Covering the ongoing popular uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico, NYC Indymedia journalist Brad Will was shot and killed at the Santa Lucia Barricade by paramilitaries repotedly linked to the besieged state governor's paramilitary forces. Several others were also shot and killed during the incident, including a schoolteacher associated with the militant teachers' union whose strike precipitated the political crisis on Mexico's southern Pacific Coast.
Brad Will was in Oaxaca to take video and report on the state-wide popular uprising and teacher strike that began in June with the violent attempted removal of the striking teachers from their encampment in the center of Oaxaca City by federal police forces. Since then, the teachers and other groups formed the APPO, the Popular Assembly of the Oaxacan People, and have called for the removal of the governor of state Ulises Ruiz of the PRI.
Brad Will is the first North American Indymedia journalist to be killed while reporting. There have been several other incidents where IMCs were targeted, and Lenin Cali Nájera, an Ecuadorian Indymedia activist, was killed in 2004.
Always skeptical, never the cynic; Brad Will was a committed anti-authoritarian who always sought to bring the stories of people in struggle to the whole world. An early volunteer with the Indymedia movement, his coverage of local struggles, such as the movement for public space and gardens in New York, were only one part of his internationalist vision. From the tree sits obstructing clear-cutting in the Pacific Northwest to the indigenous, proletarian uprisings of Bolivia, Brad was there to help people tell their own stories.
Brad Will died as he lived, on the barricades armed only with a video camera.
Read Brad's last communication from Oaxaca.
Adapted from reports on Indymedia by Jed Brandt. [photo by Erin Siegal]
Additional reporting at nyc.indymedia.org and narconews.com. The press release from associates of Brad Will is here, and a statement from NYMAA. Read the NYC Indymedia press release. The statement of Brad's family is here.
Democracy Now ran a special show on Oct. 30 in memoriam of Brad Will. For friends and family, this coverage includes disturbing footage. Watch
11 people arrested at Mexican Consulate, among many protests around the USA; in the spirit of Brad Will, in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca.
The EZLN threatens to block roads on Nov. 1, and announces Mexico-wide strike for Nov. 20: Read more
Nice post, Jed. Thanks.
Posted by: Chuck Morse | October 31, 2006 at 01:01 PM
Brad died as he lived. Fearless.
He was also recognized at the World Can't Wait teach-in in New York.
Solidarity forever.
Posted by: and another | October 31, 2006 at 01:30 PM
Others killed on the barricades of Oaxaca include:
Alejandro García Hernández, resident of Oaxaca, presente!
René Calva, resident, presente!
Pánfilo Hernández, school teacher, presente!
Emilio Alonso Fabián, resident of neighborhood, presente!
Esteban López Zurita, school teacher, presente!
Brad Will, organizer, journalist, friend, presente!
Posted by: Presente! | October 31, 2006 at 01:32 PM
A Poem for Brad Will - R.I.P.
I received word today that someone –
I did not know passed away.
He died rather violently.
But he lived rather heroically.
Heroically with a small “h”.
The small “h” that gets buried in footnotes
after the nightly headlines pass.
His heart on his sleeve
ideals nourished his soul.
An “Internationalist” he was.
A visual artiste he was.
A man of the people he was.
He came from “El Norte”
In solidarity with the people of
Oaxaca, Mexico.
Documenting for Indymedia
from New York.
I must have passed him so many times
We - ships passing in the dark
on the barricades
of the NYC.
I will forget
the exact cause
But I felt as if I knew him like a close brother
People we take for granted
Till they r no longer with us
but only in spirit
and all that is left r tears
to console us.
10-28-06
soulfire
me
Posted by: soulfire | November 01, 2006 at 11:43 AM
Friends of Brad Will now have a website up and running, with coverage of protests at the Mexican consulate.
http://www.friendsofbradwill.org/
Posted by: new site | November 01, 2006 at 11:55 AM
It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.
Steven Biko
Posted by: srogouski | November 03, 2006 at 11:11 PM