Unity for the ESF, ESF and Beyond to the G8 will Shake the State
Hamlet | 09.10.2004 20:09 | G8 2005 | European Social Forum | Analysis
Seizure of the IndyMedia server should not distract from work for the ESF, ESF and Beyond to the G8! If this was an attempted political gagging then that surely was the target. In defiance we should stop pretending to be disunited: it's just elitism gone mad. And taking this as a reminder, never become too dependent on the Internet and WWW, and be prepared in the likely eventuality, someday, to work without it.
I don't think protecting state agents in Switzerland or England is sufficient reason to motivate police seizing the server, unless important intelligence assets would have been consequently jeopardised. I really don't think so. I suppose it could be a general warning to say : if you expose secret police we will act. More likely though its just an excuse, dreamed up by police who monotoring the ESF and the build up to the g8 next year, to damage the effectiveness of Indymedia at an important time. I am not sure if there is any data on the server that might link back to contributors. Indymedia can answer that. But that obviously would be significant.
What could make the state act politically by gagging IM is the influence IM has in general on the anti-authoritarian left - and probably a much wider audience now - coupled the immediate and particular influence it is having on the ESF, and organising out of this forward to the G8 next year. The success of the ESF, including all the 'horizontal' events around it, will be hugely important for the anti-G8 movement which could be massively significant - more so even than Seattle and Genova - and I don't mean in the sense of more violent, ... do I?
Whether it realises it or not, Indymedia has greatly assisted in bringing both parts of the ESF together, to be successful as one huge integrated event. Read the article, published on 4 October, 'Preparations for the ESF in London.' if you need convincing. They must me congratulated with the timing. But I think that timing could have been sufficient to trigger actions in very worried policemen.
Many of the newswire postings and comments about the ESF, have appeared to be, or have been, divisive: Anarchos hate Trots hate Anarchos hate Ken and everyone hates the SWP cack. And a few nutters, trolls, and probably the odd spook-sponsored-type, have spun some annoying crap. But in reality over recent years Anarchos have worked well with all sorts of lefts incl. the SWP without hiding political differences. But it's been the truth one dared not speak, hasn't it. Because the only ones more elitist than trots are anarchos. So IM must be congratulated for overcoming the elitist barrier by publishing the truth - this has strategic implications.
Well the Indymedia posting 'Preparations for the ESF in London.' speaks this truth, and implicitly says all this ... no its fucking explicit, isn't it. It's saying we're all in this together now, the worlds so fucked up we must do something, together. I have had the opinion that an outward display of unity and strength means the state will come down hard on you, using all the usual tricks, and some new ones, like the seizure of critical communications servers, as a critical time.
Do you remember the warning: Never become too dependent on the Internet and WWW! Back Up systems excepted in this case. But they can rob your back up too. Imagine the fucking state we’d be in without the backup, although there are other web-sites go now, like engager.
I think your own article might have been what prompted them to take the server. I would also bet that they have intelligence that an enormous number of people are going to travel to London for the ESF. I would surmise that they are shitting themselves that horizontals and verticals may be getting it on down together - and Indymedia let the cat out of the bag.
So why is this a ‘critical time‘? Because we are on the eve of a massive gathering of every kind of political left group and individual in existence who have been converging over the last 6 years. London's ESF and Beyond should be that watershed when the sum of the work of recent years produces a significant move forwards.
The G8 next year provides a world-wide focus for this unity and strength - a perfect opportunity. No doubt dedicated police forces have been assigned and are already monitoring the potential for protest in Gleneagles. Indeed some of them will be from the FBI. For these reasons if I were spooky police, I'd pull Indy media sever, to try and fragment organisation, distract from the tasks of coordinating ESF and Beyond - any useful data, like IP addresses, would be a bonus..
The above is speculative, but unity now should become desirable, and is possble with less elitism. Also we shouldn’t be distracted by what has happened to the IM server and focus on the ESF, and beyond ESF to the G8. And lastly, never become too dependent on the Internet and WWW; be prepared to have to work without it.
H.
What could make the state act politically by gagging IM is the influence IM has in general on the anti-authoritarian left - and probably a much wider audience now - coupled the immediate and particular influence it is having on the ESF, and organising out of this forward to the G8 next year. The success of the ESF, including all the 'horizontal' events around it, will be hugely important for the anti-G8 movement which could be massively significant - more so even than Seattle and Genova - and I don't mean in the sense of more violent, ... do I?
Whether it realises it or not, Indymedia has greatly assisted in bringing both parts of the ESF together, to be successful as one huge integrated event. Read the article, published on 4 October, 'Preparations for the ESF in London.' if you need convincing. They must me congratulated with the timing. But I think that timing could have been sufficient to trigger actions in very worried policemen.
Many of the newswire postings and comments about the ESF, have appeared to be, or have been, divisive: Anarchos hate Trots hate Anarchos hate Ken and everyone hates the SWP cack. And a few nutters, trolls, and probably the odd spook-sponsored-type, have spun some annoying crap. But in reality over recent years Anarchos have worked well with all sorts of lefts incl. the SWP without hiding political differences. But it's been the truth one dared not speak, hasn't it. Because the only ones more elitist than trots are anarchos. So IM must be congratulated for overcoming the elitist barrier by publishing the truth - this has strategic implications.
Well the Indymedia posting 'Preparations for the ESF in London.' speaks this truth, and implicitly says all this ... no its fucking explicit, isn't it. It's saying we're all in this together now, the worlds so fucked up we must do something, together. I have had the opinion that an outward display of unity and strength means the state will come down hard on you, using all the usual tricks, and some new ones, like the seizure of critical communications servers, as a critical time.
Do you remember the warning: Never become too dependent on the Internet and WWW! Back Up systems excepted in this case. But they can rob your back up too. Imagine the fucking state we’d be in without the backup, although there are other web-sites go now, like engager.
I think your own article might have been what prompted them to take the server. I would also bet that they have intelligence that an enormous number of people are going to travel to London for the ESF. I would surmise that they are shitting themselves that horizontals and verticals may be getting it on down together - and Indymedia let the cat out of the bag.
So why is this a ‘critical time‘? Because we are on the eve of a massive gathering of every kind of political left group and individual in existence who have been converging over the last 6 years. London's ESF and Beyond should be that watershed when the sum of the work of recent years produces a significant move forwards.
The G8 next year provides a world-wide focus for this unity and strength - a perfect opportunity. No doubt dedicated police forces have been assigned and are already monitoring the potential for protest in Gleneagles. Indeed some of them will be from the FBI. For these reasons if I were spooky police, I'd pull Indy media sever, to try and fragment organisation, distract from the tasks of coordinating ESF and Beyond - any useful data, like IP addresses, would be a bonus..
The above is speculative, but unity now should become desirable, and is possble with less elitism. Also we shouldn’t be distracted by what has happened to the IM server and focus on the ESF, and beyond ESF to the G8. And lastly, never become too dependent on the Internet and WWW; be prepared to have to work without it.
H.
Hamlet
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
We're fucked without the internet
10.10.2004 13:50
How are we supposed to work without the internet?
But we'll always have email though, even if they manage to stop controversial websites from being hosted.
I'd say though that if they do shut down Indymedia, this movement (of movements) must do everything it can to mobilise globally in the hundreds of thousands if not millions, to demonstrate loudly and vocally and to demand our rights to a free press once more.
If Indymedia gets permanently shut down I don't see why any of us should take that lying down. (Well, maybe lying down in the road).
Ozymadnias
We Need The Net
10.10.2004 17:02
And suggesting pigeon post is foolhardy, which I may have been inferring.
It would be dire without the internet, and probably the result of a rare incident or crisis, but worth contemplating, and more productive then contemplating a black hole.
A contingency against this is that folks do go to local, national and international action gatherings to make physical contacts and networks. This should be encouraged and is obviously important for many other reasons too, such as, a good time.
What I should have stressed is that it is probably more relevant to have several known alternative sites, say like enrager and others. However, in this case IM must be congratulated on its decentralised organisation, and getting a backup up and running smartly.
Anyway, more voluminous brains than my nut are on the case of decentralised networks, thankfully. The bulk of my thoughts centre around a shiny fish swimming gently in a calm clear sea, which are occasionally interrupted by the likes of: these computer gismos are fucking amazing, aren't they, and other such cases of the obvious.
But sometimes it’s important to share the obvious; it is often underrated and neglected.
H.
Freenet
11.10.2004 18:51
Located at
To access it you need to take part by running a node which is done by downloading and running a Java program, then you (should) be able to access freenet whilst giving away some of your disk space to store information.
Freenet is still in development and does have a few problems, but the best thing to do is to support the project now.
It provides a great medium for static content such as archives of Indymedia.
Things do drop off the network after a while if they are not accessed, but to provide information to people which governments seek to repress it is a great tool.
freenet denzien
Nice analysis
13.10.2004 21:40
someone