[Imc-g8-2005] IMC UK G8 debt, hierarchy and regional 'pawns'

[ben at riseup.net]

Thought I might as well throw in my couple of pennies worth...

The 'invite' to be involved in IMC activities around the G8 is implicit in
being part of IMC UK. The very roots of the entire indymedia concept and
the global network has been the pulling together of the networks in order
to cover these major mobilisations. People involved in indymedia
collectives in the USA didn't need a specific email inviting their
collective because it is obvious that regardless of whether you would
personally be attending the protests, your help would be desirable and
necessary.

All the regional collectives are part of IMC UK, and there is no IMC UK
without the collectives. There is no seperate body of people who are IMC
UK, all are part of one of the regional collectives even if their primary
focus might be network infrastructure. I fail to see just what consitutes
the 'them and us' devide which would suggest that somebody needed to
invite somebody else. WE ARE ALL INDYMEDIA!

However, for those that felt that they needed an explicite invite to get
involved, there were plenty and not only in the lists. The front page
startpage special prior to the alt-media convergence for example - a
convergence which was specifically intended to involve not only the entire
UK network but also other individuals and alt-media projects which do not
associate themselves with indymedia.

If people only subscribe to the mailing list of their local region then
it's easy to see that they might end up feeling that their collective is
seperate from the network as a whole. However, all the regions should have
people taking an active role in newsire cleaning and be subscribed to
features. There should also be people on the process, network and various
other lists. If there are not people from all the regions taking part in
these lists then how are we a network?

Sheffield IMC was not somehow left out by the network in any of the G8
process but actually I don't see Sheffield IMC actually saying that it has
been. I see one person slagging off the efforts of others and apparently
not actually representing the opinion of Sheffield IMC as a whole.
However, if there is a general feeling amoung the 50 odd people involved
in Sheffield IMC that they were no consulted then there is a problem
within the Sheffield group that should be resolved by ensuring that there
are Sheffield people feeding back what is happening on network lists to
those who are not.

ben