[IMC Bombay] Plans for Indymedia and World Social Forum in Mumbai?

[evan]

[ Language: see my note at the bottom about language. ]

Hi folks,

My name is evan, i'm an indymedia activist and techie with indymedia 
Uruguay. Along with my partner Gaba, we're going to be coming to the 
World Social Forum, January 16-22, 2003.

So far i haven't seen any discussion about organizing the indymedia 
center in Mumbai for the WSF. I assume that the local IMC Mumbai folks 
will be taking the lead. There hasn't been discussion on the 
mailinglist.

I have a proposal. Let's create a mailinglist to start the discussion, 
maybe imc-wsf-2004 at indymedia.org. Then once things get a little more 
organized we can send out an invitation and call for participation.

I expect that the WSF in India will be VERY different than having it in 
Latin America. The languages are different, the political movements are 
different, the ideological and political cultures are different, and 
the relationship between indymedia activists and the local WSF 
organizers are different.

Ok, here are my questions:
* What is the situation with space?
* Is the official forum going to be in just in one area or spread out 
in the city?
* Would it be possible to get space and a net connection from the WSF 
for the indymedia center?
* During the Asian Social Forum in Hydrabad there was a proposal that 
indymedia run the press center, can somebody give a little more context 
about that.
* In Brazil, the IMC more radical and generally against the Workers 
Party and WSF. What is the situation in India?
* What's the situation with social movements which are more radical 
than the Social Forum? In Brazil some boycotted the WSF and didn't come 
while others setup counter and parallel forums.
* What is the relationship between the Indian Communist Party, the 
World Social Forum, and Indymedia?
* How organized is Indymedia in India and Mumbai? How many people, 
meetings, projects, offices, computers, finances?
* What are the costs and issues with getting a broadband internet 
connection in Mumbai?

in solidarity,
evan

[ LANGUAGE: I assume all the emails about the WSF and India should be 
in english? After 10 years of disuse, my Hindi is almost nonexistent. I 
doubt anybody in India speaks much Spanish. In other events such as 
this we have made a large effort to do multilingual organizing, i don't 
know if we need to for Mumbai. ]