Gary McKinnon: the making of a miscarriage of justice

So Alan Johnson stills wants to extradite Gary McKinnon (interesting piece as well by Henry Porter).

Where is the justice in extraditing Gary McKinnon, what purpose will it serve? McKinnon has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, and surely the terror and anxiety of extradition will cause further distress. This is indeed a very cruel punishment for a man, who became a DIY hacker to find out how much the American state knew about UFOs. Pure and simple, that was the method in his madness.

And now the American state want to punish him for exposing their sloppy security and to make an example, a sacrificial lamb, by using the convenient excuse of the century ‘War on Terror’. An excuse that gives the state a right, in their eyes, to shed civil liberties and freedoms.

And people like Gary McKinnon are collateral damage.

Feminism: isn’t it about solidarity and unity for all women..?!

I have been mulling this over for a couple of days as the Reclaim the Night demo last Saturday had kinda profound and demoralising impact on me. Suppose I just want to add a few more thing and said quite a bit at Helen’s blog (thanks as well for the solidarity).

Being shouted at and witnessing other women being shouted at for supporting rights of sex workers, also many of these women were questioned at the start of the demo by the police, why the hell were the agents of the state set on these women? It is utterly outrageous, it just seemed a way of silencing these women and criminalising them. Wrong, utterly stupidly wrong!

It also took me back 20-odd years ago at a LP women’s section meeting where we were discussing having a meeting on pornography and violence against women. My intervention consisted of suggesting that we should debate the various different views regarding pornography and censorship rather than just having a conference predicated on one line i.e. pro-censorship and that it is up to make up their own minds. The reply, literally, blew me away as I was told (and has been inscribed in my psyche) that feminists like myself who live in their ivory towers don’t understand violence and that if I had experienced violence then I would support a pro-censorship position. I remember sitting there feeling powerless wanting the floor to swallow me up. I couldn’t grasp what precisely I had said to warrant this level of personal outburst. It hurt and the words stuck especially as it had been only 8 mths previously that my then boyfriend had hit me for the last time.

So then 1989 onwards to 2009, that’s was what I was reminded me while being shouted at. Our material experiences shape our politics for sure but we still need critical analysis/politics not where everything is reduced to the personal. That’s not debate. What I am trying to say, to articulate is debate me on my views, my politics instead of throwing personal insults at me or making assumptions of my life experiences.

Debates, fundamentally, need counter-balanced arguments which are unfortunately left out of the political equation and therefore if you don’t hold a certain line on sex work and pornography then you are marginalised, silenced and no platformed. It is about controlling the debate which stymies debate and openness. I admit my politics are contrary to these given prescriptives as I am anti-censorship of porn (certainly oppose state censorship) and support the decriminisation and unionisation of sex workers.

Those are my views and I believe I have every right to argue them within the feminist movement and everyone who opposes me has every right to argue against me. That’s debate, that’s democracy.

Finally, I define myself as a socialist feminist and last weekend just made me realise how the feminist movement seems lost in the past unable to move on. The feminist movement is about highlighting, campaigning, challenging and fighting against patriarchal norms that exist in a capitalist society,  Twenty years ago and twenty years on it all seems stuck in the same repetitive groove. Being a feminist is part of my political make-up, it is all about solidarity, unity and making alliances that will create a strong vibrant and dynamic movement that is open to debate and differences of opinion. It is also about solidarity with sex workers and trans women. Solidarity and unity for all women is the key.

Reminder: Candlelit vigil to remember Ian Tomlinson

Eight months after Ian Tomlinson’s death, his family invite you to a

CANDLELIT VIGIL
to remember Ian Tomlinson

As well as Ian’s family, speakers include:

Samantha Rigg David – Sean Rigg Justice & Change Campaign
Deborah Coles – INQUEST
John McDonnell MP

Tuesday 1st December
from 6pm – 7.15pm

At: Royal Exchange by Threadneedle Street, London, EC3V 3LL
Nearest tube: Bank

Ian died in tragic circumstances, an ‘innocent passerby’ trying to get home, after a police assault at the G20 protests on April 1st 2009.

Eight months on, our family are preparing for our first Christmas without him and still waiting for justice.

We have been grateful for public support this year and would like an opportunity to hold this public memorial gathering to remember Ian, with our friends and supporters around us.

We ask that those who attend please wear black as a mark of respect and remember that this is peaceful event.

PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU ARE COMING so we can estimate numbers and please send messages of support – a number of these will be read out at the vigil.

RSVP to iantomlinsonfamilycampaign@gmail.com

And…

On a separate but connected topic climate camp protesters win judicial review of G20 police tactics (via Random Blowe)