AH: what have you organized lately? how have you fought for the rights of anyone at all? go ahead, prove me wrong....

I've put all the pictures I have of Brad up on Flickr, if anyone would like to see them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piratejenny/sets/72157594348723642/

I miss Brad so much. I can't say much more than that right now, but I did want to say something. I miss him.

I can never tell if people's commentary is serious or not around here. AH, you really can't see the connection between state corruption and repression of a popular movement in Oaxaca and social justice in the US?

They are absolutely connected. Not just on a philosophical level but on a purely practical level. You don't think that the same interests working hard to make sure that their tax money doesn't go to provide someone else with health care (and that no living wage allowing them to purchase it for themselves will ever be mandated) don't also have a stake in ensuring that a popular movement doesn't take hold in Mexico?

I'm not talking about a giant international conspiracy, I'm talking about political change and human rights that effect all of us.

Not to totally oversimplify all of global political economy, but ask yourself why American's don't have health care? Because our legislators are beholden to big business that they can't afford to make nationalized health care a reality? Why are our legislators so beholden to big business? Because business has the money and you can't win an election without media and it is a lot easier to manipulate the media you buy (ad time) than the media you don't buy. (right about here is where the need for viable alternatives to mainstream media comes in ...)

And why doesn't big business want single payer health care? Because that would cost them money (what, you thought that we could just skim that off the top of a walmart salary? Fat chance.) What else would cost them money? Paying a living wage. And how do you get out of paying a living wage? Threaten to move production to Mexico.

But what if Mexican's demand a living wage?

That is where we are in Oaxaca right now. What if Mexicans demand a responsive and transparent political system? What will they do with that transparency and what will it mean for the concentration of wealth up here? Mexicans don't have to be desperately poor. The country is rich in natural resources, but a corrupt political system keeps anyone but a few from sharing in those resources and actively resists attempts to use them in a way that will be sustainable for generations to come. And the poeple of Oaxaca are demanding that the corrupt political system stand down. They are asking for the representative government that they are nominally entitled to by their own laws.

And that has huge implications for people here in New York City living without access to decent homes or health care or a living wage.

It has huge implications for people here who think their is no way to stand up to the thieves who lie through their teeth while lining their white-collar pockets with the fruits of their dishonesty and corruption.

If nothing else, Brad was looking for a story that could be told and retold here, one that might inspire Americans out of our own complacency.

Our friend, companero, and fellow green, indy journalist and eco-activist Brad Will, was murdered on Friday by rightwing government death squads while videoing at the barricades in Oaxaca, Mexico.

I just learned about this as I was leaving the ReThinking Marxism conference in Amherst Massachusetts, heading back to NYC. Someone told me that there was something in the NY Times, so I grabbed a Times at the train station in Connecticut and saw that they ran a little bullshit squib about Brad on Saturday. They said he was killed by "unknown gunman" (Yea, right. Liars!) and tried to pin the assassination of Brad on the peaceful and strong protesters, who, they said, burned down the law school! (another lie). I'll have more on the NY Times note, and everyone should write to them, if you have the heart to do it at this very sad moment.

SubCommandante Marcos gave a much more moving and accurate picture, and Al Giordano quotes it in the NarcoNews piece. He wrote:

“We know that they killed at least one person.

This person that they killed was from the

alternative media that are here with us. He

didn’t work for the big television news companies

and didn’t receive pay. He is like the people who

came here with us on the bus, who are carrying

the voices of the people from below so that they

would be known. Because we already know that the

television news companies and newspapers only

concern themselves with governmental affairs. And

this person was a compañero of the Other

Campaign. He also traveled various parts of the

country with us, and he was with us when we were

in Yucatán, taking photos and video of what was

happening there. And they shot him and he died.

It appears that there is another person dead. The

government doesn’t want to take responsibility

for what happened. Now they tell us that all of

the people of Oaxaca are mobilizing. They aren’t

afraid. They are mobilizing to take to the

streets and protest this injustice. We are

issuing a call to all of the Other Campaign at

the national level and to compañeros and

compañeras in other countries to unite and to

demand justice for this dead compañero. We are

making this call especially to all of the

alternative media, and free media here in Mexico and in all the world.”

And one of Mexico's leading intellectuals, philosopher and activist Gustavo Esteva wrote:

Dear Mitchel:

I knew Brad. I liked him a lot. He came several times to our offices, since we have been involved with Indiymedia for a long time.

You are absolutely right. The "unknown gunmen" have faces and names. Two of them are in jail. They belong to the death squads of Ulises Ruiz. Of course, he is the one that should be in jail.

Muchos abrazos,

Gustavo

It is a shame that WBAI did not see fit to advertise the memorials for Brad yesterday. This is an extremely important event for the WBAI audience in New York City as well as for the people in Mexico. I am hopeful that this will be changed, come Monday morning, and that WBAI will understand what it means for a truly committed Indy journalist to be targeted and assassinated for documenting the stories of the people on the barricades, literally, whose stories would otherwise never be heard.

I wish I could say to Brad "rest in peace", but I can't, I don't want him to, and I know that he doesn't want to either. I remember us in Seattle '99 -- Brad always had a mischievous twinkle in his eye as soon as the teargas was washed away; I remember Brad getting us to fight to save the forest and squatters' land in Brazil (Brad went there, and his messages sparked solidarity actions at the Brazilian consulate -- I think Jerry Levy still has the pictures he took there); I remember working with Brad and Aresh and Ariane and a zillion others to save community gardens here in New York City; I remember doing secret and sometimes on-the-run reports over the underground Steal this Radio station that we had to keep moving around the Lower East Side as the FCC triangulated in on us; I remember Brad at Reclaim the Streets parties, and marching against the war in Iraq, and planning new "adventures" against the genetic engineers, and doing alternative energy projects, and hearing him read at BlueStockings -- Brad was everywhere, and if Brad was there you knew you were in the right place.

Just, give'm hell, Brad, it was a privilege knowing you -- an outstanding human being -- and running with ya. And, of course, we redouble our efforts (if that is possible), free Oaxaca, free Mexico, free the U.S., free ourselves!

I've sent out to our lists some stories & letters & news compiled from the 900 email messages or so that are spilling out of my inbox .... Cry me a river ... The bastards -- the bastards!

- Mitchel Cohen

Brooklyn Greens / Green Party

brad will did extensive social justice work here in the U.S. he devoted his life to understanding how local and international struggles connected to each other. he brought the stories of faraway people, whether in oaxaca, bolivia, brazil or beyond, home to folks here—and he was a tireless advocate for the disenfranchised in the U.S. he worked to link people working on different issues here in the U.S. to help make everyone's efforts deeper and stronger.

brad fought tooth and nail for NYC's community gardens and community centers (think Charas/El Bohio). he was an active member of New York's Independent Media Center, for whom he was reporting when he was murdered. He worked on environmental issues, whether across the country to help preserve old-growth forests, or right here in NYC to help make NYC more bike friendly, and thus help clean up our air. and it goes on and on. when he wasn't actively working on someone's project or campaign, he supported it by spreading the word or showing up and being present. he saw the big picture, and he was constantly trying to figure out how to make a dent in the huge, interconnected web of ills our world faces.

he was my beloved friend and colleague for five years. i deeply appreciate that gothamist got this up. please don't leave callous, uninformed remarks here. it's unnecessary, and it's disrespectful to the people who loved brad, and to the thousands of people whose lives he touched.

why are people so utterly flipped out about his murder? because brad was the real deal. he gave every ounce of his being to better the world around him, and the balancing act he conducted, of working both internationally and locally, will inspire me for as long as i live.

Dana, thanks for the info about that site. But it looks like they have been quiet/inactive for over a year.

AH-There are actually many people protesting on behalf of the poor in this country. Unfortunately, the press doesn't see fit to cover them. Just as, you might notice, this current subject of Brad Will is only really covered extensively by the independent press.

People in this group, for example, have been arrested many times, but you don't seem to have heard of them-

http://www.economichumanrights.org/index.shtml

"Membership in the Mexican Teachers Union is hereditary"

I was told while in Mexico, that's more or less how it works, a sort of caste-system in which you are allowed to become a teacher if your motherfather was, while if your father was a laborer you could NOT become a teacher, police officer, medic, etc. That is not an option.

Peter: Just the sort of frivolous, heartless and idiotic comment I've come to expect from some of the consumerist hipsters who frequent this site. A man was murdered in cold blood by hired thugs while trying to record the social upheaval occuring in a place that's been ignored by the blow-dryed grinning idiots of our corporate entertainment and news conglomerates. I guess that's your cue to post something snide. Please go back to your wine and cheese -- and take a moment ponder how you became such a cynical schnook.

there's a libertarian fighting machine? where? so long as there's no silly talk about the gold standard or blowing up the un i'm in!

you're Right AH, there's absolutely not enough humanity to go around. from now on we all limit our humanitarian efforts nationalistically and non-exotically. silly exercisers, working off your liberal flab! why not be lean and mean like the libertarian fighting machine?

This just sounds like another silly exercise for those suffering from a bad case of liberal guilt.

What about "innocent civilian victims" in this country who have no health coverage, or who don't have an affordable and safe place to live? What about the elderly who are forced to jump through hoops to get their medication paid for? Or who have had their life's savings wiped out by white collar criminals, and are expected to use an apology to pay for living out their twlight years?

Who's getting arrested and making headlines for championing the noble cause of the underclass and impoverished in this country?

No one. It's a lot trendier to stick up for a bunch of Mexicans, Tibetans, or Malawians instead of Americans. Those foreign folks win, and we throw our own under the bus. And this is a very sad situation.

Membership in the Mexican Teachers Union is hereditary, as I recall - as in you retire as a teacher and pass membership on to your children.

peter: 'amusing' in a marie antoinette kinda way?!

Amusing Oaxaca factoid: the schoolteachers in the state have gone on strike every single year for the past twenty years.