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Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

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The post The Capture of the IMF and World Bank by Eco-Zealots is Hurting Poorer Countries Most appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
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David Rovics' friend is murdered in Oaxaca, Mexico.

category international | worker & community struggles and protests | news report author Monday October 30, 2006 08:47author by Fiachra Ó Luain Report this post to the editors

This is very sad. David tells us how Brad used sing his own version of "Saint Patrick's Battalion" all around Latin America. Now he shares their fate. I just checked the RTE news website and there is nothing on it about Oaxaca, a disgrace.
Long Live Indymedia, who have just lost one of their wordwarriors.

By David Rovics:

brad will was a dear friend, and a true revolutionary. he died the way countless and uncounted numbers of beautiful people have died in recent centuries -- he was shot in the chest by rightwing paramilitaries. he was filming the scene around one of thousands of barricades that have shut down oaxaca city since last june, when the governor there tried to ban public expressions of dissent, thus throwing one more historical spark into one more historical powder keg.

brad embodied the spirit of indymedia. he was not just covering stories that the "mainstream" press ignores, such as the exciting, violent revolutionary moment which has gripped oaxaca for several months now. brad was not risking his life to get a good shot of a confrontation at a barricade because he might get a photo on the cover of a newspaper, get some (perhaps well-deserved) fame and money -- he was posting his communiques on indymedia, for free.

sure, brad was filming in order to cover history. but he was there also to make history. brad knew that a camera is a weapon, or hopefully a shield of some sort, and sometimes can serve to de-escalate a situation, to protect people from being violated, beaten, killed. and brad knew that if the independent media didn't document history, nobody else would.

brad deeply appreciated the power of music and culture. if he didn't have a camera in his hands, he often had a guitar. during some of his many travels around latin america he wrote emails to me about the musicians he met, with whom he shared my songs and recordings. he particularly liked my song "saint patrick battalion," and reportedly shared his rendition of it with lots of people. he would not live to know just how much his life and death would resemble the san patricios, who died fighting for mexico during the first u.s. invasion of that country in the 1840's.

through all brad did and saw on large swaths of three different continents, he somehow continually brought with him a boundless enthusiasm and obvious love of life, love, a good party, or a good riot. he was my favorite kind of person, my favorite kind of revolutionary -- the sort who is just as comfortable talking about revolutionary theory, current events, music, relationships or smoking a bowl on a manhattan rooftop at sunset. the kind of person who is alive, in mind, body and spirit, in equal proportions.

brad became a radical long before it was briefly fashionable in the u.s. (with the wto protests in seattle), and long since it became unfashionable there (september 11th, 2001). the kinds of tactics and politics that the global justice movement became briefly known for were practiced by people like brad in the squatters' movement in new york city and the radical environmental movement on the west coast in the 1990's. brad was in both places and many more. brad was somewhere near the ground floor of many other more recent anarchist institutions -- food not bombs, critical mass, reclaim the streets, guerrilla gardening, indymedia. he saw the connections, deeply understood the concept of "the commons," and went for it, as an activist, a videojournalist, a musician and a cheerleader.

i never knew brad's last name until he was murdered. for me he was just brad. in my cell phone he was "brad nyc" (to distinguish him from another good friend named brad, who lives in baltimore). i don't remember talking with him much about his past, where he grew up, how he became a revolutionary, though we may have talked about that sort of thing. but generally i saw him in the course of events, whether it was a film showing/concert on a brooklyn rooftop, a land occupation in the bronx, or, just as often, a large demonstration against an evil financial institution somewhere in the world.

i've sung at many such events, and brad has been at most of them -- and he's been present at many which i didn't make it to. they're all such a blur, i don't remember which ones anymore. but the many encounters always start out with a warm smile and a hug, and usually involve some kind of chaos going on, with brad comfortably in the middle of it. sometimes -- all too rarely, i suddenly realize -- the encounters would continue after the chaos subsided, and we could be in a quiet place with a small group of people, chilling and talking about life, my favorite bits.

there have been many debates about whether it is more useful to organize large events or to focus on community organizing locally. whether to focus on recording history or making it. whether to educate or to act. whether to have a party or have a meeting. brad clearly decided that the correct answer is "all of the above." the reality of this is easy to demonstrate -- talk to anybody in new york city involved with just about any aspect of the progressive movement. it's a city of 8 million people, but if they are serious participants in the more grassroots end of the movement, they know brad. though they may not have known his last name. he's just brad, the tall, thin guy with long hair who is often flashing a warm, gentle smile with a compassionate, intelligent glint in his eye. he's often described with a connector like "brad from indymedia" or "brad from more gardens" or "brad the musician."

i haven't seen him in a while. several months at least. but suddenly i miss him so much. i miss hanging out with him in the lower east side, chilling at his place there, swapping stories. i miss the rejuvinating warmth of his presence. i miss the unspoken, mutual admiration. i miss the feeling that i was in the presence of someone who so deeply felt his connection to the world. the feeling that here was someone who would die for me, and me for him, no questions asked. and now, like so many others before him, he's done just that.

like all of the rest of us, over the generations his memory will fade and eventually disappear. but for those of us alive today who had the honor of being one of brad's large circle of friends, his memory will be with us painfully, deeply, lovingly, until we all join him beneath the ground -- hopefully only after each of us has managed to have the kind of impact on each other, on the movement, and the world that brad surely had in his short 36 years.

feel free to post and distribute. for more information on the death of brad will and the circumstances surrounding it, check out www.indymedia.org and www.narconews.com.

David Rovics
www.davidrovics.com
www.soundclick.com/davidrovics
www.myspace.com/davidrovics

DRovics@aol.com
(617) 872-5124
P.O. Box 300995
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
U$A

Halliburton Boardroom Massacre CD/DVD now in a store near you, distributed throughout North America and Europe! Please go to your local record store and make sure they have some in stock! If they don't, they can order copies through Caroline Distribution -- www.caroline.com (EMI).

Halliburton Boardroom Massacre World Tour happening now! Check out www.davidrovics.com for more information!

Related Link: http://www.narconews.com
author by C Murraypublication date Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:40author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The Reporters without Borders website, currently running petitions and campaigns
highlighting the lack of protections for writers/video/camera people and anti-censorship
campaigns has press-released on the death of Brad Will:

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id=19485

The right column of the page details other abuses of press freedoms in Oaxaca and Mexico.

The site at http://www.rsf.org also has a petition campaign running on the Incarceration and
trial of Ching Cheong in China. (which could lead to his execution).

Articles on Oaxaca:

US Cameraman Killed and Photographer Wounded in Oaxaca Police Shooting.
Mexico Website editor becomes second journalist to go missing since start of year.
Murder, Impunity and self-censorship, frontier journalists in a pitiless Landscape.

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/77850.html has opened a comment and solidarity
page for writers/contributors to IMC

Related Link: http://www.rsf.org
author by Jay Gannon - NoMorePhotospublication date Mon Oct 30, 2006 16:54author email jay at nomorephotos dot comauthor address author phone Report this post to the editors

The loss of brad to both indymedia and the journalism world will be a a hard one.
Brad was know as someone who was kind and genial, for making a stand when others were afraid to and for being the first there no cover it with his camera.
Known as the lone guy who came out on the roof of the 13th street squats in NYC when a bulldozer was at the door he was a fearless and powerful guy. dedicated and hard working his work was well known.
A great loss has happened.

You will be missed mate.
From myself and the Lightstalkers community
RIP Brad, kick it up whereever you end up next mate.

author by Personpublication date Mon Oct 30, 2006 17:25author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Two members of the APPO (Popular Association of Peoples of Oaxaca) have been killed:

Roberto Lopez Hernadez (Social Security Institute Worker) and nurse /Safety Commission memebr

Jorge Alberto Beltran : http://www.portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/348312.shtml

The radio communication which the popular revoltuionary committee were utilising
against the paid mercenaries of the Ortiz regime has been attacked and is no longer
in operation.

 
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