Genny from No CONcensus has kindly allowed us to adapt a piece she wrote into a three-part blog piece. Firstly, the ideology behind census refusal.

It seems that many thousands of people in England and Wales have refused to complete the 2011 Census. Many refused after the world’s biggest arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, operating under a UK flag of convenience, was awarded the £150 million contract to process Census data. Others objected to the Census per se, and to the element of compulsion enshrined in the 1920 Census Act.

Those protesting the involvement of Lockheed Martin point to its deadly business of making nuclear weapons, fighter jets, and cluster bombs amongst other lethal products. Campaigners have also raised concerns about Lockheed’s unhealthy obsession with global surveillance as the company holds prime position in the US Federal Contractor Misconduct database. Lockheed Martin holds contracts for the Census in both the US and Canada, where there is also resistance.

In Scotland, the Census contract was awarded to CACI, another arms company, fueling further resistance and refusal north of the border. CACI also implicated in human rights abuses and torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo detention centres. Overall, the government’s choice of contractors appears to have effectively compromised the accuracy of the 2011 Census since it has directly resulted in many of the refusals.

The individual has the right not to deal with an unethical company, in the same way as we have the right of conscientious objection to fighting in a war. Other refusers argue that compelling an individual to complete the Census compromises the fundamental human right to privacy, particularly when the security of the data supplied cannot be guaranteed.

A small percentage of the conscientious census objectors in England, Scotland and possibly Wales are now being prosecuted and brought to court- often many miles from their homes. To refuse to obey a government diktat on grounds of conscience and to risk prosecution for doing so are in themselves significant acts of resistance.

The sheer volume of refusals over the 2011 Census sends a clear message that it is not OK for the government to ignore ethical considerations and award lucrative contracts to arms companies.

Next week: the court process.

http://tedwarddraws.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/conscientiousobjector.jpg

I am a Londoner, aged 69, a retired chartered accountant and finance director, having earlier in my career spent 25 years in merchant banking. I studied German and French at Oxford University.

For more than 20 years I have been a supporter of the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and I served as the Campaign’s treasurer at a time when it was infiltrated on behalf of British Aerospace (now BAE Systems). Last year I refused to complete my census because of the involvement of an arms company –I am now being prosecuted because of my ethical objection.

I entirely support the census in principle; the questions asked caused me no concern. I fully believe that a government needs this information to assist with the formulation of policy. However, my opinion of the arms industry and of its business practices means that I cannot willingly co-operate with an organisation such as Lockheed Martin. They are the largest US weapons contractor and inter alia the manufacturer of cluster bombs and Trident nuclear missiles.

I appreciate the need to obtain the best value for money and to ensure that the contractor has the necessary technical competence. However, I believe that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) should also understand that an appointment which offends many people on ethical grounds and turns them into “census refuseniks” runs counter to their stated obligation to ensure that the census is as complete as possible.

The witness statement provided by the Chief Procurement Officer at the ONS claims that, “it is difficult to include ethics in any evaluation criteria because they are subjective to the individual,” and that any inclusion of ethical considerations would “defeat the two foundations of procurement: fairness and transparency. In effect, personal motivation would influence the outcome despite technical expertise or cost effectiveness and this simply must not be allowed.”

The clear consequence of such a stance is that no company capable of doing the job at a reasonable price can be ruled out, no matter how vile or criminal its record may be. It is disturbing to learn that the ONS and the government itself does not have its own ethical code and regards ethics as no more than a variety of opinions held by members of the public.

I find it incomprehensible, indeed shameful, that, out of all the organisations which presumably tendered for this work, the UK government should opt for companies such as Lockheed Martin for the England, Wales and Northern Ireland census, and CACI –a corporation whose employees were directly involved in the torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib- for the Scottish census. We are told that ethical considerations “simply must not be allowed” and as a result two companies from the American military industrial complex were engaged.

Many individuals cannot put their ethical views so lightly to one side and are now in effect being prosecuted for their beliefs.

Gyles Cooper
February 2012

CLICK HERE FOR UP TO DATE COURT INFORMATION

Four hundred people (1) are being prosecuted for refusal to complete the 2011 census. Prosecutions are up ten times compared to 2001, when only 38 people were prosecuted.

The ten-fold increase in prosecutions is widely believed to be due to the census being run by Lockheed Martin UK, a subsidiary of the world?s largest arms manufacturer (2). Thousands of people deliberately did not complete the census due to the involvement of an arms company.

Around 120 have already been found guilty, with fines ranging from the hundreds to the maximum penalty of £1,000 already having been handed down.

Kat Hobbs from the census campaign group Count Me Out (3) said:

“Ten times more prosecutions than the last census shows that people are really angry about the involvement of an arms company. The Office of National Statistics can no longer deny that giving the census contract to Lockheed Martin was a mistake when so many people are being prosecuted as a result of it.”

John Voysey (4), an 82 year old Conscientious Objector from Herefordshire, who is facing prosecution said:

“The same reason why I registered as a Conscientious Objector in 1947 means that I cannot do the census if an arms company is involved. My objection to the arms trade is a deeply held religious belief and leaves me with no choice but the break the law. It is an outrage that Lockheed Martin was given the census contract and so many people were forced to choose between their conscience and breaking the law.”

Kat Hobbs added:

“It’s not just brave people like John who didn’t do the census – millions of people didn’t do it. A large proportion of the British public don’t want to have anything to do with Lockheed Martin and their dodgy arms deals. Their involvement has certainly made the census data less accurate.”

ENDS

For further information and comment contact Count Me Out on 07858 998 508, email media@countmeout.me.uk, or visit “Press” at www.countmeout.me.uk

NOTES

1. Office of National Statistics Media Relations Office: Telephone: 0845 604 1858 (8:30am-5:30pm Weekdays), Emergency out of hours (limited service): 07867 906553, Email: media.relations@ons.gov.uk. For information on prosecutions and upcoming court dates: www.countmeout.me.uk
2. Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest arms manufacturer, producing F-16 fighter jets, cluster munitions, and the Trident nuclear missile system. Lockheed Martin UK, the subsidiary responsible for “data capture and information processing” in the census, is also a producer of missiles and other weapons systems. http://www.lockheedmartin.co.uk/about/index.html
3. Count Me Out brought together individuals and groups to take action against the 2011 census and protest Lockheed Martin UK’s involvement.

Judith Sambrook refused to complete her census form in protest at the involvement of weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin in processing census data. She has been charged and will appear at Wrexham Magistrates Court on 11th November at 10.30am, which happens to be Remembrance Day. Judith, a single parent from Shrewsbury who is on dialysis three days a week, plans to continue her resistance by refusing to pay any fine imposed and is prepared to go to prison if necessary.

ASSEMBLE 10am OUTSIDE WREXHAM MAGISTRATES COURT on FRIDAY 11 NOVEMBER.

Demonstrate

• against war, weapons manufacturers and the arms trade, and against Lockheed Martin in particular
• in solidarity with Judith and all census refusers
• to condemn the criminalisation of conscientious census objectors

As this is also Remembrance Day, we will hold a silent vigil at 11am at the war memorial, which is just 50 yards from the court.

Please join us for the morning if you possibly can. Contact us if you need accommodation the night before.

LOCATION AND TRAVEL

Address: Bodhyfryd, Wrexham LL12 7BP.

Transport: 5 minutes walk from bus station, 10 minutes walk from either train station. Car parking right outside, access from Chester Street (swimming pool car park). Direct train services from Chester, Deeside and the Wirral, North Wales coast, Shrewsbury and Birmingham. Wrexham is 12 miles from Chester, 30 miles from Liverpool and 40 miles from Shrewsbury.

FOR MORE INFORMATION or to arrange accommodation on the night of 10 November:  email: wrexhamsaw_at_yahoo.com (Wrexham Peace & Justice Forum)

source: Indymedia

Greetings all!

The campaign is progressing, despite our relative silence on here. The Census Non-Compliance officers are still doing the rounds, being threatening in some boroughs and really understanding in others.

It is getting closer to the time where legal action, if it happens, will become a reality. If you are threatened with legal action, please get in contact with us by emailing countmeout@aktivix.org.

Also, if you feel like updating us about the progress with your individual campaigns, then please join our email discussion list by emailing countmeout-subscribe@lists.riseup.net (a blank email will work fine).

Remember to keep the pressure up, column inches in papers are always a good idea…

Love,

The Count Me Out collective.

If your area is anything like ours, you will have noticed the Enforcement Officers start their rounds in the past week or two. Be sure to not be too mean to them, as they’re getting not getting paid much!

People have been sending us updates from their own actions against the census, and we thought we would pass some on. Here’s a video of Tracey from Toxteth’s making peace flower for Census HQ:

…and here’s a nice bit of subvertising from the Saint-Just Mob in Bristol:

We also got a snippet into the Financial Times a couple of weeks ago. Check out that, and all other media coverage we’ve had, on our Press page.