[Reader-list] anti-war campaign

[Boud Roukema]

Dear Nagraj, Mona, Jeebesh,

> The anti-war collective, Jang Roko Abhiyan, which
> comprises student groups, unions, women's groups
> and various academics and others, will be meeting
> on Thursday, 4 Oct at 5 p.m. on the Constitution
> Club lawns (Vithalbhai PAtel House), Rafi
> MArg. The agenda of the meeting is to openly
> discuss what we can all do collectively over the
> next few days and weeks. The attempt is to make
> the anti-war campaign as wide as possible. The
> agenda is completely open. Please do attend and
> pass around the info about the meeting.
> 
> Nagraj Adve

Could I urge you to dedicate a part of this
meeting to an Indymedia discussion? 

While media activities should not replace other
activities, they can clearly amplify the effects.

It would also be very useful for the Western (in
particular USA) public to be able to see Indians
reporting news and debating, disagreeing,
compromising, constructing, listening to each
other, etc. If you have never been in the West
you may find it hard to believe how ignorant many
of us (Westerners) are.

I think that Arundhati Roy has hit on a crucial
element of US public opinion:

> an American newscaster said: "Good and evil rarely
> manifest themselves as clearly as they did last
> Tuesday. People who we don't know massacred people
> who we do."

Indymedia seems to me an important element for 
Indian activists to become "people we know" by 
US activists - and others. It is also clear that
US activists could learn a lot from Indian 
experiments in activism and democracy.

As you know, india.indymedia.org already exists
technically, but it will only be made "official"
if there are local people who are committed to
providing content and participating in running the
site in the long term. 

You clearly have a diverse mix of local groups in 
Delhi.
If you printed off the documents at
-  http://newimc.indymedia.org
-  http://process.indymedia.org/faq.php3
and a few of the ones at
- http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-india/2001-August/thread.html
- http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-india/2001-September/thread.html
and circulated these at the meeting, then it
would be sufficient to:

(1) submit the web-form at http://newimc.indymedia.org

(2) email to  newimc at lists.indymedia.org
a copy of the draft membership criteria - with responses ! -

http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/new-imc/2001-May/000155.html

(3) email to  newimc at lists.indymedia.org  whether or not you are happy
with the "draft principles of unity" -

http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/new-imc/2001-May/000160.html

(4) email to   newimc at lists.indymedia.org  a free-form essay (it doesn't
have to be long) about why you want to form the Indymedia site, what
your plans, hopes, etc. for it are. 

It would be a good idea to cross-post each of these to 
imc-india at lists.indymedia.org.

There would then be a one-week delay until the site could be 
officially accepted.

Boud