there were over 50 people there at the SUMAC centre. There were workshops where
the people were broken up into three different groups:
There was feedback, both of us introduced ourselves and contributed at various
stages of the workshops and debriefings.
In the afternoon the three workshops were:
Technology/IT - Networking - Taking Action
Both of us decided 'Taking Action' is where we wanted to be, the group wrote up
it's agenda for discussion. Our group contained a lot of very passionate debate, it
was also quite obvious at various times during the day that many are still unaware
of the wide ranging effects of the National ID register comments such as it's a Big
Brother policy were heard. We both made the point about needing a national day
of action. A few suggested we didn't want a march around London as that seemed
quite futile, however there was a lot of support for a national day of action, even if
that would be a simultaneously day of action in our localities. The 'Taking Action'
group voted for such a proposal. Other issues that raised were the finger printing
of school children. The major issue of concern raised under the 'time scale' agenda
item were the interrogation centres which through the day appeared to be the major
concern in addition to the recognising the most vulnerable ie pensioners and children
need serious support. One of the point raised in discussion was that anti-ID movement
needed to be much bigger as the National ID Register will impact upon various other
campaign groups, as ID will be able to be used to track political campaigners.
The following link was mentioned to me in relation to the school based finger printing
of children, which is attracting a lot of parental opposition here in Liverpool.
http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/
The afternoon summary session raised many issues, the national day of action was
again discussed, a few people were pushing for this, there were people digging their
heels in saying there aren't enough people to organise a day action, when in actual
fact 50+ people was three times the people we had at the Manchester gathering.
A few of us wanted a vote for a national day of action on a particular day which none
of us could agree on, April 1st, May day, St.Georges Day, etc. So an English
'compromise' was thrown up, three suggestions made and a vote had. I'm not entirely
sure what we voted for, though I was told it was for a future national day of action.
With the 69 interrogation centres being the focus for anti-ID protests it was suggested
that due to the gaps in our defy-ID members we needed to organise on a regional
basis, for example in the North West we have two strong bases in Liverpool and in
Manchester, yet in other parts of the country there aren't members in town or cities
with interrogation centres.
http://www.liverpool-defy-id.org.uk/