Security-Culture

Here at Deep Green Resistance, we are an “aboveground” organization with a firewall between us and underground action. That means that our primary work is legal (although this varies depending on national laws). Our members also take part in non-violent direct action of the sort common among aboveground movements. This is in contrast with “underground” organizations that conduct clandestine, highly illegal activities. We advocate for this, as we think coordinated underground action is the best chance for saving the planet. ...

On this episode of the Green Flame, we speak with Claude Marks, former political prisoner and activist, director of the Freedom Archives, about COINTELPRO and state repression of revolutionary movements. We hear from Will Falk, activist, radical movement lawyer and writer, about security culture. And for our skill, we focus on operational security. This show also includes a poem by Sekou Kambui, and music by Dead Prez and Beth Quist. “We know now that people like Martin Luther King Jr. where under constant surveillance including plots and attempts to create so much chaos in their lives that they [are] destabilized emotionally with intent”. — Claude Marks ...

Editor’s note: the following is a good reminder why privacy is so important for the average person. Revolutionaries need to take these considerations even more seriously. via Mozilla / Internet Health Report Photo “Karyotype” by Can H. (CC BY-NC 2.0). DNA testing is a booming global business enabled by the internet. Millions of people have sent samples of their saliva to commercial labs in hopes of learning something new about their personal health or heritage, primarily in the United States and Europe. In some places, commercial tests are banned. In France, you could face a fine of around $4,000 USD for taking one. ...

by Max Wilbert / Deep Green Resistance Those in power do not hesitate to assault, imprison, torture, and sometimes murder those who fight capitalism, patriarchy, racism, the murder of the planet, and other elements of global empire. In order to do this, they need information. State agencies, private military corporations, investigators, and far-right reactionaries want to gather as much information on revolutionaries as possible. The information they want includes where you live, who you associate with, where you go, where you work, and more. ...

by Max Wilbert / Deep Green Resistance We live in a surveillance state. As the Edward Snowden leaks and subsequent reporting has shown, government and private military corporations regularly target political dissidents for intelligence gathering. This information is used to undermine social movements, foment internecine conflict, discover weaknesses, and to get individuals thrown in jail for their justified resistance work. As the idea of the panopticon describes, surveillance creates a culture of self-censorship. There aren’t enough people at security agencies to monitor everything, all of the time. Almost all of the data that is collected is never read or analyzed. In general, specific targeting of an individual for surveillance is the biggest threat. However, because people don’t understand the surveillance and how to defeat it, they subconsciously stop themselves from even considering serious resistance. In this way, they become self-defeating. ...

by Max Wilbert / Deep Green Resistance We live inside an unprecedented surveillance state. Government and corporations monitor all non-encrypted digital communications for the purposes of political control and profit. Political dissidents who wish to challenge capitalism need to learn to use more secure methods for communication, research, and other digital tasks. This guide is aimed at serious dissidents and revolutionaries. It is not aimed at the everyday activist, who will likely find these practices to be overkill. ...

by Sara Levavi-Eilat / vpnMentor Have you ever been harassed in the street? Received a crass message on a dating app? Had a coworker make a comment about your appearance that just didn’t sit right? You’re not alone. With the #MeToo movement, it’s easy to log onto Twitter or Facebook and see just how many women are victims of sexual harassment. Whether in person or online, women everywhere have experienced it in one way or another. And with all the new ways the internet has opened avenues of communication, online harassment is more prevalent than ever. ...

Editor’s note: republished under a Creative Commons License, this article is “A handful of digital security things that that most of us should do almost all of the time,” in the words of the author. We offer it here as a resource for activists who wish to communicate securely, to protect their groups and allies against digital infiltration or monitoring. by John Scott-Railton This is not intended as a comprehensive security guide. Nor is it a privacy guide. There are many security guides online. It is not intended for people who think they are currently hacked. Or who are trying to remain anonymous. Or hide their browsing or e-mail traffic. Suspect you are currently under attack? Have a look at the last section of the document. ...

THE CIA, NSA, FBI AND DOD ARE YOUR “FRIENDS” ON FACEBOOK by Lauren Smith / Wrong Kind of Green Social media and Google serve three strategic purposes for the United States government. First, they allow Washington to conduct espionage; second, they facilitate the spread of disinformation campaigns, and third, they serve as conduits for the transmission of social contagions. In deploying thought control against the users of social media and Google, the US government regulates civil unrest both domestic and abroad. As such, social media and Google can best be understood as unconventional weapons (UW). In this capacity, they can be used in proxy wars against the governments of non-compliant Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations to accomplish regime change. ...

by Max Wilbert / Deep Green Resistance Lately, I have been writing a series of introductory articles on the importance of skills and equipment for revolutionaries. Part of my thesis is that gaining skills and gathering equipment is important not only for practical reasons, but also because it opens up new possibilities and removes barriers in our thinking that we didn’t even know were there. The situation is similar when it comes to digital communication. ...