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Security Culture and Police Surveillance"It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion." - Oscar Wilde As social-change movements against global capitalism and its unaccountable supranational organizations, animal exploitation and other evils have grown, so have law enforcement efforts to spy upon, infiltrate and disrupt these movements, and imprison activists and violate our civil and human rights, including free speech and the right to assemble and to protest. You may be familiar with some of the State's longterm political prisoners, such as Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier. The names of some of its more recent prisoners, such as Sherman Austin, may be less familiar to you. What they all have in common is that they serve as examples of government fear and distrust of people who question the basic premises of a society rife with injustice and inequality conditions that help perpetuate the power of elite interests. So the State continues to ruthlessly target those who struggle in a myraid of ways to (paraphrasing Wilde) "try and reconstruct society on such a basis that" anything less than democracy and autonomy "will be impossible." Many of the activities against our movement have been documented by activists in the U.S. and around the world. The results have been exposure, lawsuits and much-deserved embarassment for the State and its agents. The State's efforts amount to a backhanded compliment: If we weren't experiencing some success with our organizing, the agents of repression wouldn't be working so hard to counter us. As activists we have become acutely aware of the need to create a security culture sensible practices and precautions that can keep us free to continue our struggles and help us to maintain our effectiveness. Links are posted here for educational purposes only and should not be construed as implying endorsement of the organization publishing the information. These links have been culled from the large amount of information available from the wide range of sources on the Internet. Our goal is to make it conveniently accessible to everyone in our movement. For your protection and the protection of those with whom you work, we hope you will take the time to acquaint yourself with this information and profit from the knowledge and experience of others. If you know of additional material that you feel would be suitable for this page, please e-mail us. Police Frame-Ups of Activists/Agents Provocateurs/COINTELPRO
Police Infiltration/Infiltrators in Activist Groups/Surveillance of Activist Groups
Security for Activists/Building a Security Culture
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