No subject

> haven´t had any face to face contact with Douglas i´m pretty 
insecure about
> having an IMC Venezuela now. Let me explain my concerns;
> www.antiscualidos.com
> is bolivarista web site with a kind of open publishig sistem 
they call a
> Forum: http://www.nodo50.org/antiescualidos/indexnew.html
> (spanish speakers, your comments are welcome)
> The bolivaristas is originally a social movememet that Chavez 
became a
> lider. 

the contacts you already have are with people linked with Chavez 
and "his"
movement. 

This sounds like a fantastic opportunity! Chavez is the 
president of the
country, and he's already (apparently) carried out some real, 
mass actions in
the favour of the poor, etc.  It's a bit like if Nader was 
president of the USA,
but a bit on the authoritarian side.

The challenge: the challenge could be to explain to Douglas and 
others in 
the Chavez movement why Indymedia would be good for them, and 
why they would be good for
Indymedia, as long as Indymedia principles *really* were 
followed. Chavez is
president - he has the power and the cash. If he really wants to 
empower 
landless peasants, women, students, and other oppressed groups, 
then he (and
"his" movement) should be willing to encourage local "oppressed 
groups" to 
organise decentralised media meetings and make decisions on what 
should go
on to IMC Venezuala (or IMC Caracas, IMC Merida, ...), 
and Chavez/his movement should be willing to encourage
use of local facilities, put money into internet/GNU/Linux 
development, local
printing presses, etc. for these local collectives,
all in a way in which Chavez/his movement relax
control and accept the risk of "allowing" local autonomy.

At the same time, Chavez/his movement would have to accept that 
middle class
people could not be excluded, and that the only way of balancing 
their influence
would be by guaranteeing autonomous empowerment of 
the "oppressed".

It is understandable that Douglas (and everyone in Venezuela) is 
probably
shocked, frightened, confused at the moment. And for people 
who've invested in a
social movement that for 48 hours or so seemed to have suddenly 
been totally sabotaged,
it's also understandable if their reaction is to tighten 
control, rather than
to loosen control.

So it might not be easy to explain this to them, 
and it might take time for it to be understood,
and how you (or other S. American IMC people) are going to judge 
whether 
autonomous, diverse, grassroots collectives are 
really happening or not is not for me to say. The more face-to-
face + electronic
contact the better, of course!

> My main concern is to have an IMC Venezuela handled by one 
group, as Brasil
> IMC, and a liason quite temperamental (i´m not sure this work 
exists in
> english - but i mean someone that changes his mind minute by 
minute)
> Apparently there is another group in Venezuela that works with 
alternative
> information: http://www.rebelion.org/

Having a diversity of supporting groups is certainly an IMC 
criterion.

> Sharpie, with the best intentions i´m sure, set up last night 
an IMC
> Venezuela list: 
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/cmi-venezuela.

It seems to have been consensed upon that starting a mailing 
list is strongly to be
encouraged, even at the starting stages.

But to get the mailing list to really be used by a variety of 
genuine, grassroots
groups (and not just people with the best internet access) is 
more difficult
than creating it technically...

Again, as an outsider, it seems to me that there is a great 
opportunity for Indymedia
in Venezuela, but it would require Chavez and "his" movement to 
loosen up control,
put money into media/internet development by local groups, as 
they gradually gain confidence that local, 
grassroots media autonomy and Indymedia are 
both *consistent* and *supportive* of their social goals.  The 
alternative is
that they would have to act more and more authoritarian...

solidarity
boud

PS: Followups to cmi-venezuela?



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