[Imc-finance] Italy IMC statement on the Ford Foundation grant issue

[Indymedia Italia]

Italy imc statement on the ford foundation grant proposal

As italy imc we fully support argentina imc and activist statement on
the the possibility that has been envisioned to apply network-wide for a
grant to ford foundation.
We would like to bring our solidarity to argentina activist and people
and our respect for their ability to face the issue in a clear and
respectful way notwithstanding the delicacy of the problem for them.
We think their statement and the discussion they try to open up goes in
the direction of respecting the desire of sharing views and ideas and
the will to support a network and the differences within it, without
this meaning not stating a collective's position or critical view.

As italy imc we think that the network is rooted in local autonomy
within the broad principles that costitutes the ground of being a
network, and that the network role is providing the infrastructure,
communication patterns and protocols, so as to make connection between
local nodes effective and resourceful.
We think the network should not be seen as a stand alone "bureaucratic"
body, but as the strands that connect the different nodes.
As such the global level of the network role is to facilitate a
decision-making process that involves mainly the local node, whether
through a proposal-distributed discussion-approval mechanism or through
the delegation of all decision to the local nodes most involved in a
specific issue.
We remember having supported the concept of liason rather than that of
"delegates" for the local iimc people participating to the global lists,
especially according to this view of networking struggles.

As italy imc we ask that discussion about global proposal or proposal
concerning all of the network should be developed on the list we have
collectively addressed as the global forum for debating and that all of
us and all of the people working on global network level take extra care
to use this "spaces" to carry out discussion that are deemed of network
wide importance.
On the contrary if the issue regards local levels of proposal/decision
then we think it's of the utmost importance that the discussion takes
place in a way that makes it as easy as possible to the local collective
to partecipate (ie: local collective debate spaces, local collective
language as the main discussion language, decision making level in the
local collective hands).

As italy imc we think that the network sustains itself mainly through
the ties od sollidarity, trust and respect among the nodes of the
network and that the network-wide level represents the minimum
structured "bureaucracy" we need to be able to communicate with each
other and share experiences, ideas and project.
We think that this trust relationship is what makes and activist network
more than just a network of people working together towards a common
goal (as corporate network can be) and that it is this trust/respect
bond that constitutes the "additional" value of these projects we all
share. 
To respect and uphold this solidarity relation is the most important aim
we have to share if we want this network to survive and grow, and it is
far more important than any "golden" opportunity we are offered.

Therefore we ask whoever is working on the ford foundation grant to
withdraw from it as indymedia network.

We hope this discussion will be of help in developing the network and
the ground basis that it is built upon; we want to further specify that
the trust and respect in all the people who has been involved into this
is not lessened one bit by this issue and that we think this discussion
is just part of the process of growing and knowing each other, as
traumatic as it can be sometimes :)

In solidarity and respect

italy imc