Cyprus IndyMedia Collective Responds to Accusations from Athens and Patra IndyMedia

The Accusations

Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2011
To: imc-europe@lists.indymedia.org, imc-process@lists.indymedia.org

From: Athens IMC & Patras IMC editorial teams, imc-athens-editorial@lists.indymedia.org
Subject: [Imc-europe] Concerning cyprus.indymedia.org

Hello,

We are writing this email to express our concerns about the existence and the character of cyprus.indymedia.org.

Its been more than a year that some political activists from cyprus have attended the assembly of the editorial team of Athens IMC and informed us about the situation in cyprus.indymedia.

Furthermore, in Athens IMC we are receiving many mails from people living in cyprus, people who are involved in the movements, complaining about the situation in Cyprus IMC.

Cyprus.indymedia.org seems to be violating and not respecting some of the fundamental principles of unity of the Indymedia Network.

Let's start :

cyprus.indymedia is using blogspot as host. You can verify that the domain http://cyprus.indymedia.org redirects in http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com.

This is obvious even from the theme and look of cyprus.indymedia. This also means that cyprus.indymedia uses no open source. It uses Google as host, and blogspot as platform.

Cyprus.indymedia violates the Indymedia principle of open publishing. You can easily verify this by browsing on the site.

In fact there is no open publishing since there is no open democratic assembly of activists and political people who contribute in cyprus IMC. Cyprus IMC is controlled by small private group of people.

There is no open character in Cyprus IMC, no open publishing, is not a media of the movements against capitalism and injustice. It's just another blog, controlled by a private small group which uses Cyprus IMC to express their opinion.

So we are getting to the content of Cyprus IMC - blog. Since the content of Cyprus IMC is written in greek, we who are participating in the Athens IMC and Patras IMC (greek is our native language) can understand it and convey it to you.

Obviously, the content of Cyprus IMC is violating too the principles of Indymedia Network.

Often, there are posts in Cyprus IMC that target people of the movement in cyprus. The administrators of Cyprus IMC blog refer to people with their names,surnames, even nicknames, with photos of them, accompanied with slanderous ratings . Actually the second link below contains even information on the private life of a female comrade, deeply violating her privacy.

Some examples :
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post_04.html

http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post_20.html

Even if the Indymedia IMC network globally fights against injustice, exploitation, racism and nationalism the content of Cyprus IMC seems to refute it.

In contrary Cyprus IMC blog, tends to make constitutional propaganda and reproduce stereotypes of hate and nationalism. In example, concerning the matter of greek-speaking and turkish-speaking residents of Cyprus Island, Cyprus IMC blog identifies with preservatives ideologies and nationalists points of view.

Some examples:
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

Cyprus IMC is attacking anti-fascist anti-nationalist actions against ELAM (greek nationalists group in cyprus). It supports and idenfities with the nationalists about deportation of immigrants. It is positioning against left and anti-authoritarian initiatives which stand against oppose to nationalism and fascism. Cyprus IMC aggrees with categorizing the people who are forced to migrate and leave their counrty in "legals" and "illegals".

Example :
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post_27.html

From our part, as political activists we participate in the movement in Greece against capitalism and state, against injustice, exploitation. We participate in Athens IMC and Patras IMC because we believe in the principles of Indymedia Network and we believe that the people can use information on their long way to social liberation.

In the case of Cyprus IMC, having in mind that it has been violating major principles of Indymedia Network for many years now, principles related to open publishing, open source, open assembly editorial team, content against capitalism, racism, nationalism, having in mind suggestions and complains from people in cyprus we request that :

- The domain cyprus.indymedia.org redirects no more in the blog
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com

- Current administrators of Cyprus IMC blog have no further authorization in the part on Indymedia Network called cyprus.indymedia.org in Global IMC or elsewhere.

- Cyprus.indymedia.org is removed from the Indymedia IMC's lists all around the world.

For further explanations, informations or anything else on the case of Cyprus IMC we are at your disposal.

Editorial Teams of Athens IMC and Patras IMC
~~~~~~~~~~~~


Cyprus IndyMedia Collective Responds

First we would like to thank the comrades in Athens and Patra for reminding all of our IndyMedia colleagues in Europe and globally that imc-cyprus is still without technical support from the network in order to operate an Open Publishing system on the imc-cyprus website - this is something we have been requesting for several years now. Open Publishing, which is the core of indymedia's mission and one of its salient characteristics, is indispensible for the communities of Cyprus. We are in dire need of it.

We have been requesting help from everyone we can find within indymedia who has technical skill and knowledge, to help us install and operate an Open Publishing system for several years. Please see here for more information:
"Cyprus needs to have a trilingual IndyMedia website where people can publish freely and openly in the Hellenic, Turkish and English languages - in the style of Open Publishing that IndyMedia has been known for within the politicized radical and alternative community since the beginning of this decade. We are very upset and disrupted with the fact that Open Publishing is not possible right now..."
From: "Why a Temporary Page?"
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-temporary-page.html

We would be very happy to get rid of the free service provided by google, if we can offer to the community Open Publishing again as we did for several years before the most recent crash of our server. The server was named "Illich". It was hosted and serviced by our colleagues of Hamilton imc; more specifically by the personal graces of techie extra-ordinaire John Milton. It crashed for good in December of 2007:
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-cyprus/2007-December/1214-ap.html


A Detailed Response to the Rest of the Accusations

Here we provide the context and background of who we are and how we operate, and specific responses:

o- The Military and Political Situation
o- Opposition to Apartheid
o- Publication Languages and Participation
o- Our Values and Principles
o- Activities
o- Security, Meetings and Work
o- Publishing Names and Photos
o- The Links Provided by the Accusers
o- Anonymous Charges
o- What we Propose


o- The Military and Political Situation

Cyprus is a tiny island country in the Eastern Mediterranean, invaded and occupied by the vastly superior military forces of Turkey armed with US weapons, through which they have enforced genocide and ethnic cleansing on us, causing half the population to become displaced refugees. Furthermore, the invading power has installed an illegal occupation regime and has been engaged for several decades now in illegal settlement of the country that has altered the demographic composition of the population. It is currently engaged in an effort to overpower and wipe out the indigenous Turkish Cypriot and Hellene (greek) Cypriot communities.

In addition, Cyprus is illegally occupied by military forces of the United Kingdom, who, along with the United States are using the country as a forward base to wage war against our neighbours in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

The legal Government of Cyprus (which now controls only half the country), has been since the mid nineteen sixties continuously under the control of an alliance between the local ruling class and the global Imperialist powers. Its political party is a stalinist organization that markets itself and its reactionary policies as a fake "left" agenda. By the nature of these circumstances, the discourse of any moral and principled political opposition to them - which we are a part of, and in some ways we spearhead - has to navigate both against right-wing Imperialist agendas AND against the false and fake "left" presentations of reactionary and oppressive policies enacted by Capital and the State.

The newest and most immediate danger that Cyprus faces now is that the global Imperialist powers, along with the invading power (Turkey) and with the blessings of the fake "left" ruling class of Cyprus, have decided to declare the occupation and ethnic cleansing as "legal", and create a "final solution" to the Cyprus conflict in the form of an Apartheid State. The proposed plan is replete with Race Laws, unequal voting rights and permanent displacement of tens of thousands of refugees who shall never be allowed to return to their homelands.

This plan for a racist Apartheid regime for Cyprus is not only a major injustice, but also a recipe for permanent war in our region, which will be a boon to global Capital and the authoritarian States that control the area. Along with many other radicals and progressive people we are immersed in the struggle against all of this, and we are committed to a struggle for liberating and re-uniting our country in an environment where the two main ethnic communities, the Turkish Cypriots and Hellene Cypriots, can live re-united together again in peace, equality and justice, free from military occupations.


o- Opposition to Apartheid

Beginning in 2003, Cyprus IndyMedia gave space to voices that criticized the emerging Apartheid plan (at that time it was known as the "Annan Plan", named after the Secretary General of the United Nations).

Our positions, during a difficult time when it was not easy for leftists to speak up about this, gained the support of the Turkish Communist Party and internationally known leftist figures such as Mikis Theodorakis.

Immediately we received attacks from both the fake "left" (the stalinist establishment and its agents and appendages within the progressive community) and from extrajudicial (illegal) quarters aligned with the right-wing Imperialist powers.

The stalinist establishment and its agents posing as "anarchists" attacked us by labelling us as "fascists", "nationalists", etc. for publishing critiques of the Apartheid Plan.

The US/UK-led coalition attacked us by ordering the Government of Cyprus to launch an illegal investigation against us; the Police said they were exploring whether we constitute a "danger to US interests":
"Government Admits Investigation Against Indymedia Initiated by US Intelligence"
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/07/111547.shtml

and:
"Some of the basic materials of "The Case", collected"
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-cyprus/2005-August/0831-ni.html

The community rallied to our support, forcing the Minister of Justice to issue an apology, and Cyprus IndyMedia became a flagship for the expression and publication of radical and progressive views and news of the struggle against the racist Annan Apartheid Plan.

Since 2004 we have survived a continuous stream of assaults by both the formal "legal" apparatus of the State and Capital and by their illegitimate appendages and agents within and outside of the progressive community who pose as "anarchists". These assaults include Court cases; Police harassment; illegal investigation into our personal finances; slander and libel; attacks by hackers and denial of service attacks on our website; threats of physical violence (more on that below).

We continue to give voice to points of view, investigative reports and news that the ruling alliance between the stalinist and Imperialist forces does not want published. Thus Cyprus IndyMedia has become a main feature of the political and cultural opposition against the regime and its unholy Apartheid scheme.



o- Publication Languages and Participation

From its inception, because of our commitment to the unity and reconciliation between the ethnic communities of Cyprus, Cyprus IndyMedia has published in three languages: in the Turkish, Hellenic (greek) and English languages. It's easy to see that both on our current homepage (upper right-hand corner),
http://cyprus.indymedia.org
and in our archives (please see links to the archives at the bottom of this document).

Please note on this that our accusers above who wrote that the "content of Cyprus IMC is written in greek" are lying.


o- Our Values and Principles

These are expressed very clearly through our actions! A list of some of our activities (in the next section below) speaks volumes about what our real values and principles are.

But we have also articulated our Values and Principles in many ways, especially in the founding documents of the Cyprus IndyMedia Collective. In light of the above accusations against us which attack our social and political values, doubting our "movement credentials", we invite you to examine our papers and see for your yourselves.

Our commitment to IndyMedia's values and principles are stated clearly in our founding papers, which we republished under our "Editorial Policy" heading, here:
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2008/08/editorial-policy.html

Those values form our contract with the community. We operate with transparency and openness to the community in all of our functions, and that is the reason why so many people support what we do and participate in our activities.

One of our founding documents that specifically deals with values and principles that express our opposition to the rule of Capital and the State is titled "The Short Statement" and deals with various levels and elements of politics. It was cemented in words in a collaboration between BarkIn KarslI (from Istanbul, later became a founding member of imc-istanbul) and Petros Evdokas (one of the founding members of the Cyprus IndyMedia Collective). It addresses:

Spiritual Politics
Religion, Unity, Freedom, "tolerance" vs. "embrace".
Sexual Politics
Freedom, Authoritarianism, dis-empowerment, sexual and political maturity, Class- consciousness.
Social politics
Class, Property, Ownership and Control, Ecology,
Racism, sexism (male -chauvinism), homophobia.
Personal Politics
Lifestyle, appearance, symbols, mainstream culture and alternative /radical culture.

We invite you to read it, here:
"The Short Statement"
http://www.cyprusindymedia.org/The_Short_Statement-KaliMerhaba.htm#Short


o- Activities

Following is a list of some of our activities from the last few years. We believe that actions speak more truth than words, and our actions are a testament to our social-political values. Through them you can see that in addition to being activist journalist/ editors, we are also social-political activists and community organizers.

We have engaged in the following activities as members of the Cyprus IndyMedia Collective:

o- We provide free healthcare (natural medicine) to activists and their loved ones, as well as to people who have no other financial or medical options, including immigrants, refugees, poor people, and people marginalized or excluded from the mainstream for reasons of gender or sexual prejudice, racism or cultural bias against them.
o- We provide free classes in Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Kung, and Yoga.
o- We operate a Psychedelic support group.
o- We operate a Natural Therapy school.
o- We have been active in the streets, in marches to oppose the war against our neighbours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Lebanon.
o- We've participated in BiCommunal events for Peace and Reconciliation; for finding the remains of missing persons from the war.
o- We've taken a leading role in the legal defence of activists arrested, beaten up and charged by Police with "anarchism" and "violence", by organizing legal defence teams, finding witnesses, appearing in Court, publishing defences of activists, etc.
o- We participated in the efforts to organize a community Initiative Against State Repression.
o- We participated in the protest mobilizations of asylum-seeker immigrants and refugees from Kurdistan and their families, who engaged in hunger strikes and a very intense street sit-in. We helped with:

o- feeding protesters and their families;
o- clothing the hunger strikers after a storm washed out the sit-in.

o- We arranged for the child a political refugee (asylum seeker) to receive a surgical operation for free from a volunteer doctor.
o- We've offered free tutoring to immigrant schoolchildren who have trouble with language and other school lessons.
o- Humanitarian Aid shipments (clothes, children's supplies):

o- to the Palestinian refugee community in Beirut (Shatila), which due to political reasons was derailed by authorities and we delivered it to Kurdish Syrian refugees;
o- to the flood-stricken rural communities in the Philippines; which we delivered in collaboration with the Filipino local immigrant community.

o- Hosting of international activists of all sorts, including:

o- members of Beirut IndyMedia;
o- the Free Gaza Movement / Ship to Gaza;
o- independent movie -makers;
o- individuals in need of shelter (battered or abused persons; persons hunted by illegitimate or abusive authorities, etc.);
ο- healthcare workers who volunteer in Palestine as "internationals".

o- Helped with independent movie productions, including:

o- the BiCommunal /multilingual film titled "Where Are You From?" created by the Turkish Cypriot radical cultural group Baraka and Nazen Sansal;
o- the upcoming documentary on Cyprus by movie -maker and LA Weekly author Mel Yiasemide;
o- upcoming documentary by noted vanguard movie maker Angela Melitopoulos (she is a student of the legendary Nam June Paik and a cinematic collaborator of Antonio Negri);
o- a documentary on the Annan Plan initiated by Demetris Desylas, activist and movie maker who came to Cyprus from Portland, Oregon.

o- We participated in struggles in the schools:

o- to protect children's rights to be free from religious indoctrination in school;
o- initiated a successful community struggle (teachers, parents, students and neighbours) against an authoritarian Headmaster who abused children (she was supported by the pseudo "left" regime). The struggle included trials in the Courts and workplace organizing, succeeding in removal of the offending abuser;
o- in a successful campaign to stop the illegal fluoridation of children in the schools.

o- Alternative Community activities:

o- film festival on the September 11 events that led to war in our region;
o- movie viewing and discussion nights;
o- several years of regular evenings set aside for activist dialogues around the needs of the Alternative Community.

o- For several years in a row, we have served as the contacts for organizing within the context of the World Wide Marijuana March, and are involved in all the efforts to legalize Cannabis in our country.
o- Promotion of the Alternative Economy (operating outside Capitalism) through volunteer work, labour and goods exchange, formation and support producer co-ops, worker-owned businesses, and support for the non-profit community.
o- Struggles against Big Capital landlords in the Old City (Medieval center of Lefkosia, the capital of Cyprus). These included the publication of revelations of Big Capital's connections to corrupt politicians and thugs (disguised as "anarchists") who help to destroy a neighbourhood, buy it up cheaply and then "develop" it for Big Business, exploiting immigrant slave workers in the process both as labourers and as renters stacked like sardines up in large numbers in small apartments without basic hygiene facilities. These struggles included organizing in the neighborhood and action in the Courts.
o- Through our political contacts we were able to convey to the West timely reporting from the front lines during Israel's invasion of Gaza and to disseminate to the world eye-witness first-hand reports from Beirut during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.
o- We recently collaborated with the Palestinian activist community in Cyprus to translate and produce a booklet on the Nakbah (Palestinian Holocaust), titled "Nakba, The Continuing Genocide in Palestine; A synoptic guide to the history and issues".
o- We have good relations and co-operate with internationally known freedom fighters such as Bill Ayers (Weather Underground) and Dana Beal (World Wide Marijuana March), and correspond continuously with many known and unknown figures of the global Liberation Movement.
o- Within the global indymedia network, our members have participated actively in the work of various volunteer bodies and work groups, including: new-imc; www-features; imc-communication, imc-finance; imc-process; imc-women.



o- Security, Meetings and Work

The various threats to our safety and security and the constant efforts to disrupt our work by regime collaborators and provocateurs (posing as "anarchists") have not succeeded in reducing our community work, our efforts, or our commitment. But they were the reason why we modified the "open meeting" policy to something that works better:

o- Our meetings are open to everyone who wants to work with us. They are not open to disruptors. Nor to anyone who wants to enforce the party line of the establishment or of Imperialism on us, nor to individuals or groups whose intent is to transform the work-sessions into a Third World coffee-shop shouting match.

In that spirit, all the work meetings to achieve all the work and projects listed above flow well, and through the decade there have been numerous people who passed through our doors, sometimes to work only on specific projects, sometimes to stay on for several years and commit to shouldering positions of responsibility.

Part of IndyMedia's legacy is that indymedia should "not be owned or controlled by any one group", which is part of the reason that our organization embraces progressive and radical people of all sorts, including Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, Feminists and Greens of various ethnic and cultural origins and of a multitude of identities in terms of sexual, gender, linguistic and faith orientations. This enrichment is part of indymedia's strength and bond with the community - we believe that we embody it well, and gracefully.

Last year one of our members was targeted by a street poster campaign done in fake "anarchist" style, in which his photo was published along with the insinuated anonymous charge of being a police informant, clearly targeting our member for the violence that is reserved for informants:
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post_09.html

This did not deter us, but it's an indication of the climate in which we must operate.

Our island country is small (less than a million people distributed mostly in a few small cities), most of us are related to each other, and almost "everyone knows everyone". And so anyone who wishes to work with us finds us easily in the marketplace, in school, in the street, at public events, on the phone, or by email. A few of our member's identities are openly known in public (we protect the identities of all the rest of our members), and so it's very easy for anyone who wants to join our projects or meetings to do so.

Some of our names and places are well known and accessible through the phone book, the internet, and one of our locations is even identified from space:
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=35.1691273&lon=33.3572012&z=19&l=0&m=b
or,
http://wikimapia.org/10097482/Sofouli-Str-16-Ap-207-1096-Nicosia-Lefkosia-Republic-of-Cyprus

We operate on the basis of direct democracy, transparency, rotation of duties and responsibilities, sharing of all skills and knowledge, and a non-hierarchical mode of decision-making based on consensus. Those who appreciate this type of process know where to find us and are always welcome to work with us.


o- Publishing Names and Photos

We are accused of publishing names and photos of some people. Yes, we have published the names and photos of individuals who are involved in activities funded by the US State Department and US AID (the civilian arm of the CIA) and other foreign powers, who have infiltrated the left community posing as "anarchists" or in various other "leftist" modes, promoting the agenda and values of racism and Imperialism packaged and marketed in "leftist" slogans. And we will continue to publish them.

The revelations we made about their funding are from their own self-confessed publications (they are proud of it!). The same applies to their photographs. To this day, not a single one of our revelations about these people has been refuted, denied or disproven by them or by anyone.

We believe that the progressive community should know who is infiltrating it and which power is funding the agendas that these people promote.

One of the accusations listed against us above concerns a "naming and shaming" that we did by publishing the names of these three organizations: Αυτόνομη Δράση Αντιεξουσιαστών (ΑΔΑ), Βιβλιοθήκη - ΑΓράμματα, and, "Εναλλακτικά Media Φάλιες". These groups, in December of 2009, instead of resisting the action of provocateurs in the Old City of Lefkosia, went ahead and published on their websites a poster calling for the burning down of the city with firebombs, in the vain hope that this would lead the youth to an insurrection ("right") on the anniversary of the brutally murdered and martyred youth Alexis Gregoropoulos in Athens. We called them on their responsibility for publishing what they did. Also, for their behind-the-scenes participation in the political machinations that excluded the local and immigrant residents and local radical community organizations from community dialogues surrounding a controversial "street party" scene that was the source of vandalisms and damages to poor and immigrant peoples' homes in the ghetto. Yes, we did indeed name them and shame them.

Another one of the accusations is that we supposedly published "information on the private life of a female comrade, deeply violating her privacy." The person in question is a public figure who is politically active within the context of funding from the US State Department and US AID. The information we published is already public knowledge which she herself has made public through her behaviour, and the news has been buzzing for several years now as "juicy gossip" in every cafe and political gathering. Furthermore, the information is from Court testimony in an upcoming divorce trial. All Court procedings are open to the public specifically for this purpose: in order for the truth to be known to the community and to be established as such.


o- The Links Provided by the Accusers

Even the simplest reading of the articles published at the links provided by our accusers to "prove" our guilt, makes it obvious that the anonymous accusers hiding behind Athens imc are lying.

This article at this link (provided by our accusers) supposedly "proves" that we are nationalists:
"Δεκατρία Σημεία, συν Δύο"
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

The article we published:

o- Exposes a Member of Parliament representing the right wing "loyal opposition" party (DHSY) for his blatant, clumsy and stupid anti-communism which reeks of the reactionary McCarthy era.
o- The article charges the ruling party (AKEL) with:

o- having betrayed its mission for Socialism,
o- having betrayed the people by opposing (instead of leading) the anti-colonial struggle in the nineteen fifties,
o- having betrayed the people by supporting the Church dictatorship in the sixties and seventies (instead of leading the pro-democracy opposition against it),
o- having betrayed the people by not participating in (and opposing) the anti-occupation struggle, even coming to the point in recent years of aligning itself with the occupying power.

How do these positions "prove" that we are nationalists? Red and Black internationalists? Yes. Patriots? Yes! But "nationalists"? Where is the "proof" for that?

Another article cited by our accusers to "prove" that the Cyprus IndyMedia Collective supposedly "supports and idenfities with the nationalists about deportation of immigrants" is this one:
"Σπρώχνουν το Λαό στο Φασισμό"
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post_27.html

The article begins with a photo from street protest graffiti that says: "Shit on the Fascists". It goes on to explore the connections of a fascist-leaning organization in Cyprus with known fascist organizations in Europe, confirming that they are a very dangerous sort.

Furthermore the article goes into a long analysis of how the pathetic, fanatical and authoritarian actions by some sections of the Left actually promote fascism instead of diminishing the danger. These include actual mistakes from honest Leftists, but on the main, consist of conscious, manipulative and intentional actions by authoritarian and stalinist sections of the fake "left" intended at fostering divisiveness and hatred within the community (instead of investing in popular unity), and aimed at cultivating an artificial situation in which the Police are being called on by "radicals" to violate free speech and the Constitution, further empowering the State to erode the few freedoms we have left. We believe that honest appraisals among progressives and radicals of where things are going are the lifeblood of democracy, and the only way to fight fascism effectively.

It turned out that our analysis was correct, because by the same time next year, the fascists had doubled the numbers of their members and of those willing to come out in public to march under their despicable banners AND for the first time there are now members of the public applauding them!

Where in all this is the "proof" that the Cyprus IndyMedia Collective is "nationalist", or that our Collective supposedly "supports... the deportation of immigrants"? In fact there is nothing absolutely there but lies and fabrications, easily proven by a simple reading of what we publish.

What ground is there for the accusations to stand on, when the "proofs" are proven false?
Falsifying the translations of our articles is an insult to the accusers own intelligence, and to anyone who might believe them.

The goal of the accusers who are hiding behind Athens indymedia is to silence this type of political criticism and dialogue among the various sections of the Movement. But indymedia - and Cyprus IndyMedia more so - is all about providing a multiplicity of political voices and polyphony within the progressive community: what the accusers seek is to silence criticism and therefore for one "party line" to emerge dominant. We resist this effort at domination.

When the Left seeks to ban internal dialogue and disallow criticism, we all know that it only helps to magnify the honest mistakes and blunders of the well-meaning Leftists, but also to empower the intentional manipulations of the authoritarian sections of the fake "left". In Cyprus, the stalinists and their appendages already have the State in their hands, they already have the backing by the major Imperialist powers, already have the local ruling class behind them - what else do they need? But they have a great need to silence us and to disrupt the people who are engaged in self-organizing and mobilizing again within the communities for the first time in many years.


o- Anonymous Charges

The accusations made against us so far are anonymous. The material and explanations that we published above - and the direct knowledge that the people in our communities have of us through continuous involvement with our projects - show them all to be lies, misconstrued arguments, fabrications and falsifications of the record. But their anonymity, somehow gives them a "magickal" staying power.

In contrast to their anonymous lies we offer our openness, we offer our willingness to meet face-to-face with anyone who wants to talk with us, we offer our entire history and the public record of both our actions and our publications: easy to evaluate for anyone who has the interest and a commitment to the Truth.

Some of the articles we publish as a Collective are even signed with specific names so that there will be a face with a name and address attached to those positions, so that the people in our community - to whom we are morally and politically accountable every day, where we see them at work and in the street - can know that our work is not just some ravings of a group hiding behind an "anonymous" facade. We explain this in our in short article titled:
"Collective or Individual Signatures?"
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2008/10/collective-or-individual-signatures-for.html

Is there someone with a face, name and address who can come forward and substantiate any of the accusations against us? Everyone accused has a right to face their accusers, and to hear the evidence of the charges. Who are they? Where is the evidence?

Also, why did the Athens and Patra indymedia groups go ahead and publish these false accusations against us all over the network (in at least four places online) without first making ANY effort to communicate with us?


o- What we Propose

We ask, request, beg the global indymedia network again to please reconsider, and find ways to extend some technical help to us so that we can offer Open Publishing on the Cyprus IndyMedia website. The community must be given the tools to express itself directly.

We ask that the anonymous accusations against us be rejected on the basis of our public record in the eyes of the community through our actions and words, and by the material about us and by us that is obviously written into the electronic record of the internet.

We invite any of the comrades from Athens and Patra to come visit us, stay with us, work with us if they like, or just use the visit as a fact-finding mission, instead of engaging in slander, libel, and distortion of our work. This invitation is open, of course, to all other imc volunteers who are active in the extended indymedia family.

We are open to answering any question, entertaining any suggestion stemming from this juncture, anything that will enable the progressive and radical branches of the alternative and subversive community in Cyprus to flourish and go forward. We are committed to serving primarily that community and the wider community of the people at large, who give birth to, support, nourish and defend this embryonic form of the future. We ask you to help us in our mission.

Cyprus IndyMedia Collective
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update on our Political/ Legal situations
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-cyprus/2005-September/0903-ko.html

Access to some of our archives on the web.archive.org page:
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2008/08/blog-post.html

* * *

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Κατά Νόμο Υπεύθυνος
Ο Νόμος απαιτεί ότι δημοσιεύματα που εμπίπτουν υπό την δικαιοδοσία των Δικαστηρίων της Κύπρου, πρέπει να ορίζουν συγκεκριμένο άτομο ως τον Κατά Νόμο Υπεύθυνο γιά οιαδήποτε θέματα αφορούν το εν λόγω δημοσίευμα. Ανκαι πιστεύουμε πως ο νόμος είναι αναχρονιστικό κατάλοιπο της Αγγλοκρατίας και εμπόδιο στην ελεύθερη έκφραση του λόγου και της σκέψης ως ορίζονται από το Σύνταγμα, επειδή γνωρίζουμε πως η δημοσίευση του συγκεκριμένου άρθρου μπορεί να αποτελέσει εστία νομικών διαφορών, ορίζουμε ως τον Κατά Νόμο Υπεύθυνο γιά το ανωτέρω άρθρο τον
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