A summary of what we've been up to recently, what our ongoing plans are, and our actions for future.

Recent Events

Last Tuesday's debate on a Universal DNA Database went very well - not only were a majority in opposition to start with, but we saw a swing further towards our side by the end of the debate.

Saturday's stall was very popular - Dave had to run off to print new petition forms since the pile we brought with us were all filled! We even had a few impromptu volunteers joining us in flyering passers-by.

Monday's screening of Taking Liberties by the OpenMedia society at the University netted us an extra fifteen signatures for our own Students Against ID. There were a lot of interesting and useful questions from the packed audience which shows a high level of interest among the student body in our campaign.

Ongoing Activities

Matt is still looking into setting up a bank account to keep better track of our donations and finances.

• Matt to continue with this.

Our plan to put on a gig to raise awareness and perhaps funds has split into two - a music gig and a poetry gig. Clare, Arthur and Tom exchanged some ideas about doing a database state-themed poetry night, and Tom and Kevin are still working on the music gig.

• Tom to suggest a database state theme to a local poetry night which could have a NO2ID stall.

Dave is working on our local election campaign, canvassing every local election candidate in Greater Manchester for their opinion on ID cards. Results will be made available on our website as they come in. To save costs, we will contact local parties via e-mail where possible and ask them to forward the questionnaire on to their candidates. Independent candidates will be contacted via post, since most electoral services units do not provide e-mail addresses for candidates. Dave also has drafted a press release which will go out to local media soon about how candidates which support the Database State want to waste 200 quid of everybody's council tax on integrating local authority systems with the National Identity Register, and highlighting our questionnaire.

• Dave to continue contacting local parties
• Dave to draft and send press release

The student society still needs to be formed - Dave needs to get the interim committee together to fill in all the paperwork. This close to exams, our plans for the year should basically be to form the society and book a stall at Fresher's Fair for September. Next year we will look at campaigning in the University, getting an SU motion opposing ID
cards passed, and holding a public meeting. We should also look at spreading our influence to other Manchester and Greater Manchester universities.

• Dave to organise meeting of student committee
• Helen to submit paperwork

In the past, we made contact with Manchester and NW Unison then failed to leverage our contacts with both. Given that Unite are opposing ID cards, particuarly for airport workers, we should get in touch with their Manchester and North-West branches and talk to them about campaigning together, possibly involving events at Manchester Airport. Clare has offered to contact Unite, and Dave will forward her the contact details we gathered previously.

• Dave to forward Unite contact details to Clare
• Clare to contact Unite

Dave needs to chase up the NO2ID systems administration team about giving our e-mail list a less confusing name. Currently the discussion list is at no2id.manchester@no2id.net while Dave's personal address is manchester@no2id.net - Dave wants to move the list to manchester-discuss@lists.no2id.net (and set up a manchester-announce list too).

• Dave to contact NO2ID sysadmins

Summer And Beyond

Once the Local Elections are done and dusted, and the students have gone away for the summer, we would like to try to get every council in Greater Manchester to vote on a motion opposing ID cards. We should be able to get at least a few of them passed, and it would give us a good indication of where we stand. Dave had hoped to achieve this ahead of the local elections but time pressures intervened.

Over summer there will be various festivals around Manchester, such as the Beech Road festival in Chorlton, which we should strive to attend wherever possible.

In September, the Labour Party Conference will return to the Midland Hotel in Manchester, and we will be waiting. The Convention of the Left will be holding many fringe meetings, and it might be worth us doing one too, perhaps alongside an organisation such as Liberty or Privacy International.

General Discussion

There was a brief conversation about support in principle and in practice, with respect to us appearing at the conferences of parties who support us. Dave pointed out that our support from local parties comes mostly at the council level when proposing and passing motions, and that there's very few instances of people offering us support at stalls and meetings purely because their party opposes the Database State. Attending the conferences of friendly parties gives us a platform to remind them that there is an ongoing, successful, nationwide grassroots campaign which opposes ID cards in public on a regular basis, and that these parties should be encouraging their supporters to get involved with NO2ID.

Some campaigning thoughts were discussed, about approaching banks and the Student Loans Company to see how they feel about students co-opted onto the National Identity Register to get student loans or bank accounts. It was pointed out that banks such as the Co-Operative and Nationwide might be more inclined to listen to their members than other
banks.

• Dave to pass this on to the main campaign office

We were also told a story about exchange of information on flight passengers between the UK and the US, which indicates that there is something pre-printed on the flight ticket which indicates whether somebody "requires" extra searching when they arrive in the US.

Upcoming Events

Sunday 27th April 8pm-11pm: FAB Café Film Night

Manchester NO2ID will be sponsoring a free dystopian film screening at the FAB Café on Portland Street, Manchester. The film will probably be Terry Gilliam's excellent vision of a bureaucratic database state gone mad, Brazil.

Join us to relax, enjoy the film and ask any questions you may have about the NO2ID campaign against identity cards and the Database State.

Saturday 10th May 2pm-4pm: Street Stall

We'll be running a Saturday afternoon stall in St. Ann's Square to raise awareness among the public and engage people in discussion about the National Identity Register. We'll be encouraging people to take the NO2ID Pledge, and collecting signatures for the NO2ID petition to keep people in touch with the campaign.

We'll meet in the square itself at 2pm to set up shop; feel free to join us to lend a hand or just chat. You don't need any experience or equipment, just a bit of time to spare and a friendly smile!

Wednesday 14th May 7pm-9pm: Monthly Meeting

Manchester NO2ID will be holding our monthly meeting in the upstairs function room of the Town Hall Tavern, Tib Lane, Manchester. Sadly, this venue is not wheelchair-accessible; please contact us if you have accessibility needs.

At our monthly meetings we discuss the state of the NO2ID campaign, what we've been up to recently and where we're going in future. Everyone is welcome, newcomer or not, curious or committed.

The Town Hall Tavern serves reasonably-priced, good quality food until 9pm so you don't need to pop home for tea - you can even order your meal brought up to the function room.