[Imc-sydney] German IndyMedia

[Cameron Gregg]

diet simon wrote:

> Folks,
> 
> some advice please.
> 
> The group running the German IndyMedia are a bunch of censors.
> 
> For example - one of hundreds in my dealings with them over the years - 
> the "Sign to stop another Burma massacre" we run at 
> http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/ they dismiss as spam and took out after 
> I posted it. At least a dozen other IMCs, including the 'mother', are 
> running it.
> 
> I could cite hundreds of examples where they have been most undemocratic 
> and have run the site like their personal property, pandering to their 
> particular obsessions, for example anti-fascism; every piddling little 
> street brawl about that gets covered.
> 
> The group has nowhere near the international solidarity 'let's help 
> where we can' approach that is the lifeblood of the IndyMedia movement.
> 
> I want them to be warned that their right to call themselves IndyMedia 
> will be taken away from them if they don't change.
> 
> Is there any instance, committee, governing body, adjudicator, conflict 
> resolution panel anywhere in the movement who can take such action, 
> after hearing both sides, of course? Or is IndyMedia not a protected brand?
> 
> I have copied this to three people at IndyMedia Germany.
> 
> Diet


Any indymedia can be disaffiliated from the network through a proposal 
to the global network by a local collective. So you would have to 
propose this to sydney imc, we would have to endorse it as a collective. 
Then the proposal would be sent to the imc-process list. If no other 
local collective in the world blocks the proposal, it passes, and the 
DNS techs can be directed to remove the domain.

In relation to Germany IMC, I imagine it would be blocked fairly quickly 
by other European IMCs. I personally would not support such a move. 
Being on the other side of the planet to Germany, i think we have no 
place telling them what to do. I think its up to other European IMC's to 
deal with things in their area. I say this from experience. When we 
tried to disaffiliate Darwin IMC, a couple of IMC's from the other side 
of the planet blocked us. They had little knowledge of the real 
situation here.

Disaffiliation gets ugly, divides the network, and generally burns a lot 
of people out. I strongly believe that any action of this sort should be 
taken on the regional level. That is, Oceania looks after itself, Europe 
looks after itself, North America looks after itself, and so on. Of 
course there may be exceptions.


Cam