Raul with some of the Cards from Ireland

At the invitation of Guerrero based ´Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre´ I had the inspiring opportunity to witness an historic event last Wed (18th nov 2009): Two indigenous women, both former Amnesty International prisoners of conscience left their communities once more to make a trip to a Mexican Jail. This time however instead of being accompanied by their arresting officers, they went along with a group of local, national and international human rights organisations to make a solidarity visit to another indigenous activist and Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, Raul Hernandez.

Related Links:
More info on Raul | More info on Jacinta | More Info on Obtelia | More Info on Magdalena

View of Mathare built in a quarry

The 21st of November marks the United Nations ‘World television Day’.

Television can be a tremendous force for good. It can educate great numbers of people about the world around them. It can show us how much we have in common with our neighbours, near and far. And, it can shed light on the dark corners, where ignorance and hatred fester.

The television industry is also in a unique position to promote mutual understanding and tolerance -– with content that tells the stories not just about the powerful, but about the powerless, and not just about life in the world’s richest pockets, but also in the developing countries that are home to the majority of the world’s population’.

Slum TV: by Paula Geraghty

Hollman Morris

Hollman in a more Columbian setting

Related Links:
Hollman speaks on Youtube
Link to the Latin American Solidarity site (Lasc)
Amnesty library listing for Holman Morris
Holman's Facebook page

Arthur Scargill - a man among the people

As part of the build up to this Friday's 'Day of Action', Unite the Union, invited legendary Trade Union leader Arthur Scargill to Ireland for a series of talks. Before his talk to a packed Matt Merrigan Hall, Indymedia caught up with Scargill to chat about the Miners' Strike of 1984/85 and other contemporary issues such as January's Lidnsey oil refinery strike, which Scargill supported, a strike which caused much debate on the left with the use of the slogan 'British Jobs for British Workers'.

Kevin Brannigan – Folk singer Billy Bragg recently said, “Today’s economic crisis started on March 3rd 1985, the day the Miners were defeated.” Do you support this view?

Arthur Scargill – No. Billy Bragg unfortunately has moved to the right instead of moving to the left. Billy Bragg supported the Miners in 1984/85 and indeed did a lot of things which were very positive, but I think his analysis is completely wrong. The position is that the Labour and Trade Union movement failed to understand in 1984/85 that this was not just a matter of a dispute between an industry and a trade union, this was a fight promoted by the Tory government to try and destroy trade unionism.

Windmills mark the line of the Great Retreats

Seventy years after the Battle of the Ebro the dead remain unburied and the ghosts of Franco's dictatorship still haunt the landscape. Indymedia investigates...

Related Links:
A Catalan blogger's post on the remains in the Terra Alta | An English translation of Elies 115's original post | Website for the old town of Corbera | The official state-sponsored website for the Battle of the Ebro