Freethepeeps is one of the major reasons the Indymedia UK project has failed so spectacularly after the Mayday / BeTheMedia split when those of us who had tendered and nurtured the newswire for so long were unceremoniously dumped out. This happened in part because we were expecting people like freethepeeps to run the newswire in line with the agreed Indymedia Principles of Unity. Section 6 of which reads:

“All IMC's recognize the importance of process to social change and are committed to the development of non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian relationships, from interpersonal relationships to group dynamics. Therefore, shall organize themselves collectively and be committed to the principle of consensus decision making and the development of a direct, participatory democratic process] that is transparent to its membership.”

Regretfully for freethepeeps and others in the Mayday collective they viewed collective decision making as meaning, ‘we block and block until we get what we want.’ Undermining the entire process and leading to the inevitable split and consequently the theft of the site by Mayday. A situation that remains today with one techie (Chris from Sheffield) refusing all communication and discussion and maintaining an undemocratic hierarchical control of the URL and the server.

The consequence of this theft is of course the situation we find ourselves in today with the Indymedia UK project in a near terminal state and other Indymedia sites closing because of bullying tactics by the Mayday collective. Most recently Bristol Indymedia which called it a day after a sustained campaign of intimidation and disinformation from freethepeeps. Their collective has re-launched with a new site that does not use the Indymedia name as they do not wish to be associated with Indymedia UK, a sad indictment of how badly Mayday has damaged the Indymedia name in this country.

At the heart of this is of course the great problem that Mayday hides whenever the subject is broached, anti-Semitism. For those of us who remember the Gilad Atzmon debacle and the defence of his hate speech by freethepeeps none of this is new. The many and varied problems faced by the Palestinian people are not helped by classifying all Jewish people as “part of the problem” and “sharing the blame of the Israeli army”.

For me Indymedia UK is a dead project, I read it rarely and now mostly only when others point out the odd story that is of interest (probably no more than four to five times a year) and my energies are spent on things that actualy address the needs of people facing up to Austerity and the future Tory cuts. Indymedia UK what a great thing for a short period of time but freethepeeps and its tiny band of followers who stole the site must face the blame for its destruction.