The UC-IMC Steering Committee would like to comment on the recent controversy surrounding the following claim, made by Sascha Meinrath at a press conference announcing the purchase of the UCIMC's new building:
"There are over 150 Independent Media Centers in 50 plus countries worldwide. And this IMC here in Urbana-Champaign is the umbrella under which the entire global network operates. We are in essence the global headquarters for the Indymedia movement, here in Urbana."

Several UC-IMCistas were offended by this comment, as were others in the Indymedia network. We believe this statement was worded badly and needs clarification.

The Indymedia network operates on principles of autonomy and non-hierarchy, and the UC-IMC strongly affirms these principles. The UC-IMC, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, hosts the funds of a number of other projects, including some other Indymedia collectives. This is a service we provide only at the request of these other organizations.

There are two ways to look at the structure of the IMC network: the organizational structure and the legal/fiscal structure. So much of the workings of the IMC network on a day-to-day basis are related to the organizational structure that IMCistas sometimes are surprised to learn that there is a legal/fiscal structure too.

This legal/fiscal structure was created by consensus of the IMC network in 2001 and 2002. There is a global Finance working group operating through the imc-finance mailing list. In 2002, this working group consensed that for legal purposes -- that is, on paper -- the Global Indymedia network is "fiscally sponsored" by the UC-IMC. This means that, under US tax law, UC-IMC has legally shared its status as a non-profit organization with the Global Indymedia network. Additional details describing and documenting this relationship and the rationale behind it are available on the UC-IMC website.

There is nothing permanent about this fiscal sponsorship, nor should there be. UC-IMC actively encourages working toward other solutions -- either that other US IMC collectives gain 501(c)3 status independent of UC-IMC and allow the fiscal sponsorship of Global to rotate among them; or that Global Indymedia Network become a 501(c)3 itself.

Without this fiscal context, however -- a context many IMCistas were not likely to know about, and which Sascha didn't provide in his off-the-cuff statement -- the comment "this IMC here in Urbana-Champaign is the umbrella under which the entire global network operates" sounds like a direct attack on organizational autonomy between Indymedia collectives, rather than a statement about the legal/fiscal organization of the Indymedia network.

We at UC-IMC strongly affirm the principle of the autonomy of the IMC collectives, and regret that a statement was made by a member of our collective apparently undermining that principle. We recognize that there were IMCistas deeply offended by the implications of the statement, and we apologize for inadvertently appearing, through miscommunication, to suggest that we do not recognize and honor the principle of organizational autonomy between IMC collectives.

We also wish to affirm that the above statement by Sascha was accurately reported by our radio volunteer, Dave Berliner. The reporting of that statement and the implications contained within it was not a mistake on the part of the IMCista.

Note: This is the official statement consensed to by the UC IMC Steering Group on June 16th, 2005. Further information about this issue may be found in the first comment below.