Over the past couple of years I have posted numerous articles on a variety of IMC websites with mixed reviews and reactions.

Without question, I post most often on the Philly IMC site and to their credit they have never attempted to stop me from doing so. And it is not because they have not been pressured to. I know for a fact that MOVE supporters, likely at the behest of their handlers have “encouraged” the Philly IMC to ban me from the site. They have to date failed to do so, and I must tip my hat to those at the Philly IMC brave enough to stand up to MOVE’s cronies and stay true to their principles.

Unfortunately, the folks at the New York City Indy Media Center are not so committed to the ideals to which they claim to stand for.

Recently, I posted the article I wrote concerning Pam Africa’s birthday party that is to be held in New York on November 18th. I checked back and I noticed the piece was gone from the site. I called someone at the NY IMC who said that he would look into the matter. Today I received the following email from a staffer at the NYC IMC

Mr Allen,

This is a piece written by a right wing troll -- you.

It will continue to be hidden as long as you continue to post it.

Chris Anderson
chanders_imc-AT-yahoo.com

And by "hidden" he means censored. Oh, how I do love "newspeak".

Now, if I had broken some kind of rule on the IMC board than I could understand my post being removed. And for those of you not hip to the lingo of the internet, a troll is a person who enters an established community such as an online discussion forum and intentionally tries to cause disruption, most often in the form of posting inflammatory, off-topic, or otherwise inappropriate messages.

My message about Pam’s birthday party did admittedly have some heated rhetoric in it, but so too does much of what is posted on the NY IMC’s site and I don’t see them being censored. My post was timely and relevant being that it pertained to an upcoming event in New York that has been advertised towards the radical community in the city.

So this basically comes down to somebody not liking what I had to say and hurling the “troll” and “right wing” accusations my way as a way to justify their overt act of censorship.

For what it is worth, neither accusation is true, but I don’t think the person who banned my post is overly interested in truth, ideology perhaps, but not truth. If my pro-gay, anti-death penalty, pro-choice, and overall anti-fascist views have somehow overnight placed me in the category of the right wing of the body politic, than I must confess that someone forgot to send me the memo.

On the whole I think it rather insulting and paternalistic of the NY IMC to arbitrarily ban my post without true cause. If my writings were the musings of some deranged Nazi, than I think people are smart enough to dismiss it, maybe laugh at it and go on with life. No harm done. I would think that the people at the NY IMC would have a higher opinion of their readers, but apparently this is not the case.

Let the people decide. One can view the offending article at antimove.blogspot.com and can read more about MOVE at themoveorganization.com