Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 08:36:21 -0700
From: Michael Pugliese <debsian-AT-pacbell.net>
Subject: AUT: Fw: [marxist] EU's secret network to spy on anti-capitalist protesters



-----Original Message-----
From: Johannes Schneider <Johannes.Schneider-AT-gmx.net>
To: lbo-talk-AT-lists.panix.com <lbo-talk-AT-lists.panix.com>;
marxist-AT-yahoogroups.com <marxist-AT-yahoogroups.com>;
rad-green-AT-lists.econ.utah.edu <rad-green-AT-lists.econ.utah.edu>;
anti-capitalism-AT-yahoogroups.com <anti-capitalism-AT-yahoogroups.com>
Date: Monday, August 20, 2001 8:23 AM
Subject: [marxist] EU's secret network to spy on anti-capitalist protesters


>From today's Independent at:
>http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=89632
>
>EU's secret network to spy on anti-capitalist protesters
>By Stephen Castle in Brussels
>20 August 2001
>European leaders have ordered police and intelligence agencies to
>co-ordinate their efforts to identify and track the anti-capitalist
>demonstrators whose violent protests at recent international summits
>culminated in the shooting dead by police of a young protester at the Genoa
>G8 meeting last month.
>The new measures clear the way for protesters travelling between European
>Union countries to be subjected to an unprecedented degree of surveillance.
>Confidential details of decisions taken by Europe's interior ministers at
>talks last month show that the authorities will use a web of police and
>judicial links to keep tabs on the activities and whereabouts of
protesters.
>Europol, the EU police intelligence-sharing agency based in The Hague that
>was set up to trap organised criminals and drug traffickers, is likely to
be
>given a key role.
>The plan has alarmed civil rights campaigners, who argue that personal
>information on people who have done no more than take part in a legal
>demonstration may be entered into a database and exchanged.
>Calls for a new Europe-wide police force to tackle the threat from hardline
>anti-capitalists were led after the Genoa summit by Germany's Interior
>Minister, Otto Schily. Germany has long pushed for the creation of a
>Europe-wide crime-fighting agency modelled on the FBI.
>Germany's EU partners rejected Mr Schily's call, judging that a new force
to
>combat political protest movements was too controversial, but ministers
>agreed to extend the measures that can be taken under existing powers.
>Central to the new push is the secretive Article 36 committee (formerly
>known as the K4 committee) and the Schengen Information System, both of
>which allow for extensive contact and data sharing between police forces.
>Under the new arrangements, European governments and police chiefs will:
>* Set up permanent contact points in every EU country to collect, analyse
>and exchange information on protesters;
>* Create a pool of liaison officers before each summit staffed by police
>from countries from which "risk groups" originate;
>* Use "police or intelligence officers" to identify "persons or groups
>likely to pose a threat to public order and security";
>* Set up a task force of police chiefs to organise "targeted training" on
>violent protests.
>The new measures will rely on two main ways of exchanging police
>information. The Schengen Information System, which provides basic
>information, and a supporting network called Sirene - Supplementary
>Information Request at the National Entry. This network (of which Britain
is
>a member) allows pictures, fingerprints and other information to be sent to
>police or immigration officials once a suspect enters their territory. Each
>country already has a Sirene office with established links to EU and Nordic
>law enforcement agencies.
>Civil liberties campaigners are dismayed by the plan. Tony Bunyan, editor
of
>Statewatch magazine, said: "This will give the green light to Special
Branch
>and MI5 to put under surveillance people whose activities are entirely
>democratic."
>Nicholas Busch, co-ordinator of the Fortress Europe network on civil
>liberties issues, added: "People who have done nothing against the law
ought
>to be able to feel sure they are not under surveillance ... By
criminalising
>whole political and social scenes you fuel confrontation and conflict."
>Thomas Mathieson, professor of sociology of law at the University of Oslo,
>said police could have access to "very private information" about people's
>religion, sex lives and politics. "It is a very dangerous situation from
the
>civil liberties point of view," he said.
>
>
>"[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood
and dirt."
>--Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31
>
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