loking at the photo: they seem to be there to stop people smashing windows.

Hi
Agreed...but whilst so many 'progressive' posters themselves fill Indymedia with sexist and homophobic content its gonna be a long slog!

To be fair, I think the IMC collective do their level best to stay on top of the newswire, deleting/hiding Nazi posts.

But it's tough precisely because IMC is open-source. Anyone can post anything (in any name, remember that) and I doubt any of the IMC folks can stay up all day and night.

One solution would be to do what LabourNet UK do, which is get people to email stories to them, which they can then choose to put up or not. A bit slower, but allows them to filter out Nazi posts, adverts and spam.

Why is it all they ever seem to do is guard big corporations, smash-up protests and victimise (and kill) ethnic minorities?

Why is when someone calls the pigs in an emergency they say they are "under manned", but they can ALWAYS find hundreds and even thousands of pigs when theres going to be a protest or a riot, or when theres a "crackdown" on "youths" (black people usually).

It's time we got rid of these pigs! We don't need em.

Why the stupid comments about the police? Without them you'd all be doomed thats for sure. Who would protect you from the undesirables and scum of the society? What about drug dealers who target school kids, or perverts who rape people? What about paedophiles?

You people have no clue when you talk about wanting to abolish the police.

If that happened you'd soon see why anarchy is completely unsustainable. Everyone except the "warlords" that would be created would live in a complete mess of fear and poverty.

this isnt a post about cops.

re bnp etc posting here, yep there's been quite a serious attempt recently, sometime 8 in one hour - it stepped up around christmas and has been quite regular since then.

the people who volunteer to keep this site running doing admin and hiding such posts cannot do this every minute of every day.

many people help them though by mailing details of obvious racist posts to the 'features' email list :
 imc-uk-features@lists.indymedia.org
then they get removed. you can help do that too - that's what indymedia is meant to be about - cooperation and collaboration (but also why these scum can so easily post).

we certainly have to stay ontop of it though, so please help out if you see such a post.

by the way the features email list is archived so if you don't want your email public you can mail in private to:
 imc-uk-contact@lists.indymedia.org

thanks.

I think the reason that indymedia uses open source publishing, is to prevent organisations using the threat of expensive legal action to shut the site down.

If the posts were vetted before being put up, then indymedia could be held liable for anything that the editors chose to post. As it is, anybody can post a story, and know that it's going to be difficult or impossible to be personally sued.

The downside of this is that sometimes racist, sexist and fascist posts are sometimes visible.

Anyone from the indymedia editorial team care to comment?

This happens to lots of other Indymedia websites. Quite a headache, but that's the price you pay for such an open publishing system. Some Indymedia sites don't allow anything to appear until it has been 'approved', although this means time critical information or up to the minute reporting of larger protests is not possible.

We can keep these idiot posters on the run, before long they'll lose interest as they so often do.

The thing Indymedia is best known for is reporting large scale protests in a very up to date media rich manner. This is only really possible with a system which allows people to post from any computer without worrying about logons, passwords, and cookies (unless you have a team of 'approved' reporters and posters, and then your're just like the coprorate media!).

The open posting idea is idealistic, sure, but it can work well when people work together.

I think we can take it as a compliment that these posts are appearing on IMC as it shows we must be pissing someone off! I think we should show no tolerance for these fascist scumbags but perhaps the nazis are shooting themselves in the foot here. Let me explain…..

Firstly they are really obviously right wing as opposed to other news mediums, which may have more difficult to spot tendencies. By reading the right wing posts you can spot the same trends in the mainstream media and judge them for what they are worth. I´d also recommend that people keep track of nazi and right wing sites for this reason.. know your enemy. It´s hard to be anti-nazi or anti-fascist without knowing what that is.

Secondly we come across these opinions on a daily basis in a society that is moving right. Not just spotting the trends is important but also knowing how to respond. This morning people had made some good criticism of the posts such as Jackslucid and it was almost a shame that the opposing arguments weren´t there for longer

Thirdly it is important to understand that “British” society has right wing tendencies and that despite some of the great and not so great things that are going on it would be a shame for us to lose perspective of what we are actually up against. Right wing ideas start from the core of society and work their way outwards. Neo-nazis are just the extreme of a right-wing society. This society is sadly a very bigoted and prejudiced place…

Fourthly, we should be suspicious about all postings on IMC, no matter where they come from. IMC is also a forum for debate and an exchange of ideas. I don´t think that any of us can pretend to have the “answer” and by taking positions and discussing them out we should become stronger and not weaker. Take everything with a pinch of salt as it were, even my postings. If neo-Nazi posts teach us that everything on IMC is not necessarily the “truth” or left-wing then that can only be positive. Keep aware and keep debating.

And finally, I find the Nazi postings give a bit of perspective in a time of turmoil. We may have our internal arguments over tactics, theory or issues BUT we are, as it were, on the same side. That is not to say that our internal battles are not important or that we should just forget them to fight the enemy but that we should put our left-wing differences in perspective to our differences with the right and the far-right. The history of politics shows that the left was always to eager to rip itself apart rather than attacking real right- wing structures and opinions.

On the other hand I understand that these posts are offensive, clog up the system, spread right-wing propaganda and should be treated as the rubbish they are… like I said these are just some points for the debate. My proposal would be to delete the really offensive ones but that we all use our freedom to comment to point out the weaknesses in these posts and tell the nazis what we think: on IMC and on their own sites!

The only reason pigs/nazis post stuff up here is because their own webs sites are shit and get no traffic!!

Anti-police comments aren't moronic either, they are well justified. The anti-police crowd might seem rabid here, but i think people are sick of having to defend themselves and the wire, and so are just like- "FUCK THE PIGS!"

Police propaganda run 24/7- So we got be true and deal out the truth to show what the pigs are really like.

For too long cops think they can push people around and stir shit up, so fairplay to anyone that says FUCK THE COPS. COMMUNITY CONTROL.

this is to make a comment on a very serious and important thing that i have chewed since i learned english: why are pigs insulted by comparison to cops i cannot understand it. pigs are extremely intelligent and peaceful creatures that also taste good if kept and bred in loving circumstances. cop are difficult to digest for us all. we pay them for nothing worth, they are arrogant ignares and worst of all, unconsiderate people who bite the hand of those who feed them.
i am very happy by the way since i learned that a cop died the other day stabbed on the chest: more of this please!

also, it isn't really bad that the cop's kids write here, they are the odd laugh among generally very nice reporting. keep on sending some fun cops: kids learn what not to think like thanx to you.

The death of a human being is always bad and to be avoided if possible. Not all people are the same, not all cops are the same, not all soldiers are the same - there's plenty that took part in road protests and the peace movement after experiencing the true horror of war, or just the fucked up culture (remember also that more soldiers have killed themselves after the falklands war than were killed there, now there's gulf war syndrome and depleted uranium for them to deal with - we should be supporting those who have changed their minds about the glory of war and talking to those who have yet to experience it).

As to imc keep kicking the nazis out.

i guess its the price we pay for having an open network. just the same as a, whisper it now, open society? or a supposed one anyway. you get all sorts of opinions, good and bad.
the ed's are doing their best here but a lot if not all are volunteers.
as long as we all contribute and keep IMC open, free and progressive we'll get it sorted.
if Genoa can't stop IMC i can't see how a few dodgy BNP posts will.

The police ARE the undesirables and scum of society... The drug dealers and perverts, the paedophiles, murderers exempt from prosecution. Without pigs, there would be no crime.

to b sure i've been a professional soldier b4, during 4 years during which i made my secondary education in a polytechnic institute of the terrestrial army back in spain. i "am" spanish. to b surer yet, in order to initiayte the wanker obsessed with warlords, the pigs are actually on the payslip of warlords. i reafirm myself, i am happy the "pig" died and i respect the pigs for real. fuck-the-pig-and-his-bastard-orfan-kids. finally, anarchy is not a dream: is a reality. it is only about who and in what a way controls that reality. "pigs" and current warlords are at loosing. funk u very much, and thanks 4 u'r corrections but i need not moralising. i repeat, i reafirm myself in what i think and said b4.

Totally agree the PIGS roten to the core and the whole system is totaly bent.
resentlly got areested for guess what losing my wallet.

my advice dont ever make a complaint thats a total wast of time.

cam a cross an intrest mottoring fourum that full cops and wanbe and there supporters.
they seem to love banning any one how dares to speek out against them.

at  http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/
you should see some of the aiti muslim rasist posts there.

i worship POLICE . . .to me POLICE are Gods. . .