[New-imc] Online form: Proposed new IMC! (IMC Antwerpen)

[laurentnelen at skynet.be]

Submitted by: Laurent Nelen <laurentnelen at skynet.be> on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2003 @ 1:09:31 pm (-0700)

Client Variables
----------------

HTTP_USER_AGENT:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)

Online Form Fields
------------------

imc_name:
IMC Antwerpen

city:
Antwerpen

state:
Antwerpen

country:
Belgium

contact_name:
Laurent Nelen

contact_email:
laurentnelen at skynet.be

contact_phone:


tech_name:


tech_email:


tech_phone:


supporting_groups:


regional_focus:
yes

critical_dates:
9/11/2003 (starting meeting)

resources:
We have the possibility of being hosted on a cheap server, enabling us to host a site for quite some time without having to put too much energy in fundraising. However, there are plans for a benefit party in Antwerpen, which can at the same time be a good occasion to do some outreach (with flyers and benefit posters). There is a person in the group who has knowledge of html and some basic knowledge of php/mysql, who is willing to do the technical stuff.  We share hosting with another site, with the following technical details: 
- 1.4 Gb webspace
- 40 Gb bandwidth/month
- debian linux
- apache
- php/mysql (25 million queries/month - unrestriced number of databases)
Further, some of the people who took the initiative to set up an indymedia collective, have lots of experience working in a collective and in a decentralised environment.  

outreach:
We have planned a starting meeting on november, 9th, in a politically active squat in Antwerpen, which has in fact become the nerve centre for direct action and grassroots activities. From now on, we still have a couple of weeks to inform action groups and the social collectives about the meeting. We will do so by sending an invitation email and preparing a small low budget flyer (in order to have many of \'em) to distribute among possibly interested organisations and action groups.

introductory_statement:
In Belgium, there is a tendency towards decentralising the IMC landshape. Existing local IMC-s include IMC West-vlaanderen, IMC Limburg (not yet approved), IMC Liege (not yet approved), IMC Oost-Vlaanderen. Because in Antwerpen, there\'s no IMC yet, and quite some people already complained about this disadvantage, some people got enthusiastic about forming an own local IMC. Very recently, the squat \"De Ratten\" gave new impulses for direct action and decentralised community building in Antwerpen. This was a major positive push for people wanting to create a new IMC.  Secondly, most of grassroots activities never make it to the local media of Antwerpen.  Local news is being totally dominated by a right-wing party, which is destroying the information link between the people of Antwerpen and the grassroots activities in the province. Moreover, the most severe closed detention center for asylum seekers is located in a town in the Antwerpen province. As quite some direct actions 
 were (and are being done) done there, there is a need for a better information channel to communicate actions and the horrible situation in this inhuman building.
Finally, since three years activists in and from Antwerpen are suffering because of the lack of a stable communication system, not only to announce and gather people for an action of a single group, but mostly a communication platform to inform eachother about what is going on.  If activists and groups can inform themselves about other activities, long-lasting cross connections can originate from this mutual information and knowledge-sharing.

Note : Antwerpen is the name of both the city Antwerpen and the province Antwerpen. Our IMC is meant to be an IMC for the province.