$500,000 in Department of Defense Funding to Kansas University for Mapping of Communally Held Indigenous Lands in La Huasteca and Oaxaca, Mexico
by Simón Sedillo
November 26th, 2007
$500,000 in Department of Defense funding is being made available to the Department of Geography by the Foreign Military Services Office (FMSO), based out of Fort Leavenworth in Lawrence, Kansas. Geography professors Jerome Dobson and Peter Herlihy explicitly acknowledge the security and intelligence ramifications of their project, the Bowman Expeditions, citing the geo-political and cultural effects of the “neo-liberal property regime.” The home of the FMSO, Fort Leavenworth, was the command center of the western front during US expansionism into native lands in the early 1800s as well as the epicenter of the War Departments “control” over native populations after the civil war. Today, the FMSO focuses on emerging and asymmetric threats to the national security of the United States of America, which is a red flag as to their intentions in funding the Bowman Expeditions.
US military intervention in Mexico has seen a steady increase in the last decade, and now is set on a fast track through Plan Mexico, which like Plan Colombia, justifies further military funding for the “war on drugs.” The racist history of colonial rule and territorial occupation continues with a whole new set of conspirators seeking economic gain and academic notoriety. The maps produced by this project are not just of the physical landscape, but rather more intentionally of the cultural resistance to displacement. Through the rhetoric of unbiased science, and geographic exploration, the Bowman expeditions are actively paving in Mexico, the road to hell.
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Bridging the Gap: International Solidarity and Alternative Media in Mexico
June 28, 2007 – 3:30pm
Atlanta Ballroom D room at the Westin Hotel
United States Social Forum
Proyecto Autogestion is a new collaborative media project, which places cameras and editing equipment in the hands of communities in resistance so that they may be able to document their own histories and human rights situation.
Session Description:
In 1996, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos read the following on behalf of the Zapatistas: “We declare that we will make a network of communication among all our struggles and resistances. An intercontinental network of alternative communication against neoliberalism, an intercontinental network of alternative communication for humanity.”
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Italians Protest Against Felipe Calderon
13 de Junio de 2007 – el pinche escribe:
Video de la movilizacion y la accion en el encuentro de Calderon con las fuerzas economicas de Milano, Italia.
Descarga el Video (6.9 MB)
Video of the mobilization and action at the meeting of Felipe Calderon with the economic forces of Milan, Italy.
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Oaxaca 2007. Documentation of some of the indigenous women and youth participating in digital video workshops through the auspices of proyecto autogestion and CODEP, Comite de defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo.
These are fotos of some of the camera-persons involved in proyecto autogestion’s debut film project: “el machete: la lucha por el poder popular” now screening all over.
Download the SlideShow (5.2 MB) or Watch the SlideShow Online
All the camera-persons are indigenous community members, mostly women and youth, organizing under the auspices of CODEP, the Committee Organized in Defense of the People’s Rights. The editing was completed through collective media arts workshops, which now, along with donated equipment, have contributed to the ability of CODEP to edit its own film projects from now on. Download the Trailer (51.7 MB) or Watch the Trailer Online
“Proyecto Autogestion” is the fusion of www.elenemigocomun.net and Palenque Urbana in an attempt to challenge models of international solidarity with communities in resistance by contributing to their self-empowerment through media workshops and equipment.
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Coalition of Immokalee Worker Victory Against McDonald’s
Immokalee FL to Chicago, IL, 2007
Trailer for Documentary on Victory.
Download the Trailer (59 MB) or Watch the Trailer Online
Victoria de La Coalicion de Trabajadores de Immokalee en Contra de McDonald’s
Spanish Trailer
Bajé el Trailer (57 MB) o Mira lo en línea
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