Civil Liberties

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Life changing photos

Friday 17th April, 2009 in Civil Liberties, Media, Politics, Protests by andieberry | No comments

I recently saw this photo- it’s from a friend of a friend of a friend, from a face book account. This photo made me mad, made me think, made me analyse what else the photo does represent to me. Ok, its not a picture of the moon landing, the first image of earth from the moon or the mushroom cloud of Hiroshima, but I feel it’s just as important.

At first we can clearly see that it is taken at a protest . You, dear reader, may have even been there. You may even be one of the individuals in the photo. Even if you are not, in another time and place, it could be you. Your fellow protesters all around you clashing and being penned in by the police, you look forward and a police officer grabs you by the throat in order to restrain you! What have you done ? Exercised your civil and human right to protest? Or, have you identified yourself as a threat to national security, because you have chosen to exercise that precise right?

The image  speaks volumes to me about civil liberties, feminism and class struggle. It conveys to me that there are individuals that will come together in order to stand up for a cause. It also tells me that no matter how big the group is, how just the cause is, the authorities (or oppressors) will always be there to grab the idealists by the neck in order to suppress them. That said it doesn’t make me want to give up protesting , blogging , and airing my views. It makes me feel mad that protests have to be approved by the authorities, and that the same authorities, then use illegal and unjustifiable actions in the form of “kettling” and violence in order to restrain the very protest they approved.

According to Noam Chomsky, “power is illegitimate unless proof of legitimacy can be found”. In the case of the photo, the police are an institution of the state. That fact gives this institution the right to  police citizens of the state legitimately, but how far should the police be able to go in enforcing the laws of the land?  When did violence and the containment of citizens exercising their legitimate rights,   become acceptable actions the state could take against its own citizens? Pictures like this make clear that the authorities should always be questioned and observed, just as much as the authorities question and observe us.

This is my life changing photo , whats yours?

MWR Video

Tuesday 10th March, 2009 in Blog News, Civil Liberties, Education, Million Women Rise, Politics, feminism, gender by Suzi | No comments

So, in a repetition of last year I have injured my knee and am on bed rest for at least the next week. Luckily this year, I did it the day AFTER Million Women Rise, and so now there are various photos of me on  the Internet carrying the London 3rd Wave Banner.

More embarrassingly there is video footage of me attempting to lead some chanting and talking to the very fabulous and talented Laura of shemakeswar about why marches matter.The video is one Laura made of the whole march and why it’s so important to marc h and maintain a visible presence,  and also features Finn Mackay of London Feminist Network and Jess McCabe of  The F Word

So here is the video.  And very good it is too! More reports of MWR, along with the FemAcadem photos will follow.

Million Women Rise 2009 by warriorgrrrl

Global Gag rule gone!

Friday 23rd January, 2009 in Civil Liberties, News, Politics, Uncategorized, feminism by Suzi | 2 comments

If I wasn’t already cheering loudly for our cousins across the pond after Obama pledged to close Guantanamo Bay within a year, and immediately banned ‘trials’ there, I’m now positively HOWLING for joy.

Obama has lifted the Global Gag rule, that prevents organisations providing services in foreign countries from receiving US aid if they so much as mention abortion. And he yesterday said that:

“On the 36th anniversary of Roe v Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters,”

‘Nuff said really. Can we have an Obama now please??

Round up

Monday 19th January, 2009 in Civil Liberties, News, Politics, feminism, gender by Suzi | No comments

It’s not often I’ll ever do a round-up post. However, I’m incapacitated with pain from an (actually) pustulent ear infection right now, and despite the fact that I’ve broken out the uber painkillers of doom, there is still green shit pouring out of my ear and I’m still on the verge of screaming in pain. Therefore, instead of writing the thoughtful and provocative piece I had planned on Feminist Marriage, I’m going to be lazy and just highlight a few things which caught my eye and made me thoughtful today.

The first is obvious- in less than 24 hours the world is rid of the sheer hell and devilry of George Dubya Bush and Barack Obama becomes the 44th President of the United States of America. Lauren at Feministe reminds us of why this is just the best damn thing!

This British Feminist would like to wish Mr Obama all the luck in the world. May he live up to his hype and not suddenly become an outrageous sexist the minute his ass hits the chair in the Oval Office. And may we all, be aware of our responsibility to progress and change, and not just leave it up to the guy who gets to have the title. That’s not social change at work people, that’s scapegoating.

Next on the “List of things that made me go Hmmmm” is this report from Cara at Feministe about an anti-choice nurse ‘accidentally’ removing women’s IUD’s and then refusing to give them new ones.  I’m sickened by this story. Sadly, I’m not surprised and I wish I was

I’m very pleased to wish Jessica at Feministing, many congratulations on her engagement, and the sincere best wishes of the FemAcadem team. Whatever your personal feelings about marriage, it is a joyous event in peoples lives.

I’d like to finish the round up by saying a resounding ‘Hells Yeah!’  to the fab Catherine Redfearn of The F Word, who has blogged about the lack of recognition Feminism as a movement receives, despite the large amounts of feminist activism that’s going on.

Right, if you’ll all excuse me I’m going back to lying on the sofa in fast amounts of pain, with half my face out of use!!

Laptops for disadvantaged children in the U.K

Saturday 17th January, 2009 in Civil Liberties, Education, News, Parenting, Politics, Technology by andieberry | No comments

Following on from the reports that the government intend to provide economically and socially deprived children a laptop and broadband my questions are these:-

Given the credit crunch and the pull back from implementing green technologies, will this policy also be put on the back-burner? I can’t find anything on the net to suggest that pilot schemes are going ahead.

Is this a ruse to free up teaching time? i.e “difficult” students could sent home from school and told to resume their studies on-line, therefore making them more socially isolated and marginally more susceptible to being groomed,it could also raise depression levels in socially excluded young people and increase the likelihood of them committing electronic crimes.

I do think this is a great scheme-  I’m certainly more liberated since going on-line at home. As a single mother it has enabled me to cyber socialize and self educate. Is this a case of “great idea, it’ll be a possible voter morale booster”? I really hope not, because children who live below the poverty line need the social capital enabling tool of the Internet.

We’re paying the watchdogs to moniter us

Tuesday 13th January, 2009 in Civil Liberties, News, Politics, Technology by andieberry | 1 comment

So, according to the BBC our Internet service providers are being asked to retain and store our electronic traffic and, if needs be, inform the police if they find anything suspicious.The police then only need to get a warrant in order to look through your e-mails and text messages in order to gain evidence of any wrong doing.
Given that we live in the post 9/11 era we are ,apparently, all potential terrorists,I say this because every time the government trial these security ideas its because of the need to protect national security.

Let me ask you this- in the 1970’s & 80’s,were we all subjected to surveillance because of the terrorist threat posed by the I.R.A? Were all phones and paper mail bugged and tapped into? No. Why?  Well there wasn`t the technology then and a lot of people didn’t have telephones. So did terrorists communicate via carrier pigeon? No they met up ,the police then did police work (using human intelligence not using a programme to sift out the words bomb ,kill,maim etc). Human intelligence ,if I’m not mistaken, is what differentiates us from the rest of the animal kingdom and A.I.
Human intelligence and intuition is what guides us through life ,enabling us to make decisions (to what ever ends) and the police use it to catch criminals and to protect citizens.
Why does the government put more faith in monitoring systems than it does the actual human intelligence and the intuition skills of police officers? Could it be because its a cost cutting measure? Tell me,can monitoring someones electronic messages stop a knifing ,mugging,rape,domestic violence murder? Surely these crimes are more of a threat to national security than  the sensationalist statements of religious radicals.
We can`t rely on C.C.T.V . If you remember in the Mendez case the police used the C.C.T.V to back up their version of events, but in the end it was the human witnesses that convinced the jury of the truth. Yes the visual evidence of events were there, but it was manipulated so the police team could get a way with murdering an
innocent man and only with the honest testimony of human witnesses did the truth out.

There’s also the great moral panic about the electronic criminal,the electronic criminal who rips your credit card details of the net,the electronic criminal who clones your phone.
Listen carefully I shall only say this once…Hackers are not electronic criminals.
Why be afraid of the beast which is the electronic criminal, find the best firewall you can (you can download them free at Linux) ,change your passwords every couple of weeks, don`t use your birthday or name on your passwords and limit the amount of time you have blue-tooth switched on. If you knew someone had your debit card pin would you not change it? Would you walk down the street with your purse/wallet hanging out of your pocket so a pick pocket could easily lift it? Course not if you take the same precautions on-line as you do off-line then there’s a good chance you won`t be a victim of electronic crime.

So now here’s the bottom line: what a lot of people say is  “I don`t mind, I’ve got nothing to hide”. Well you know what, I’ve got nothing to hide either , I’m not a criminal , I’m just a citizen going about my business, but I do mind that I’m being monitored by my services providers,  whom I PAY for services, and likewise the Police (through taxes) .We are a nation that is paying for its own errosion of Liberty namely the right to privacy.

He who gives up liberty for security ends up with neither.
- Benjamin Franklin