[IMC-US] paid and volunteer IMC staff:

[deva]

On Mar 14, 2005, at 7:31 AM, Sascha Meinrath wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I want to second Josh's take on this.  I've stayed rather quiet on 
> this topic, but thought I should weigh in.
>
> The defining characteristics behind Indymedia are our committment to 
> social and economic justice, our focus on featuring and amplifying the 
> voices of the disenfranchised and marginalized, and our solidarity 
> with peoples and constituencies who are our allies.  Not our attention 
> to money and pay.
>
> We are an incredibly diverse network of networks.  I applaud the work 
> of all IMC volunteers; however, some people are not privileged to be 
> able to work for free.  I think it is short-sighted to further 
> stigmatize the working poor -- and that some of the proposals that 
> Nick is forwarding reinforce, rather than break down, a classist 
> mentality.

this is a completely false argument... actually rather Orwellian...

First, let me say, I do not think there should be a network wide 
mandate to make all imc's all volunteer. Portland has added to its own 
POU that it is all volunteer. I am happy to see any local imc make that 
choice (started by Houston), but not to see an effort to impose that. 
Local imc's are autonomous and it is vital they remain so.

If a local imc wants to declare itself a paid organization and develop 
a structure that pays all contributing individuals commensurate with 
their work, let them try. It will be an interesting experiment. So far, 
I do not see this happening. What I see are a few specific people 
getting paid, which is creating a divide of some who get paid and 
others who do not. A class structure in its infancy.


>
> In essence, IMC's that announce they are "all volunteer" are saying 
> "we're rich enough to not have to worry about money"

what an insulting statement... you know nothing about the financial 
state of the people taking these decisions, but arrogantly exclaim that 
they must be rich enough in order to say it

too disgusted to say anything else right now...
deva



>  -- and meanwhile, other Indymedia activists are made to feel somehow 
> less worthy because they need to accept payment for their work.  I 
> really don't see the benefit of this sort of statment to the Indymedia 
> Network as a whole.  I do not think it forwards our goals of inclusion 
> and diversity to alienate the less prosperous by rubbing their faces 
> in our own affluence.
>
> --Sascha
>
> **
>
> Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 15:44:26 -0500
> From: Joshua Breitbart <breitbart at indymedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [IMC-US] all-volunteer survey questions draft
> To: "Working Group for IMC-US." <imc-us at lists.ucimc.org>
> Message-ID: <p06100507be590462ab8d@[192.168.1.109]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
>
> I think this will do more harm than good.
>
> Can you define volunteer?
>
> Josh
>
> At 11:02 PM -0600 3/8/05, nick wrote:
>
>> for IMCs in our hemisphere - any feedback before I translate and send 
>> it?
>> Peace,
>> Nick
>> -----------------------------------------------
>>
>> For each of these, do you and / or your local imc agree or disagree?
>>
>> 1) Our imc is currently all volunteer.
>>
>> 2) Our imc intends to remain all volunteer in the future.
>>
>> 3) The Principles of Unity should have included a statement against 
>> the payment of money to imc members for doing imc work.
>>
>> 4) The question of having paid members is best left to each imc to 
>> decide, instead of imposing authoritarian rules now, after some imcs 
>> have already created paid positions.
>>
>> 5) It would be a good step if some imcs publicly announce themselves 
>> as all-volunteer.
>>
>> 6) This is not such an important question and not worth spending much 
>> time or effort on.
>
> -- 
> Sascha Meinrath
> President                 *   Project Coordinator   *   Policy Analyst
> Acorn Worker Collective  ***  CU Wireless Network  ***  Free Press
> www.acorncollective.com   *   www.cuwireless.net    *   
> www.freepress.net
>
>
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