[New-imc] NORTH TEXAS (introduction)
Jay
jay at tao.ca
Thu Oct 3 18:45:20 PDT 2002
Thanks Martin, and everyone! I'm going to pass along all this info to the
imc-process list, for people there to look at for a week. I can't imagine
there being any problem, but if there is, we'll work through
it. Afterward, the North Texas IMC can join the Indymedia "cities list."
Great,
Jay
At 10/3/2002, Martin Wallace wrote:
>Hello Jay and new-imc list. Instead of me re-writing my intro and
>answering the question "why does north Texas need an IMC," I wanted to
>give the North Texas collective a chance to have some input in this
>process. I am including some results here. One of our members went as far
>as to re-answer the application questions because he was confused about
>what it was that we needed. I will provide that here to, because many of
>his answers are much more in depth than my original application answers were.
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>An answer to your question...
>
>We need an indymedia because all of the other papers
>in the area are super-right-wing and totally supress
>or ignore any and all information about what's going
>on that they don't agree with or want to deal with.
>So, we need to make our own way of keeping up with
>real life.
>
>--Johanna-- (binankha at yahoo.com)
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>? Why does North texas need an IMC?
>
>For people for don't know North Texas is a gargencious (sp?) area
>with two large cities and countless smaller ones in betwixt and
>inbetwen. At first glance at the residents of this area it appears
>to be all trucks and new money. But in the cracks there are
>progressive people planting seeds all over. Indymedia is a people
>oriented valuable media that would be a wonderful addition to
>everyone of north texas. It would be a bridge across a flat area
>bridging radical thinkers, critical thinkers and questioning souls.
>IMC would be an outlet for ALL the people of the north texas region.
>On Thursday, September 26, 2002, at 11:05 AM, Jay wrote:
>
>Bernadette (bernstar at wildmail.com)
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>My name is Martin and I've been a media activists for roughly one year. I
>have no formal journalism training, nor did I ever expect to be doing
>anything even slightly related to journalism. The fact is that I am
>completely driven by the necessity to shed light on corruption, scandal
>and corporate greed in order to foster in a new world of coexistence and
>sustainability. Why does north Texas need an IMC? North Texas needs a
>radical, progressive news source for covering radical, progressive events
>in the North Texas area. This is an area with big money and deep corporate
>ties and this is the side that most everyone sees. But underneath that is
>a highly charged current of activists that are struggling for change on a
>daily basis. We need to bring some light to these people and their
>struggles. Also, there are two Radical Encuentro Camps per year in the
>Dallas area; there are large shareholders meetings going on all the time
>in the metroplex; the Bush regime make frequent visits to the area; there
>are two giant universities as well as a cadre of smaller to larger ones.
>All of these things bring in activists from all over the world for various
>reasons.
>
>Martin (amorph13 at worldunrest.org)
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>The reason I didn't answer your first question is because I didn't understand
>it. You mentioned a questionnaire, and the need to answer it, but I didn't see
>the questionnaire in your original post. And I figured that whatever you were
>talking about was something you guys discussed at a meeting I didn't go to.
>
>As for "Martin's IMC," I send stuff all the time. And I've been promoting
>the NT
>IMC to people every chance I get. I've been trying to get people to invite the
>NT IMC to cover their events -- like the upcoming Robert Jensen lecture this
>Saturday, for example, and the Boy Scouts of America protest next week.
>
>Additionally, I've been exploring free Internet radio station broadcasting
>sites
>as a possibility for an eventual NT IMC radio show. So I'd say I've been
>working
>on this idea.
>
>It would really help a lot if the NT IMC could get some T-shirts with IMC
>logos
>on them (I already have two) and wear them at major progressive events, and
>carry digital cameras, tape recorders and notebooks and COVER the events as
>journalists. Then the progressive community in Dallas would take us much more
>seriously.
>
>Cliff (cliffpearson at netzero.net)
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>BELOW IS THE COMPLETE APPLICATION QUESTIONNAIRE COMPLETED BY NTIMC MEMBER
>CLIFF PEARSON. CLIFF IS ONE OF OUR MOST ACTIVE MEMBERS AND IS ALSO A GREEN
>PARTY CANDIDATE IN DALLAS. THIS APPLICATION SHOULD NOT REPLACE OUR
>ORIGINALLY SUBMITTED APPLICATION, BUT THERE ARE SOME DETAILS THAT MAY BE
>OF INTEREST TO YOU. CLIFF FILLED IN THE ENTIRE QUESTIONNAIRE DUE TO
>MISCOMMUNICATION BETWEEN HE AND I.
>
>Do you agree in spirit to the global IMC Mission Statement and Principles
>of Unity?
>
>We do, as it says in our published Mission Statement.
>
>Do you have a committed membership substantial enough to sustain a
>functional IMC?
>
>Yes. The Green Party of Dallas County fully supports and unofficially
>endorses the North Texas IMC. The Dallas Greens have a membership of over
>500, 11 candidates for political office (making them the most electorally
>active county Green party in Texas), and an average monthly meeting
>attendance of 40. In addition to the Dallas Greens, the North Texas IMC
>has the full support and unofficial endorsement of the Collin County,
>Denton County and Tarrant County Greens -- whose membership sizes I'm not
>aware of. Also, the North Texas IMC has the support and unofficial
>endorsement of the D/FW Socialist Party in Dallas, and of several
>anarchist groups in North Texas.
>
>We also have the local support of the ACLU and National Lawyers Guild,
>several environmentalist groups, Amnesty International's four local
>chapters, the Student-Labor Coalition at UT-Dallas and the Leftist Student
>Union at Texas Christian University.
>
>Individually, I am a complete backer of the North Texas IMC and I am a
>known IMC contributor to several IMCs. Type my name, "Cliff Pearson," into
>http://www.google.com and see how many times I've written for the Quebec
>IMC alone. I'm also a former mainstream journalist and am a published
>freelance writer, and a guest commentator on the world-wide broadcaster
>Radio Left.
>
>Lastly, on the "need" for a North Texas IMC, I would like to point out
>that the Dallas suburb of Irving is the headquarters of Exxon-Mobil, the
>largest multinational corporation in the world and one of the dirtiest in
>the world. We also have Haliburton headquartered in Dallas, and J.C.
>Penney -- a major sweatshop user -- headquartered in the Dallas suburb of
>Plano. Additionally, Dallas is headquarters for major defense contractor
>Texas Instruments (TI) and Dallas suburb Richardson is the headquarters of
>Raytheon, the company that makes electronic targeting devices for nuclear
>bombs. Fort Worth is headquarters for Bell Textron, the company that makes
>the Apache and Blackhawk military attack helicopters.
>
>In other words, there is plenty to work on in North Texas, and annual
>protests and direct action at the yearly shareholders' meeting of
>Exxon-Mobil alone is getting increasingly larger each year, with more and
>more activists from around the country coming down to picket, making the
>need for independent media more and more important.
>
>Do you have open and public meetings? (No one group can have exclusionary
>"ownership" of an IMC.)
>
>All of our meetings are open and public.
>
>Are you working toward developing a local Mission Statement or Statement
>of Purpose?
>
>We did this. We have these documents online.
>
>Have you established and published an editorial policy which is developed
>and functions through democratic process, and with full transparency?
>
>We did this.
>
>Do you agree to the use of Open Publishing as described in the IMC
>Communication Network's Editorial Policy?
>
>Yes. We did this too.
>
>Have you adopted a decision-making policy that is in alignment with
>consensus principles which include open, transparent and egalitarian processes?
>
>We did this also.
>
>Do you have a spokesperson(s) willing and capable of participating in the
>global decision-making process and meetings as a rotating
>liason/representative, with a clear understanding of the responsibilities
>that come with this role?
>
>Martin Wallace is already doing this.
>
>Will you participate in the key IMC Communication Network methods that
>pertain to the health and vitality of the Network and that contribute to
>the work of the IMC? Will you assure that at least one person from your
>local IMC participates at any given time on the IMC-Communications listserv?
>
>Martin Wallace is doing this too.
>
>Do you agree to have no official affiliation with any political party,
>state or candidate for office? (But individual producers have freedom to
>do whatever they like, and local IMCs can "feature" stories about various
>political parties and initiatives.)
>
>The Green and Socialist support for the North Texas IMC is unofficial. I
>only mean that their members know about, like, and help promote the North
>Texas IMC.
>
>IMCs shall in no way engage in commercial for-profit enterprises. Do you
>agree to this condition?
>
>We agree completely.
>
>Will you display a local version of the IMC logo on your Web site and
>literature?
>
>We have a North Texas IMC logo on our home page.
>
>Will you include the IMC Communications Network's current "Cities List" on
>your front page?
>
>Yes. But will all the other IMCs do the same for us? Will we get a link on
>all the other IMC pages? And will we get to have
>http://northtexas.indymedia.org and/or http://nt.indymedia.org, at least
>as referrers to our page?
>
>One question has to do with outreach. I know you've been organizing for a
>while. What kind of outreach has been done to various parts of the
>community in order to bring people into the IMC?
>
>As I said above, the Greens, socialists, anarchists, the National Lawyers
>Guild, the ACLU, environmentalists, Amnesty International, labor groups,
>and other radicals and progressives have already been spreading the word
>about the new North Texas IMC. These represent the most radical and
>progressive segments of North Texas. We couldn't ask for better support
>and promotion.
>
>Are most of the core members from one particular part of town, or ethnic
>group, etc.?
>
>I can't answer that and I'm not sure anyone else can either. I don't think
>that anyone has really looked to see where most of our supporters live.
>But I know from my personal connections that Dallas area radicals and
>progressives love the North Texas IMC, and most of our people are from the
>city of Dallas itself.
>
>I can also say that the North Texas IMC, through my efforts, is being
>promoted through the atheist/humanist and GLBT communities, and through
>the African-American community via Roy Williams, veteran civil rights
>activist, author, and Green Party Texas senatorial candidate. The Dallas
>progressive and radical community is very diverse -- including pagans,
>Unitarians, atheists, agnostics, Jews, Muslims, and other religious
>minorities; people of color; the working poor; labor; environmentalists;
>women; students; GLBT people; immigrants and others.
>
>Since you've chosen to call yourselves "North Texas," what kind of
>outreach has gone on outside of urban areas?
>
>This question represents an unintentional regional ignorance. The
>Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex is a huge area that encompasses a territory
>the size of Rhode Island and is home to 3 million people. While Dallas and
>Fort Worth are large cosmopolitan areas -- with all the diversity large
>urban centers bring -- and while Denton is a college town with a large
>progressive base of students, Plano is literally split down the middle by
>Central Expressway, and divided between wealthy White conservatives on the
>west and progressive, working poor, immigrants and people of color on the east.
>
>The Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex has the nation's seventh worst urban
>sprawl problem, meaning that the North Texas IMC's territories are very
>separated by distance. In between all these areas I mentioned above are
>much smaller "urban rural" communities, towns, and suburbs.
>Demographically, these smaller towns are very conservative. Therefore, the
>most efficient means for the North Texas IMC to grow itself is to continue
>working in the larger urban areas where our demographics are best.
>
>The other question has to do with your thoughts about the group's
>association with the Greens. Not that there can't be members of a
>particular party or group involved in an IMC, but every IMC has the
>responsibility to not become affiliated closely with a specific
>organization. I'm sure you've talked about this, I just want to make sure
>there has been good discussion about the site being a venue for many
>shades of opinion, and won't operate as a de facto organizing outlet for
>the local Greens. Just taking the cue from the top feature on your test
>site, about "Meet the Greens."
>
>The Green Party is simply the most politically active grassroots
>progressive group in all of North Texas right now, and that mostly has to
>do with the fact that it's an election year. This is why the North Texas
>IMC may seem to have so much on it
>about the Green Party right now. I'm sure this will cease to be the case
>in a couple of months. But the North Texas IMC's core people are not all
>Greens, and this needs to be understood. There is no official relationship
>with the Green Party by the North Texas IMC.
>
>The support I mention from the Greens -- I want to emphasize -- is in
>spreading the word about the North Texas IMC as an alternative, truthful,
>noncorporate news outlet -- finally -- for North Texas. All the Greens I
>know are frequent readers and contributors to all the IMCs, and several of
>us even have the global IMC as our browser's home page.
>
>When several Dallas activists went to Washington, D.C. last weekend for
>the IMF/World Bank protest, the Greens promoted the DC IMC as a source for
>accurate, up-to-the-minute news on the protest.
>
>The Greens do not financially support the North Texas IMC and the North
>Texas IMC has not co-sponsored any events with the Greens. I am a local
>Green Party candidate and I have been a very frequent contributor to the
>North Texas IMC, but I have not once posted anything self-promotional of
>my candidacy.
>
>Perhaps the "Meet the Greens" post was ill-advised for the North Texas
>IMC. Instead of advertising the event on the North Texas IMC Web site, a
>local independent journalist should have reported on it.
>
>One more thing -- I'm sure people in the network would get a kick out of
>"meeting" the other members of the group too.
>
>I'm very well known within the IMC community around the country. As I
>mentioned above, put my name in any search engine and see how much I've
>published and how popular my independent journalism has been. If anyone
>wants to know more about
>my background in radical politics, I suggest they check out my
>"qualifications" link on my candidacy Web site, http://www.cliffpearson.com.
>
>
>>Hi everyone,
>>
>>Haven't heard any response to the comments sent by Martin addressing some
>>questions I asked about the North Texas IMC application, so I'm hoping
>>people approve. I'm sending their membership criteria to this list for
>>us to look at for the next three days. If there's no dissent, we can
>>pass it along to imc-process.
>>
>>One final piece of the puzzle is a brief introduction from the North
>>Texas IMC, telling us a bit about the need for independent media in
>>Northern Texas and introducing the rest of the network to the NT-IMC.
>>Martin, I know you sent something like that along already, perhaps with
>>your new-imc application form, or more recently. I can't seem to dig it
>>up. Could you locate that and resend it to the list? That would be
>>really helpful.
>>
>>Thanks, everyone.
>>
>>Jay
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Imc-north-texas-discuss mailing list
>>Imc-north-texas-discuss at lists.indymedia.org
>>http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-north-texas-discuss
>>
>>
>Martin
>
>Contibuting to:
>www.ntimc.org
>www.worldunrest.org
>www.dentonactivists.org
>
>
>The usual objectives of any system of production have been turned upside
>down: the economy does not function and grow to create goods and services;
>goods and services are consumed to make the economy function and grow.
>
>-Fidel Castro
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