[Imc-finance] Ford & Indymedia

[john freebury]

Hello,

Having read into the emails, my first thought is that we all know how 
important small bits of information can be in changing the outcome of 
something, how easy it is for a small message to have a huge affect. i 
can not respond to all of Sheri's questions right now but i want to 
respond directly to the situation. If Indymedia was your body's immune 
system and you fed your immune system the wrong message, you would 
become sick. The word "Ford" is there for a reason and i sense that we 
need to respect the fact that small words like that mean different 
things to different people.

So why would we risk poisoning the network? The points that have been 
raised by everyone who is in favor of having "no strings attached" are 
*excellent* arguments -- i agree that Indymedia needs to think clearly 
about building strategic relationships, to build itself as an immune 
system amongst other immune systems. There are other foundations and 
other opportunities, so people's effort toward this FF grant is all 
great work (xoxo). Accepting funding "no strings attached" is a good 
start and we now seem to be going beyond that to recognize our 
priorities, to ensure that Indymedia does not poison itself in other 
ways -- this dialogue is a demonstration that our process of openness is 
working.

In my mind, solidarity with the Argentina imc is simply a higher 
priority -- funding for regional face-to-face meetings will become a 
reality, but only if Indymedia sticks to its priorities, solidarity 
being perhaps the greatest.

take care,

john
alberta imc




Sheri Herndon wrote:

> * apologies for cross-posting *
> * could someone please post a translation please *
>
> hello friends,
>
> many of you have heard pieces of this conversation and some of you are 
> hearing about this for the first time. sebastian just posted something 
> to imc finance which i have not had a chance to read but will as soon 
> as i can. i am in the middle of a conference we've organized here in 
> seattle called reclaim the media (www.reclaimthemedia.org) and i will 
> be making this short. more details and dialogue to follow.
>
> after spending several hours talking to micah on the phone last night 
> who has been talking on irc with our friends in argentina imc and 
> getting more information to help us figure out what is going on, it is 
> clear that we have a serious problem and that taking funds from the 
> ford foundation might jeopardize the work of imc argentina and some 
> would go so far as to say it would jeopardize the network as a whole.
>
> so we must seriously figure this out. is it as easy as just saying 
> okay no we won't take these funds? perhaps. i am open to that, but 
> perhaps there are other issues here that we can learn from as we move 
> forward and figure out things together as a network.
>
> while the simple goal of the grant to ford was to fund regional 
> indymedia face to face gatherings (without any strings or conditions), 
> the deeper long term goal of even having these meetings is to build 
> network solidarity and to strengthen our connections are a network. 
> becky from ford has basically given us a yes to funding a 2 year 
> travel fund to be used at our discretion for $50,000 to be funnelled 
> through urbana imc.
>
> after learning more about the concerns raised by our brothers and 
> sisters in argentina about the ford foundation's role in their country 
> (not only in the far past in support of the dictatorship, but also 
> more recent history), it is clear that taking funds from the ford 
> foundation would not achieve our goal of building network solidarity 
> and thus we must question this decision and choice.
>
> this is critical. balancing the decentralized nature of the network 
> and local working group/local imc autonomy with the greater network is 
> always going to be a dance, sometimes delicate, sometimes confusing, 
> sometimes a challenge.
>
> so while for many people, taking funds from this foundation and using 
> them to do exactly what we want and to help us fund meetings across 
> the network is not a problem, it is for imc-argentina and others. what 
> is at stake?
>
> questions we need to figure out:
>
> * is our only option to refuse a travel fund from ford foundation?
>
> * what are the activities and how well documented are these activities 
> that ford foundation has supposedly engaged in? it is still unclear to 
> many of us. however, what is quite clear is that many people in 
> argentina believe that ford foundation has funded people and groups 
> that have been ultimately responsible for killing people. and not just 
> during the dictatorship, but more recently. perhaps we need to do some 
> more investigation on this and find out what exactly is the relationship?
>
> * is there a way to take the funds so that the imc in argentina and 
> the communities they work with will be satisfied?
>
> * as a decentralized network with local autonomy, how do we make 
> decisions about taking money from different places, such as 
> foundations? is it as easy as coming to consensus that yes we do, or 
> no we never do? or is there a balancing point?
>
> * can we develop a healthy process through which we can resolve this 
> issue so that we have a win-win situation?
>
> i know that the people who have been working on raising funds for 
> regional/continental/international encuentros have a clear goal that 
> it is for helping the network to grow in terms of solidarity, 
> awareness and coordination and communication. if we take funds from 
> somewhere (regardless of who they are) that would work against this 
> goal, then we are working against that fundamental goal and we thus 
> must reconsider our strategy.
>
> but many movements and radical organizations have taken funds from 
> foundations and continued to do good work. this is not new for 
> movements and some groups have opted to refuse funds from foundations 
> and others have chosen to do so without any strings. what do we as 
> indymedia network want to do? what can we do as local imcs raising 
> money for projects outside of our local sphere? how to balance these 
> issues?
>
> so, i have asked many questions. i do not have an attachment to this 
> money from ford or to pushing it through. however, i hope that as a 
> precedent we will consider how to work through a process like this so 
> that in the future we can balance all the needs of the network. 
> perhaps ford is just the worse foundation out there. perhaps we just 
> cross ford off the list? but can any local imc ever approach the ford 
> foundation without it jeopardizing the entire network?
>
> i do not want to do anything that would jeopardize the argentina imc 
> or have their critical work in their community jeopardized. they feel 
> that taking this money from ford would do that. we must listen to this 
> and be in solidarity with them......their work in argentina and to the 
> rest of the world is invaluable....we all know this. we want to make 
> choices as a network that support our collective work.
>
> alot of information now has been presented to everyone,
> we have alot of things to discuss,
>
> love & solidarity
> sheri
>
>