„they can bun my flesh, but they can’t touch my spirit, they wan‘ take away my freedom, but they can’t take away my spirit“ – Text from prison
Text of a prisoner of the UHA Holstenglacis Hamburg
Every cell, every hair, every drop of blood is part of my own body. By taking a DNA sample against my will, my body is injured. Injured by the state judiciary, its henchmen and by captivity.
I will not start to argue the senselessness of the extraction in this procedure, since I generally do not want to justify DNA extraction. The DNA databases introduced a few decades ago no longer hide behind the false arguments of dangerous violent crimes. They are a permanently used instrument of state data collection and control mania. From sprayers to shoplifters, if they have their way, all of our information would be preventively held in databases already.
We see as well in court the progressive development of DNA. From evidence to proof. In other European countries there are many examples of DNA evidence being used as primary evidence. As a thoroughly ideological instrument, DNA evidence makes it possible to judge an image of a person, a biography or a position in combination with an accused offence, even if it does not prove anything.
It would be a mistake to argue within the context of their self-legitimising theater. The ever-increasing collection of data, is obviously not meant to protect us or to benefit us, but instead to defend their dominance. Dominance of money, property and power over other people. Contrary to widespread misconception, there are no neutral databases. They function to serve domination. For what is still „harmless“ data today can be used tomorrow against those who it concerns. History has taught us this lesson in a cruel way. What is one day a simple list, a directory, or a membership, can be a death sentence on the next. And we all know that dynamics can change quickly, they are never as stable as they pretend to be. Again, the fact that the enemies of freedom collect data for their own purposes and categorise people has been made clear by some recent events. For example, the death lists of the right-wing „Nordkreuz“ network, consisting of (elite) soldiers from the Bundeswehr (Army), the police, reservists, as well as individuals from the fields of justice and politics. Or the threatening letters against anti-authoritarian and anarchist revolutionaries in Berlin, compiled and sent by LKA officials (State criminal police office) created with data from police files and databases. Other databases which are used throughout Europe against refugees, in which their bodies are measured like those of animals in order to identify them elsewhere…
The ubiquitous total digitalisation of life plays a big role too. The data of social networks, telecommunications and GPS data, as well as all the information that online shopping and mobility sharing collects about us, are now primary sources of repression. Unfortunately there is an alarmingly high level of voluntary participation in this process. This goes hand in hand with the exclusion of all those people who cannot be part of the established legal society because, for example, they have no papers. Because, as society becomes ever more transparent, the spaces in which there is no permanent control disappear. The social fog is clearing for domination.
Individuals who feel the urge to live in freedom should create and defend uncontrolled spaces. Regardless of their own situation, to meet and support with mutual solidarity those who are persecuted, threatened, exploited and oppressed.
But this means conflict with those who rule us. Let us oppose their conditions with our self-organised struggles.
UHA Holstenglacis, Hamburg, August 2019