[CIMC-working] (IMC conference for North America?) Fwd: Re: [IMC-Process] Regional IMC meetings (was: New IMC or reform Old IMC: Dealing with Disputes)

[Chris Kaihatsu]

-- Forwarded Message --

While it's always nice to see out-of-town IMCistas when they come to town, I
think that a meeting here in Washington is inadequate to what the IMC needs
to accomplish and may actually compound the problems that the IMC is having.

Let me outline my objections to this idea:

1) Several people in the IMC network, including myself, having been calling
for a series of IMC network conventions/meetings to discuss process issues
and our politics. These calls go back for some time, possibly more than a
year. I think we all wanted to see a series of regional conferences, so that
IMC activists outside the U.S. wouldn't be expected to travel to the U.S.
for 
a meeting. I think many of us seek to set up meetings that challenge the
U.S.-centric nature of the IMC network. For example, there could be
concurrent IMC network meetings on each continent that covered the same
agenda.
2) If this meeting idea is to be done right, it needs a weekend of meetings,
some preparation of documents and agenda, and the right amount of focus.
While summit protests are good venues for general IMC network meetings, they
are a poor venue for the type of serious IMC conventions that need to take
place. And local IMCistas would not be able to fully participate because of
the distractions of the weekend.
3) Having a serious meeting about process and politics, while IMC people are
also doing lots of media work, is just impossible.
4) If we were to have a regional/continental meeting for North America, a
more logical location would be Chicago, Denver, or Houston. Those cities are
central to the continent are are convenient to most forms of transportation.
5) Having this conference in D.C. during a summit protest privileges the
same 
set of IMC network regulars who have the means to constantly attend these
events. In other words, a conference in DC would allow IMC summit-hoppers to
make decisions concerning the IMC network.
6) Even if out of towm IMC people help with the conference, the logistical
work would still be added to the work that IMC people are doing to keep the
physical IMC space running that weekend.

At this point, you may be saying to yourself that this is just another
network meeting. It's not. The serious of IMC conferences that some of us
have been talking about would be big affairs, where decisions would be made
about IMC processes and fundamental stuff like the politics of the IMC
network. It would be imperative to involve as many IMC stakeholders as
possible. Think of this as the "IMC Constitutional Convention" if you will.
And it wouldn't just be one convention in North America, but concurrent ones
around the world.

Lastly, I have some personal objections to this proposal. I think that it
replicates the insensitive way that non-Washington activists treat
Washington 
activists. We are always expected to host your meetings, marches,
mobilizations, summit protests, and so on. Our activist community is
constantly inundated with protest after protest that are organized by
outsiders. We have little time to pursue our own local projects. We see our
resources depleted without outsiders giving us anything back to keep us
going. We are left holding the bag on legal fallout.

Speaking for myself, I'm tired of playing the party host all the time. You
won't believe this, but I've never gotten the opportunity to attend a summit
protest outside of Washington. Not Seattle, Philly, L.A., Cincinnati,
Prague, 
Quebec City, New York, or even the WSF conferences. In fact, I've been
unemployed since the Quebec City protests. I think that I haven't been able
to get out to these protests because my schedule was always filled up with
organizing for Washington protests.

I'm always happy to see IMC people visit D.C., but I think this is a bad
proposal.

Chuck0

------------------------------------------------------------
Personal homepage        -> http://chuck.mahost.org/
Infoshop.org             -> http://www.infoshop.org/
MutualAid.org            -> http://www.mutualaid.org/
Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/
Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/
Anarchy: AJODA           -> http://www.anarchymag.org/

"The state can't give you free speech, and the state can't take it away.
You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something
you 
assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to
which 
you resist is the degree to which you are free..."
---Utah Phillips





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