[New-imc] Beirut- imc/ developments

[Petros Evdokas]

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 06:35:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: semk imb <semkimb at yahoo.com>
To: petros_cyprus at burleehost.net

hi,

i just subscribed, but i'm not a member yet, so I
thought I should explain...

I'm working with the indymedia Beirut group, and
bluepi suggested that i subscribe to the
communications list

the site is coming along, but slowly. much of our
diffuclties seem to be stemming from finding a server
which can handle our arabic... 

pls let me know if i should subscribe again, or
differently

much thanks

semk
-------------------- 


Marhaba and Hello to you Semk,
and to all our colleagues working to create the Beirut-
imc,
(hello blue.pi, and Bassem)

Thank you for writing.
I’m very happy to see from the Beirut email- list, that
the work to develop imc- Beirut is going forward.
Everyone at the imc network, and especially at the
new-imc working group,  wants to see this happen!

But
 I have some thoughts for all of you, which I have
tried to communicate to some of your group in the past,
which I don’t think were understood well. This is an
open letter to the whole Beirut- imc group.

Please give some consideration to the following:
Indymedia is *not* a website, is it is an organization
of people: people who meet face- to- face, and who use
the network when it is the appropriate medium to
communicate. It is an organization dedicated to
creating and maintaining radical and  free media of
expression, creating tools for communities’ self-
expression, and has a special connection to the
struggle against the globalisation of world domination
by corporate and state powers.

Please understand this: building Beirut- imc means
building a *group of people*, not a website.  A website
might be the result of radical group work, individual
work, corporate work, authoritarian work, it might be
anything. What we want is to get to know the group.
That is the most important thing. For us to get to know
each other!

I hope that this is only a misunderstanding (because I
also fear that perhaps you are being misled - why are
not any of the other imc colleagues telling you this?).
It’s wonderful that you are building a relationship
with technically- oriented imc volunteers in Europe,
but you are actually by-passing the more important
steps: building a political reationship with Indymedia.
I would like to re-invite you, as I did in the past, to
please think about this, and begin to write to us ( @
new-imc, or to me, or to Eastern Mediterranean imc,
anywhere you like to begin), write more about your
group, your meetings, your outreach, community
relationships, participating organizations, alliances,
and all that. 

I see that as group, you may think that if you make a
website ready, that your application to new-imc might
go through more easily. It’s true that unfortunately
this happens with some imc groups,  because some of our
colleagues are not clear in what they do.
Irresponsibly, they encourage imc groups to form
quickly and to develop technically (create a website
and apply for membership), without any attention to
group process, or with only a shallow attention to
politics. We keep having disasters when we follow that
policy. For that reason, I assure you that wherever my
opinion has any weight, I will continue to oppose that
policy - it is nothing more than a leftist/ progressive
version of missionaries ("soft crucades" to
proselytize), married to techno- philanthropy (instead
of money, donating access to the net for selected
allies and colonised communties), both of which have
done humanity a *lot* of damage, especially to us who
live in the global colonies. 

And for those of us who live in the Middle East, we
know directly that if we ignore political realities,
and just allow the missionaries, crucaders, and
philanthropists to shape the forms of our struggle for
liberation, our communities suffer death and
destruction. 


Please understand this:
I would like to invite you to cultivate a *political*
relationship with Indymedia. If you can do both the
technical work and the political/ group work at the
same time, fine, but if you have to choose, I would
suggest slow down the technical, and seek to deal with
group (human) realities. I guarantee to you that in
this way you will have an approved imc faster, and then
all the facilities of imc (which are not very much, but
growing) will be open to you.

Specific steps to take:
1.  please read again the New Imc materials, at
  http://newimc.indymedia.org , and orient your work in
that direction.

2. please start forming/ writing some updates about
your group, its meetings, its developments, etc, to the
new-imc working group, or to me if you prefer.
 
3. about membership to the imc-communication group:
It is a group which aims at becoming an Indymedia
network-  wide collective body, capable of exercising
some sort of online direct democracy in which all the
imc local/ regional/ global groups will participate. We
are still working to create that. Right now the
participants are all Liaisons from existing imc member
groups, and as each new group joins the imc, a Liaison
is designated by that group to participate at the
imc-communication group, to facilitate a wider dialogue
among all imc’s. 
The archives of course, are open to all to see, here
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-communication
and anyone who is not a Liaison to this list can
participate (mail something) through someone who is
already a participant.
We are eager to have Beirut- imc participate through a
Liaison, but first the group has to become an approved
member of imc. (The *group*, not a website.)

For all that to happen, we need to know a little more
about your group. Would you like to write to us and
help us cultivate a better understanding among us? 

Thank you again, and looking forward to hearing from
all of you, 
Petros
--------------------