[pp.int.general] Request for Participation - European Action Day "Freedom Not Fear 2008"

Thu Jul 17 16:34:04 CEST 2008

This is indeed very interesting and I'd talk to my fellow spanish pirates in
order to address the subject.

On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 2:52 PM, Ricardo Cristof Remmert-Fontes <
ricardo.cristof at remmert-fontes.de> wrote:

>
> Dear friends of freedom!
>
>
> On the 11th of October 2008, human and civil rights organizations from
> all over Europe are planning protests in every European capital.
>
> This Pan-European campaign hopes to raise awareness for the need for
> greater freedom and democracy in Europe, as well as a protest against
> the security and intelligence apparatus of the state contravening human
> rights by means of surveillance, data retention and biometric databases
> across Europe.
>
>
> We believe that the retention of citizen's electronic communication
> violates fundamental human rights, like the right to privacy. It
> violates confidential communication between priests and confessors,
> journalists and their sources, doctors and patients, lawyers and
> clients. It does not increase the success of criminal investigations,
> but instead can be used to reveal political, business, and private
> communication and endangers the work of political, direct aid and
> refugee support groups.
>
>
> We would kindly ask you to support this Europe-wide protest by
> disseminating the call for action to your own members or organization
> and other like-minded organizations. In a lot of European countries,
> organizational, logistic and financial support is very welcome!
>
>     * The goal is to form broad and sustainable movements in every
> EU-member state for freedom and democracy.*
>
> We would like to see hundreds of thousands of people everywhere to stand
> up for the vision of a just society.
>
>
> The European Call for Action will follow soon. Actually, we are working
> on it in an open process, so you are invited to participate.[3]
> You may find the draft Call for action below.
> Please note: it's a draft, feel free to edit and discuss. Deadline is
> 20. July and it should be released by all participating organizations
> with an individual press Release an 25. July.
>
>
> We would also be happy if you and your national member organizations are
> kindly would sign and support the Call for Action and the campaign itself.
>
>
> You will understand that the whole campaign will cost a lot of money;
> for Germany alone we expect costs of 50-100.000 Euro. Thus, the
> organizations in the member states are asked to look for funding
> themselves and in every country money is desperately needed.
>
> We have set up an organizational website, where every country is listed.
> In some states the contact data of a main organizer are missing, which
> simply means, that every organization is welcome to start organizing
> protest there.
>
> If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to
> contact me, you'll find my contact data below.
>
>
> Best regards / Viele Grüße,
> Ricardo Cristof Remmert-Fontes
> - AK Vorrat -
>
> Fon: +49-30-692099223
> Fax: +49-700-25808789
> Mobile: +49-170-2487266
>
>
> +++++ Background: +++++
>
> The protest is based on an idea of the "AK Vorrat" ("German Working
> group on data retention"; http://www.ak-vorrat.de/), a german human
> rights group, which is supported in Germany by over 49 national
> organizations like human and civil rights groups, associations of
> journalists, lawyers and doctors, the associations of confessional and
> emergency help lines.[1][2]
>
> [1] The AK Vorrat has filed the largest "class-action" constitutional
> case of all times in Germany (as a symbol) against the adoption of the
> european directive on data retention (DR 2006/24/EC):
> http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/202/79/ (de/en)
>
> [2] Joint statement on the draft bill on telecommunications data
> retention of 49 organisations (including FFII Germany):
> http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/80/100/
> (de/en<http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/80/100/%28de/en>
> )
>
> [3] Link to Draft European Call for Action:
> http://wiki.ak-vorrat.de/Freedom_Not_Fear_2008/Call_for_action
>
>
>
> +++++Draft Call for Action+++++
>
> *European Action Day "Freedom not fear - Stop the surveillance mania!"
> all over Europe on 11 October 2008*
>
>
> A broad movement of campaigners and organizations is calling on
> everybody to join action against excessive surveillance by businesses
> and governments. On 11 October 2008, concerned humans all over Europe
> will take to the streets, the motto being "Freedom not fear 2008".
> Peaceful and creative action, from protest marches to parties, will take
> place in many European capital cities.
>
> Surveillance mania is spreading. Governments and businesses register,
> monitor and control our behaviour ever more thoroughly. No matter what
> we do, who we phone and talk to, where we go, whom we are friends with,
> what our interests are, which groups we participate in - "big brother"
> government and "little brothers" in business know it more and more
> thoroughly. Increasingly, these databases are networked, searched, rated
> and otherwise utilized for discriminating people and affecting their
> lives without human any oversight.
>
> The resulting lack of privacy and confidentiality is putting at risk the
> freedom of confession, the freedom of speech as well as the work of
> doctors, helplines, lawyers and journalists.
>
> The manifold agenda of security sector reform encompasses the
> convergence of police, intelligence agencies and the military,
> threatening to melt down the division and balance of powers.
>
> Using methods of mass surveillance, the borderless cooperation of the
> military, intelligence services and police authorities is leading
> towards a "Fortress Europe", directed against refugees and
> different-looking people but also affecting, for example, political
> activists, the poor and under-priviledged, and sports fans.
>
> People who constantly feel watched and under surveillance cannot freely
> and courageously stand up for their rights and for a just society. Mass
> surveillance is thereby threatening the fabric of a democratic and
> inclusive society.
>
> Mass surveillance is also endangering the work and commitment of civil
> society organizations.
>
> Surveillance, distrust and fear are gradually transforming our society
> into one of uncritical consumers who have "nothing to hide" and - in a
> vain attempt to achieve total security - are prepared to give up their
> freedoms. We do not want to live in such a society!
>
> We believe the respect for our privacy to be an important part of our
> human dignity. And of course, free and responsible society needs private
> and trustworthy communication as well as private spaces.
>
> However, with the blanket collection of information on all European
> airline passengers and the disclosure of Europeans' personal data to the
> US, even more intrusive surveillance powers are on the insatiable
> political agenda. Yet, the increasing electronic registration and
> surveillance of the entire population does not make us any safer from
> crime, costs millions of Euros and puts the privacy of innocent citizens
> at risk. Under the reign of fear and blind actionism, targeted and
> sustained security measures fall by the wayside, as well as tackeling
> peoples' actual daily problems such as unemployment and poverty.
>
> In order to protest against security mania and excessive surveillance we
> will take to the streets in capital cities all over Europe on 11 October
> 2008. We call on everybody to join our peaceful protest. Politicians are
> to see that we are willing to take to the streets for the protection of
> our liberties.
>
> You can find the latest information on the protest marches and the list
> of participating cities at our website:
> http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Freedom_Not_Fear_2008.
>
>
> Our demands
>
> 1. Cutback on surveillance
>
>     * abolish the blanket logging of our communications and locations
> (data retention)
>     * abolish the blanket collection of our biometric data as well as
> RFID passports
>     * abolish the blanket collection of genetic data
>     * abolish permanent CCTV camera surveillance and automatic
> detection techniques
>     * scrap funding for the development of new surveillance techniques
>     * no blanket registration of all air travellers (PNR data)
>     * no information exchange with the US and other states lacking
> effective data protection
>     * no searches of private computer systems, neither online nor offline
>     * no surveillance and filtering of internet communication
>
>
> 2. Guaranteeing freedom of expression, dialogue and information
>
>     * Prohibit the installation of filtering infrastructure on ISP's
> networks.
>     * Ensure Internet users can access to the judge in matter of
> freedom of expression: Only an independent and impartial judge can
> request removal of content.
>     * Prohibit the internet contract termination as legal sanction.
>     * Ensure the strict neutrality of technical intermediaries: FAI,
> and hosting providers do not ahve to monitor, judge and censor the
> published content.
>     * Create a full right to quote multimedia, today indispensable to
> public debate in democracies.
>     * Protect common internet places of Expression (participatory
> sites,  forums, comments on blogs) today threatened by inadequate laws
> encouraging self-censorship (chilling effect)
>
>
> 3. Evaluation of existing surveillance powers
>
> We call for an independent review of all existing surveillance powers as
> to their effectiveness and harmful side-effects.
>
>
> 4. Moratorium for new surveillance powers
>
> After the homeland armament of the past few years we demand an immediate
> hold to new homeland security laws that further restrict civil liberties.
>
>
>
> --
> Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung
> c/o Humanistische Union e.V.
> Haus der Demokratie und Menschenrechte
> Greifswalder Strasse 4
> D-10405 Berlin
>
> Fon: +49-30-94881297
> Fax: +49-700-25808789
> Mobile: +49-170-2487266
> Jabber: rcrf at jabber.org
> E-Mail: rcrf at vorratsdatenspeicherung.de
> Web: http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de
>
> My GnuPG-Key:
> http://cristof.remmert-fontes.de/downloads/pgpkey_rcrf.zip
> Key-ID: 25038B2F
> Fingerprint: 5EA8 EF99 1B99 04DF 70C8 5F6E 85BC CA54 2503 8B2F
>
>
> Best regards/Viele Grüße,
> Ricardo Cristof Remmert-Fontes
>
> --
> Strassmannstrasse 10
> D-10249 Berlin
>
> Fon: +49-30-94881297
> Fax: +49-700-25808789
> Mobile: +49-170-2487266
>
> Skype: ricardo.cristof
> VoIP/SIP (Sipgate): 2227012
> Jabber (Instant Messaging): rcrf at jabber.org
>
> E-Mail: rcrf at vorratsdatenspeicherung.de
> Web: http://cristof.remmert-fontes.de
>
> My GnuPG-Key:
> http://cristof.remmert-fontes.de/downloads/pgpkey_rcrf.zip
> ____________________________________________________
> Pirate Parties International - General Talk
> pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
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>
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