CLODO
Committee for Liquidation or Subversion of Computers (CLODO) (in French: Comité Liquidant ou Détournant les Ordinateurs; 'clodo' being a slang word for the homeless) was a neo-Luddite French anarchist organization,[1] active during the 1980s, that targeted computer companies. In 1980, after a series of attacks in the Toulouse area, they released a statement to the French media in which they explained their motivations. It read, "We are workers in the field of data processing and consequently well placed to know the current and future dangers of data processing and telecommunications. The computer is the favorite tool of the dominant. It is used to exploit, to put on file, to control, and to repress." Their major attack was in 1983, when they firebombed the Sperry Univac Company, in Toulouse. At the time, French police were convinced that CLODO was simply an outgrowth of Action Directe, a libertarian communist group.
Although CLODO is no longer classified as 'active' by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, there has been some debate among technology critics and cultural theorists such as Arthur Kroker and Peter Lamborn Wilson as to whether or not the group still exists in an atomized state. In CLODO's 1983 manifesto disguised as an interview the group reveals that although their future projects are intended to be less spectacular than the firebombing of Sperry-Univac they plan to carry out actions geared towards an impending telecommunications explosion.
See also
References
External links
- CLODO Speaks - interview for the Processed World magazine
- Terrorist organization profile - National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
