El Enemigo Común

The 4th SPP summit demonstrated to transnational capital how successfully a major US city and state can be transformed to realize profits. If transformation can be done in New Orleans, it can done anywhere in the US.

May 19th, 2008 by Kali Akuno

The Fourth North American Leadership Summit, held in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 21st and 22nd, 2008 marked a watershed in the Battle for New Orleans and the global peoples’ struggle against neo-liberalism and imperialism. The Summit was a continuation of the negotiations on the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) agreement between the Chief Executives of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. But, it was also much, much more.

Read the rest of this entry »

Two Criminals on the Loose

Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and Felipe Calderón share the same crimes; both of them were imposed on the people in the most outrageous and costly election frauds in recent decades, one as Governor of Oaxaca and the other as President of Mexico. They formed an alliance to kill, disappear, jail, torture, and ruthlessly persecute hundreds of Oaxacan women and men for political reasons.

The spurious alliance of these two depraved figureheads reveals just how rotten their political parties are; the PRI and PAN prop each other up in order to stay in office against the will of the majority of the people of Oaxaca and Mexico.

Some of their crimes have already been documented by human rights organizations, especially the International Civil Commission for the Observation of Human Rights, and the documentation has been presented to international bodies such as the European Parliament. Unfortunately there has not yet been enough support among Mexican people for such efforts in order to see that these criminals are punished.

Juicio Popular Nacional Contra Gobernates Criminales

Read the rest of this entry »

The members of the Youth Encounter of the Oaxacan Social Movement have set out on the “Jaguar Path for the Regeneration of our Historic Memory and Territorial Defense”. At noon on May 5, the Caravan left the city of Oaxaca and will visit several different communities in the next few days to support, participate, and spread the word about the processes of resistance and struggles of the peoples of Oaxaca in defense of their ways of life.

The caravan was announced at a press conference covered by local and alternative news media outside the Section 22 teacher’s headquarters, where it was explained that the effort was agreed upon at the Youth Encounter of the Oaxacan Social Movement last January in the town of Zaachila, Oaxaca.

Read the rest of this entry »

2 MORE REPORTERS MURDERED BY THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT

Felicitas Martínez and Teresa Bautista, ages 22 and 20, were Indigenous Journalists assassinated on April 7th, 2008 in a shooting by government supported paramilitaries near San Juan Copala in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. According to survivors six men began firing at their car with AK-47 assault rifles. The police found twenty spent bullet cases on the The police found twenty spent bullet cases on the road.

Their murders are only the latest in the massive Government violence against journalist and everyday people in Mexico. According to Reporters Without Borders annual report Mexico is the most deadly country in the Hemisphere for Journalists. In 2007 two were killed and three vanished and in 2006 nine journalists were murdered and three were missing, making the country second only to Iraq for the number of journalists killed.

Download the fact sheet as a pdf | Baja la hoja del hecho en español como pdf

Read the rest of this entry »

Phil writes: April 21st, 2008, was the first day of the Security and Prosperity Partnership Summit, in which the presidents of Mexico and the United States, and the prime minister of Canada met to discuss security and trade, as well as the neoliberal and militaristic integration of North America. In protest, the local community organizers of New Orleans held the People’s Summit, in which visiting activists met with local organizers to discuss the history of racism, oppression and capitalism in North America and how to resist those things now and into the future.

Read the rest of this entry »

April 18th, 2008 - Root Force writes: The Bulldozers have arrived, and clearing has begun in preparation for the construction of I-69, the NAFTA superhighway, in Southern Indiana. Under contracts totaling more than $25.3 million from the Indiana Department of Transportation, Gohmann Asphalt and Construction of Clarksville, Indiana, has demolished homes and trees along the first 1.77 miles of the proposed mega-highway, and will soon begin the actual road construction. This is the same Gohmann Asphalt and Construction that was fined $8.2 million this past December for defrauding the public with false asphalt density tests on road projects.

Read the rest of this entry »