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| C_A_A_N |
Consenting Adult Action Network
For your freedom. And ours.
CAAN is a growing grassroots network of individuals fighting for the freedom of consenting adults to view, or engage in, whatever activities they wish in the privacy of their own homes. We want to reclaim our human right to privacy and a lifestyle or sexuality of our own choosing. We want you to join in, because that's what a network is. To get our rights back and turn the tide of puritanical laws, which create harmless criminals and victimless crimes, we need to put our energies and skills together.
Against extreme and unjust laws.
CAAN is taking action about the extreme porn ban set to commence in January 2009 when the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill becomes law. We are fighting the criminalisation of the possession of pornography which features consenting adults. We will fight propaganda which spreads the lie that looking at extreme pornography inspires people to commit non-consensual acts. We are against all insidious and unjust laws which cause wider discrimination and criminalisation of adults who engage in informed consensual relationships with other adults.
CAAN needs your extreme porn.
We are creating a collection of extreme pornographic evidence which people need advice about, to see if they are at risk of imprisonment and a listing on the Sex Offender Register if the images are not destroyed before January 2009. You can join the advice-seeking missions paying visits to those who created and / or will enforce this law. Alternatively, send your images to c-a-a-n@live.co.uk and we will put them in our collection and give them a unique evidence number so you can track their progress in our reports.
CAAN needs YOU!
We're creating many ways to join in so that everyone who wants to get involved can, including behind the scenes. All consenting adults are welcome in CAAN, of all orientations, social groupings and genders, and we can provide our information in alternative formats on request. We will soon launch our website. For current updates about CAAN's activities see our blog at: http://consentingadultactionnet.spaces.live.com/
| 2 Aug 08, 4:18 PM C_A_A_N UK, 4 yrs |
Lady Pandora's 15 min speech at Kinkfest 4 - it's on right now. Here's the rough text of it. This includes a potted history of CAAN and where we are at as of today. Banner is rigged as made in activism workshop earlier. 2nd August 2008. 3.45 pm to 4pm on Kinkfest stage. Lady Pandora for CAAN. I'm Lady Pandora. I am involved in CAAN – the Consenting Adult Action Network, which started to form in April, just four months ago. We're taking action about the extreme porn ban to the streets and providing a focus point for individuals to get involved in campaigning about the CJIA in other ways, so we can draw our energies together and support existing lobby group Backlash. [Insert paragraph here about workshop earlier at this event. Will add this later when we have the text of it. ] Personally, I became involved with CAAN as I am sick to death of people with no real concept or grasp of everyday life trying to tell me what I can or cannot view or do. I believe we're about to have yet another law brought in to govern how we lead our lives - as if we're not enough of a nanny state already! I believe this is a law which will affect people from every walk of life; not just BDSMers ... and most of those people won't be aware until it's too late. I feel that an awful lot of people sit at home and complain about the unfairness of the new law, yet nothing will change unless we get off our backsides and MAKE it change. For anyone that is still not aware of this law, the plain speak of what the CJIA means is this. It has been made law that from January 2009 it will be illegal to own an image, which under this act, is considered extreme and disgusting. Possession of this will include images stored in your computer's hard drive which you have viewed on the internet, and could land you a 3 year prison sentence and listing on the Sex Offender Register. Just for owning a picture, even if it's of a consensual activity where nobody was harmed. They more or less state it's because people who look at these images may go on to harm others and commit sexual violent crimes. Lots of us know that's rubbish because we don't. And Backlash have proved there's no evidence of this. CAAN started around the time it became clear we were losing the fight for amendments to the CJIA. Members of the House of Lords were soon to make their final votes about the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill and the parts relating to personal possession of what it calls 'extreme pornography'. Backlash have lobbied about this law since it's inception, but lots of us feel angry that the Government is infringing our rights by having not taken heed of Backlash and now want to take the campaigning a step further, as individuals working together. In support of Backlash's' request for people to write to Lords, as suggested by someone in a community social, people started collecting letters in clubs and via the internet and members of the BDSM community assisted in growing a wave of votes at the last amendment. That vote was still lost, more narrowly, but having seen the results of campaigning alongside Backlash as individuals, people kept going. And it started growing. Someone on the internet called an action in London and concerned people from the BDSM community got involved in it and picked a name for a network. And then we grew again. Since then we have helped get letters to MP's and started taking a collection of actual extreme porn evidence for advice – the first mission was in June to a police HQ and the next is on 22nd of this month in London, to someplace further up the chain. The growth is picking up speed now and we need to continue to grow. We need everyone who can to get involved. What is extreme and pornographic under this ridiculous law is a complicated and subjective matter when we start to look at real images owned by real people. We just can't see how anyone can be expected to abide by such a ridiculous law, which is difficult to interpret. We also think the law is just plain wrong and based on bullshit. We don't' believe restricting access to BDSM images will prevent sad tragedies or abuse, as it will push our community further underground, so people are less safe and have access to less information. CAAN has started a collection of extreme pornographic evidence, which is now around 150 images and growing constantly. We are trying to get advice about it. And guess what? There's none coming yet and most people still are not aware of this law. What are we going to do with the evidence in January? We haven't decided yet! Have you got any ideas? This fight about images is NOT just about us in the BDSM and Fetish communities, but we ARE the ones at the thick end of the wedge and we can lead the fight. It is NOT just about porn, it's about the freedom of grown adults to choose what turns us on. If what we are are viewing, or doing, is consensual, informed and between adults it's nobody else's business! The government have based this law on a lie based on NO EVIDENCE that if people look at these extreme pornographic images they will go out and harm others and commit crimes. Government consultations include a police officer declaring viewers of extreme porn are a risk to animals and children. That's what they think people do? Really? Are you sure they don't just mean viewers might turn out like us and go out and actually DO some of these things they fantasise about, like the consenting adults in the images they are viewing and getting turned on by. Some of which is illegal activity already… because they criminalized sadomasochism already. Doesn't this echo of Section 28 and not being allowed to promote homosexuality… just a little? Peter Tatchell talked to someone from CAAN recently about the extreme porn ban and he thinks a major problem is that most people don't even know about it. He encouraged us to keep taking action, to grow a mass behind the scenes and to start to engage the wider public in the debate. A report in The Register suggested “MILLIONS” of people could be criminalised by the CJIA. CAAN hopes to start to engage at least some of those millions. It's ok to be angry about this law and the other laws against our lifestyles, sexualities and practices amongst consenting adults. In fact, it's the perfect time to get really constructive as individuals about putting our feelings about this to some use. We have a law coming into effect in four months time which affects images of some BDSM practices and a load of other stuff, which now enables the police to come into our homes and take computers and images. If they see images of any illegal BDSM practices, the so-called defense written into the CJIA means they could choose to bring a procecution under the Spanner ruling, even if the image itself is not illegal. We always be at more risk from such laws than people who merely observe. We also need to support those who only observe BDSM and fetish images and other potentially illegal material to not now be criminalized as well. What will be left after this? Criminalised for having a fantasy in our heads? The times are changing, and we need to hit while the iron is hot. Due to the Max Mosely case, BDSM has seen unprecedented coverage in the press, an unusual level of balanced writing from some quarters, an unprecedented amount of people willing to talk to the press positively about BDSM, anonymously and by name. We do not just have to lie there and take it. It may look like we're losing a battle but if we work together now, maybe we can win the war. Now is the time to start to show Government how much power we have really got if we use it. Time to speak for ourselves and bring on board the others affected by this extreme law. CAAN is not an organisation with figureheads and a constitution, it's a network of individuals who want to put their heads together to make this campaign grow. If you have done something for CAAN, have promised something, or are going to get involved, you are in the CAAN network (if you want to be). We are going to keep campaigning for the foreseeable future. We want everyone who wants to DO something small or big, secretly or loud and proud, to get involved in the Network. We are creating lots of ways to join in. People can join in by sending extreme pornographic images you own which you need advice about or by coming to the advice seeking mission on 22nd August in London – please pick up an action notice for the relevant information. We will start to collect money soon but until then all we want is your time and skills. We're growing a list of people right now ready to be sorted into teams to do different things to make this network grow: We need you to tell every adult you can face telling about the extreme porn ban. We also need to keep growing the network and form into groups. fundraisers, writers, printing, PR support, people to take our information to adult events or establishments, people to share our information via our mailing list, people to talk about us where there's space, people to get other people on board, we need organisations to back us up and distribute our information, we need people to talk to the press about the activism or about BDSM, models and photographers and venue owners, we need a banner, people to run stalls, we need badges, we need people to provide cover for anyone they know who wants to get involved anonymously, we need people willing to take the streets and leaflet and come with us on our top secret advice missions, we need images, we need Students on board, we need lawyers advice about images and we need you to tell people about CAAN and Backlash. We hope to have ways anyone can join in, out or not, and all the things we have done have grown from various ideas of people involved, so ideas of new ways are always welcome. Adults of all ages, backgrounds and sections of the community are welcome and we can provide information in alternative formats on request. To get on our mailing list and to read updates online, see our address on the flyers or talk to anyone involved in CAAN – we've got stickers on. Just send us an email to be added to the list of updates. If you want to talk to anyone about CAAN please do speak to the following people if you wish during Kinkfest [insert names]. Don't forget to give us your contact details. !ACTION NOTICE! London 22nd Aug or join in from home. Edited 2 Aug 08, 4:21 PM by C_A_A_N |
