Events
DANGEROUS SURVEILLANCE: Drones, Data and Deprivation of CitizenshipTuesday 5 August 2014, 7-9.30pm. Venue: Council Chamber, Camden Town Hall, Judd St, London WC1H 9JE (near Kings Cross tube/rail station). Revelations over mass electronic surveillance by US-UK state agencies have provoked public outrage at this threat to democratic freedoms. State responses have further revealed its assumptions about the public as a potential source of various dangers. The global expansion of drone attack has been documented by Jeremy Scahill’s book and film, Dirty Wars. This public event will first screen the film, followed by speakers linking various forms of surveillance and their political roles. The discussion will consider how to oppose the state’s dangerous surveillance.For full details and information on how to book see: hereArticles & resources
CAMPACC has produced 5 new briefings, available to download (pdf format):
Somali communities targeted by UK 'counter-terror' measures: the need for solidarity
Baluchistan under state terror: The UK ban on the Baluchistan Liberation Army
Euskal Herria: The struggle for independence in the Basque Country and the impact of ‘terrorist’bans
The UK ban on the PKK: Persecuting the Kurds
The Tamils of Sri Lanka - oppressed at home and persecuted in the UK
CAMPACC statement: UK anti-terror regime: creating hatred of Muslims as a suspect community
NUJ Ethix Council Guidelines on reporting terrorism
Opposing the UK 'Terrorist' List: Persistence as Resistance CAMPACC paper, February 2009 (pdf file)
Read papers and reports from a series of seminars on "Terrorist lists", proscription, designation and human rights.
"Our tragedy and pain is part of the series of pains that is felt by people in cases like ours when laws are destroyed and flames ignited by politicians whose only desire is the achievement of their tyrannical subjugation and the spreading and domination of their lowly thoughts engulfs any notion of human rights."
Anti-terrorism laws: unjust powers
Do anti-terror laws make us safer? Whom do they protect?
- define terrorism more broadly, thus blurring any distinction between anti-government protest and organized violence against civilians;
- label numerous organisations as ‘terrorist', as a basis for placing entire communities under suspicion of associating with ‘terrorism';
- use ‘intelligence' obtained by torturing detainees abroad;
- and detain and prosecute people for suspected activities which could just as well be handled under other laws. Read more
What's new
Patrick Cockburn ventures deep into the Kandil mountains for a rare audience with the Kurdish guerrilla leader - and hears his defiant message to the Islamists... - The Independent
Internal MI5, MI6 and GCHQ documents reveal routine interception of legally privileged communications - The Guardian, 7 November 2014
While the situation is evolving from one hour to the next, it seems like the worst may well have been avoided – that is, a repetition of the Warsaw Rising, which was crushed by the Nazis in full view of the Red Army, which was waiting to take the chestnuts out of the fire by itself… The Americans did end up coordinating with the fighters on the ground and even Turkey seems to have been forced to half-open the border, allowing reinforcements to come in. Let’s hope that the city has indeed been saved, stopping the Islamist advance. In the little space that I have here and with the information that I have available to me, I would like to insist on two points.
Thousands of protesters from across the globe – including Turkey, France, Italy, Germany, the UK, and Australia – marched to show solidarity with Kurdish fighters battling ISIS in the strategic city of Kobani, located on Syria's border with Turkey.
Following is the translated (originally in Hindi) text of Hem Mishra’s letter, who is currently lodged in Nagpur Central Jail.
Ever since the Snowden revelations emerged, our politicians have been at pains to reassure us over mass surveillance. Our intelligence services work within a strict legal framework, they say. At no point have UK officials acted outside of the law. But today we reveal that GCHQ does not need a warrant to access unlimited bulk content – including on people in the UK – from the NSA and other foreign agencies.
You may already have heard that Netpol steering group member Newham Monitoring Project (NMP) is trying to crowdfund a project to monitor the implementation in east London of the government's new stop & search 'code of conduct'. There are many reasons why this campaign is urgent and necessary right now. In the year to August 2014, more than 91,000 people were stopped and 42,567 were searched in the six boroughs NMP works in. In five of the six individual boroughs, there were more searches than in the whole of the area covered by Essex Police during 2012-13.
Hundreds of individuals and organisations representing thousands of members from across the world have signed an urgent call for action appealing to people all over the world to show solidarity with Kobane, which is still under siege by ISIS and facing the possibility of a genocide.