I have never posted here twice in a week, and do not intend to make a habit of it. However, the case of the ex-undercover police officer, Mark Kennedy, has jolted me into action. Mr Kennedy, as we all know, is the former police agent who infiltrated environmental groups for seven years and then baulked at seeing six of his former associates wrongly convicted. Mr Kennedy is now on the run, and anyone wishing to read more about his story can do so in the Mail on Sunday. Much of what he says is frightening, not least his claims that he was beaten up by five police officers while working undercover and that he knew of 15 other operatives like himself, 4 of whom are still in place.
What concerns me is the fact that so much effort and expense has gone into mounting surveillance upon activists who are non-violent. At a time when we face terrorism, civil disorder and global organised crime, why are valuable resources being directed against people who intend harm to no-one, and want to make the world a better place? I wonder if the police are engaged in surveillance of Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the Women's Institute?
It also begs the question: how much do police know in advance of actions planned by violent activists? As I have said before, Anarchist groups are not difficult to infiltrate for agents of the security forces. Such agents must have been in place before the recent violent student disorders in London, and yet they had no warning of the planned violence.
Or did they?
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Many years ago when I was organiser of Southport CND, my post was regularly interfered with to the extent that I complained to the post office. A senior official visited me and assured me it was not the PO doing it. A parcel from CND never arrived, and I hope whoever took it liked the CND sweatshirt and badges I'd ordered.
ReplyDeleteIt COULD be a coincidence that post from CND was interfered with or went astray, but I suspect not. I believe it was a stupid example of surveillance. I was a union rep and a Labour Party activist at the time too. After my complaint, everything suddenly went back to normal.
I do believe that a lot of money is squandered on utterly pointless surveillance: pointless because nothing in my post was confidential. Anyone could have got the same info by joining, which they probably did as well.
It's a lot easier to infiltrate and spy on peaceful people than potential killers. But then, I don't believe half the stories we're told about plots by al-Qaeda being foiled by our security services every day ~ the same security services that told us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember that there was much undercover activity by the authorities during the Miners' Strike in the 1980s. I seem to remember Arthur Scargill saying that the police seemed as well informed of planned picketing action as he was. As there was an active IRA campaign in this country at the time, it says a lot about the priorities of the Thatcher government.
ReplyDeleteGood point. My experience was in the 1980s. I'd also attended rallies in support of the miners, so I was definitely 'the enemy within' - to use Thatcher's idiotic phrase.
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