I går blev den store, distribuerede Modern Liberty-konference afholdt i otte byer i Storbritannien. Konferencen havde til formål at appellere til alle briter om at forsvare deres borgerrettigheder i en tid, hvor de er ved at blive undergravet af overvågning, registrering og terrorlove.
The Observer skriver bl.a.:
More than 1,500 people, paying £35 a ticket, attended the Convention on Modern Liberty in Bloomsbury, central London, which was linked by video to parallel events in Glasgow, Birmingham, Belfast, Bristol, Manchester, Cardiff and Cambridge. They heard from more than 80 speakers, including author Philip Pullman; musicians Brian Eno and Feargal Sharkey; journalists Fatima Bhutto, Andrew Gilligan, Nick Cohen and Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger; politicians Lord Bingham and Dominic Grieve; a former director of public prosecutions, Ken Macdonald; and human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy.
In her speech Kennedy said she felt that fear was being used as a weapon to break down civil liberties. “There is a general feeling that in creating a climate of fear people have been writing a blank cheque to government. People feel the fear of terrorism is being used to take away a lot of rights.”
She said that voters were anxious that their communities were ‘being alienated’ by the use of powers designed to protect national security being applied outside their original remit, and that there was now an open window of opportunity for the electorate to make their feelings known to government before the next election: “People are fearful of the general business of collecting too much information about individuals.”
High on the concerns of the convention were the recent allegations against the British security services by Guantanamo Bay torture victim Binyam Mohamed, plans for ID cards, DNA collection databases and controversial surveillance powers being used by civil servants. In addition, concerns were high over Government plans to create a database of all the communciations and movements of ordinary people as well as the profileration of anti-terrorism laws including detention of suspects.
Vi har allerede citeret Philip Pullman, der holdt oplægget til konferencen i London, for at Storbritannien er inde i en helt forkert retning, hvad borgerrettigheder og overvågning og individets forhold til staten i det hele taget.
The Observers columnist Henry Porter kalder konferencen “the birth of a great moment for liberty” og at det er en “standard raised against Straw and those who would destroy rights and liberties that have taken 800 years to accumulate”. Men der er nu lang vej endnu, før Straw og Brown og New Labour og de konservative og det totalitære regime, de gerne ville forvandle Storbritannien til under påskud af “terrorlove”, er rullet tilbage. Det er godt at se “Modern Liberty” komme, men det er unægtelig også noget sent.
Men det rejser jo unægtelig spørgsmålet: Hvornår får vi sådan en bevægelse i Danmark? IT-Politisk Forening kan ikke gøre det alene.
Læs også:
Liberty Central – The Guardians store debatsektion om Modern Liberty som konference, bevægelse og koncept.