Portland IMC responds to SF Indymedia Conflict



After examining the conflict in the SF Bay Indymedia community, with the information that we have Portland Indymedia activists have collectively decided that the actions of the current SF-IMC group are directly contrary to the spirit of Indymedia, to it's Principles of Unity, and to basic ethical behavior.

Therefore, Portland IMC activists have consensed to no longer recognize the current SF-IMC as a legitimate IMC until SF-IMC justifies it's actions of unilaterally taking over the SF server. Until that time, SF-IMC will be removed from the cities list on the Portland IMC site.

Portland IMC activists also agree that the subsequent New-IMC decision to recognize the new SF-IMC group was not valid with Gekked as the sponsor because the hard questions regarding his own actions have not been asked, nor answered. We feel it was a conflict of interest for Gekked to be the sponsor of his own groups petition to be recognized by New-Imc. Therefore, we recommend that SF-IMC's official recognition within New-IMC be RETRACTED, with a NEW application required for any future recognition.

Furthermore, Portland IMC activists encourage the Indybay group not to compromise and accept any deals but rather to demand that the SF Indymedia community remain a single IMC and that the people currently controlling SF-IMC justify their actions or step aside.

Indymedia activists across the broader Indymedia network are also encouraged to speak up and take action to address the wrong that appears to have been done.



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Open Letter to the Global Indymedia Network from SF Bay Area IMC

author: San Francisco Bay Area IMC

It is with much sadness and urgency that we inform the greater indymedia community about the ongoing crisis within the San Francisco Bay Area IMC.

Open Letter to the Global Indymedia Network from SF Bay Area IMC

Introduction

It is with much sadness and urgency that we inform the greater

indymedia community about the ongoing crisis within the San Francisco

Bay Area IMC.

Previously, we had attempted to resolve internal conflicts among group

members by engaging in formal mediation, which ultimately resulted in

an official split of the group into two and a list of specific actions

upon which each side agreed. This letter is being sent out only after

these agreements have not been respected by the new SF IMC collective

that has split from us.

As many of you know, the SF Bay Area IMC had been using both

sf.indymedia.org and indybay.org since its inception. The SF Bay Area

IMC website had been hosted on a linefeed.org server which was operated

by the tech members of our collective.

Conflict

Our IMC has now split into two groups. When a few of the tech members

began to have personal problems with other members of the collective,

these tech members demanded a split of the collective. The resulting

dynamics within the group continued to worsen. It created an

environment that made it difficult to continue working together and

also discouraged potential new people from joining the collective.

While most members of the collective opposed any kind of split, the

aforementioned tech members insisted that they would split anyway,

because they wanted to and because they could.

The tech members who wanted the split also had convinced the rest of

the group to agree to move the site to the linefeed.org server. They

claimed that this was merely a technical issue which would enable the

site to run faster.

The members of the splitting group also began making viscious and false

accusations about other members of the collective. This even went as

far as accusing some members of being security risks and/or police

informants.

The splitting group began to take control of the linefeed.org server

that the SF Bay Area IMC website had been hosted on by kicking off all

other IMC members from access to it. At the same time, they also cut

off access to other local activist websites (such as the Food Not Bombs

News website, liberationradio.net and passionbomb.com) that were being

hosted on their linefeed.org server. These other websites were

affiliated, to greater or lesser degrees, with members of SF Bay Area

IMC with whom the splitting group members were in conflict.

When it was clear that this internal conflict had reached a stalemate,

a neutral professional mediator was hired to conduct a series of

mediation meetings.

The continuation of the internal crisis was effectively preventing the

group from doing their work and was discouraging new people from

wanting to join the group. Most collective members were fed up with

having to deal with this conflict. As a result, during the mediation

process, the rest of the group reluctantly agreed to split the group

and further conceded to the splitting group's demand to give up the

sf.indymedia.org domain to them. Also part of the mediation agreement,

the rest of the group was to keep indybay.org (which at the time still

pointed to sf.indymedia.org) and also to create a new domain of

sfbay.indymedia.org. This new domain was to be used along with

indybay.org once indybay.org was handed over from the splitting group.

The mediation agreement was officially finalized on November 13th,

2003. Since that time, members of the new sf.indymedia group have

backtracked on their agreement in multiple ways. The indybay.org DNS

was supposed to have been handed over by the Monday following the final

mediation meeting, November 17th. But this did not occur until over a

month later, in mid-December. And although this "handing over" has

resulted in indybay.org now pointing to the correct site, they continue

to refuse to hand over the indybay.org domain ownership, which they

still control. Also, immediately after the mediation, they locked out

the group that was now sfbay.indymedia.org (indybay.org) from access to

sf.indymedia.org. In combination, these actions left the rest of the

group without a website for over a month.

During this period, the new sf.indymedia group has been hiding posts of

news stories to the sf.indymedia.org newswire (such as an announcement

about a live streaming coverage of the recent mayoral election by Enemy

Combatant Radio) made by members of the indybay.org group, effectively

censoring the indybay.org group.

The new sf.indymedia group has also refused to place on their website a

link with an explanation about the split, as both groups agreed to do

as part of the mediation agreement. Nevertheless, the indybay.org group

put up the explanation and link immediately after the site was up,

after the DNS switch.

Also, members of the new sf.indymedia group have been engaging in

tactics of doublespeak by accusing members of indybay.org of precisely

the kinds of acts that they themselves have been responsible for, such

as lying, manipulating, and threatening.

In sf.indymedia.org's recent application for status as a new imc that

they submitted to the New IMC Working Group, they stated that their

"supporting groups were too numerous to mention." While we didn't speak

up then, since we had agreed in good faith during mediation not to stop

their new IMC process, we now feel, in light of their actions, that

they should be asked why they failed to list those groups and to show

who really aligns with them. As far as we know, local activists and

groups and members of other IMCs who are finding out about the split do

not support them nor their actions.

List of violations of the mediation agreement by the new

sf.indymedia.org group:

1. The sf.indymedia.org group has refused to put up a blurb and links

about the split as agreed to during mediation.

2. The sf.indymedia.org group failed to switch the DNS for indybay.org

until over a month after the mediation agreement.

3. Before the indybay.org DNS was eventually switched over, a member of

sf.indymedia.org pointed indybay.org to a non-existent IP address,

causing many people to stop using indybay.org.

3. Immediately after the mediation was over, a member of

sf.indymedia.org withdrew half of the money from the imc checking

account, and then refused to negotiate the price for stickers and

t-shirts advertising the sf.indymedia.org web site address. According

to the agreement, the groups would split the money in the bank account

after sfbay was reimbursed for the mutually agreed upon price for the

stickers and t-shirts, and sf.indymedia was reimbursed for pieces of

equipment that sfbay wanted to purchase.

4. The sf.indymedia.org group has deleted the SF-IMC email list and the

Enemy Combatant Radio (ECR) email list without warning, before anyone

had the chance to back up three and a half years of work and contacts

contained in the lists' archives.

5. The sf.indymedia.org group has gone against the agreement by

redirecting aliases to their new email addresses.

List of actions by the new sf.indymedia.org group that violates the

indymedia Principles of Unity

1. Members of the linefeed.org server (which now hosts

sf.indymedia.org, other IMCs and activist websites) have sabotaged

local activist websites hosted by them that were connected to

indybay.org.

2. The sf.indymedia.org group has been repeatedly hiding and deleting

legitimate posts to their newswire by local activists whom they see as

being connected to indybay.org.

The end result of all of this is that techies with positions of power,

and a personal vendetta within an IMC collective, have effectively

hijacked complete control of the website from the rest of the

collective.

We believe that the behaviors displayed by the members of the new

sf.indymedia group/linefeed.org are offensive and unacceptable, and

that they have abused their powers as tech people within the IMC

network to manipulate and bully others to get their way.

Proposed Resolution

We, the undersigned, request the following from the global tech working

group and other IMCs in the network:

1. The ownership of the indybay.org domain should be handed over to the

current members of indybay.org immediately, and

2. sf.indymedia.org should immediately put up texts and links about the

split on their website as they should have already done as part of the

agreement.

If both of the above requests are not met immediately, then we ask that:

1. The new sf.indymedia.org's status as an IMC should be revoked, and

2. The current members of the new sf.indymedia.org should be denied

access and control to the sf.indymedia.org domain, and

3. in the event that the new sf.indymedia.org group should lose control

of their domain, that it be handed over to the current members of

indybay.org instead of being destroyed, since it is an established

community resource, and

4. the money that paid for the mediation should be refunded to the

current members of indybay.org.

We also request that all IMC websites update their links to the San

Francisco Bay Area as http://www.indybay.org.

We are hereby challenging the legitimacy of the new sf.indymedia.org

group for violating its own Principles of Unity by their abusive and

intimidating behaviors.

We want to stress that we believe this is an urgent, critical matter

that is in the interest of the entire Indymedia network. What has

happened here with the SF Bay Area IMC seems to be quite unprecedented

within the history of the IMC Network, and we hope that we can depend

on the support from all IMCers to help resolve this conflict and

maintain accountability within the indymedia network.

In solidarity,

Sarah Olsen - San Francisco Bay Area IMC, SF Liberation Radio

Lisa Sousa - San Francisco Bay Area IMC, AK Press

Mark Burdett - San Francisco Bay Area IMC

Pauline - San Francisco Bay Area IMC

Sunny - Enemy Combatant Radio, San Francisco Bay Area IMC

Zachary Ogren - San Francisco Bay Area IMC

Wayne Wong - San Francisco Bay Area IMC

Peter Maiden - San Francisco Bay Area IMC

Karen Martin - San Francisco Bay Area IMC

Jino Choi - Revolutionary Anti-authoritarians of Color, SF Bay Area IMC

A. Mark Liiv - Whispered Media

Ali

Dan Mattson - San Francisco Bay Area IMC

Pod - Enemy Combatant Radio, Whispered Media

Kevin Keating

Matt Fitt - San Francisco Bay Area IMC

Jeff Taylor - Whispered Media

Lani Riccobuono - Enemy Combatant Radio, San Francisco Bay Area IMC

Lauren A. - San Francisco Bay Area IMC

The San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center collective can be

contacted at sfbay at indymedia.org.