[New-imc] Re: task rotation - quitting new-imc to be more local

[Petros Evdokas]

>
> Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003
> From: boud <boud1 at wp.pl>
> Subject: [New-imc] task rotation - quitting new-imc to be more local
> To: new-imc at lists.indymedia.org
> Cc: imc-romania at lists.indymedia.org
>
> hi everyone,
>    i've been active in the new-imc working group for 2 years now - since
> August 2001.
>
> In August 2001, there were no IMCs in Asia (apart from IMC Israel, in
> West Asia), and the only IMC in central/eastern europe was IMC Prague,
> which didn't have a genuine local collective.
>
> And there was no indymedia collective where i live (Torun, Poland).
>
> Now, there are several functioning IMCs in South, East and South-East
> Asia (Oceania ;), and half-a-dozen functioning IMCs in CE Europe:
>
> http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcCEEurope
>
> including IMC Poland and what might eventually turn into a local IMC
> Torun collective.
>
> i feel i've done my share of work in helping some of these new IMCs
> get going, and in helping IMC France get through its crisis and reform
> as a horizontal network of city IMCs, so now i'd like to get more
> involved in my local IMC.
>
> IMHO, IMC PL has started to have some real effects on the activist
> community, acting as a catalyst, helping communication, inspiring
> alternative websites, and also providing new information for debate on
> some issues in the (tiny) community, such as the issue of how much
> free speech is acceptable. It also has had a role in clarifying some
> elements of the debate between "acting local" and fascism. A
> widely distributed magazine, "Obywatel" (citizen), which is (was!)
> widely respected by activists as a radical publication analysing and
> opposing economic globalisation, published an article by Horst Mahler.
> Not everyone agreed on whether this was acceptable or not in the name
> of free speech, but when it was made clear that Horst Mahler
> had given a talk "The Final Solution: Solving the Jewish Problem"
> http://www.alphalink.com.au/~radnat/mahler/
> there was not much left to debate. (This was only one element of the
> "Obywatel" debate, but to me it was the clearest.)
>
> IMHO we (in IMC PL) haven't really started doing outreach to
> grassroots groups, we've only networked more or less among people,
> nearly all young, perceiving themselves as activists. And we still
> have a lot of work to do to get the basics of face-to-face meetings
> going in a way which are genuinely non-hierarchical.
>
> And the fact that our server has been offline for 6 days and we haven't
> organised yet to do anything shows that as a group we are not yet as
> functional as we really need to be...
>
> On the positive side, for anybody who read the global feature on the
> homeless people in the house Guliwer, they are no longer threatened
> with eviction. It seems that the Soros foundation was not willing to
> risk the publicity of evicting homeless people, and so is now "sponsoring"
> Guliwer rather than evicting it :). (This is not an official report, BTW,
> i'm just summarising my interpretation.)
>
> Anyway, it's time i quit new-imc and act local. Most of my experience in
> the group (learnt and copied from others) is documented "howto" style
> on the TWiki
> http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/NewImc
>
> and i've just added a brief history of IMCs in India:
> http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcIndia
>
> The World Social Forum in Jan 2004 will be in Mumbai - and chances
> are new-imc volunteers will have to deal with more demands by
> people who insist on having their collective urgently recognised without
> actually going through a minimum of organising. (People wanted
> IMC Hyderabad for the Asian Social Forum, claiming that it would keep
> going afterwards, but after a few days they disappeared into thin air
> and we have a ghost mailing list).
>
> So if people ask, just point to the above page - i invited imc-india
> and imc-mumbai lists to correct/improve the TWiki page.
>
> The only IMC i'm still "officially" responsible for is IMC Romania,
> (which is why i'm cc-ing to imc-romania), and i think they're now well
> enough into the process that when they're ready to submit their
> documents, they should be easy for any volunteer in the group to
> do the formalities - no need to wait for me.
>
> So i'm unsubscribing from new-imc, but you can find me around more
> locally (imc-pl-torun at lists.indymedia.org) if you're wondering
> where i am :).
>
> i should say thanks to everyone for the way we've worked together.
> The group has been quiet for about half a year, but i think it's
> continuing to develop one of the crucial communication nodes of the
> network for making the world a better place.
>
> BTW, Torun is the city where a famous revolutionary was born: Nicolaus
> Copernicus ;) .
>
> solidarity
> boud
>
> ------------------------------

Boud you've done so much good work for the entire global imc network all these years, the amount and the quality is exceptional and fantastic. I don't even kow if you realise the depth of it. Perhaps when you become more involved in the local effort you may find also how distant the reality of the global indymedia network is from our locals (another weakness of our organization, well, we can address that another time). I want you to know that many of us value your work greatly!

You will be shouldering new duties. But please keep an eye here, occasionally, on new-imc working- group situations? I agree with your prediction, that more troubles are up ahead for us with problematic  memberhips. And usually, these types of problems are fueled by our own people (not by the new members/ applicants), who keep on falling victim to and becoming zealots of :
- the crusader mentality (want to enlarge IndyMedia at the cost of quality) ,
- or to the techno- missionary mentality ("we must get more computers and internet to the natives")
- the "no politics" mentality ("imc is only about information")
- the individualist mentality (any effort at group co-operation is blasted or subverted)
- the finances mentality ("the movement just needs more money").

Your active presence these years helped us curtail much of the impact of those mentalities on our policy. I hope we can count on you to help out if we get into trouble? Your "seniority" here will count for quite a while.

I wish you the very best,
Petros
http://Petros-Evdokas.cyprus-org.net
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