Medi301 Film write-up #3
Trevor Olafson
A Little Bit of So Much Truth
The film by Jill Freidberg, Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad(A Little Bit of So Much Truth) documents the teachers strikes in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. In this sympathetic look at the popular uprising, the film-maker focuses on how radio became a vital part of making it possible. In May of 2006 over 70,000 teachers went on strike fighting in defense of public education. They had spent years voicing their concerns about the poverty of the children they taught and the lack of funding for even the most basic of school supplies. In a bold move, the teachers went to the capital city of Oaxaca where they set up a camp known as a ‘planton’. For the first time the teachers also used radio to organize themselves, and set up what became known as ‘Radio Planton’. Unlike previous years the government refused to negotiate with them, threatening instead to use police action to break up the strike and evict them from the capital.
The immediate response by main stream media outlets in Mexico was to begin to paint the protesters as being a mob that was not only causing traffic jams, but causing huge economic losses and violating the rights of all Mexicans to move about freely. The counter to this was Radio Planton, it was the only way the protesters were able to get critical information passed amongst themselves and their supporters. Through call in shows, people were able to add their voices and support to the teachers in the struggle. Police action against ‘Radio Planton’ galvanized people to defend it. Calls to the citizens to come out of their homes and help as the police entered the radio station mobilized most of the population, who later drove the police out of the city center. Two days after the attack on the teachers over 300,000 took part in a protest march in solidarity with them. The teachers and the population came together to form APPO, they had one demand, the removal of Ulises Ruis Ortiz from power. This uprising grew through the continual updates given on Radio Planton with calls to people in various regions to support blockades and defy military action. Mass resistance against government forces would not have happened in the same way without the use of media outlets taken over by the protesters throughout the state of Oaxaca.
The government countered and used it’s own television to try to frame the protesters as ‘radical groups’. By using the postponement of a yearly celebration known as the Guelaguetza, the government thought that they would be able to turn public opinion; it was the fault of the protesters that they must cancel the event because of fears that members of the public or even tourists would be hurt. Celebrations went on as normal, despite the official statements on television. People had listened to their radio which they trusted. The radio was used to further incite the protesters who wanted to disseminate ‘a little bit of so much truth’ to eventually take over a TV station when they were refused some air time. The police moved in after three weeks and destroyed the transmitter equipment, because of the impact broadcasts were having on the people, who continued to call for Ortiz to step down. They did not let themselves be silenced however, and instead the same morning took over 19 commercial radio stations and continued to broadcast critical strategic information to keep themselves organized. Main stream TV was calling the protests and takeovers violent clandestine guerrilla actions, not reporting that the violence that happened was against the people by the police.
Once the people had the media in their hands they were changed by it. Having this control allowed them to be able to mobilize and resist government forces, information about possible attacks against roadblocks or troop movements could reach a large number of people who could know when and where they were needed to fight back. The radio became their main defense. The power that the people began to wield changed the way they identified themselves, having control of the media was the turning point, from which they did not want to go back to the way things were.
Despite a huge organized march supported by people throughout Mexico and many parts of the world, thousands of police were used to attack and break up the teachers resistance movement, government television was used to whitewash these attacks in which at least 100 people were ‘disappeared’. One of the last stands of the movement was made at Radio Universidad when people were urged to bring their barricades to help preserve ‘the voice of the people’ and establish a new planton from which to continue the struggle. Unfortunately a campaign of propaganda instituted by the government against the movement was eventually able to negatively affect public perception. Once this was accomplished the government was able to completely break up organized protests without public resistance. Fear of being involved in supporting the protests grew as some were be
aten and arrested. With the eventual loss of Radio Universidad the protests died and the movement never quite recovered it’s support.
