in fact everyone living between our two mountain ranges looking to widen our narrow valley with dignity and more choices about how and where we live. I sat and listened, learning about the place I was born from families who had traveled thousands of miles and literally risked their lives and savings of sometimes entire communities to come here. I know they have more to teach me than the little Virginia history book my grandfather wrote for fourth graders, or at least, whole new chapters to write and old ones to revise.

The primary event at Clementine Café in downtown Harrisonburg started just a few minutes later than announced. In a room of about sixty people Silvia and Chris sat at the front, understandably a little nervous in the more formal set-up of a table and chairs with a microphone, complete with water in fancy glasses. Or maybe the nervous one was me. The room was filled with about twenty Spanish-dominant speakers, including a couple of high school students from Oaxaca, James Madison University students from the local SDS chapter and beyond, someone from West Virginia and a couple from Richmond, and representatives from a number of churches in town. We decided to do the event in Spanish, with English speakers using the limited number of simultaneous interpreting devices on hand, which worked but with enough interference from local commercial radio stations to switch to consecutive interpreting for the discussion time afterwards. This in itself came up as a teaching moment on multilingual movement building, hearing feedback from a participant later – “It was kinda cool to feel a little of what Spanish speakers have to experience on a daily basis, and make the event for them.”

Silvia spoke to our group throughout with an eloquence, an artistic enthusiasm, that I rarely hear – describing their work in Oaxaca in 2006 and since as less a step-by-step process than as a way of walking, breathing, being and becoming, a painting that people travel hours and hours to add their brush strokes to. While many drifted away, the discussion afterwards was well attended and covered a range of themes – from immigrant detention here in the U.S. (with one man showing the ankle bracelet I.C.E. had placed on him upon his supervised release of indeterminate length after a month detained and before an expected deportation, complete with a restrictive curfew), current challenges faced by activists in Oaxaca – efforts to release political prisoners, state impunity, the influence of an institutional Left focused on electoral politics – other details about the role of culture in the movement in 2006, and an inquiry into current goals. All told it left many of us inspired and we ended with a little less of a financial burden and a few more contacts for moving forward here in Harrisonburg.

I just got an email from Silvia, back in Oaxaca, expanding on the title’s metaphor to say, “let’s continue navigating our boat together, each of us on a different side to spread the weight and avoid sinking, not one struggle but many struggles.”

To check out some of the work Silvia’s involved in, see Investigadores Descalzos (Barefoot Scholars) – In Spanish.

For more information on the cosponsoring organization, The People United, check out our website here.

• In Spanish
• In English

You can read the article in Spanish on the blog Frida Guerrera.

Students at Northwestern University get a class on revolution

The Teaching Rebellion Tour rolled into my home base of Chicago on November 5th and spent four days talking with activists and organizers from across the city.   True to the diverse nature of Chicago, each of our events in the city were totally distinct.  On Weds. we were welcomed by the Gender Studies Department at Northwestern University for a well attended talk to students and faculty.  On Thursday we headed South to Pilsen, where we joined organizers from ChicagOtra, La Voz de Los de Abajo (a Honduras solidarity group) and Radios Populares, for a broad discussion on the use of popular media in community struggles across MesoAmerica.  We were also invited to speak at Maya Essence, a fair trade store and community center run by Casa Guatemala, where a spirited discussion lasted long into the night.  Continue below to read more about our time in Chicago:

An audience member considers the book.

In addition to the formal presentations, Gustavo gave a workshop on photography to an immigrant women’s support group at Centro Romero.  The women are continuing their own photography project over the next two weeks, documenting their work, families, and lives as immigrants with disposable cameras bought thanks to a grant from the Fire This Time Fund to ChicagOtra.

!Agaralo bien!

We also had a chance to talk to the program Worldview on Chicago Public Radio about the book, the struggle in Oaxaca, and the current detention of activists around the Brad Will case, and to reporter Kari Lydersen, who published this excellent story on the blog upside down world.

Jerome McDonnell in the flesh!

Don’t worry though, it wasn’t all work in Chicago. We also had a chance to relax and join our friends from the Chiapas Media Project as they celebrated 10 years of incredible indigenous media work in Mexico.

***NOTE: due to an unfortunate incident in Oaxaca, we are currently without a camera, we will update the page with photos as soon as event organizers send them to us.  NOTE to event organizers: Please send us your photos!***

In the last week the tour has passed through institutional and non-institutional spaces alike, at Brown University and the Olneyville Neighborhood Association in Providence Rhode Island; two events at Keene State University in New Hampshire and Everyone´s Books in Brattleboro Vermont organized by Educational Praxis, a network of educators working in the area and different parts of the world; a discussion with Unidad Latina en Acción en New Haven, Connecticut; and finally in New York City, with events at Bluestockings Books, the 123 Community Space in Bedstuy, and tonight at the Surreal Estate space in East Williamsburg.

Both events in Providence, November 4th at Brown and November 5th at the Olneyville Neighborhood Association, drew between 15 and 20 people and provided for interesting but distinct discussions given the varied experiences that folks at the two events came from. While the event at Brown had something more of an academic feel to it, the presentation the following day counted with the presence of IWW members, community organizers and others whose experiences contributed to a more animated participation.

The following day, upon receiving news that the event at Yale University had been cancelled, we nevertheless continued to New Haven for a meeting with Unidad Latina en Acción, an group working out of the area organizing to defend migrants rights and strengthen and bring together the Latina community. With perspectives from Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia and other parts of Latin America, the questions tended to relate more to other struggles, past and present, throughout Latin America than focusing on that of north-south solidarity. The central question emerged of how to most effectively create communication networks throughout the hemisphere in order to connect struggles across borders, alluding to the network of safe houses created in the united states during slavery that comprised the underground railroad, and how to break down the borders that exist within each of us in the struggle for a world without borders.

From New Haven, the route hiked north to that “other” border region, the New Hampshire-Vermont border where questions of identity and maple syrup are hotly contested. We were received warmly by educators from the group Educational Praxis, who work challenging racist and classist mentalities in and out of the schools in the region, in addition to collaboration with the School for International Training (SIT) and educational efforts throughout the world. Around 90 people turned out for the event surpassing not only our expectations, but those of many organizers as well. After a presentation of the book and a bit of the history and context of the struggle, past and present, in Oaxaca, the floor was opened up for questions and discussion amongst the diverse crowd that included everyone from students just beginning a process of investigation of neoliberal economic policies to seasoned educators and activists. Discussion continued into the night over dinner and the following day for a book signing at Everyone’s Books in Brattleboro Vermont. Around midday we packed the van, bought some maple syrup (from vermont, sorry new hampshire), fixed a flat tire and made tracks for new york city.

In new york, things got underway on Sunday November 9th with a well attended event at Bluestockings books, and continued the following day in the evening at the 123 community space in BedStuy, Brooklyn. We want NOT to thank ConEdison for their solidarity, as they have cut the electricty off at the space about 2 months ago – but nevertheless, with a little improvisation and plenty of candles, we held a discussion with about 10 folks introducing the context of Oaxaca and sharing stories and experiences with all of those who came out. A note to the people who didn’t make it out, or didn’t enter the space thinking that it was a candlelight vigil and not a book presentation: we hope to see you tonight at 7 p.m. at the Surreal Estate Space off of the Morgan Ave. L stop in Brooklyn. Keep up the struggle, New England, and thanks for the chowder!

Gustavo visiting the MEChA Madison office

The Teaching Rebellion Tour touched down in Minneapolis on October 31st and has been running non-stop ever since.  West Coast veteran Melissa Mundt has returned to Arizona for a well-deserved rest, and I (Rachel Wallis) have taken over facilitation and coordination for the remainder of the MidWest tour dates. Check out below for a recap of the last couple of days!

In Minneapolis the tour met with activists and community members at the Resource Center of the Americas, May Day Books, and the University of Minnesota Law School, where international fellows from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America were able to share their own experiences in their home countries with Gustavo.

We also had the privelege of attending an event in memory of Marcela Sali Grace Eiler, an activist brutally murdered in Oaxaca this year, and share with her friends a little more about the context of her work in Oaxaca.  Her friends have collected these photos and memories in a online memorial, if you’d like to know more about her life and work.

In Milwaukee we stopped off at Broad Vocabulary Bookstore, where an energized crowd of teachers, activists, and community radio organizers engaged in a spirited discussion about organizing in the US and Latin America.

Gustavo, Rachel and Simon on WORT

After fixing a flat tire, we were off again, this time to Madison, where we met up with friend and filmmaker Simon Sedillo of El Enemigo Comun.  In Madison we met with Chicano activists from MEChA, had an interview with Simon on the local community radio station WORT.

Our hosts from Community Action on Latin America managed to organize a fantastic event, even though it was election night! We were joined by Simon and Kathy and Hardy Will, Brad Will’s parents.  With such an all star cast, we had a fascinating discussion about the movement in Oaxaca, the ongoing impunity in Brad’s case, and the links between US economic and military intervention in Latin America.  And then of course we went out to celebrate the new president-elect!

Read letters from the families of Brad Will and Sali Grace and other Day of the Dead activities…

In San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico activists passed out about a hundred copies of the following letters in Spanish  during Day of the Dead.  They set up an altar for
our fallen comrades.  Sali and Brad’s pictures were up with Subcomandante
Pedro, Comandante Ramona, Andres Aubry, Digna Ochoa, Che Guevara, and many
others.
Marcella “Sali” Grace Eiler

September 30, 1987–September 15, 2008

Sali is loved and cherished as a daughter to Barbara Healy and John Eiler, a
stepdaughter to Catherine Eiler, a sister to Claire Eiler, Cavan Telford,
and Erin Telford.

Sali was a citizen of our planet.  Sali believed that the earth and the
animals and people who inhabit it have the right to grow and thrive, and
deserve respect.

Sali was young, beautiful, had a powerful heart and a deep passion for
justice.

- Sali supported animal rights, and fought against cruelty in animal
experimentation.
- Sali worked with “Food Not Bombs” in a number of North American cities,
recovering food and turning it into hot meals available to anyone.  She
believed food is a right, not a privilege.
- Sali worked with “Los Sobravivientes”, teaching English to Central
American torture survivors who had come to live in Oregon.
- Sali worked with “Cascadia Forest Defenders” saving the last of the old
growth tree forests in Oregon from logging.
- Sali contributed to “Indymedia”, a collective of independent media
organizations and journalists offering grassroots coverage of news events in
communities throughout the world.
- Sali worked with “No Mas Muertes”, a humanitarian movement that
provides water, food and medical assistance to migrants walking across the
Arizona desert.
- Sali worked with “CIPO-RFM”, a movement that promotes peaceful
co-existance of autonomous, self sufficient communities and indigenous
people, and defends the territorial, economic, social, political and
cultural rights of those communities and individuals.

The brief outline above highlights issues that spoke to Sali.  These are a
piece of the whole.  Sali was so much more.  She was a singer, a banjo
player, a dance teacher and performer, a band member of Cinzana, an
accomplished artist in North America and Mexico.   A wonderful cook and
herbalist, a beloved daughter, sister and loyal friend to many.  An
inspiring humanitarian, a courageous woman of warmth, laughter and endless
energy who believed anything was possible.  Any change achievable.  Any goal
possible.

Marcella “Sali” Grace Eiler was raped and murdered on September 15, 2008.
Our family and friends throughout North America and Mexico deeply mourn her
loss.  We feel the outpouring of love and support coming from Sali’s people
in Oaxaca, in Mexico, and across North America.  We appreciate all that you
have done and will do in Sali’s memory.

* Justice must be served in Sali’s cruel and tragic death.

*********************

October 27 will mark the 2nd anniversary of Brad’s death, just before the
Day of the Dead celebration of fallen loved ones. We would like to take this
opportunity to send our love and support to all of the other families who
have lost loved ones and found themselves, like our family, at the mercy of
the impunity that exists in Mexico.

Our family misses Brad desperately and his wonderful sense of humor. We are
so proud of the his legacy, his efforts to help the downtrodden and his hope
to give a voice to the voiceless.

Brad was filming in Oaxaca with the intention of doing a documentary based
on the situation there. He was trying to expose the deaths that occurred to
demonstrators and the lack of accountability by the authorities. What he was
attempting to document is exactly what happened to him. He was shot by the
paramilitaries and, since then, the authorities have attempted over and over
again to ignore the facts and blame the innocent. The “investigation” that
has been carried out at both the state and federal levels has treated the
case (and Brad’s life) with callous disregard. From the outset, there has
been a concerted effort to “drop” the case for lack of “evidence”.  *
EVIDENCE* – take a look at his video!! Is there any question where the
shots came from? And now, to add insult to injury, the prosecutors are
attempting to frame innocent people for his death. Many of those people that
were near him at the time he was shot not only knew him, and loved him, and
respected him BUT ALSO put their own lives at risk in an attempt to save
him. We will not rest (nor will Brad) until justice is served!!

We thank you for your commitment to truth and we commend your efforts to
remember those that gave their lives for their beliefs in justice.

The Will family

With the amazing audience at Mayday Books we shared our hopes and frustrations for organizing in the US and Mexico in the face of economic crisis and political shifts.  With the folks at Bedlam Theater we honored the life and work of Sali Grace, an activist from the Unites States who was murdered recently in Oaxaca.

Our very international audience at the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center made for a memorable event as students, faculty and fellows from Philippines, Brazil, Russia, Iraq, Ecuador, India and Mexico shared their perspectives on social uprising and political ideology.

Please check out great new article by John Ross, about the Brad Will murder investigation posted at Friends of Brad Will

The group of professors, staff and students at Seattle University asked the important question- did US corporations play a role in the conflict, and we discussed the organizing against US-based factory that produced tear gas canisters used (often incorrectly mortally wounding some movement members) by Mexican Federal Police in Oaxaca.

The Spanish speaking and largely Oaxacan audience that we met with at Beacon Hill Public Library in Seattle reminded us again of the deep connections between the US and Mexico, and how immigrant communities in the US continue to be engaged and active in Mexican social movements.  Our friend and colleague Jill Freidberg was able to join us during several Seattle events, and her contributions to discussion were invaluable. For an excellent analysis on Oaxacan conflict check out her documentary, Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad.

Thanks everyone!

From Reporters Without Borders:

Oaxaca-based reporter kidnapped and tortured for 12 hours

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the abduction and mistreatment of reporter Pedro Matías Arrazola of the local daily Noticias de Oaxaca and the national weekly Proceso, who was beaten and psychologically tortured for about 12 hours on the night of 25 October in the southern city of Oaxaca before being dumped outside the city.

“The abduction of Matías was incredibly barbaric and, given that parliament is currently debating a bill to make attacks on journalists a federal crime, we call for the federal authorities to be immediately put in charge of the investigation, ” Reporters Without Borders said. “If this case were left unpunished as so many others have, especially in this region, there would be grounds for doubting the political will expressed at a high level to end Mexico’s tragic status as the western hemisphere’s most dangerous country for journalists, ” the press freedom organisation added.

Matías was kidnapped as he left the newspaper to go home on the evening of 25 October. His abductors beat him and terrorised him for hours, simulating an execution, asking him how he preferred to die
and variously threatening to drag him along the ground behind their car, cut off his genitals, rape him or behead him. They also threatened his family members, saying they had been “located.”

He was released the next morning some 30 km outside Oaxaca in Tlacolula de Matamoros, without his car and without his papers, which his abductors also took from him. Although psychologically traumatised, he quickly filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office.

As well as reporting for Noticias de Oaxaca and Proceso, Matías participates in broadcasts on a radio station, often criticising members of the Oaxaca state government who belong to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the party that controlled the national government until 2000. Some of his close friends think it was this criticism that prompted the kidnapping.

Oaxaca state has become notorious for the serious violations of press freedom and human rights that have occurred there in recent years. Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and his supporters have been implicated in
violence against Noticias de Oaxaca in 2005 and the murder of US journalist Brad Will in 2006.

Friends of Brad Will, complete coverage of actions, news, investigation by organization of friends and family of Brad, fighting for justice in his case.

Members of Friends of Brad Will in New York are engaged in a hunger strike and protest in front of Sentator Clinton’s office.  More info on Friends of Brad site, also briefly covered in NY Times. 

Angrywhitekid, blog covering latin american social struggles, great recent analysis on Oaxaca.

Recent articles by Kristin Bricker on Narconews, highlight connection betwen Plan Merida and arrests of APPO movement member.

For some reason speaking on the radio makes me more nervous than speaking in public, but we embrace the opportunity to share on two different radio shows on community radio, KBOO in Portland:  Buscando Americas a spanish live program focusing on political issues and discussion, and Public Affairs program bringing the latest news and analysis.  If you missed the broadcasts, Friday at 2pm and 5 pm, excerpts of English interview will be re-broadcast on Tuesday 10 am, and hopefully all audio will soon be available on their website, www.kboo.org .  Thanks to all our friends at KBOO, an amazing space and exciting example of alternative community radio! 

The influence of KBOO was tangible in the enormous turn out at our Portland event that evening at Laughing Horse Books!  We ran out of chairs at this great independent bookstore- folks, infoshops and collectively-run radical bookshops are a struggling, give your local alternative some love and support! 

The Portland crowd was very informed and connected to Oaxaca issues- a lot of great questions about the role of media, mainstream and alternative and how to effectively be in solidarity with the movement members recently detained and accused of involvement in Brad Wills murder.   

Saturday, we had another live Spanish radio interview with a community station in Skagit Valley, WA, an area with a large population of Oaxacan migrants, www.ksvr.org .  Saludos Paisanos!  Que corre la voz solidaria!

Oaxaca, October 21, 2008

Faced with constant threats and harassment against us and our families we write this letter so that the men and women of Mexico and the world are made aware of the abuse of power exercised recently by institutions such as the Federal Attorney General.

We have a right to live in peace as do our families. From the very beginning, we five witnesses, voluntarily came forward to contribute to the resolution of this case. We gave statements before the Federal Attorney General, contributing information, we supplied testimony based on the real events and we presented counter arguments to that of the State Attorney General, given that the information and investigation led by this institution as always been full of irregularity, ambiguity and omissions.

All of this comes days before the 2^nd anniversary of the murder of our comrade Bradley Roland Will and the impunity that surrounds the case.

The Will family has expressed their anger and indignation about the situation understanding that yet another injustice has been committed with the detention of Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno and Octavio Perez Perez, innocent people, as well as, the arrest warrants issued for us.

We are men with great dreams and social activists but that does not make us murderers.

Those responsible are other people and there is more than sufficient proof of this in the recommendations of National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH), FHR  International Forensic Program of Physicians for Human Rights and Reporters without Borders.

All of these reports are based on serious investigations with substantiated arguments that debunk the claim that the shots that killed Brad were fired from close range.

For this reason we do not demand justice in terms of money, but rather we demand the incarceration of the architects and the perpetrators of the murder of our brother Brad Will, we are referring to the Governor of Oaxaca Ulisis Ruiz Ortiz, the ex-President Vicente Fox and the current President Felipe Calderon. We also denounce the impunity in the case of over 26 murders that occurred in the year 2006 when more than two million people mobilized to show their disapproval of a corrupt and ineffective government.

This is why we say enough!

Enough with this war against honest and dedicated social activists.

Enough with the corruption and cover-ups!

Leonardo Ortiz Cruz – Gualberto Francisco Santiago Navarro – Gustavo Vilchis Ramírez – Miguel Cruz Moreno – Alberta Guadalupe Navarro Hernández –

Todos adherentes a la OTRA CAMPAÑA y luchadores por la defensa de los derechos humanos

Oaxaca, 21 de octubre de 2008

Ante la situación de permanentes amenazas y hostigamiento hacia nosotros y nuestras familias es que redactamos esta carta para que hombres y mujeres de México y el mundo sepan del abuso de poder ejercido en los últimos tiempos desde organismos como la Procuraduría General de la Republica.

Tenemos derecho a vivir tranquilos y nuestras familias también. Desde un principio cinco testigos nos presentamos de forma voluntaria para contribuir a la resolución de este caso.

Declaramos ante la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR), contribuyendo con la información, brindamos testimonios basados en los hechos reales e hicimos contrapeso a los argumentos de la PGJ, ya que la información y la investigación manejadas por este organismo, en todo momento han estado llenas de irregularidades, ambigüedades y omisiones.

Todo esto a pocos días de cumplirse dos años del asesinato e impunidad de nuestro compañero Bradley Roland Will.

La familia Will ha manifestado su enojo e indignación por esta situación al entender que se comete otra injusticia al encarcelar a Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno y Octavio Pérez Pérez personas inocentes, como así también por las órdenes de aprehensión dirigidas hacia nosotros.

Somos hombres soñadores y luchadores sociales pero eso no nos transforma en homicidas.

Esos son otros y para muestra basta con leer el informe de recomendaciones de la CNDH,  FHR  International Forensic Program of Physicians for Human Rights y Reporteros sin fronteras.

Todos estos informes son de investigaciones serias y con argumentos sostenibles en la cual descartan que fueran disparos de corta distancia los que provocaron la muerte de Brad Will.

Por lo tanto, exigimos no una justicia con signo de pesos, sino cárcel a los autores intelectuales y materiales que asesinaron al hermano Brad Will nos referimos al Gobernador de Oaxaca Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, al Ex Presidente de la Republica Vicente Fox y al actual Presidente de la Republica Felipe Calderón, así como también de la impunidad de más de 26 asesinatos que se llevaron a cabo en el año 2006, cuando se movilizaron mas de dos millones de personas que demostraron su descontento ante un gobierno ineficiente y corrupto.

Por eso decimos basta!

Basta a esta guerra contra los luchadores sociales, solidarios y honestos.

Basta de corrupción y encubrimientos!

Leonardo Ortiz Cruz – Gualberto Francisco Santiago Navarro – Gustavo Vilchis Ramírez – Miguel Cruz Moreno – Alberta Guadalupe Navarro Hernández –

Todos adherentes a la OTRA CAMPAÑA y luchadores por la defensa de los derechos humanos

Will family: Hardy, Kathy and Wendy with Gustavo and Melissa

The Teaching Rebellion Tour in Davis last night was a huge success. Over 75 people attended the event, and the discussion was very dynamic. We had the incredible honor of having Brad Will’s parents and sister at our event. They have been very active in the struggle for justice for their son and the other 26 people murdered in Oaxaca during 2006, and their presence and participatihon at this timely event was very moving and informative.

In the past few days, the Attorney General in Mexico has charged APPO activists with the murder of Brad Will, the NY-based Indymedia journalist who was shot to death by paramilitaries in Oaxaca on October 27, 2006. With the two year anniversary approaching, the state is under pressure to “solve” this case,
and so they have recklessly accused the very people who were with Brad when he was shot, and who tried to save his life.

This contradicts extensive investigations and reports done by the National Commission for Human Rights, the International Forensics Program of Physicians for Human Rights, and Reporters Without Borders, as well as other evidence including photographs taken at the scene, and the video Brad was filming at the very moment that he was shot. (por Magali Rabasa)

La Jornada, Mexican national newspaper

El Milenio, Mexican national newspaper

Las Noticias, Oaxacan daily newspaper

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Melissa Mundt melissajmundt(at)gmail.com
Rachel Wallis, rachel.a.wallis(at)gmail.com

WITNESS TO JOURNALIST’S MURDER DENOUNCES ARRESTS OF OAXACAN ACTIVISTS

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Monday, Oct. 20: Days after Mexican authorities arrested two activists for the murder of independent journalist Brad Will, Mexican photographer and witness to the murder, Gustavo Vilchis, denounces the arrests as politically motivated.  Vilchis, along with human rights organizations and members of the media, argue that plainclothes police officers and a local elected official are responsible for Will’s murder.

According to the Oaxaca based indigenous organization Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca (CIPO), Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno was arrested Thursday October 17 and charged with Will’s murder.  Octavio Peréz was later arrested as an accomplice to the murder. CIPO reports that federal authorities have issued more warrants in relation to the case. Both Peréz and Martinez are activists with Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO, Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) one of the main organizing bodies of the 2006 protests.

Vilchis, an eyewitness to Will’s murder, is currently on a speaking tour in the US.  He argues that, “We know, and there is evidence to prove, that the bullets that took the life of Brad and injured at least three other protesters came from local officials, who were well armed and dressed as civilians.  We, who have been fighting for justice in the case of Brad’s murder, know that the investigations of the ‘Mexican authorities’ are full of irregularities and omissions.  They are clearly trying to blame the people who put their lives at risk to try save Brad’s life, and at the same time, they are repressing and criminalizing protest movements.”

Will was shot and killed on October 27, 2006, during the violent clashes between protesters and authorities that consumed the city of Oaxaca, Mexico for nearly six months.  Although autopsy reports revealed that Will was shot by the same caliber weapon carried by the municipal officials who were captured on film shooting towards the protesters, Mexican authorities have continued to insist that he was shot at close range by protesters.

On September 28, 2008, the National Commission on Human Rights in Mexico released a report claiming that there were serious irregularities and omissions during the investigation of the murder.

Gustavo Vilchis is currently on tour promoting the book, published by PM Press, “Teaching Rebellion: Stories from the Grassroots Movement in Oaxaca,” a collection of testimonies from participants in the Oaxacan social movement, which features his photography and his account of Will’s murder.

Gustavo Vilchis is available for interviews. For more information or to schedule and interview please contact Melissa Mundt melissajmundt(at)gmail.com and/or Rachel Wallis, rachel.a.wallis(at)gmail.com
To review a copy of the book (for Bay Area folks books could be available tomorrow) contact Ramsey, ramsey(at)pmpress.org

An exciting event-  at last we have books on hand to sell and people are enthusiastic to take them home.  We are joined by another relative of Brad Will and it is always an honor and a privilege to share with this amazing family.  Our friend John Gibler was also able to attend and speak to his experience in Oaxaca and as a reporter working closely on the Brad Will case.  John described the “exquisite incompetence” that has permeated the murder investigation on every level.  And we discussed the use of nonviolence and violence in social movements and strategies in Oaxaca.  Thanks all!

Press conference on Tuesday, October 21, 2008
2 pm (NYC time) in front of U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton’s office: 780 Third Ave
between 48th & 49th St., Manhattan

FOLLOWED by a 4-day round-the-clock vigil and
Hunger Strike at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s office

Friends of Brad Will, including human rights advocates Robert Jereski and Harry Bubbins, will
be engaging in a 4-day vigil and fast as part of
an international “Week of Action and Remembrance”
of their friend Brad Will, to call attention to
the Mexican government’s cover-up of the U.S.
journalist’s murder and in opposition to Senator
Hillary Clinton’s support for U.S. funding for
Mexico’s military operations under Plan Mexico (the “Merida Initiative”) .

The vigil will last for 4 days and nights outside
Senator Clinton’s office. It is calling on Sen.
Clinton to order protection for witnesses who saw
Mexican government paramilitaries shooting at
demonstrators, including Brad Will, in Oaxaca,
and who are currently being threatened by Mexican Authorities.

Brad Will was assassinated while reporting and
filming the 2006 uprising in Oaxaca. Multiple
witnesses say he was shot by right-wing
paramilitaries who are seen in photos shooting
towards Will. The paramilitaries are: Juan Carlo
Soriano, municipal police officer; Manuel
Aguilar, council personnel chief; Able Santiago
Zarate; and Pedro Carmona, mayor of Felipe
Carrillo Puerto de Santa Lucia del Camino. (See
photo at http://www.rsf. org/article. php3?id_article= 19485)

The Mexican government’s own National Commission
for Human Rights issued a report a few weeks ago
which declared that the federal and state
attorneys general have violated human rights,
legality, judicial security and prevented access
to justice in their investigation of Brad Will’s
murder. (See this document at http://www.cndh. org.mx/recomen/ recomen.asp )

According to Robert Jereski, who is a human
rights advocate, former director of the New York
City-based International Forum for Aceh and the
author of several essays and articles, “Plan
Mexico is a secret ‘security pact’ supposedly
intended to expand the ‘drug war’ in Mexico, but
which would provide over a billion dollars of
U.S. taxpayer money in the next two years to
train and arm the notoriously brutal and corrupt
Mexican security forces with deadly equipment,
including helicopters and surveillance equipment, and lethal training.

“It is our duty to stand up for human rights in
solidarity with the victims of those security
forces, and not with the perpetrators of human
rights violations,” Jereski continued, explaining
that U.S. weaponry and training have been used by
Mexican officials to violently repress dissent
and leftist and indigenous movements ­ “the very
actions that journalist Brad Will was exposing.

“Plan Mexico is also being opposed by the United
Steelworkers union, Global Exchange, and Witness
for Peace because it imposes horrendous
conditions for workers in Mexico under the
pressure of the U.S. government,” Jereski concluded.

And Harry Bubbins, an environmental expert living
in the Bronx, adds that “the Jewish magazine
Tikkun and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice
also oppose Plan Mexico because under the guise
of the ‘war on drugs’ it has enabled the
unpopular right-wing Mexican President Calderon
to appoint members of the anti-semitic El Yunque movement to his cabinet.”

Bubbins explained that the vigil was called for
Sen. Hillary Clinton’s office in order to “demand
that New York State’s Democratic Party leaders
oppose the Bush militarization package bolstering
right-wing paramilitaries in Mexico, Central
America and the Caribbean, and declare a new era
of cooperation with the peoples of this
hemisphere and not with those who abuse human rights.

“We, friends of U.S. journalist Brad Will,”
Bubbins said, “are calling on Senator Clinton to
help us achieve justice and an end to impunity by
Latin American and Caribbean security forces for
the murders of Brad Will and many other
journalists and labor and indigenous activists.
We urge the Senator to oppose the failed
neo-conservative security model promoted by
President Bush and Mexican President Calderon by
speaking out against the Merida Initiative.”

A statement released by the organization,
“Friends of Brad Will,” asks “Why has Senator
Clinton ignored the murder of a U.S. journalist
by Mexican government-backed paramilitaries? Why
has she said nothing about the cover-up by
Mexican State and Federal civilian authorities?
And why has she agreed to fund additional lethal
training and armaments to Latin American
governments which routinely target their own
civilians, especially labor and indigenous rights
activists? Is this how she honors the life of a
U.S. citizen who lived and worked in New York?”

A press conference will be held in front of Sen.
Hillary Clinton’s Manhattan office at 2 pm on
Tuesday, October 21, to kick-off the vigil, fast,
and week of action and remembrance.

DEMANDS

1) That Hillary Clinton issue a public statement
demanding the protection of the witnesses to
Brad’s murder, the arrest of the government
agents on film shooting at him, and a public
statement opposing the Merida Initiative (Plan Mexico).

2) When Brad was killed, the people photographed
firing guns at the protesters were police, police
commanders, and operatives and bodyguards for the
PRI party, including Pedro Carmona, Able Santiago
Zarate aka “El Chino,” Juan Carlo Soriano aka “El
Chapulin,” Commander Manuel Aguilar Coello, and
Juan Sumano. They are directly linked to the
corrupt Governor Ulises Ruiz. We demand their arrest.

3) Since Brad’s death, Ulises Ruiz’ government
has been attempting to bring charges for Brad’s
killing against Brad’s friends, APPO people,
witnesses, and those who risked their lives
trying to get Brad to a hospital. We join the
National Commission on Human Rights, and
Reporters Without Borders in finding these
attempts to be an absurd attempt to divert
attention from the real killers. We demand an end
to this smokescreen and the punishment of
innocent people including Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno and Octavio Perez Perez.

4) Brad is only one of dozens of activists,
reporters, civilians, and unarmed people killed
by the State response to the Oaxacan movement for
justice and freedom. Friends of Brad Will not
only demands justice for them, but demands what
they demand: the end of corrupt brutal rule by Ulises Ruiz.

5) Marcella Sali Grace Eiler, an international
solidarity activist working with CIPO, Colectivo
Mujer Nueva and with the witnesses of Brad’s
death, was found brutally raped and murdered
September 26th 2008 in San Jose del Pacifico in
the state of Oaxaca. Her death is part of an
escalation of violence against women in an era of
neo-liberal trade agreements and drug wars. We
join in solidarity with the friends and family of
Sali and demand an end to NAFTA, CAFTA, and Plan Puebla Panama.

6) A year almost to the day after Brad was
murdered, the Bush Administration announced the
Merida Initiative (aka Plan Mexico), providing at
least $1.6 billion in US armament, training, and
resources to the same police and military forces
that killed Brad and many other activists and
journalists in Mexico and Central America under
the pretense of stopping narco-trafficking.
Already the weapons have been used in massacres
and repression of activists in Morelos and
Chiapas. Along with the AFL-CIO, the United
Steelworkers, Tikkun, Wespac, Witness for Peace,
Cispes, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice,
The Friends of Brad Will demand an end to the Merida Initiative.

———— ——— ——— ——— ——–
About the initiators:

Robert Jereski’s publications include a monograph
entitled The Conflict in Aceh, and U.S. Interests
in Promoting A Free Market, Stability and Human
Rights in South East Asia – An Examination of the
Context and Impacts of ExxonMobil’s Security
Arrangements with the Indonesian Armed Forces,
viewable at
http://preventconfl ict.org/portal/ main/research/ jereski.htm
. He was also a 2004 Democratic Party candidate
for Congress in New York City’s 14th Congressional District.

Harry Bubbins is a New York City based
environmental and human rights advocate who was
named the 2001 Bronx Activist of the Year. He has
presented at numerous forums from DC to NYC,
including Columbia University’s School of
International and Public Affairs. He has directed
a theater piece, “Bush Invades Mexico”, on the
impact of United States Latin American policy on
human rights in Mexico at the Martin Siegal
Theatre of the City University of New York:
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=79rFpfMYRdo. His
most recent performance was featured on Democracy
Now! at: http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=_RItQbTvKcE

We’re hoping to use the tour to inform the public about the truth in Brad’s murder: that Brad Will was killed by plainclothes police officers and municipal employees, and that these charges are just another attempt to criminalize social movements in Oaxaca.

Journalist John Gibler, who contributed photographs to Teaching Rebellion, reported on the breaking news:

On Democracy Now, Ignoring Evidence, Mexican Authorities Charge Activists for 2006 Murder of Independent Journalist Brad Will

In the Indypendent, The Rule of Impunity, Mexican Government Ignores Overwhelming Evidence, Charges Oaxacan Activists for Brad Will’s Murder

You will find below a press release that we wrote up around the recent arrests. We have an incredible opportunity right now to support activists who are being unjustly detained and prosecuted in Oaxaca! Please contact Melissa (chiapaspeacehouse(at)gmail.com) or Rachel (rachel.a.wallis(at)gmail.com) to schedule interview with Gustavo Vilchis.

WITNESS TO JOURNALIST’S MURDER DENOUNCES RECENT ARRESTS

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Monday, Oct. 20: Days after Mexican authorities arrested two activists for the murder of independent journalist Brad Will, Mexican photographer and witness to the murder, Gustavo Vilchis, denounces the arrests as politically motivated. Vilchis, along with human rights organizations and members of the media, argue that plainclothes police officers and a local elected official are responsible for Will’s murder.

According to the Oaxaca based indigenous organization Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca (CIPO), Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno was arrested Thursday October 17 and charged with Will’s murder. Octavio Peréz was later arrested as an accomplice to the murder. CIPO reports that federal authorities have issued more warrants in relation to the case. Both Peréz and Martinez are activists with Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO) one of the main organizing bodies of the 2006 protests.

Vilchis, an eyewitness to Will’s murder, is currently on a speaking tour in the US. He argues that, “We know, and there is evidence to prove, that the bullets that took the life of Brad and injured at least three other protesters came from local officials, who were well armed and dressed as civilians. We, who have been fighting for justice in the murder of Brad, know that the investigations of the ‘Mexican authorities’ are full of irregularities and omissions. They are clearly trying to blame the people who put their lives at risk to try save Brad’s life, and at the same time, they are repressing and criminalizing protest movements.”

Will was shot and killed on October 27, 2006, during the violent clashes between protesters and authorities that consumed the city of Oaxaca, Mexico for nearly six months. Although autopsy reports revealed that Will was shot by the same caliber weapon carried by the municipal officials who were captured on film shooting towards the protesters, Mexican authorities have continued to insist that he was shot at close range by protesters.

On September 28, 2008, the National Commission on Human Rights in Mexico released a report claiming that there were serious irregularities and omissions during the investigation of the murder.

Gustavo Vilchis is currently on tour promoting the book “Teaching Rebellion: Stories from the Grassroots Movement in Oaxaca,” a collection of testimonies from participants in the Oaxacan social movement, which features his photography and his account of Will’s murder.

We kick it off by showing documentary, Toma de los Medios en Oaxaca (thanks companera Jen Lawthorne!), then discussed today’s breaking news about the unjust detention of APPO members for murder of Indymedia journalist Brad Will 10/27/06. We hope to gather information and contacts in coming days to rally for their release.

Companer@s from Radio Zapatista and ARCO also spoke gathering support for upcoming protests against immigration raids in Bay Area.

Connecting luchas across borders and boundries, orale seguimos adelante!

A slideshow, accompanied by music, of Gustavo’s photography of the Oaxaca uprising.

After our great discussion with the Social Documentation Department at UCSC, we received a last minute invitation to present at the Bike Church. Though late at night, we brought together a great group of public school teachers, brown berets, students, bike activists, Central American solidarity activists, and sobre todo people who had lived and worked in Oaxaca and cared deeply about issues there. With coffee and bagels we discussed into the night: “education shouldn’t be just what they teach us in class,” “when will my vocation [teacher] have that feeling of solidarity and hope that I’ve seen in Oaxaca,”
“when will our media feel like Ours, could it inform and inspire us like the examples we’ve seen in Oaxaca,” “what would it take to create a movement like that in our own communities??”

Saludos a la banda en Santa Cruz!– it may be a small, “surfer” town, but you have big dreams and big possibilities. Gracias por todo!!

A great beginning for our tour! We were warmly received and engaged by the organizations that we shared with during our few days in Los Angeles.

We took in an exhibit of ASARO (Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca) hosted by UCLA, Fowler Museum. It was strange to see our companeros work in the airconditioned, whiteness of a gallery instead of the vibrant streets of Oaxaca, but their pieces are always inpiring both in technique and message.

We shared October 12th (Dia de la Raza, or as our hosts called it, Dia de la Resistencia Indigena, Day of Indigenous Resistance) with the FIOB, Frente Indigena de Organizaciones Binacionales (Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations)

They sponsored an amazing lineup of music and speakers (plus artesania and mole!) See their flyer here.

The audience of largely Oaxacan immigrants was certainly well informed about the situation in Oaxaca which allowed us to go right to their insightful questions about the role of the Teacher’s Union currently, and the recent and ongoing police repression in Morelos, among other topics.

We then spoke to a gathering of community organizers at  SAJE (Strategic Actions for a Just Economy) for an evening of delicious food and discussion.  Organizers from different community organizations in South Central and greater Los Angeles shared stories of their work, strategies, frustrations, their communties and hopes.  It was an inspiring group of people dedicated to change (especially working around housing, gentrification, renter’s rights) who  saw the  struggles in Oaxaca as very connected to their own.

We hope to revisit our friends in Los Angeles when Teaching Rebellion is released in Spanish (donate towards this cause!!) as there are so many ways these movements can support and encourage each other.

Gracias a tod@s, sobre todo la Andrea, para el hospedaje, cafe y consejo- compartimos el momento de la llegada del primer libro- inovidable!!!

Andrea (PM Press) and Melissa (CASA)