[AktiviX-discuss] Fwd: meeting to defend our autonomous servers - an invitation
r7
r7 at aktivix.org
Sun Jun 18 18:50:35 UTC 2006
hi all
this would seem to be the most relevant place to forward this.
r7
----- Forwarded message from darkveggy <darkveggy at squat.net> -----
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 22:47:36 +0200
From: darkveggy <darkveggy at squat.net>
Reply-To: darkveggy <darkveggy at squat.net>
Subject: meeting to defend our autonomous servers - an invitation
To: tech at squat.net, info at tuxic.nl, shadow-process at lists.aktivix.org,
root at aktivix.org, collective at lists.riseup.net, info at so36.net, nadir at nadir.org,
root at cryptix.de
(for french & spanish translations of this message, see
http://stamp.poivron.org/DigitalStruggles/ServerDefense)
Hi there,
What follows is an invitation to participate in a discussion on the
defense of autonomous servers and alternative communication structures.
It is planned as part of a « digital struggles » focus, during the
European People's Global Action (PGA) [1] conference, that is to happen
around France from August 19th to September 3rd. More information on PGA
and the conference itself can be found at the end of this message, and
by following its links.
This invitation is sent to the following servers' administrators:
squat.net, inventati.org, ecn.org, sindominio.net, nadir.org, so36.net,
domainepublic.net, nodo50.org, boum.org, poivron.org, moviments.net,
no-log.org, samizdat.net, tuxic.nl, altern.org, aktivix.org, riseup.net,
resist.ca, and a few others. The realisation of this discussion space
and its extent highly depend on feedback this call generates. Please
tell if/how you're (not) interested, wanna contribute something, can or
cannot participate, etc., by mailing stamp-ds at pgaconference.org.
In short, this moment intends to bring us admins together to discuss the
current situation, share experiences, envision strategies, and possibly
organise. It also aims at facilitating an encounter in between those who
provide these online services and their users, namely the activist
community, in order to confront incoming repressions altogether. This
would happen in between the 19th & the 28th of August 2006, at the
autonomous space « Les Tanneries », in Dijon, France. A more in depth
explanation follows.
c o n t e x t
- - - - - - -
Over the last few years, the Internet has become a main tool for radical
activism. Decentralized action organizing, broader networking &
communication, Indymedia, web-radios & various counter-information
initiatives, content dissemination & movement visibility, collaborative
writing & knowledge sharing, among others... have been facilitated,
extended, or sometimes even allowed by activist appropriation of
computing, with a number of initiatives now being dependent upon the
Internet as a result.
As radical techies, anar(cho)geeks, hacklab members, keyboard squatters,
tech-aware activists, autonomous administrators... we've often directly
participated in that evolution, advocating subversive uses of new
technologies, hacking free software & sharing knowledge with passion,
running servers for revolution. We've seen (most of) our friends leave
hotmail behind, https eventually becoming trendy, and more and more
people & groups, projects & campaigns, hosted on our machines, rather
than feeding some company.
p r o b l e m
- - - - - - -
Internet has long been a relatively safe place to be, exempt from harsh
government policy. But times have changed, and are changing even more
rapidly: with information society comes data retention, which translates
to compulsory user tracability and administrator responsability. All
over Europe, countries are adjusting their legal frameworks to enforce
police access to logs, and sweep away Internet privacy. Server seizures
& intrusions by officials, be they legal or not, have increased lately,
and, among others, have targetted Indymedia & Inventati.
As users, we face the risk of our digital intimacy being revealed to
authorities; but as administrators, we face direct repression if we
refuse to comply, to log, to denounce - to become police assistants as
we're expected to - now, sooner or later. Because our tech activism
involves spreading voices so that they can't be shut by authorities,
because providing alternative communication structures for our movements
implies helping ourselves, as activists, to stay safe in the cyberworld,
we can only refuse the emergence of such securitarian policy, nor can we
ignore the risks we face acting accordingly.
There has yet been little mobilisation against those measures, and
though all could directly be affected, most activists aren't aware of
the situation, hence not ready to react if something bad happens. While
independent servers have become crucial & sensitive hubs of our
communication, there seems to be very little awareness of their
importance, of the need for their defense & preservation. While we will
easily mobilize to defend a common ressource such as a social centre
threatened with eviction, how many will we be to fight a legal agression
against our digital structures of communication?
r e a c t i o n ?
- - - - - - - - -
Isn't it time to address this underlying problem? How can we stress the
importance of our structures of communication, raise awareness about
their potential vulnerability, and, most importantly, build solidarity?
The « digital struggles » focus within the PGA could be one such space
for addressing these issues; it could allow us all - admins and users -
to meet, share and build perspectives around our digital services &
communities.
Furthermore, this could be a space for inter-server coordination,
collective thought and experience-sharing around our technical
developments & practices. Traditionnally, admin work is carried by a
single techie, and it's hard to participate for anyone who's not an
expert already; do we manage to organise differently? Lately, some
collectives have implemented and tried out methods for administrating
computer ressources collectively; how can we merge political concerns in
our way of doing things and the practical need of keeping a machine
running? Etc.
So much for proposals. As of now, a few individuals from squat.net,
poivron.org, no-log.org, boum.org, indymedia.org have announced their
participation, a presentation of metche [2] is expected (metche is a
program designed to ease team work on a server, developped by the
boum.org collective), as well as a tor workshop. The rest depends on
further contributions & answers to this invitation. Please send
reactions to stamp-ds at pgaconference.org !
o n " p g a "
- - - - - - - -
PGA is an international anti-authoritarian & anti-capitalist network,
whose principles are defined within the "PGA Hallmarks" [3]. Every two
years, the European PGA conference allows a number of activists from
various collectives across Europe to meet, have fun, share experiences &
strategies, build affinities, organise campaigns & prepare actions. This
year, the conference is facilitated by the STAMP collective, a coalition
of diverse activist types from all around France.
For the first time, the conference will take place in a decentralized
fashion: the first part will be distributed over 5 sites (Lyon,
Toulouse, Limousin, Frayssinous, Dijon), each simultaneously hosting
discussions on specific subjects, from August 19th to August 28th; the
second part will bring participants altogether in Dijon, from August
30th to September 3rd, after two days off for travelling & chilling-out.
The « digital struggles » focus [4] will take place in Dijon, during the
first - decentralized - conference moment. It will be hosted by « Les
Tanneries » [5], an anarchist social centre, squatted since 1998, home
of the PRINT hacklab [6], among miscellaneous other projects. Other main
local topics will include « defense & preservation of autonomous spaces
» [7] « when streets are burning: accounts & perspectives on unrest in
France, spring 2006; challenging the ghettoisation of radical struggles
» [8].
l i n k s
- - - - -
[1] http://pgaconference.org/
http://stamp.poivron.org/
http://www.agp.org/
[2] https://poivron.org/dev/metche
[3] http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/pga/hallm.htm
[4] http://stamp.poivron.org/DigitalStruggles
[5] http://squat.net/tanneries/
[6] http://print.squat.net/
[7] http://stamp.poivron.org/EspacesAutonomes
[8] http://stamp.poivron.org/WhenStreetsAreBurning
--
d a r k v e g g y - gnupg key @ http://garlicviolence.org/gpg.asc
----- End forwarded message -----
--
r7 [at] aktivix [dot] org
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