We all bear the events of September 11th in mind. In the U. S. A. several
airplanes were flown purposely into the WTC and the Pentagon; Ussama Bin
Laden and a terror organization allegedly led by him were blamed for the
attacks. In early October, finally, the US government, together with Great
Britain, hit back by bombing the Islamic state Afghanistan, thus continuing
medieval crusades.
Furthermore, since September 11th, there have been numerous cases of anthrax
in the US. At first only media firms received mail deliveries with
contaminated contents, later also politicians. Again, there was talk of
"terrorism".
Making use of these events, new laws have been brought on their way or
already decided upon, across federal states in the US as well as in the
European Union.
We know of the - illegal - activities of the US secret service NSA, which
listens in on telephone, fax, and email connections worldwide; many of us
know about the often semi-legal bugging actions of the inner state offices
of the police and the secret services.
These semi-legal and illegal actions shall now be made completely legal by
allowing the respective "state offices for safety" to listen in on mail,
email, phone, and fax connections, even without a concrete suspicion to
start with.
In Germany the minister of the interior is planning to include into the
passport not only fingerprints, but also bio-metric data. This means
electronical data allowing for identification of each face by computer
programs. If this data is kept in a central place, all citizens, asylum
seekers, and people coming to Germany by visa, can be kept under observance
as soon as they appear in public areas controlled by cameras; because by
means of modern software the cameras can identify faces. If you think of
Great Britain - in London the city centre is almost completely controlled by
cameras while the car registration plates are automatically interpreted by
computers.The US have developped similar strategies. This summer electronical
cameraswere used for the first time to keep a baseball stadium under observance;
and immediately several people looked for by the police were "discovered" -
and arrested.Only few days after September 11th the European Union presented a
"safetyprogramme against terrorism", which suggests the conclusion that it had
beenprepared long ago, just waiting for an opportunity to be presented (cf.
Institutional File 2001/0217 [CNS] und 2001/0215 [CNS], to be ordered for
free at: Rat der Europäischen Union, Rue de la Loi 175, 1048 Brussels,Belgium).
According to this paper, a universal European warrant of arrest is planned
which will make it possible to deliver people to other EU member countries
without an effective legal protection. This new European warrant of arrest
is, by the way, not limited to terrorist actions!
Furthermore, the penalties for terrorism shall be adjusted on a European
level; for example, it is planned to penalize the promotion of a terrorist
organization by a minimum of 7 years of arrest.
The US have already passed similar legislation. Judicial control of bugging
actions was reduced; foreigners blamed for terrorism are denied the right to
see a judge immediately after their arrest, and so on.
Back to Germany. According to the plans of the German government, all
employees of hospitals, pharmaceutical enterprises, waterworks, and electric
power stations shall be checked by the "secret service for the protection of
the state constitution". The same applies for all employees in public or
private institutions in professions "relevant to public safety".
That means we are dealing with a gigantic armament of the safety machine;
Germany alone plans to spend 1.5 billion Euro (about 1.3 billion US-dollars)
on inforced actions in the safety field in the year 2002.
Today the people who are in the spotlight of state institutions are people
with Arab background who allegedly plan or carry out terrorist acts. But you
don't have to be a prophet to see that the journey is aiming for a global
totalitarian police state. Cross-boarder exchange of data by secret services
implies cross-boarder supervision of each individual.
And if you recall the brutal attacks of the paramilitary safety forces in
Genova in Italy this year in July, in Göteborg in Sweden and in Seattle in
the US, both also in 2001, when opponents of the unlimited capitalism
articulated their protest, you will understand that in the future the
repressive actions will be aimed especially at these people, at us in the
political left. Because if you question capitalism as such, which looks down
on human dignity, then in the eyes of the governments and the economy you
are a - potential - terrorist, because we "threaten" their power and
capital. On July 20th, 2001, our comrade Guiliani was unscrupulously and
purposely executed in Genova at an anti-capitalist demonstration by an
Italian soldier who shot him in the head several times. This is, in its
worst consequence, the way we can expect to be dealt with in the future! For
that reason we have to prepare ourselves for resistance in the years to
come. The - manipulated - mass media will call us chaotists and terrorists,
the governments will call us - potential - terrorists (Berlusconi, Italian
head of government, gave examples for that in July this year, e. g. when he
stated it had to expected that chaotists would use HIV-infected blood), they
will hunt their safety machines on each person planning resistance.
This is not a utopian picture like Orwell put it in his novel "1984". It is
a realistic view of what we have to expect!
But together we are strong! Solidarity and unity are important! Let's put US
imperialism aside! Down with capitalism!
Thomas Meyer-Falk, presently in prison in  Bruchsalthomas_m_f@yahoo.de