[CIMC-working] complaints with San Diego IMC FW: [Resolve] Re: [IMC-Process] New IMC or reform Old IMC

[Chris Kaihatsu]

----------
From: Jim Carter <momar11@cox.net>
Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2002 17:02:14 -0800
To: mediacollective@students.sou.edu
Cc: Sheri Herndon <sheri@indymedia.org>,
new-imc-request@lists.indymedia.org, resolve@indymedia.org,
imc-process@lists.indymedia.org, petros_cyprus@burleehost.net, jay@tao.ca
Subject: [Resolve] Re: [IMC-Process] New IMC or reform Old IMC

Yes I've had to leave San Diego IMC over similar things. Out and out lying,
name calling, the exposing of anonymous posters. Even "blaming" me to other
members behind my back for posts I didn't write. People in the "collective"
refusing to work with other leftists based on their political ideology
rather than the work they're doing. Red Baiting, homophobe baiting, fascist
baiting, any names are ok as long as they're used against people you don't
like.

The process needs to be changed or there needs to be a provision for
multiple IMCs in the same town.

Jim


At 01:11 PM 12/5/2002, Media Collective wrote:
>This is Andy Rice speaking, as an individual who has been severely burned
>by my
>involvement in IMC.
>
>I see no hope for any consistent prinicpled resolution whatsoever of anything,
>or for any genuinely democratic collective process, so long as there is no
>formal membership criteria or formal democratic decision-making process
>ensured
>on the local level by global enforcement of adherance to basic IMC principles.
>
>Without these fundamental elements, any persistent dispute is reduced to
>endless bickering, anti-democratic manipulation, and powerplays, like what has
>happened in Portland, where the "editorial committee" has dissolved the
>General
>Collective and subsumed all power over the site to their own handpicked
>clique,
>by nefarious means.
>
>Just like in Eugene, these unprincipled elements have consistently used
>adhominem attack, copbaiting, and deliberate sabotage to drive away or purge
>anyone who criticizes their exclusive clique, and to destroy any genuine
>democratic viability or diversity of direct community involvement in the
>"collective".
>
>I say again, the whole notion of a "loose collective" is an oxymoron, and a
>deliberate sabotage of IMC viability in favor of the chaos freaks, or any
>determined group of elitist weasels who are willing to lie and cheat to seize
>hegemony.
>
>The only option available is for IMC activists to make up their mind, whether
>they seriously want to build a diverse democratic collective, with a real
>process for genuuinely democratic decision making, as the only viable
>means for
>resolving conflicts, or whether they want to see IMC taken over, discredited
>and destroyed by infighting, infiltration and sabotage, locally and globally.
>
>Democratic collectivization is difficult and labor intensive, and no utopian
>panacea, but it is the only alternative to inevitable destructive ripoff by
>entropic chaos, or getting frozen into rigid authoritarian hierarchical
>control, such as what has happened in Portland and Eugene (their adamant
>denials of this obvious truth notwithstanding).
>
>Anarchy is not about "freedom" to run amok against the collective
>interest.  It
>is a democratic, communist theory, requiring suppression by coercion of
>counter-revolutionary elements, in a genuinely democratic manner (as
>opposed to
>non-democratic elitist capital-c "Communism").
>
>People need to get over the prejudicial self-serving negative anti-democratic
>connotations imposed by priviliged bourgeois ultraindividualim on such
>terms as
>"enforcement", "suppression" and "coercion".  This is not about unjust
>"oppression" of peoples' "freedom" or being mean or gratuitously violent or
>abusive. It's about preventing counter-revolutionary traitors from destroying
>all of the work we have fought and died for, over so many generations, all
>over
>ther world.
>
>Justice requires prevention and correction of injustice, and that can only be
>accomplished democratically, certainly not by "anything goes" chaos or
>priviliged defiance of the common interest in favor of subjective elitist
>individual proclivities.  The only means of maximizing universal individual
>freedom is a just society, which can never be created by elites, or by chaos.
>
>Andy Rice (aka android9)
>
>Sheri Herndon wrote:
>
> > hi friends,
> > i know this list has its purpose, as do many other lists, and we're
> > trying to keep that focus....come up with a conflict resolution
> > policy?  is that our directive specifically.  anyway, i just wanted
> > to share this email to new imc because i think it kind of gets at the
> > heart of a certain kind of conflict resolution....and it's something
> > we haven't really addressed as a whole.
> > i just wanted to share it here for future discussions.  and to
> > perhaps engage the larger network with this conversation as well.
> > not just this list.
> > ciao
> > sheri
>
> > >Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 13:25:40 -0800
> > >Delivered-To: sheri@indymedia.org
> > >From: "SEAMAN,WILL (HP-Vancouver,ex1)" <will.seaman@hp.com>
> > >Subject: [New-imc] New IMC or reform Old IMC
>
> > >Dear IMC,
> > >
> > >What does IMC do if there is significant dissatisfaction with a local IMC?
> > >In other words, suppose a local IMC is consistently not living up to the
> > >standards of being an IMC (are there any such standards?  what if a
> > >collective is taken over by a bunch of neo-Nazis?).  Does the national
> > >(global?) IMC ever revoke an IMC website?
> > >
> > >What if somebody wants to form an IMC in a city where there already exists
> > >an IMC?  Suppose there's a "split" in the local IMC collective, a
> > >substantive disagreement over tactics or policy.  For example, some
> > >collectives moderate their posts, others do not.  Suppose somebody
> gets fed
> > >up with the VolksFront posting on the site, and decides to split off to
> > >start up a new site, with moderated posting.  What does IMC do?
> > >
> > >In case there's any doubt, these are not "academic" questions.  I want to
> > >know what the options are for media activists.
> > >
> > >Many thanks,
> > >
> > >Will Seaman
>
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