The Narco News Bulletin

A Letter from Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar

"To Have Narco News Online Is Useful for the Thousands of Collectives and Individuals in Resistance and/or Rebellion All Over the World"

By Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar
Professor, Narco News School of Authentic Journalism

September 27, 2005
This report appears on the internet at http://www.narconews.com/Issue39/article1458.html

Dear Readers:

I write to you to ask for your solidarity with Narco News, which is, above all else, an autonomous, serious, well-documented and honest effort at real communication. The call themselves "authentic journalists." I believe that what they do is create spaces to communicate: they document happenings, help clear up events, provide opinion, link to and report about what occurs... And yes, they give preference to a certain type of news, they make an effort to make visible aspects of social life that, in general, are silenced, covered up, and hidden by the commercial media. That is their virtue, their strength, and also their weakness.

It is their virtue because to have Narco News online is useful for the thousands and thousands of collectives and individuals in resistance and/or rebellion all over the world. When I first encountered Narco News I was in Bolivia preparing for a hunger strike to protest legal proceedings against me for subversion. The process at that time had gone on for nine years and there was still no ruling or sentence. Narco News investigated "my case," put news online about me, and helped me to get word out about the problem and obtain solidarity. That's what Narco News' authentic journalists are like: they value solidarity, they work hard, and sometimes they are a bit crazy...

Their work is what guarantees their strength, and, as such, they are part of the general strength of the many human, diverse, big, and small collectives that act in insubordination in different parts of the planet. The coverage they have given to the recent incidents in Bolivia has made them into a privileged source for understanding of "hot" events around the world, with a very interesting viewpoint: they do not look, or write, or speak from outside or from above; they produce information from below and from within. Just as they report now from the autonomous communities of Chiapas... letting us see what is happening, pushing the connections, serving as a bridge. That is why they are nomads, why they keep moving to different places where the social contradictions are expressed in the most descarnado fashion. They lend us their hands so that those of us who are far away can link up with what is happening there...

And because of that attitude, because of that choice, they are also weak. It is the same as always. Nothing shocking: they are poor. As they do not subordinate themselves to distant criteria at the time they chose to speak-and that is what we ultimately mean when we say the word autonomy-nobody supplies them with money in order to publish and maintain their web page. And for that reason it would be great for us, together, to make the effort to keep Narco News online: seeing as how it serves all of us, how it is useful to us, as with any autonomous community, although it is virtual, we all can and should contribute to its continued existence.

I send hugs and my one hundred dollars, promised long ago to Al Giordano. Hopefully they will not be the only ones; hopefully they will join together with the support of others... Narco News, an authentic online newspaper, is a collective treasure.

Please make your donations online at:

http://www.authenticjournalism.org/

Or send your checks to:

The Fund for Authentic Journalism
P.O. Box 241
Natick, MA 01760 USA

In solidarity,

Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar
Mexican Mathematician and Philosopher
Professor of the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism