[imc-scotland-discussion] Fwd: Re: [New-imc] Sheffield Indymedia New IMC Application

[Bartolomeo]

Hello,

I saw that a similar mail I replied to on new-imc [1] was sent to imc-
scotland-discussion [2], too. So I am forwarding my mail to this list as well.

Ciao, Bart

[1] http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/new-imc/2011-May/0512-7i.html
[2] http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-scotland-discussion/2011-
May/0511-5z.html

----------  Weitergeleitete Nachricht  ----------

Betreff: Re: [New-imc] Sheffield Indymedia New IMC Application
Datum: Freitag, 13. Mai 2011
Von: Bartolomeo <bartolomeo at indymedia.org>
An: AB <anarchobabe at fempages.org>

Hello,

I think it is difficult for most IMCs to get involved in the UK conflict. You 
need to read a lot of mails, articles and wiki pages and you have to talk to 
many people to be able to build up a fair opinion about what is going on. I 
dit all this because I am a member of the new-imc working group and Mayday and 
Sheffield filed an application. At first, I was not biased at all. In fact, I 
talked to people from both factions and listened to what they think about the 
conflict. 

I was disturbed when I learned that the techie who later stole 
indymedia.org.uk switched on anti-abuse measures to flag postings from a 
certain IP without informing his collective, namely IMC UK. But I was shocked 
when he told me that he believed that the motto "the ends justify the means" 
was also valid for means that violate consensus decision making if only the 
ends are important enough. I personally cannot trust him any more as he made 
this mess deliberately and I certainly don't want to see him in a position in 
which he has access to private data.

I was asked by Mr. D how the new-imc process works and who could be a liaison 
for the Mayday collective. I was sceptical to become their liaison myself 
because I saw that they use methods of public denunciation (outings by mails, 
features and wikis) to intimidate fellow IMC volunteers. Nonetheless, I wrote 
Mr. D a mail and explained how they could find a liaison. The reward was that I 
found myself suspected of "some kind of collusion" against the Mayday 
collective, presented as their public enemy in a couple of start page features 
and victim of sexist diffamation. Do you really think that this is progressive, 
anti-capitalist and alternative politics? 

Although this is a long-lasting conflicts with lots of facets, quite some 
people got involved. Apart from the UK, people from Hungary, Basque country, 
Greece and Germany have shared their points of view and all of them came to 
the same conclusion: tech power must be controlled collectively, the Mayday 
collective has stolen the domain of Indymedia UK, the Indymedia network cannot 
let this happen so we have to force them to give it back or break off any 
contact.

Ciao, Bart

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