Two pieces of information I recently read, to me highlight the dreadful state of our world today. The first is the human savagery that results in the fact that every ten minutes a Yemeni child under 5 years of age dies of hunger. The other is the state to which we have driven the planet, the recent Australian fires have more or less wiped out the Koalas, having destroyed 80% of their habitat.
There is much more, millions of people across the globe are on the streets fighting to end inequality, injustice, corruption and state brutality. We have devised a system that perpetuates wide spread poverty, injustice and corruption. A system that spawns wars and all the misery, death and destruction that goes with those wars. A system that has driven life on our planet to the edge of extinction. None of this was an unforeseen accident, nor was it inevitable, it was driven by blind greed and deliberate exploitation. If we continue down this road, sadly those driving this human tragedy will not be the only ones to suffer as the inevitable collapse unfolds.
It may already be too late, even so, humanity that desires that decent world for all, must continue and re-double every effort, and find new imaginative ways to destroy this economic disastrous system and halt this man made disaster. We just can't throw our hands in the air, continue as we are, and watch our grandchildren's future disappear in a brutal man made extinction.
The following quote is one answer to our problem:
"You
want sanity, democracy, community, an intact Earth? We can't get there
obeying Constitutional theory and law crafted by slave masters,
imperialists, corporate masters, and Nature destroyers. We can't get
there kneeling before robed lawyers stockpiling class plunder precedent
up their venerable sleeves. So isn't disobedience the challenge of our
age? Principled, inventive, escalating disobedience to liberate our
souls, to transfigure our work as humans on this Earth." Richard Grossman
An event to mark in you diary, Thursday, 5th., December. One of Glasgow's literary sons and life time activist James Kelman has a new book being launched on that date. Obviously an event not to be missed.
Details:
thi wurd presents the launch of James Kelman’s new book ‘The Freedom to Think Kurdistan’ at The Admiral Bar, Glasgow, Thur, 5th December 7-10pm. With James Kelman. Music from Eugene Kelly,The Dirt Roadsters. Fiction from thi wurd. £5 on the door.
There are lots of people in this country and else where who are unaware of the fierce state brutality against the people of Chile who are protesting in there hundreds of thousands against the poverty, deprivation and outright barefaced corruption of the Chilean state. The reason being, our mainstream media don't bother to report it in any detail. Their silence makes them complicit. Those of us who do know about this brutal state repression cannot stay silent or we also are complicit in this brutality against a cry for justice.
To raise awareness of the struggle of the people of Chile, a piece of Chile came to London, I'm sure they would be welcome in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and any other city in this country. The people of Chile's Struggle is our struggle, the poverty, deprivation and corruption that blights their life is alive and thriving here in our patch of the planet, it is all a matter of degree.
Chileans and friends stage a flashmob performance of the folk protest
song 'El Pueblo Unido jamás será Vencido' (The People United will never
be Defeated) at St Pancras Station in London, Monday 4 November 2019.
The song, which originates in leftwing political movements of the 1960s
and 1970s and was made famous by the Chilean folk bands Inti-illimani
and Quilapuyún, has become an anthem for the current protests against
inequality and state brutality that have engulfed Chile in recent weeks.
Several singers wore white gauzes over their eyes to symbolise state
violence against protestors, many of whom have lost eyes to police
aggression. At least 20 people have died in the protests.
This month Spirit of Revolt's choice for "Read of the Month" is a pamphlet taken from ourKM Collection. It is one of a group of 11 Direct Action pamphlets produced by Syndicalist Workers Federation. It is called Syndicalists in the Russian Revolution, by G. P. Maximoff, written around the 1950's. We are sure it will be of interest to all syndicalists/libertarian-socialists/anarchists, and those associated with that grouping and many more outside that grouping. We hope this little taster will encourage you to delve deeper into the wonderful collections held in our archive. Enjoy and learn.
Not much in the news just now about the Turkish invasion into Syria aided and abetted by their jihadi friends, and given the nod by America. No mention of the destruction of an area democratically organised by the people, the area of Rojava. A small area being brutally and savagely destroyed by NATO's second largest army. No pictures of the suffering of those people at the mercy of a messianic dictator armed to the teeth with the latest and most powerful weapons. Silence in the presence of brutality is complicity. Since 2011 the people of Syria have seen their country obliterated, hundreds of thousands killed or maimed, and millions of the people displaced, and now Turkey wants to carve a slice of the country off for as its own, and still the silence. A people brought to deprivation, desperation and their infrastructure destroyed, all as part of the power game between the various power-blocks vying for control of the resources in that area. Let's stop electing leaders and playing their games to their rules, and make that decision, that for the peace of the world and the benefit all the people of this world, the entire system has to be destroyed, root and branch.
I think it is important now that our voices of Rojava, out of the
heart of that battle, are being heard. A fight for the life, for an
existence in dignity, for real democracy and for the freedom of all
women. I want to tell how the resistance of Serekaniye went on, how the
beginning was, how the end was and also what happened in between.
Serekaniye right now is in the hands of jihadist groups that are being
supported by Turkey, upon approval by the United States. At a time they
said there would be a five-day firearm rest…. we didn’t believe it for
one second. And that’s how it was – the attacks didn’t stop, maybe
they’ve been reduced, but they continued attacking us with heavy
artillery, bombings and airplanes. When there are bombings, there is not
much that can be done; hide behind a tree and hope, that they didn’t
see you running or that they found your place.
Those five days of supposed firearm rest actually have been decisive
for the United States and Turkey, to redefine the conflict, to realign
the situation of war, confrontation and resistance against our forced
withdrawal that no one expected. No one could believe it, after 11 days
of resistance, beautiful and very hard at the same time. Leaving the
city. The Turkish invasion of Serekaniye did start some days before, 8th
of October, with a bombing of our military post that hasn’t been
answered, for not to unleash what happened later anyway. It was an
attempt of the friends to protect the people and the society. But the
next day, about 3 to 4 pm, another bombing of a post of the YPG took
place, where 5 friends have fallen, and since then they bombed the whole
border.
The first days have been very chaotic. We tried to keep calm and to
prepare for the invasion. Yes, the last months of the preparation made
sense, it became reality. To realise despite all fear, what war actually
means, the bravery to assure oneself of a made decision, and at the
same time, there are the doubts, that everything will be silenced, that
no one in this world will hear about that barbarism. When war arrives,
it is a distant war, with a lot of unexpected bombings, that you’ll only
hear at the very last moment. When the bombs fall, they fall, when it
happens, it happens. After days you learn to acknowledge them, and at
the same time when the wounded friends start to arrive, along with the
feelings they awake in us; sadness at one hand, because the war
machinery is monstrous, and at the other hand the strength to also fight
for them. All the defending units, those that already have been here
and those that arrived when the Turkish aggression intensified, kept the
city safe despite movements of the jihadist groups and enabled the
transfer of the wounded to the city Til Temir. Until Turkey cut that
road and it wasn’t possible anymore to bring them there.
Some mornings I turn me face away from the world I live in, and try to see another world. This is a morning I turned my face to poetry, and pocked my nose into some of the poems of El Salvadorian poet Roque Dalton born 1935, murdered 1975.
IX Love Poem
The ones who widened the Panama Canal
(and were put on the silver roll and not on the gold roll),
the ones who repaired the Pacific fleet
at the military bases in California,
the ones who rotted in jail in Guatemala,
Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua
for being thieves, smugglers, scammers,
for being hungry,
the ever-suspicious ones
(‘I bring forth this individual
arrested for being a suspicious bystander
with the aggravation of being Salvadorian’),
the ones who filled the bars and brothels
of all the ports and capitals in the region
(The blue cave, The panty, Happyland),
the ones who grew corn in foreign jungles,
the kings of the crime section,
the ones who no-one ever knows where they’re from,
the best craftsmen in the world,
the ones who were mowed down with bullets while crossing
the border,
the ones who died from malaria
or scorpion or snake bites
in banana plantation hell,
the ones who cried drunk for the national anthem
under cyclones in the Pacific or snow in the north,
the freeloaders, the beggars, the potheads,
Salvadorian sons of bitches,
the ones who barely made it back,
the ones who were a bit luckier,
the eternal illegals,
make-all, sell-all, eat-all,
the first to pull out a knife,
the saddest sad people in the world,
my countrymen,
my brothers. This from Cordite Poetry Review:
As far as tragic poets’ stories go, Roque Dalton’s (El Salvador, 1935-1975) is perhaps the most tragic in Central America. In the 1950s as a Law student, he was the brightest of a literary movement which is now referred to as the Committed Generation, a group of militant leftist writers who saw art as a revolutionary act. ‘Commitment’ meant joining the cause of a communist revolution. Since any kind of dissent had been outlawed by military dictatorships in El Salvador since the 1930s, signing up to such an endeavour led to prison, exile or death. Dalton embodied the movement’s spirit of radical, experimental and bohemian writing – he is equally known for weaving uncompromising leftist politics into avant-garde free verse as he is for a life of drink and escapades in various soviet-aligned countries. He called some of his collections ‘literary collages’, by which he meant a combination of found poems (historical documents, news, old poems, etc) and his own poetry around a theme, whether it was Communism in Latin America, the history of El Salvador or life in exile. With a conversational style that reneged of the overly poetic (Dalton claimed to have ‘nothing to do with the Neruda family’) he borrowed from Salvadorian slang and celebrated a devious way of life with a brash sense of humour. His poems, though sometimes dated for the references to communism and revolution, still resonate with a common Latin American experience: a history of corrupt governments kept in power by a small group of wealthy families or the U.S. with the complacency of subservient middle classes and ineffective bureaucrats. Names of presidents and generals he mentions only need to be changed to current ones. In Roque Dalton’s world reality in El Salvador was so mad that your options were to laugh or join the revolution. Or both. Dalton joined the People’s Revolutionary Army (Ejercito Revolucionario del Pueblo or ERP), one of five clandestine groups that eventually formed the FMLN guerrilla in the 1980s, now the political party in government. The ERP was regarded as the most extreme faction of El Salvador’s left wing movement. The tragedy of Dalton came abruptly in 1975, when, after returning to El Salvador after years of exile or jail, he was murdered by his own comrades who accused him of being a CIA agent. The circumstances of his killing are sketchy due to the secretive internal workings of the ERP and the fact that his alleged killers, (the ERP leaders) have never stood trial.
The fact that the world is afire with mass protests against the present system of greed, inequality and corruption seems to be totally missed by our mass media. We get the usual 10/15 minute slot on Hong Kong, then we are launched into a similar time span on the affairs of a rather dim witted corrupt self centre parasite prince. This is then followed by another longish spell of the to two main contenders in the UK's latest crooks and liars competition. This is followed by a slice of the US pantomime of the Trump impeachment, "Greatest Show on Earth". This is your "news", as far as our media is concerned the rest of the world is just fine, so go and get on with your Christmas shopping and we'll keep you informed.
Most, if not all of these mass protests across the world, are against the system that our establishment wish to protect and preserve, and are being treated with the most savage and brutal repression from the various states, something that should be at the top of any true journalists note pad, but we have silence, because the media stooges only follow the narrative of their pay masters.
In Iraq for the last two months or so, thousands have been on the streets, ports have been blocked by strikers, and more and more people are joining them on a daily basis. This despite some of the worst state violence against its own people. Where are our media cameras and reporters? Why, outside Buckingham palace, The White House and in Hong Kong.
The death toll in the mass protests that have shaken Iraq for the
last seven weeks has risen to over 330, with an estimated 15,000
wounded. Young Iraqis have continued to pour into the streets in
defiance of fierce repression to press their demands for jobs, social
equality and an end to the unspeakably corrupt political regime created
by the US occupation that followed the criminal American invasion of
2003.
Most of those killed have been felled by live ammunition, including
machine-gun fire and bullets fired by snipers, both randomly into crowds
and at identified protest leaders. Others have suffered hideous fatal
wounds from military-grade tear gas grenades fired point-blank into the
demonstrators, in some cases with canisters ending up lodged in the
victims’ skulls or lungs. In addition, water cannon have been employed,
spraying scalding hot water into the protests. Forced disappearances have been reported, while families of victims
shot to death by security forces have been compelled to sign statements
acknowledging the deaths as “accidental” in order to receive the bodies
of their loved ones.
An
injured protestor is rushed to a hospital during a demonstration in
Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
This brutality has only succeeded in drawing ever wider layers of the
population, and in particular growing sections of the Iraqi working
class, into the anti-government mobilizations. In Baghdad, protesters
have succeeded in occupying three strategic bridges over the Tigris
River leading into the heavily fortified Green Zone, where government
buildings, top officials’ villas, embassies and the offices of military
contractors and other foreign agencies are located.
In the south of the country, demonstrators have once again mounted a
siege of Iraq’s main Persian Gulf port of Umm Qasr near Basra, reducing
its activity by over 50 percent. Oil workers announced Sunday that they
were going on a general strike in support of the demonstrators, and
columns of workers organized by Iraqi unions poured into Tahrir Square
to back the protests. In the southern Shia heartland of Iraq, the
teachers unions have led a general strike movement that has shut down
most cities.
Only in the predominantly Sunni northern areas of Anbar Province and
Mosul, which were bombed into rubble during the so-called US war against
ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), has the protest movement failed
to bring masses into the streets. This is not for any lack of sympathy,
but rather the threat of a renewed military offensive against any sign
of opposition. Even those in the region who have expressed their
solidarity on Facebook have been rounded up by security forces, while
the authorities have made it plain that anyone there who opposes the
government will be treated as “terrorists” and ISIS sympathizers.
If anything approaching this level of both mass popular revolt and
murderous repression were taking place in Russia, China, Venezuela or
Iran, one can easily imagine the kind of wall-to-wall coverage they
would receive from the corporate media in the US. Yet, the Iraqi events
have been virtually ignored by the broadcast networks and the major
print media. This is certainly not for lack of popular interest in the
country.
I'm a day late with this, but then again our working class heroes should be remembered and honoured every day of the year.
Joe Hill, also known as Joe Hillstrom, his original name was Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, (born October 7, 1879, Gävle, Sweden) Joe Hill was a song writer and organiser for the IWW, Industrial Workers of the World, He immigrated to America from Sweden in 1902, and spent years drifting across the country seeking work where he could. In 1910 he joined the San Pedro, California local of the Industrial Workers of the World, becoming its secretary. In 1903, his most famous song, “The Preacher and the Slave” appeared in the IWW’s Little Red Song Book. This is sung to the tune of “In the Sweet Bye and Bye” and contains the words:
You will eat, bye and bye In that glorious land above the sky; Work and pray, live on hay, You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.
Joe hill was executed by firing squad on November 19th. 1915. His conviction was based on purely circumstantial evidence, and despite mass protests and appeals, and suggestions that his conviction was because of his radical views, his execution went ahead. The night before his execution he stated to IWW member Big Bill Haywood “Goodbye Bill. I die like a true rebel. Don’t waste time in mourning. Organize.”
Also on the eve of his death he wrote:
My Will is easy to decide
For there is nothing to divide.
My kin don't need to fuss and moan.
"Moss does not cling to rolling stone."
My body?—Oh!—If I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow.
Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my Last and Final Will—
Good Luck to All of you,
Joe Hill
Obedience is a failing in humans, following orders is the abdication of your own will to that of another. So which is worse, the tyrant who issues the order or the subservient that follows those orders? My own personal opinion is that the order follower is by far the greatest threat to the freedom of the individual. Without them all tyrants, dictators, demagogues etc. would fail miserably. Without the ability and desire to asses your actions and come to you own decision, your nothing but a pawn in another’s game plan. Just following orders or blindly doing your duty are probably the most under estimated crimes in society. Nobody knows better than you what your desires are, and nobody has the right to make that assumption.
If we desire that better world for all, then we have to be rid of the order followers, the obedient and subservient, each individual has to take responsibility for their actions, you can’t hide under that shield of “only following orders”. To do so is the abdication of your right as a rational human being. Be a freethinker, question everything, take responsibility for your actions, so consider their outcome very carefully.
Two very recent reported incidents from within our very rich country that should make us all rise up and crush this pitiless economic system of greed and inequality.
One is the recent case of a man dying in a carpark in Glasgow in sub-zero temperatures, the other a man dies in the job centre after being told he is fit for work. What kind of society can tolerate this inhumanity? these are not isolated cases. Deaths from the cruelty of the universal credit system runs into thousands, deaths among the homeless runs into hundreds. These are not accidents, these are the result of deliberate policies legislated by people with lots of money and in most cases at least two homes, our political ballerinas. all of them well shielded from the ravages of their ideological policies.
William Shakespeare's words from "Seasons Such As These" are probably very apt for our times as they were in his:
Poor naked wretches, wherese're you are
that hide the pelting of this pityless storm,
how shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you
from seasons such as these.
Homelessness is not a failing of the individual, it is the abject failure of the system we tolerate, but for how much longer, for how many more avoidable deaths?
The Warmth Of A dream.
He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home, night frost locked his joints morning rain chilled the marrow of his bone. In the dream there was a sister, a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters who called him “mister”, a time of little pain. Are these youngsters the same young men, who now laugh at him, throw beer cans, piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane? When was that first step down this slippery slope, when was that first step to no forgiveness. No will to rise to beg for food, numbness kills the pain. The dream brings a warmth that feels good, dark fog shades out consciousness, an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain.
Protests are raging in numerous countries across the globe, more and more people are rising up against the intolerable inequality, injustice, corruption, wars and rampaging poverty that the present economic system creates and perpetuates for the vast majority of the people of this planet.
Of course this is not by any manner of means a definitive list, there is more, much more unrest against poverty, corruption, injustice and inequality that exists amidst unimaginable wealthy and opulence, all plundered from the work and sweat of the ordinary people. The world is exploding in mass protests.
Watching the mainstream UK TV news recently I got, each evening, over a considerable period, a roughly 10/15 minutes slot of the protests in Hong Kong, but nothing of note on any of the other mass protests taking place across our world, I wonder why? Then of course my twisted mind went into overdrive. Could it be that the UK imperialist establishment still see Hong Kong as part of the British Empire and naively believe that the UK public will therefore be more interested in that than all this other stuff going on in other people's empires. Or perhaps it is another piece of propaganda that can be used against that, in the eyes of the Western imperialist's, great evil place called China. Who knows, but for sure it is not a balanced and fully informative coverage that we are getting. It is very selective and biased in favour of the establishment view. So can we call it news or propaganda?
It would appear that the representatives of the predatory class are having a get together in Madrid this December 2nd-13th.. There they will wine and dine on the best that you and I can provide, after all it is us that produce everything and pay for their hospitality, How ironic considering that they are the creators of our poverty and deprivation. They will be meeting up to discuss how best to guarantee their privileged positions, their power and their wealth. These are the people who come with the blood of ordinary people on their hands, they plan and execute wars, killing and maiming millions, they are responsible for the destruction of infrastructure in country after country, they plunder the resources of the planet for their own power and wealth.
However their biggest crime is probably that fact that they are responsible for the destruction of the planet, and show no serious signs of trying to do anything to halt that destruction.
This event in Madrid will be the gathering of the enemy of the people, the friends of the corporate juggernaut, the representatives of the gross inhumanity that burdens our world, and we are expected to applaud them. No doubt the media will paint them as wonderful planners of our future, planners of a better world, but it will be a better world for that little band of predatory parasites. Why do we tolerate them, wine and dine them?
December 2nd,
the rulers of the world are coming to Madrid. Some of the biggest
murderers of this planet, of the biggest responsible of its devastation.
They come to fill their mouths and calendars with the next plans of
“fight against climate change”. While global capitalism continues intact
and most of the CO2 emissions emanate from industrial production, while
their companies keep devastating forests and mountains to extract its
natural resources. And if that wasn’t enough, at the same time,
Chile burns and their streets are still covered by the ammunition caps
from the security forces. But Piñera couldn’t see his political planning
disturbed by the revolt, he couldn’t admit the mediatic focus
questioning his dictation before such a social explosion. And thanks to
the kindness of Spanish government, now he will be able to continue with
his plans without getting disheveled. But in Chile, normality
couldn’t be held anymore, and we neither want to hold it here. We won’t
allow the world leaders meet to design the destruction under the look of
sustainability and respect, as if everything continues to go normally.
As if they haven’t been destroying all this time, as if they wouldn’t
carry thousands of corpses in their backs. We won’t give them such
legitimacy. Also, because we know, that the best way to show solidarity
with the rebels is nothing but extend the revolt. Like in Hamburg, we
want this summit to become hell. Therefore, we encourage the
system enemies to meet in Madrid, in the dates when the world owners
have their appointment in this city. Stay aware to the next calls and
infos. There will be enabled spaces to host those coming from other
places. On the other hand, neither do we trust that politics
gestated in parliaments and offices will stop the destruction or stop
the way to the collapse, that is increasingly inevitable. But we trust
in the ability of every one to act, individually or in groups. That’s
why we want to make a call for decentralized action to point the
responsible of environmental destruction. Politicians won’t act against
the Capitalism interests, but we do. Against climate change; direct
action. Attack those who destroy the Earth.
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk
Though our "Walk of Pride" to mark the great victory of the 1915 Glasgow/Clydeside rent strike attracted a fair amount of attention at the start at Buchanan Street Steps, not many followed on with the walk. However those that did, made up for lack of numbers by their passion, enthusiasm, pavement art and of course, the informative speeches by "Strong Women of Clydeside" all from the women of that rent strike in 1915. A lesson in solidarity from which we can all learn. Well done to all involved,
We should never forget those from the past who stood up and took on the onslaught of the exploiters from the predatory class. We owe them a debt of gratitude, and we can learn from them, as we still face similar struggles today.
Education, what is it? Is it a system where we train our kids to be efficient units in a capitalist society so they can seek capitalist style "success"? Or perhaps it is a system where we train our kids to be obedient and submit to authority? Or is it a system where by we help our children become self sufficient, freethinking and caring individuals?
On reflection and what we know of the present education system I think we can score the latter of our list. Kids are regimented and are taught to respect an over riding authority. Hardly the formula for creating freethinking individuals, but an excellent system for making them subservient to authority, once they have left that "educating" institution.
I have heard of Summerhill School and the works of S. L. Neil, but sadly don't know very much about him and his theories, but found this video fascinating. It does state that it is based on a real case but fictionalised in the making of the film.
Is this the road for education, treating kids as equals, involving them in all decision making, and allowing them to be involved as they wish? I expect a load of criticism about this method, but we do have a load of criticisms of the present education system. So where does that leave us?
There can be no doubt that we live in a surveillance society. Surveillance is a necessary tool for the state to keep control of the population, knowing where you are, what you are doing and who you are with, is information the state needs to survive. What we see of this surveillance apparatus, the CCTV cameras etc., in and around our towns and cities is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a plethora of hidden devices, small pieces of equipment hidden away in unsuspecting places, listening, watching and recording, someone's activities, how do you know it is not you?
All this equipment is not due to spontaneous birth, it is manufactured by large and small companies across the globe, producing ever more tiny, ever more sophisticated, ever more intrusive means to track and record your every movement, without your knowledge. These companies are not the friends of the people, they are another branch of the population control and management system operated by the state. We should know more about these companies, what they are doing, and why, who is the money behind them. Like the arms companies, they are not for a free and democratic society.
When cops decide to spy on us using surveillance devices, they
need to get the devices from somewhere. It seems that they often buy
these devices from private companies. The companies that manufacture and
market surveillance-related products and services to law enforcement
agencies, governments, and armed forces, form what we can call the surveillance industry.
Although on this website we limit ourselves to the study of hidden
physical surveillance devices, the surveillance industry develops all
kind of repression tools to be used by law enforcement and intelligence
agencies worldwide. Internet monitoring, interception of cellular
communications, counter-surveillance equipment and biometrics
technologies are only a few examples.
The companies participating in this industry aren’t spread evenly on
the world map. In their 2016 report about the global surveillance
industry, Privacy International commented on the geographical breakdown
of the 528 surveillance companies taken into account in the report :
These companies are overwhelmingly based in economically
advanced, large arms exporting states, with the United States of America
(USA), United Kingdom (UK), France, Germany, and Israel comprising the
top five countries in which the companies are headquartered.
Despite this, many of these companies export their products, so that
surveillance devices manufactured in one country can sometimes be sold
everywhere in the world.
Due to the nature of the industry, these companies often work in
relative secrecy and it is sometimes hard to obtain reliable information
about their activities, their clients, and their products. Documents
leaked by whistleblowers, such as the Spy Files, a large collection of
documents about the surveillance industry published from 2011 to 2014 by
Wikileaks, are a precious source of information.
We think that understanding how the surveillance industry works, who
sells the surveillance devices to the cops and what the devices look
like will help us to oppose this surveillance. On this website, you will
find a list of companies that sell physical surveillance devices to law enforcement agencies, a list of the trade shows and other events of the industry, a glossary of the specific terms of the surveillance industry, and a list of other resources on the subject.
