[IMC-bristol] reluctant review of a sordid soap opera

Sun Apr 4 15:48:28 PDT 2004

Come on Tom,

It's amazing how easy it is to come to the verdict you want when you shut
the defendant out of the process.

1. Kyra sent me an innacurate email laying down the law and demanding that
I must not reply - for you to relate my reply to that as being 'the final
straw' is truly laughable. I notice you forgot to include my 'abusive'
reply to Kyra which was nothing of the sort.

2. My complaints have been constantly painted as 'personal' where actually
I have been pointing out that the system of apportioning passwords at BIMC
is secret and controlled by a clique outside the structure of the meetings.
This means articles are disappearing - and no-one knows why or who has done
it as recently discussed on this list.

3. I didn't take my complaints to the university newsletter - Tom came to
me as I was the only person to bother to reply to his request.

4. The outside arbiters in all this are two indiviuals calling themselves
'anarcho babe' and 'space bunny' neither of whom have ever met me nor ever
asked me to explain anything I have ever done - they have simply waded in
from Sheffield and Edinburgh. 'Anarchobabe' hid the post on Indymedia UK
site announcing the date and place of last year's Bilderberg meeting. SB
and AB are running next years' 2005 G8 web site here in the UK and seem
particularly keen that next years Bilderberg meeting (which fixes the
agenda the weekend before the G8) is not covered or invaded by UK
activists. Maybe they had an outside interest in BIMC's little witchunt
they weren't declaring?

5. I have got several heartfelt messages of sympathy from Brisol, London
and 2 from other parts of the world over this issue so please don't try and
paint me as the 'quiet loner'. These people are genuinely anable to wade in
because they are afraid of those induividuals behind the shabby process
that has led to me being booted out and branded a 'control freak' for
raising what I believe to be serious issues of accountability. Ilyan from
Indymedia wales, for example waded in and - whooops - he is branded a loony
and loses his link from UK Indymedia within a few days. No wonder people
are afraid.

As far as I'm concerned the most important lesson we can all learn from
this is not to launch cowardly or anonymous attacks on email but to
consider matters face to face first. And to adopt a system of accountable
editors who answer to the group for the editorial decisions they make. This
is actually much more radical than the current anonymous system.

It's important to have a chairman who can carry the respect of the group by
having the courage to represent any disagreement fairly. Tom, you have been
nothing of the sort. If your message hadn't been so utterly partial I
wouldn't have been writing this. You have used an ostensible opportunity to
'sum up' fairly instead to present more 'evidence' of my 'unreasonableness'
with in a fruitless attempt to stick the knife in deeper.

I have no anger over this situation - just disappointment over a project
which, I feel, through jealously guarded passwords, has lost any chance of
having a wider appeal and challenging the Evening Post's monopoly.

Tony
www.bilderberg.org   etc.

At 03:53 17/03/04 -0800, arclightfire at hushmail.com wrote:
>
>I'm going to try to represent the charges here in reply to the last email:
>
>>"Refused to go through the group in dealing with issues pertaining to
>
>>Bristol Indymedia" Like what? Wheres the evidence? Wheres the defence?
>>Wheres the rules against this? Huh? 
>>- "Has misrepresented the group" How? When? Where? To Who? Evidence?
>>Defence? Guidelines? 
>
>Tony was in dispute with Ian F over the way an article of his was treated.
> Tony was unhappy with how the dispute was being resolved and took his
>complaints to a guy writing an article for the University Newspaper
(http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/11439):
>
>>"According to Gosling, this is the result of the editorial process 
>>being taken over by an “Easton anarchist clique”, particularly 
>>indymedia administrator and Socialist Workers Party member Ian 
>>Ferguson. Surrounded by the likes of ‘Class War’ founder Ian Bone, he
>
>>has refused to acknowledge that he personally dominates the editorial
>
>>process; a state of affairs that Gosling believes has led to indymedia
>
>>becoming the “anarchist ghetto rantspace” it is today."
>
>This angered many as apart from being factually incorrect, it was public
>attack on the group without a chance for the group to respond or deal
>with internaly.
>
>>as for harassing BIMC members over email, ive not seen any evidence
>of 
>>this, just an accusation. I have seen evidence of Ians harassment and
>>abuse of Tony over email, but apparently this isnt an offence. 
>
>Accusations of email abuse come from UK IMC where a volunteer there was
>recieving the following emails (see
http://imcscotland.org/TonyGoslingandIndymedia.htm):
>
>>From: Tony Gosling <tony at gaia.org> 
>>To: anarchobabe at fempages.org 
>>Subject: Fwd: still waiting 
>>Date: 20.05.2003 20:06:11 
>>
>>Dear 'anarchobabe' 
>>
>>You removed my Bilderberg article from the UK IMC site. 
>>
>>I am still waiting for an apology or an explanation. 
>>
>>Tony Gosling 
>>One of Bristol Indymedia Collective 
>>bristol.indymedia.org 
>>my number 0117 944 6219 
>
>and:
>
>>From: Tony Gosling <bristol at nuj.org.uk> 
>>To: AnarchoBabe <anarchobabe at fempages.org> 
>>Subject: Fwd: Re: [IMC-Nationalist] imc-uk-action email list 
>>Date: 27.05.2003 17:12:50 
>>
>>Dear 'babe', 
>>
>>Have you found anything to back up your censorship of the Bilderberg
>
>>article oh staunch defender of globalisation? 
>>We're all waiting to hear. 
>>
>>Have you found any evidence of American Free Press's neo-nazi
>>allegiance? 
>>
>>Luckily your pro-Zionist (right wing) censorship appears to have 
>>mattered 
>>not a jot in the big scheme of things. 
>>Looking forward to quizzing you in person sometime soon on your 
>>knowledge 
>>of the lack of links between the UK, US and Isreali intelligence 
>>services. 
>>
>>Tony Gosling 
>>http://bristol.indymedia.org 
>>http://www.bilderberg.org 
>
>-------
>
>Anarchobabe had asked Tony not to email har and to deal with his issues
>though the group process.  You will also note how Tony is using the name
>of Bristol IMC 'One of Bristol Indymedia Collective' in an email trying
>to alter thier editorial decisions.  
>
>Finally a Bristol IMC volunteer, Kyra, who was organising the meeting
>to mediate this dispute was also subject to harrarment over email
(http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-
>bristol/2004-March/001436.html) which many felt was the final act of
>bridge burning:
>
>>dear all
>>sorry bout this
>>i have now received several emails from tony, insisting that i am not
>
>>being truthful and am being silly in addressing this, and that i am
>
>>motivated by listening to others lies
>>i have asked him to stop emailing me, but it seems he cannot, so i am
>
>>noting here on the public list that this is going on and i am sick of
>>it
>>i dont want to be pestered privately anymore whatsoever - if tony has
>
>>criticisms of me he can keep them in the open, or even better wait for
>
>>the meeting as i keep suggesting
>>what a nuisance this has all become
>>kx
>
>---
>
>
>I understand that people may feel the group has not dealt with this as
>fairly as possible, but this issue was causing a huge amount of warring
>in the group, especially almost the core who do the bulk of the day-to-
>day work that keeps the site running. It was not a decision taken lightly
>and was a painful debate to have for an open group, but, as the votes
>shows, a majority of people at the meeting felt that it was time to act,
> is was voted on and acted.
>
>We hope to learn from this and get better at dealing with disputes, and
>for the record, as a public group, Tony can come along and still be part
>of this evolving process, as can any of you.
>
>
>This email list at: http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-bristol
>Archive of this list: http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-bristol/
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>
>
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