Where we come from

The world has changed in the 23 years since the Chaos Computer Club stepped forward to keep an eye on the impact of technological advances on people and society. Technology and electronic communication are a driving force in companies, government, and entertainment and enable a lot of new developments in the first place.

The creative-critical approach to computers is therefore no longer only a topic for a few specialists without any connection to the actualities of life of most people. As the public’s interest in hacking grows, the demand on hackers to convey values and to influence society in their own interest grows equally.

Hacking

The CCC has always made clear that hacking obligates to conscientious behavior. The claim on handling the data so obtained – protecting private data, using public data – applies to everyone, even companies and governments.

But hacker ethics are more than an unbinding set of instructions for moral behaviour. They require us to question the alleged reality and mistrust authorities, because truth lies behind speciousness. Hackers abstract from outward appearances, they tweak structures and processes to actively form our society.

In an almost naïve conviction we have so far assumed that the confrontation with the machine alone suffices to free its users and in the long run drive them to make our world a better place for all people.

The Club

Openness has always been a principle of the Chaos Computer Club, which is expressed in the fact that we have gladly accepted people with new positions, as long as they have not come into conflict with our previous positions. We have done well with this, because it has enriched the club with new topics. Important topics like civil rights, the engagement with free software and copyrights, or Blinkenlights became reality, which extended the “Hackerverein” of the 80s. But openness is not arbitrariness. Precisely because openness has turned out to be useful, we must not forget the borders and our historical roots, especially at a time in which nationalist content is increasingly pushing its way into the centre of society and the centre is increasingly losing itself in right-wing extremism, racist exclusion and social exploitation.

Technological Infatuation and May 8, 1945

Sixty years ago – on May 8, 1945 – the Allies liberated Germany from National Socialist rule. In order to stop the German murder machine, in the end no other option remained other than the complete military abolition. In particular in light of the fact that the logistics of the Holocaust were driven forward by Hollerith punch card machines, trains rolled on sophisticated railway networks into the extermination camps, and Nazi engineers in love with technology tinkered with “retaliatory weapons”, it is clear today that completely value-free discussions about pure technology for its own sake are no longer possible without a look at the social consequences. Hacking is about much more than soldering irons and gcc, it is also about the dream of a better and free society. The horizon of the hacker goes far beyond the edge of the screen.

The Statement

We are a galactic community of living beings, independent of age, gender, descent and social status, open to all who have new ideas. But those who approach us with ideas of racism, exclusion, and the structural and physical violence associated with it have abandoned dialogue and are beyond the limits of acceptance. Anyone who wants to destroy coexistence in this society and work towards an alternative society whose principles are based on chauvinism and nationalism is working against the moral principles that unite us as a club.

The CCC declares the representation of racism and the trivialization of historical and current fascist violence to be incompatible with membership. This includes in particular membership in or support of a right-wing extremist or right-wing radical organization. By this we mean not only numerous “free comradeships” but also groups such as the “Deutsche Liga für Volk und Heimat”, DVU, FPÖ, the “Hilfsgemeinschaft Nationaler Gefangener”, Lijst Pim Fortuyn (Partij LPF), NPD, ProKöln and “Die Republikaner”.