Ricky Tomlinson asks are you on the blacklist?

 Ricky Tomlinson in 2015 with an issue of Northern Voices in front of a Shrewsbury 24 banner

IN an electrifying moment on Channel 4 News, actor Ricky Tomlinson brandished a copy of the Economic League‘s North West blacklist, which blacklisted thousands of workers from industry jobs over several decades.  Now, The Canary can exclusively reveal an excerpt from that blacklist, along with other previously undisclosed documents from the company that produced it.
Only a handful of people possess copies of the entire Economic League’s North West blacklist.  The original was handed to the two founding members of League Watch – a campaigning group that monitored the Economic League (EL) – by an EL regional director turned whistleblower.  That was some 30 years back.
But on 8 August, Tomlinson – who appeared in a Ken Loach film, in the TV soap Brookside and in the TV series The Royle Family – produced a printed copy of that list with a flourish on Channel 4 News, inviting anyone who believes they are on it to contact him.  It was an electrifying moment that the Channel 4 News team failed to fully appreciate.
In the Channel 4 News interview, Tomlinson referred to his own entry on the list.  An abridged version is shown below.  He also made it clear that he is determined that the Pitchford Inquiry into undercover policing examines the Special Branch surveillance he believes he suffered for merely taking part in lawful industrial action.
 Tomlinson explained that the Pitchford Inquiry into undercover policing would not allow him to be a core participant because, while the existence of a Special Branch file is known, he had no evidence he was a target of such undercover policing by the Special Demonstration Squad. According to Pitchford:

'There is no mention of the Special Demonstration Squad in connection with Mr Tomlinson that I have been able to find. Special Branch files may be created from a variety of sources including the uniformed police, detectives, informers, police records and public knowledge.'

However, to quote Mr Tomlinson: 'My arse!'

Catch 22

Basically, Pitchford is saying is that Tomlinson, or anyone else for that matter, cannot be a core participant in the inquiry unless they can produce evidence that they have been victims of undercover policing – though the only way many victims can refer to such evidence is if the police are forced to hand it over.

Presently, Pitchford has not ruled on how much information he is going to compel the police to hand over. But, in refusing core participant status to those who have reasonable belief they have been monitored or infiltrated, he is creating a situation where there is a risk the inquiry will only focus on undercover officers who have already been exposed.
 Read more:
 https://www.thecanary.co/2016/08/12/ricky-tomlinson-produces-economic-league-blacklist-channel-4-news-listed-asks/
https://undercoverinfo.wordpress.com/2016/08/12/are-you-listed-on-the-economic-le...

Pitchford uncovers undercover police!

THE Pitchford public inquiry into undercover policing has today issued a very short press release that admits that 'Carlo Neri' was an undercover officer. The 'Update on anonymity applications' reads:  The Inquiry has received confirmation that no restriction is sought over the undercover identity used by the police officer core participant known as N104, which was 'Carlo Neri'. 

The Blacklist Support Group, has been granted core participant status in the Pitchford inquiry issued the following statement: 

'Carlo Neri spied on blacklisted trade union members and anti-racist campaigners, while at the same time having long term sexual relationships with female activists he was keeping under surveillance. There are serious concerns about his conduct while undercover including allegations that he acted as an agent provocateur, inciting anti-fascist activists to commit an arson attack on a charity shop which was run by the Italian fascist Roberto Fiore.  

Neri was only exposed after collective efforts of activists ourselves working along side investigative journalists and researchers. Both Newsnight and The Guardian ran the original story. Photographic evidence from 2005 of Neri spying on an RMT picketline in Kings Cross were published in the "Blacklisted" book published last month.  

'The public statement by the Pitchford inquiry is a vindication of our campaign for justice but this admission has been dragged out of the police who have repeatedly adopted the line that they can 'neither confirm nor deny' (NCND) whether individuals named by activists in the media were police officers. The same NCND tactic used to obstruct the truth is also being applied to the hundreds of campaign groups targeted by the Special Demonstration Squad. While now being forced into admitting that 'Carlo Neri' was a police officer, the Met Police is still refusing to provide relevant police files to those that he targeted.   

'Now is the time for the Met Police to come clean and release the cover names of all the spycops and a list of the campaigns that were infiltrated by these undemocratic political policing units. The continued obstruction by the Met Police endangers the very integrity of the public inquiry. The police are supposed to be accountable to society: Its now reaching the point where parliament needs to step in and get a grip of these anti-democratic forces.'

'Andrea' (not her real name) is part of the Police Spies out of Lives campaign and is currently suing the Metropolitan Police for the emotional abuse caused by the activities of Carlo Neri.  During his deployment, the married undercover officer lived with and proposed marriage to the female activist he was targeting.  'Andrea' reacted to the Pitchford announcement:

'I am of course relieved to have finally received official confirmation that the person I believed to be my partner of more than two years - Carlo Neri - was in reality an undercover police officer. The fact that it has taken the police so long to acknowledge this has undoubtedly caused additional stress and uncertainty within an already difficult situation for myself and my family. MPS initially refused to comment on my complaint, stating that the UCPI would deal with my allegations, but have subsequently stated that they will not contest liability. My case is now in process. MPS do however continue with their inexplicable 'neither confirm nor deny' policy. This is quite simply a strategy to obfuscate, deny access to the truth and it has to stop. As survivors of their abuse, we demand that ALL spycops cover names are released.'

Kate Ellis, from Imran Khan and Partners, the solicitors representing the blacklisted trade union members and anti-racist campaigners targeted by Carlo Neri issued the following statement:

'We welcome the Inquiry’s confirmation of an undercover police officer’s cover name. This shows to our clients in fact how essential it was for there to be a Public Inquiry. To date, the Metropolitan Police’s ‘Operation Herne’ investigation has continued to maintain the absurd position of ‘neither confirming nor denying’ that Carlo Neri was an undercover police officer – despite the fact that everyone else knows and accepts that he was.   

'The Inquiry’s transparency in confirming undercover officers’ identities should not only be welcomed; it should be the default position. The stark difference in approach between the Metropolitan Police and the Inquiry shows that there is an even greater need for the police to open up their files for scrutiny.' 

Notes:

Photographic evidence of Carlo Neri on the RMT picket line is available exclusively from freelance photographer Andrew Wiard (NUJ) andrew@reportphotos.com

Pitchford statement in full: https://www.ucpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/161117-press-notice-N104.pdf

Blacklist Support Group

book: http://newint.org/books/politics/blacklisted-secret-war/

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNcgrNs6pB8

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/

blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog

Did Carlo Neri Spy on Trade Unionists?

CARLO NERI

Blacklist Group Claim to have caught undercover copper on camera!

'UNDERCOVER police officer Carlo Neri', according to the Blacklist Support Group, was caught on camera and 'spied on the RMT union'.  Photographic evidence, the Blacklist Group claim, shows that in October 2004 an officer was present at the industrial dispute following the sacking of the prominent union militant Steve Hedley (now elected as Senior Assistant General Secretary of the RMT union) during construction of the Kings Cross terminal for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.  

If this report is true, and it was indeed Carlo Neri captured on camera by the freelance photographer Andrew Wiard at the RMT picket and just assuming he was not supporting the industrial protest, but was indeed employed as a police spy (allegedly from the Met's disgraced Special Demonstration Squad), then it is yet further evidence of penetration by the police and security services into the trade union affairs of English activists.

The photographs sent to Northern Voices by the Blacklist Support Group show the alleged 'police spy' lurking behind an RMT banner with the slogan ‘Reinstate Steve Hedley’ while handing out leaflets to construction workers who had walked out in support of the victimised union activist.  Also present at the picket line were RMT activists Alex Gordon and Sarah Friday plus GMB construction organisers Kelly Rogers and Steve Kelly (who was subsequently banned from the project controlled by the blacklist companies Costain, O'Rourke and Emcor).   

Photographs only available for use in the media upon direct email request to Andrew Wiard andrew@reportphotos.com     

http://reportphotos.com/albums/qO1oC/undercover-police-officer-carlo-neri-at-union-meeting-1/5b8e82c0c8a22d8fd64cfb398a9b31347bbc57de

Steve Hedley commented:    'I am appalled that a secret police spy thought that it was justified to turn up on a peaceful RMT picket line in order to gather information. I had earlier housed this person rent free as he claimed he was being made homeless and feel shocked that taxpayers money could be used like this to betray the trust of people engaged in completely legitimate industrial action.  We heard a lot growing up about police states in other countries whilst it turns out  our state was doing exactly the same thing here.' 
The photographs were rediscovered by Dave Smith while researching for the updated version of the book Blacklisted and were first made public at the GMB conference in Bournemouth on Sunday evening (5th June). Smith commented afterwards:  'We were standing up for workers rights but apparently the British state considered us such a threat, that we were kept under constant surveillance by shady anti-democratic units in the police. This is nothing less than political policing and has no place in a democracy.  This took place during the Tony Blair government and I want to know why trade unions were were being spied on under a Labour Home Secretary. David Blunkett has serious questions to answer.' 
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link dispute is recorded on Consulting Association blacklist files of Steve Hedley and GMB organiser at the time, Steve Kelly. 
Both Steve Hedley and Dave Smith have been granted core participant status in the Pitchford public inquiry into undercover policing.

Information from Blacklist Support Group

******
LAST November, Northern Voices was one of several publications to receive a solicitor letter from a firm of solicitors that  has been known to do work for the Police Federation.  The allegation was that NV had defamed a former police officer who had more recently done work as a university lecturer.  It seems that the officer in 2008 had given a power-point presentation on policing at pub down South to a group of individuals, who it later turn out were affiliated to the Consulting Association.  Ian Kerr was among those present taking notes:  Mr. Kerr, who has since died, is famous as the administrator of a blacklist for the Consulting Association, and he later pleaded guilt to running an illegal data base.  Kerr was exposed as such by the Information Commissioner in 2009.  We therefore caution our readers because the officer who gave this power point presentation to the Consulting Association has since claimed that he didn't know that he was addressing the Consulting Association, and that he'd never heard of either Ian Kerr or the body now known to be the Consulting Association.  He was just filling in for a colleague we are told, and is innocent of any complicity with the Consulting Association, Ian Kerr or blacklisting in the British build trade.  We only mention this now, in case it later turns out that Carlo Neri, if that is what he is called, was just out for a stroll and accidentally got caught up in the trade union protest of the RMT.

Special Demonstration Squad Spied on Workers

NEWLY uncovered documentary evidence shows how police officers infiltrated campaigns by construction workers protesting against deaths on building sites. The documents include a series of letters written to and from Mark Jenner, an undercover officer from the discredited Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), who during the late 1990s claimed to be a carpenter while infiltrating the construction union UCATT.  Using the cover name of Mark Cassidy, the spycop ingratiated himself with the Colin Roach Centre (formerly known as Hackney Trade Union Resource Centre) and targeted a series of trade unions and union backed campaigns, attending union branches, conferences, picketlines and pay talks.   

The new documents give an insight into how deeply, the police went to embed themselves into even grassroots union campaigns. On 21st March 1997, Cassidy / Jenner  wrote a letter to a number of different organisations regarding the 'Building Workers Safety Campaign',which he describes as a 'rank and file organisation run by building workers', asking for support in getting 'information on deaths on building sites' in order to visit 'the site within one week after the event and ask workers to stop work'. The police authored letter continued: 'We believe that only by hitting production can we hope to stop the killings on building sites'. This was in 1997, when the fatality rates in construction were averaging around 3 deaths a week. 

The identical letter was sent to a number of trade union bodies including Haringey UNISON, Hammersmith UNISON, TGWU North London Textile branch and civil servants in the CPSA union (forerunner to PCS). The police spy also sent the letter to the charity 'Inquest' that provides free legal advice to people bereaved by a death in police custody. Why a charity dealing with deaths in custody would be an obvious source of information about deaths on building sites is difficult to fathom but raises questions of public interest about what the undercover police officer was trying to achieve.   

One response from the local authority funded and well respected safety charity the London Hazards Centre, identifies HSE inspectors, the Coroners Office and the local police as sources of information but highlights that the authorities 'can be very tight lipped when it comes to giving out information' - this no doubt brought a smile to Jenner's face when reading it.  

The documents were uncovered by Brian Higgins, a 75 year old Glaswegian grandfather and blacklisted retired bricklayer based in Northampton who was the national secretary of the rank & file Building Worker Group (BWG). Brian Higgins has been granted 'core participant' status in the Pitchford public inquiry into undercover policing alongside a number of other union activists from the Blacklist Support Group, as information gathered by police officers appears on a number of blacklist files kept on construction workers by the notorious Consulting Association. 

Brian Higgins commented: 

'The police would be infinitely better employed investigating, prosecuting and jailing the corporate criminals responsible for the killing and maiming of many building workers, rather than spying on those of us who dedicate our industrial lives to trying to put a stop to this wanton carnage and the terrible grief which accompanies it. Intelligence gathered by these police spies has found its way onto an illegal blacklist in the construction industry. They say justice never sleeps: time it woke up over this!'

Alison (not her real name) was the female activist that Mark Jenner deceived into a long term relationship and lived with during his deployment.  It was from their shared address in Hackney that the undercover police officer joined the construction union UCATT and became a regular attendee at the Hackney branch meetings.  Alison is one of the women that has received an unreserved apology and compensation from the Metropolitan Police for the abuse and human rights violations they suffered due to the activities of undercover police.  Alison recalls having numerous conversations about the building industry and trade union campaigns which she describes as 'a key part of his work' and 'a big part of what he was doing during this period'.  

Another trade unionist who was spied upon by Mark Jenner and has been granted core participant in the Pitchford inquiry is the RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary, Steve Hedley.  He commented: 

'Mark Jenner gained my confidence and even stayed at my mothers home in Ireland. When I learned that he was a police spy I was dumbfounded .Why the police would be interested in a trade unionist like me is quite frankly astonishing. All my activities were open and transparent and usually even minuted. What kind of a society are we living in, when the state feels it's necessary to employ people at the taxpayers expense to snoop on people carrying out perfectly legal activities?'

Blacklist Support Group

book: http://newint.org/books/politics/blacklisted-secret-war/

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlCa8yQmZ70

blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/