Digital ID Cards

During the ALP Hawke Govt 1983-early 1990's era in Australia there was a move to introduce ID cards (an Australia Card) which was defeated - maybe research on the internet into this - but subsequently Australian Passports Driver's licence provide a "defacto" electronic id card and now digital id with Australian Passports

People have mentioned to me that UK Passports and Driving Licences are already digital ID but these are not held by all. Presumably, the reluctance and resistance to hold a digital ID card will come primarily from those that do not hold driving license and passport.

We have witnessed the same reluctance to admit a Smart Meter into homes, which enable the electricity companies to remotely switch off the power supply to non-payers. As of now, only around 60% of households in Great Britain have a Smart Meter installed.

I seem to recall that Battlescarred on here was involved in the Defy-ID campaign back in the day if I'm not mistaken. Hopefully he could share some experiences?

Here is their archived site: https://web.archive.org/web/20070113085449/http://defy-id.org.uk/ 

Hmm ok, probably worth getting some of that material on here....

For a start - https://libcom.org/article/defy-id-archive

https://libcom.org/article/defending-anonymity-anarchist-federation

https://libcom.org/article/nottingham-defy-id-newsletter

Might have to get my dumbphone back out of the drawer. The Smart one plays havoc with my eyes anyway, plus I never carry the great lump around anyhows. It worked during the Covid curfew.

The period in which previous attempts at the introduction of ID cards failed to be implemented as law in the UK is not like the period we are suffering under now.

The wars in advanced capitalist countries that we are experiencing, the intense war on our class here, will mean that this time the legislation will be passed through Parliament, despite any protestation by libertarians, or petitioners.

If the implementation of digital ID can be demonstrated to detrimentally affect the material conditions of our class, then resistance to it might grow. If not, then comparisons with the Poll Tax rebellion are misplaced.

Fozzie wrote: But having to have a govt issued ID purely to prove who you are to officials of the state might be a step too far for many - even if it is dressed up in anti-immigrant sentiment.

We already used our Passports, alongside our photos, to identify ourselves to state officialdom, just last week to claim Universal Credit for our family.

What's immigration got to do with it.? Most of us are economic migrants one way or another.

I have some new thoughts on the issue:
What you may be having behind the scenes is a MI5/Spy Cops operation in the ultra right with the help of the corporate media involving their infiltration of these groups to help them build up re the anti-immigration campaign and get riots/protests going - so one line of approach is to approach various researchers into the spy cops scandal/ultra right and relevant investigative journos etc to look at this angle.
What you are seeing is the use of and building up the ultra right and their activities to build up the Neo Liberal Strong State obviously also as mentioned above to get WWIII going.
But radically different to say the 20's and 30's with in the UK with the British Union of Fascists etc with paramilitary units and similar mass organisations in Germany, Italy etc. But as is well known the rise of these ultra right movement particularly in Germany and Italy led to WWII .
The fact that Staimer wants the digital ID just for workers - points to the whole issue of "Corporate Unionism" - Obviously the union bosses won't lift a finger re organising against it and getting significant industrial action going just like in Australia when the Australia Card was proposed and presumably in the UK case.
Also it highlights again the need for strategic industrial organising to tackle the corporate unions and corporate media predominance issues. The more serious segments of the anarcho and ultra left milieu getting involved and squandering limited resources in all manner of irrelevant side shows of no strategic importance - that will not spearhead the strike wave movement leading to major syndicalist break aways from the corporate unions and counter productive stuff like the Anarchist Book Fairs etc.
Also the focus on "workers" for the digital ID - apart from the above is also about Staimer etc fears of sections of the Ruling Class and establishment parties/middle class layers opposition to it. In Australia intriguingly our version of the Conservative Party - the Liberal/Country Parties was opposed to the Australia Card as well as civil libertarians etc.

another dimension of all this - is when Mussolini and Hitler seized power with the help of the fascist/nazi paramilitary mass organisations - they smashed the bureaucratic reformist unions of those days - and set up Labour Fronts/fascist syndicates - but today they already have the labour fronts - the corporate unions interwoven with the Deep State.MI5/CIA/neoliberal supportive Labour Parties etc. So no need for mass nazi paramilitary organisations like in the 20's 30's and also they don't have the mass base amongst war veterans demoralised unemployed etc which the SA and Italian Squadists had. But today they are creating aspects of the "Strong State" . In Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy you had a very strong State of course.

A pretty picture painted by a statistician:

Strongly support: 14%

Somewhat support: 28%

Somewhat oppose: 15%

Strongly oppose: 30%

Don't know: 14%

Posted on wrong comments section. Deleted