Giordano: Don Marcos of La Selva vs. the Mega-Windmill of Capitalism
February 9, 2006
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The Other Journalism coverage of the Zapatista Other Campaign in Oaxaca is in full swing. Al Giordano files a report
today from the pacific coast of Oaxaca's Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the "historic vanguard of indigenous resistance in
Mexico." This land, writes Giordano, is being grabbed up by a group of multinational corporations with the backing of
the Mexican government, hoping to turn the historic zone into a giant "energy park." The local residents are now working
to link their struggle – to block the construction of nearly 2,000 windmills on their land, without their input or
participation - with the larger national movement that the Other Campaign seeks to create.
Giordano writes:
"The greedy grab for the Isthmus of Tehuantepec - the narrowest stretch of land in Mexico - is a mega-project by Capital
and State that does not stop at windmills. It also includes new highways and oil pipelines connecting the ports on both
oceans, an expanded hydroelectric dam in Jalapa del Marques along the way, tourist Meccas to replace small fishing
communities between Salina Cruz and Huatulco and a new zone for maquiladoras - those cheap-labor mills that generate
power not from wind but from human muscle and bone along the US-Mexican border - that will exploit the poverty of the
workers that the mega-developments displace from their lands and the natural resources they cultivate.
"And so it is to this breezy plain that Zapatista "Delegate Zero" came on Monday morning to harness the wind that only
human hands, and not machines, can tap: that of rebellion. 'You are not alone,' he told yet more communities of fighting
(read: still human) people throughout the Isthmus. In La Venta's town square he said, 'We will fight with you against
these windmills.'
"'There is no solution up there,' said Marcos, pointing toward heaven. 'This time, yes, we will beat them.'"
Read the full story, here:
Giordano also reports on the Other Journalism's visit to El Cortamortaja, a newspaper produced by truly Authentic
Journalists in the Isthmus town of Jalapa del Marques. The town itself is the result of another electric mega-project,
which flooded an old nearby fishing village and displaced its residents. El Cortamortaja was the victim of a
misunderstanding five years ago during the 2001 Zapatista Caravan, resulting from confusion over its name. Narco News
repeated the story at the time in its own pages, and Giordano takes the opportunity to apologize to founder César
Martínez Rosales and recognize his important work:
Two more articles are also posted from the journalists of the Oaxaca City-based Ricardo Flores Magón Brigade. James
Daria and Dul Santamaria report on the case of three supporters of the Other Campaign arrested by Oaxaca's infamous
repressive political machine for the "crime" of passing out flyers before Subcomandante Marcos' arrival. Daria and
Santamaria also bring us a portrait of Oaxaca's vibrant community radio movement, an important resource for the many
"simple and humble people who fight" throughout Oaxaca, neglected and unserved by the Commercial Media.
From somewhere in a country called América,
Dan Feder
Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin