Friday the 23rd of September at 7pm
Monkey Wrench Books
110 E. North Loop Austin, Texas 78751
(512) 407-6925
el enemigo común begins to describe the face of a common thread between different communities in resistance. In particular, the film draws specific correlations and differences between the effects of Free Trade on the daily lives of peasant farm-workers, and the nature of resistances from the front lines of a international humanitarian movement for social, political, and economic justice.
Going well beyond the typical shock value of protest “porn”, the film explores stories directly from victims of repression in Oaxaca, Mexico over four years. The film chronicles government supported atrocities intended to displace, intimidate, control, and eventually eliminate any and all resistance to “progress”. Using scenes from a declassified 1968 U.S. Army training film concerning psychological operations in Latin America, el enemigo común exposes a clearly more sinister motivation behind community control and displacement. The film brings its common enemy home, with footage of a militarized Miami, Florida during the Free Trade Area of the America’s Summit held in November of 2003. Thousands of young activists and labor union members face off with the $8.9 million dollar police force used to “protect” the summit’s delegates. The amount of brute force used against the protesters is unprecedented.
The film reaches for the top of the pyramid, and faces off the World Trade Organization during its fifth ministerial conference in Cancun Mexico in September of 2003, where the direct actions far out weigh any possible police response. In Cancun, the world is introduced to the fighting courage of an impressive South Korean delegation of protesters, composed of trade union members, school teachers, and farm-workers. In Cancun the world is also introduced to a global army of protesters with the potential to achieve almost anything they put their minds, spirits, and bodies to.
Bouncing back in forth from community to community “el enemigo común” is both an introduction to some ignored resistances in North America, and it is also a call to action to international civil society for solidarity against repression and for peace, justice and dignity, in Oaxaca, Mexico.
The film provokes action and provides a historical context for the current incarnation of capitalism and empire: neo-liberalism.
Has the common enemy surrounded us, or have we begun…
to surround it?
