[New-imc] Re: Proposed New IMC -- IMC-US

[suzq at riseup.net]

It looks like my response to this didn't go through the first time, so I'm
re-sending it.

I am _profoundly_ _disturbed_ by the idea of setting up an IMC-US.  The
monstrous organizational tasks involved might be countered by making it a
largely software driven "syndication site," but do we really want the
voice of America on Indymedia to be developed by a computer program,
rather than by human collectives?

I understand the need to lower U.S. domination of Indymedia, but the only
way I see an Indy-US as doing this would be to have Indy-US features
replace features from local IMCs within the U.S. on the Indymedia.org
features-syndication newswire, thereby reducing U.S. stories on the global
newswire to about 1/46 of their original frequency.  This sounds like a
good idea, but the question is, which national features would go to the
newswire, and how would they be selected?  And would we have national
liaisons with the global lists, rather than the current system of local
U.S. IMCs having individual liaisons?

I'm not sure how many local IMCs within the U.S. want to be identified as
part of a "national IMC."  As a member of the Philly IMC, I certainly
would not want to be identified this way.  I've always thought of
indymedia as being internationalist in tone, transcending national
borders, deliberately focusing on the regional and local, grouping itself
based on affinity and on geographic boundaries, rather than state lines. 
I fear that an Indy-US would lose its regional autonomy and local focus,
and that efforts to cover "National News" would wind up being dominated by
news from Washington, DC, as news of changing governmental policies are
defined as "national" news.

To create a "U.S. IMC" ignores the bonds of affinity that already exist
between IMC activists in Seattle and British Colombia, say, or between
mediactivists in California and in Mexico.  "America" is much bigger than
the U.S., and I wouldn't like to see us confine ourselves to a
self-definition based on borders.

I would be much more comfortable attempting closer integration on a U.S. -
regional level, via conferences and IRC chat, as is already being done
among Northeast US IMCs, before attempting integration on a national
scale.

Peace,
-Susanna