IMC-Belgium
& the conflict with the local IMC's in Belgium.

by the imc-belgium process team - imc-belgium-process@listsSTOPSPAM.Indymedia.org

1 Introduction

Writing this text was not an easy challenge for imc-belgium. It is the first time we speak out as a collective on the local IMCs operating in Belgium. We refrained to do so until now out of respect for the autonomy of those IMCs. Most of this text therefore speaks about imc-belgium and our vision on Indymedia.

Our vision can be very briefly summarised: We think that Indymedia has the potential to become a global, non-commercial, media network that can compete with the best wire services in the world. Imc-belgium wants to develop alternative mass media by giving a voice to social movements at large.

The conflict with the local IMCs in Belgium became part of the way we developed our vision on Indymedia and the network. During this conflict it became clear that there are different visions / approaches / ... of Indymedia within the network and Belgium. We think it is rather sad that this leads to an endless battle within and beyond the Indymedia network and instead feel the need to create spaces were IMCs can exchange experiences.

Some people tried to reduce this conflict in Belgium to a conspiracy theory of a stalinist/maoist takeover of imc-belgium. Not only is this theory by no means a reflection of the reality, we also came to think that those who are spreading this theory actually know that this is plain fiction as they now start their wild theory with: "You should really understand that this takeover is not visible itself in the content of the newswire or the features, ..." More and more do we think that this theory is used on purpose as an effective tool to avoid the real issues and to gain support within the international network.

With this text we hope to give a better understanding of the real grounds for the conflict between the different IMCs in Belgium.

Read more ConflictInBelgium

Indy_BE_TXT_02.html: Document in HTML

1 Introduction
2 Our vision
- 2.1 Diversity
- 2.2 Alternative mass media through Open Publish
- 2.3 Belgium
- 2.4 Mature beyond the weblog
3 Some key moments in our history.
- 3.1 Preaching to our own church
- 3.2 The summer of 2003
- 3.3 3000 jobs lost at Ford Genk
- 3.4 Elections (spring) 2004
- 3.5 The angry nurses
- 3.6 The ESF in London
- 3.7 Bush in Belgium
- 3.8 Euromanif in Brussels (19.03.2005)
- 3.9 Remaining problems
- 3.10 Note:
4 The conflict between belgian IMCs
- 4.1 "Alternative mass media through open publishing" or "open publishing by and for the alternative incrowd"
- 4.2 Diversity
- 4.3 Building consensus takes time
- 4.4 What about the local IMCs
- 4.5 A Stalinist plot?
5 Conclusions