Emergency NYC Forum Responds to Government Spying:
We will not be complicit. We do not consent. We take responsibility to act.
June 30, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The most massive government spying/surveillance program in history has been revealed. Through a courageous and self-sacrificing act by Edward Snowden, people now know the U.S. has been monitoring and storing information about the phone calls and Internet communications of literally billions across the planet. The powers-that-be are now engaging in high-stakes damage control. They want and need to frighten people into submission so they are telling people: “don’t worry,” just go along with “the new normal”—as Guantánamo remains open and drones strike terror in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere.
Performers from BradAss87, a play about Bradley Manning; and renowned monologist Mike Daisey, from the Whistleblower Theater founder/director Claire Lebowitz.
This is a pivotal moment. There is a real political battle that must be fought, with high stakes.
In the face of this situation, World Can’t Wait (WCW) stepped forward to give direction to, and to provide a vehicle for expressing, mass outrage. With less than a week of organizing time, WCW called for an emergency forum on June 19 at Cooper Union under the slogans: “No Government Spying on Whole Populations. Close Guantánamo Now. Hands off Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning.” A critical anchor of the outreach and the program was the Guantánamo statement that appeared as a paid ad in the New York Times on May 23: “Close Guantánamo Now”.
This event, co-sponsored by the Continuing Education Department, Cooper Union, was the first major political and cultural response to the spying revelations. Very significantly, a core of people came together to make this event happen, to participate in it, to build it, and reach out to others to take a strong stand: No, we will not be complicit. We do not consent. We take responsibility to act.
Speakers and participants for this powerful and inspiring evening, attended by 230 people, included Debra Sweet, World Can’t Wait; Dennis Loo, professor at Cal Poly, Pomona; Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild; spoken word artist Aladdin; Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst turned political activist; Andy Zee, Revolution Books; Whistleblower Theater Founder/Director Claire Lebowitz with a performance from BradAss87, a play about Bradley Manning; and renowned monologist Mike Daisey.
The program gave people a deeper understanding of the larger situation—what is happening and why, with different speakers coming at it from various angles and perspectives. Some spoke from radical democratic perspectives, and Andy Zee from Revolution Books presented a revolutionary communist analysis (see speech).
What came through was not only the enormity and illegitimacy of the spying program, but its connection to the unjust and immoral “war on terror.” People spoke about the ratcheting up of repression against whistleblowers and the escalation of surveillance at home, the war crimes being carried out in our name, and our responsibility to act. The heroism of Bradley Manning, and how he has been punished and tortured for disclosing U.S. war crimes, was a major focus of the event.
At the end of the evening, many left with a greater sense of determination to ACT. Mike Daisey expressed this at the end of his talk, “It really does my heart good to hear people who understand that this is serious, that something is happening, that things need to be done.”
Off of this event concrete plans were made on how to act: Going to DC on June 24 and beyond to join the ongoing vigil to bring public attention to the dire situation facing imprisoned people’s lawyer Lynne Stewart and her case for a “compassionate release.” Demanding that Obama close Guantánamo NOW and joining the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, June 26 at the White House. Supporting Bradley Manning at the trial at Fort Meade which resumes June 25. (Go to worldcantwait.net for information on how to get involved in all of this.)
To watch the full program go to worldcantwait.net
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The following are excerpts from speeches and statements from the emergency forum:
Ray McGovern:
They were going to shoot Haushofer [a geologist at the University of Berlin who spoke out against the Nazis] but before they did this, the Germans were very orderly and they said you have to sign a confession and Haushofer wouldn’t do it. They shot him anyway and as they picked him up off the floor a little zettel, a little piece of paper [fell out], and it was his confession, and it was composed in the form of a sonnet. I’m going to share it with you, it’s very brief.
Doch bin ich schuldig, aber anders al Ihr denkt
Yes, I am guilty but it’s not what you’re thinking.
Ich musste früher meine Pflicht erkennen;Ich musste schärfer Unheil Unheil nennen.
I should have recognized my duty earlier; I should have more sharply called out evil.
Mein Urteil habe ich zu lang gelenkt.
I put off my judgment far too long.
Ich habe gewarnt, aber nicht genug, und klar.
I did warn but not enough, and clear.
Und heute weiß ich, was ich schuldig war.
Today, I recognize what I was guilty of.
Dr. King said famously, there is such a thing as too late, folks. As I look out at you tonight, I see a recognition that it is getting to be near that time. We’re not going to be obedient, servile Germans, and we’re not going to be conned by the upper crust. We’re going to seek the truth, we’re going to find it, and then we’re going to act on it. Thank you very much.
Message from Tom Morello:
“I have another name for the so called “whistleblowers” who are responsible for shining a bright and revealing light on the secret crimes of our government. I call ’em RIGHTEOUS HEROES. From exposing the murder of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan to blowing the lid off the outrageous NSA “Big Brother Is Watching You” conspiracy against We The People, there is nothing more courageous than persons of conscience risking their freedom and risking their lives in the hopes of creating a more just, more free, more peaceful planet.
So when the powers that be try to intimidate YOU into towing the line and bowing your head in quiet acquiescence I recommend raising your voices with deafening thunder and quote that old gospel spiritual that rings as true today as the day it was written: FUCK YOU I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!!”
Mike Daisey:
I would not have imagined in 2008 that he [Obama] would be the architect of making it so much worse. Like I did not really understand or imagine that not only would he passively let those policies continue but that he would deepen them and extend them. And I think this is the most important betrayal, that he would entrench them because there was sort of this idea I think in a lot of people in this country that we exist in this sort of dichotomy, flipping back and forth between one side and the other, that we have two sides, that really, that when the sides switch, that anything that’s gone too far will be pulled back. I don’t think that’s true. I think there are two sides, there are two sides of one coin and the metal that makes up that coin is the corporatism, that is woven around the structure that embeds us in where we live. And I didn’t understand that. I didn’t understand that he would actually do the things that he’s done. I didn’t understand that he would go after whistleblowers the way that he has. I didn’t understand that he would clamp down. I didn’t understand how false his promises about Guantánamo were. I didn’t understand that he would do so little and as we’re now discovering empower so much because now there’s no even illusion, you can see that in the coverage this week after Snowden, you can see that the dominant tone, the dominant messaging that is coming up from the Mandarins, from the people who are carrying the dominant messaging is that this is the new normal. That was really the dangerous problem and it has never actually had this messaging before—the message is you gave up these rights a long time ago, you just didn’t understand that you did, now you understand it and it’s fucking over, the conversation was actually over in 2001, you just weren’t awake for that and now it’s over and that’s appalling...
Heidi Boghosian
If you’re aware of the possibility that your conversations and correspondences may be monitored it affects the way you communicate...We have a government that’s cloaked in secrecy. And as you can see by the whistleblowers and leakers that we so honor and owe a debt of gratitude to, information is carefully being guarded and let to sift out according to what message the Obama administration wants to send us.... I think it’s important when people say “I’m not doing anything wrong, I have nothing to worry about,” that you remind them that if we don’t exercise our hard fought First Amendment rights and Fourth Amendment protections that were designed to shield us from an overreaching government, and not the other way around, that our democracy is indeed very imperiled.
Debra Sweet:
Kevin Gosztola [who is reporting from the Bradley Manning trial] told me last night that the trial is suspended for several weeks and it’s going very quickly. There is going to be a quick conviction and the rest of the summer will be spent working on sentencing. But the troubling part of that is that there are very few of the public at the trial and the prosecutors are saying “See anybody can come in but they just don’t care.” So I am going down to Fort Meade next week and I want to know who’s going with me?
Dennis Loo:
Saying “I’ve nothing to hide” means giving up NOT only your right to privacy but even more importantly, giving up your right to dissent AND everybody else’s right to dissent—ever. The Fourth Amendment guarantees against “unreasonable search and seizure.” It requires the government to have “probable cause” for issuing warrants to search and seize persons and/or their possessions. As such it is the cornerstone of the Firstst Amendment. Why? Free speech and free assembly become impossible if authorities obliterate all privacy and know everything there is to know about everybody—who they associate with, who their friends and foes are, what they think, what they read and watch, how they spend their money, what they are afraid of, what they plan to do next, etc.
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