See the finalised and agreed version on docs


UK network

What is the UK Network

The UK Network consists of local collectives, working together to provide coverage on issues related to social justice and for creating a better world.

How do we communicate

The UK Network is a decentralised organisation, most communication takes place on the internet. Following platforms are used:

If there are conflicts that can not be resolved on email lists, they will be resolved at a Network meeting. In case of a pressing conflict, a Network meeting should happen within 4 weeks.

How are decisions made

Decisions of the UK Network are made following a consensus process. We always aim to find a solution, that everyone agrees with. However, this is only possible if all individuals are prepared to take their personal preferences back, if there is not a lot of agreement. The power to block should only be used in situations, where the blocker absolutely cannot live with the decision and is prepared to leave the project should the decision go ahead, not on the basis of merely disagreeing.

Making decisions in a decentralised network, where we don’t see each other very frequently is a challenging task. There are two places the network can make decisions:

For important decisions that concern the whole network, it is necessary to hear from all collectives. Liaisons should be responsible for enabling this communication and emails from collectives should be clearly marked as such in the subject line. If there is no input from a specific collective, they should be contacted directly. If they do not respond after a reasonable time and following attempts to contact them, a process should be started to determine whether the collective is still active (see what is an active collective).

What is a block and who can exercise the right to block?

A block is a tool to resort to when everything else has failed and one needs to prevent a decision that one cannot live with. The power to block is a tool that can easily be abused and people need to be careful in exercising it. If a decision is blocked, discussion has to start again, to find an alternative solution. However, everyone should be aware that a block often results in the issue being dropped alltogether, especially if the block follows a lengthy and intense discussion.

A block needs to have a comprehensive explanation why this action is taken and what alternative attempts were made to find a compromise, including why the blocking party does not see any other way of resolving the issue.

Only a collective can raise a block in the network. This is to ensure that a block has not been raised lightly, by establishing that the grounds for a block have been discussed with a group of people, and no-one from a local collective has been able to come up with a satisfying compromise. Individuals without collectives will have to find a local collective that sponsors their block.

The network will respect individuals and collectives that take immediate action to protect themselves and each other from legal and physical threats.

Collectives

What is a collective?

A local collective should have at least 5 active members. If membership drops, the remaining collective needs to make an effort to get new people involved. If the attendance of meetings drops to less than three people attending meetings for 6 months, the website is not necessarily disabled, but the collective does not have blocking power.

A local collective has to have regular and public meetings that are announced on their website. Regular open meetings are essential for allowing open access to the collective rather than creating a hierarchical group of Indymedia admins who administer sites with no accountability to the public. Meetings should happen at least every other month, to facilitate interaction of active collective members and establish a physical presence in the local community. If a collective has less than one meeting a month, it should ideally hold other advertised and public events that allow interested people to meet IMC volunteers and get involved, so people interested in volunteering will not have to wait for over 4 weeks to be able to get in touch.

A local collective should be doing media work in some form. This can include running a local website, but can also be focused around other media production (e.g. print media, video production, radio shows…)

A local collective should have membership criteria (see for example the Bristol and London guidelines).

Local collectives should go through the New Imc process (list and docs) and engage in global process, other collectives from the network will support them in this.

To be part of the UK Network, a local collective should actively engage in UK process:

Local collectives should be represented in their community not only through a website, but also in some physical way engage with their local community (stalls, events, films screenings…) and be open for and encouraging to the involvement of new members.

Local collectives are expected to do fundraising and contribute to server costs and potential legal costs.

All local collectives are responsible to resond to other collectives asking for support.

If no one from the collective can attend a network meeting, the collective should notify the network. If a local collective does not show up for a couple of network meetings without notifying the network, it should be checked that the collective is indeed still working and existing (see what is an active collective).

How to create a new collective and join the UK network

The UK Network encourages and welcomes the creation of new collectives, especially in areas that do not have a local collective. The UK Network will try and help new collectives to get off the ground, for example by having some volunteers of existing collectives come and talk about the global and UK networks and what it entails to run a local collective.

We encourage new collective to go through the New Imc process and engage in global process.

To start a new collective, call for an open and public meeting in your area and get in touch with the UK Network list. While having your own website is exciting, it is not the first step to creating a working collective, you will need to discuss what exactly you want to do and how and do community organising.

If there is no one with the skills to run and maintain the servers, website etc, make an proactive effort to get someone involved or train people. While the UK Network is happy to help, a dependence on tech people from other collectives can be problematic. This does not mean that experts are needed to run a collectives, anyone can learn the skills necessary, and our friendly neighbourhood geeks are always happy to pass on their skills.

All collectives have to agree with the spirit of and fulfill the requirements outlined in the global Principles Of Unity, Mission Statement, and Membership Criteria.

New collectives will be full members of the UK network after attending two network meetings (which have to be held within 9 months), and participating in other Network channels for 6 months. Only full members of the Network can block a decision.

Digital Communication

We propose to adopt the Email List Guidelines of the Bristol Collective.

There has not been a decision which lists the following section applies to

Dealing with our “digital divide”

Indymedia being an organisation takes place to a large extent on the internet means that a lot of the activists will have a fast connection, good computers and lots of online time. All these are often taken for granted. But this isn’t reality for a lot of people: be it the lack of funds for own computers and high speed internet, living in a squat with no connectivity, or working full time without internet access at work or other commitments and responsibilities. In addition it is a lot harder for some people to express themselves in the written form than it is for others. To try and minimise the effect of these issues, we can do the following:

The Websites

Technical requirements

the following point is still under debate

What is an active collective?

The more sites the better it is for everyone. But it does happen that collectives fall apart, without officially dissolving or archiving their websites. This is not only a problem globally, but can also happen within the UK Network. These sites are a sad example for Indymedia, they may get spammed, and they are discouraging for people who might want to start a new collective in the same area, as they make it look like there is an existing collective, that is just not doing its job properly.

Ideally an active collective should:

Warning signs for an inactive collective include:

When some of the points above indicate an inactive collective, the following steps could be taken to get confirmation:

  1. An email is send to their lists asking the collective to get back in touch
    • If there is a response, it is established whether they are still working, or may need help. They are encouraged to engage in the network, and in case of lack of active members to try and do outreach work to find new people. This applies to all the following steps of course.
  2. If there is no response after 4 weeks, another attempt is made.
  3. If there are meetings announced and someone can do it, someone can try and attend one of their meetings.
  4. If there was no reaction after another month, a warning is sent to all local email lists
  5. Again 4 weeks later, the site is archived and a note put on the frontpage, with a notification to all local email lists.
  6. the site is marked as archived in the cities list and, if the collective was affiliated, global is informed.

If a collective is deemed inactive, the site should be archived with a note on the frontpage that there is currently no editorial collective to maintain it and informing activists how to form a new collective and take on the running of the site. If a collective is entirely self sufficient the archiving may be difficult or impossible, but it would still be useful to establish whether they are active, to keep the cities list up to date. In addition in both cases their email lists should be archived, and instead a UK list is given as contact point.

As these actions constitute a serious interference with the autonomy of a collective, this process needs to happen in a transparent and accountable manner and the decision has to reach active consensus.