In college, I learned that 90% of the media was owned by six major corporations. I wanted to be a part of the alternative. I found out about Indymedia, a decentralized global network of anti-capitalist media collectives that was launched at the 1999 Seattle WTO protests. At its peak, there were more than 200 local chapters around the world producing websites, newspapers, radio shows and more about radical social movements and the issues they were fighting for.

Yet when I visited the indymedia.org website, it felt like a relic. Before me were the digital ruins of a once-thriving organization. Was I too late? Almost.

Around the 20th anniversary of the Indymedia boom, I heard about The Indypendent (the “y” in its name hints at its origins) on Democracy Now! There was a social-justice newspaper here in New York City that launched as a part of Indy media and was somehow still flourishing two decades later with a print edition distributed in outdoor news boxes and at public libraries across the city, a website updated on a near-daily basis and a weekly radio show.

I noticed most people working on the Indy were volunteers. I quickly sent in my résumé and was invited by the papers’ editors to attend the February 2020 editorial meeting. Within minutes of arriving, I was sweating profusely — because I was nervous but also because the Indy’s small office, wall-papered in old issue covers, was packed with people feverishly discussing subjects that I had a lot to say about. I felt at home, surrounded by other political junkies.

I quickly began writing articles and doing a hodgepodge of volunteer work for the paper. When a part-time staff position as administrative manager opened up, I was thrilled to be tapped for the role. Over the course of five years at the Indy, I was promoted to associate editor and then managing editor, eventually leading a new generation of aspiring young journalists.

I was able to produce a lot of reporting during my tenure at the paper. I deeply researched topics such as inhumane conditions in Rikers, the NYPD’s brutality against protesters, ICE’s detention operations in northern New Jersey, the influx of immigrants coming to New York City, and pro-Palestine protest here in the city and the repression it faces. People who read the Indy may not realize how much of a grassroots effort it is. A small team works diligently to make each issue possible. They run around the city cleaning newspaper boxes, going to the printing press, handing out the paper at protests. They work with countless organizers, intellectuals and community members in order to produce the news they feel is vital to understanding current events in New York City.

And the Indy is the city’s only truly progressive newspaper you can find on the streets, in the library and online — all for free. I think that’s one of the most enlightening things about the Indy. It’s free.

Read other testimonies below!

• I Started Covering My Neighborhood
• How the Paper Got Started
• Covering 9/11
• A Young Reporter Finds His Calling
• Discovering AOC
• I Started Covering My Neighborhood
• The Indy is New York