[PeDAGoG] A new article on RED website - "We thought it was fiction"

[Pallav Das]

Friends,

The following response from the authors of the latest article on the
Radical Ecological Democracy website, "We thought it was fiction" was just
uploaded on Gitlab. I'm copying it here for the larger readership. A couple
of other previous responses are also copied further below. We look forward
to a healthy discussion.

From* Ken Montenegro, Melanie Bush, Alfredo Lopez and Hamid Khan:*

In discussions about weaponized surveillance, people will sometimes raise
questions such as:

   1. Would you support the abolition of spying software if it meant
   increasing terror attacks because there is no monitor?
   2. Why can’t we just regulate these weapons given that “vigilance is the
   price of liberty”? Isn’t surveillance a small price to pay for safety?
   3. Isn’t it impossible to undo the spying built-into modern technology?
   4. What do we have to hide?

We support an abolitionist approach precisely because spying software has
not prevented terror attacks. Moreover, the focus of avoiding imaginary
terror attacks avoids responsibility for the settler colonialist origins of
what the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition called the “stalker state.” The
relationship between anti-Blackness and the national security police state
is made evident here:
https://stoplapdspying.medium.com/anti-blackness-and-the-national-security-police-state-that-civil-liberties-advocacy-built-f8d1d5418c42)
If we take an historical perspective and aspire to undo the harm these
tools cause, then abolition is the only reasonable conclusion.

Abolition is the only reasonable conclusion precisely because attempts at
reform or regulation end up as spectacular failures. In what is currently
called the United States, brave folks have always fought to reign in police
and state violence. Those efforts have largely failed because they preserve
institutions and practices that are racist and violent to their core and
from their very foundation. Folks who uphold specious arguments like, “you
have nothing to hide” or “vigilance is the price of liberty” fail to
acknowledge how Indigenous and Black folks in the United States have always
borne the brunt of state surveillance and its ensuing violence. It is part
and parcel of the very system itself as a means of control and management.
Abolition removes the “price” from “liberty”; it makes it free.

We are committed to a long-term struggle toward that freedom. While it
might seem that a world without rampant digital surveillance is impossible,
we are dedicated to visions of change where technology is about improving
life and not controlling others. We know there is a possible alternative
because rampant corporate & governance surveillance is new. Twenty years
ago, such a dystopia was unimaginable.

Finally, we don’t see questions like the ones above being rooted in
affirming life. Often these questions above are used facetiously to
discredit or seem “right” about the issue of surveillance and to defend an
indefensible system of colonial, capitalist, white supremacist, and
patriarchy. May First Movement Technology is committed to learning and
collaboration in our journeys towards the abolition of state violence of
all sorts, and welcome dialogue that moves us in that direction.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think you might find some answers to your questions in this article, Hari
-

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/04/surveillance-state-september-11-panic-made-us-vulnerable

It gives a very detailed account of how biased, excessive and either
damaging or ineffective the state and corporate spying in the USA has been
post 9/11. Also phenomenally expensive.

More information on how the spying potential of IT is abused by states is
available from the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab (
https://citizenlab.ca/). Last year it exposed the hacking of journalists'
phones by an Israeli spy agency. This has literally put lives in danger,
and may have contributed to the murder of the journalist  Jamal Kashoggi in
the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

One of the few clever and positive uses of technology to keep people safe
recently is the international anti-drug smuggling initiative reported on
here -
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/11/inside-story-most-daring-surveillance-sting-in-history
In this instance, however, only those people who were known bad actors or
in close contact with bad actors were targetted for surveillance - and this
is how any legitimate surveillance operation should work.

Sadly, it is far more common for 'good actors' - like those protesting
racism, or reporting on state misdemeanours, for example - to be targetted
and harassed, which is just a giant form of state 'phishing' - completely
illegitimate and it should stop immediately.

But as I don't see any chance that the military-industrial complex (now
including Big Tech) is about to stop working for and with the Market-State
any where any time soon, and as demands for ethical behaviour don't cut any
ice on this issue as with climate change and so many others, I think the
only realistic position for good actors, be they activists or journalists,
is to assume that their digital communication devices can and will be
hacked at any time, and to take every precaution accordingly. Including not
using a 'smart' phone at all, as in the preference of one investigative
journalist I know.

Hope this helps!

Christine

On Sat, Sep 18, 2021 at 2:52 PM Pallav Das <dpallav at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> *"Among the most glaring omissions in our arsenal as a movement is the
> absence of a simple statement: we oppose government and corporate
> surveillance of all kinds, we will never support it, and we will not work
> with anyone who does. "*
>
>
> Friends,
>
> A new article, "We thought it was fiction", has been uploaded to the
> Radical Ecological Democracy website. Alfredo Lopez, Melanie Bush, Hamid
> Khan and Ken Montenegro, our colleagues from "May First Movement
> Technology", discuss the threat posed by Pegasus, the malicious hacking
> software, and how the progressive and “alternatives” communities should
> organize to push back against this steady erosion of people’s rights, and
> work to end tech dominance and intrusion into our lives. Please share the
> article with your networks and join the discussion on REDlistserv. The
> authors are copied here in case you would like to contact them directly.
>
> https://www.radicalecologicaldemocracy.org/we-thought-it-was-fiction/
>
> Best,
>
> Pallav
>
>
> Read more
> <https://www.radicalecologicaldemocracy.org/we-thought-it-was-fiction/>
>
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