UK - SLLU support PCS workers strike

The SLLU applauds the determined,
united strike taken by over 280,000 PCS
members, followed by a two-week overtime ban.
We offer 100%, unqualified support to you, as
fellow PCS members in the offices; as fellow
trade unionists on the pickets; as socialists in
our communities, on the streets and in the
Parliament.
This marvellous display of workers’ unity and trade
union strength is not just a token day of protest - it
should be the start of a massive campaign to force
the government to retreat on jobs, pay, privatisation
and pensions.
The British New Labour government is brutal in its campaign
to demonise civil servants in order to slash
our jobs, pay and services. So we need an equally
determined campaign that appeals to the wider
trade union movement and local communities.
We need to take advantage of the fact New
Labour faces the electorate in May in Scotland, and mount
escalating pressure on them.
Today’s strike in over 200 agencies and departments
is a marvellous launch of further action -
including a solid overtime ban, further demos, and if
necessary further national days of united civil
service-wide strikes before the May elections.
Join 280,000 fellow trade unionists in a movement
the government cannot resist! Remember, the mere
readiness to strike forced them to concede lifetime
protection of pensions for all existing staff.

see also: http://www.scottishsocialistvoice.net/pages/page12.html

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Extract from LL Newsletter, dated March 2006, Outlining Policy on 'Intolerance' and Grounds for Banning Residents

please find original article in the link below:

Second Opinion Official Linden Labs' Newletter 2006_03_22

(you will find it in the 'Police Blotter' section if you scroll down the page.)

SLLU members and interested parties, please read the article in full if you get the chance, and let us know your feedback on whether the image Linden Labs is presenting is consistent with residents' experiences of their dealings with the FN in SL. We need to keep lobbying the Lindens on this, and to get them to adhere to their own guidelines.


"The Flip Side of Acceptance: Intolerance

.....From the SL Community Standards: “Combating intolerance is a cornerstone of Second Life's Community Standards. Actions that marginalize, belittle, or defame individuals or groups inhibit the satisfying exchange of ideas and diminish the Second Life community as whole. The use of derogatory or demeaning language or images in reference to another Resident's race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation is never allowed in Second Life.”

....So what then is Linden Lab’s responsibility? To be sure that everyone can express their thoughts and feelings without fear of reprisal or judgment. It’s almost more important to be sure that those who may not be able to express themselves freely in the “real world” can do so in Second Life.

....Linden Lab does not seek to regulate the ideas and thoughts of others, but when those words or actions are rooted in hate, and used to harm or hurt others on the basis of lifestyle, race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual preference, we will act. Intolerance is not taken lightly, and those responsible will incur serious penalties or permanent removal.

Below is an example of intolerant speech that resulted in the removal of this Resident from Second Life for intolerant behavior:

[sic]"Hey you f*$%ing bitch. I don#t know who the f*$% you are or what the f*$% your issue is. .. that Nazi... or the s@#% that bitch made again I will personally make your SL life Hell... you Socialist pig headed group f*$%ing bitch is dead ...you f$%^ing socialist pig ...k$%e bitch f*$%ing socialist pig N*$%r lovin hippie is offline... I am working on making a Black SS Panzer Officer's Uniform.”

If you ever have any questions about what constitutes intolerant behavior, please feel free to contact the support team directly [support@secondlife.com]."

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Group Press Release: Free Speech in Second Life and the Anti-Front National Protests

The presence of the Front National in Second Life currently makes the whole issue of Free Speech within this virtual world a highly relevant one. So we would like to take this opportunity to define SLLU's position in relation to some of the difficulities surrounding this matter.

Our group's current position regarding 'free speech' within SL is outlined as follows:

We do not feel that residents have automatic 'rights' of free speech as such in SL other than those granted to us by Linden Labs. Those rights do not seem to be democratically decided by the community at large, and are subject to change at any time. So, as far as we are aware, there are no constitutionally enshrined rights to free speech within SL that are equivalent to those which exist in RL societies which aspire to democracy. Also, the fact that (as we understand it) all chat and IMs are accessible and able to be monitored by Linden Labs at all times, makes the entire concept of 'free speech' in SL very different to the concept as it would normally be applied in RL.
In principle at least, therefore, the idea of SL residents having a 'right' to free speech is somewhat illusory since it must by definition operate within what is potentially an authoritarian and non-democratic social structure - in practice, this is inconsistenty regulated, at Linden Labs' staffs own discretion.

As long as SL is structured as it is - we find it hard to envisage how the right to 'free speech' in the RL sense of the term would be technically possible to achieve. We do however think it is in Linden Labs' own interests to not be seen to excessively restrict freedom of residents' expression, even though they may theoretically have the power to do this, and we think it is currently residents' responsiblity to act in their capacity as a consumer pressure group and SL citizens and lobby LL to ensure that any restrictions on their freedoms of expression are kept as minimal as possible. We believe the successful future of Second Life depends on this balance of power being kept in check.

We would argue that the RL controversy surrounding Front National is grounds enough for the Lindens to consider whether LL wants to allow them to be represented in a PG zone, or whether what they stand for in SL is identical to what they stand for in RL, and thus incompatible with LLs own Community Standards. In RL They are associated with xenophobic violence within France, and advocate the enforced repatriation of immigrants. We interpret this as being rooted in a historically dangerous and inciteful nationalistic and racist ideology, even though the Front National are nowadays apparently fairly careful and eager to officially distance themselves from any such overt associations. However, the reality of what is and isn't enforced within PG is somewhat inconsistent, and we don't know of any previous precedents where LL has removed groups or individual residents from PG zones, based on their real life actions or political affilliations, because they have anticipated that they could pose a threat to the upholding of PG standards in the community. Therefore, we think the stronger case would be to look at removing them from PG, based on their actions inworld - which will need to be closely monitored - and to seek for LL to take seriously the existing reports of FN group members harassing residents and businesses in the area where they were originally based in Porcupine.

We do not as a group, seek an outright ban of FN from SL before their actions inworld merit it - because, as abhorrent as we may find their policies - we don't think an ideology can be extinguished merely by being conveniently pushed out of sight. We believe that now that this real-world political problem has been brought to wider attention amongst the SL community, it would be better for such an ideology to be combatted within SL by means of a counter-information and education campaign, and that this would be more likely to have beneficial knock-on RL consequences in terms of fully utilising this medium to raise awareness of RL political issues and conflicts.


To those who would criticise us for applying the term 'neo-fascist' to this organisation as empty rhetoric, we would argue that since neo-fascism implies an ideology with nationalistic, xenophobic, intolerant and extreme far-right tendencies, it's usage is justified. Furthermore, due to the extremity of of FN's proposed policies regarding immigrant repatriation, and because of their leader LePen's history of and conviction for 'holocaust minimisation', and his ties with Mussolini's daughter, for example, we do not think the parallels with historical European Fascism are unwarranted, or over-exaggerated. We also urge people to remember that although Second Life is popularly perceived as 'a game' - it is now increasingly being used as a platform for real-world political parties to campaign. The FN in SL are *not* gamers - they are seeking to represent and recruit for a real-life destructive political ideology, the implications of which should not be trivialised.

Regarding free speech within our organisation - we are a very diverse international group of people, and obviously none of us have totally identical views. It is important for us to debate and discuss these within the collective, and to act on the issues where we are able to achieve a measure of consensus.
It is essential for us, and we believe, for all people as human beings to be able to express their own views freely. We are strong believers in healthy dissent! But we also realise that if we, as individuals, are of interest to outside parties, because of our belonging to a particular group, we have a responsibility not to misrepresent our own views as being those of the entire group membership.


We do object to being personally sought out and approached, as individual group members, to give individual views which are then intentionally used to give a distorted picture of the group as a whole. On any matters where we have achieved group consensus, we seek to send out group-compiled releases, so that the distinction between the inevitable individual divergences, and areas where we are in majority agreement can be made clear.



Signed: SLLU

The SL Left Unity group was set up by members of the Scottish Socialist Party in November 2006. It has outgrown it's original kernel of SSP members into a world wide left unity group comprising of people from many countries and all walks of life who are interested in social justice and whom are critical of the current world wide neo-conservative capitalist system.

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A French Anti-FN Protester's View...

French citizen Riccardo Chevalier gives us his personal summary of his involvement in the recent anti-Front National protests within Second Life.

"I'm not a gamer, nor a nerd. I like electronic communication, but the old ones. IRC, Usenet, the mail...., words, ideas. But when i read in a newpaper that the Front National were in Second Life, I jumped on my computer, downloaded the program, and here I am.

I fight these peeps for a long time in Real Life. I'm a teacher, and I used to work in a city called Vitrolles. Vitrolles was well known for having an FN mayor so I know them in real life. What are they in SL ? The same, perhaps worse. Here they can shoot you, they can drive a car on you with total impunity. And of course they do. Of course you are not hurt when they do
so, but the intention is to hurt and it does. When one of them treats my friend Utopia like a « pute de nègre » it hurts, a lot, her and me... And it should hurt everyone.

So freedom of speech...? Not for them. Sorry if it's against my natural position, and for Voltaire : " Monsieur, nous ne partageons pas les mêmes opinions, mais je mourais pour que vous puissiez les exprimer." ["Sir, I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."]

But these are not opinions but crime.

So together let's ban the FN out of SL"

Riccardo Chevalier (anti-FNSL member and SLLU member).

many thanks to Riccardo for presenting his individual views on this subject.
(These views are not necessarily the views of the SLLU membership as a whole).

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SLLU in the UK National Press (!?!!!!)

Link below to the Guardian's coverage of the anti-Front National protests in Second Life...


**Guardian Article Link 20/01/07**

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Group Press Release Following the FN in SL's Move from Porcupine

SLLU Press Release 18/1/07

While SLLU welcomes the decision of the FN to move from Porcupine, this has been to the detriment of the residents of Axel (another PG area).
It has broken their peace and tranquility. This fascist group – one so abhorrent that the mainstream conservative party in France urged its supporters to vote socialist in order to ensure the FN didn’t reach anywhere near to victory in their last elections – has set up recruiting inworld. This group is a RL fascist group with links to the very founders of fascism.

SLLU, also condemn this racist party for using SL as a place to recruit - the dissemination of discrimatory racist hate propaganda should be viewed as a violation of SL's community standards.

We call on Axel residents to complain about this cabal and their sullying of the tranquil and beautiful area that was once Axel, and join our campaign to rid SL of racism. SLLU support residents in their wish to rid themselves of this group and the protests that have followed.

SLLU can promise residents that our organization has no want to stay in Axel any longer than it takes to rid residents of the FN (who are at present trying to buy more Axel land).

We reiterate our call on the Lindens to ban this group from PG areas.

SLLU.

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Photo Gallery of the SLLU Protests against the FN in SL

images by anti-FNSL protester, Laura Gagliano

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Our Group Press Release on the anti-Front National Protests

Press releases of the SLLU may be released in my name, but are collectively written, as the pr below was on 12th Jan 2007.

Languages: French; Spanish; English and Italian

Demande d’exclusion du Front National de SL.

Le groupe SL Left Unity condamne les actions du parti français fascite,
le Front National,pour ses actes contre les manifestants pacifiques,
devant ses bureaux, sur un sim PG.

Ce groupe d’extrême droite haineux entache la réputation de SL, et a
gravement abîmé la perception que l’on pouvait avoir de bien des travaux
présents aux alentours, dans le Matrix Mall.

Le SLLU a acquis le terrain voisin du siège du SL FN, et compte y
organiser des manifestations jusqu’à ce que le FN se retire des lieux ou
en soit expulsé. Là ou s’installe le fascisme, nous pouvons avoir la
certitude qu’il ne cessera de mentir et de chercher à corrompre les
individus décents.

Le groupe SL Left Unity en appelle à Linden pour lconstater, tirer les
conclusions qui s’imposent , et libérer le monde de SL de ce groupe de
haine raciale, dissimulé sous un parti politique.

Citoyenne française et membre du SLLU, Laura Gagliano, alis Paty dans la
réalité, déclare : » Il est déjà sufisamment pénible de subir leurs
discours et leurs actions de rues en France, il est impensable qu’ils
s’introduisent dans l’univers ludique de Second Life. »

Basée à Londres, HiggleDpiggle Snoats nous confie : » Beaucoup de gens
très jeunes ont accès à SL, comment expliquer à leurs parents que
l’environnement n’est pas fiable, malgré la possibilité de contrôler les
zones qui leur sont accessibles ? »

Commentant les évènements et la réaction des membres du groupe FN face
aux manifestations, Mark Lock, alias Marco, en Italie, dit : « La seule
chose que j’ai constaté hier, c’est que nou nous sommes littéralement
fait tirer dessus et bombarder par la sécurité du FN et leurs
sympathisants, pour avoir simplement exercé notre droit à la parole et
notre liberté d’expression ».

Le groupe SL Left Unity a été initié par des membres du Parti Socialiste
Ecossais en Novembre 2006. Sous leur impulsion, est né un groupe
virtuel, incluant des personnes de toutes nationalités et d’horizons
très divers, ayant un intérêt commun pour la justice sociale, et une
vision critique d’un monde néo conservateur et du système capitaliste.

Plot Tracer, SLLU


Ban the Front National from SL PG zones

The SL Left Unity group condemns the actions of the French fascist party, Front National for their actions against protesting AV's outside their offices in a PG sim.

This hate filled group of right wing racist nationalists have brought disrepute to SL and have damaged the livelihoods of many working av's in the PG rated Matrix Mall.

The SLLU have acquired land next to the FN office and will be manning a protest there until FN go or are ejected. Where-ever fascists are we will ensure they get no peace to corrupt and lie to decent people.

The SL Left Unity group call on the Linden's to see sense and ban this race hate group who are masquerading as a political party, from SL PG zones.

French citizen, and SLLU member Laura, AKA Paty said, “It is bad enough that these people cause trouble on the streets of France never mind the happy gaming world of Second Life.”

London based SLLU member HiggleDpiggle Snoats said, “Although in the interests of free speech I question the usefulness of an outright ban, I feel it is completely inappropriate for a known racist group to be operating within a PG sim"

Commenting on the FN users reaction to the protesters, Mark Lock, AKA Marco, from Italy, said, “What I saw yesterday was that we were shot by their security for exercising our right to free speech.”

San Francisco based solidad Sugarbeet said, "The presence of a fascist organization in SL is an outrage. SL should be about building bonds, not breaking them."

A SLLU spokesperson said, “the whole idea of a 'Race Hate' group is in direct violation of LL's own terms of service, and if the rules are being read to say they aren’t in violation, then Lindens need to look at the rules again. \

We would urge the Lindens to strongly to consider whether they want to allow this group to be represented within SL. This, of course, would not happen if SL was fully democratic.”

The SL Left Unity group was set up by members of the Scottish Socialist Party in November 2006. It has outgrown it's original kernel of SSP members into a world wide left unity group comprising of people from many countries and all walks of life who are interested in social justice and whom are critical of the current world wide neo-conservative capitalist system.

Plot Tracer, SLLU


Bannare FRONT NATIONAL da SL

il gruppo "SL LEFT UNITY" condanna le azioni del partito fascista francere,
FRONT NATIONAL per le sue azioni contro la protesta degli avatar di fronte ai suoi uffici in un sim PG.

i membri di questo gruppo colmo di odio dell'estrema destra nazionalista ha portato distruzione a SL ed ha danneggiato gli altri avatar che lavornano nel centro commerciale Matrix.

La SLLU ha comprato del terreno vicino agli uffici del FN , il che vuol dire una protesta che durerà fino a che IL FN se ne andrà o verrà cacciato. Ovunque i fascisti sono ci assicureremo che non possano corrompere e mentire alla gente.

La SL LEFT UNITY chiede ai Linden di avere buon senso e di bannare da SL questi gruppi di razzisti che si stanno mascherando da partito politico.
Una cittadina francese, e membro dell'SLLU Laura, AKA Party dice, " è amareggiante che questi gruppi di persone causino problemi sulle strade francesi e che non badino al mondo pacifico e giocoso di Second Life".

HiggleDpiggle Snoats di londra dice "molti giovani hanno accesso a SL e quando anche i controlli su PG/MATURE sono utilizzati male, cosa possono chiedersi i loro genitori, è questo ambiente, sicuro per i loro bambini?"

Commentando sulle reazioni dei membri dell'FN contro i manifestanti, Mark Lock, AKA Marco dall'Italia dice, "Quello che ho visto ieri è stato che la loro Sicurezza ci ha sparato mentre noi esercitavamo il nostro diritto alla libertà di parola".

Solidad Sugarbeet dice, "La presenza di un organizazione fascista in SL è un oltraggio. SL dovrebbe essere fatto per costruire legami, non distruggerle".

Un portavoce della SLLU dice, "l'idea di un groppo dedito all'"odio raziale" è in diretta violazione dei termini di utilizzo propri dei Linden, e se ad una sua lettura e dicono che cono sono in violazionione, allora i Linden avrebbero bisogno di leggerle di nuovo.
Noi chiediamo urgentemente ai Linden di considerare se vogliono che questo gruppo sia rappresentato in SL. Questo ovviamente, non succederebbe se SL fosse totalmente democratica".

il gruppo SL LEFT UNITY è stato creato da membri del Partito Socialista Scozzese nel novembre 2006. E' cresciuto a dismisura dal numero originale dei membri del SSP tanto da diventare un partito internazionale unitario della sinistra comprendente gente da molti paesi e di ogni stile di vita i quali sono interessati alla giustizia sociale ed i quali criticano il sistema capitalista neoconservatore internazionale.

Plot Tracer, SLLU


Pedido de exclusion del « Front National « de SL.

El grupo SL Left Unity condena las acciones del partido frances
fascista, el Front National (Frente Nacional), por sus actos contra los
manifestantes pacificos, delante su sede en SL, sobre un SIM PG.

Este grupo de extrema derecha y de odio ensucia la reputacion de SL, y
degrada la percepcion que podemos tener de las actividades, negocios y
trabajos hechos en su entorno, en el Matrix Mall.

El SLLU ha comprado el terreno vecino de la sede del SL FN, y tiene la
intencion de organisar acciones alli, hasta que el FN se retire del
local, o sea expulsado.
Donde se instala el fascismo, podemos tener la certeza que no dejara de
mentir y buscar la corrupcion de individuos decentes.

El grupo SL Left Unity hace un llamado a Linden para que constate, tire
las conclusiones que se imponen, y libere el mundo SL de este grupo de
odio racial, disfrazado en partido politico.

Ciudadane francesa y miembro del SLLU, Laura Gagliano, alias Paty en la
realidad, declara : « Ya es suficientemente dificil de aguantar estos
discursos y las acciones de calle afiliadas en las calles de Francia, es
impensable que se introduzcan en el universo ludico de Second Life ».

Basada en Londres, HiggleDpiggle Snoats nos confia : « Mucha gente muy
joven tiene acceso a SL, como explicar a sus padres que el entorno no es
de confianza, a pesar de la posibilidad las zonas de acceso ?! »

Comentando los eventos y la reaccion de los miembros del grupo SL FN
frente a las manifestaciones, Mark Lock, alias Marco, de Italia, dice :
» La unica cosa que pude constatar ayer, es que fuimos literalmente
agredidos a tiros y bombardeados, por el simple hecho de haber usado
nuestro derecho a la palabra, y nuestra libertad de expresion ».

El grupo SL Left Unity fue iniciado por miembros de Partido Socialista
Escoces en noviembre 2006.
Bajo su impulsion, nacio un grupo virtual, incluyendo personas de todas
nacionalidades y de horizontes muy diversos, que tienen un interes comun
por la justicia social, y una vision critica de un mundo neo conservador
y del sistema capitalista.

Plot Tracer, SSLU

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