Quiet Please (film about homeless library users)
QUIET, PLEASE from Quincy J. Walters on Vimeo. About homeless people who use the library….
Category: Civil Liberties
A Guide for People Navigating the Expanded Powers of Surveillance in the 21st Century
Some people from Radical Reference have put together a zine with anti-surveillance resources for the discerning library worker-slash-activist. (Full title: We Are All Suspects: A Guide for People Navigating the Expanded Powers of Surveillance in the 21st Century.) As I wrote on that site, the zine includes “know your rights” info; suggestions for applications, browser … Read more A Guide for People Navigating the Expanded Powers of Surveillance in the 21st Century
Radical Archives and Index of the Disappeared
Chitra Ganesh and Mariam Ghani are artists, archivists, and activists. Both have been involved in immigration rights activism, especially after 9/11, and they created the shifting exhibition Index of the Disappeared, now in its 10th year, to address the insidious surveillance, false narratives, and criminalization of dissent perpetrated by the U.S. government. I saw the “Secrets … Read more Radical Archives and Index of the Disappeared
Democracy and Big Data
NSA Data Center — Bluffdale, Utah In a recent post to this blog, I outlined how the debate regarding the National Security Administration’s data gathering activities pitted privacy against national security and sought to “balance” the two competing values. I suggested that framing the debate in these terms misses the more important concern that the … Read more Democracy and Big Data
Privacy and National Security
The recent revelations that the National Security Administration has been collecting metadata for the phone calls of American citizens and that they have been acquiring data from Google, Yahoo!, facebook, and other internet companies comes as no big surprise to many. Sen. Frank Church’s investigation in the 1970s into government surveillance revealed a long history … Read more Privacy and National Security
Whistleblowers, Intellectual Freedom, and Librarians
On February 28, 2013, Bradley Manning read a 35-page statement at a courthouse in Fort Meade, in which he detailed how and why he released certain information to the public. The redacted transcript reveals several intellectual freedom issues that have been central to some recent discussions at American Library Association meetings. Among these issues are … Read more Whistleblowers, Intellectual Freedom, and Librarians
Political Repression and Illegal Books in Portland
Just in time for Banned Books Week, here is a bit of news that I hope comes to your attention if you are concerned with civil liberties and the freedom to read. A couple of young people in Portland, fresh faced college students who like to say that they’re anarchists, have been arrested as part … Read more Political Repression and Illegal Books in Portland
Censorship through travel restriction (two links)
Two links to share about what may be a growing trend – travel restrictions as a way to stifle political speech. A column in Salon by Glen Greenwald a few days ago talks about the Department of Homeland Security’s detention of filmmaker and journalist Laura Poitras at the U.S. border. They detained her and took … Read more Censorship through travel restriction (two links)
Occupying the First Amendment
The recent assaults by the police on various Occupy movement encampments highlight the tenuousness of our right to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. Certainly, there is good reason for municipal ordinances against permanently occupying public spaces. Under many circumstances, this would amount to appropriating public spaces for private use, but the … Read more Occupying the First Amendment
An Illinois Man Is Facing 75 Years In Jail For Filming Police (video)
Not exactly a library issue, but one which rests on the same ideals. It seems urgent to me that we legalize making video recordings of on-duty police officers. (Only illegal in some states.)
And our privacy quietly erodes as state power grows
Here is a scary if unsurprising bit of news: a report in PC world on a recent study by Christopher Soghoian: “US Police Increasingly Peeping at E-mail, Instant Messages.” Soghoian’s paper is linked in the article, which begins: Law enforcement organizations are making tens of thousands of requests for private electronic information from companies such … Read more And our privacy quietly erodes as state power grows
A Space for Hate: The White Power Movement’s Adaptation into Cyberspace
Introduction [Book information] June 10, 2009: James von Brunn logged off his Packard Bell computer, grabbed his keys and strode out the door of his son’s Annapolis apartment. He had moved in with his son and future daughter-in-law two years ago where he paid $400 a month in rent and spent most of his … Read more A Space for Hate: The White Power Movement’s Adaptation into Cyberspace
The Mad Men of the FBI
I thought the FBI had been shamed out of spying on pacifists long ago, but check this out. Incredible. Greenpeace, Thomas Merton Center, Catholic Worker, and other anti-war activists got put on terrorist watch lists and were the subject of 200 page reports. It’s almost funny how much the reality matches liberals’ paranoid fears post … Read more The Mad Men of the FBI
Mother Jones article on Connecticut librarians’ defiance of the PATRIOT Act
Amy Goodman and David Goodman (of Democracy Now) have an article in the current Mother Jones magazine about the great Windsor, Connecticut librarians’ defiance of the FBI and the PATRIOT Act and ultimate court victory for all of us on constitutional grounds.
UN says British libel law violates human rights
I’ve always been appalled by British libel law as long as I’ve known about it. Basically it puts a strong onus on defendants to prove that what they have said is true, rather than on the accuser to prove that it is false. The result is an excessive real-world limitation on freedom of speech for … Read more UN says British libel law violates human rights
Intellectual Freedom advocacy in a Huxleyan world
A favorite debate of pessimistic sophomores, or perhaps sophomoric pessimists, is as to whether our society and its future is more like George Orwell’s 1984 or Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. It’s such a common juxtaposition and so simple to talk about it that I bring it up at the risk of terribly oversimplifying things. … Read more Intellectual Freedom advocacy in a Huxleyan world
Librarian ejected from ostensibly public McCain rally for holding a sign
Carol Kreck, a librarian, was arrested and removed from a public campaign event for John McCain in Denver yesterday. She was in front of the Denver Center for Performing Arts, and was charged with trespassing. Can you trespass on public property? Here’s the video and some more info…
Instructor fired for refusing to sign a loyalty oath
The Los Angeles Times reports that Wendy Gonaver, an American Studies instructor at Cal State Fullerton and a Quaker, was fired from her job for refusing to sign a loyalty oath. She was willing to sign it with an attached statement qualifying her willingness to “defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic” through … Read more Instructor fired for refusing to sign a loyalty oath
People’s Campaign for the Constitution
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee is a group founded in November, 2001 that works to protect (and restore) civil rights and liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. They do a good job of tracking legislation that has civil rights implications, and also promote discussions and educational projects on a local level. The thing … Read more People’s Campaign for the Constitution
The Golden Compass and “anti-Catholic bias”
I have not said anything about the controversy over the Golden Compass, because the issue has seemed too simple and clear cut to warrant comment. But take a look at what appeared in this week’s American Libraries Direct: The Golden Compass accused of anti-Catholic bias Several Toronto-area Catholic school boards in Ontario have removed Philip … Read more The Golden Compass and “anti-Catholic bias”