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107 lines
5.0 KiB
107 lines
5.0 KiB
Title: Hacking is political
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Category: Blog
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Tags: /dev/diary, CCC
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Date: 2019-01-02
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I'm just coming back from the Chaos Communication Congress,
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a four day event just after Christmas.
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It was my fourth one in total, and now the third in a row
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(the first being 25C3 as a smol girl).
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It's hard to describe the C3 (abreviation for the congress, opposed to the CCC, the club).
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Some call it a "hacker conference" which is...in some ways accurate,
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but often doesn't manage to capture what it is.
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Not to mention relies on the external definition of a "hacker" to describe it.
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Other's call it a "tech event" or "tech conference" which really isn't accurate either.
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There are lots of artists and non-tech people represented
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and I feel these experiences shouldn't be ignored.
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The C3 has been in Hamburg for quite a while but was forced to move last year
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due to the congress centre there being remodeled (read "torn down").
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After remodelling the venue would also not be suitable for the event anymore,
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meaning that a semi-permanent move had to be initiated.
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**I didn't enjoy last year's Congress.**
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Not only was it plagued by loads of logistical problems and bad adaptation of the new space,
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there were political issues around the organisation of the event and how decisions were made.
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Last year's congress showed off that the CCC (the club) had a problem with apoliticality.
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## Apolitical Hackers
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I've been rather loud about the apolitical or centrist parts of the hacker movement.
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Conflation between the terms "maker" and "hacker" have further undermined the movement
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with capitalist and neoliberal ideas.
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That isn't to say that everybody in the hacker scene
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needs to be continously aware of all political implications of their actions at all times.
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Danger arises from people who don't feel like political action is important _at all_
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or who represent centrist, capitalist and neo-liberal viewpoints.
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This includes refusal to take action against climate change
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or supporting the police, regulatory bodies and disregarding free software movements
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for reasons of convenience.
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I'm taking about these things in rather vague terms because I want to avoid
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drawing a definite line that people can't cross.
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Really, I would argue that there's many ways to be a hacker.
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I see issue and a danger to the movement,
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when people attempt to "leave politics out of hacking" entirely.
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This includes fighting capitalism and discrimination against minorities.
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Hackers, by definition, are the political left!
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Anyone who isn't and still claims to be a hacker has successfully co-opted the word
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and is attempting to undermine the movement for their own political gain.
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It's not always obvious how the existence of apolitical hackers impacts the movement
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or the technologies that they build.
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But just like Tech in general has racism and sexism problems,
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so does the hacker movement.
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Society does, really. There's no way to remove a community from time and space.
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"Stuff" happened before we got here, and pretending that it didn't, is dangerous.
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I could talk about the impact of apoliticality on technology
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and communities that are being built for a very long time but I really don't want to today.
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Instead I want to focus on something else, something more positive.
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## A very political congress
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I very much enjoyed this year's congress!
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Maybe in part that was because of the people I was attending it with this year ( 😉 )
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but in no small part, it was also because of the general atmosphere around the event.
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This isn't something only I noticed.
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I had conversations about this with others,
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who apparently also noticed this change from last year.
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The first thing you saw when entering the venue was a huge Antifa flag,
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setting the tone of the rest of the event.
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Apart from that there were a lot more assemblies this year,
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many were dedicated to squatting, anarchy and fighting capitalism.
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There were a few queer assemblies, scattered around the hall,
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making it so that queer and leftist representations weren't all bundled in one spot
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but were present all through the venue.
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Even purely technical assemblies were surrounded by antifa flags and anarchist stickers and flyers.
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This changed the atmosphere quite significantly.
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It wasn't perfect.
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Just like last year, it was plagued by logistical problems,
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some smaller, some larger.
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There were people who had their stuff stolen.
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There were speakers who made problematic jokes on stage.
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There were still apolitial and centrist people present.
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In fact, there were people complaining about C3 "having gotten so political",
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which really is a good thing.
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We want the centrist and right-leaning "hackers" (read: libertarians) to feel uncomfortable.
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But despite all that, the air, the general atmosphere of the event was different.
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I welcome this change.
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And I hope that it sets a new tone for the CCC and the C3 in general.
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I would very much enjoy going back next year
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and finding out that the event had become even more overtly anarchist.
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Because we shouldn't forget our core motivation as hackers:
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**being gay, and doing crimes!**
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The only downside from 35C3? I don't really know what to think about birds anymore...
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