[New-imc] Online form: Proposed new IMC! (pilipinas.indymedia.org)

[tonyo at myrealbox.com]

Submitted by: Tonyo Cruz <tonyo at myrealbox.com> on Tuesday, October 1st, 2002 @ 4:48:25 pm (-0700)

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imc_name:
pilipinas.indymedia.org

city:
Manila

state:


country:
Philippines

contact_name:
Tonyo Cruz

contact_email:
tonyo at myrealbox.com

contact_phone:
+632 4359151

tech_name:


tech_email:


tech_phone:


supporting_groups:
1) New Patriotic Alliance (BAYAN, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan); 2) Project People\'s Web; 3) Science and Technology In Service of the People (AGHAM)


issue_focus:
yes

critical_dates:
February 2003

resources:
Pilipinas Indymedia would be hopefully be able to solicit the free use of a Sun webserver and marshall volunteers  from among the Philippines\' best Linux programmers. Its convenors include young and old activists and members of the scientific community who have been involved in the anti-globalization movement from the anti-APEC People\'s Conference Against Imperialist Globalization in 1996 to the Earth Summit 2002 in South Africa. They are also involved in setting up the International League of Peoples\' Struggle, a broad formation of more than 200 mass formations from 40 countries formed last year in the Netherlands and with a full-fledged chapter in the Philippines.

outreach:
We have spoken, in formal and informal meetings, with members of the Project People\'s Web (an effort to provide various Philippine people\'s organizations with web development tools and know-how), BAYAN (the Philippines\' biggest multisectoral alliance of people\'s organizations), AGHAM (an association of activist scientists and technologists) and a member of the Philippines\' Computer Programmers\' Union (CPU). 

There will be upcoming meetings, both bilateral and multilateral, with friends from 24 other people\'s organizations, including three alternative media organizations like the People\'s Media Center, Bulatlat.com, Kodao Productions and the media-unit of Ibon Foundation. 

introductory_statement:
Its about time that the Philippines have its own Independent Media Center (Pilipinas Indymedia) especially as the anti-imperialist, anti-globalization movement by various people’s organizations carry on sectoral and multisectoral campaigns against imperialist globalization.

In 1996, Bayan and its allied organizations convened the People’s Conference Against Imperialist Globalization and the Anti-Imperialist World Peasant Summit as counterpoints to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit hosted by then-President Fidel V. Ramos. 

These conferences began what is now known as the most serious challenges by mass movements and people’s organizations against imperialist globalizations and its instruments like the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund and World Bank especially during their meetings. The most prominent of these was the Battle of Seattle.

The momentum of the Manila and Seattle mass actions gave inspiration for mass movements the world over to the carry on the fight for a world without imperialist globalization, plunder and war. Everywhere and even in the cold boardrooms of the WTO, IMF, WB and multinational corporations, the disastrous impact of neoliberal policies especially liberalization, privatization and deregulation have been blamed for the widening gap between the poor and rich nations, worsening poverty levels and the continued domination of a handful of imperialist countries over a huge number of colonial and neocolonial client states have all become too big to deny.

In almost all these major mass mobilizations, Indymedia in various cities helped propagate the peoples’ views on globalization and assisted people’s organizations in raising the level of awareness of the general public on the most important issues – whether on the economy, politics, military affairs, culture and technology. 

Obviously, the Philippines deserves and stands to gain with the establishment of Pilipinas Indymedia. It will provide Filipinos and the world’s peoples who are connected to the internet a window to how we are surviving and fighting globalization and monopoly rule and the dreams we have for a genuinely-new world order that is just, peaceful and prosperous. 


Pilipinas Indymedia shall be the main and most prominent Philippine website on imperialist globalization. 

Soliciting material – accounts, news, analysis, photos, videos and others – from various people’s organizations, the academe, media, government offices, Pilipinas Indymedia shall be the most comprehensive, regularly-updated and most vigilant source of alternative information on imperialist globalization. 
 
It is high time that a Pilipinas Indymedia be established: 1) to document what the Filipino people are undertaking to break free from the yoke of imperialist domination in all spheres of their national life; 2) to expose the brutal impact of imperialist globalization on the people’s rights and livelihood especially those of workers and peasants; 3) to present the various forms of mass actions used;  and 4) to highlight the role of pro-people technology (particularly open-source operating system and software) in cutting down the monopoly of an elite few on information and communications technology. 

This is one of our contributions to forging international solidarity among the world\'s peoples who are demanding an end to the plunder and war of imperialist globalization.