Freedom not fear: 11 October demo
Posted on Sep 20th by William in Creative outlets, Customer service, Faith & practice, IdealGov stuff, What needs doing?
It looks like 11 Oct will see the first public demonstrations in the UK about mass surveillance and data retention.
Well, I’m there. I’m not a big direct-action type but I feel we have to do everything we can to get this issue taken seriously and reverse the assumptions behind the information-age state we’re creating.
This is a Europe-wide day of protest (started, inevitably, by Germans). Their demands, which which I pretty much broadly support) are set out below. Because it’s in the designated zone it will have to be licensed (”please Mr Policeman can I come and make a public show of opposing what you’re doing?”).
I’ve no interest in being part of a drunken rabble shot through with violent Italian anarchists in balaclavas. Let’s make sure it’s thoughtful, law-abiding, and determined. Wouldn’t it be great it it were witty, and effective? A work of art in fact.
The protest is for:
* freedom
* democracy
* free speech
* the right to private spaces
* the right to private communication
* a just society
* a free society
against:
* mass-surveillance
* mass data storage
* mass data retention
* video-surveillance
* erosion of the privacy of communication between
* lawyers and clients
* doctors and patients
* prayers and confessors
* journalists and sources
* erosion of the fence between secret services and police
* fortress europe
* a system of mistrust
