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.