[Nettime-bold] Interview on 2 year anniversary imc --DeeDee Halleck

[dhalleck <dhalleck@weber.ucsd.edu>]

Interview with DeeDee Halleck by Jakob Weingartner

How would you describe the strategy of indymedia?
The Seattle Indymedia site was inaugurated as part of setting up an
Independent Media Center so
that all of the many movement media comng to Seattle could collaborate.
There was a growing
realization that radio, video, print and art groups could effectively
work together on specific
issues.  Before Seattle, there was the case of the impending execution
of independent radio
journalist Mumia Abu Jamal.  Although there was no physical center, nor
a coordinating web site,
a  national meeting of alterntive media folk made a committment to try
to collaborate a campaign.  In
the space of very few weeks many of us worked collaboratively to make a
media blitz to counter the
State of Pennsylvania�s assigned date for execution: radio programs,
videos, satellite broadcasts,
special print inserts, posters and a CD Rom were made with, for the
first time, a real sense of
collaboration between different media.  Throughout the country there
were continual messages
against the death penalty and in favor of a new trial for Mumia.  For
the moment, it worked, and
the state postponed the execution. (Though Mumia is still in jail and
may still be executed.)

With the convergence of many groups to Seattle in 1999, we knew that the
sort of campaign that
had been waged to save Mumia might be an effective way to get the
message of the anti-corporate
movement before the public.  So we planned to do a similar sort of cross
media collaboration. The
web site was just to be a place where we could post our work.  Before
Seattle happened, I don�t
think anyone really imagined that the web site would be such a popular
and effective tool.  Sure,
many groups have web sites, but the dynamism of the Seattle site was
phenomenal.  This was to a
great extent due to the unique potential of the Catalytst soft ware,
which made it easy for everyone
to post not only text, but photos, video and audio files.  Catalyst was
developed in Australia by
Mathew Arnison and others for use by Australian activists.  Mathew just
happened to be in Boulder
shortly before Seattle and was able to introduce Manseur Jacobi and
other tech people to the
Catalyst code. The strategy per se was just to make it as accessible as
possible, not only for
downloading, but also for uploading.  I think that only after the site
went up and became so
effective that we began to really understand what a powerful tool it
was.

Does indymedia want to put pressure on the mainstream media in order to
force them to alter their
news coverage? Or do you follow a concept of, let�s call it
�counter-information�? If that�s so, do
you see the danger of addressing an inner circle of already leftist
people?
There is a constant struggle within indymedia as to what the attitude
should be towards the main
stream media.  There are those who think that indymedia can pressure
corporate press to be more
honest.  I think that yes there have been stories that  we �broke� and
forced main stream media to
take notice and report.  There are those who think we should court the
press and get them to
�cover� indymedia and that �legitimates� us.  I pretty much disagree and
I guess I am in the camp
that says fuck the corporate media, let�s make our own!

The distrust of mainstream media has been codified in one version of the
"IMC Blueprint" with the
following rules:
"Try to get mainstream media to schedule times to come to the IMC so it
is possible to let everyone
know they were are coming.  If possible, we try to clear a the scheduled
mainstream media visit
through a general meeting.
2.  All mainstream media doing articles on the IMC should register as
mainstream media - it is even
possible to give them special passes to wear while they are in the IMC.
3.  Someone from the outreach team can accompany mainstream media at all
times when they are in
the IMC".

Sometimes IMC activities do catch the interest of the press and greatly
increase the number of
visitors to the web site. As related by "J.M.G." in a process
discussion:  Creative applications of
the Internet technology  during the S11 protests demonstrated the
ability of the Net to not only
function as an organizational tool but also as a form of civil
disobedience in cyberspace. The
tongue-in-cheek link to JohnFarnham's 'You're the Voice' - chosen as the
S11 song - and the
clever 'hactivism' which  redirected users from www.nike.com to
www.S11.org, generated
considerable discussion within the press, radio and television media.
This publicity alerted new
audiences to the existence of the site incrementally increasing the
number of hits the site received.
The old media was important in  publicizing and drawing attention to the
new, highlighting the fact
that, although the Net is an important new tool, activists still largely
rely on coverage in the
traditional media and cannot rely solely upon the emerging
communications networks."

Main stream critics have snidely put down the indy media activity as
being contradictory: using
corporate tools such as the internet to attack corporate agenda.
Indymedia makers have countered
that that is a time honored guerrilla tactic-- to turn the tools of the
oppressors against them.
However, a more considered rejoinder is that the internet was developed
in a collaborative process
through public funding via educational institutions.  The creation did
not spring from a search for
profitable products to market.  The entire effort was subsidized by
public grants and nurtured in an
atmosphere of mutual cooperation, not unlike the process of indymedia
itself.  The early internet
researchers were not initially making products that the commercial
sector could (and would)
develop.  As e-commerce takes over much of the band width, it is efforts
such as indy media that
are preserving the authentic interactive potential of the internet and,
as such, preserving its role as a
progressive public resource.

As to the question of preaching to the choir.. well, first of all the
choir needs information and �to be
preached to�, otherwise how can we all sing together?  But with the
sorts of numbers indymedia is
generating in terms of daily visitors, we are certainly going beyond any
concept of �inner circle�.
This is a broad audience.  But moreover it is not passive:  there are
almost as many posts as there
are visiters.

Indymedia recently celebrated its 2 years of existence. If you look back
at the development of the
antiglobalisation-movement and the implementation of independent media
in it, which goals have
been reached, where have you failed?  What has changed?

Certainly we have changed the perception of the public in terms of
global trade organizations.  No
one looks at the WTO or the World Bank as being a benevelent
organizations any more.  That is
clearly a huge victory.  In terms of failure, I think the biggest
problems are the same problems we
see in the world around us: the vast inequities in access to resources,
the deeply rooted problems of
racism and sexism and the ever present temptations of consumer culture.
There are few indymedia
centers in the South.  Women and people of color are still in very much
the minority at indymedia
centers and many of the creative young people who have learned to make
media at indymedia are
sucked off into the corporate world so that they can pay off their
credit cards.

How has the strategy of indymedia changed through this 2 years? (Perhaps
you would like to
answer this question chronologically, starting with seattle, over
washington, prague, genua etc.)
I don;�t see �change� per say, but just a sort of evolution and growth,
which varies depending on
the location and the persons involved.  One exaample of a particularly
active group is dcimc, which
is making a 24  hour radio station, a tv channel that scans all the
other imcs and posts a sort of
roving video string.  Also DC has perfected the use of the imc archives
as counter surveilence:
checking for images of police undercover provacateurs, recording police
abuses (such as taping
over their badge numbers with black tape and excessive violence) and
other sort of vigilant activity.

Genoa was amazing in the production of breaking news.  It was a global
interactive event.

how have the wtc/pentagon bombings changed the work of indymedia?
It is hard to say what the ultimate outcome will be.  The images of
black bloc kids at globalization
protests seem curiously out of place in the current image climate.  But
the imcs have been very
useful in providing an alternative to the jingoism of corporate press.
Certainly the New York IMC has played a very useful role in uniting the
community of media
makers and artists in the WTC area..

Is the imc being exposed to a lot of hate in this heated up situation
since it so openly opposes the
�war against terror� lead primarily by the us-government?
There have been individual indymedia people attacked, but nothing so
far, in terms of specific
repression.  I would say that the danger is more of intimidation: with
Ashcroft�s draconian laws in
effect, one wonders where the sword will fall.

An interesting aspect to the new legislation is that anyone attacking
property or threatening US
business interests is in the same catagory as airplane hi-jackers.

The ongoing or even concluded process in which the media-output  is
being mainstreamed as far as
the war in afghanistan and it�s propagandistic counterpart in the usa is
concerned is quite
terrifying.  What has to be done in order to deconstruct the hegemonic,
and if you want to go that
far, imperialistic discourse dominated by the us-government from your
point of view? Which role
should the independent media play in the anti-war movement?
It is very important that the independent media make cogent criticism of
the corporate media.  Just
as the WTO struggle is a global one, the stuggle against corporate media
needs to be made global:
we need to have a global initiative to preserve the airwaves and
bandwidth for free speech and
creative expression.  In 2003 thre will be a global media meeting in
Geneva at the International
Telecommunications Union.  This should be the �Seattle� of media: we
need a convergence and a
demonstration of the need to nurture local media initiatives and to save
satellite slots for grass roots
communitcation. The question is how can the grassroots use of
information technology be
cultivated in the "vast wasteland" of global commercial (and military)
hegemony of technological
resources?  Perhaps it is time to look at the ITU and to reinsert the
public into their agenda. The
ITU was organized before the United Nations, as a global agency to
assign radio frequencies to
prevent interference between nations.  It has the task of designating
both global spectrum and
satellite paths.  Both of these resources are essential infrastructure
for any communication project.
At the current time, most of this supposedly global resource has been
assigned to commercial
entities and military users.  With the collapse of the Eastern Block,
the demise of the Non-Aligned
Movement and the privatization of national telecommunications agencies,
there is no organized
resistance to the commercialization of the world telecommunications
infrastructure.  This is why the
Murdochs and the MTVs of the world can have free access to their target
"markets: we are in the
bull's eye.
 An example of how communities can successfully "tax" corporations to
reconfigure
communication infrastructure is the public access movement in the United
States. Begun in the
early seventies, community groups and visionary city officials were able
to extract from cable
corporations provisions that ensure public access to cable channels and
equipment.  Although this
movement has been ridiculed in the popular press in the US (a press for
the most part owned by
cable corporations!) it has flourished in many cities and provides a
model for the rest of the world
as to how excess communication profits can be directed into "affirmative
action" for information
equity.

The local and regional models of collaboration and participation such as
public access and the IMCs
can be the foundation to design a global system of information resources
that sees humanity not a
markets to be exploited, but as participant citizens. Why not a global
standard of participatory
communication, asserting the public nature of global information
resources, such as earth orbits
and spectrum?  The imc�s show the way.

The imc started off as a project that�s tightly linked with the
anti-globalisation movement. Edward
Said recently visited vienna and in an interview doubted that the
antiglobalisation-movement can be
transformed into a �new peace movement�. What would you reply?  If we
can��t do that we are in
big trouble.  The United States Patriot Act, which was passed by
Congress last month, states that any act that could be deemed dangrous
to human life, or forcing government officials to change their policies,
can be construed as domestic terrorism.  According to Michael Ratner, of
the Center for Constitutional Rights, it is not a stretch to predict
that this will be used against any future anti-globalization protests,
or at the very least against the leaders.  This law makes what in the
past is civil disobedience into domestic terrorism, so that acts on
which there were certain sentencing limits, and makes them much more
serious.  Under this law it means certain acts can be called terrorism
and punishable with twenty years in jail.  Even thowing a rock in a
Starbucks window.  If there is glass that breaks and could be construed
as endangering human beings, that action can be tried under this act.
There is also a part about blocking mass transit.  So that demonstrators
blocking a main thoroughfare or a train track could be arrested as
terrorists.  This directly targets Reclaim the Streets and Critical
Mass.

This law takes actions which in the past were not seen as major crimes
and makes them punishable as domestic terror. There is finally a growing
reaction to the militry tribunal idea.  The reality is sinking
in  and actually the resisitance is from both the left and the right.
Let�s see what happens in the
next  few months.

Here in europe nothing is being heard about the american peace movement.
Why?  Perhaps
because  European media takes their cues for internal reporting of the
us from what is reported on
CNN.  Of  course thre is no recognition from CNN as to the peace
movement.

In the usa as well as in europe authorities are forcing the
implementation of extensive surveillance
over it�s citizens.
The only solution is to resist.  For one thing this stuff is very
expensive.  As the recession settles
in, it is going to get harder for the gov to tax us for all this new
equipment.

How does the new peace movement adress this issue?
On all fronts: vigils, actions, theater, art, and IMC posts!  What I am
doing is working on a daily
news program with journalist Amy Goodman.  We are doing two hours a day
of news over
satellite, community tv, public radio and the internet.
www.democracynow.org



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