Join the Resistance! Defeat Climate Change with System Change!

Register to vote with the Peace and Freedom Party
HTTP://REGISTERTOVOTE.CA.GOV
The Peace and Freedom Party is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism and racial equality. [www.peaceandfreedom.org]. Download this page as a 4 page flier at [http://www.csulb.edu/~eruyle/why-ecosoc-reg-pfp.pdf], Produced by Gene Ruyle for the Campaign for Peace and Socialism [ru4peace.wordpress.com] [cuyleruyle@mac.com] [510-428-1578]



Defeat Climate Change with System Change!
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us "universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."  — attributed to Albert Einstein

Formed in the anti-racist and anti-imperialist struggles of the sixties, the Peace and Freedom Party has the strongest ecological stance of any ballot-qualified party in the United States. Alone among ballot-qualified parties, the Peace and Freedom Party locates the cause of our ecological crisis in capitalism and understands that any real solution must involve socialism. The Peace and Freedom Platform clearly states our position on capitalism, socialism, and ecology: "The same corporate forces and economic system that exploit and brutalize the world's working class people are destroying the world's biosphere. These social policies and ecological destruction often overlap. Socialism is necessary to end the ecological destruction caused by capitalism. Our goal is a society that is in harmony with nature as it is in harmony with its own people."
As early as 1970, before there was a Green Party and before the term ecosocialism was even coined, the Peace and Freedom Party included ecological concerns in its socialist program, with a call to: “Save the environment by prohibiting pollution, waste of resources and destruction of nature for profit.”
Ecological concerns have always played an important role in the Peace and Freedom program. In April 2011, the State Central Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party endorsed the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, adopted at the World’s People’s Conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia in April 2010.

Our foundational opposition to U.S. imperialism includes recognition of its role in destroying the Earth. Not only is the U.S. military the biggest polluter on the planet, it protects and serves the same corporate forces that are systematically pillaging the Earth and paving the way to eco-destruction.

As a non-sectarian, multi-tendency party, Peace and Freedom welcomes the participation of members of other socialist groups. For example the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Socialist Organizer, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, and the Freedom Socialist Party have all been active within our ballot-qualified party. Our bylaws protect the formation of tendencies and the expression of various viewpoints.

The Peace and Freedom Party is an open, democratic, non-sectarian, multi-tendency, and movement-oriented political party, governed by the State Elections Code and our own Bylaws. Anyone eligible to vote in California can become a member of the Peace and Freedom Party simply by selecting Peace and Freedom Party under Political Party Preference while registering to vote. (There are also provisions for those who are prevented by law from voting to join the Peace and Freedom Party and participate in Party activity.)

The Peace and Freedom Party is governed by its State and County Central Committees. Any registered member can become a member of these Central Committees either through election in the June Primary election or by appointment by attending two Central Committee meetings. All meetings of the State Central Committee are open, with voting rights limited to SCC members.

Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver was Peace and Freedom’s First Presidential Nominee in 1968!

Peace and Freedom is not a vanguard party seeking to emulate the Bolshevik Party of 1917, although we respect such vanguard parties and welcome their participation. We provide an electoral alternative to the war addicted, pro-capitalist parties that dominate U.S. politics. In an era of the unchallenged supremacy of capital, it is worthwhile to have a political party, however small, to offer an alternative to the twin parties of corporate capitalism, unending war, and ecological insanity. Whatever its shortcomings, the Peace and Freedom Party has been uncompromising in our opposition to imperialism, uncompromising in our support for people’s struggles in California and throughout the world, and uncompromising in our support for the defense of our Mother Earth.

Many socialists of difference kinds—ecosocialists, democratic socialists, libertarian socialists, revolutionary socialists—feel it is important to publicly declare their opposition to capitalism. There is no more effective way to do this than by registering in the socialist Peace and Freedom Party.  Given the hegemony of bourgeois ideology, this may seem futile. But as Marx and Engels wrote concerning the importance of electoral activity even in the worst of times:
"Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention. They must not be led astray by the empty phrases of the democrats, who will maintain that the workers' candidates will split the democratic party and offer the forces of reaction the chance of victory. All such talk means, in the final analysis, that the proletariat is to be swindled. The progress which the proletarian party will make by operating independently in this way is infinitely more important than the disadvantages resulting from the presence of a few reactionaries in the representative body." (London, March 1850)

As we participate in a flawed and undemocratic electoral system, we recognize that our goals cannot be achieved by electoral means alone. We participate in mass organization and direct action in neighborhoods, workplaces, unions, schools, and the armed forces everywhere.
While organizing for the future, we work in the present, challenging the system with immediate and transitional goals, including:
·  shut down the war machine and bring our troops home,
·  guaranteed employment, with a dignified guaranteed income, free education and health care for all,
·  open borders and full rights for immigrants,
·  end all discrimination against immigrants, women, LGBT, and minorities, with marriage equality.
·  no compromise in defense of our Mother Earth.
Our personal and political freedoms are under sustained attack by the forces of corporate capitalism which include both the Democratic and Republican Parties. Signing petitions, demonstrating in the streets, and direct action are all important, as is an electoral challenge informed by the working class science of socialism.
If you share our values, join the resistance by registering Peace and Freedom Party at [registertovote.ca.gov]

Support the Oil Tax to Fund Education Act

You can call the California State Senate President Darrell Steinberg's office at 916-651-4006 or the Speaker of the California State Assembly John Perez's office at 916-319-2408, and ask them or your assemblyman or senator to sponsor the OIL TAX TO FUND EDUCATION ACT, which will generate $4 billion annually for California Public and Higher Education!

The Act is registered at the State of California [lao.ca.gov/laoapp/ballot_source/BalDetails.aspx?id=916], where it is described as follows: "This measure imposes a 15 percent “severance tax” on the value of all oil and gas extracted in California or its state offshore waters, which extend out three miles from the coastline. Oil and gas produced in federal waters would be exempt, and wells capable of producing less than ten barrels per day of oil or 60,000 cubic feet of gas per day would be exempt when the value of a barrel of oil or gas from those wells was $50 or lower. The measure states that the costs of the tax may not be passed on to consumers."

The Act is authored by Peter Mathews [562-234-3319] [epetermathews.com], who relates the following:
"When I first started teaching in California Community Colleges in 1976 my students paid no tuition. They were only required to pay a $6 service fee for all 15 units. If you paid the same rate today that Arnold Schwarzenegger paid as a student in the 1970s at Santa Monica College ($6 for all 15 units) you would be paying only $24 today because of inflation. Lets bring back these rates by asking your Assemblyman and State Senator to sponsor the OIL TAX TO FUND EDUCATION ACT (this Act prohibits passing on the oil tax in higher gas prices), of which I am the lead author. This bill is ready to be introduced into the California State Assembly and/or the California State Senate, in legal language."

End the permanant state of war!

Support Peace and Freedom on the ballot

Brothers and sisters,
The Peace and Freedom Party's voter registration drive needs more money!  Even if you can only give a few dollars, please see if you can make a donation today. 
A very large percentage of people who register to vote, and are told about the Peace and Freedom Party and our total dedication to the needs of working people, are willing to register as Peace and Freedom Party voters.  The only problem is, someone has to ask them.  Every penny of the money in our registration fund goes to  register voters, none is used for administrative expenses or fund-raising expenses.  Please help us make our goal of 105,000 Peace and Freedom Party voters in California by late 2014.  Please help secure your right to vote for candidates other than corporate-controlled  Republicans and Democrats in California.  Help us retain our ballot status, and help us keep fighting for the rights and needs of working people. 
Please spread this message to your friends. We appreciate any support you can provide. Thank you!      
- [signed] Kevin Akin, State Chair, Peace and Freedom Party

Checks made out to “PFP Registration Drive” should be mailed to:
PFP Reg Drive, PO Box 22234, Sacramento CA 95822,
or you may donate on-line at: [www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/regdrive].

Message from Peace and Freedom Party Registration and Organizing Committee:
The 2012 elections brought us more of the same: war and oppression abroad, austerity and repression at home. Across the nation progressive community activists are responding by working at the local level to effect the change we’ve learned not to expect from our elected representatives. A Gallup poll shows that over half of voting age Americans want a third political party.
The Peace and Freedom Party was born of the anti-war and civil rights movements in the 1960s. We have run candidates who have supported reductions in the military budget, single payer healthcare, full employment, and free education as a right. Our activists build local clout and awareness on these issues and more, connecting the peoples movements to electoral politics without knuckling under to the super-rich who control both big parties.
Peace and Freedom is again going national. We are now a ballot qualified party in Florida as well as California, and working toward ballot qualification in several other states, and we are building a national organizing committee.
Due to changes in election law, the Peace and Freedom Party must sharply increase our voter registration numbers from approximately 62,000 registrants to about 105,000 registrants by the end of 2014 in order to stay on the ballot in California. We will do it, but it is a difficult and costly process, and we anticipate raising and spending about 85 thousand dollars on it. If you care about having a voice for peace and economic justice on the ballot, we urge you to help in the following ways:
Register to vote as “Peace and Freedom Party” if you live in California by filling out a new voter registration form, either by picking one up at a library, DMV office, or Registrar of Voters office, or by registering online at: registertovote.ca.gov. It would also be very helpful for you to encourage supportive friends and family to register Peace and Freedom. (In California today, you may vote for candidates of any party in both primary and general elections regardless of the party in which you are registered.)
Donate to the Peace and Freedom Party Registration Drive, no matter where you live. Your donation enables Peace and Freedom to train teams of youth organizers throughout California to register Peace and Freedom Party voters. Please join in enabling a new generation of progressive activists to secure a ballot alternative that reflects their ideals, addresses their concerns and champions their future.
Please spread this message to your friends. We appreciate any support you can provide. Thank you!
Yours for peace and freedom, Cindy Sheehan
(Organizations listed for identification purposes only.)
* Gerald Horne, PhD, JD, University of Houston   
* John Reiger, President, Veterans for Peace, Sacramento Chapter
* Gloria La Riva, President, Typographical Sector, CWA Local 39521   
* Mike Roskey, SEIU Local 1000, District Labor Council 767, President
* Alice Stek, MD, University of Southern California School of Medicine   
* Kevin Akin, California State Chair, Peace and Freedom Party
* Paul Krassner, Satirist and publisher   
* Kathleen Williams, Attorney at law
* John Fugelsang, Host of “Viewpoint” on Current TV   
* Scott Camil, President, Veterans for Peace, Gainesville Chapter

Cindy Sheehan interviews!

Register to vote for Cindy Sheehan as next CA Governor... [www.peaceandfreedom.org]

2013-09-04 on "The Morning Mix", broadcast on KPFA, 94.1FM in Berkeley:
Peace and Freedom Party anti--war activist and gubernatorial candidate Cindy Sheehan talks about the issues on "The Morning Mix with Anthony" with Anthony Fest on Berkeley, California's KPFA 94.1 FM on September 4, 2013.


2013-08-31 on "The Morning Mix" with Project Censored, broadcast on KPFA, 94.1FM in Berkeley:

Plataforma del Partido de Paz y Libertad de California

El Partido Paz y Libertad de California, fundado en 1967, esta comprometido con el socialismo, la democracia, la ecología, el feminismo y la igualdad racial. Nos organizamos para alcanzar un mundo donde la cooperación reemplace la rivalidad, un mundo en donde toda la gente tenga alimento, vestido y vivienda; en donde todas las mujeres y los hombres tengan el mismo nivel, en donde los individuos puedan libremente dedicarse a desarollar sus talentos y deseos; un mundo de libertad y paz en donde cada comunidad conserve su integridad cultural y viva con todas las demás en armonía.

Ofrecemos este resumen de nuestra visión para el presente y el futuro:
Doblar el salario mínimo y ajustarlo al costo de vida.
Garantizar el derecho de todos los trabajadores a organizarse y lanzarse a la huelga y prohibir el uso de empleados de reemplazo.
Trabajos socialmente útiles para todos con sueldos a nivel de sindicalizados.
Igualdad de pago pr trabajo semejante o por trabajo de valor comparable.
Semana de trabajo de 30 horas sin reducción de salario, y mas vacaciones pagadas.
Ingreso digna y garantizado para aquellas que no puedan trabajar.
Un Pago Básico Universal para aliviar la pobreza y la falta de vivienda.
Gravar los ingresos y los bienes de los ricos para satisfacer las necesidades del bienestar popular.
Los acuerdos de comercio internacionales deben garantizar la proteccion de los trabajadores y el medio ambiete en todos los países participantes; abolir el GATT, el NAFTA y el OMC (WTO).
Acabar con el problema habitacional de personas sin casa, derogar lay leyes contra la vagancia; proveer habitación decente y acessible para todos.
Propiedad social y control democrático de la industria, las instituciones financieras y los recursos naturales.
Los Estados Unidos deberán tomar la iniciativa hacia un desarme global con la eliminación de armas nucleares, químicas y biológicas.
Retirar las tropas y armas de los Estados Unidos de otros países. Utilizar el "dividendo de la paz" para el beneficio social.
Eliminar la CIA, NSA, AID y otras agencias que interfieren en los asuntos internos de otros países.
Convertir de una economía de guerra a una economía orientada a la paz, con trabajo para los trabajadores desplazados.
Autodeterminación para todas las naciones y pueblos del mundo, incluyendo Puerto Rico y los territorios coloniales de los Estados Unidos.
Defender y ampliar las libertades garantizadas por la Ley de Derechos.
Acabar con la discriminación basada en razo, sexo, edad, orientación sexual o impedimentos personales.
Restaurar la Acción Afirmativa; garantia completa de derechos de educación y empleo para todos.
Abolir la pena de muerte.
Prohibir el trabajo para ganancia privada en las prisiones.
Apoyar el derecho de la gente trabajadora a poseer y portar armas.
Elecciones democráticas a traves de representación proporcional; derechos políticos, sociales y económocas completos para residentes no naturalizados.
Respetar los tratados con las naciones de los indígenas americanos; reconocer las naciones de los indígenas en California. Defender y extender los derechos y soberanias de los indígenas americanos.
Proveer educación publica gratuita y de buena calidad a traves el nivel universitario. Enseñar la historia de las luchas de los trabajadores y la funcion de los trabajadores en la generación de riqueza y progreso del mundo.
Restaurar y fortalecer la educación bilingüe.
Fondos gubernamentales para que la gente comun, libremente crie y disfrute el arte.
Investigación científica y tecnológica para beneficio de la gente comun, y no solo para los capitalistas.
Ofrecer tratamiento de salud de alta calidad gratuito para todos, incluyendo control natal, aborto, tratamiento prenatal y tratamiento a infantes. No a la esterilización forzada.
Legalizacion de la mariguana, abolir cargos criminales por el uso de drogas, y libremente ofrecer tratamiento gratuito para casos de abuso de drogas.
Prestar atención especial a la prevención de epidemias de enfermedades mortales, tales como el SIDA. Garantizar los derechos de las personas afectadas por el SIDA.
Restablecer y proteger la calidad del aire, el agua, la tierra y los ecosistemas.
Promover la conservación de energia, y el desarrollo de energía solar y de otras fuentes de energía renovable para reemplazar a los combustibles fosiles y la energía nuclear.
No tirar tóxicos nocivos sobre las comunidades, incluyendo en colonias de las minorias.
Desarrollo masivo de transporte público gratuito o con tarifas economicas.
Prohibir el método de corte total de los bosques y proteger los bosques ancestrales.
Promover un sistema solido de agricultura que a la vez sea sano para el ambiente, que llene las necesidades humanas y proteja los derechos laborales de los campesinos con un modo de vida confortable.

Why our primary email address has been suspended

[SolanoPFP@lavabit.com] is no longer active, as it was shut down along with the 60,000 addresses serviced by "Lavabit.com", a free encrypted email service which guarantees security for dissidents, in response to the demand by United States DHS for information about it's users.

2013-08-08 "Encrypted email Lavabit used by Snowden shuts to avoid 'complicity in crimes against Americans'" [http://rt.com/usa/lavabit-email-snowden-statement-247/]:
The highly encrypted email service reportedly used by NSA leaker Edward Snowden has gone offline - and its administrator claims the company is legally barred from explaining why.
 On Thursday, the homepage of Lavabit.com was changed to a letter from the company’s owner announcing that the site’s operations have ceased following a six-week long ordeal that has prompted the company to take legal action in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
 Now in the midst of an escalating fight from the federal government aimed at cracking down on encrypted communications, one of the last free and secure services has thrown in the towel under mysterious circumstances.
 “I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations,” owner and operator Ladar Levison of Dallas, Texas wrote in the statement. “I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot.”
 “I feel you deserve to know what’s going on--the First Amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise,” wrote Levison. “As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.”
 Levison’s statement comes two months after Snowden - a former analyst at intelligence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton - revealed himself to be the source of leaked NSA documents disclosing vast surveillance programs operated by the United States government. A month later, the Global Post published an article in which a Lavabit.com email address thought to be registered to Snowden was revealed.
 The Global Post wrote on July 12 [http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/130712/edward-snowden-meeting-moscow-airport] that the Sheremetyevo Airport press conference hosted by Snowden later that day was announced to human rights groups under the email address "edsnowden@lavabit.com" and signed by “Edward Joseph Snowden.” Washington Post foreign affairs blogger Max Fisher and Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald have both since reported that Lavabit is indeed Snowden's email provider.

During a Q&A session hosted by The Guardian last month, Snowden wrote, “Encryption works. Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one of the few things that you can rely on.”
 Although Lavabit’s website is now almost entirely inaccessible, a cached version hosted by Google provides background on why and how the service provided highly secure encryption to its users.
 “In an era where Microsoft and Yahoo’s e-mail services sell access past their spam filters, Google profiles user’s inboxes for targeted advertising, and AT&T allows the government to tap phone calls without a court warrant; we decided to take a stand,” one page reads. “Lavabit has developed a system so secure that it prevents everyone, including us, from reading the e-mail of the people that use it.”
 By combining three different encryption schemes with Elliptical Curve Cryptography, Lavabit provided a service purposely designed to provide protection against government surveillance.
 “The result is that once a message is stored on our servers in this fashion, it can’t be recovered without knowing a user's password. This provides a priceless level of security, particularly for customers that use e-mail to exchange sensitive information,” the company wrote.
 “The key element of the PATRIOT Act is that it allows the FBI to issue National Security Letters (NSLs). NSLs are used to force an Internet Service Provider, like Lavabit, to surrender all private information related to a particular user. The problem is that NSLs come without the oversight of a court and can be issued in secret. Issuing an NSL in secret effectively denies the accused an opportunity to defend himself in court. Fortunately, the courts ruled NSLs unconstitutional in 2005; but not before illustrating the need for a technological guarantee of privacy,” the cached page reads.

“Lavabit believes that a civil society depends on the open, free and private flow of ideas. The type of monitoring promoted by the PATRIOT Act restricts that flow of ideas because it intimidates those afraid of retaliation. To counteract this chilling effect, Lavabit developed its secure e-mail platform. We feel e-mail has evolved into a critical channel for the communication of ideas in a healthy democracy. It’s precisely because of e-mail’s importance that we strive so hard to protect private e-mails from eavesdropping.”
 Lavabit noted that brute force attacks could theoretically allow a third-party to see password-protected emails but said that such attacks shouldn't be happening anytime soon.
 “In practice, the key lengths Lavabit has chosen equal enough possible inputs that a brute-force attack shouldn’t be feasible for a long time to come.”
 According to Snowden’s Q&A with The Guardian last month, “endpoint security is so terrifically weak that NSA can frequently find ways around it.”
 Now as Levison and crew prepare for a fight in appeals court, he suggests that very few are safe from having even secure emails stolen by the US government.
 “This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States,” Levison said in the statement.
 On a since removed page from Lavabit.com, the company wrote, “Like insurance, we hope our secure e-mail platform is something you’ll never need. However, should the issue ever arise, like insurance, you’ll be glad you have it.”
 Earlier this year, Federal Bureau of Investigation general counsel Andrew Weismann said the US Justice Department wants to be able to decrypt all messages sent over the internet in real-time by the end of 2014.
 “The problem with not having [that ability in America] is that we’re making the ability to intercept communications with a court order increasingly obsolete,” Weissman said. “Those communications are being used for criminal conversations, by definition…and so this huge legal apparatus that many of you know about to prevent crimes, to prevent terrorist attacks is becoming increasingly hampered and increasingly marginalized the more we have technology that is not covered” under current law.
 According to a cached page of the company's history, Lavabit was launched in 2004 and most recently handled service for upwards of 60,000 individuals at a rate of around 200,000 emails a day.
 “How many Lavabit users have just been impacted by the hand of attempted government oppression in secret?” security researcher Jacob Appelbaum tweeted on Thursday. “The path chosen by Lavabit is an honorable choice. It is also horrible that they must now ruin their company to try to keep their integrity.”

In an email to RT, Appelbaum said, “It seems rather obvious that the US government surveillance agenda is out of control.”
 “This isn't a matter of 'a surveillance program' - the issue isn't just passive wiretapping, it include[s] actively breaking into people's computers, as well as storing the data for retroactive policing,” added Appelbaum. “Welcome to the United States of American Total Surveillance. A State over all other States.”
 Appelbaum himself is no stranger to the government’s surveillance policies and has had his own personal data thrown under Uncle Sam’s magnifying glass in the past. A known volunteer with the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, Appelbaum was the subject of federal subpoenas served to both Google and a small-time Internet Service Provider that compelled them to hand over private emails. Twitter was also served with a subpoena for Mr. Appelbaum’s user info.
 Lavabit representatives did not immediately return requests for comment.


2013-08-09 "Email service used by Snowden shuts itself down, warns against using US-based companies; Edward Snowden - 'Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, and the rest of our internet titans must ask themselves why they aren't fighting for our interests the same way'"
by Glenn Greenwald from "theguardian.com" [http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/09/lavabit-shutdown-snowden-silicon-valley]:
A Texas-based encrypted email service recently revealed to be used by Edward Snowden - Lavabit - announced yesterday it was shutting itself down in order to avoid complying with what it perceives as unjust secret US court orders to provide government access to its users' content. "After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations," the company's founder, Ladar Levinson, wrote in a statement to users posted on the front page of its website. He said the US directive forced on his company "a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit." He chose the latter.
CNET's Declan McCullagh smartly speculates that Lavabit was served "with [a] federal court order to intercept users' (Snowden?) passwords" to allow ongoing monitoring of emails; specifically: "the order can also be to install FedGov-created malware."
[https://plus.google.com/112961607570158342254/posts/EujgUYbrEwv]:

After challenging the order in district court and losing - all in a secret court proceeding, naturally - Lavabit shut itself down to avoid compliance while it appeals to the Fourth Circuit.
This morning, Silent Circle, a US-based secure online communication service, followed suit by shutting its own encrypted email service [http://gigaom.com/2013/08/09/another-u-s-secure-email-service-shuts-down-to-protect-customers-from-authorities/]. Although it said it had not yet been served with any court order, the company, in a statement by its founder, internet security guru Phil Zimmerman, said: "We see the writing on the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now."
What is particularly creepy about the Lavabit self-shutdown is that the company is gagged by law even from discussing the legal challenges it has mounted and the court proceeding it has engaged. In other words, the American owner of the company believes his Constitutional rights and those of his customers are being violated by the US Government, but he is not allowed to talk about it. Just as is true for people who receive National Security Letters under the Patriot Act, Lavabit has been told that they would face serious criminal sanctions if they publicly discuss what is being done to their company.
[ ... ]
Snowden, who told me today that he found Lavabit's stand "inspiring", added:
"Ladar Levison and his team suspended the operations of their 10 year old business rather than violate the Constitutional rights of their roughly 400,000 users. The President, Congress, and the Courts have forgotten that the costs of bad policy are always borne by ordinary citizens, and it is our job to remind them that there are limits to what we will pay.
"America cannot succeed as a country where individuals like Mr. Levison have to relocate their businesses abroad to be successful. Employees and leaders at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, and the rest of our internet titans must ask themselves why they aren't fighting for our interests the same way small businesses are. The defense they have offered to this point is that they were compelled by laws they do not agree with, but one day of downtime for the coalition of their services could achieve what a hundred Lavabits could not.
"When Congress returns to session in September, let us take note of whether the internet industry's statements and lobbyists - which were invisible in the lead-up to the Conyers-Amash vote - emerge on the side of the Free Internet or the NSA and its Intelligence Committees in Congress."