Successful Collaboration on Online Security Practices
At the Brecht Forum on February 22, 2010 Radical Reference joined MF/PL and NYC-based techies to develop 10 best security practices to preserve free and secure online collaboration. View the results here.
May First/People Link and the Yes Men fight censorshop
MFPL risks downtime to defend the first amendment rights of the Yes Men.
In these short videos, May First/People Link Co-Director Alfredo Lopez discusses some of the issues our organization has been grappling with and talking about: issues that we believe are of critical importance to both the Internet and the Progressive movement. Each of Alfredo's presentations is about 15 minutes long, using Flash format. Feel free to comment.The book about the Internet for progressive activists.
"...a must read for anyone who is wanting to organize meaningful social and political movements."
Ana Willem (USSF Tech 'Zine)
There's an immense gulf between what people in the United States think happens in our country and what actually happens. This gulf is particularly wide with regard to immigration detention and deportation. Andrea, the coordinator of the Detention Watch Network, points out that a consistent response in focus groups on detention center is: "That couldn't possibly be happening. It's against due process!"
Immigration is one of several global trends that are both changing our perception of the United States and our relationship to the rest of the world. What impact will this process have on the US? On the left in particular?
The Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition of about 175 organizations and individuals around the country that educate the public and policy makers about the US immigration detention and deportation system and advocate for humane reform. DWN engages in a combination of advocacy, public education, and network building activities.
While focused specifically on enforcement-related issues of immigration, DWN's vision extends to a much bigger picture of how the world can be. For starters, immigration itself is part of a bigger trend of globalization, fair rights for workers, poverty, US foreign policy overseas, and many other factors. Similarly, the criminalization of immigrants in the US is heavily affected by a lack of workers' rights domestically, the collapse of social services, the growth of private prisons, criminalization of people of color, and racism within the criminal justice system.
Given these relationships, DWN is working from the perspective of universal principles that can be applied on an international level. DWN asks us what kind of country do we want to live in? What kind of world do we want to live in?
The last decade has produced anything but a world we want to live in. Back to back bills in 1996 changed the landscape of immigration, setting off a decade that saw the number of beds in detention centers triple while basic principles of our legal system have been repealed in a frenzy of rounding up immigrants. With this process well underway at the time of the attack, the government response to September 11 further strengthened and institutionalized this trend toward criminalizing immigrants.
Community groups are reporting a level of fear unheard of before. Kids are being pulled out of schools, people are afraid to drive to work, immigrants are being picked up a the DMV, Amtrak and bus stations and are even being threatened by immigration agents in their own homes.
The Detention Watch Network formed in the mid-90's to pull together a network of groups around the country who are fighting this trend toward criminalization. The network spent the first few years of its existence developing as a network - strengthening collaboration between members, building leadership, developing resources. Since then, they have been disseminating information about what is going on via their web site and map of detention centers, exposing the "hidden traps" in proposed immigration bills, organizing multi-city press conferences, legislative hearings, and putting together trainings on deportation to build the community's capacity to respond.
The Internet has been critical in their work. The email list and web site have proven to be vital resources for bringing people in. The interactive map showing where detention centers are located has been used by families looking for their loved ones, lawyers, faith groups and even congress people.
What's the next step technologically? Andrea reports spending as much as 70% of her time on conference calls. While much better than not meeting at all - it's a far cry from the group-building potential of face-to-face meetings. How can we bring the advantages of face-to-face meetings to people not in the same city? What advances can we make in video conferencing?
The United States has a lot to give to the rest of the world around the issue of immigration and detention work. In terms of scale, our experiences with immigration is nearly un-paralleled in any other country. As other countries begin experiencing this level of immigration, sharing what we've learned in this fight across borders will be a critical step in building a different world.
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