Post by Mitch on Dec 19, 2005 15:17:33 GMT
ID cards update: Here are some developments over the last month or so:
• ID card trials are being organised in the UK. We hear that Steve Green, Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire is planning to have Nottingham as a trial area for the ID cards, prior to the nationwide introduction of the scheme. And the bill hasn’t even got through yet - does that tell us something about whether writing to your MP would work?
• Driving licences are a problem. The UK’s vehicle licensing authority DVLA is working towards adding more and more information. If you apply for a licence you already have to have your photo on it and, along with the Passport Office, they have been conducting iris scan trials.
• Bristol City Council has joined eight other councils who have already voted to refuse to implement ID cards. This might sound good, but local council “don’t implement” pledges during the anti-Poll Tax campaign didn’t amount to much – so let’s not forget it was the people wot stopped it!
• In Paris, leading up to the riots across France, ID checks were implicated in the deaths of teenagers who were electrocuted hiding from police in a power substation. Interior ministry forces continually harass suburban residents with ID checks.
• Dutch ID card refusers have been fined and taken to court. A new law came into effect in January 2005, making it compulsory in the Netherlands for everybody over14 to carry ID. Getting stopped without one means at least a fifty Euro fine, which has happened to tens of thousands of people already, and a first batch of 250 people was taken to court in September.
The lessons here are firstly that to build an effective fighting movement against ID, lobbying parliament is pointless – instead we need to strengthen and set up more local activist groups and organise public meetings. Secondly, the move to biometric ID and databases is already happening through passports and driving licences. Thirdly, it is clear that the ID cards problem is much wider than Labour’s own Bill, and international solidarity will be needed. The Dutch experience is set to be repeated across Europe, and the world, if we don’t put a stop to it by popular revolt and our sharing of experiences.
(Resistance Anarchist Bulletin/Issue 80/Dec 2005)
(Read the AF’s new pamphlet, Defending Anonymity, on the web from http://www.afed.org.uk)
Also, well worth a look - this article 'Defending Anonymity' (only 10 pages).
I may have mentioned it before? It's the best overview I've read - with some crackin' ideas in it.
I'll be forwarding copies of this to all in Burnley/Pendle Defy ID over XtraXtramas.
Best Mitch
• ID card trials are being organised in the UK. We hear that Steve Green, Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire is planning to have Nottingham as a trial area for the ID cards, prior to the nationwide introduction of the scheme. And the bill hasn’t even got through yet - does that tell us something about whether writing to your MP would work?
• Driving licences are a problem. The UK’s vehicle licensing authority DVLA is working towards adding more and more information. If you apply for a licence you already have to have your photo on it and, along with the Passport Office, they have been conducting iris scan trials.
• Bristol City Council has joined eight other councils who have already voted to refuse to implement ID cards. This might sound good, but local council “don’t implement” pledges during the anti-Poll Tax campaign didn’t amount to much – so let’s not forget it was the people wot stopped it!
• In Paris, leading up to the riots across France, ID checks were implicated in the deaths of teenagers who were electrocuted hiding from police in a power substation. Interior ministry forces continually harass suburban residents with ID checks.
• Dutch ID card refusers have been fined and taken to court. A new law came into effect in January 2005, making it compulsory in the Netherlands for everybody over14 to carry ID. Getting stopped without one means at least a fifty Euro fine, which has happened to tens of thousands of people already, and a first batch of 250 people was taken to court in September.
The lessons here are firstly that to build an effective fighting movement against ID, lobbying parliament is pointless – instead we need to strengthen and set up more local activist groups and organise public meetings. Secondly, the move to biometric ID and databases is already happening through passports and driving licences. Thirdly, it is clear that the ID cards problem is much wider than Labour’s own Bill, and international solidarity will be needed. The Dutch experience is set to be repeated across Europe, and the world, if we don’t put a stop to it by popular revolt and our sharing of experiences.
(Resistance Anarchist Bulletin/Issue 80/Dec 2005)
(Read the AF’s new pamphlet, Defending Anonymity, on the web from http://www.afed.org.uk)
Also, well worth a look - this article 'Defending Anonymity' (only 10 pages).
I may have mentioned it before? It's the best overview I've read - with some crackin' ideas in it.
I'll be forwarding copies of this to all in Burnley/Pendle Defy ID over XtraXtramas.
Best Mitch
