Hello my fellow rabble-rousers,
Like you, I have been keeping an eye on the NSA surveillance revelations and have watched how the mainstream media has shifted almost the entirety of the public discourse into a watch-and-wait game with Edward Snowden at its centre. What Snowden revealed seems to be getting lost in the shuffle…
The NSA is actively monitoring the Internet and our phones. They are collecting vast amounts of data by co-opting the basic tools that we use to communicate. They receive real-time notifications when their specific targets receive or send an email or use a chat function and the rest of our information is captured and stored in massive hard drives for possible future use. It is really no surprise at all that sales of Orwell’s 1984 have gone through the roof.
I am personally completely creeped out by these revelations. Now I will admit that I might be a bit of an outlier, I have always had an uneasy relationship with the surveillance state. As a child, I spent a lot of time and energy hiding my diary and as an adult, I got myself a riseup account. The knowledge that we are being watched cannot help but alter the ways that we interact with each other and the ways that we organize. Chilling effect indeed…
This week I have for you a number of Lynn Williams Activist Toolkit pieces that address the Snowden revelations and the surveillance apparatus.
First off, we have a quick introduction to the Stasi. When evidence was released that the NSA had been conducting active surveillance of European targets and bugging E.U. offices and embassies, the Germans in particular freaked out. Comparisons to the Stasi began to appear in newspapers and at public demonstrations. The German people’s very recent cautionary tale highlights some of the dangers of a surveillance culture.
After you have gotten sufficiently freaked out you might head over to the How To section to get a better sense of how you can protect your privacy in the age of NSA surveillance. Instructions for measures you can take to improve your computer and Internet security might not shield you from the surveillance state entirely but at least it is a step in the right direction!
In the 3-min actions section we have two quick petitions you can sign. The first is in support of Edward Snowden, who is currently living in the Moscow international airport and has had his passport revoked for the great crime of letting us know what the NSA has been up to. And the second is directed at the Greek government who has shut down their public broadcaster and has taken to intimidating journalists. Both petitions are targeting governments and both focus in on serious threats to our societies. The rights to privacy and independent journalism are about as fundamental as you can get when you are talking about an open and truly democratic society.
On another note, we have been soliciting tips on how to stay cool in the heat this summer. As I write this I am sitting at the kitchen table in my apartment with a fan pointed directly at me and I am wearing a bandana full of ice cubes on the back of my neck. It looks silly but it seems to be working! In the 3-minute actions section I have posted the first of a series of little actions that you can take to keep yourself cool this summer.
And of course, we are keeping up with our weekly additions to the Sovereignty Summer project by looking into the ways in which gender discrimination and the Indian Act are intertwined.
Next week we will be examining the ways in which Indigenous women have fought back against some of the most egregious provisions of the Indian Act and forced the federal government to acknowledge and address their demands!
The Lynn Williams Activist Toolkit is always looking for new content. If you notice anything that you think should be added to the archives, be it a movement that we have yet to address, a historical moment that the community should be aware of, or a resource that would be helpful to your fellow community members, please add it to the Toolkit! It is easy to post new articles or to comment on existing ones. The Activist Toolkit can only get better if we all work together to pool our collective knowledge…
Á la prochaine mes amis!
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