[New-imc] Eastern Mediterranean IMC / Mailings and Updates

[Petros Evdokas]

Eastern Mediterranean IMC
Mailings and Updates
-------------------------------------

Subject: imc -stuff
Date:  Tue, 13 Nov 2001 11:08:27 +0200

From: Petros Evdokas <petrosarbee at yahoo.com>
To: barkin <barkinkarsli at yahoo.com>

Merhaba Barkin,

How are things going for you?

Attached is a message for you and me, from Sabri.
I've re-invited her to join Kalimerhaba and to have a
look at our imc efforts. 

This brings me to some imc-related questions. Perhaps
you have some thoughts on the following?

How shall we deal with the fact that Turkey -imc is
now  defunct? Should we be looking at our mission (the
mission for the Eastern Mediterranean -imc) to be
partly devoted to help another Turkey -imc become
organised? Would it best to leave it and see what
happens? Are there any people connected to the
previous
Turkey -imc (otonomedia) who were worthy as comrades,
whom we should invite to join us? 

In the broader picture, both in Turkey and outside,
are
there any organizations and individuals whom we should
be inviting to join our efforts? 

Do you think the time may have come for us to start
inviting openly with public announcements such as
through
Kalimerhaba, Aegean Friends, both on-line and
off-line,
through leaflets and other progressive /radical
gatherings, and anywhere else there might be possible
supporters?

What kinds of things should we do to encourage the
formation of local Eastern Mediterranean -imc groups
of
members and friends, to meet and work together? For
example, regardless of whether a local Cyprus -imc
becomes formed or not, there will be some people in
Cyprus working on the broader picture, *specifically*
for the regional Eastern Mediterranean -imc, who will
be meeting to do some work for that project. The same
we hope, will eventually happen in Egypt, Palestine,
Jordan, Israel,  Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and Greece,
perhaps even Kurdistan and Armenia (I don't know if we
have such a broad scope, but I'm open!).  I hope this
will happen both in places which have "their own"
local
imc, and also in places which don't.

So, the formation of local groups affiliated with
Eastern Mediterranean -imc, regardless of the
existence
of any other local, autonomous imc, will be a very
welcome and wonderful development. How shall we pursue
this?

Now that I re-read this, I guess we should open up
this investigation with all of our friends at the
discussion group - would that be ok?

Petros

###########

Subject: Re: imc -stuff
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 22:21:42 -0800 (PST)
From: barkIn karsLI <barkinkarsli at yahoo.com>


Dear Petros,

For smb. living in Turkey, things seem quite ok for
the moment. The new issue is being prepared for the
third eye .( btw. We're open to your new offers for
writing smth. to the new issue, your essay was enjoyed
generally). & Sabri is not a her but a him : )

my answers to imc-related questions:

i) I can see no way to get in contact with those
of the otonomedia group. I do not know
what to do with and without them but I know good
opposition/alternative groups here and
ecologist/anarchist (and, unlike some, they are
against
violence). There are some people to invite but firstly
we should decide when and what and how. What do you
think? In the broader sense there're some good groups
also but this also depends on our answers to the above
cited questions.

ii) >Do you think the time may have come for us to
start
>inviting openly with public announcements ...
>..and other progressive /radical
>gatherings, and anywhere else there might be possible
>supporters? 
>
>What kinds of things should we do to encourage the
>formation of local Eastern Mediterranean -imc groups
of
>members and friends, to meet and work together? For
>example, ...
>..I hope this
>will happen both in places which have "their own"
>local
>imc, and also in places which don't.

--> can u let me think a bit more on this serious
question

>So, the formation of local groups affiliated with
>Eastern Mediterranean -imc, regardless of the
>existence
>of any other local, autonomous imc, will be a very
>welcome and wonderful development. How shall we
pursue
>this?

+ this really is a matter of energy, synergy and time
(i.e. will we be able to give our time to this, if
yes, how much?)

> Now that I re-read this, I guess we should open up
>this investigtion with all of our friends at the
>discussion group - would that be ok?

 I suppose it's ok. Plus, I know some people who
don't have fluent english but might have good ideas on
these
issues. Don't know what to do, though will translate
what you'll say. Hugs, (bk).

############################

From: Petros

Dear friends and colleagues,

What follows is an update regarding developments on
the efforts to create the Eastern Mediterranean IMC.
Whereas all of the news in this mailing impact upon
our regional efforts, some of the news below are
derived only from the Cyprus -based volunteers.

o- the server / some techical issues
o- imc hellas
o- imc turkey
o- imc cyprus / meetings


o- the server / some techical issues
This part of the update refers to a question all imc's
worry about, meaning *where* shall our service be
located - on whose computer - so as to be fast,
reliable, and secure?
There was an outstanding and marvelous development for
us, in the form of "one of those" surprise visits by
Divine Providence! Through our relationship with imc
-thessaloniki, we re-connected with an old comrade
from many years ago, Scott Lewis, who operates a
computer -coop dedicated to community service. A part
of that service is hosting imc's. Scott has offered us
his help, and as soon as our group is approved by the
imc network of volunteers, I'd strongly recommend we
rely on his offer, for I think we won't find a better
one for a long time! Scott is a veteran of many
struggles against the Empire, and his assistance, not
only on technical matters, but also in matters of
safekeeping our privacy and in being sensitive to the
special needs for security that our particular efforts
entail, I believe makes him an excellent ally. 
Of course, when the time comes, we will all re-examine
this situation and decide on this together,
collectively, but I wanted to share these good news
with all!

o- imc turkey
The letters above give you an idea of what 's
happening. Barkin is a well -trusted colleague who I
feel is instrumental in our efforts. Anyone wishing a
background update or reminder, on the imc-turkey
situation, please refer to :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kalimerhaba_HellenoTurkish_Community/message/195
and 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kalimerhaba_HellenoTurkish_Community/message/197

o- imc hellas/greece.
Two new imc's have been approved for hellas/greece,
and are slowly getting it together towards operating.
They are  imc-athens, and imc-thessaloniki. In the
discussions among the members of  the groups, and also
in dialogue with others like ourselves, references
keep cropping up to a real need for creating a
pan-hellenic imc, imc-hellas/greece, which would serve
the needs of the entirety of hellenism in its broader
sense. These opinions keep on being either ignored or
by-passed by the main actors of the new groups, so
it's unclear now if a broader imc hellas/greece will
be organised. 

o- imc cyprus / meetings.
Some of the volunteers for the Eastern Mediterranean
IMC who are based in Cyprus, had opportunities
recently to meet face -to -face twice in group, and
several times in smaller work- meetings in twos and
threes, plus several work -meetings via telephone.

The individuals who met did not represent any
organization, though all of us have some presence in
the efforts to build and cultivate the alternative
community in Cyprus and abroad: Maro, O., Solon,
Eleftheria,  Paris, Sue, Petros. Ina ddition, there is
statd interest by as many friends and supporters to
attend future meetings.

What follows is a rough summary of some of  the items
covered:
- evaluation of the Eastern Mediterranean IMC
situation, as a project, especially in terms of our
weaknesses,
- our relationship to local, Cyprus- based political
and social organizations, in relation to public
openness, 
- the social and political principles uniting us and
guiding our formation into a group, beyond our 
acceptance of the imc general principles,
- our tasks, steps forward,
- possible development of an imc-cyprus.


- evaluation of the Eastern Mediterranean IMC
situation, as a project, especially in terms of our
weaknesses.
-------------------     
In general, the consensus was that our contacts and
evolving group -sense so far, at this stage of our
evolution, seem to have a geographical /culture
imbalance. That is, we are now  strong (or adequate)
in connections, contacts, and in potentially expanded 
co-operation among us with colleagues from Turkey,
Greece, Cyprus, Europe, and N. America, and we are
weak in developing in relation to the Arab world,
especially in relation to the cultures and regions of
Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria. Even more
confusing is whether  our perception of "Eastern
Mediterranean bio-region" includes Armenia and
Kurdistan (whether we like it or, the struggles for
liberation in and around them, impact the whole of our
region. We will have to allow room and time for this
particular exploration to develop slowly, given the
possibility of explosive relationships among some of
our region's organizations.) 
So, this makes some of our tasks easy to see (more on
that below). 

We are also somewhat weak in terms of technical
resources, but we've had some really wonderful offers
for help in this field, namely from Sue, Scott, and
Michael B., and for now, it feels that we're covered.
As our needs develop more concretely, we 'll re-assess
this.

We are strong in some other areas of grass -roots
community media, that is, among us there are people
with long -time involvement in the print medium
(magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, etc), and also
radio, plus we have among us some people who are also
connected to the world of video, film, and photo
-work. 


- our relationship to local, Cyprus- based political
and social organizations, in relation to public
openness. 
------------------------  
This is a difficult situation for us, locally. We are
in consensus about the following:
There is an apparent freedom of expression, of
assembly, of human rights, and "freedom of the market"
in Cyprus, which makes it tempting to "go public" very
soon. We're afraid it might be too soon right now. If
we "go public" now, not having yet built into place
beforehand, some tangible guarantees to ensure that
corporate and authoritarian formations won't take us
over, we will be co-opted in the blink of an eye. The
intelligence services of every major, medium, and
minor power in the world have a hand in every
establishment -operated political and social
organization in Cyprus. Such is the nature of
neo-colonialism.
(For example, please see this US government financial
statement which gives a clue on who really runs the
majority of the bicommunal re-approachment efforts for
peace between turkish and greek cypriots:
http://www.usaid.gov/country/ee/cy/233-041.html
this is an official statement of the State Dept, which
directs the CIA. The numbers are in *millions* of US
dollars, mounting to hundreds of them! For such a tiny
island, the amounts are immense. All of the monies'
recipients in Cyprus, whether we want to or not,  will
eventually acquire a strong presence in our imc
publications after we go public, claiming to represent
the "official" Peace movement; they all deny
vigorously that there is any connection between their
politics and the regional operations of the CIA, or
any goals of US foreign policy.) 
Also, there is virtually no alternative community
visible at all, on the entire island. The cultures,
projects, and associations of lesbian, gay, bi- and
trans- people, polyamory -oriented people, friends of
cannabis, pantheist and pagan worship of the Divine,
atheists, natural (indigenous) medicine, radical
feminism, and the alternative, co-operation -based,
anti-capitalist economy are all underground. Entirely.
There are very strong social mechanisms and  powers
forcing people to conform, in addition to police
action: public ridicule, intimidation and terror,
threat of violence, or possible loss of job/income,
active inervention by the priesthood, schools, bosses,
and political parties, are parts of every day life for
all members of the underground culture in the tiny,
almost non-existent, alternative and radical
community. Plus, we experience to a great degree a
certain political immaturity on how to operate in
non-authoritarian groups with equality and respect,
and without domination. Therefore, every effort, or
section, of the autonomous liberation movement of the
last 20 years that has lifted up its head in Cyprus
has been taken over, or neutralised, within a few
months. We need to build ourselves a little more
before opening up the process to the public, so that
we can guarantee that the imc we are building is
really a community -operated one, and not a front for
any party, corporation, or some section of the
movement operated by the Empire.

On the other hand, our relations to regional and
global friends and allies are simpler, more direct,
inspiring to all of us, and so far without risk ! 


- the social and political principles uniting us and
guiding our meetings, beyond our  acceptance of the
imc general principles.
----------------------   
We accept and embrace the imc general principles and
guidelines. But we feel that, articulated as they are,
they are not enough to safeguard the operation of imc
in our region without domination and interference. We
reached a consensus that we need to place special
emphasis on our opposition to racism, sexism
(male-chauvinsim) and homophobia (hatred and fear of
homosexuality), and to affirm the values of universal
equality, feminism, and sexual freedom for all, in
order to go forward with the building of the imc
locally as a part of the alternative/ radical 
community, on a more secure footing. Related
principles and items to be covered in future meetings,
are an embrace of all forms of spirituality and
religious freedom for all, including atheism, given
that in our Eastern Mediterranean bio-region, religion
is what is manipulated most often to drive our peoples
to war against one another.


- our tasks, steps forward.
---------------------------    
# Paris has volunteered to be our liaison with
imc-thessaloniki.
# we might already have a volunteer to represent us at
the Berlin gathering in January - more on that later.

We have consensus that the most immediate tasks are
to:
# develop ourselves as a viable grouping able to open
up the process soon to others and to the public;
# develop and cultivate better and more contacts for
the Eastern Mediterranean IMC with colleagues the Arab
world;
# specific and obvious directions for us are to
cultivate communication with our colleagues of
imc-palestine and imc-israel, and selected individuals
and organizations in our region.


- possible development of an imc-cyprus.
---------------------------   
It's looking like our project is developing unevenly,
and this of course reflects the uneveness of how the
process of development occurs both in the world of
global capital, and also in the world of global
resistance to it.
It's looking like  we already have the capacity, and
probably meet all the requirements already,  to go
ahead and form a group which would initiate the
formation of an imc -cyprus, and apply to the imc
network to set it up. Our consensus is that we don't
know how this would influence the development of the
regional imc, Eastern Mediterranean IMC, whether this
move would be a tool to catalyse its development, or
whether it would hinder it in some way we haven't
fathomed yet. 

We'd appreciate your thoughts on all of the above.

Petros

##############

Subject: Third Eye
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 00:21:35 +0200

From: Petros Evdokas <petrosarbee at yahoo.com>
To: barkin <barkinkarsli at yahoo.com>


Dearest Barkin, 

Thank you for correcting me about Sabri's gender. Our
work accross cultural barriers is so rewarding and so
difficult sometimes. Every day brings the possibility
of some small or large mistake which can blow
everything to pieces.

Did you ever receive the copies of the bicommunal
magazine named "Hade" which we had sent you? It was
many weeks ago - I believe our countries' combined
postal services should have delivered them by now,
even
if they had to use donkeys and then strap the package
to the backs of urchins to swim accross the sea with
it.  Also, in case you have sent us a copy of the
issue
of Third Eye magazine, we still haven't received it -
I
can't wait to see my writing translated into the
Turkish language! I can't hide the fact that it
strokes
that terrible ego I wish I didn't have. 

Thank you once again,
Petros

##########

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 12:17:18 -0700
> From: Scott Lewis <scott at bandwidthcoop.org>
> To: Harris Kosmidhs <hkosmidi at hal.csd.auth.gr>
> Subject: Re: hosting for imc
> 
> hi harris,

> > Do we need anything else to support greek? (i.e.
> mySQL with charset
> > iso8859-7 )
> 
> that's a good question- i'm looking into it. i don't
> know a lot about 
> language internationalization issues, but hopefully
> we can work it 
> out. 
> 
> i put a hidden post on the nigeria IMC site with
> some greek text:
> 
>
http://nigeria.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=9&group=webcast
> 
> please check out this page and tell me if the text
> displays properly. 
> it is one line of greek text in three different
> places. i have no idea 
> what it says :)
> 
> if this displays properly then we can probably get
> active to work for 
> you. but i would expect that you might encounter
> some small 
> problems. we'll just get started and see what
> happens.
> 
> > Can IMC-Athens be hosted?
> 
> sure, why not. please have someone from their group
> contact me.
> 
> take care,
> 
> -scott
> 
> ---
> Albuquerque Bandwidth Coop
> http://www.bandwidthcoop.org/
> 
################

Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001 13:37:02 -0800 (PST)
From: "Petros Evdokas" <petros_evdokas at yahoo.com> 

Subject: Re: imc-thessaloniki digest
To: imc-thessaloniki at lists.indymedia.org, "Scott
Lewis" <scott at bandwidthcoop.org>
CC: "Sue" <sue_scandale at yahoo.com>

Great Scott!

This is incredible! Are you the same Scott Lewis I
know and love who was a member of the Love Farm
commune in the enchanted land of Aztlan (you bad boy!)
with whom I've often stood together and faced up to
the fascists (and got pretty close to loosing the skin
off our faces)?

If so, I can't believe how intense the Earth's
consciousness is, that it would Will our paths to
cross again in this most wonderful of efforts to
globally Transcend...

(So, how soon can we exploit you for the needs of the
Eastern Mediterranean imc?)
http://EasternMediterraneanIMC.cjb.net


Embraces,

Petros
(one of the founding members of the Sandia-nistas)
http://PetrosEvdokas.cjb.net

################

From: "Scott Lewis" <scott at bandwidthcoop.org> 
Organization: Albuquerque Bandwidth Coop

hi petros and sue,

its wonderful to hear from two old friends! i've 
looked at your 
webpages and the projects you are working on sound 
exciting.

i'm still in new mexico. i left for a few years- went 
to portland 
oregon and then southern arizona. now i'm back. i 
haven't seen 
anyone else we used to organize with, although i think

about them 
often. i have gotten some second-hand news about both 
katie and 
scott newland.

i got married a year and half ago to a wonderful woman

named 
leslie. she's a bilingual teacher in a 4th grade 
class. we will be 
having a baby in about 3 weeks!

> (So,how soon can we exploit you for the needs of the

Eastern
> Mediterranean imc?) 

just tell me how i can help. my time is limited (with 
the child 
almost here) but i will do what i can. i have a server

that i can offer 
space on, and can offer other computer assistance and 
knowledge.

please let me know more about what you have been doing

and how 
life is treating you.

take care,

-scott
---
Albuquerque Bandwidth Coop
http://www.bandwidthcoop.org/

######################

From: Petros

Hi again,

It's great to re-connect with you!

Two friends and co-conspirators, who are also in our
care, are getting ready to give birth. A main source
of inspiration and support for the process of natural
pregnancy and natural birthing has been a book from
Albuquerque titled "Birthing from Within" ...these
coinci-dances never end, do they?

I hope everything goes well for you. 

We don't want to impose our needs on you in this time
period that's so delicate, but we'll tell everybody in
our group about your offer for our project, for which
we are very grateful, and when time allows, we can
move on it together. I'll send you copies of relevant
items to keep you updated, of course.
Thank you so much. 

Embraces,

Petros
----------    







=====
Please ignore all these intrusive commercial ads!

Petros

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