Minutes of Manchester NO2ID Meeting, Wednesday 16th August 2006

Effective Campaigning
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Dave stated the need for a concise and definitive statement of purpose for Manchester NO2ID, which could be referred to for all activities and used on our campaign material, and solicited suggestions.

We discussed taking more petitions and spawning more local groups. NO2ID business cards and beer mats were suggested; Newcastle NO2ID have had some beermats printed which they sell to other groups.

(Update: In reply to an e-mail from someone who picked up one of our flyers at a Fortnightly Flyering, Dave came up with the Four Rs of Raise, Reduce, Repeal and Resist which have been posted to the Manchester NO2ID mailing list and will form the heart of our new website)

Funding
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Dave has still not heard from the Scarman Trust or Manchester City Council. He has also contacted Voluntary Action Manchester. We discussed whether Manchester NO2ID would be eligible for any grants. Different funding organisations have different criteria for awarding grants, and we would have to look at each available grant and see whether we meet their requirements before applying.

The lack of funding is the main thing stopping us from organising (and publicising) a large public meeting. Funding would also give us the ability to print our Manchester NO2ID flyers on a large scale and perform more door-to-door flyering.

(Update: It seems that VAM are now run by the Scarman Trust. There was some issue over VAM failing to acquire funding from the Council to redistribute to groups, meaning that there is very little funding available. Spawning branches in other council areas such as Salford would allow them to apply for funding there).

Labour Party Conference
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The Labour Party Conference is in Manchester between the 24th and 28th September. NO2ID HQ have plans for demonstrations concerning ID cards, and Phil Booth should be coming up to Manchester soon for detailed planning. Volunteers during the week would be welcome to help out.

One of the main NO2ID stories even before the conference started is that around 18,000 Mancunians who live and work in the city centre have been subjected to Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks without their consent or knowledge [1]. These are the inaccurate checks which misidentified over 1,500 people as violent robbers and paedophiles in just two years [2]. Back in December 2005, Andy Burnham stated that the National Identity Register will be made "the bedrock for CRB checks as soon as possible" [3], suggesting that people undergoing checks could be automatically placed on the Register alongside people renewing their passports.

It was suggested that NO2ID attend a fringe meeting at the conference to lobby MPs and party members. Names mentioned of groups we could approach included Charter 88, Liberty, Compact, Tribune and the Campaign Group.

There will be large demonstrations from the Stop the War Coalition among others during the conference. It was suggested that we might want to flyer the demonstration for NO2ID on the grounds that people are likely to be sympathetic.

(Update: Dave is discussing a visit in the near future with Phil Booth, possibly to coincide with our September meeting)

[1] This story appeared in the MEN, but we could do with finding a link to it
[2]  http://www.magnacartaplus.org/news/index.php/?p=72
[3]  http://www.no2id.net/news/newsletters/newsletter.php?issue=34

Contacting Unions and other Organisations
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We have still not heard back from Manchester or Salford branches of UNISON. Matt has offered to ask his UNISON representative about forging links with Manchester NO2ID, and Dave is considering going to Manchester UNISON's office on a lunch break.

One of the purposes behind contacting UNISON was as a gateway to the Trades Union Council [1]. This would allow us to talk to representatives from all the Manchester unions at once. However, it appears that we can approach the Manchester TUC directly without sponsorship from a union.

Following Dave's conversation during the Salford Day of Action with a local policewoman, who stated that it is GMP policy to support the National Identity Register and that "only people with something to hide" could be opposed to it, we discussed contacting the police for confirmation of this stance. We also discussed talking to the Police Federation and the Association of Chief Police Officers.

We also briefly discussed talking to the RMT and Amicus. Barry mentioned that he could put us in contact with the Thameside Trades Council.

Dave needs to contact the Salford Liberal Democrats concerning giving a talk at a meeting organised by them.

[1]  http://www.manchestertradescouncil.org.uk/

Student Societies and Youth Against ID
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We have a stall booked for the Manchester University Freshers Fair on the 18th, 19th and 21st September for a Students Against ID society. We will need volunteers to help man the stall and to flyer outside the Student's Union. We need to collect 30 signatures from students to form a university society which will give us access to University facilities such as meeting rooms.

Since the Labour Party Conference is the week after the Freshers Fair, this may be a good time to get people involved. We discussed the possibility of holding a meeting on the Saturday evening of the weekend between the Freshers Fair and the Conference.

Danny is supposed to be finding out about the possibility of setting up a society at Manchester Metropolitan University; Dave will try contacting people to investigate something at Salford University.

Another student society idea was that of contacting university debating societies, to hold debates on identity cards.

At the Manchester Day of Action, Dave met someone campaigning with Students Against Imperialism who claimed to be a Manchester representative of Youth Against ID. However, Youth Against ID have not heard of any such representative.

Raising Visibility
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We discussed getting Manchester City Council to pass a motion opposing ID cards [1]. Cllr. Paul Shannon gave us the minutes of two previous Council meetings where similar motions were voted down, in March and December 2005. We discussed some councils where a Labour majority have abstained from voting on such motions, allowing them to be passed without being seen to directly rebel against party policy. We agreed that it would not be worth raising a motion around the time of the Labour Party Conference.

We discussed contacting our elected representatives. In all these matters, councillors, MPs and MEPs only tend to respond to letters from their own constituents. It was suggested that Manchester NO2ID could provide template letters for people to fill in, and it would be handy to know in which wards and constituencies we have a presence.

Other NO2ID groups seem to do a great job of interacting with local media. Cllr. Steve Radford, over from Liverpool, gave us a few tips - contacting journalists directly and finding friendly journos, making use of radio phone ins, and organising demonstrations and events outside the BBC Manchester and Manchester Evening News offices.

We still need to write a piece on identity cards for Northern Voices magazine. It's not urgent but should be done sooner rather than later.

We would like to run a NO2ID film night, with films such as Brazil and 1984. It might be a good thing to do with a student society, at the Cornerhouse or at the Basement.

With Manchester Pride imminent, we discussed directing some of our campaign material and effort towards Manchester's LGBT community. We agreed that flyering Pride itself wouldn't be particularly effective since most people are there to have fun and socialise. However, a Thursday or Friday evening flyering in the Village, at around 7pm, might be more effective.

Cllr. Radford also mentioned a case in Guildford some years ago where the police kept a secret record of homosexuals in the area, including several local magistrates. While sexuality will not be directly recorded on the National Identity Register, it would not be difficult to check, for instance, that someone's Identity Card has been used as a proof of age on several Canal Street bars and to draw inferences from that. It may be worth contacting the Gay Village Business Association to ee whether they are aware of the National Identity Register and its implications.

(Update: Manchester bisexual group Biphoria offered to distribute LGBT-targetted NO2ID literature on their stall at Pride, but Dave didn't manage to get it organised in time. Sorry!)

[1]  http://www.no2id.net/resources/motions/index.php