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 |