Anti-Repression Network

For information on the Anti-Repression Network, contact Josie at djin_68@yahoo.com

Article 1 - Structure of the Network

1) It is a primary value of our vision of the Network that it not be centralized or inclined towards centralization. As such, when we talk about services and projects, we make it clear that these will, in all occasions, be the responsibility of groups, normally local, founded to provide these services or to implement these projects. In a practical sense this means that if a group decides to manage/administer a web site, for example, the web site will be understood to be a project of that group and accountable to the policies determined by that group, and will not act to prevent another group designing another web site with different policies.

In more plain language, we do not one to create a unique or centralized or exclusionary system. Every group is free to offer a service to the network, and the extent to which other members of the network use this service will be determined by their interest in the service offered.

2) The network will, in general, consist of two separate parts, a ‘public’ and a ‘private’ part. There should be no confusion between the two. Nothing from the private network should be posted to the public network. It is the responsibility of a group providing information to determine what they consider to be public or private. If a group publishes something on the private network, no other member of the private network is permitted to publish that in a public way, either on our network resources or on others. When a group wishes to publish a news update/communiqué/press statement or other public statement, they should use the public network to avoid confusion.

3) As security, trust, and reliability take time to establish, and as this will have to be done on a case by case basis between groups, the private network will be slow in developing, but the public network can be made relatively quickly. Starting off, everything discussed, posted, said should be considered to be public and not secure. Still, we ask members of the email list to use caution, and not simply post emails to public news/discussion sites.

4) The Network will allow a multiplicity of visions and tactics. Not every member of the Network is expected to take part in the projects of all the others, nor to use the tactics and strategies of the others. As a member of the Network it is your responsibility to determine how you want to work, how and with who you want to cooperate, and what strategies you wish to use. For example, if a migrants rights group does not wish to do support work for political prisoners, that is fine, and, of course, if they do, that is also fine.

In the medium term (next months) we would like all the groups taking part in the Network to draft a statement or declaration describing their activities and interests and how they would like to participate in the move (a more detailed explanation of what should be in such statements will be in a separate article). These statements will act as a ‘contract’ explaining to other members of the Network, the interests and capabilities of each Network member and the responsibilities each Network member is willing to accept and which they are not.

Since many of us who have been involved before, during and after the g8 Summit here in Genoa have been particularly interested in this Network, we realize that we will have to help build some more elements of the Network than our local situation would normally require. As such, despite the lack of local resources and other responsibilities, we are willing to provide some of the concrete elements of the Network, as well as also taking on our local responsibilities within the Network.

In particular, we will start to develop a public web site with a Content Management System (CMS), somewhat like that used by sites such as Indymedia. However, there will be some clear differences from the Indymedia approach.

First, it will not be an ‘open posting’ site. We will take on the responsibility to make sure that posts to our site come from members of the Network, and reflect public statements from those members. This will, at the beginning, be difficult, as we do not have the information, aside from a few personal contacts, to determine who is authorized to speak for a group or organization. We will, in the coming period, be accessible to the Network members to establish networks of trust (using methods such as PGP, secure servers, phone contacts or other methods that are of use to the Network members). It is important that groups wishing to use this public site talk with us on how they wish to authenticate their statements/news/communiqués. In those documents we publish we will attempt to explain (as a footnote) how these statements have been authenticated or not, and how an independent person could attempt to verify the accuracy of those statements. Beyond this we cannot be held accountable for the material published on our site.

Second, we reserve the right not to publish any document that we, in Genoa, find objectionable. Since we are an open and decentralized network, this does not prohibit some other group to make another web site with different policies.

Third, we will start to collect documents and provide information on the realities of security in the current context, as well as provide at ftp site including collections of security software that we feel are effective. We will also start to draft our suggestions for standards for communication and security within the Network and between groups in the Network. None of this should be taken to exclude other approaches offered by other Network members.

Fourth, we will start to build a local office with computer/fax/phone resources to act as support for this project, and will attempt to arrange hospitality for anyone wishing to visit us for personal collaboration.

Fifth, we will start to compile prison support information for groups and individuals wishing to write, mail packages, or otherwise assist people in prison. For the time being this will consist of publicly available information posted by groups on public web sites. We ask that groups working in prison support to check the information posted on our site and inform us of incorrect information, and to inform us of updates to the information on a regular basis.

Article 2 - Resources in the Network - Genoa

Here we describe some of the practical resources for the International Network Against Repression that we are discussing providing from Genoa, Italy.

Since many of us who have been involved before, during and after the g8 Summit here in Genoa have been particularly interested in this Network, we realize that we will have to help build some more elements of the Network than our local situation would normally require. As such, despite the lack of local resources and other responsibilities, we are willing to provide some of the concrete elements of the Network, as well as also taking on our local responsibilities within the Network.

In particular, we will start to develop a public web site with a Content Management System (CMS), somewhat like that used by sites such as Indymedia. However, there will be some clear differences from the Indymedia approach.

First, it will not be an ‘open posting’ site. We will take on the responsibility to make sure that posts to our site come from members of the Network, and reflect public statements from those members. This will, at the beginning, be difficult, as we do not have the information, aside from a few personal contacts, to determine who is authorized to speak for a group or organization. We will, in the coming period, be accessible to the Network members to establish networks of trust (using methods such as PGP, secure servers, phone contacts or other methods that are of use to the Network members). It is important that groups wishing to use this public site talk with us on how they wish to authenticate their statements/news/communiqués. In those documents we publish we will attempt to explain (as a footnote) how these statements have been authenticated or not, and how an independent person could attempt to verify the accuracy of those statements. Beyond this we cannot be held accountable for the material published on our site.

Second, we reserve the right not to publish any document that we, in Genoa, find objectionable. Since we are an open and decentralized network, this does not prohibit some other group to make another web site with different policies.

Third, we will start to collect documents and provide information on the realities of security in the current context, as well as provide at ftp site including collections of security software that we feel are effective. We will also start to draft our suggestions for standards for communication and security within the Network and between groups in the Network. None of this should be taken to exclude other approaches offered by other Network members.

Fourth, we will start to build a local office with computer/fax/phone resources to act as support for this project, and will attempt to arrange hospitality for anyone wishing to visit us for personal collaboration.

Fifth, we will start to compile prison support information for groups and individuals wishing to write, mail packages, or otherwise assist people in prison. For the time being this will consist of publicly available information posted by groups on public web sites. We ask that groups working in prison support to check the information posted on our site and inform us of incorrect information, and to inform us of updates to the information on a regular basis.

We will provide more detailed information as this project develops and as it becomes available.

Article 3 - Suggested elements of Network member declarations

In this article we will attempt to describe the types of things that should be included in the statements or declarations of Network members about how they intend to participate in the Network.

1)Statements should be short, clear, and deal with practical matters.

2)Comments about vision and philosophy can be included in the introduction.

3)Statements should include a description of the work currently engaged in by the group. For example, if you are providing support packages for prisoners, organizing benefit concerts, doing Media work on repressive laws, managing a drop-in center for migrants, etc., please detail them, except, of course, where such detail would be counter productive for your work. This part of the Statement is so that other groups in the Network can better understand who they are working with and how they might want to cooperate.

4)Statements should include a description of the services you are willing to provide to the Network, and how you would like the Network to help you in your work. Clearly, not all groups participating will have the same capabilities, and it is important that those with more resources and expertise help those with less.

5)Statements should include clear descriptions of what type of work you ARE willing to commit to and what type of work you ARE NOT. We do not ask anyone to do anything they are unable or unwilling to do, however, if you commit to do something, we would expect you to follow through on that commitment.

6)Statements should include contact information of some type that the group agrees to maintain (for example, postal address, phone, email, or other). If the contact information you have, at this time, is temporary, please state this in the statement, along with the period it will be valid for. It is simple to get a relatively anonymous email address, and we encourage that as many groups as possible at least maintain an email address which will be checked at least once a week. In Genoa we can provide assistance on how to get such an email address if you don’t know.

7)We ask that you do not include anything in your Statement that you would object to having published.

8)These Statements can be amended and changed at any time.

When we have drafted our local Statements we will provide them as models for discussion by other groups.

top of page