[CIMC-work] FW: [imc-us-process] Giving Up Indybay.org

[Chris Kaihatsu]

______

Please sign the petition calling for an Israel Accountability Act. We are
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Don¹t just sign this petition, but share it with others!

http://www.cnionline.org/petitions/accountability.htm








------ Forwarded Message
> From: hep <hep at linefeed.org>
> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2004 13:06:02 -0700
> To: imc-us-process at lists.indymedia.org
> Cc: sfbay at indymedia.org
> Subject: [imc-us-process] Giving Up Indybay.org
> 
> As of 11:00 this morning (4/6/2004) SF Indymedia has given the
> indybay.org domain management username and password to SFBAY Indymedia.
> 
> We are doing this as a step out of the chaos created by the Indybay
> group when they decided to violate the local mediation agreement we
> made with each other by spamming IMC newswires, joining IMC work
> mailing lists (like new-imc) only to instigate email flamewars, and
> deluging global Indymedia with exactly the kind of English-only
> confusion and disruption that led to imc-us-process's creation in the
> first place.
> 
> SF Indymedia, to date, has never officially given "our side of the
> story" about the conflict in SF. We have repeatedly stated that much
> of it involves local issues, issues of security and confidentiality
> for local activists, and that we are uncomfortable with the way we
> were literally being dragged into a confrontational situation in
> global IMC by the Indybay group. We are disappointed that some global
> IMC participants (and especially Portland IMC) did not respect our
> refusal to fight or engage in divisiveness within the IMC
> network-at-large.
> 
>> From our point of view, this conflict began when a small group of
> Indybay techs began playing power games and using their privilege to
> kick literally dozens of people out of audio/radio/video working
> groups that had existed for years within SF Indymedia. This was the
> core conflict for several months and it eventually expanded as more
> differences (organizational and political) came to the surface. These
> or any other issues we've had with the Indybay group have not really
> been discussed on any global mailing list because we have chosen to
> not participate in what we see as complete process dysfunction.
> Indybay's attempts to manipulate global IMC to "re-write" portions of
> the agreement we made together isn't good for us as activists, isn't
> good for our local community (especially people who are already
> marginalized), and it isn't good for Indymedia as a network.
> 
> SF Indymedia never supported a "split" in our local Indymedia -- we
> argued consistently for many months that we should expand the SF Bay
> Area IMC into an umbrella group, comprised at first of SF and East Bay
> groups (to be followed by many others that could spring up in our
> diverse metropolitan area) acting autonomously. As it happened at the
> time, the two "factions" within SF Indymedia could be divided
> geographically (Indybay living in the East Bay, with SF-IMC people
> living in SF). Unfortunately, at the final mediation meeting, we were
> ambushed by the Indybay group's demand that there would be no
> expansion -- only a split -- with two IMC's overlapping the same area.
> Since then, the Indybay group has continued to act in bad faith to
> create an atmosphere of polarization and factionalization within our
> regional IMC community.
> 
> We insist that Indybay meet our agreement by returning or destroying
> all SF-IMC press passes (see our next email). We insist they come in
> line with our agreement and end their divisive, competitive and
> confrontational attacks within our local community and global IMC. We
> believe that in the past year, the Indybay group has systematically
> violated every Indymedia principle of unity and we urge them to
> re-examine their actions and make reparations.
> 
> SF Indymedia is continuing our tradition of being a valuable asset to
> our local community as well as the global IMC network. We are trying
> to keep our focus on preparations for a major activist mobilization in
> our city this June (only a few blocks from our new workspace), the
> critical national elections being held this year, and, in addition,
> our day-to-day obligations in supporting local activism and
> independent media. We urge global IMC, our regional IMC allies, and
> anyone interested in Indymedia's success in general to support our
> call for an end to the disruption created by this unresolved conflict.
> 
> Signed,
> San Francisco Indymedia
> http://sf.indymedia.org/
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> imc-us-process mailing list
> imc-us-process at lists.indymedia.org
> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-us-process
> 

------ End of Forwarded Message