[New-imc] "supporting groups" question

[evan]

I disagree. By putting a request for what other groups people have  
contacted it encourages them to think of indymedia as both an  
organization but also a coalition and network. This helps us drive off  
people who just want to start an imc because they will get a prebuilt  
reputation. It also helps remind folks that indymedia isn't about being  
the voice of one particular perspective but rather being a force for  
democratization of the media as a tool for the breadth of social  
movements.

When an imc fails, more often than not it's because it's an isolated  
small group who has very few contacts with real social movements in  
their community, either because they are progressive journalists or  
because they are anarchopunks who refuse to talk to people who don't  
think exactly like them.

To address Geoffery's comments. What you say might be the case in  
countries where social movements are small enough that you can know  
every single activist in your community. But in much of the global  
south there are social movements with millions of members. For example  
here in Ecuador, we work very closely with the national coalitions of  
indigenous and campesino groups. Because we have the contacts at the  
national level we are able to organize tours where we go to each of the  
provinces and hold workshops on media activism for grassroots campesino  
and indigenous organizers. These workshops range from how to publish to  
indymedia and what is html to how to either start a community radio  
station or get news off of indymedia to read over the air.

That kind of work would simply be impossible if we ignored direct  
contacts with the organizations and tried to just find the grassroots  
activists.

My other concern with your perspective is that you seem to think having  
an indymedia center has only to do with websites. It's very important  
that people NOT think of indymedia as an online project. Sure, we have  
websites, and they get lots of traffic, and open publishing is nice,  
but not all together new. But indymedia is about creating a network of  
media activists for democratization of the media to achieve radical  
social change. We are building a media revolution to make revolution  
possible. For that to happen we need to think far and wide of all the  
forms of media in which we can employ. Limiting ourselves to websites  
is a dreadful mistake.

I say this as somebody who has spent most of the last three years  
working on indymedia websites. But also somebody who has worked with or  
helped start dozens of imc's in both the first and third world.

in solidarity,
evan


On Tuesday, March 11, 2003, at 11:52  AM, Arc wrote:

> I've been wanting to raise this as an issue for awile.. alot of  
> people, when they go and read that form, believe
> that they need a local coilition of groups to approve the IMC.. or  
> that the IMC should be founded by another
> group.
>
> I'd personally like to see a diversity of backgrounds of those who are  
> organizing the IMC's founding, which this
> question somewhat covers, but I think the process is confusing enough  
> that implying they need to get formal
> support of local organizations before applying to become an IMC is  
> unnessesary.
>
> Bringing this up as a discussion item, I have no specific ideas in  
> mind on how to fix it other than the
> nessesary to change it in my view.
>
> <mime-attachment>
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
-
| blog: anarchogeek.com                    pgp: anarchogeek.com/pgp.txt  
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
-
| Protest.net is an anti-this, anti-that website to divide, demoralize,  
|
| and bring down the very frabric of America. Proudly lead by pacifist,  
|
| godless, demented, berkenstock wearing, granola eating, peace-freak,   
|
| moronic, unamerican, green, muslim, communist, faggot, liberal,        
|
| serbian, arab, rag-head, anarchist, terrorist, scum, pigs and          
|
| traitors. We're underemployed scumbag welfare sucking parasitic        
|
| shelted uneducated intellecutals who are always explaining the root    
|
| causes of terrorism, blaming america first, and whining about          
|
| non-existant threats to civil liberties.                               
|
| GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! DEATH TO THOSE WHO STAND AGAINST US!!!            
|
|                      - All words from hate mail sent to protest.net    
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
-