anathemas anathema: [act of] curse, condemnation, disapproval

I got a copy of a lecture that Chomsky gave once. It is not dated. For reasons of copyright and boredom I am not copying the whole thing here

Indymedia.org – analysis from within.

0. Introduction

0.0 History

Road protest was at its hight in the late nineties in Britain. A loose network of activists, under the banner “Earth First!”, was one of the catalysts. There were groups using such banner all over Britain, although the one in London chose to use “Reclaim the Streets” instead.

“Reclaim the streets” had a contact telephone number that around announced actions often became saturated. The media attention, though, was focused mainly in their hairstyles and extravagances, and not on the issues these activists were defending.

Virtually every person ever involved in Indymedia will tell a different story of how it began.

I have to do 2 rectifications:

1. political censorship in Tube Radio: all radios have been written to regarding the elections, with a call to be fair etc. So it is not that my very competent teachers are going to censor me; it is that OFCOM is watching every one.

2. What Ben* told me about 10% only getting 70% or more, my personal tutor is going to have a word with him because it is not that way that the university works.

* the name has been changed! (in fact, all names on this blog have been changed except when they are nicks that no one could recognised)

© anatemas

I’have just attempted to pretend that I am an actress, although no one would ever believe I can be one, especially after seeing the video which has been the result of today’s work…, more than to be believed, it is something to be laughed at. We did certainly have a really good time doing it, even the poor director, who was really taking it seriously, could not help but laughing. Until he saw the video at the end of the day, that is. I could see he was worried big time, while we were watching it, wondering what on earth he could do with the rough cuts we were watching.

And when we run out of video to watch, we played the hacklab video, about Free Software, and did a bit of evangelisation, right there.

I have the impression that they listened to us only because they wanted to hear Angel speak.

We have reached the conclusion he has a unique success with girls. Good. “He” can become an actor.

I have been verbally notified that the political content of Tube Radio, for which I was previously told to be the sole responsible person, is going to be censored / approved/ disapproved, before being aired, for legal reasons.

1. do you see indymedia, apart from being an alternative media outlet, blah blah, as some kind of experiment, where co-operation, non-hierarchy, and other principles that indymedia reporters preach, are put into practice? In other words… is indymedia an alternative community that practices a different style of relationships between people? Is it a valid model of alternative society?

2. if we can consider that some of the objectives of indymedia are…

a) to inform about issues that do not appear in the mainstream media
b) convert people to anticapitalism
c) inform the converted about how to practice anticapitalism
d) [help to] create a new society

in which order or importance do you think they stand? Which one would you add or remove? (You can answer regarding both indymedia.org and/or “your” indymedia)

to what extent do you think these objectives are being implemented?

3. if you were involved in the creation of your local indymedia, or if you got involved with the existing indymedia collective, why did you decide to do so? What are your reflections after… (how many years again)?

4. in relation with the objectives, and with the theories and practices within indymedia, what do you think helps to advance towards those objectives? What does not?

5.
* Who uses Indymedia? * What makes it different?
* Why hasn’t it happened before?
* Why do we need it? * Why does Indymedia suit Pro-Change protes?

We dedicated the morning to publishing the many pictures that my friend the photographer had taken, of course together with the text drafted by Eleuterio and others. It is my task to translate it! Well, for now you can enjoy the pictures here. I took some pictures myself, but they look so crap compared to Guy’s, it would be shameful to publish them together.

From there, I went to rampart. Some one was giving a workshop on how to write articles and ended up teaching us how to manipulate pictures. That is what I call professionalism…

After that, there were films and documentaries downstairs. I really wanted to see the documentary about this hip-hop group from Colombia, Zona Marginal, because I had seen them singing once and they really are worth it. But the documentary itself was not that great. In any case, the night ended with live music, and it was the best live music I can remember. We were all asking for more, until we realised that they really did not have any more pieces to play. Apparently it was the first time they played together. Radio Revolución. What a name, eh? One guy didn’t fit in the stage so he just sang down, next to us. The girl playing the bass was simply beautiful, and for some reason she had her blonde hair covered. It is possibly the first band I see that does not use the only female component as a sexual attraction, or even as the voice! The singer had so little ego he spent most of the gig with his face covered with his hair. And then there were the guys playing maracas, drums, trumpets, the flout… the lot.

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