Stop imperialist espionage against the people!

Vanguard August 2013 p. 10
Nick G.

Edward Snowden, (above), the former employee of the CIA and of defence contractors at the US National Security Agency (NSA), has performed a great service to the people of the world.

In exposing the secret electronic surveillance regime, PRISM, operated by the NSA since 2007, he has lifted the lid on routine violations of privacy involving millions of citizens of the US and of countries like Australia.
 

Multinational corporations such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, YouTube, Skype and Apple collaborated with the NSA to provide details of all electronic data flowing through their systems.

This has very little to do with combatting "terrorism" - after all, it is the world’s No. 1 terrorist - the US imperialist state - that operates PRISM.
 

Rather, it is a violation of democratic rights and liberties for the purpose of "full spectrum domination" by US imperialism.
 

 

Imperialism has feet of clay

The imperialists look strong, but the reality is that they still need people to run their system. Some are happy to be bought off and to play their despicable anti-people role.
But others see the oppression, the fascism, the great threats to ordinary people and they choose the path of defiance, of rebellion, of whistle-blowing. They have the honour of being part of the clay feet of the colossus.

Snowden came to realise that he was working for a surveillance organization whose all-consuming intent, he told the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, was "on making every conversation and every form of behavior in the world known to them."

When the US imperialists made clear their intention to get Julian Assange, the CPA (M-L) unequivocally called for solidarity. "Hands off Assange!" we said. "The US imperialists must not control our sources of information!"

Now we say, "Hands off Snowden!" "The US imperialists must stop their espionage against the people!"
 

We salute Snowden’s courage and demand that he be granted asylum and be protected against the fascist reach of US imperialism.
 

He is right to flee the US. Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, supports his right to avoid returning to the US.
 

"I hope that he finds a haven," he said, "as safe as possible from kidnapping or assassination by U.S. Special Operations forces, preferably where he can speak freely."
 

He does not want to see Snowden subjected to the same treatment as Bradley Manning, the US soldier who is alleged to have given Wikileaks its US embassy files. The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Torture described Manning’s conditions as "cruel, inhuman and degrading."
 

Measures can be taken to avoid surveillance

We call on progressive Australians to take practical measures to weaken the US imperialist surveillance regime, such as boycotting Google, Hotmail, Yahoo and so on.

Search engines such as Ixquick, which claims to encrypt Internet search enquires and to protect users from surveillance, DuckDuckGo and Startpage can be used. Email services such as the Russian Yandex, which are under no obligation to provide data to the US, can be used.

But the best form of evasion of imperialist surveillance is to have a life of rich contact with the people, to be a fish in their water.
 

Whilst being conscious of security, progressive people will not be cowed and must increase their level of political activity and work for the overthrow of capitalism and imperialism.
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Further reading: CPGB (M-L) aryicle on Snowden: http://www.lalkar.org/issues/contents/jul2013/snowden.html