THE SWISS political police celebrated its hundredth anniversary on May 1, 1990. In response a popular initiative, "SOS — For a Switzerland without the secret police" was launched!. The holiday, August 1, by which time it is been gathered.
### SOPHIE MASSOURI
VERY
SHADY! MORE
Stasi (political police — see /V 184).
And, as we know, after the public admission comes the line about "collective responsibility" (or irresponsibility), as well as the search for a judicial compromise. In the case of the GDR the West German rulers have spoken out in favour of an amnesty for former Stasi collaborators. This is not a disinterested gesture. To accept the popular demand in the GDR for the opening of the dossiers of the secret police would have implications in the West.
To put it another way, the Western governments either have to clean up their own act or, as clean up their own act or, as in Switzerland today, admit that, in the heart of our advanced democracies, civil freedom is kept under strict surveillance. The fact is that the West German Bundesnachrichtendienst, the
Swiss BUPO, the French
Département de sécurité du knew nothing of the secret ordinance of January 12, 1951, which guided the activities of the snooper state until February 21, 1990. According to article 12 of this henceforth famous ordinance: "Whoever is suspected of having violated one of their duties with regard to the protection of the security of the country, or who has excited by their behaviour the suspicion that they have intended to violate such a duty, can be obliged to report to the police or be put under police surveillance or arrested.
"Specifically, the surveillance of their mail, and telephone and telegraphic connections can be ordered...."
Police chiefs refuse to accept responsibility
The refusal of the BUPO chiefs to accept any responsibility for the content of the files is an admission of their guilt. This shows the extent to which the very existence of these "functionaries" contradicts the avowed principles of a state that claims to be democratic.
The attitude of the ruling class and higher authorities of the state are similar to those of the rulers of East Germany with regard to opening the dossiers of the territoire (DST) or the Direction générale de la sécurité de l'Etat (DGSE) are no different in their methods or in the extent of their ultimate control over the citizens than the police in the Stalinist regimes, even if they are less intrusive on a day-to-day basis.
In France the annulment, after widespread protests, of a decree authorizing the police security branch to build up files on "suspect" citizens has led people to overlook a law of the same type, which is still secret, dating from 1986, which authorizes the DGSE and DST to do the same, and this without any control. What is the "emergency situation" regarding the security of the French state which requires keeping files on 400,000 people, 100,000 of them for terrorism?
As Helmut Hubacher, president of the Swiss Socialist Party, stated to the March 3 demonstration, "the Illustrated Atlas of Switzerland published by the National Tourism Office is not an accurate reflection of the really existing Switzerland." And nor is the Complete Atlas of the Advanced Democracies currently being serialized in the big bourgeois press any more accurate as a guide to really existing bourgeois democracy. * 1. In Switzerland any group of citizens can launch a popular initiative to modify the Swiss constitution. All that is required is to hand in a copy of the proposed modifications accompanied by 100,000 supporting signatures. After verification by the Federal Council, the Confederation is asked to vote for or against the proposal.
campaign will culminate on the national hoped that 100,000 signatures will have
DEMOCRACY!