[Imc-india] Re: [imc-wsf] IMC in Mumbai / IYC

[evan]

Hello Patrick

My name is Evan, with my partner Gaba we work with indymedia in Uruguay 
and generally as a techies. I've been trying to work with Harsh and 
Vickram from India Indymedia. Vickram lives in Mumbai and has working 
on helping coordinate between indymedia and the WSF.

On Friday, Jan 2, 2004, at 04:27 US/Eastern, patcad wrote:

> Greetings,
> This is Patrick from Quebec.indymedia.
> I'm in Mumbai now trying to coordinate a a indy media room with the 
> media and communications comittee of the YOC/IYC.

That's great. Everything seems to need a bit more coordination and 
there seems to be a number of parallel projects.


> We have very little information from the network at this moment.

Indymedia in India is not as established as it is in Brazil, and 
combined with the different political has changed the organizing and 
the relationship to the World Social Forum. I'm cc'ing the indymedia 
india mailinglist to try and bring more people in to the loop.

Vickram, Harsh, and some of us who have been working towards indymedia 
projects at the WSF have been talking to the Media and Communications 
folks at the WSF. The general plan which is being implemented is to 
setup a small media center with half a dozen computers and a streaming 
web radio station. We have not talked about setting up a larger 
indymedia center at the Youth Camp. We heard a rumor that somebody was 
working on something like that, but nobody gave us an email or any way 
to get a hold of these people.

Perhaps your email is the opening we need to get communication flowing 
better.

> We need to know:
> : is everyone ok with having the IMCenter within the IYC.

I'm speaking for my self on this, but this is my take on the 
relationship between indymedia and the WSF 2004 in Mumbai. During the 
second WSF in Brazil indymedia had a media lab setup at the official 
WSF youth camp  in a space which was also used a number of community 
radio stations and a very loud DJ. The space was dubbed the 'World 
Socializing Forum' as it was loud, nobody went to sleep 'til the crack 
of dawn, and the space was very open. It had a feeling of a brazilian 
rainbow gathering with a lot of hard left radical groups thrown in the 
middle of the camp.  The music was so loud it was difficult to have a 
conversation. A number of laptops were stolen from the indymedia space 
and it was flooded when it rained heavily.

My primary concerns about an effective media working space at the youth 
camp are the logistical ones mentioned above. Of course, it goes 
without saying that Indians and Brazilians have very different 
cultures. A camp organized by Indians will be very different. Perhaps 
the media tent will physically be setup differently. I think that 
security against theft could be even more important in Mumbai.

>  Are there any reasons not to associate IMC with IYC? If there are 
> political differents, these should be expressed so that every one 
> involved know about them. Namely, is there talk of IMC joining with 
> Mumbai Resistance 2004. If so, it needs to be said that a great many 
> people from outside of India are going to participate in IYC...

In Brazil, Indymedia has it's core networks and support within the 
anarchist, punk movements and among university students. The World 
Social Forum has it's power within very institutionalized leftist 
unions and the Workers Party (PT) which is a popular front type 
coalition of many leftist parties and tendencies. The one movement 
which both indymedia and the WSF organizers both support is that of 
MST, the rural landless worker's movement, which itself is somewhat 
excluded from the WSF.

The primary critiques of the WSF and PT are of their anti-democratic 
internal structure, institutionalization, and their reformist and 
statist politics. Some parts of the Brazilian left has always boycotted 
the WSF, while indymedia and activists connected to PGA (People's 
Global Action) have focused on setting up parallel forums.

Mumbai Resistance 2004 is another beast all together. They have copied 
and reposted articles from indymedia activists in brazil and others 
against the WSF, but they do not share the radically democratic or 
autonomist political perspective. As far as I can tell there is little 
political common ground between Indymedia and MR2004 except that both 
have people with a critique of the WSF as being reformist and not 
representing their radical politics.

Because there is not the same political environment between the WSF 
organizers and Indymedia in India i expect that people are more willing 
to cooperate and collaborate on projects than when the WSF is held in 
Brazil.

There will be a meeting of PGA activists outside the WSF and i expect 
many indymedia activists will attend and participate.

> : how many IMCists are coming to Mumbai; from which collective; when; 
> so that we can figure out how many journalists/mediactivists need 
> acces to the IYC media facilities;

We do not know how many people will be attending from indymedia 
centers. We know at least a dozen people. During the WSF in Brazil 
there were around 200 people working on the indymedia project, not 
counting people who's primary activity was with other groups and did 
not use the media center. We had 30 computers for the IMC and they were 
all almost always occupied.

Many activists came overland from brazil, uruguay, argentina, bolivia, 
and as far away as colombia by land. We won't be having nearly as many 
south asians as indymedia does not have the same network in south asia 
as we do in south america. On the other hand there might be more 
europeans.

The reality is that it's all guesswork.

> : do you plan to stay at the IYC?

Some people will be, many will not. If you have video cameras, 
computers, and other expensive equipment it is dangerous to stay in the 
camp.

> : if you plan on bringing material, what are you bringing with you?

We will be brining between 2 and 4 computers which people in the Boston 
IMC are helping recycle. They are pentium III's with 128 megs of ram 
and 6 gig hard drives. They won't have monitors. The idea is to leave 
them with indymedia or other social movement groups would could make 
good use of the computers. We will also be bringing a 8 port 10/100 hub 
and some ethernet cable.

I expect that many indymedia activists coming from the first world will 
be bringing their own laptops, digital cameras, video cameras, minidisc 
recorders. Those things are not generally shared.

Vickram will be supplying a mixing board and mic's and 3 minidisc 
recorders to use with the web radio station. The WSF Media and Comms 
Committee has asked us to stream the main introduction ceremony and 
some of the bigger talks in exchange for their supplying the space, a 
few computers to use, and a net connection.

> : is mumbai.indymedia going along with this? How can we reach each 
> other?

You should be emailing the following mailinglists, 
imc-india at indymedia.org and imc-wsf at indymedia.org. Indymedia Mumbai is 
not a functioning organization. Vickram is the only indymedia person 
from Mumbai.

> What has been discussed so far:
> : there is a large room on the IYC venue dedicated to a indymedia 
> center, possibly two rooms.

First off, i personally like the idea of having an indymedia center at 
the IYC. It will help us introduce the idea of participatory media 
making to many activists in a concrete hands on way.  Thank you very 
much for organizing and pushing forward with this space.

It is much better if the space has doors which can be shut and locked, 
a space which can be somewhat controlled so we don't have all the 
equipment stolen. In Brazil we had an open air space with a roof and it 
did not work out well. If there is a loud music system, please can the 
indymedia center be far away from the large speakers.

> : priority will be given to Indy media; some basic facilities are 
> going to be provided to corporate media.

We will need to discuss the relationship between indymedia and the WSF 
media resources made available to the corporate media. At the same 
time, many indymedia activists will have official WSF press credentials.

> : techies are going to arrange for enough connecting facilitie for a 
> large number of computers, including a hub for laptops.

Cool.

> : Alex from boston.indymedia has been in touch with Giuseppe from the 
> IYC and has projected the possibility of renting about 20 computers 
> with a few scanners and peripheral material. Can this be confirmed?

I have a question. Are you, the IYC, and the WSF offering to supply the 
space, the space and internet connection, the computers, tables.....?

My question is this. What are we trying have to supply from the 
'indymedia' end of things?

My understanding is that a computer in Mumbai can be rented for a month 
for about $55 USD.

> Personnaly, I am shooting a documentary film on the IYC and the 
> various network stemming from it. I strongly believe that IMC should 
> take seriously this opportunity to work with the IYC and its thousands 
> of participants from all over the world. This is going to be one 
> extroardinary event!
> There is a great deal of things to be discussed around and about WSF 
> and IYC. But let us not forget about the important thing, which is 
> getting together, learning, working and building together.
> I hope to hear from you very soon and hopefully see you in the coming 
> weeks.

I too look forward to working with you in Mumbai. Gabriela and I will 
be arriving on the 14th. Max from indymedia Michigan will be there on 
the 7th.

Does anybody know if you can rent cell phones or buy gms sim's to get a 
local number in Mumbai?

in solidarity,
evan