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Civil Liberty

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: civil liberty
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Freedom from arbitrary interference in one's pursuits by individuals or by government. The term is usually used in the plural. Civil liberties are protected explicitly in the constitutions of most democratic countries. (In authoritarian countries, civil liberties are often formally guaranteed in a constitution but ignored in practice.) In the U.S., civil liberties are guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution's 13th Amendment prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude; the 14th bars the application of any law that would abridge the "privileges and immunities" of U.S. citizens or deprive any person of "life, liberty, or property…without due process of law" or deny any person equal protection under the law; and the 15th guarantees the right of all U.S. citizens to vote. The related term civil right is often used to refer to one or more of these liberties or indirectly to the obligation of government to protect certain classes of people from violations of one or more of their civil liberties (e.g., the obligation to protect racial minorities from discrimination on the basis of race). In the U.S., civil rights are protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent legislation. See also American Civil Liberties Union.

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Wikipedia: Civil Liberty (UK)
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 This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from other articles related to it. (July 2008)

Civil Liberty is a civil rights organisation claiming to be autonomous of any political party in the United Kingdom. It is alleged to be a front organisation for the British Nationalist Party, set up to raise money for the party from far-right sympathisers in the United States.[1][2] It should not be confused with the pressure group Liberty (previously the National Council for Civil Liberties).

Claims of connections to the British National Party

The anti-fascist magazine Searchlight (magazine) whose campaigning against the British National Party is endorsed by the Daily Mirror and Britain's major trade unions[3] claims that Civil Liberty, headed by "senior BNP member" Kevin Scott, is a front group for the BNP.[4]

According to The Guardian, Civil Liberty is a fund-raising group run by key BNP activists which was set up to raise money from far right sympathisers in the United States, apparently seeking to profit from anti-Islamic sentiment in the US by presenting the BNP as being at the forefront of a campaign to save the UK from being "overwhelmed" by Muslims.[5]

The only member of Civil Liberty named on the Civil Liberty website is its founder and director, Kevin Scott.[6] Scott is a former BNP regional organizer for the North East.[7] The examples of the organization's work provided over three pages at the website all refer to action in support of prominent members of the BNP: Arthur Redfearn, BNP councilor, and Tina Wingfield, BNP membership secretary,[8] Mark Collett, head of BNP publicity, and BNP chairman Nick Griffin,[9] and prominent BNP members Adam Walker and Mark Walker.[10] No other activities involving "individuals who have been victimized because of their dissent"[11] are reported. Civil Liberty's contact address is alleged to be the PO Box belonging to the BNP's North-East Region.[12] The Guardian states that all money donated through the Civil Liberty website goes to the BNP's regional headquarters in the north-east.[13]

Since 2001 it has been illegal for any political party in the UK to accept overseas donations of more than £200, and party officials breaking the law face a year's imprisonment or a £5,000 fine. According to the Guardian, both Civil Liberty and the BNP deny they are trying to bypass UK election law, insisting they are entirely separate organisations.[14]

References

  1. ^ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/hope-not-hate/
  2. ^ http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=194
  3. ^ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/hope-not-hate/
  4. ^ http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=194
  5. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/feb/03/partyfunding.thefarright
  6. ^ http://www.civilliberty.org.uk/index.html
  7. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/programmes/2001/bnp_special/membership/organisers/kevin_scott.stm
  8. ^ http://www.civilliberty.org.uk/ourwork.htm
  9. ^ http://www.civilliberty.org.uk/ourwork2.htm
  10. ^ http://www.civilliberty.org.uk/ourwork3.htm
  11. ^ http://www.civilliberty.org.uk/ourwork.htm
  12. ^ http://kirkunity.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
  13. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/feb/03/partyfunding.thefarright
  14. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/feb/03/partyfunding.thefarright

External links


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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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