Europeans Pledge to Defend Civil Liberties and Democracy

“We are living at a moment in history when civil liberties and democracy are under attack as never before and the need for a collective response to counter these threats has never been greater.”

By D. L. MONDELO
Political Correspondent for Europe
Bulatlat

BRUSSELS, Belgium – “We are living at a moment in history when civil liberties and democracy are under attack as never before and the need for a collective response to counter these threats has never been greater.”

Thus stated the launching statement of the European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN), a progressive network of organizations and individuals committed to defend civil liberties and democracy and to confront the “war on terror” that is engulfing Europe. ECLN was launched Oct. 19 at the International Press Center in this city.

Tony Bunyan, ECLN joint coordinator and Director of UK-based Statewatch, said the launching of the ECLN is urgently needed to counter unprecedented attacks on democratic freedoms as a consequence of the “war on terror.”

In a separate statement, Ben Hayes, also a joint coordinator of ECLN, also said, “We want the people of Europe to understand and question what is being decided and done in their name.”

“With policies on the surveillance of all telecommunications, the wholesale surveillance and restriction of movement, mandatory population registers and security files, the European Union is starting to display some of the worst excesses of the Cold War era,” Hayes said.

During the launching press conference, UK-based black lawyer Courtenay Griffith of the Garden Court Chambers, a supporting organization of the ECLN, said that the war on terrorism has become a war against immigrants and people of color. Citing the case of the recent London bombings, Griffith said the ideologues of the so-called war on terror are trying to push the line that the suicide bombers were an “alien infection,” to drive a wedge between whites and non-whites. He said the London bombers who were non-white British were bred by the “racism that has made them aliens in their own country.”

Several measures and laws being implemented on the European Union and national levels, Griffith said, have nothing to do with terrorism, but are meant to control and discipline the population in the face of the disintegration of the welfare system, pension and wage cuts, massive unemployment and the economic and political crises of European Union states.

Time for solidarity

This is not a time to be despondent, he said however, but a time to show solidarity, to educate and to ensure that information filters down to the people.

“Once anti-terrorism legislation is used, it will be used against the general population,” he stressed.

Aidan White, secretary-general of the European Federation of Journalists, noted the rise in the level of intolerance and racism in many European countries as a result of the anti-terrorism campaign. White also opposed an EU proposal to impose a code of conduct among journalists, that he revealed, is a veiled plan to ban the transmission of statements from extremist groups.

Representing the American Civil Liberties Union at the press conference, Jay Stanley expressed solidarity with his European counterparts for defending civil liberties and democracy threatened by the U.S.’ war on terror. Stanley mentioned the cruelty of racial profiling and the listing of individuals supposedly threatening the security of the United States. He cited the “no fly list” in the U.S. that has victimized no less than Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy (brother of U.S. President John F. Kennedy), who was not allowed to board his flight because his name was erroneously included in the list.

During the discussions after the press conference, an EU insider also told those present that many EU ministers and policy-makers are probably praying for another bombing in Europe so that they could move ahead with their so-called anti-terrorist legislations.

Sison case

A representative from the Committee DEFEND, a Netherlands-based committee to defend civil and democratic rights, who attended the launching, called attention to the case of Prof. Jose Ma. Sison who was unjustly included in the EU’s list of so-called terrorists.

Reacting to the Sison case, Hayes lamented that the EU does not observe due process in including 47 individuals and 47 groups in its list of “terrorists.” He also said that there is no mechanism for those accused to challenge their inclusion in the list.

Among the founding groups of the ECLN are: Statewatch (founded in 1990); European Race Audit; Institute of Race Relations (founded 1956); CILIP which covers civil liberties and policing and is based at the Free University of Berlin (founded in 1975); Mugak which deals with immigration, racism and xenophobia; Komitee gegen Schnueffelstaat, Bern, Switzerland which works on democracy and civil liberties; Hellenic League for Human Rights, Greece (founded in 1953); Access to Information Programme in Sofia launched in 1996 by journalists, lawyers and academics working on human rights; VD AMOK, Netherlands which is anti-militarist and a conscientious objectors organization; and the Komitee fur Grundrechte und Demokratie (Committee for Fundamental Rights and Democracy), Germany.

Founding individuals include: Thomas Mathiesen, Professor Sociology of Law, Oslo, Norway; Liz Fekete, IRR European Race Audit; Mads Pedersen, co-editor “Salt”, Copenhagen; Aidan White, Secretary-General European Federation of Journalists, Brussels; Professor Wolf Dieter-Narr, Berlin; Gareth Pierce, lawyer, London; Heiner Busch, CILIP, Berlin; Lorenzo Trucco, Italy; Deirdre Curtin, Professor and Chair of School of Governance, University of Utrecht, Netherlands; Tony Bunyan, director Statewatch; Professor Steve Peers, University of Essex, UK: Ann Singelton, University of Bristol, UK; Gus Hosein, Privacy International; A. Sivanandan, Director of the Institute of Race Relations; Helmut Dietrich, Forschungsgesellscahft Flucht und Migration, Berlin, Germany and Paddy Hillyard, Professor, Queens University, Belfast, Norther Ireland.

In their mission statement, the founding organizations and individuals put forward their principle:

“We share common objectives of seeking to create a European society based on freedom and equality, of fundamental civil liberties and personal and political freedoms, of free movement and freedom of information, and equal rights for minorities. This entails defending, extending and deepening the democratic culture – a concept not limited to political parties and elections but embracing wider values of pluralism, diversity and tolerance. And we share too a common opposition to racism, fascism, sexism and homophobia.”

The ECLN webpage may be accessed at: http://www.ecln.org. Bulatlat

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