Spycops: A threat to the workers’ movement
Harvey Duke reports
For a decade, stories have emerged about undercover cops in Britain. Over the last 5 years, a huge amount of evidence has accumulated – from activists and journalists. Spycops seem to have little to do with investigating real crimes. Instead – sometimes undercover for several years – they target socialists, environmentalists, trade unionists, and even the family of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence. Their aim is to undermine all kinds of protest – secretly, from inside campaigns, and even from inside the close relationships of some activists, particularly women.
In 2012, the book Undercover: The True Story of Britain’s Secret Police by Paul Lewis and Rob Evans was published. It gathered together astonishing and appalling true stories of undercover police officers tricking women into close relationships, and then abandoning them. Trials of activists were found to be miscarriages of justice as undercover police using false IDs had been involved, sometimes as agent provocateurs. One former spycop, who became a chief of the Special Demonstration Squad, Bob Lambert, is currently under police investigation for an allegation that he firebombed a department store. He ticks all the boxes for the worst abuses carried out by spycops – tricking a woman activist into a long term relationship (she was awarded £425,000 compensation in Dec 2014); stealing the identity of a dead child (a common tactic by the spies); and writing a leaflet for a campaign which led to the Mclibel trial. Until recently, he was a lecturer in London and in St Andrews.
In 2013, following further revelations in The Guardian and on Channel 4, particularly by former spycop turned whistleblower Peter Francis who said that spies were asked to dig for “dirt” on the family of Stephen Lawrence, the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance was set up. An alliance of the spied-upon and campaigning lawyers, it held its first public meeting in Jan 2014; and around 100 activists attended a launch in London in Feb 2014. Demanding a public inquiry into undercover policing against activists, this was finally agreed by Home Secretary Theresa May in March 2015: led by Sir Christopher Pitchford; its’ now generally known as the Pitchford Inquiry.
From the first sessions of the Inquiry, it was clear that – although recognised as a step forward by activists – there are gaps in its remit: Scotland being one! The Inquiry’s remit, set by Theresa May is: ‘To inquire into and report on undercover police operations conducted by English and Welsh police forces in England and Wales since 1968.’ This is a problem as undercover police from police forces outside of Scotland, including Mark Kennedy, are known to have spied on the G8 protests in Scotland; and on other activists. (Calls have also been made that the Inquiry should cover Northern Ireland and Germany, where spycops were also sent.)
Pitchford
In December 2015, following interventions by the Blacklist Support Group, Neil Findlay MSP and others, the SNP government at Holyrood agreed to ask for the Pitchford Inquiry to be expanded to cover Scotland. This was asked for by Secretary for Justice Michael Matheson.
In an article in the Daily Record, in January 2016, UNITE Scottish Secretary Pat Rafferty said: “Given the disproportionate number of workers in Scotland affected by the blacklisting scandal in our construction sector, the scope of (the Pitchford) inquiry should be extended to Scotland.” This followed a discovery by Blacklist campaigners that: evidence to the Consulting Association blacklist came from spies. Trade unions UCATT, the FBU and the NUM are all now ‘core participants’ in Pitchford.
A debate on undercover policing in Scotland, led by Neil Findlay MSP, was held in the Scottish Parliament in January 2016. It kept up the pressure for an expanded Pitchford Inquiry or a separate Inquiry by the Scottish Government into the activities of undercover police in Scotland.
A glance at the list of issues covered by the Pitchford Inquiry give some indication of the scope of anti-democratic espionage across Britain today: trades union (including blacklisting of some workers for decades); Youth Against Racism in Europe; justice campaigns; environmental campaigns; miscarriages of justice; and spying on political activists. It would be an unacceptable injustice if the impact of these activities in Scotland were officially covered up by refusing to either expand Pitchford or have a Scottish Inquiry.
Neil Findlay MSP lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament on 13th May 2016: noting: ‘that a growing number of Scottish citizens have been identified as being involved in undercover policing scandals involving the National Public Order Intelligence Unit and the Special Demonstration Squad of the Metropolitan Police, either as victims or as officers working on cases.’ The motion asks the Parliament to recognise: ‘ that these units operated in Scotland keeping political, environmental, trade union and other activists under surveillance using unethical and often illegal methods’. The motion ‘understands that the Pitchford inquiry, established by the Home Secretary, Theresa May, to look into undercover policing since the 1960s, does not cover Scotland in its remit; further understands that the Scottish Government has written to the UK Government asking for the inquiry to be extended to cover Scotland, and notes the view that, should this request be refused, the Scottish Government should set up its own inquiry.’
COPS
The Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS) has had a huge impact upon events around the police spies issue: bringing together victims of police spies in a series of events, and enabling activists to share stories and gain confidence in taking the issue forward in the media, in communities, and within the Pitchford Inquiry. COPS has consistently called for police spying in Scotland to be investigated. Activists are currently looking to organise a series of public events in Scotland to keep the pressure up on the UK and Scottish governments.
Operation Herne’s first report in July 2013 referred to a total of 106 covert identities being used by the Special Demonstration Squad during the 40 years of its existence; and other police units and private companies have used the same tactics How many of these spies have targeted trade unionists and others in Scotland? What groups were infiltrated, why, and on whose orders? Like other recent scandals, this issue will not be allowed to fade away. The battle for the truth goes on.
