[Imcuk public] [New-imc] renaming IMC-UK is a bad idea

[balmuswell]

Dear Richard

I met you both in Genoa and in Brighton when you and someone else had 
cycled across. As a relatively new member of the group. I have never felt 
it was a UK site is a London base but time and money restricts us from 
visiting other towns. More importantly, on a personal level, the reaction 
to 911 and how the site was used and the effort by various people to 
ensure that people across the country could be both informed and inform 
us of events was a true testimony to how it seeks to reflect the views of 
people across the UK.

I am concerned that we are having a restricted debate as it diminishes 
the value of a collective which is about empowering and not disempowering 
people. Such discussions must be conducted within groups and not as a 
solo exercise as the collective has enough responsbilities apart from 
engaging in debates that should be dealt with in an open discussion. I am 
uncertain of the politics behind this debate but I hope that everyone in 
this collective is always certain that it is about helping to inform and 
let other people inform us of matters (ie shared ideas) and not 
personality clashes that will ensure that we do the right thing. The 
group engages in discussions and this ensures that everyones view is 
allowed. I do not always agree but I respect other peoples views amd 
would abide by a group choice. Indymedia has been a learning exercise and 
shown me many of my shortcomings but I am here because my hope that 
someone will listen and we can change the world will never go away and I 
cannot think of a more creatively inspirational and vibrant group than 
this one. Not because I share all their ideas but that there is a will to 
listen and engage in real debates and then make choices based on what has 
been heard and how they feel. 

I hope that you will not send a long reply but will meet the group and 
discuss the matters so we can expend our energy into more important 
things such as civilians being killed, continued privatisation - those 
are the debates I wish to utilise my energy. This is not on behalf of 
anyone but I wish to use just enough energy to say that I hope there is a 
will to sort it out or we can continue exchanging tit for tat emails. 

1 of IMC UK 

Richard Malter wrote on 14/11/01 5:29 pm:

>Hello Andrew and Pennie and everyone,
>
>The basic idea that people around the UK should have a place to post their 
>reports, and *how* to do this (implementation), are not the same thing. 
>There 
>are many possible implementations. That's the starting point for the 
>discussion, especially now with bristol.indymedia coming into existence. 
>
>Indymedia UK/IMC-UK [same thing] consists of a number of groups and many 
>individuals: it is a network - as described in the header of 
>uk.indymedia.org. 
>The collective in London that does work on the website currently named 
>'IMC-UK' 
>is one part of that network. 
>
>This relationship was recognized months ago and was carefully expressed in 
>the 
>Mission Statement published on the UK site.     
>
>The implementation of the Indymedia UK network has to reflect this 
>situation. 
>
>This is the basic positive premise for discussion and solution; and why 
>change 
>is necessary in this instance. Rather than the other (wrong) way round, 
>which 
>comes down to arguments for 'not doing' something, 'not changing', like an 
>institution preserving itself.
>
>An implementation that would match the situation is a uk.indymedia.org 
>website -
> similar to a 'splash' page. It has on it an open newswire for reports from 
>around the country, and links to London IMC, Bristol IMC etc. Something like 
>that. This is a similar idea to the global page www.indymedia being a 
>place for 
>people to post reports from geographical areas not yet covered by the global 
>Indymedia network.
>It could also have an editorial columnn maintained by a countrywide team, a 
>newswire team etc. By each link to the city IMCs there could also be a 
>description of the features available on these city IMCs - for example if 
>there 
>is an international news page to be found there, science page etc.
>
>
>Another reason for change in this sitaution is diversity. If we have one 
>(small) group of people editorializing a national page for all the (many) 
>readers of a countrywide website then we have duplicated corporate media all 
>over again. This is a very poor situation.
>
>The politics of that one group is/will also be the editorial basis for the 
>countrywide site. People mostly only join groups they feel afinity with. 
>So the 
>politics of any one group will propogate and remain limited. In similar ways 
>corporate media propogates its limitedness. 
>
>I hope Indymedia will be different to this.
>
>The implementation of the Indymedia network has to be worked out before any 
>site redisign is done on uk.indymedia.org unless that site first has a 
>change 
>of url to london.indymedia.org. And any site redesign work must be done 
>publicly, consulting all parts of the UK Indymedia network.
>
>Richard
>
>
>
>---
>Pennie Quinton  wrote: -
>
>Dear Richard 
>
>>I do not want to change the name of IMC UK to IMC 
>>London, as  we report on actions all over the country. 
>>If IMC Bristol wants to just cover Bristol actions 
>>then that is fine, but Imc UK works globally as well 
>>locally. 
>>I feel very strongly that IMC UK is being pressured by 
>>those who want to set up their own IMC in Bristol and 
>>this does not seem fair. 
>>Pennie 
>> 1 of IMC
> 
>[]
>Andrew wrote; - 
>>hello everyone 
>>Yes this is great the bristol IMC we definatly need more IMCs in the uk 
>>I would like to point out that IMC-UK may be based in London but it covers 
>>the whole of the country and Scotland Wales and untill IMC-Ireland is up and 
>>running we are taking their reports as well if we were to change the name to 
>>IMC-London we would be alienating all of the above geografical areas 
>>including the north of England 
>>as alot of people outside of london have alot of resentment towards the 
>>south east because it gets most attention from goverment, buisness, funding, 
>>etc etc and feel ignored because they do not live in a particular part of 
>>the country 
>>I for one would not feel right working for IMC-London untill those areas had 
>>their own IMCs, and I think that many in the UK collective would feel the 
>>same as many of us are not originally from London . 
>>I myself am Irish 
>>this is my personal view and just wanted to put it on record that I totally 
>>oppose any name change of IMC-UK 
>>thanks for your time 
>>In solidarity 
>>Andrew(one of IMC-UK) 
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