ID Cards - an Historical View


by Nathan Allonby
Global Research, September 16, 2009


This is one of two Global Research articles exploring the reasons for the introduction of electronic ID cards, worldwide. Already, over 2.2 billion people, or 33% of the world’s population, have been issued with ‘smart’ ID cards. By 2012, the figure will be over 85%.

Read Part I:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-168979-cards.html+view


These are incredibly powerful systems and their implementation represents a profound social change, yet the public explanations for this project do not seem to add up. Surprisingly, there seems to have been little debate or exploration of the real reasons. To find the answer, we need to dig for ourselves.

The companion article, ID Cards - a World View, tried to assess this from the political and technological contexts of current ID schemes. This article sets out to find what we can learn from historical precedents.

Does history tell us anything about the main purpose of ID schemes? History shows strong recurring themes.

Surprisingly, again and again, the main function has been controlling labour and the workforce, to serve the objective of creating a command economy. Suppression of political dissent has been in second place, although often a ‘close second’.

Napoleon

The Napoleonic identity card was the main ancestor of all modern ID systems. Its main purpose was to hold down wages, by stopping workers moving around to find better jobs and higher wages.

Napoleon transformed the free society of the French Republic into the Empire, a tightly controlled police state.

The Republic had created a degree of freedom unheard of in Europe, allowing free speech and giving workers the right to change their job or go somewhere else. By contrast, in most of Europe at this time, including Britain, the majority of the population lived in various forms of bondage, such as indenture. Unfortunately, in France, a free market and mobility of labour were driving up wages.

In response, the French authorities criminalised industrial action and introduced an ID card for workers, which aimed to do two things: -

i) make it impossible to change jobs without an employer’s permission and

ii) restrict movement, by requiring workers to get an impossible string of visas to move legally.

In 1803, Napoleon’s police chief reinstated the livret or worker’s passbook, used by the Old Regime, updated with new identity features. To get a job, workers had to give the employer their livret ID card. To take a new job, workers had to get their card back, but this required getting their employer’s permission to leave (1). This is a similar situation to human trafficking and slavery in Russia, Eastern Europe or Kuwait today, where gangs control workers by holding their passports.

The card also acted as an internal passport, making it very difficult to move to seek better work or better wages. Moving from one town to another required a set of visas in the livret card. Without these, employment was illegal.

Napoleon’s ID scheme failed to be completely successful for two reasons: -

Firstly, there was a labour shortage, due to the war, which made employers willing to take on workers without a card;

Secondly, the workers had self-help groups, such as the compagnonnages, who helped their fellows find lodgings and employment (1). They helped each other get round the system. These networks also formed the basis of organising industrial action.

The authorities tried to introduce state welfare schemes and employment agencies, to supplant the compagnonnages, but these were only partially successful.

After the retreat of the French Empire, countries often retained the systems of census and control Napoleon had introduced - they were too useful and efficient to abolish.

Nazi Germany

By the 20th Century, Germany had become one of the most democratic, tolerant and liberal nations in Europe, with welfare, social insurance and a national health service. How did the Nazis manage to transform this into totalitarianism?

“By establishing a people‘s registration (Volkskartei - ID card) we will achieve complete supervision of the entire German peopleâ€