Get Down to Your Local Indy

indycymru was never part of the indymedia network as it did not sign up to the common principles and did not adopt the open publishing model.

About nine months ago Indycymru sent in an application to become part of IMC. They are waiting for a reply to this:

"Indycymru has given support to many small Nations struggling for the independence necessary for their survival. And carries criticisms of Civilisation and everything else including Religions. But it is an open space for everybody. This means that anyone can read it, and everyone can register to access it to submit news or opinion, or place comment to already placed ones. There is no censorship except for criminal, libel, commercial advertising, obscenity and personal attacks, and some of those might be carried if interesting and instructive, or if submitters make big enough fools of themselves. " It is intended that everything else will be posted and (caustically?) "casuistically discussed if we think it's racist, sexist or any other thing we particularly dislike.. If you chose conformity to walk through life, then don't visit us." [What is is the quotation marks is from Portugal's original statement]

The reason that 'register' is inserted there is because Portugal failed to survive on an unregistered basis. On Indycymru anyone can register, we have open registration, and had been going for years.

There are minor nitpicking disagreement about interpretation of words which do not really reject the Principles of Unity as long as there is unity about there being diversity rather than conformity.

Detailed nitpicks are:

The interpretation of open publishing in para 4. Indycymru has been denounced from within UKindy for not having open publishing despite the fact that virtually everything submitted here, and quite a lot of what has been hidden on UKindy, has been published here.

In 6 everyone is required to be in agreement in consensus Editorial decision making. Several indycymru Editors have substantial disagreements with other Editors. No one has been expelled. Production continues. Much of the best work was provoked by hostile comments. A flourishing diversity is possible, and likely better than conformity.

In 10 it says 'no discrimination, perhaps it is jumping the gun there because it does not say 'based on Nationality' if a web site has pretensions to being a National site, a majority of members should be drawn from that Nation. There are plenty of Welsh people of Black, Asian, European, and Chinese origin who fit that, so my supposing conflict may be unreal, note The Principles have it right (in brackets) in the last line below.

If that is acceptable to IMCs, then there is no argument with these PRINCIPLES OF UNITY below.

1. The Independent Media Center Network (IMCN) is based upon principles of equality, decentralization and local autonomy. The IMCN is not derived from a centralized bureaucratic process, but from the self-organization of autonomous collectives that recognize the importance in developing a union of networks.

2. All IMC's consider open exchange of and open access to information a prerequisite to the building of a more free and just society.

[3. All IMC's respect the right of activists who choose not to be photographed or filmed.]

4. All IMC's, based upon the trust of their contributors and readers, shall utilize open web based publishing, allowing individuals, groups and organizations to express their views, anonymously if desired. **see appendix: Open Publishing document --> still in proposal phase, at this address:  http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-communication/2001-April/001707.html

5. The IMC Network and all local IMC collectives shall be not-for-profit.

6. All IMC's recognize the importance of process to social change and are committed to the development of non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian relationships, from interpersonal relationships to group dynamics. Therefore, shall organize themselves collectively and be committed to the principle of consensus decision making and the development of a direct, participatory democratic process] that is transparent to its membership.

7. [All IMC's recognize that a prerequisite for participation in the decision making process of each local group is the contribution of an individual's labor to the group.]

8. All IMC's are committed to caring for one another and our respective communities both collectively and as individuals and will promote the sharing of resources including knowledge, skills and equipment.

9. All IMC's shall be committed to the use of free source code, whenever possible, in order to develop the digital infrastructure, and to increase the independence of the network by not relying on proprietary software.

10. All IMC's shall be committed to the principle of human equality, and shall not discriminate, including discrimination based upon race, gender, age, class or sexual orientation. Recognizing the vast cultural traditions within the network, we are committed to building [diversity] within our localities."


To expedite matters that was improved into the application form at
 http://newimc.indymedia.org , and sent it off - sometime around
September. Together with same details in an e-mail.
There has been no reply. Should have been - one way or the other.

does activism mean money?

i would like to hope so

Some Administrators live off the state benefit. Even put some of their megre money in to maintain their indymedia. - as do some people on protest camps. The are looking to change the world - one visionary once said :
"
: "...the machinery, factories, workshops, stores...all means of production and distribution of wealth, must be declared and treated as the common property of all." It continued: "...the waste incurred by the pursuit of profit will be at an end, the amount of labour necessary for every individual to perform in order to carry on the essential work of the world will be reduced to something like two or three hours daily..."

which is probaly from the same pen as

"...a .. society in which there should be neither rich nor poor, neither master nor master's man; neither idle nor overworked; neither brain-sick brain workers nor heart-sick hand workers; a world in which all men would be living in equality of condition and would manage their affairs unwastefully, and with the full consciousness that harm to one would mean harm to all -- the realisation at last of the word commonwealth."

Some Administrators work at paid jobs outside Indymedia, the only way you will get paid for working within Indymedia is as an Agent for MI5 or Special Branch, or perhaps the CIA.

There is an Indycymru Meeting/Workshop in Cardiff on March 9th 2007.

Full details and on the Indycymru Wiki at www.wiki.indycymru.org

If you are interested in establishing a truly independent media centre for Wales, please join the Indycymru mailing list for further discussion.

The Cardiff meeting is open to anyone, but as there is limited space, please let us know if you want to come to the meeting.