From: Dave Bird---St Hippo of Augustine <dave@xemu.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Picket Report, LONDON(UK) Sat 18th July
Date: 1998/07/19
Message-ID: <sjdfWDAj3ms1EwLb@xemu.demon.co.uk>#1/1
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology

Three men and a gog arrived 11:30am at the secret rendezvous near London bOrg which is at 68 Tottenham Court Road. We went round there noon on the dot and gave it some welly until ten past; no students were seen. We popped back for lunch, and resumed at 13:00. My self and Hartley were leafletting, Roland was photographer, and Jens arrived shortly afterwards with the boombox. The cops were great: one police man & one police woman were there for pretty much half a shift, propping up the "A"-boards of a nearby sandwich shop and scoffing coffee, while they viewed on us taking the piss out of the clams
watching for potential trouble\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
as a hilarious entertainment in which all that lacked was popcorn. Jens arrived with the boombox and I gave it half an hour basic patter, then half an hour of Hubbard repeating his silliest remarks over and over on tape, then half an hour of me, than half an hour of Hubbard.

Highlights: a new clamspore ran to the cops "are the allowed to photograph me", not knowing or caring how much the clams photograph us. Later on there was a hilarious scene of Roland, versus Coco the Pencil Necked Geek, snapping back and forth at each other with cameras (watching me watching you watching....). I had my nice new teeshirt which had:

in read, green and black on white.

The clams went to enormous lengths to make sure they got a good photograph of my back, which has the famous six lines of OT7-48 about talking to plants and trees until your communication is received. This was the stuff they sued the Washington Times for, and lost. Ironically it seems likely they had no standing to sue since the version of the O.T.Levels in the Fishman affidavit had been passed round widely in the freezone and adulterated, i.e. the six lines may be squirrel material added after it left CoS hands.

About ten ot twelve of them were tied up countering four of us. We carried on until 15:15 then went back down the pub, as this was an optional extra to our main action on Sunday. A further report follows on that.

===
From: Dave Bird---St Hippo of Augustine <dave@xemu.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Internet Motions at AGM of NCCL/Liberty, London[#UK#]Sun19th.
Date: 1998/07/07
Message-ID: <5lH63RAbmgo1Ewp6@xemu.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.crypto,uk.politics.censorship,alt.religion.scientology, alt.homosexual,uk.politics.misc.talk.politics.crypto, uk.politics.censorship,

#######################################################################
ANNUAL_GENERAL_MEETING of LIBERTY/the NationalCouncil for CivilLiberies
at the L.V.S.C. by Holloway Road ==0== London, on Sunday 19th July 1998
#######################################################################

There is a vague general motion on the Internet with amendments down on CRYPTYO(against specific insecrure schemes) & CENSORSHIP(against RSACi) in my name.There is also a motion down by representatives of the Church of SCIENTOLOGY saying in disguised terms how hard done they are, and amendments down in my name correcting falsehoods in it --- specifically their disdain for the rights of others who according to Hubbard should not have citizenship rights if not CoS members, and their wonderful attitude to gay people whomHubbard talks of being"dispose[d] of quietly and without sorrow", and like lepers to be "collected and destroyed".

Details of attending and joining can be got from Liberty / NCCL at 21 Tabard Street, London, SE1 4LA, 0171 403 3888 fone 407 5354 fax.

+----------------------------------------------------------+

The problem with the Internet motion is that it is very waffly without specifics on Crypto and Ratings.

ORIGINAL MOTION:
This AGM, noting:---
(a) the ease with which electronic communications are capable of being
intercepted and the...potential for curtialment of the right to privacy
(b) that the Labour Party's manifesto for the election opposed the
introduction of compulsory key escrow....
(c) that parents should nto abrogate their responsibility to monitor
how their children use the Internet; and
(d) the moral panic which has arisen in response to the Internet,

Resolves:---
(1) to oppose any legislation limiting the availability of strong
encyption; (2) to oppose any form of mandatory key escrow;
(3) to oppose any disprroportionate attempt by government to limit
access to material on the Internet;
(4) that laws restricting the content of om-line speech should
distinguish between the liability of content providers and [ISPs];
(5) that Liberty should be actively involved in the protection and
extension of human rights in relation to the Internet.

all very well and good, but short on specifics....

AMENDMENTS

<A> In (b) add at end ", and that the relevant policy document has recently been removed from their website"

<B> At end of motion add "It opposes:-- the idea of handing encrytpion keys to 'untrustworthy third parties' and any linkage of this irrelevant requirement to the provision of licensed digital signatures, or pushing of unsafe encyption through semi-official bodies which will set small businesses up for data theft, or requiring hospitals etc to use unsafe encryption thus putting at risk the confidences of their clients. It notes the objections of the law society and the BMA to their memebers using unsafe encryption."

<C>At end of motion add "It believes that the Internet is largely a text medium with news and campaigning elements, which cannot be treated as an entertainment to which sex & violence may be aritrarily added to increase sales. It notes that Microsoft's news service MSNBC was forced to drop Microsoft's rating system RSACi, because it is impracticable to require such ratings of news reporting e.g. of newspaper sites where the very same text would not need such ratings in paper form. It opposes any attempts to foist such children's entertainment ratings on an adult factual medium, whether by regulation or by web-indeces etc censoring unrated material from their listings."

+------------------------------------------------------+

ORIGINAL MOTION:

This AGM of the N.C.C.L BELIEVES:
(a) That the majority rule in a democracy should not be used to restrict the rights of freedom of thought and expression of minorities
(b) that there is a growing trend in some parts of Europe towards the use of governemtn power and infleunce to entice and encourage intoloerance and discrimination against ethnic, cultural and religious minorities as evidenced in particular by [.....] the report of the Ad Hoc Committee to investigate discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities in Germeny, 1977 [which is by $cientology spokesman Lord Duncan MacNair].
(c) that every effort should be made to prevent the spread of government policies and practices which encourage discrimination on the basis of race, religion or belief or which restrict the freedom of thought and expression of ethnic, cultural, or religious minorities and end such discrimination where it exists; and this AGM of N.C.C.L hereby re-iterates its firm stand against any form of discriimination on the grounds of race, religion or belief.

Or, put another way, NCCL opposes all curbs on a profitmaking corporation selling quack psychotherapy courses and UK#1500 a time and driving people to suicide pressuring them for the money, even when it decides to inflitrate goivernments or aims to remove citizenship rights from anyone who is not a member, as long as it calls itself a religion so that's all right then.

AMENDEMENT(S)

AMENDMENT <A>: in para (a), delete "minorities" and instead insert "ethnic, cultural, religious and sexual minorities, including those who dissent against chosen religious or political opinions---that governments should at all times adhere to applicable national, european and international laws and obligations (including the ECHR) relating to the affairs of said minorities---and that said minorities, to the extent they have power over people, have a moral duty to afford those people the same rights they expect others to afford them [....];"
[......]

AMENDMENT <C>: in (c), delete "religion or belief" insert "sexuality, religion or belief--including the criticism of religion or dissent from orthodoxy--". Delete after "expression of", insert instead "such minorities. It further believes that such minorities and their representatives should also not practice or encourage discrimination against other groups, particularly against dissenters or sexual minorities; and" .
Further add new clause(<last>), "that the commitment to human rights given in the Amsterdam Treaty is therefore to be welcomed; and that, should UK law shamefully license discriminatory or oppressive behaviour by religious groups, NCCL should help pilot cases through the Strasbourg Court for those whose rights they deny."

Dave Bird, July 1997.

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