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category dublin | summit mobilisations | news report author Tuesday April 13, 2004 04:16author by Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group - Indymedia Irelandauthor email mayday at indymedia dot ie

You are invited to: The Indymedia Mayday Festival and Centre

Full details and timetable for events at the Indymedia Center organised for Mayday in Dublin 2004 from April 23rd to May 3rd.


Download a PDF of the programme Printable Booklet version of programme Poster advertising festival Map of Mayday weekend events for Indpendent Media


Map of Indymedia Centre on Charles St. North (OCS building). Click on picture to get a bigger map

Mayday Festival of Independent Media

The Mayday festival of Independent Media is the product of a collaboration between Indymedia Ireland and the Community Media Network. It brings together actors from the community media world with media activists from the global indymedia network to reveal the best of local and global radical grassroots media. With 15 film screenings, 9 open forums and 11 practical workshops, plus a cafe, photo exhibition and information hall, we’ve got a lot that you should see. The festical will culminate with the media centre being used to allow independent journalists from all over the world to provide detailed and honest coverage of the events of May 1st 2004 in Dublin.

Indymedia and the Mayday Centre

In 1999, prior to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) protests in Seattle, a group of community and independent media activists looked at how the upcoming protests were likely to be covered in the mainstream media. Their solution to the problems that were likely to be faced by protestors looking to get their message out was the establishment of an Independent Media centre which acted as a clearing house for all the information generated by grassroots media coverage.

With a heavy web presence and extensive use of new technologies for creation and distribution of video, audio and other media, the Independent Media Centre acted as an effective conduit during the Seattle and later protests generating 2 million + hits and inspiring a global network of media activists. Based around a system of ‘Open Publishing’ * and a slogan of ‘Be the Media’ the Indymedia network now has 150+ groups working in 90+ countries on all five continents. It has launched newspapers, produced films and regular news reels, run weekly and monthly screenings, established a translation network and run a caravan through Africa as well as producing grassroots reports and media on every imaginable issue. The Media Centres, which are established at major protests, social fora and other events, have become an important part of the infrastructure of the emerging protest movement. In Genoa, in 2001, the Italian police raided the Indymedia centre in the Diaz school as part of the repression of those protests. The Irish Indymedia group was formed by people returning from Genoa, who along with producing a documentary, Berlusconi’s Mousetrap, on the protests set up the irish website www.indymedia.ie in November 2001.

Since then the Irish website has covered the US troops moving through Shannon, the bin protests and trade union struggles as well as famously filming the Gardai batonning RTS attendees on Dame Street. It provides an outlet for many stories that never see the mainstream media as well as breaking many other stories. On an average week 15000 unique visitors read 100+ stories and up to 1,000 comments are contributed through the open publishing system.

The media centre, which will run for 10 days from 23rd April until 3rd May is the largest ‘real world’ intiative of Indymedia Ireland yet.

Community Media Network and the Mayday Centre

Although often little known outside of their own contexts, there exist a large number of community media projects in Ireland, covering such areas as community video and community television, community radio, community photography, alternative print, and new media or Internet use.

These organisations and projects are usually small - some are locally based, some belonging to communities of interest that also belong to national and international networks. Their aim is to support their communities, to promote social justice and to reinforce participatory and democratic structures. Community Media Network is focused on promoting the common aims of all such groups and supporting the growth of the sector. In 1998 the Steering Group approved the following mission statement.

"The mission of CMN is to ensure that all groups, especially those disadvantaged and marginalised, are fully informed about, and can actively participate in and share control of, community and alternative media. The goal is thereby to enhance effective and democratic means of expression and contribute to progressive social change. CMN seeks to play a catalytic role in this. CMN as an organisation is open for membership to all those who share these goals."

In June 2001, community organisations at a Community Media Workshop in Dublin City established the Community Media Forum through which groups developed proposals for community media in Dublin city. It has also been a platform for community organisations to lobby and campaign around media rights. The CMF member groups will be joining with CMN to bring a range of community media to the Mayday Centre.

The Mayday Centre offers a wonderful opportunity to see how an independent community media centre can work. Collaboration with Indymedia on this project is probably the first real manifestation of the longstanding, but little acknowledged relationship between community and independent media activists. It is an experiment, one we hope will allow for a real and lively exchange of ideas, skills, and information across a broad spectrum of interest.



Plan of Indymedia Centre.

Full Timetable of Events
Time Space Event Type Title
Friday April 23rd
6pm Exhibition Space Indymedia Exhibition Exhibition and Café till 11pm
7pm Screening Space Introductory Forum An introduction to the Indymedia Festival
8pm Screening Space Independent film Screening Undercurrents News Network
Saturday April 24th
10am Exhibition Space Indymedia Exhibition Exhibition and Café till 10pm
11am Screening Space Media Forum Inside the Irish Mainstream Media
1pm Computer Room
Internet Workshop Internet Activism for Beginners
1pm Video Room
Audio/Video Workshop Basic Audio and Video Skills for beginners
1.30pm Screening Space Independent film Screening Indymedia European Newsreel
2.30pm Screening Space Forum on Europe EU - reform it or resist it?
3pm Computer Room DTP Workshop Basic Layout and design skills for print publications
3pm Video Room Journalism Workshop Journalism skills for beginners
4.30pm Screening Space Independent film Screening WEF summit in Poland
7.30pm Screening Space Independent film Screening Globalisation and the Media
Sunday April 25th
11am Exhibition Space Indymedia Exhibition Exhibition and Café till 10pm
12am Screening Space
Independent film Screening Short Films from the Irish Movement against the war
2pm Screening Space Mayday Forum What's Mayday Dublin 2004 all about?
2pm Video Room Media Workshop
Speaking to the media for Beginners
2pm Computer Room Photography Workshop Digital photography basics for beginners
4.30pm Screening Space Legal Workshop Legal rights for Independent Journalists
4.30pm Computer Room Free Software Workshop Free Software for beginners
4.30pm Video Room Videotheque Open Video
7pm Screening Space Independent film Screening Berlusconi's Mousetrap, Genoa, July 2001
Monday April 26th
5.30pm Exhibition Space Indymedia Exhibition Exhibition and Café till 9.30pm
6pm Screening Space
CMN Information Session Community Media Network Information Session
7pm Screening Space Independent film Screening Not in My Name
7pm Video Room CMN Screening Community Media Screening
7pm Computer Room Video Distribution Workshop Using new technology to distribute video over the internet and on cds.
Tuesday April 27th
2pm Screening Space Drugs Crisis Responding the the Drugs Crisis: Media Strategies and DCTV
6pm Video Room Information Rights CRIS information Session
6pm Exhibition Space Indymedia Exhibition Exhibition and Café till 9.30pm
7pm Screening Space Guerrillavision film Screening The global justice movement - besieging the summits
7pm Video Room Video Editing Workshop Editing footage on computers
Wednesday April 28th
5.30pm Exhibition Space Indymedia Exhibition Exhibition and Café till 9.30pm
5.30pm Video Room Community Radio Introduction to Community Radio with NEAR FM
6pm Screening Space DCTV Information Session Video for Community action
7pm Screening Space Independent film Screening SINTEL - Spanish Trade Unionists Struggle
7pm Video Room Indymedia Photo/Video Team Workshop Preparing to cover the events of Mayday 2004
7pm Computer Room Indymedia Tech Team Workshop Preparing to cover the events of Mayday 2004
Thursday April 29th
2pm Screening Space DCTV Youth Programmes "Teic Eile", "What's the Buzz" and other shorts
2pm Exhibition Space Indymedia Exhibition Exhibition and Café till 9.30pm
6pm Video Room DCTV Community TV and multiculturalism
7pm Screening Space Social Forum / Screening The World and European Social Forums
7pm Computer Room Indymedia News Team Workshop Preparing to cover the events of Mayday 2004
7pm Video Room CMN Screening Community Media Screening
Friday April 30th
2pm Exhibition Space Indymedia Exhibition Exhibition and Café till 10pm
2pm Computer Room Open Access Internet Open Access Indymedia Computers for reporting on events
3pm Screening Space Mayday Forum What is planned for Mayday?
7pm Screening Space Independent film Screening Non-Violent Direct Action
Saturday May 1st
The Indymedia Centre will be closed, but Indymedia will be operating an open access Internet centre where indymedia reporters (that means you!) can upload their stories / photos / videos onto the indymedia site. Details to be announced.
Sunday May 2nd
2pm Exhibition Space Indymedia Exhibition Exhibition and Café till 10pm
2pm Computer Room Open Access Internet Open Access Indymedia Computers for reporting on events
4pm Screening Space Mayday Feedback Forum What really happened on Mayday?
7pm Screening Space Independent film Screening Holiday Camp - Woomera Refugees
Monday May 3rd
3pm Exhibition Space Indymedia Exhibition Exhibition and Café till 10pm
3pm Computer Room Open Access Internet Open Access Indymedia Computers for reporting on events
4.30pm Exhibition Space Indymedia Exhibition Exhibition and Café till 10pm
5pm Screening Space Feedback Forum Back to the real world


Ongoing Activities

Throughout the 10 days that the Indymedia Centre will be open, there will be several ongoing activities. There will be a café serving tea and coffee. There will also be Video-DJ's (VeeJays) showing off their tricks in the main screening area, an information lounge where different groups can give out literature and present themselves to the public. The CMN will also be hosting information sessions and film showings to help let community groups know about the work of the Community Media Network.

Photo Exhibition, Café & Information Hall

Open throughout festival - Exhibition Space.

The Indymedia network produces a huge amount of photographic material, much of it produced by volunteers covering a wide range of topics. The Irish Indymedia Photography group will be selecting the best of Irish and International work to exhibit during the week.

Open Access Internet

Various Times - Computer Room.

Over the Mayday weekend, when the centre is open, the computer room will be available with approximately 12 computers with internet connections allowing indymedia reporters to post their accounts of events to the internet.

CMN Information Sessions

6pm Mon. April 26th, and Wed. April 28th - Screening Space.

  • CRIS (Communication Rights in the Information Society): Seán Ó Siochrú, CRIS Spokesperson, will give an information session on a campaign that is working on a global level to assert the right to communicate and the right to use communications media.
  • Community Television: Margaret Gillan, Secretary DCTV will bring people up to date with developments in community television nationally, and how DCTV sees the Dublin station working.
  • Information on the Community Media Forum and its working groups will be available.

CMN Screenings

7pm Mon. April 26th, and Thurs. April 28th - Video Room.

Community Television DCTV and CMN will run a series of screening/discussions on video and media strategies around a number of themes. Sessions that include thematic focus on Youth; Resonding to the Drugs Crisis; Health; Community Action and Community Arts are being planned.

The sessions are for groups interested in how they can use community television and want to influence content (or indeed produce programmes) for Dublin Community Television. We will get together, watch some videos using different ways of working, and share ideas on the programming we want to see on DCTV, with an emphasis on our working priorities. This is important as the community television licences will be awarded this year and DCTV wants to ensure that community groups are well informed, able and ready to benefit from the community stations.

Community Radio: NEAR FM will be recording, broadcasting, and running workshops.

Community Photography: CMN has invited its groups to bring community photography to the main exhibition alongside Indymedia photographers.




Screenings

The fall in price of high-quality video cameras and the advent of desktop video editing has heralded an explosion in independently produced films We will be showcasing 12 different Indymedia films which prove that you don't need a big budget to produce quality films. These films have been chosen on the basis of their quality and because they cover topics that have been overlooked by the mainstream media. Our film screenings will be followed by a discussion of any issues raised by the film. The discussions will be introduced in most cases by a panel of speakers, often including the directors.

Undercurrents News Network

8pm Friday April 23rd - Screening Space.
Undercurrents, 2004. Further Details

the fence at woomera For 10 years, the award winning media organisation Undercurrents has embedded video journalists among some of the most radical protest groups. Britain's latest - and most innovative - news provider, the Undercurrents News Network (UNN) will reveal their dramatic stories.

The first edition of this unique video news service shows how Hollywood star Martin Sheen supported bomber-bashing Christians. Also included: how student protests increased the wages of low paid workers, bringing one of the wealthiest corporations to its knees. Laughs are guaranteed when George and Tony's special relationship is revealed during a hilarious musical parody.Undercurrents Network News

Undercurrents News Network seeks out and distributes cutting edge documentaries and animations overlooked by TV broadcasters.

In the music section, poet Taalam Acey voices his concerns about how his fellow black artists are being encouraged to promote gun crime and violence.

UNN's News Spinner reports how an oil corporation was successfully stopped from supporting the brutal Burmese military government. The investigation team shows dramatic video images of how desperate Iraqi and Afghani refugees escaped from a detention camp in Australia.

Panel: Paul O'Connor (Undercurrents), an Irish founder of undercurrents and Videographers from Indymedia Ireland's video team.

Indymedia European NewsReal

1.30pm Saturday April 24th - Screening Space
Indymedia 2002 - 2004 Further Details

European NewsrealThe European Newsreal is an independent media network of regional production and screening groups for the European wide distribution of copy-left videos covering issues ignored or distorted by the corporate media.

The European NewsReal is put together by Independent video makers from all over Europe who contribute short video clips to a production team which puts them together to form a monthly video program of half an hour. This video magazine is subtitled in as many European languages as possible, distributed in the countries involved and screened locally. The production group puts together the monthly editions but does not change the individual contributions at all. The European Newsreal aims to be a platform to promote and empower groups and campaigns working towards positive social change, a world without repressive borders, exclusion and exploitation of human beings and our environment.

We will be showing a selection of highlights from the European NewsReal with particular focus on the accession countries.

Indymedia in Poland - WEF summit

4.30pm Saturday April 24th - Screening Space
Indymedia Poland 2004 Further Details

Poland Anti-WEFThe Indymedia Centre in Poland will be covering the summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Poland during the Mayday period. We will be setting up a video exchange between us and them as both centres prepare to cover major protests.

We will look at the issues affecting both established EU members and accession countries as they struggle to resist the neo-liberal economic programme that is being pushed by big business on a global level.

Globalisation and the Media

7.30pm Saturday April 24th - Screening Space
Undercurrents, Jan 2002 Further Details

Globalisation and the mediaThe United States has spent the last 50 years constructing the present New World Order. Aided by its powerful military resources, alongside the IMF, World Bank and the World Trade Organisation, the rules of global trade have been largely imposed to serve its own interests. This documentary explores the role of the media in this corporate led take over of the Planets natural resources.

UnderCurrents explore how the media is involved in shaping public opinion during the ‘War on Terrorism’. Undercurrents offers a wide range of viewpoints from broadcasters, journalists, computer hackers, media activists, and news editors. They investigate the bias of Television news during the protest blockades of the IMF and the G8 summits. Travelling from Nigeria to Britain they report on the violent suppression of alternative media. Discover how new technology, such as the internet and camcorders, is challenging the role of the traditional news gatherer.

Includes Interviews with Chris Cramer- President CNN International news, George Monbiot- Investigative reporter, Katharine Ainger- Editor New Internationalist, Mark Covell- Indymedia.org, Sonali Fernadez- Media Workers against the War, Danny Schecter- Director Mediachannel.org, Emmanuel Goldstein – Editor of 2600 The Hackers Quarterly, Amy Goodman- Producer Democracy Now in Exile

Short Films From the Irish Movement Against the War.

12 am Sunday April 25th - Screening Space
50 minutes. Indymedia Ireland, 2003-2004 Further Details

Shannon3 Short films from Independent film makers in Ireland. From pulling down the fences at Shannon to planespotting and massive marches in Dublin. Indymedia was there.

Pulling Down The Fences: 10 minutes, filmed by Indymedia's Chekov from behind the lines during the mass trespass of Shannon airport in October 2002.

From Clare to Kuwait: 20 minute documentary by Martin Fahy, an independent film-maker from Galway, about the links between the Shannon planes and the war far away.

Spotting Death in the sky: 20 minute documentary by Indymedia's Aoibheann, concentrating on the role of plane spotters in exposing the flow of US war planes through Shannon airport

Panel:Martin Fahy (Galway Independent Film-maker), Aoibheann (Indymedia Ireland) and Tim Hourigan, the plane spotter extraordinaire who exposed the Shannon planes on Indymedia months before the mainstream media caught on.

Berlusconi's Mousetrap, Genoa July 2001.

7pm Sunday April 25th - Screening Space
2 hours 41 minutes. Indymedia Ireland, 2002 Further Details

Berlusconi's MousetrapThe Protests against the G8 in July 2001 in Genoa Italy were the biggest and most significant protests in Western Europe since the Poll Tax riots in the UK. Italian Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi, wanting to impress his new best mate George W. Bush, orchestrated a brutal Media/Police preemptive strike on the Anti-Capitalist Movements' biggest First World mobilisation to date.

When the weekend of protests ended Carlo Guiliani was dead and a school full of sleeping activists had been attacked in what is popularly referred to as the 'Chilean Night'. This film traces the events of the three days of protests in detail and poses the question - Was it all a setup? If Seattle was 'Star Wars' then this is 'The Empire Strikes Back'.

This feature length film is made from a combination of footage of the Genoa protests against the G8 shot by 10 members of IMC Ireland, material from the Italy IMC Archives and material from various other sources. This compelling footage combined with on the spot interviews and reenacted voiceover commentary and analysis from various websites which were active during the protests provides a in-depth blow by blow retelling of the story of the three days of the Genoa protests against the G8.

Panel: Eamonn Crudden (Director, Indymedia Ireland), Conor McLoughlin (Reporter on the Black Bloc in Genoa).

Not in My Name

7pm Monday April 26th - Screening Space
41 minutes. Platform Film & TV Choice Further Details

Not in My NameThis film explains the background to the Afghanistan war, and the central part the US played in actually creating the power of theTaliban and Osama bin Laden. It also shows the strength of the anti-war movement hardly reported in the British media.

It explores the way the control of television coverage has become a central issue in the war, with mainstream broadcasters relaying government propaganda and independent TV stations the targets for US bombs.

Says associate producer Norman Thomas: "The aim of the film is to alert people of the very dangerous situation the US attack on Afghanistan has created in the world. The US say they will attack terrorists anywhere and everywhere in the world. But who decides who is a terrorist? Who will tell the US who they can or cannot attack?"

Contributors include: Award-winning journalist John Pilger, Tony Benn, Tariq Ali, Channel 4's Jon Snow, Bianca Jagger, Labour MP George Galloway, Paul Foot, Salma Yacoob, as well as many others.

Panel: Caoimhe Butterly (Anti-war and Palestinian rights Activist who has recently been to Iraq)

The global justice movement: besieging the summits.

7pm Tuesday April 27th - Screening Space
1 Hour 7 Minutes. Guerrillavision Further Details

Crowd Bites WolfSince Seattle Guerillavision have been documenting the campaigns against globalisation from behind the barricades. These are stylistic hard hitting films (Big Rattle in Seattle, Capitals Ill and Crowd Bites wolf) which pull no punches. But be careful, watching all three together will have you hitting the streets and heading for the nearest symbol of capitalist oppression.

On one side of the planet jetliners fell skyscrapers, on the other cruse missiles level villages. Bush and the boy Blair embark on the last crusade and the world dutifully subjugates itself to US supremacy – you know this aint intended as a temporary state of affairs. Capitalism is in hyper-drive, the final buyout has begun. The world is instructed to choose between one murdering billionaire (Bush) and another (Bin Laden). But, there are those who choose another way, people who will not show fealty to any master, be it enshrined in a bank vault, in the scriptures or on Pennsylvania Avenue. They are wise to the masterplan. And as power brokers and stockers vie for superiority in the air and on the airwaves, they are ready to whip the not-so-magic carpet of control away. Whatever recognition, power is nothing. Without fear freedom may yet prevail.

Big Rattle in Seattle 23 minutes of incitement and inspiration from the November 30th uprising against the World Trade Organisation. An angry tide of descent finally draws a line in the sand. The time has come to overthrow the dictatorship of the economy and get on with building a society based on real freedom.

Capital's Ill As capitalisms demise draws closer, 20,000 take to the streets of Washington DC to spanner the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s spring time carve up. The scaffold is build, the basket is ready. 20 minutes.

Crowd Bites Wolf The bank and fund scuttle of to Prague, but an international army of insurrection is waiting. Caught in the middle one man finds his anticipated fortnight on the piss shelved by a chance encounter. 23 minutes.

Panel: Andrew Flood, (Independent photographer who documented the Blue Bloc in Prague)

200 km - the long march of SINTEL workers

7pm Wednesday April 28th - Screening Space
1 Hour 40 Minutes. DISCUSIÓN14

The SINTEL workers (SINTEL was one of the largest Telefónica subsidiaries at the moment of its privatization) start a protest march from six different places in Spain. About 1500 workers and their families walked for eight days all over Spain to meet in Madrid on May 1st, for the Labor Day demonstration, and demand a solution to their situation. Almost two years after they pulled up the camp they had set up on the Castellana, the main street of Madrid, which they had baptised “Camp Hope”, and where 1800 workers stayed for six months, the agreements reached with the government and Telefónica, who committed to giving the Sintel workers jobs equivalent to those they had lost, have not been fulfilled. The Sintel workers came back to Madrid to demand the decent jobs they had been promised.

The documentary film 200 Km is a road movie, which follows the SINTEL workers on their way to Madrid the past month of April, 2003. It has been presented to popular acclaim at recent festivals: "Made in Spain" "Horizontes Latinos" Festival Internacional de Cine de San Sebastián.

Panel: Indymedia Spain videographers from Discusion14

Non-Violence for a Change

7pm Friday April 30th - Screening Space
Just Us Productions, Sept 2001 Further Details

The right to take direct action on issues we strongly believe in is a right protected in all free nations. But what is nonviolence? Can it be effective? Is property damage violent? Should all direct action be nonviolent? This film follows several non-violent activists, they explain why for them, violence against other people is deeply counter-productive.

This film follows three campaigners, from very different backgrounds and with different experiences, as they explore their visions of nonviolence.

Alison Matthias - recently graduated and now works for the campaigning organisation People and Planet. She has been put off large-scale demonstrations by the images of violence that she has seen in the media.

Martin Shaw is a full time activist who has been involved in a wide range of social change issues including helping to organise economic globalisation protests in Seattle and Prague. He has doubts about the effectiveness of violent protests in the long term.

Ellen Moxley is a peace campaigner. She was part of the Trident Ploughshares action that openly caused £80,000 of damage to the nuclear missile programme. After five months in prison she was found not guilty.

Panel: Starhawk (US based non-violent activist and pagan).

Holiday Camp

7pm Sunday May 2nd - Screening Space
47 minutes, Adelaide/Hamburg 2002, Further Details

Holiday CampHoliday Camp investigates the current Australian immigration policies, in the context of 200 years of colonization. The unique documentary style juxtaposes challenging images, interviews, and personal experiences to intrigue and engage the audience in a satirical deconstruction of racism.

The pivotal action of the documentary is the 2002 Woomera detention center outbreak, which represents a significant protest against the political construction of national borders. To understand the different forms of protest, we invite the audience to consider how people are positioned differently around this real border. We also dismantle authorities in unexpected ways, to highlight that ignorance, as a weapon of mass construction, allows a privileged few to determine the plight of others - and yet we are all contained within an increasingly fortified global community.

Holiday Camp reclaims the voices of the marginalized and connects the issues of Indigenous dispossession, genocide, national constructions and incarceration of refugees, which are often portrayed as unrelated or divisive. Holiday Camp takes its name from a quotation by Phillip Ruddock, (Australian Minister of Immigration and Indigenous Affairs) "...we go out of our way to ensure that the detention centers provide as much humanity as reasonably possible, without making them holidaycamps..."

Holiday Camp has been shown across Europe during No Borders Actions. The only person to be convicted as a result of the breakout was a young Irishman.

Panel: Roseanna Flynn (Residents Against Racism and Campaign Against the Racist Referendum).



Forums

Opening Forum: An introduction to the Indymedia Festival

7pm Friday April 23rd - Screening Space.

Speakers from the Indymedia collective and the Community Media Network will host an introduction to the festival. This is the session where you can sign up for workshops later in the week and volunteer to be part of one of the Indymedia News teams to cover the Mayday events and to help in the running of the centre.

Although, we will still accept people later in the week, there are a limited number of places on the workshops and the earlier you apply, the better the chance you have.

Media Forum: Inside the Irish Mainstream Media

11am Saturday April 24th - Screening Space.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, a radical press emerged that reached a national working-class audience. This alternative press was effective in reinforcing class consciousness: it unified the workers because it fostered an alternative value system and framework for looking at the world, and because it promoted a greater collective confidence by repeatedly emphasizing the potential power of working people to effect social change through the force of 'combination' and organized action.

Nowadays, this radical press has all but disappeared from the world of mainstream media and the vast majority of our information is controlled by a tiny number of powerful individuals. Noam Chomsky has famously argued that in our current society the mass media operates according to a "propaganda model" where the mass media produces information that passes through a number of filters, which all serve to shape information to the needs of the powerful.

This forum includes speakers from both inside the mainstream media and those outside attempting to create alternatives. It will take a look at the media in Ireland and internationally and ask how free and objective it is in reality and what can be done to improve it.

Panel: Vincent Browne (RTE, Irish Times), Harry Browne (writer & lecturer in Journalism), Sean O'Siochrú (CRIS campaign), Ciaran Moore (Indymedia Editor).

Forum on Europe: EU - Reform it or Resist it?

2.30pm Saturday April 24th - Screening Space.

The workings of the EU and its current political direction remain virtually unknown in Ireland. It's institutions are arcane, some of its most important committees and bodies are highly secretive and unknown outside the circles of political lobbyists and experts. Although the Irish government has been holding forums on Europe since 2002, ostensibly intended to "facilitate a broad discussion of issues relevant to Ireland's membership of an enlarging Union, and to consider the range of topics arising in the context of the debate on the Future of Europe", these forums have in reality been little more than propaganda exercises for the government.

The forum's genesis was in the aftermath of the government's defeat in the first Nice referendum and their real role was to ensure that the population didn't vote 'the wrong way' a second time. Rather than facilitating any type of broad debate, they have been heavily weighted towards powerful business interests and have focused on incorporating the various different sectoral interests within Irish capitalism into active support for the European project. After a year and a half of forums, and 47 meetings knowledge of the workings of the EU among the public remains as low as ever.

This forum will give some of the excluded voices a chance to explain their criticisms of the EU and their understanding of how it works. What is the Lisbon agenda, the article 133 committee, the Bilderburg group, and how much power do they wield?

This forum includes speakers from both inside the mainstream media and those outside attempting to create alternatives. It will take a look at the media in Ireland and internationally and ask how free and objective it is in reality and what can be done to improve it.

The panel for this discussion will include members of Democracy and Public Services in Europe (DAPSE), Dublin Grassroots Network/Libertarians Against Nice (LAN), Danish Trade Unionists and other groups that have campaigned against the current direction of the EU..

Mayday Forum - what's the big deal?

4.30pm Sunday April 25th - Screening Space.

Saturday, May 1 will see a ceremony in Dublin, as part of Ireland's EU presidency, to mark the expansion of the EU from 15 to 25 states. The eyes of the world will be on Ireland and the government had planned to host a public celebration to welcome the accession countries.

However, these plans have collapsed, the part has been cancelled and public discontent has reared its ugly head. Several groups have announced their intention to hold protests on Mayday and the prospect of these protests have grabbed the media headlines. It now appears that,instead of a city in celebration, Dublin will become a militarised city for the expansion day, with thousands of police and troops on guard to prevent any disruption to the event.

The media coverage of the protests has focused almost exclusively on the perceived threat of violent protestors and the public still knows little of the reasons why people have decided to organise protests for this day. This forum will give the groups who are organising protests on the Mayday weekend and their supporters a chance to explain the underlying causes for their discontent and why they have chosen Mayday as a day to make their objections public.

The panel will include speakers from Dublin Grassroots, Another Europe is Possible as well as representatives from other groups who will be protesting on Mayday or who support the protests.

Social Forum: From the World to the European Social Forum.

7pm Thursday April 29th - Screening Space.

51,000 people from 131 countries put their heads together to discuss what is wrong with the world and how to work together to change it. In early 2002, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, public officials, representatives of non-governmental organizations, indigenous nations, farmers, and labor -- including 11,000 young people -- gathered for the World Social Forum. Called in response to the elite gathering of the World Economic Forum in New York, this week of workshops, panel discussions, and high-spirited demonstrations was inspirational for those attending.

Then in November 2002, the European Social forum met in Florence and brought 40,000 people together, double the number expected. It has since met in Paris in 2003. This discussion will start off with a short Independent Video about the social forums.

As the forum has gone on, there has been some tension between the traditional Marxist and social-democratic parties within it and the new network type movements. The consensus principle in particular has been seen by many as a barrier to making decisions. In the run up to the European Social Forum this year in London in October, the two camps remain divided by the question of the best way forward for the Social Forums. The panel will include speakers from both sides of the debate.

The panel will include Barry Finnegan from the Irish Social Forum, A speaker from Indymedia UK who is part of the horizontals side on the London ESF organising group and a speaker from the Socialist Workers Party, from the other side of the debate.

Mayday Forum - What protests are planned for Mayday?

3pm Friday April 30th - Screening Space.

The May Day protests have attracted a media feeding frenzy and a series of threats of police repression. If you were to believe what you read in the papers, the Mayday protestors will be arming themselves to the teeth and attempting to re-enact Easter 1916 in Dublin. On the eve of the protests, with large numbers of protestors and media arriving from all over the world, this forum will give people a chance to find out what is actually planned and raise any issues or objections that they might have with the tactics of any of the protestors.

The panel will include speakers from Dublin Grassroots Network, Another Europe is Possible and the London Mayday Collective.

Mayday Feedback Forum - What really happened on Mayday?

3pm Sunday May 2nd - Screening Space.

Since the birth of the summit protest movement, the question of what actually happened at the protests has often been hotly contested in their aftermath, with different groups taking radically different interpretations of what happened and why. This session will give participants in the events themselves a chance to explain their understanding of what actually happened.

The composition of the panel will depend on what happens!

Indymedia Feedback Forum - Back to the Real World

5pm Monday April May 3rd - Screening Space.

The Mayday Centre experience, the Mayday weekend events and the future. This forum will include members of several foreign indymedia centres and participants in the protests in a look at what has been achieved and where we go to from here.




Workshops

Internet Workshop: Internet Activism for Beginners

1pm Saturday April 24th - Computer Room.

How can you use the Internet to get your message out, a practical course for beginners. Using simple tools to create your own website and using the Indymedia website to publish your news. With Terry (maintainer www.stopthebintax.com) Andrew (mantainer www.struggle.ws) and Indymedia editors

Audio/Video Workshop: Basic Digital Audio and Video Skills for beginners

1pm Saturday April 24th - Video Room.

How you can take high-quality audio and video on a tiny budget and distribute it cheaply. A practical course for beginners. With Indymedia's Wolf and Aidan (who filmed the famous footage of police violence at the RTS street party on Mayday 2002)

Desk Top Publishing Workshop

3pm Saturday April 24th - Computer Room.

Basic Layout and design skills for producing print publications on a budget. Indymedia's Kevin (Designer of Printflare) shows how to layout a nice looking publication on familiar tools. While Chekov introduces a few more complicated packages

Journalism Workshop

3pm Saturday April 24th - Video Room.

Interviewing, researching and writing skills for the beginner journalist.

Press Spokesperson Workshop

1pm Sunday April 25th - Video Room.

Speaking to the media for Beginners. How to write press releases,give interviews and attract the attention of the mainstream media. With Barry Finnegan (Irish Social Forum and Lecturer in Journalism)

Photography Workshop

1pm Sunday April 25th - Computer Room.

Basic digital photography for novice independent news reporters. Taking your photos, getting them on to your computer and distributing them on the internet. With Indymedia's redjade


PDF Document Printable booklet of Programme (854 Kb) 0.83 Mb


PDF Document Web-Viewable Booklet (1.1 Mb) 1.12 Mb
PDF Document Poster Advertising Festival (278 Kb) 0.27 Mb
PDF Document Map of Protests for Independent Media (140Kb) 0.14 Mb

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/64293?search_text=bintax

Indymedia Ireland is a media collective. We are independent volunteer citizen journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. Indymedia Ireland is an open news project where anyone can post their own news, comment, videos or photos about Ireland or related matters.