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May
2005 proposal revised Oct 2005 FOR
A NETWORK AGAINST THE POLICIES OF SECURITY and AGAINST REPRESSION
During
the preparatory meeting of the ESF held in Athens in February 2005, a
gathering took place with the participation of members from Greece,
Turkey, Germany and Palestine. The Greek participants proposed to establish a Network in the framework of the Forum, aiming to bring
out and face problems and facts resulting from the policies of security
and repression, which are created and applied in contemporary
Europe. And not only in Europe… since these policies and repressive
measures are promoted in close co-operation with the USA who, especially
after Sept 11, 2001, are leading a worldwide and hegemonic aggression
against all forms of social or political challenge and resistance. This
initiative arose during the discussion in the Forum's preparatory meeting as
it was ascertained that it would not be sufficient to discuss the great
social and political issues and to take a stand about them, but that at
the same time we have to understand and confront the (worldwide and
European) political framework, which is becoming more and more
authoritarian, and in which the social and political movements will be
forced to defend or even to forward their positions. During
this meeting there was a first exchange of opinions and it was agreed
that, to begin with, we will get in contact with organizations and
interested people in order to explore the political terms and practical
possibilities to create such a Network.
Such contacts would be based on the ESF Web in the internet, beginning
with the promotion of a first paper of contact and discussion about
issues, which are related to -
security policies -
systems of surveillance, control and suppression -
anti-terrorist legislation -
the agreements on juridical and police co-operation -
the agreements on extradition and the European warrant of arrest -
special prisons and the special treatment of political prisoners -
the Islamophobia -
the surveillance, control and repression of the migrant populations -
the Black Lists -
the imminent legitimation of "police" operations against
third countries and of preventive intervention. The
necessity to create such a network arises from our common concern that we
live in a period of intensification of political despotism, manifest
with the repressive violence against the great agitations against
neo-liberal globalization at the end of the 90s, beginning with Seattle
and then in Prague, Nice, Quebec, Gothenburg and especially in Genoa in
July 2001. The main attribute of this new wave of political despotism,
which evolved after the fall of the regimes of the East European states
and the incontestable imposition of the USA's political-military
hegemony on the planet, is its hardening in direct proportion with the
growth and radicalization of the movement in the same period. After
Sept 11 and combining with the rising tensions in the Islamic world (new
Intifada in occupied Palestine, invasion of Afghanistan, invasion and
occupation of Iraq) the political despotism reached a peak and, in an
artificially created climate of terror hysteria and Islam phobia, led to
an overt aggression against democratic achievements of decades, pulling
down or abolishing the institutional framework that had been achieved in
long struggles. That
is, we can all see that during the last decade: ·
The
new security policies
are
imposed in absentia of the citizens by centres of supranational
and supra-institutional procedures (councils of experts, intergovernmental
consultations, extra-institutional pressures etc.), threatening the
vested rights of the European peoples on the political, social and legal
level, abolishing rights and spaces of freedom, threatening the operation
of collective spaces, invading privacy and despotically controlling public
space. ·
The
new security policies impose the extensive
police control of the citizens with special monitoring and control
systems, which demand their legalization in the citizens' consciousness.
Cameras, small cameras, closed circuits, biometric data, DNA, microchips,
electronic `tag’ bracelets, electronic monitoring and control
etc. are getting added to the increasing
presence of police forces with ever-bigger authority and special
equipment, whose use and abuse claims to be above
the law ·
The
anti-terrorist laws overrule normal legal procedures, introducing
new methods of interrogation and dubious legal justifications for
them, imposing increased
maximum penalties,
adulteration
of basic legal principles (such as punishment proportionate to the crime,
the presumption of innocence, the statute of limitation etc.), abolishing
procedural guarantees and fundamental rights (physical freedom and
others). These anti-terrorist measures impose special courts, special
punishments, special prisons and special methods of treatment of
political prisoners, i.e. prisoners for actions resulting from their
political choices and convictions. ·
The
`war on terror’
represents an ideological attack against the political
opponents of the new world order, attempts to criminalize their
actions, is based on disinformation and on neo-liberal propaganda. It
supports the geopolitical planning of the American hegemony and diffuses
fear and submission in the affected societies. ·
The
European framework decision against terrorism and for extradition (the European Warrant of Arrest) abolishes national jurisdiction,
national protection, and fundamental guarantees as well as the fundamental
rule that a government cannot extradite its citizens to another country. ·
The
new complex of international conventions and agreements on judicial and
police cooperation leads to the connection and the interlacing of the
repressive functions in the name of the struggle against terrorism and for
security, while at the same time it legally covers the creation in
Europe of the biggest archive of personal data (Schengen Information
System - SIS) and of the most extended system of inter-border control
(border crossings, international meetings, demonstrations etc.). Given the
hegemonic role of the USA in the ideological and political administration
of the anti-terrorist campaign, as well as the violent and illegal methods
they apply (wars, concentration camps such as Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and
so on), the agreements about judicial cooperation and extradition between
the USA and Europe have a special significance, but they have not even
been submitted to the judgement of the European citizens. ·
The
elevation of Islam to the No. 1 enemy
of the western system, the incrimination of the whole Islamic world under
terms of collective responsibility, has cultivated a climate of
Islamophobia whose main victims are the migrants and refugees from Muslim
countries. In this way racism, Euro-nationalism and militarism are
promoted, while the borders are being militarized. The current attacks
on the right to political asylum legalize the treatment of the refugees
from poverty and war in ways
which violate our sensibility and our historic memory (concentration
camps, waiting zones outside EU borders, rejection of applicants despite
their being faced with mortal danger, detention without time limits etc.). ·
The
Black Lists, with their logic of collective guilt and
criminalization, eliminate and condemn not only those directly hit, but
also the resistance movements all over the world. In
this new environment political rights and freedoms are threatened. Also
threatened with criminalization are political action and political
expression, while the capacity for solidarity is undermined. The
policies of security and repression and their internationalization are a
product of neo-liberal globalization, threatening political and social
rights and destroying the legal achievements of the postwar civil
democracy. They are part of
a political plan that does not aim to control the few undisciplined and
disobedient but to impose discipline and submission upon the many, to
control mass movements and collective resistance. We
believe that common action in
order to organize resistance against these policies is essential today for
the defence of freedom and political action, for the fortification of our
collective spaces and for the organization of solidarity between us. Contact:
Achim Rollhaeuser , email ro-achim@otenet.gr;
or CAMPACC; estella24@tiscali.co.uk. Circulated
to European Network on Peace and Rights conference 20.10.05 by Anne Gray,
CAMPACC, London; see also www.campacc.org.uk. Please
also see the CAMPACC web site for details of anti-terrorism measures in
the UK and advice on how British readers can lobby MPs on the new bill
currently going through Parliament, which seriously threatens freedom of
speech and the right of habeas corpus. |