Last night I attended a local Green Party monthly meeting. These are open to all, not just party members, and they take the form of a brief presentation followed by a discussion. The topic yesterday was “Civil Liberties”. Martin who delivered the talk took Naomi Wolfe’s “Ten steps to Fascism” as his central theme for the discussion, and very thought provoking it was too. Wolfe argues that Fascist and totalitarian regimes almost have a shopping list of ten things they must achieve if constitutional freedoms are to be snuffed out by the would-be dictators. She draws parallels with the Bush administration but it doesn’t take much of a leap to see how a similar picture is developing in the UK. But then again as Matt Johnson opined on The The’s excellent “Infected” LP, we are the 51st state of the USA.
Read Wolfe’s full article but the 10 steps to Fascism are;
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens’ groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law
Update
Almost right on cue, a day after writing this the BBC report on the worrying increase of surveillance in Britain today. See here: warning over a “surveillance state”..
