Für ein Morgen in Freiheit/en
Aus Freiheit statt Angst!
Demo-Aufruf englisch
For a Free Tomorrow
Join the protest in Cologne on Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 2 pm!
Our alliance of political parties, citizens' groups and professional organizations calls on everyone in Germany to join a demonstration against the increasing surveillance of German citizens by the government and businesses. On Saturday, March 15, 2008, we will protest in Cologne in a demonstration themed “For a Free Tomorrow”. Participants will be meeting at 2 pm on the Roncalli-Platz (“Domplatte”) in Cologne.
Starting even prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001, the German federal government has been passing increasingly strict laws legalizing surveillance of the general population. Especially minister of the interior Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble has proven a very outspoken supporter of this policy, having proposed several measures whose conformity with the German constitution is questionable. Enacted January 1st, 2008, the complete retention of all records from telephone, mobile phone, Internet and e-mail connections of all innocent citizens alone is a severe violation of civil liberties and hardly acceptable in a free and democratic state.
Crime experts agree that these surveillance measures do not have a significant positive effect on the prevention of terrorism and crime. Instead, they are just a large-scale waste of taxpayers' money and endanger our democracy by limiting freedom of speech and by violating the constitutionally protected right to individual privacy.
We, parties and organizations from Cologne and from all over Germany recognize we can no longer stand by and tolerate this push for pointless, wasteful and egregious violations of civil liberties. Therefore we met in Cologne to form an alliance in the fight against the federal government's surveillance plans and for the promotion of civil liberties.
Members of this alliance are:
- the Cologne-based citizens' group "Freiheit ist Sicherheit" (“Freedom is Security”)
- Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung (working group on data retention)
- Chaos Computer Club Cologne
- Die Grünen Köln (Green Party Cologne)
- FoeBuD e.V.
- Die Linke.Köln (Left Party Cologne)
- Piratenpartei Bezirksverband Köln (Pirate Party Cologne)
- Piratenpartei Landesverband NRW (Pirate Party North Rhine-Westphalia)
- Verband der freien Lektorinnen und Lektoren (Free Lectors Association)
The call to protest is supported by:
- Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Landesverband NRW (Green Party North Rhine-Westphalia)
- Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (German Confederation of Trade Unions)
- Die Linke Landesverband NRW (Left Party North Rhine-Westphalia)
- Die Linke Ortsverband Bergisch-Gladbach (Left Party Bergisch-Gladbach)
- Deutsche Journalistinnen- und Journalisten-Union in ver.di (German Journalists Union in the ver.di union)
- Freie Ärzteschaft e.V. (Free Doctors Association)
- Piratenpartei Landesverband Hamburg (Pirate Part Hamburg)
- Piratenpartei Landesverband Rheinland-Pfalz (Pirate Part Rhineland-Palatinate)
- Kein Mensch ist illegal (No one is illegal)
- Reflect
- AG unabhängiger Dermatologen (AGuD, Working Group of Independent Dermatologists)
- Neue Richtervereinigung (association of magistrates and public prosecutors)
We call on all citizens to participate in the demonstration on March 15th to show our government that the citizens of Germany will take to the streets to fight for their freedom and their civil liberties.
We call on our government to:
- Stop tracking of all telephone, mobile phone, email and Internet communication (data retention)
- Stop the plans to secretly search computers by using remote forensic software (online search)
- Stop the collection of biometric data of innocent citizens
- Cease to store Passenger Name Records in air traffic and to stop exchanging this data with other countries
- Cease automatic screening of license plates on public roads
- Stop all planned laws that would result in an even stricter surveillance of all citizens
- Review all existing surveillance laws
“For a Free Tomorrow” - March 15th, 2008, 2 pm, meeting at the Roncalli-Platz (Domplatte)
