A call-out for anti-repression workshops at the PGA conference in Greece

hi here is a call out for antirepresion workshops at the PGA conference
.. Please is anybody in kommotini can translate it into greek would be
great i think is a topic related to issues that Greek activists involve
for years now

A call-out for anti-repression workshops at the PGA and international
reports of attacks to political spaces, erosion of political freedoms,
and repression over the past decades

We suppose there is no need to explain why and how important
anti-repression activities and mutual support are, especially now. In
the last two decades the situation in the world has changed
drastically. Neoliberal reforms, privatization, precarisation,
gentrification. New labour, housing and other codes. To shut up the
discontents and dissidents new anti-terrorist and anti-extremist laws
were enacted. At the same time systems of control and surveillance
were developed.

For the 5th European PGA conference, we propose a series of workshops
on anti-repression to elaborate strategies to fight mounting state
terror and to strengthen our solidarity. To gain practical benefits
from these workshops we would like to prepare a good basis, then we can
concentrate directly on more practical issues. We ask people to write
an overview of the attacks to political spaces, erosion of political
freedoms, and repression, that have happened in their countries over
the past decades and send them in before the PGA conference or to
bring them
with you. Please, send your overviews, ideas, analyses to
antirep@riseup.net. To give you a starting point we prepared a list of
questions. You can base your overview on this list, you can give
answers to the questions, or you can just ignore it :) Whichever you
prefer.

Even if you do not plan to go to the 5th European PGA conference and
you have something to say, please feel free to contribute to the
project. It might also be a good idea to inform us that you are going
to write something on your country since there might be other people
writing
something as well, with whom you can coordinate and cooperate. For
coordination and preparation of the workshops you can also subscribe
to the mailing list legalguides@squat.net. We also have an idea of
publishing the collected information (maybe as wiki-page, maybe
somehow else).

Some of us have experience from anti-repression workshops at the
Leiden PGA conference 2002 and the Belgrade PGA conference 2004, some
from the Dijon PGA conference 2006, where the International Legal
Guide project http://legal.squat.net/ was started, where we made the
first
attempt to develop some kind of international overview of the attacks
and erosion of our political space over the past decade.

We would like to make such workshops more effective. Thus, we would
like to avoid repeatable and endless presentations from different
countries and cities, instead we would like to print such
presentations as a readout so that people could familiarize themselves
with the information prior to the workshop. We would also try to
summarize different experiences and make a short overall presentation
in the beginning – however the main focus would be in evaluation of
the already existing projects and discussion about new ones. This does
not mean that people not involved in such a work are not welcome –
quite the contrary, however we do not have the luxury of spending a
rare occasion of international workshops for talking about issues
which everyone may read about from internet anytime.

We are therefore looking for analyses of legal changes and strategies
of repression of grassroots activism in your city or country over the
past five or ten years. Generally speaking, we would like to know how
has repression and social control increased in your country over the
past five to ten years? In which ways does your government try to
suppress the discontents (e.g. harsher accusations, easier
convictions, higher sentences, more state violence at demonstrations
and public spaces to intimidate, high claims for damage, use of
surveillance)?

List of questions:
What new laws have been introduced? e.g. Anti-terrorist legislation,
Civil Laws (housing, labour etc.), Public Order legislation/freedom of
assembly (such as the Criminal Justice Act in the UK, or the Codigo
Penal in Spain, Identification Duty in the Netherlands), etc.

How could these laws be passed and accepted? How has society reacted?

How have those laws been applied? Has the boundaries of these laws
been extended or functions changed (‘function creep’)? Differences
between theory and practice (legislation and repression practices)

Changes in the judicial system (e.g. Precedent Law in France,
restrictions for appealing in the Netherlands).

Suppression of different political rights and freedoms (in legislation
and in practice): restrictions of freedom of speech and assembly, to
express your opinion and demonstrate (easier to be
arrested and convicted nowadays; denormalization of government critics).

How has the practice of social control changed?
Use of preventive measures ~ ‘possibility of offence is
punishable’ (e.g. preventive arrests, ASBO in the UK, etc.)

How are they using surveillance? (e.g. Patriot Act in US, CCTV,
Phone tapping, ID cards and controls, travel cards, etc.)

Who are the main targets of this repression? (e.g. migrants,
activists, minors, subcultures participants)

Use of anti-terrorist / anti-extremist legislation to repress protest
(e.g. 129a in Germany), and other legislations (e.g. lock up anonymous
activists in deportation prisons in the Netherlands)

Changes in jail/prison/detention centres system (privatization
processes, etc.)

What impact has this had on grassroots political activity and on
society in general?

Descriptions (links at internet and other publications) of the most
outrageous cases of repressions

Strategies of counteracting repressions

Groups, collectives, and so on dealing with repressions in your country/city

Is there anything else you think is important to know about the
situation in your city/country?