question time WAS Re: [ssf] 16th Febr: ID campaigners offer participation

[Phil Booth]

mud wrote:
> participation
>
>
> Dan wrote:
>> On no2id - there are some rumours circulating that it's another
>> bl**dy SWP front, so we may have to tread a little carefully.
>
> was it a rumour, or a rumour of a rumour ?
>
>> (And hopefully the rumours are wrong...)
>
> erm ... i asked Phil quite a few questions about how the campaign came
> about and who was involved ... i can't remember the fine detail but
> Phil managed to allay this fear in me ... i've copied him in, so that
> he has the opportunity to refute this rumour on our list
>
> --
> mud

Thanks, mud :)

I think someone may be spreading this rumour under the mistaken
assumption that we are in some way in competition with Defy-ID and be
trying to scare people off, as most of the references to NO2ID & SWP
that I have found via Google (mainly comments on lists & fora) seem to
refer people directly to Defy-ID. You could tell I was a little
surprised to hear this when I was up in Sheffield, especially having
just come over from a meeting with Defy-ID in Manchester the day before!

For the record, NO2ID isn't a front for *any* political party, SWP or
otherwise. We are utterly non-partisan (our former National Coordinator
had to stand down because he got a job with the Lib Dems!) and will
never affiliate to any political party or with any particular political
grouping. NO2ID is a single issue pressure group, concerned with
stopping ID cards and the National Identity Register.

NO2ID was originally formed out of an informal alliance of people from
established civil liberties and privacy organisations - including
Liberty, Charter88, Privacy International, FIPR and Stand - which has,
since May of last year, grown to be a broad-based coalition of
organisations and individuals all of whom oppose ID cards, many for
different reasons.

Our supporters include people from across the political spectrum, from
members of Globalise Resistance (which may be where some people are
making an SWP association?) and the Radical Activist Network through to
The Freedom Association and everywhere in between. Check out our website
www.no2id.net for a current list, but I don't think you'd find many
card-carrying Tories working alongside die-hard Trades Union People in
an SWP front!

The whole point of joining NO2ID is that, even if you personally don't
agree with the politics of everyone involved, you are utterly against ID
cards and the NIR and want to do something to stop them. Simple as.

On that basis, the campaign is currently growing at a rate of over 1,000
per week and we are raising public awareness (e.g. with meetings like
the one in Cambridge last night), getting media coverage (we've been
published in most of the national papers, and interviewed on local and
national radio, and on TV) and applying pressure to the politicians
(e.g. our supporters have written literally hundreds of letters to their
MPs, and we're working with Councils and Unions to get whole towns and
cities, trades and professions out against ID control). And that's just
for starters...

I hope this sets your minds at rest, and would appreciate you nipping
this rumour in the bud if you come across it again.


Phil Booth
National Coordinator, NO2ID



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