[IMC-US] personal reprtback for indy folks about the National COnference on Media Reform.

[bht]

So, I arrived in St. Louis about four days prior to the beginning of the 
conference.  I caught up with frinds that I hadnt seen for months and 
started to get more involved/interested with what was happening in the 
Lou.  I think this started right when I pulled up to CAMP (Community 
Arts and Media Project, stlcamp.org) and a bunch of little kids from the 
neighbourhood ran up to me, hugged me, and called me daddy.  (Then they 
dug a big hole in the backyard.)

By Thursday, I had a decent grasp of what was going on in the Lou and 
had met folks from here.  Josh Breitbart came into town and we started 
working on Wednesday.  We stuffed bags for the Allied Media Conference.

By Thursday night many of the Indymedia folks had arrived, and many of 
the reformers arrived and we converged at City Museum (citymuseum.org) 
in the Lou for the conference pre-party.  And I think we partied.  I 
made some real good connections there and had a very fun time, leaving 
with only a few scrapes and a lot of sweat.  We danced two out of three 
floors, and we danced hard.

The next day the reforming began and it mostly included sitting at a 
table, poking my head into a few places having conversations with many 
different people about indymedia and about St Louis, and basically just 
working the idea into peoples heads that by coming to this conference 
you are affecting the local community and you have to have respect for 
where you are and awareness for the issues at hand.  THings went over 
well, many folks thought I was from the Lou, although my name badge 
clearly repped pdx imc.

That was the first day of the conference and it was mostly low energy 
networking catching up with folks feeling things out.  It was a good day 
and we went back to CAMP that night and made friends.

The next day, day two of the conference, was the big day in my book.  We 
had seen that media reform was ignoring or missing the independant media 
network and the idea that people can be the media nd do away with the 
industry that they are trying to reform.  The disgust was thick.  Indy 
activists were moving about the conference and promoting the indymedia 
movement.  I was working the table most of the day where we had a much 
better setup with three laptops and a few people engaging people walking 
by and pointing them to their nearest local imc.

One person asked how much it cost to post to the site.  I got to explain 
to this person that indymedia is not about the money it is not about 
haveing a hold on the media, it is about media justice and putting the 
tools of media production back in the hands of the people.  I think it 
was tough to grasp because the conference was very academic.

I got to talk to quite a few people and then the 4 o clock caucus' 
came.  Inclusing the one that was going to have two indy folks as 
moderators and called independant media producers and the one for folks 
from the northwest.  I went to indymedia one first and there was another 
white guy standing in front of everyone telling them how it was and that 
media is a big issue and that reform is working.  And i got disgusted, 
partly because it wasnt a caucus but mostly because the two indymedia 
folks that were also supposed to moderate were women...and this was just 
another guy.

So I went to the northwest one and it was much smaller I got to inject 
some of the more radical aims of media justice to people like the 
director of cable access in oregon, and someone similar from 
washington.  I talked to media proiducers working for reform through 
legislation and when i asked them if they had a contingency plan like 
what would they do to attain media justice if legislation fell through, 
they had nothing.

I stuck that out to the end, because I felt it was important to let 
northwest folks know that someone from cascadia was there.  Then I went 
back to the INdependant Media Producers one, where apparently all hell 
broke loose once the indy folks realized that they were being taken for 
a ride.

SOmeone else can explain what i mean because I wasnt there.

So the indymedia folks planned an indymedia caucus to start in a half 
hour, and there we would discuss how to make amends for this washing 
over by free press.  40-50 people gathered in that room, from all across 
the country, philly, la, portland, seattle, arizona, michigan, san 
diego, nyc, tallahassee, idaho, chicago, bay area, houston, austin, 
tennessee, urbana, carbondale, and others.  One person from Canada in 
the room.  Alot of passion.  Alot of resentment.

WE had a bitch session for awhile and then talked about what we could 
do.  WE decided that we could take action and create a media center in 
the most travelled place of the conference, right in front of the doors 
to the keynote speech that was happening in a half an hour.  Just a bit 
away from where pacifica was streaming.  And right where Left Bank Books 
was selling.

One person volunteered a free printing connection.  Two people made the 
flier.  A few people donated laptops.  Others started gathered power 
strips and making signs.  We were reclaiming the media.  In about a halg 
hour we had a bank of about ten laptops all opened to stlimc.org where 
articles about the conference had been posted and people were encourage 
to post their feelings and their ideas about the conference, how it was 
going, good, bad or otherwise.  We put the tools in peoples hands and 
let them know that some people werent necessarily happy with what was 
happening.

Then the people slowed as the conference room filled.  The flyer 
returned after about 45 minutes, Left Bank Books asked us to leave their 
space, so we moved across the hall.  We re set up the laptops and 
started flyering people and continued to encourage people to make 
media.  Quite a few did.  The conference staff were trying to stop us 
and move our things, they didnt know what to do.  THis conference was 
about reform and we were just taking action.  Something reformists may 
or may not do, I have never been one.

Then, a funny things happened.  The internet network went away.  The 
wireless didnt work, the stream of the keynote died, people making media 
were franctically trying to get it back up.  Dru from IMC Maritimes 
whipped up a word document and opened it on each computer.  people were 
still writing comments and they would be posted later.  The media 
production on the indymedia side didnt stop.  Becuase we are agile and 
think on our feet, because we move with the happenings and work with our 
environment. 

Pacifica asked to interview someone from the imc becuase they had heard 
about the discontent and the action and the breakout caucus.  People 
were talking about media.  People were making media, nd apparently David 
Martinez  was rocking out to Patti Smith behind the doors we were in 
front of.  Eventually though we had to leave.  We had also planned a 
networking party at CAMP for that night and indy folks were tired.

We packed up, statement made, and went to CAMP.  At CAMP various 
independant media folks from around the world, but mostly int he US were 
shortly milling about.  Maybe 60 or more folks showed up to relax and 
talk network and have fun.  Some very serious conversations happened, 
but mostly people were letting their hair down and Josh Breitbart 
couldnt stop talking about how great indymedia is. 

Anyway, I think that is it in a nutshell.  Sadly, I didnt make it to 
anything the next day.  Other folks, please fill in more or different, 
make your own, whatever.  This is just from my eyes.  And, oh yeah, 
there is documentation in video audio and photo of the indy action and 
hopefully more reports of it from people that were there. 

-- 
"Having a feeling is not illegitemate, unprofessional etc. Being emotionally unbiased is living a life with no passion." --Laila Imc-Sweden