The interests here seem more European and Asian, but I find this
information war being waged by the Zapatistas in Mexico to be quite
interesting. Subcomandante Marcos is not one of the indigenous
tribal revolutionaries. He is masked when appearing in public and is
rumoured to be one of the educationally elite and of European
extraction.
FORWARDED:
photo by ANGRY PLANET
Statement of Subcomandante Marcos to the
Freeing the Media Teach-In
organized by the Learning Alliance, Paper
Tiger TV, and FAIR in
cooperation with the Media & Democracy
Congress, Jan.31/Feb.1
1997,NYC. web site at:
http://artcon.rutgers.edu/papertiger/freemedia.html
We're in the mountains of Southeast Mexico
in
the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas
and we want to use this medium with the
help
of the National Commission for
Democracy in Mexico, to send a greeting to
the
Free the Media Conference that
is taking place in New York, where there
are
brothers and sisters of independent
communication media from the US and Canada.
At the Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against
Neoliberalism we said: A global decomposition is taking place, we call
it the Fourth World War-- neoliberalism: the global economic process
to eliminate that multitude of people who are not useful to the
powerful-- the groups called "minorities" in the mathematics of power,
but who happen to be the majority population in the world. We find
ourselves in a world system of globalization willing to sacrifice
millions of human beings.
The giant communication media: the great monsters of the television
industry, the communication satellites, magazines, and newspapers seem
determined to present a virtual world, created in the image of what
the globalization process requires.
In this sense, the world of contemporary news is a world that exists
for the VIP's-- the very important people. Their everyday lives are
what is important: if they get married, if they divorce, if they eat,
what clothes they wear and what clothes they take off-- these major
movie stars and big politicians. But common people only appear for a
moment-- when they kill someone, or when they die. For the
communication giants and the neoliberal powers, the others, the
excluded, only exist when they are dead, or when they are in jail or
court. This can't go on. Sooner or later this virtual world clashes
with the real world. And that is actually happening: this clash
produces results of rebellion and war throughout the entire world, or
what is left of the world to even have war.
We have a choice: we can have a cynical attitude in the face of the
media, to say that nothing can be done about the dollar power that
creates itself in images, words, digital communication, and computer
systems that invades not just with an invasion of power, but with a
way of seeing that world, of how they think the world should look. We
could say, well, "that's the way it is" and do nothing. Or we can
simply assume incredulity: we can say that any communication by the
media monopolies is a total lie. We can ignore it and go about our
lives.
But there is a third option that is neither conformity, nor
skepticism, nor distrust: that is to construct a different way-- to
show the world what is really happening-- to have a critical world
view and to become interested in the truth of what happens to the
people who inhabit every corner of this world.
The work of independent media is to tell the history of social
struggle in the world, and here in North America-- the US, Canada and
Mexico, independent media has, on occasion, been able to open spaces
even within the mass media monopolies: to force them to acknowledge
news of other social movements.
The problem is not only to know what is occurring in the world, but to
understand it and to derive lessons from it-- just as if we were
studying history-- a history not of the past, but a history of what is
happening at any given moment in whatever part of the world. This is
the way to learn who we are, what it is we want, who we can be and
what we can do or not do.
By not having to answer to the monster media monopolies, the
independent media has a life work, a political project and purpose: to
let the truth be known. This is more and more important in the
globalization process. This truth becomes a knot of resistance against
the lie. It is our only possibility to save the truth, to maintain it,
and distribute it, little by little, just as the books were saved in
Fahrenheit 451--in which a group of people dedicated themselves to
memorize books, to save them from being destroyed, so that the ideas
would not be lost.
This same way, independent media tries to save history: the present
history-- saving it and trying to share it, so it will not disappear,
moreover to distribute it to other places, so that this history is not
limited to one country, to one region, to one city or social group. It
is necessary not only for independent voices to exchange information
and to broaden the channels, but to resist the spreading lies of the
monopolies. The truth that we build in our groups, our cities, our
regions, our countries, will reach full potential if we join with
other truths and realize that what is occurring in other parts of the
world also is part of human history.
In August 1996, we called for the creation of a network of independent
media, a network of information. We mean a network to resist the power
of the lie that sells us this war that we call the Fourth World War.
We need this network not only as a tool for our social movements, but
for our lives: this is a project of life, of humanity, humanity which
has a right to critical and truthful information.
We greet all of you, recognizing the work you have done so that the
struggle of indigenous people is known, and that other struggles are
known, so that the great events of this world are seen in a critical
form. We hope your meeting is a success and that it results in
concrete plans for this network, these exchanges, this mutual support
that should exist between cultural workers and independent media
makers. We hope that one day we can personally attend your meeting, or
perhaps that one day you can have your conference in our territory, so
we can listen to your words and you can hear ours in person. For now,
well, we take advantage of the help of the National Commission for
Democracy in Mexico (NCDMUSA) to use this video to send a greeting.
This section in English: I don't know if my English is OK but good
luck and so long. Cut.
- Forwarded by Paper Tiger TV
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 13:05:25 PDT