poster-campaign, rotor, Graz, 2008

One integral part of the long-term project “Land of Human Rights” is a poster campaign. Starting in September 2007, a set of 4 posters will be printed every half a year. The front side of the posters will present works of artists on current human rights issues and on the back side there will be short texts of human rights activists, theorists or people affected by human rights. The aim of the campaign is to inform the people about their rights in connection with the human rights and to raise awareness of current human rights issues in a large part of the population.

text from Wolf Dieter Narr in collaboration with the Alliance for Dropping the § 129a

Internalized (Anti)Terrorism

A new phantom is going round. The phantom seems all the more spooky, as it can creep into every citizen’s mind. That’s why distrust of everybody and everything is our supreme duty with respect to the safety of the state.

It is not asked why the phantom appears, how it comes into being and how it can be encountered. Instead, the Federal Republic of Germany is acting in an exemplary way: With regard to democracy, Basic Law and human rights the state is being saved to death. In the course of totally securing acquisition of personal data criminal law articles of the terrorist hunt, such as §§ 129 a and b of the German Criminal Code, are called on in the fashion of modern westerns. Conspicuous and disapproved people wind up in custody in the dead of night and one snoops around in their private sphere. As we all know, the sheriffs of the Wild West shot first and inquired later.

Every citizen’s “right of informational self-determination”, which was derived from Article 2 of the Basic Law (Right to life and physical integrity) by the German Federal Constitutional Court in 1983 is becoming the shooting gallery norm of the bloated state security authorities. The “Stasi” and their mousy officials would become green with envy if they knew in which technologically sublime way data are being tapped everywhere nowadays in order to create terrorist scheming in the course of preventive discovery. This is how the powers of the State divert from their crime production. Just have a look at our unspeakable “foreigner politics”! Or Heiligendamm: This huge demonstration against the useless G8 summit of wastefulness in June 2007 was thoroughly scanned for participants who were allegedly “prepared to use violence” and “inclined to terrorism” – deploying measures such as the Tornado flights, which constituted a clear violation of the Basic Law.

Under the mask of precaution and under the magic hood of civic security the borders of basic and human rights are transgressed. The outer security of capitalist state expansion is equated with civic security. The military and the police are becoming closely intertwined. Rights that have been achieved after a long struggle are being pulverized. Human mental and physical integrity in the shelter of the dwelling is being perforated with high-tech tricks. Laws that are to provide legal certainty to the citizens are turning into authorization laws for violent state organs out of control.

Thus the phantom of allegedly omnipresent terrorism has turned into the spooky reality of state (anti)terrorism, which is in stark contradiction to democracy and the human rights. In this sense, disobedience is the citizen’s first obligation.

Wolf-Dieter Narr in collaboration with the
Alliance for Dropping the § 129a Charges

For further information see:
http://einstellung.so36.net
http://annalist.noblogs.org