What is it with Indymedia?

[mutley]

Regarding elections and hierachical organisations...

Where BIMC tends to draw the line regarding advertising hierachical organistions, is that we won't allow the newswire to be flooded with party political broadcast posts during elections, but equally, to pretend that elections don't occur, and not to allow events and reports would be very odd.

Unfortunately, due to the server being seized shortly after election 2005, and due to lax back ups during that period, BIMC lost 3 months of archives. The election was reported on and front paged.

The criticisms we did receive swung between those who seemed to think we should pretend the election wasn't happening, and those who seemed to think we were stalinists for discouraging and hiding party political broadcasts.

It sounds like you got it about right. Birmingham Indymedia won't even allow a Stop The War rally to be posted. If someone put up one about a Respect rally I guess they'd have kittens. It'll be interesting to see if Brum gets a Respect councillor, if Indymedia Brum just ignores the fact and has more repetitive posts about food not bombs and the West midlands Anarchists minutes etc. Not that I'm against posting about food not bombs - it's pointless IMO but hey, let a thousand flowers bloom. I'd like to see more pluralism in their approach.

The bizzarre contradiction is that they are happy to have news about the Pensions strikes, the unions leading it probably have far more hierarchical elements (eg more full-timers, more central control of local activities) than STW. Any group can set up as STW in a locality, and there's very little anyone else in STW could do to affect what they did.

 

[munkeeunit]

Thanks.

I think the medium term solution is to breed goodwill (if you can stomach it, considering) and try getting involved in the Brum collective.

Bristol-Stop-The-War, for example, has developed a reputation for using their networks to publicise everyone else's events (unlike the bulk of the Stop-The-War movement!), while also stretching our brief as far as we logically can, as a result everyone has an interest in showing equal goodwill and publicising our events, and giving us acces to their networks.

I am part of Bristol-Stop-The-War and Bristol Indymedia, but that wasn't always the case, and the bitter hostilities between socialists (in partcular SWP and their 'front groups') and anarchists may still seem to be a simmering nightmare waiting to explode, but in reality everyone is getting used to sharing these, and other, spaces. For now, at least, and hopefully for some time to come.

 

[treelover]

good approach

In Bristol, this hierarchy issue is tempered by a more focussed guideline against monopolising the newswire. As a result hierarchical organisations from political parties, unions and ngo's can post on the newswire, and can even by upgraded to the middle column. I personally feel that all IMCs should incorporate this degree of flexibility. It is, after all, a news network.

Individual moderators may well spend more time screening for hierarchies and squeeze out news in the process. That is a bad approach in my opinion.

 

[seedot]

One of the strengths of indymedia imo, is the decentralised nature of the overall network where different, sometimes complementary solutions to the same problems can develop.

As an indy.ie editor who doesn't identify as an anarchist, I think the hierarchy / non-hierarchy debate often gets sidetracked into semantics. The strength of the indymedia attitude to hierarchy is not so much in any definition and whether any individual site functions 'hierarchically' but rather that the form of organisation is fairly constantly striving to be non-hierarchical.

I'd probably side with Nigel on the semantic argument of whether what is there at the moment in indy.ie (I prefer not to categorise other groups) is a 'hierarchy' but think that the adherence to principles of non-hierarchical organising means we are constantly seeking ways to overcome this. An example is the newswire moderation where we have guidelines that are the editorial policy and editors are only mandated to hide things that contravene a guideline. As the process becomes more and more formalised the idea is that the possession of a password to implement a hide on the newswire is purely functional without any major decision making involved (there is always interpretation but guidelines are often developed to codify a particular interpretation).

So in this way it probably does function as gurrier's 'experiment in non-hierarchical organising', although I'd propose that most indymedia activists could add their own priorities to any description without negating this one.

An interesting thing about the Irish solution is the definition of where the authority rests. We have a flow chart which shows how different groups are mandated for different functions. At its core is the only entity which is poorly defined, 'the Indymedia Collective', which includes all the people Nigel mentions and is supposed to be able to override any mandate, recall any sub collective (not sure about individual delegates/members) but doesn't meet any more and exists, along with the 2nd Dail, in the shadowy mythical space that Irish movements prefer to derive their authority from.

As I said, we're not all anarchists on indy.ie.

 

[JoeBlack]

I thinknoble idea lost reaminabuse. weasel brain.

Aren't you that loony grass.

 

[treelover]

There is certainly something wrong in the 'state of Indymedia UK' when you get to the 'promoted newswire', the first six stories are about palestine or Iraq , this is a uk info site for gods sake. Further, much of what is actually posted about palestine is available on mass media sites. They have chosen not to include such important (w/class?) UK stories such as as 'work camps for the unemployed/disabled, NHS cuts, etc, change your priorities, IUK......

 

[Herbert Read]

I saw your deer story. I knew it wouldnt last as it was far to well reported and reasoned.

rang the police on indymedia again

 

[Herbert Read]

Aren't you that loony grass.

hes a fucking radical cheerleader and tout

 

[durruti02]

There is certainly something wrong in the 'state of Indymedia UK' when you get to the 'promoted newswire', the first six stories are about palestine or Iraq , this is a uk info site for gods sake. Further, much of what is actually posted about palestine is available on mass media sites. They have chosen not to include such important (w/class?) UK stories such as as 'work camps for the unemployed/disabled, NHS cuts, etc, change your priorities, IUK......

totally agree .. indy media has a massive bias in favour of almost irrelevant direct action by tiny self proclaimed groups in favour of a very narrow liberal anarchist agenda and reports from abroad

... ignoring the massive amount of day to day class struggle in every community and workplace across this country ... i am pleased but suprised to see they are covering the public sector pensions dispute though i could not find anything about the next waves of strikes ..

why does this matter? cos it is not called 'direct action anarchist news service' but INDYMEDIA .. it implies it is an alternative to the media ..sadly it is not

 

[chegrimandi]

Aren't you that loony grass.

yes......

ZASKAR IS A TOUT

 

[IPRN]

Has anybody noticed this Indymedia post that's been sitting there a couple of days?

https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/04/338103.html?c=on#c146230