[imc-tech-solidarity] Sao Paulo ready to go

[Pablo Ortellado]

Dear friends:

Our lawyers just finished their legal study about the possibility of tax=20
exemption for receiving the computers (this itself was a major donation -=20
if we had to pay for it, it would cost us 6,000 reais or US$ 2,000). We=20
found a legal way to demand total tax exemption. We found legal precedents=
=20
in similar cases and its very likely that we get total exemption with this=
=20
legal strategy. With that we now have everything ready for receiving the=20
computers. We have a foundation that works closely with us who already=20
volunteered for receiving the computers. Also, as we mentioned earlier, we=
=20
also got a major donation for distribution of computers through all=20
Brazilian major cities for free.

So, here's our proposal.

1) To have the computers sent to Santos, Brazil to IMC Sao Paulo, by means=
=20
of the Semco Foundation (Funda=E7=E3o Semco).

2) Then, we propose distributing the computers something along these lines:

10 computers to the Semco Foundation as retribution for the legal trouble=20
they will have;
200 computers to be distributed among 17 South American cities. 170=20
computers to 16 Brazilian cities: cities where the IMC Brazil established=20
collectives are located (Porto Alegre, S=E3o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo=20
Horizonte, Brasilia, Fortaleza, Salvador and Goiania) and cities where new=
=20
Indymedia groups are (Bel=E9m, ABC, Florian=F3polis, Campinas, Curitiba and=
=20
Santos - those collectives are in the middle of the process of joining the=
=20
IMC Brasil network). If you look at the map, you can see that those cities=
=20
cover a large part of the continental Brazilian territory. Transportation=20
to those cities, worth several thousands dollars are a private donation of=
=20
a parent of an IMC Sao Paulo volunteer who work at a transportation=20
company. Each city will get 11 computers average for different projects=20
including equipping offices, equipping free radios to internet stream and=20
setting up free Indymedia internet centers in the cities (a project already=
=20
developped with success by Indymedia Sao Paulo in a couple of places). We=20
cannot precise now all the projects or the precise distribution among=20
cities as this depends now on a more long and serious analysis and=20
discussion in the network since previous debate was very informal. However=
=20
we have already mobilized over 50 volunteers from the Linux community all=20
over Brazil who are willing to help with the tech part of the project=20
(installing Linux in Portuguese, setting up networks, etc.). We propose=20
also sending 30 extra computers to Porto Alegre to be directed to Buenos=20
Aires, Rosario and Montevideo. Since re-exporting computers to different=20
countries is very complicated and expensive, IMC Sao Paulo suggest that we=
=20
use the free transportation we received as donation to send some computers=
=20
to a Brazilian city (Porto Alegre) which is a few hours drive both to=20
Uruguay and Argentina and where computers could be picked and transported=20
somehow easily (in a car, for example). With that computers could be sent=20
also to cities outside Brazil relatively easy and with relative little=
 trouble.

A lot of details are still pending. We need to set, for instance, the=20
alleged price computers will be declared and we need to set a lot of legal=
=20
details and transportation issues. We are specially worried, that although=
=20
it is very likely that we get total tax exemption (our lawyers estimate our=
=20
chances in over 90%) there's a small chance that we loose our claim in=20
court, so we should have a plane B, where we pay the very minimum in case=20
we have to pay something.

IMC Sao Paulo is really worried about the lack of process in deciding about=
=20
this project. We also feel we are disputing this computers with other=20
cities and we feel terrible about it as we understand this goes against an=
=20
IMC fundamental value which is cooperation. We really hope this division is=
=20
relatively fair within the hard legal and financial difficulties involving=
=20
the project.

In solidarity,

Pablo
for the IMC Sao Paulo collective