Masculinists crash Indymedia web site
profem - 06.07.2003 10:28
Masculinists crash Indymedia web site - Administrators refuse to take
action - Profeminist anarchists call boycott in protest
Masculinists crash Indymedia web site - Administrators refuse to take
action - Profeminist anarchists call boycott in protest
(Montreal, July 6, 2003) - Over the last two months, the 'Centre for media
alternatives - Quebec' (CMAQ) - an Indymedia Web site created during the
Quebec 2001 Summit of the Americas - has become the host of a massive,
continuing attack, waged in its French-language pages by Quebec men's
rightists, or 'masculinists', who take advantage of Indymedia's "open
publishing" format. These antifeminists hammer away at CMAQ's constituency
and principles with blatant disinformation hoax news stories, endless
insults, vile personal attacks, open threats and negationist 'theories' of
gender oppression, systematically presenting men as victims and women -
especially feminists - as their 'torturers'.
CMAQ (www.cmaq.net), a long-time platform for news and analyses put out by
Quebec's
progressive community, had been up to then a forum of dynamic information
and
constructive discussion about various themes close to the heart of the Left:
Third World struggles, anti-militarist resistance, feminism, etc.
Confronted by feminists and profeminist anarchists outraged about this
"battering of feminists and of women's struggles", CMAQ administrators have
so far stuck to an ultra-liberal position, refusing to cull from their
website even the most extreme lies, defamation and character assassination.
They claim Indymedia rules forbid this (although some articles and comments
have indeed been pulled, at the defamed party's request or for being
unauthorized 'doctored' reposts). They have even chastised a feminist critic
for lack of moderation in protesting CMAQ's current cooptation by te Male
Lobby ( http://sisyphe.levillage.org/article.php3?id_article=540).
After weeks of ineffectual posturing by CMAQ, a full boycott has finally
been called by Yannick Demers, of Men Against Patriarchy, a Montreal-based
anarchist affinity group: "The situation is the following : CMAQ's
'submission queue' and 'dungeon', easily accessible sets of web pages, are
just brimming with masculinist hate propaganda. Many 'softer' masculinist
contributions even make it to CMAQ's Analysis section. And the author of any
progressist message about gender issues become an immediate target for a
blitzkrieg of negationist and hateful sexualized comments."
"Indeed, writes Demers, it has become practically impossible to raise gender
issues on CMAQ without being shouted down with intimidation and insults.
Several women have stopped given up on this site after being assaulted in a
venue that used to be one of the most supportive of feminist struggles. Many
women and men are organizing with all their might in attempts, unsuccessful
so far, to get CMAQ to remedy the situation.»
After spending months waiting and pleading with the men's rightists to just
leave, CMAQ administrators are now acknowledging that they have a problem
and will meet in coming days to look for better ways of implementing their
principles and putting an end to their site's invasion. They invite comments
about the problem at  info@cmaq.net.
The spread of masculinist hate propaganda via the Internet was recently
discussed in a groundbreaking SWC report that had the National Post and men'
s rights yahoos screaming bloody murder, especially on CMAQ. The report's
author is interviewed at
http://sisyphe.levillage.org/article.php3?id_article=533
For more info: Martin Dufresne, Montreal men Against Sexism,
martin@laurentides.net
Yannick Demers, Men Against Patriarchy, demers.yannick@courrier.uqam.ca
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