Indymedia Ireland - out of the net and onto the streets

Come to a meeting on Saturday next (March 13th) and get involved with two new projects: the establishment of the Independent Media Support Group, and a proposed Indymedia centre for Mayday '04.

Support Group: In light of our desire to broaden the focus of Indymedia, away from an exclusively web-based medium, and in particular our aim to establish a physical Indymedia centre in Dublin, an Independent Media Support Group (IMSG) has been established for those who wish to support the development of independent media in Ireland. Download the proposed constitution and learn more about what the group will do here.

Indymedia Centre: The Indymedia centre will be used as a dispatch centre for reporting the events of the Mayday weekend in Dublin. This will involve the setting up of a computer network for the rapid deployment of news and multi-media reports from the streets of Dublin to the global Indymedia network. It will also host Another View of Europe - a week of screenings, exhibitions and workshops from the European Independent Media network.

Last week two major steps were taken in the development of Indymedia in Ireland. These steps were prompted by two major events coming up in Ireland in the next few months, the accession of the 10 new EU members on May 1st during Ireland's EU presidency and the visit of George Bush to Ireland on June 25th for a US-EU summit. These events present a great challenge and a great opportunity for Indymedia. We can be sure that a large number of people from all over the world will come to Indymedia to find out what's really happening behind the facade of the corporate and state propaganda machines.

Step 1: Formal constitution of the Independent Media Support Group - Ireland

Indymedia Ireland has thus far been financed in an ad-hoc manner, with a small number of individuals putting their hands in their pockets to pay the bills. We have also had the problem that, beyond an occasional real-world public meeting, there have been limited opportunities for people to get involved in Indymedia who don't have regular Internet access and Indymedia has always aimed to be much more than a website. We have produced videos, a large collection of news photography, printable PDF collections of news highlights and many other offerings, but the website is still the only thing that ties them together. In light of our desire to broaden the focus of Indymedia, away from an exclusively web-based medium, and in particular our aim to establish a physical Indymedia centre in Dublin, a group of Indymedia editors have formally established the Independent Media Support Group (IMSG), an association of those who wish to support the development of independent media in Ireland.

The IMSG has the following aims and principles.

1. The club exists to support independent media projects. Independent media projects are considered to be those projects which fulfil as many of the following criteria as possible:
   • Operate according to the principles of open-publishing.
   • Aim to produce and/or distribute information for the purpose of educating the public.
   • Are organised in a non-hierarchical manner
   • Are run on a not-for-profit basis
   • Are independent of any control from commercial, political or other outside organisations.
2. This support will consist of:
   • Raising and distributing funds to finance such projects.
   • Providing education, training and technical assistance to groups wishing to establish and use such projects.
   • Promoting and defending such projects before the public.
   • Educating the public about the benefits of such projects.
   • Whatever other benevolent purposes that the members of the organisation, in line with the overall goals of the organisation, see fit to pursue.
3. Priority will be given to projects particularly relating to Ireland.
4. The club will not interfere in any way with the operations or internal organisation of any projects supported. All supported projects will be entirely autonomous of the club.

The constitution of the IMSG is available to download as a PDF file.

The establishment of the IMSG does not alter in any way the operations of the Indymedia site, which is an autonomous project run by the Indymedia editorial group. There is no requirement for the members of this project, or any other Indymedia project, to be members of the IMSG.

Step 2: Establishment of a physical Indymedia Centre in Dublin for Mayday.

The second major development is the plan to establish a physical Indymedia centre in Dublin for the period around Mayday. This centre will host Another View of Europe - a week of screenings, exhibitions and workshops from the European Independent Media network. This event will include a photography exhibition, a selection of some of the best offerings from Indymedia film makers around Europe and a series of practical workshops where we will offer assistance to people in line with one of our key principles, the concept of 'Be the Media'. To this end a number of workshops will be delivered on film and video editing, the use of Internet distribution methods, creating and filing reports and using the web as a tool for social activism.

One of the highlights of the week of events will be the showing of a documentary about Madrid's Mayday in 2003. This is an award-winning film that examines the struggle of redundant Sintel workers, who marched from 6 different points of Spain to arrive in Madrid on May 1 2003 to take part in the Mayday mobilisations there. This film will be shown in conjunction with a major Irish trade union.

A major theme of the week of events will be Independent media from the accession countries. We are currently collecting content from the Eastern European Indymedia network for our photo exhibition and video screenings.

The Indymedia centre will also be used as a dispatch centre for reporting the events of the Mayday weekend in Dublin. This will involve the setting up of a computer network for the rapid deployment of news and multi-media reports from the streets of Dublin to the global Indymedia network. A team from Indymedia UK will be travelling to Ireland to lend us their experience of setting up such a centre.

The events will be concentrated on a venue in the city centre, whose location of will be confirmed shortly. This venue will act as a dedicated Indymedia space for the week around Mayday. However, there will also be events at several other locations over the week, including a workshop at the Convergence Festival in the Cultivate centre and screening in trade union halls.

We Need You.

In order for these plans to be successful we need people to get involved and help us out. We are holding a public meeting this Saturday, March 13th, at 2pm in the Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square Dublin 1.

This meeting will consist of a brief introduction to the Independent Media Support Group and a practical planning session for the establishment of a centre for Mayday. We need people to help out in three main areas:

• Technical Team. If you have any experience in setting up computer servers and networks, writing code or just want to learn about it, we want you to be part of our technical group.
• News Team. If you want to be involved in the Indymedia reporting of the events around Mayday, whether as a writer, photographer, videographer or newsdesk editor or just want to learn how it is done, we want you to be part of our news group.
• Event Planning Team. If you want to help out in the planning of the events themselves, whether it be the setting up of the centre, the organisation of the exhibitions, screenings and workshops, or any of the other tasks that will be crucial to the success of the event, we want you to be part of our event planning team.

Donations

Finally and inevitably, we need to finance all of this. That means that we are asking people who support the Indymedia project to put their hands in their pockets and give generously. Details of how to donate are as follows.

To donate directly to our account:

Account Name: Independent Media Support Group
Branch: Permanent TSB, Henry St.
Sorting Code: 990619
Account Number: 85893437

To send donations by post:

Independent Media Support Group,
6 Linenhall Parade,
Dublin 7

Please make cheques payable to "Independent Media Support Group".

In the near future we will offer the ability to join the IMSG and make donations through an online form on the website.