Civil liberties - new material (76)
01 October 2009
Blacklisted workers fight back. Labour Research November 2009, pp. 12-14. This article examines the illegal blacklisting of construction workers by The Consulting Association, run by former Special Branch officer, Ian Kerr. In February, following the seizure of the 3,000-strong blacklist by the Information Commissioner’s Office, the West Midlands based outfit was forced to close down after 30 years after an eight month investigation. The service, an offshoot of the right wing Economic League, had been used by around 40 of the construction industry’s biggest companies, including Taylor Woodrow, Costain, Balfour Beatty, Laing O’Rourke, Robert McAlpine, Amey, Wimpey and Skanska. This piece examines the workers’ fightback and outstanding doubts that much of the affair “remains to be uncovered.”
Read my lips, Gary Mason. Police Product Review April / May 2009, p. 45. This article discusses a £1.5 pseudo-scientific research project to develop a CCTV facial recognition system that uses lip reading and speech recognition systems to enable law enforcement agencies to identify suspects. The project is being carried out by OmniPerception and BAE Systems.
Marred by Black Pens, Liz Davies. Morning Star 19.1.10. This article discusses Tony Blair’s “joke” that “his biggest mistake was the Freedom of Information Act”, which came into force five years ago. Davies argues that the “final Freedom of Information Bill, published in 1991, represented a triumph of the secrecy lobbyists”, after the test for withholding information was changed from “substantial harm” to a “prejudice test”. This meant that government could veto any ruling by the Information Commissioner that information should be disclosed.”: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/85711
L’Atlas. Un monde à l’envers, Le Monde Diplomatique, Hors-séries, 2009, pp. 194, €14. A fascinating work of cartography in which a number of the world’s challenges, conflicts and phenomena are translated into maps. These include the varying degrees of recognition of Kosovo’s independence by countries worldwide, Germany’s work to strengthen its role and escape its position as a “political midget”, self-governed Palestinian regions portrayed as an archipelago, Russia’s efforts to set its stall out as a key pole between Europe and Asia, or the worldwide proliferation of weapons, detailing who the key exporters and producers are, among many others. It is divided into five sub-sections: New international relations of strength; The world seen from the perspective of…; The challenges of energy; These conflicts that continue; Africa at a turning point.