Indy Media Watch

Via Scotland Indymedia, comes notice that November 25th is Buy Nothing Day. The official Buy Nothing Day website is here. I wonder if they'll be buying web hosting that day?

Indymedia reports:

World Buy Nothing Day is on saturday the 25th of November, we will be celebrating it on the east end of Princes street in Edinburgh.
To challenge the rampant consumerism that overshadows the festive season we will be celebrating WORLD BUY NOTHING DAY in Edinburgh. On saturday the 25th of November at the east end of Prince's street we will be having a FOOD NOT BOMBS stall, along with festive musicians, and carnival. We will also have a Green Santa's grotto with face painting and a space for kids to make their own presents and cristmas [sic] cards.

This event hopes to promote a reduction in the amount of things we buy and more ethical consideration about the impacts upon our planet and its people of our consumption.

They're consuming people! They're consuming peeeeeooooopplle!!!

So, what will you be buying that day?

Update: Via Comments:

Hmm. I'll think about that after I finish my time machine, considering Buy Nothing Day was 5 days ago.

Must buy a calendar.

Via a link from Melbourne Indymedia comes word that Italy Indymedia has closed.

Italy Indymedia, one of the largest and most active Indymedia centres in the world has closed.

This follows a protracted discussion of financial, resource and policy problems, particularly the difficulty of managing the newswire. The open publishing newswire was repeatedly subject to attacks from fascists, inquiry from police and State forces as well as controversy in the mainstream media.

Italy Indymedia activists are discussing possible ideas to redevelop the project within a discussion of movement media.

I haven't got much to say about Italy Indymedia as I've generally avoided non-English IMC sites. Italian speakers can also advise whether my (Google translated) heading to this post is even close.

However, as always, I am not gloating and simply commend anyone who was responsible enough to concede a problem and resign with honour and dignity. In other words, Seppuku.

NYC Indymedia is reporting on a police shooting. This comment appears below:

Payback will come to thee, this is why karma hit at 911 killing some of them. It is unfortunate that fire fighters had to die. However when you do wrong wrong will most certainly come back. And I don't want to hear anyone else utter the fact that it is not racial because there were black cops involved. Wasn't it blacks in Africa who sold their own brothers and sisters to the white slave masters. So would you call that not racist..chicken shit black cops who try to fit in to those coward white cops world make it even more racial. Every church and all businesses in the black community need to go back to the days of Malcolm X and rise up and shoot down every young white boy for every black young promising black kid that they shoot down. this would get the politicians attention I bet. I believe that there is a movement up and coming so sit back and wait and see. And it won't be Al sharpton or Jessie running it.. This will stop..No one is afraid of those cowardly bastards..

Will..

NYC Indymedia is one of the better Indymedia sites.

Next time you plan to play a Bob Dylan tune at a local protest or farmers market, you had best think twice. The Indymedia vanguard professes him to be no more than an enemy of the people. Via Indymedia San Diego:

“Amid the old timey folk music sung by the musicians at the peace supper was ironically, “The Times They Are a Changing.” Is there an unstated recognition of similarity with Bob Dylan; his cult of personality, looking out for number one, his material wealth - now a part of the problem?”

On an earlier post about the G20 Protest Violence, someone left this comment:

It's kind of funny. For all your intimidating "I'm watching you indymedia" talk, and sprawling 5000-word essays, life is pretty much going on the same way it was before you started your blog. Your time would be better spent with another three units at the community college.

Going to all the trouble of writing that strikes me as similar to queuing up for three hours to get into a nightclub and once finally inside, telling, people it sucks.

Whatever man, whatever. A subsequent response to this comment however, was flattering:

I can't comment on other Indymedia sites because I don't read them but I can talk about the difference this blog has made to the UK site. I say this blog because it has been mentioned in posts, comments and moderator emails in direct relation to the following subjects

i) Concern raised about the number of anti Semitic posts and comments on the site.

ii) The decision by a number of those who used to be involved in the running of the site to leave and begin the process of setting up a new Indymedia site for Britain

iii) An increase in the support for those campaigning for Cuban political prisoners DIRECTLY because Indymedia UK worked so hard to hide all reports about the protests outside the London Cuban embassy.

iv) The removal of password access to a number of people who used to do work on the site and the tightening of control by the small clique who follow a Stalinist agenda of total control (I will admit this is far from a good thing but it was because of this blog)

v) Finally and perhaps not totaly down to this blog but it was certainly a contributing factor. The massive reduction in the number of hits the UK site now gets together with a enormous reduction in the number of real posts because people who are interested in the real issues do not want to wade through the lies, half truths and obviously manufactured nonsense that makes up much of the UK site.

Best wishes
Alan

It's nice to think one has made a difference. However, the ultimate responsibility lies with Indymedia's advocates, and (with particular reference to UK Indymedia) they have been grossly negligent in this regard. Amateurishness is one thing. Hopelessness is another.

This comment appeared on UK Indymedia subsequent to (another) post about Israel.

Rethink needed

O come on Indymedia moderators how much more of the Israeli crap like this do we have to put up with. Even a short check via a search engine shows the many glarring mistakes (lies ?) in the above post but it is allowed to stay here as little more than one more attack on Israel (Jews ?) article.

If the UK site is to be taken seriously again as a media outlet for those within the UK activist community it needs to have a very, very serious look at the editorial decisions it is making and the way it is being manipulated by those with an anti Jewish agenda.

Peace
steve

It was hidden.

On the other hand, Iranian Holocaust cartoon competition winner 'Latuff' has published some more blood-libel cartoons of Jews swimming in blood on UK Indymedia. Numerous comments there were hidden as well. Naturally for UK Indymedia, the artwork itself remains, despite looking like a submission to Die Stürmer (see here for comparison) or the worst of the Arab media.

UK Indymedia continues to impress and amaze.

Related Indy Media Watch Post here.

A contributor to UK Indymedia has started a petition.

Hi, Tony Blair recently installed an e-petition facility on his official website. I started one calling for his support for an international independent investigation into 9/11.

Only UK residents or citizens can sign. It would be great to get a few hundred signatures and put it firmly on the top of the list.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/9-11-Truth/

Why the British Government would be interested in investigating the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in New York is beyond me, but the logic of 9/11 "truth seekers" is as well. I would have thought London had its own terrorist attacks to worry about (or blame on Mossad, if you were a moron).

So I thought I'd pop over to the petition site and see how popular it has been to date.

The deadline was a few days ago, and the total number of signatures:

29.

This included a couple with foreign sounding names:

paranoid nutjob
Total Loon

As an exercise in participatory democracy however, the site (or at least the underlying idea) is excellent.

A note appears on the front page:

A particular issue we are considering is what to do about petitions which are identical or very similar to petitions already on the site. So far we have not rejected most very similar petitions, in order to allow users to express their views in their own words. However, the increasing number of petitions which are very similar congests the site and proably dilutes the voice of some petitioners.

Searching through them, there are a few obvious examples of multiple redundant petitions, all signed by the same people. I suspect some of them may have read UK Indymedia for inspiration.

**Scroll for updates**

Mere hours ago I was commenting how impressed I was at the maturity and sensibility of protesters at the Melbourne G20 meeting.

Anyway...

Like clockwork, it turned ugly. As always, for all its flaws, Indymedia is great for action photos of protest activities. It started off nice. Then a Police truck's windows spontaneously shattered in a mysterious fashion... The headline describes it as "Police Truck Deconstruction".

And then it was on.

Via email:

The contingent in white jumpsuits and covered faces (photos 3 and 4 in the link above) were very aggressive and I saw them steal a camera from a press photographer. He took after them, but I’m not sure if he recovered it or not. On the ABC tonight, the Government described them as probably being from Europe and having flown out just to provoke trouble.

I wonder if they support open media? Speaking of which,

A television journalist was reportedly set upon by 20 people and kicked and punched.

Err... Don't hate the media, be the media! Then get belted.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports:

A protest against the G20 Summit in Melbourne has turned violent with some members of the crowd kicking police horses and throwing eggs at officers.

About 2,000 chanting protesters have marched through Melbourne towards the venue of the G20.

A police van has been destroyed and barricade lines broken as the protest turns ugly.

Protesters have thrown glass bottles, flares and steel rods at police, and upturned barricades were also hurled at police in riot gear.

Police officers on horses were forced to move away from protesters after some kicked the legs of the animals.

That will be the animal rights activists...

The Australian mainstream media seem to have most of the news, I assume reports will trickle through to Melbourne Indymedia over the next few days when the pepper-spray stops stinging. As always, we will be able to hear exactly how the police started it...

Update: It was the cops all along!

I saw Police State agent provocateurs dressed as activists and smashing the van and starting all sorts of trouble but everyone including the media and even some protestors bought it.

Who are these people? Cops or shadowy far right elements?

Idiot.

A comment on this post asks:

No reports of peacful protests though. What happend to all those promises???

. A subsequent comment is posted twice:

By that rationale, anyone not deemed 'violent' would be welcomed with open arms in to the conference. I didn't see too many church groups, civil society groups, peak bodies or Non-governmental international aid agencies being invited in for a cup of tea and a chat.

Someone responds:

Anybody realise that the last two posts were identical but from different authors

Stay tuned for more...

Update: Youtube Video of the Police truck here. Notice how the truck 'deconstructed itself'. What a clever truck. According to the comments on Youtube:

Before I switched on the video, they were smashing the windows using dismantled street signs.

. Street Signs are fascist manifestations of authoritarian fascist fascism... Could Youtube replace Indymedia? Numerous comments to Indymedia and this blog claim (with no evidence whatsoever) that Google has bought Indymedia. Google owns Youtube. Dum Dum Daaaaaaaaaaaa...........

There is also an extensive photo-essay of the protest here.

Via Melbourne Indymedia comes reports that Police attacked a "Festive Gathering". Check the article and feel the festivity.

A further post on Melbourne Indymedia is rather damning of the whole scene.

The protests yesterday revealed the impotence of Melbourne's organised activist scene in the face of the visit by some of the leading neo-liberal criminals on the planet. The contrast with S11 could not have been more stark. One the one hand we had yet another march (yo hum) and the other a group of testerone wankers indulging in "fight the power" fantasies - neither of which disrupted the running of summitt.

The Herald Sun reports:

A police spokeswoman later said a number of police officers were bitten during the incident and had to be taken to hospital for a check-up.

Can we call them animals yet?

Update: Amazing video of above incidents.

Update: Perhaps less amazing, this footage of police playing cricket before the protest starts.



The actual caption given to it by the Indymedia photographer:

3:00 PM 18TH NOVEMBER 2006 Police were out at the Treasury Building today practicing their baton technique ahead of further expected confrontations at the G20 Summit, Melbourne.

I think they were serious.

Update: The Front Page of Melbourne Indymedia carries this article which makes the usual claim that Police beat innocent, defenceless protesters.

Sunday afternoon a group of 50 demonstrators were beaten and trampled by police during a peaceful anti-G20 protest inside the foyer of the Melbourne museum.

Hang on, read that again: Inside the Melbourne Museum -where Indybay reports some protesters heard of a G20 dinner. Do you get the feeling we aren't being told the whole story? One very brief shot in the video gives us some insight into the 'other side' of the story, though predictably not enough. Fear the ominous voiceover. Can someone put it on Youtube for easier download?

One commenter is unimpressed:

Listen, you pitiful little pussycats. If you attack police, don't expect the rest of us to get upset if they hit you back.
I despair at the level of victimhood you 2006-style radicals display. Back in the 60s and 70s, we gave no quarter and expected none. We certainly didn't bleat and moan when the cops did what they're paid to do.
And learn to spell, for Christ's sake. Most of you appear to be semiliterate, at best.

Another article on Melbourne Indymedia also addresses a lack of balance

It's telling that in all of the reports from the G20 meeting posted here at MIM, not one piece actually focusses on what was discussed inside the G20 meeting. It's all about the protests in the streets.

The protests were ostensibly undertaken because of the perceived inability/preparedness of the G20 participants to achieve anything meaningful in terms of providing economic justice. Yet did any contributor bother to support this claim by reporting on what was said inside the meeting? Was there any evidence provided to support the contention that the meeting failed to achieve anything?

No. It was all focussed on the street battles with the cops. Vehicles being damaged. Walls being defaced. People being spat at.

How typical of the 'it's all about me' mentality which permeates collectives of imbeciles like this one.

You lot aren't really interested in the big issues surrounding world poverty. You just want to fight the police and have your picture taken damaging SOMEONE ELSE'S property (never your own), throwing things at other people and generally acting like the moronic tools which you are.

What a bunch of vacuous wankers.

Speaking of which, another article on Melbourne Indymedia claims protesters were set up!

All cars and items were taken out of the exclusion zone the night before the G20 started. One thing however remained mysteriously placed in a convenient place approximately 50 metres from the police front line. How this dumpster appeared in this place was at first questionable. Why you may ask was a dumpster full of iron bars, wooden pallets and broken bricks left in such close proximity to the front line?
The simple answer was explained to me by a certain official media representative who will remain nameless.
This was bait. Bait to provide ammunition for protesters to possibly use against police, and hence in the short-term making all protesters at the summit seem like wild renegades.

It's clear! The violence would never had happened had the Police not left weapons casually lying around right? Those protesters must feel soooooo stupid for falling for such an obvious prank. They never would have smashed up that police truck and assaulted police if they'd known who really wanted them to... Right.

Comments on that post then turn to Israel - Now there's a surprise - and (get this) Indymedia's "Pro-Israel bias". Good grief.

According to reports on Melbourne Indymedia, the protests in Melbourne, Australia at the G20 meeting are so far going very nicely if this article is a guide. It seems this is as bad as it gets and most of it is good humoured if a little disturbing.

This article in Melbourne's Daily Newspaper has more:

In a more light-hearted protest, 10 self-described radical cheerleaders wearing pink tights and miniskirts danced their way up Collins Street, where they formed a human pyramid.

The troupe of eight women and two men - whose chest hair protruded above their pink singlets - shouted chants including: "We don't believe in corporate sh-t, we'll make our stand and this is it."

"Pom poms, not bomb bombs," the sang. "We're sexy, we're cute, we're radical to boot" and "We cheer, we lead, we don't like corporate greed."

Members of the group declined to be interviewed, saying: "All we have is our chants."

"One two three four, get your booty off the floor, five six seven eight, c'mon kids lets smash the state."

Tough guys in tutus...

I am impressed.

Update: I am now unimpressed.

The forthcoming WTO meeting in Melbourne, Australia will likely result in messy demonstrations. Although the meeting has not yet convened, early protest activity has commenced. I'm actually impressed by this stunt:

On Tuesday 12th November a punnet of fresh gardeners from Melbourne and interstate created a new vegetable garden in the Floral Clock opposite the National Gallery of Victoria. The new community garden space has been planted with beans, tomatoes, lettuce, sun flowers and a variety of different herbs for community consumption, as well as a large floral display saying "STOP G20".

Let's hope the next few days show examples such as this, of creative and non-violent protest.

Advice on the Stop G20 website suggests otherwise.

Violence at actions almost always occurs because of the choices of the police
...
If you are carrying illegal drugs or anything that the cops might see as a weapon, get rid of it now! Carrying these can put you and people around you at greater risk of state violence

And most importantly:

Protect human rights!

Human rights observers will be on site to ensure and enhance the civil, political and human rights of community members at the protests by monitoring, recording and reporting on any abuses of these rights. Their role is to reinforce the range of domestic and international legal, ethical and political constraints on police behaviour that already exist.

Oh grow up.

We have received an email from Tony Allen who writes:

Glad to see your site. One of your "fans" hipped me to it after I posted on my blog about being "hidden" (read "censored") for posting information critical of Pam Africa, Mumia, and MOVE.

Fair enough if someone disagreed with me. Let them comment. But I was banned and my IP has also been banned. I tried some other IMC sites and found the same situation. Interestingly enough, the Philly IMC has been steadfast in allowing me to post. I think this says something considering they are closest in proximity to the whole Mumia/MOVE thing.

Anyways here is what I wrote about the matter on my blog. I will post again and will direct people to your site as I think you are doing a great service to those who value true Independant thought and media that sustains it.

Please feel free to post this on your site if you deem it appropriate.

We do. In particular:

Recently, I posted the article I wrote concerning Pam Africa’s birthday party that is to be held in New York on November 18th. I checked back and I noticed the piece was gone from the site. I called someone at the NY IMC who said that he would look into the matter. Today I received the following email from a staffer at the NYC IMC

Mr Allen,

This is a piece written by a right wing troll -- you.

It will continue to be hidden as long as you continue to post it.

Chris Anderson
chanders_imc@yahoo.com

Longtime readers will know I do appreciate the distinction between editorial 'moderation' versus censorship. I am not, nor have I been, an advocate of a free-for-all Indymedia, which we have seen will invariably become a cesspool in little time.

However, this is not the case here. To their credit, NYC Indymedia have been one of the 'better ones' for some time. On this occasion though it does look as though something has gone awry.

Reading through pages and pages of Israel related stories at a number of Indymedia sites can get tedious, and I am often thrilled to find a noteworthy story that does not relate to the Middle East. Thankfully, I found one this evening asking the 49ers to leave San Francisco for a slew of reasons, but mostly because they suck (sorry 49er fans!).

“Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to sue the 49ers and side kick Bevan Dufty wants dialog

Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, and a host of other good 49ers all gave us their best. I was lucky to see them in my life them and enjoy some Super Class Games. In recent months the 49ers are pathetic.

Let us not hold on to a team that is simply not recovering.”

Fair enough. I was almost certain that Israel would somehow be blamed for this!

Bay Area Indymedia follows up the election:

The Democractic Party has taken control of the House of Representatives and Nancy Pelosi is set to become the Speaker of The House. Control of the Senate is not yet known. Democracts control at least 47 seats, with Republicans controlling 49, and 1 seat going to Socialist Bernie Sanders and one to Joe Lieberman (who lost the Democratic Primary to antiwar candidate Ned Lamont). Two additional Senate seats are still up in the air but appear to be leaning toward wins by the Democrats. Among well known Republicans who lost their seats Tuesday were the notorious anti-gay politician Rick Santorum, and the notorious anti-environment politician Richard Pombo.

Being notorious is clearly a winning strategy.

Meanwhile, on DC Indymedia, from before the election comes this suggestion

CNN’s Internet reporters Jacki Schechner and Abbi Tatton will host the first “CNN E-lection Nite Blog Party” at Tryst, a Washington, D.C. hotspot for young politicos. The party will gather many of the top political bloggers from across the country to blog together...Might be time to crash this little corporate media yuppie e-fest with your favorite props and raise a few timely issues - say Iraq, Palestine, Oaxaca, DC statehood, global warming, health care, union busting, — you know, stuff you won't read about on Daily Kos.

Just a thought. Something to break up the tedium of another sham election night.

Subseqeuent comments:

Screw the District Building. Try a disruption at Tryst — not just a goddamn' sit-in, but a real shit-kicking disruption… something so raucous and crazy that CNN is unable to telecast.

Don't just sit in, don't just be "civilly" disobedient — but really bust up the scene.

That is, bust up CNN's scene, not Tryst. I kinda like the place, myself.

Later, the pro-marijuana and the anti-military activists get in a fight:

Why not do something useful rather than hitting the bong hit the recruiting station with a brick

It's unclear if anything happened, but I can just imagine Indymedia people storming a blogfest and quickly realizing just how relevant they are.

As for the "sham election", there were plenty such arguments in the last few days. I have a sneaking feeling we won't be hearing much more about that... Just a feeling.

Nat emails:

Well Nov 7th is almost upon us and that means that there will be plenty of stories in the Bay Area Indy Media circle talking about voter fraud and Republican possessed Diebold machines speaking in tongues. Karl Rove will be hiding under every wanna-be anarchist's bed and the word "fascist" will be flung around with wild abandon.

Tomorrow I will be keeping a close eye on Indy Media's Santa Cruz, San Francisco (A dead husk) and San Francisco Bay Area sites to see what they will produce.

I wait with baited breath. ;)

http://indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/05/18326662.php http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/1732954.php
http://www.indybay.org/santacruz/

*** This post will be updated ***

Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death by hanging.

UK Indymedia reaction here:

Who was US President when Hussein was helped to power by USA?

And who armed him for the war with Iran? Why are those people not also on trial?

Is it because there is a Quisling Government appointed as the result of crooked election run on the US model imposed by the Gauleiters from the invading force?

Sydney Indymedia here:

Hanging Saddam for 148 victims? George Bush as Texas governor was named 'Texecutionor' as the biggest Serial Killer with 155 victims.

Update: A new post on UK Indymedia claims it's not even Saddam Hussein, but an impostor!

This list will certainly grow. Add your links in comments.

Meanwhile, on Seattle Indymedia:

I hate Joos cause I have such a small penis

*** Scroll for Updates ***

Yet another antisemitic article with fabricated news (read: Lies) has appeared on UK Indymedia, been hidden and then unhidden by UK Indymedia moderators.

One can usually be suspicious of any article drawing comparison between Jews and Nazis. As such, the headline of the UK piece - Blitzkreig in Gaza stood out. A close examination revealed the suspicion to be correct. The poster has inserted fabricated text into a news report sourced from elsewhere. In a widely syndicated piece, one example appearing here were news reports of Israeli Defence Force activities around the Bet Hanoun Mosque.

Let's compare them.

The Indymedia article:

An Israeli army spokeswoman said that dozens of civilians had barricaded themselves in the mosque Thursday night to avoid being shot by Israeli forces who have been killing in the town since early Wednesday.

The original article:

Some 50 armed militants barricaded themselves in the Beit Hanoun mosque Thursday night to avoid arrest by Israeli forces who have been operating in the town since early Wednesday.

Armed militants become terrified civilians. Subtle isn't it?

The Indymedia article:

She said Israeli troops encircled the mosque and called for ‘hours and hours’ on the civilians to show themselves, threw smoke bombs inside and fired tear gas to pressure them to come out.

The troops also responded with ‘exact fire’ at other civilians who were going home,she said.

The original article:

Israeli troops encircled the mosque, called for 'hours and hours' on the militants to hand themselves over, threw smoke bombs inside and fired tear gas to pressure them to surrender, a military spokeswoman said.

The troops also responded with 'exact fire' at gunmen who shot at them from within the mosque, she told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Witnesses said an army bulldozers tore down one of the mosque's walls, causing part of the ceiling to collapse.

A report of Israel firing at active gunmen, trying specifically not to hit civilians ('exact fire') is distorted by Indymedia to suggest Israel was specifically trying to hit civilians.

Needless to say, this bit was left right out of the Indymedia piece:

The Israeli military said Beit Hanoun's most senior militants were among those who took refuge in the mosque, some of whom were involved in rocket fire against Israel from the area.

'The very heart of why we are in Beit Hanoun is in that mosque,' the spokeswoman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, charging the militant leaders had deliberately chosen a holy site to be immune from Israeli arrest.

'We are making every effort not to harm the mosque itself. However the object of the entire mission is to get the terrorists who are inside, to arrest them,' she said.

The military also accused Hamas of using women as 'human shields' by calling on them to take to the streets and help free the trapped gunmen, knowing Israeli troops would be reluctant to shoot at the escaping militants amid the crowd.

Cowards. It goes without saying that subsequent comments to the Indymedia post, indicating it is an antisemitic forgery were hidden.

So does UK Indymedia have a problem yet?

In the past, I have not posted comments on Indymedia referencing this site or promoted it on Indymedia in any way at all. Since this blog's inception, I have adopted a completely hands-off approach, waiting, perhaps naively for Indymedia to do some soul-searching, realize it has a problem and attempt to fix it. However, enough is enough and we are now way past that.

As this article, originally aimed at Jews, argues: Weakness fosters antisemitism. (Hat tip: GSF)

It is our understanding from comments in the previous post, that much of the discussion of antisemitism on Indymedia and on the admin mailing-list is censored or ignored, it's time to turn up the heat. The weakness must stop.

I suggest people append the following text as a signature to their comments and posts on UK Indymedia.

"Antisemitism is disgusting and totally unacceptable. As a Progressive Activist site, UK Indymedia must act responsibly. See: http://indymediawatch.blogspot.com/2006/11/more-antisemitism-on-uk-indymedia.html"

Keep comments civil and give moderators no genuine reason to hide them. If they subseqeuently do, hold them to account. A discussion of the problem of antisemitism can commence here, where it won't be censored by those directly guilty of it:

Let's be very clear about this:

Antisemitism is disgusting and totally unacceptable.

Update: The post has been hidden as has a copy which demonstrated the lies and contained excerpts of this post. Those comments were specifically hidden and not readily displayed to anyone trawling the Hidden Newswire.

So, they're hidden. For now... As a comment on this post notes:

Because of the publicity over the many anti Semitic popsts on Indymedia's UK site they have had to hide some of them but it is clever how the hide them, unhide them and hide them again. In addition they take a very long time to hide many offensive post of this kind but when posts on other subject as put up which don't follow the offical line these are hidden almost straight away.
I think what we are seeing is a policy shift, they know they can no longer get away with leaving up the anti Jewish stuff but they can leave it there for a while to allow it to be seen while hiding it after (on average 24 hours) so they can claim they are sticking to their own guidelines. Of course most posts are read in the first 24 hours so they still achieve their intent of allowing people to see them.
Clever, cruel but clever.

It is also instructive to note that comments on the Indymedia post were hidden almost immediately, so it is not the case that moderators were 'overworked' or hadn't 'gotten around to it' yet. Not hiding it thus far was a conscious decision. The problem continues.

A comment on a hidden post about Cuban political prisoners also makes an interesting point:

Would you hide this post if these people were in Israeli jails ?

So-called "progressive activists" picking their causes is not a new phenomena.

A thoughtful article by Dave Gehrig on Urbana-Champaign Indymedia in response to the ongoing disgraceful behaviour of UK Indymedia. It is good reading for anybody who considers themself an activist and includes this preface:

Now, I should start by saying, if you're the sort of person who automatically presumes that the only possible reason that anyone ever brings up antisemitism on the left is as a cynical gambit to deflect criticism of Israel, that the left is magically clean and pure as snow and has absolutely nothing to worry about, and that I must be a Mossad agent to even suggest otherwise, well, you might as well stop reading now, because you're part of the problem. Your knee has already jerked.

On the other hand, UC-IMC is also advertising this function, with the suspicious sounding headline: "The Truth About Israel" and a subsequent sub-title: "The Truth about Zionism" The presenter?

Sherry Wolf is on the editorial board of the International Socialist Review and is the author of many articles and pamphlets including: "Spies, Lies and War: Lesson from COINTELPRO".

Sigh...

Speaking of which, some on UK Indymedia, as predictably as sunrise, are now suggesting this site's criticism is part of some COINTELPRO trolling. They really don't get it do they?