[Imc-newsroom] Call for Collective Coverage: U.S. Conference of Mayors

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Greetings IMCstas -

I'm wxm with the Madison IMC. I'd like to put out a plea 
for collective coverage on an event that will be 
happening here in our hometown in a month.

Come June 13-18 2002, Madison, WI will become the 
smallest city ever to host the U.S. Conference of 
Mayors. In a nutshell, this gathering is a chance for the 
power elites in our municipalities to schmooze each 
other and cozy up to corporate interests, who have 
turned these conferences into backroom deal sessions 
where they negotiate the privatization of cities' services, 
consolidate corporate power at the expense of citizen 
input, etc. The public is barred from attending most of 
the events, and the decisions that will be made at these 
events will affect municipalities around the country. It's 
another facet of globalization, but it's concentrated at 
the local level - OUR local level - what the World Bank is 
now calling "Glocalization" - and it's time to speak out.

Our fair city is gearing up for quite a spectacle. While 
mayors from all over the country will hob-nob with 
corporate lobbyists on private golf outings, parties and 
the like, Madison police will be deploying their special 
riot squad and are planning a "soft perimeter" around 
the conference location, closing down several public 
buildings and grounds (potentially including the two 
lakes that Madison, an isthmus, is situated between).

Security costs alone have more than SEPTUPLED 
since the announcement of planned protests, thanks to 
sensationalist rhetoric about the supposed onslaught 
of "violent anarchists" who will supposedly descend in 
hordes here for the weekend.

As an IMC in a relatively small city, our resources are 
thin and stretched to the limit. That's where we need 
your help.

On behalf of the Madison IMC, I'm putting out a plea and 
asking for any help from anyone who's concerned 
about the increasing (and already unacceptable) 
corporate influence on local governments. This is a 
cancer both global AND local. We'd love to have your 
help in any way you see fit. Here are a couple of 
suggestions:

1) COME TO MADISON JUNE 13-18. There will be lots 
of activity going on, plenty of things to cover, and seeing
as how this is a small town not used to "unrest" (except 
way back in the '60s, when we were the 'Berkeley of the 
Midwest') things may get interesting in a hurry.

In addition, chances are your mayor or municipal 
executive will be very accessible, as they'll be traipsing 
all around Madison in public on several outings. What a 
great time to engage in some controversial questioning 
on unfamiliar ground! We'd love to have you here, and 
our activist community can help help with housing, 
food, etc. See the Creative Peoples Resistance for 
more information on the (still developing) plans for the 
weekend:

Creative Peoples Resistance (CPR):
http://www.resist-the-mayors.org/

Also, there is the Cities for People website:
http://www.citiesforpeople.org

2) REPORT ON CORPORATE INFLUENCE IN YOUR  
CITY. If you can't make it to the meeting, that's okay - 
take some time to write about how corporations  and 
other special interests are warping democracy for their 
own designs in the place where you live. If your 
community has had experience with the U.S. 
Conference of Mayors (or the Mayor's Business 
Council, check their members, many names will be 
familiar), write a story on it! Muckrake about  corruption 
in your town!

Alternately, you could dig up the dirt on your 
mayor/municipal executive and how they've used and 
abused their powers at the behest of corporate 
citizenry. It never hurts to remind the powers-that-be 
how much you care...

We've created a special archive of Mayor's conference 
stories that have been produced so far and  we'd love to 
add yours into the mix. This provides a wonderful 
opportunity for collective, distributed journalism - just 
because we all can't be together in one physical place 
doesn't mean we can't coordinate our power and shine 
the light on wrongness. Write what you can, post it to 
your IMC, and then let us know.

You can check out the work we've already done at our
Mayor's features page at the Madison IMC:

http://madison.indymedia.org/mayors

There is also a link to this page off our IMC's front page 
- it's the second one below our ((i)) graphic in the upper 
left-hand corner of the page, marked "Mayors features."

We think this is an important and underreported 
issue,and we'd like your help in giving it some more 
coverage. If you can spare the time and effort, we'd 
loveto know what you think. Feel free to respond to my 
email address above and I'll pass it onto our local list. If 
anyone thinks they can actually make it out to Madison 
for the weekend, drop a line and we'll fill you in on more 
of the details.

Thanks - and keep up the inspiring work everyone

-wxm

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