The citizen campaign to reclaim the corrupt state of Oaxaca, Mexico has its voice back.
Radio Plantón became a focal point for a citizens’ rebellion in the state last year, when a teacher’s encampment blossomed into a movement to dismantle the state government and rebuild it from the ground up. Among the repressive tactics instituted by federal and state officials was the jamming, then destruction of the rebellion’s main media outlet, pirate radio station Plantón.
The move backfired, as hundreds of Oaxacans, led by women, took to the streets and briefly occupied more than a dozen radio and TV stations in response. It is one of the few times in living memory when a revolution struck back so hard against its own silencing. Continue reading “Radio Plantón Returns”
Tag: radio planton
Oaxaca Update
Narconews has the information: many of the commercial radio stations occupied last week have been relinquished, leaving somewhere between two and five still in the hands of the populace. Radio Plantón, however, has apparently returned to the air with replacement gear.
When Media Ownership Means Life and Death
Every year, for the last quarter-century, teachers in the Mexican state of Oaxaca converge on the capital city of the same name to remind the politicians that they exist. Oaxaca is very poor, mostly indigenous, and ruled like a colony by the Mexican central government. The teachers’ convergence is thus both widely-known and respected, but this year it’s taken a dramatic turn.
The teachers have been on strike since late May, seeking relief from a crumbling educational infrastructure and benefits for the students they serve. To force home the point, the teachers set up a tent metropolis in greater Oaxaca, effectively occupying the center city.
It should be noted here that Mexico has long embraced unlicensed broadcasting as an organizing and educational vehicle. In Oaxaca alone some three dozen stations broadcast regularly. They are openly operated and supported by a variety of groups, even though they are technically illegal. The teachers’ union set up a such a station, Radio Plantón, after last year’s convergence. Continue reading “When Media Ownership Means Life and Death”