[New-imc] Proposed new IMC!

[Ttrickykid at aol.com]

A proposed new IMC is being requested.
Details are as follows:

Proposed IMC Name:	Michigan IMC 
Contact Name:		Mike Medow
Email:			Ttrickykid at aol.com
Phone:			(517)-333-8218
City:			East Lansing
State:			MI
Country:		US
Tech Contact Name:	Max Sussman
Tech Contact Email:	msussman at umich.edu
Tech Contact Phone:	1 734 764 4606
Regional Focus:		yes
Issue Focus:		yes
Event Focus:		yes
Critical Dates:		May 2. But we need IMC well before that date so that we can use it to prepare for the G8 summit on that date
Supporting Groups:	Ad-hoc coalition to make the G8 energy ministers feel pretty damn unwelcome when they show up here in May, and we expect many other groups to support our IMC site 
Other comments:		thanks.
Resources to contribute: not sure what resources your looking for...but let us know, we'll see what we can do

Why we want to be an IMC: For a growing number of reasons, it has become quite apparent how much Michigan could benefit from a local IMC. The main reason we are seeking an IMC now is that on May 2, the G8 will meet in Detroit for an energy summit. People in MI are beginning to mobilize around the G8 meeting, hoping to make public the general destructive nature of the G8's neoliberal doctrine and, specifically, the G8’s politically and ecologically destabilizing dependence on gas and oil. An IMC website would help connect activists throughout MI and the world so that our resistance to the G8’s policies might become as effective and visible as possible.  
The life of MI-IMC would not die as soon as the G8 pack up their bags and leave town.  Throughout our state, people are confronting issues that have relevance both locally and globally.  IMC will help connect MI activists both within the state, and to the rest of the online world.  Personally, I devote the majority of my activism to a United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) group at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI.  A MI-IMC will be a great resource in helping to link my USAS group with our state’s four other USAS cells.  Moreover, MI-IMC will help link a wide range of other groups that desperately need to know that they are not alone in their struggles.  This list would include, but will in no way be limited to, anti-war groups such as the Detroit Ant-War Network (DAWN), environmental groups such as the various MI communities resisting the takeover of our water resources by corporations like Perrier, urban community development groups like Detroit Summer and!
  the Heidelberg Project, anarchist organizations like the Trumbullplex of Detroit and the Direct Action Network of Lansing, collective living projects, human rights groups, anti-police brutality coalitions, anti-racist groups, feminist groups, the list goes on and on….The MI-IMC would also help develop MI’s network of non-corporate media and help free us from dependency on corporations like Knight Ridder for our news.  
Myself and several others are very serious about getting this project started.  We have links to a wide verity of activists throughout our state who, I’m sure, will help our IMC grow and thrive.  We are committed to using the MI-IMC to build connections that cross the barriers of race, gender, and class, and develop a united front of MI’s progressive activists. I hope this short essay contains the information that you need regarding our plans for a MI-IMC. I hope to hear from you soon.

-Mike Medow