[CIMC-work] (on the women's proposal issue) Fwd: [imc-us-process] re: proposals for this list/process and forward thinking

[Chris Kaihatsu]

----- Begin forwarded message -----
From: sfschism at riseup.net
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 22:59:31 -0800 (PST)
To: imc-us-process at lists.indymedia.org
Subject: [imc-us-process] re: proposals for this list/process and forward thinking
Reply-To: "A process discussion list for U.S.-based IMCs" <imc-us-process at lists.indymedia.org>

Hullo.
I think the recent posts by Freedom, Garth and others are a shred of hope
for how we might proceed with utilizing this list and establishing some
structure for others to build on.

As someone that was very actively involved in collaborating on the
"Women's Proposal" on the women's list, I have struggled for awhile now as
to how to articulate the things that I was seeing, not only within my old
IMC (the original SF-IMC), but within the network as a whole.  I
originally joined the women's list because there were so few women (2-3)
in my own collective and I was becoming very concerned due to things that
I felt I obviously did not have the power to change.  Soon after joining,
a woman wrote saying she was leaving her collective.  She was not the only
one, and since then I have seen women leave collectives from San Francisco
to Ithaca to Berlin and the Middle East.  A literal hemorraging of
valuable female voices, who got so fed up and frustrated at their
inability to be heard or respected that they left.  What a step to take. 
At the time, I found it incredibly depressing and I questioned my own
continuing involvement with my collective, feeling that the whole project
must somehow be a sham and hollow.

I could go on, but I don't really feel comfortable talking too much about
specific gender issues on this list.  I do feel very inspired by what I am
hearing people say, though, and it gives me hope that the Women's proposal
will not be just another "token" piece of process that doesn't go
anywhere.  I think a key is most definitely enforcement.  It is easy and
trite to fill out a questionaire that asks you how you are recruiting
women or people of color or so on and so forth - those who are controlling
a site can say pretty much whatever they want.  And do.  But, I think it
is essential that people listen to the smaller voices, the ones from
people within the collective that might disagree and say, "Well, actually,
we really AREN'T doing enough outreach and here's why and how can we
change it?" It's funny, when I first started working with Indymedia, I
felt that I had nothing to offer.  I couldn't write code, or edit video
and didn't know how to update the site.  People weren't really available
to train me, and I felt like I was in the way.  So, I started by
organizing some benefits.  But, I didn't feel like that put me on the same
level as the men in my collective, and I felt that at meetings, I didn't
have the right to point things out or bring them up - after all, I was
only doing "outreach".  How boring, how female - how NOT really essential
to the core of Indymedia.  Now, I do much more technical things and know
the value and necessity of training others - but my views on outreach have
changed.  I realize now that it IS actually the most essential part of
Indymedia, vital to its survival.  I wish that someday we could change the
value of such a role and give it the respect it deserves.  I don't think
that will happen through new-IMC applications, though that's a nice stab
at prevention.  No, I think it will only happen when we begin to start
looking at the past and present, the existing IMC network.  I think one of
the reasons our proposal passed was because existing IMC'ers didn't feel
threatened or even addressed.  "Oh, they're not talking to ME or MY imc -
we've already been around."  But, existing IMC's are the problem; in
addition, they are the role models for new IMC's.  What a contradiction to
fill out that form and then know that bs like this is still happening in
some of the oldest IMC's in the network.

Anyway.
Hopefully we can continue to talk about these things like the very real
and serious issues that they are - I truly believe it's the only way
Indymedia will ever be a sustainable project and reach its full potential.
 At any rate, as an individual, I'm very interested in participating in
this process and I like the proposals that have been thrown out so far. 
Let's keep talking about this!

Thanks for the positive emails.
paz,
Sunny
(nice to talk about something besides arbitration)
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