Another "Urewera 17" Member Linked to Zapatistas
I have posted several times on the links beteen those arrested in the October 15th 2007 anti terror raids-the "Urewera 17" and the Mexican Zapatista rebels.
Two of those arrested, Marama Mayrick and Emily Bailey visited the Zapatistas in Oventic, Chiapas, probably in 2005, during the making of their radical film Kotahi Ao.
Shortly after the raids, Wellington journalist and Zapatista Support Committee member Julie Webb-Pullman wrote on Narco News Bulletin;
Two hundred people today demonstrated outside the Wellington District Court in New Zealand, to protest Monday’s detention of four Wellingtonians, the first under the country’s new Terrorism Suppression Act. Two peace activists compas from the Wellington Zapatista Support Committee are amongst these supposed “terrorists” – both of whom have been active in Oaxaca and Chiapas in the last year supporting the struggles in Mexico, and fundraising in New Zealand for health services for Zapatista communities.
According to the US based, pro-Zapatista blog Zapagringo;
Members of the Maori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa.. were amongst those who founded the Zapatista-inspired Peoples' Global Action network (PGA) in 1998. A month ago, under New Zealand's 2002 Terrorism Suppression Act, over 300 police raided houses across the country seeking up to 60 activists in Aotearoa's Tino Rangatiratanga, peace and environmental movements. Among the 17 people arrested in the sweeps were some of these same founding PGA members, along with current Zapatista solidarity activists.
Who else among the "Urewera 17" has visited the Zapatistas?
According to the minutes of Wellington anarchist website Indymedia 10.5.06
6. Jen and Tim are probably going to Mexico next month and will be encouraged to post news reports on AIM.
I strongly suspect that this refers to "Urewera 17" arrestee Tim/Ira Bailey and his fellow Save Happy Valley Coalition supporter, Jen Bell.
Further evidence came from this posting on the Latin America Solidarity Aotearoa blog;
Would you like to help fundraise for an ambulance for the autonomous Zapatista communities of Chiapas, Mexico? This is also an opportunity to raise awareness in NZ about the Zapatistas.
Ira and I have recently returned from a trip to Mexico, to find out more about the situation there and the opportunities for solidarity projects with the Zapatistas (and other indigenous movements in Mexico -i.e. CIPO-RFM).
We want to set up a group dedicated solely to this project (possibly operating under the umbrella of the Latin America Committee). We think that it would be good to have a group that is specifically focused on this project, as some people who would like to be involved don't have time to work on other Latin America solidarity stuff :)
So we are having a meeting - at 128 Abel Smith St on Monday 31 July at 6pm.
Please come along to this meeting if you would like to be a part of the fundraising group. We will share information about the process of undertaking a project with the Zapatistas, and together we can decide how the group will function / what we are going to do!
If you are unable to attend but would like to be involved, please get in touch with details of suitable meeting times/places for you.
Hope to see you soon!
Jen
Other information on the website confirms that "Jen" is indeed Jen Bell.
The use of the name Ira makes it almost certain that Tim/Ira Bailey (brother of Emily Bailey) is the third member of the "Urewera 17" to be positively linked to the Zapatista rebels.
Jen Bell is the third Save Happy Valley Coalition activist (with Tim/Ira Bailey, Emily Bailey) to be involved with the Zapatistas.
Both Tim and Emily Bailey have also been involved with the New Zealand branch of People's Global Action-the international network of Zapatista supporters.
Note that Wellington anarchist HQ 128 Abel Smith Street is yet again linked to "Urewera 17" members.
Note also links with the radical and violent Mexican anarchist organisation CIPO-RFM.
Why are peace loving environmental activists, linking up with gun-toting, molotov cocktail throwing, indigenous/anarchist Mexican revolutionaries?
How could such connections possibly have any use in New Zealand?
Two of those arrested, Marama Mayrick and Emily Bailey visited the Zapatistas in Oventic, Chiapas, probably in 2005, during the making of their radical film Kotahi Ao.
Shortly after the raids, Wellington journalist and Zapatista Support Committee member Julie Webb-Pullman wrote on Narco News Bulletin;
Two hundred people today demonstrated outside the Wellington District Court in New Zealand, to protest Monday’s detention of four Wellingtonians, the first under the country’s new Terrorism Suppression Act. Two peace activists compas from the Wellington Zapatista Support Committee are amongst these supposed “terrorists” – both of whom have been active in Oaxaca and Chiapas in the last year supporting the struggles in Mexico, and fundraising in New Zealand for health services for Zapatista communities.
According to the US based, pro-Zapatista blog Zapagringo;
Members of the Maori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa.. were amongst those who founded the Zapatista-inspired Peoples' Global Action network (PGA) in 1998. A month ago, under New Zealand's 2002 Terrorism Suppression Act, over 300 police raided houses across the country seeking up to 60 activists in Aotearoa's Tino Rangatiratanga, peace and environmental movements. Among the 17 people arrested in the sweeps were some of these same founding PGA members, along with current Zapatista solidarity activists.
Who else among the "Urewera 17" has visited the Zapatistas?
According to the minutes of Wellington anarchist website Indymedia 10.5.06
6. Jen and Tim are probably going to Mexico next month and will be encouraged to post news reports on AIM.
I strongly suspect that this refers to "Urewera 17" arrestee Tim/Ira Bailey and his fellow Save Happy Valley Coalition supporter, Jen Bell.
Further evidence came from this posting on the Latin America Solidarity Aotearoa blog;
Would you like to help fundraise for an ambulance for the autonomous Zapatista communities of Chiapas, Mexico? This is also an opportunity to raise awareness in NZ about the Zapatistas.
Ira and I have recently returned from a trip to Mexico, to find out more about the situation there and the opportunities for solidarity projects with the Zapatistas (and other indigenous movements in Mexico -i.e. CIPO-RFM).
We want to set up a group dedicated solely to this project (possibly operating under the umbrella of the Latin America Committee). We think that it would be good to have a group that is specifically focused on this project, as some people who would like to be involved don't have time to work on other Latin America solidarity stuff :)
So we are having a meeting - at 128 Abel Smith St on Monday 31 July at 6pm.
Please come along to this meeting if you would like to be a part of the fundraising group. We will share information about the process of undertaking a project with the Zapatistas, and together we can decide how the group will function / what we are going to do!
If you are unable to attend but would like to be involved, please get in touch with details of suitable meeting times/places for you.
Hope to see you soon!
Jen
Other information on the website confirms that "Jen" is indeed Jen Bell.
The use of the name Ira makes it almost certain that Tim/Ira Bailey (brother of Emily Bailey) is the third member of the "Urewera 17" to be positively linked to the Zapatista rebels.
Jen Bell is the third Save Happy Valley Coalition activist (with Tim/Ira Bailey, Emily Bailey) to be involved with the Zapatistas.
Both Tim and Emily Bailey have also been involved with the New Zealand branch of People's Global Action-the international network of Zapatista supporters.
Note that Wellington anarchist HQ 128 Abel Smith Street is yet again linked to "Urewera 17" members.
Note also links with the radical and violent Mexican anarchist organisation CIPO-RFM.
Why are peace loving environmental activists, linking up with gun-toting, molotov cocktail throwing, indigenous/anarchist Mexican revolutionaries?
How could such connections possibly have any use in New Zealand?
posted by Trevor Loudon at
1/16/2008 09:54:00 PM
5 Comments:
Yawn Trev!,
As a good ole Kiwi boke, I once upon a time found your blog interesting. Now my friend, i find it a balant diatribe to Maori.
Surley if the NZ Poice can not gather enough evidence, then who are you to go on a witch hunt ?.
Come on mate, how about some real stories ?.
Trev hit the nail on the head of the parlimentary head. Nandor has rolled his last number in the big house.
I could follow your post up to the last paragraph. There were insinuations that there was something 'sinister' about the solidarity with the zapatistas, but I put that down to subtle irony. Imagine my surprise when I read your last paragraph:
"Why are peace loving environmental activists, linking up with gun-toting, molotov cocktail throwing, indigenous/anarchist Mexican revolutionaries? How could such connections possibly have any use in New Zealand?"
Where do you get this stereotype of the 'molotov cocktail throwing' Mexican revolutionaries? What a knee-jerk you are, and a disgrace to your putative "small 'l' liberal" credentials.
The zapatistas have consciously rejected armed confrontations since the 1994 uprising. The last armed confrontation was a minor one in 1996 which was provoked by the Mexican military. The zapatistas have achieved much of their liberating programs through the peaceful resistance as advocated by Martin Luther King and Ghandi. Women excluding Mexican military occupation and relocation of their village by marching up to the young Mexican conscripts and shaming them into backing off by reminding them that they have mothers too.
If you are not aware of this, you are either too ignorant to be seriously accepted as a commentator, or brain damaged, or quite simply, shameless.
Eres un ignorante, no hay otra forma de retrarte después de leer tus textos y como "periodista" provocas lástima, el movimiento zapatista no es anarquista, deberías informarte mucho y a profundidad para evitar caer en los errores que debilitan (anulan) tu ya de por si escasa credibilidad, espero alguien tenga el valor de traducirte mis palabras, pues yo y muchos otros activistas con dignidad, somos bilingües o políglotas y eso nos aventaja en caer en lagunas informativas como las tuyas.
Das lástima.
Here's what is being said of the Zapatista "supporters" here in NYC:
We are a group of friends that know and worked with a young woman named Joy Loftin while she was employed at the Vanderbilt YMCA here in New York City. During the length of her employment, several extremely disturbing incidents occurred that cause us to be concerned and call into question the motives and the integrity of Shan Colorado Finnerty, Hortensia Colorado, and Elvira Colorado.
On several occasions, Joy came to work with visible bruises on her neck and arms. She eventually explained to us that Shan had punched, beaten, and choked her and she asked us for help. As wardens for the community, we tried to place Joy in women’s shelters around the city in an effort to mitigate the abuse. However, at the urging of Shan’s mother and aunt, Hortensia and Elvira, she returned to their apartment and refused to press criminal charges against Shan Colorado Finnerty. The abuse continued and one day, she came to work very early, visibly distressed and crying, with more bruises and abrasions. She said that Shan had verbally abused and beaten her once again; that she wanted to return to California, and that she was going to quit her job and reunite with her family. She tendered her resignation later that week. Out of concern for her safety and in an effort to find out what happened to her, we requested an officer from the domestic violence unit of the 5th Precinct conduct a welfare check at their home on Kenmare Street. However the officer was unable to find anyone at the apartment, and therefore could not verify that Joy was safe. We realize that she is suffering from battered women’s syndrome and may be unable to help herself due to the isolationist environment that the Colorados have formed around her. Abusive men are often enabled by their family, while the victim is persuaded to believe the abuse is her fault, and the pattern of emotional and physical trauma continues. Taking into consideration what has happened to Joy Loftin, it is especially deceitful that their display "Altar: El Llanto De La Resistancia" at the American Indian Community House was in part dedicated to victims of domestic violence.
In light of these events, we are dismayed, disappointed, and outraged to know that members of the American Indian Community would commit, condone, and perpetuate domestic abuse and violence, while simultaneously conducting workshops, writing and performing plays, and displaying works and art that would have the public and those who support them believe otherwise. It is a vulgar and offensive misrepresentation of American Indian Culture, and further support of Coatlicue Theater, Hortensia Colorado, Elvira Colorado, Shan Colorado Finnerty and their work is tantamount to supporting domestic abuse and violence. Considering their duplicitous behavior, having them represent American Indian Culture is an insult to the dignity of American Indians and an affront to human beings.
We therefore will not attend nor support any Coatlicue Theater productions or events where they will be featured. We will be encouraging others that might consider attending, participating, or funding them to do the same. Our actions are warranted, and to be associated with the aforementioned individuals and Coatlicue Theater would be equivalent to enabling and contributing to such offensive behaviour. We are urging everyone to reevaluate their support of Coatlicue Theatre and the Colorados, and question the individuals concerned. Until the responsible individuals are held accountable and measures are taken to verify that the abuse is no longer occurring, we will continue with our boycott of Coatlicue Theatre and we will strongly urge others to do the same.
Can't keep the violence from occurring in their own home. Nice.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home