[NetBehaviour] email about "prevent"

Sun May 1 09:28:07 CEST 2016

Simon -this is a very useful summary of the prevent shenanigans  and of the Australian situation too.The only thing that I would take issue with is your final paragraph. I'm 59 . I've been an activist all my life. My experience is that the more publicly and noisily you stand up for yourself and for what is right the less likely you are to be victimised.I'm completely conscious of the risks I run and accept them willingly. I have been in touch with the UCU to request representation but when it comes down to it the question for me is can I live with myself if I accept what is going on and the answer, for me, is no.Therefore if I go I intend to go kicking and screaming and making as much noise as possible. 
On the other hand if they back down it is a victory for defiance and for the campaign against racism and in particular against the vile "Prevent" strategy.Again I would ask anyone reading this to please circulate as widely as possible -e mail, word of mouth, Twitter, FB my original letter:https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/26601297832/in/dateposted/
and the info that I face possible ( possible, it's possible HR and senior management would just like some quality time and a cup of tea with me) action over it.Simon - you might have reservations about my tactics and I respect that but you clearly have a firm grasp of the issues and I ask for your support.best wishesmichael

      From: Simon Biggs <simon at littlepig.org.uk>
 To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org> 
 Sent: Sunday, May 1, 2016 2:26 AM
 Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] email about "prevent"

I worked at Edinburgh University until 2014. All staff were required to report, under the Prevent program, any signs of radicalisation. Of course nobody ever did. However, there was a well publicised case at Nottingham University a few years ago when a PhD student borrowed a book on Al Qaeda training and recruitment as part of his research. He was reported and arrested, along with his supervisor. He was held under terror laws for 6 days before the charges were dismissed.https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/nottingham-scholar-held-for-6-days-under-anti-terror-law/402188.article
At Edinburgh, as everywhere else in the UK, all staff are required to report if their non-EU students have not be sighted for a period of time. In some institutions this is as little as two hours. At Edinburgh half a day was given as guidance. This requirement is part of the UKs visa laws for non-EU visitors on certain visas, including students. Students who are reported as missing (after even two hours) will be reprimanded by both the institution and the UK border police. If the student repeats the behaviour they can be deported or arrested and charged under the provisions of the law. Any staff member who fails to report a missing student can also be arrested and charged under the provisions of the law.
I’m now working in Australia where no such laws exist. Australia has more insidious laws, such as those affecting asylum seekers who do not arrive through official routes (eg: governmental programs). Such refugees are arrested as illegal migrants and subsequently incarcerated indefinitely without trial in off-shore holding (prison) camps in places like Manus (a small island near New Guinea) and Nauru (a small Pacific island nation of dubious governance). Recently the PNG High Court declared Manus illegal under the PNG constitution and the government has ordered it closed. This leaves the Australian government in a quandary as to what to do with the incarcerated. It’s good to watch them squirm - but they will simply legislate the problem away.
On TV here there are also advertisements telling people to watch out for suspicious behaviour and to report it to police. The ads show a person at a bus stop seeing a man with a bag with loose money in it and another of a middle-eastern looking man looking at a terror related web-page on his laptop in a cafe. No racial profiling there then…
Michael needs to be careful. His college will probably, like most, have a clause in his employment contract stating that if he brings the institution into disrepute he can be disciplined and fired. Bringing this issue into the public would fit under such a clause. There is no legal framework in the UK for free speech, nor for academics. If I was Michael I would already have hired a lawyer, partly to defend myself but mainly for advice. He’s on thin ice...
best
Simon

Simon Biggssimon at littlepig.org.ukhttp://www.littlepig.org.ukhttp://amazon.com/author/simonbiggshttp://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/homepage.asp?name=simon.biggshttp://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/school-of-art/simon-biggs

On 1 May 2016, at 05:02, Johannes Birringer <Johannes.Birringer at brunel.ac.uk> wrote:
dear all
never heard of it.  when doing some fact checking, 'prevent' seems to have been a government counter terrorist initiative,
for the past ten years, not entirely successful I read. But in the arts and educational arenas where I work, it's not a factor nor has anyone 
ever approached me to do any such reporting on any 'signs of radicalization' ; our duties as tutors are educational and pastoral in the sense of caring for the
well being and creative and intellectual growth of our students (and an anti-muslim policy, that you discern, Michael,
would be completely unsupportable and unsupported at my school).  respectfully, Johannes

________________________________
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim at panix.com>
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2016 5:03 PM
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] email about "prevent"

from what I gather, I agree; can you say more, for the non-British on the
list, exactly what Prevent is? racial profiling in schools?

thanks, Alan

On Sat, 30 Apr 2016, ruth catlow wrote:

Hi Michael,
I appreciate your response to this process, and for highlighting so clearly
what is at stake. I no longer hold a permanent post in a Higher Education
institution but have been shocked to read in the press, and to hear from
those of my peers who do, about increasing pressure to monitor and report
(and so impinge on the freedom of expression of) learners. This is part of a
wider threat (along with the tactics of the gutter press) to the development
of the critical and discursive faculties in the UK public at large.

Sigh!
Ruth

On 29/04/16 20:27, Michael Szpakowski wrote:
     Hi all
     the college where I teach has enthusiastically taken to heart
     the government's Islamophobic "prevent" strategy. Last week they
     made it compulsory for every further education student to attend
     ( and I am not making this up) a puppet show about "prevent" and
     put pressure on HE lecturers to pressure their students to
     attend.

     In response I sent I sent a carefully worded e mail to our
     management and copied in the UCU  ( the lecturers union)
     membership and my students too, whom I regard, perhaps
     unfashionably, as being capable of making their own minds up
     about things.
     I have now been summoned to a meeting with HR and a senior
     manager.
     I am chronicling events on Flickr. I would really appreciate
     support - at the moment simply in terms of favouriting and
     commenting upon the posts but it could well come to some sort of
     campaign if they attempt to discipline me. Here's my original
     email:

     https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/26601297832/

and here's the latest exchange:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/szpako/26716002535/

please feel free to circulate this

many thanks
michael

_______________________________________________
NetBehaviour mailing list
NetBehaviour at netbehaviour.org<mailto:NetBehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour

--
Co-founder Co-director
Furtherfield

www.furtherfield.org

+44 (0) 77370 02879
Meeting calendar - http://bit.ly/1NgeLce
Bitcoin Address 197BBaXa6M9PtHhhNTQkuHh1pVJA8RrJ2i

Furtherfield is the UK's leading organisation for art shows, labs, & debates
around critical questions in art and technology, since 1997

Furtherfield is a Not-for-Profit Company limited by Guarantee
registered in England and Wales under the Company No.7005205.
Registered business address: Ballard Newman, Apex House, Grand Arcade, Tally
Ho Corner, London N12 0EH.

==
email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/
web http://www.alansondheim.org <http://www.alansondheim.org/> / cell 718-813-3285
music: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/
current text http://www.alansondheim.org/tx.txt

==

_______________________________________________
NetBehaviour mailing list
NetBehaviour at netbehaviour.org<mailto:NetBehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour

--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner<http://www.mailscanner.info/>, and is
believed to be clean.

_______________________________________________
NetBehaviour mailing list
NetBehaviour at netbehaviour.org
http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour

_______________________________________________
NetBehaviour mailing list
NetBehaviour at netbehaviour.org
http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.netbehaviour.org/pipermail/netbehaviour/attachments/20160501/79cb68b3/attachment.htm>