By Zaki Sarraf Justice Gap reporter 3 November 2020 |
The public inquiry into undercover policing Inquiry began yesterday five years after the then Home Secretary Theresa May announced the inquiry. It will examine the contribution that undercover policing has made to tackling crime, how it is supervised, regulated and the effect on individuals involved. The inquiry will also examine whether individuals may have been wrongly convicted in cases involving so called spy cops.
Bindmans Solicitors are acting for a number of the core participants. ‘Our clients have waited more than five years for this Inquiry to commence,’ the firm said. ‘During this time the Inquiry has granted anonymity to most of the undercover police officers being called to give evidence, in some cases to their cover names as well as their real names.’
‘Those of us who have been following the Undercover Policing Inquiry go into the start of proceedings today with very little faith in the process,’ commented core participant Tom Fowler. ‘The huge concessions to police anonymity that that has been partly responsible for the delays that have taken five years for the Inquiry to get started gave made sure of that. We will however be watching proceedings closely in the hope that some droplets of truth will sneak out. Myself and others will be providing live updates over the duration of the hearings, using the #spycops hashtag on Twitter.’
Theresa May’s announcement of the judge-led inquiry in 2015 was in response to Mark Ellison QC’s review which sought to answer whether there was evidence of corruption in the Metropolitan Police during the investigation of the murder of Stephen Lawrence; whether the Met had evidence of corruption it did not disclose to the Macpherson Inquiry into the murder; and whether there was inappropriate undercover activity directed at the grieving Lawrence family.
The Ellison review found undercover officers being deployed to influence and smear the Lawrence family campaign whilst the Macpherson inquiry was ongoing. Specific allegations by police officers of corruption against other officers were ignored by their superiors and not brought to the attention of Macpherson; key evidence was shredded by the Police; and undercover officers failed to correct evidence given in court which they knew was wrong. In March 2014, Theresa May May described its findings ‘profoundly shocking’ and ‘of grave concern’.
The Lawrence case is one example of undercover policing and there are over 230 core participants in the UCPI including individuals that have been duped into relationships with undercover officers, families of victims of murders, politicians, trade unionists and more – a full list of the core participants can be found here. Sixty-nine officers’ names have been published from the Special Demonstration Squad to enable members of the public to determine whether they were affected by undercover policing and come forward with evidence.
AFTER a five and a half year delay, the public inquiry into the abuses carried out by the UK's undercover political police has finally started.
The Blacklist Support Group plus the three unions in the inquiry; UNITE, FBU and NUM will be making their opening statements on Friday 6th November. Watch all the union strand opening statements via this link: https://www.ucpi.org.uk/hearing/opening-statements-5/
10:00 AM
James Scobie QC (Core Participants represented by Paul Heron)
A SECRET police document has
revealed how the Metropolitan Police's Special Branch helped the illegal
blacklisting of trade unionists - preventing them from getting jobs
because of their political views.
In one case, detectives suggested one individual was a terrorist, despite the claim being wrong.
The
illegal practice - exposed ten years ago - involved major construction
firms accessing secret files on 3,000 workers and their union
activities.
But until now, little has been known about the police's role, other than a Scotland Yard admission it had been involved.
Part of the secret report underpinning that admission has now been
disclosed, after initially being classified as so secret it was for the
Metropolitan Police Commissioner's eyes only. The report -
codenamed Operation Reuben - found "numerous areas of concern" with
"inappropriate contact of Special Branch officers with private
organisations", including with one of the two blacklisting groups, the
Economic League and the Consulting Association.
Blacklisting: How it worked
Blacklisting began with the Economic
League in 1919 which shared records on left-wing activists with industry
to keep them out of the workplace
It was closed in 1993 after a Parliamentary inquiry. The Consulting Association sprang up to replace it
The Information Commissioner's Office
raided The Consulting Association in 2009, revealing for the first time
the scale of the operation - triggering legal action that continues to
this day
In 2016 eight major construction firms
offered settlements to end legal action: Balfour Beatty, Carillion,
Costain, Keir, Lang O'Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska and Vinci
The Reuben investigators found no systematic records of the
relationships - but one sharing incident from 1978 had been recorded
after a senior officer intervened.
On that occasion, a trade
union activist had applied for a job making educational videos with a
company linked to the construction industry.
The company passed
the individual's name to the Economic League to be checked - which in
turn contacted the police for any further intelligence "due to the
perceived risk of involvement in education". "The receiving
officer's initial inquiries revealed a potential link to [redacted]
which in his opinion had not been resolved satisfactorily... he returned
to EL asking for any further information, stressing the matter's
importance due to the possible link to terrorism.
"This was recorded as fact by the EL representative."
EL then passed this on to the prospective employer - ending the candidate's chance of getting a job.
The applicant appears to have learned that they had been "blacked by the security people".
One
of their relatives was a retired senior police officer who demanded an
investigation - and that appears to explain why the incident remained
recorded.
One major blacklisting allegation is that an officer
called Mark Jenner collected information after he infiltrated the
construction union UCATT between 1995 and 2000.
The report says
that Jenner, who used the alias Cassidy, provided information on 300
people - and 16 of those appeared in the illegal blacklist database.
Operation
Reuben said it found no evidence to prove that Jenner directly provided
that intelligence - but it added it could not rule out other officers
doing so.
Roy Bentham, joint secretary of Blacklist Support Group, said that many questions remain unanswered.
"The
police are supposed to uphold law and order, not spy on perfectly
democratic organisations such as trade unions," said Mr Bentham.
"Blacklisting
is a national scandal and confirmation that the police colluded with
this shameful and unlawful activity is beyond the pale."
Imran Khan QC, lawyer for the Blacklist Support Group, said that
the onus was now on the undercover policing inquiry to dig deep.
A
spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said that the internal report
into blacklisting had established that "certain conduct" amounted to
improper sharing of information under the law as it stands today.
"Allegations
about police involvement with the 'blacklist' will be fully explored
during the Undercover Policing Public Inquiry (UCPI)," said the
spokesman. "The Metropolitan Police Service will await the conclusions of the UCPI before considering any appropriate next steps."
In the political world, things aren't always what they seem. The Conservative MP, Anna Soubry, has recently hit the headlines demanding that the police take action against pro-Brexit far-right demonstrators who have been stalking her outside Parliament calling her a liar and a Nazi. Why the pro Remain MP should be labelled a Nazi, isn't quite clear, but it is believed that Soubry a former criminal barrister, is Jewish. Soubry, the Member of Parliament for Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire, said she would not be silenced nor intimidated and that it was wrong that MPs should "have to accept this as part of the democratic process." She told the BBC News that the police needed to "do their Job" and would contact them about the matter. Judging from a video that is being circulated on Youtube, it seems that the police may well be on the job, albeit undercover. The video shows a loud mouthed individual inciting a group of people to verbally abuse Soubry, who seems to be taking it all in her stride in spite of her claiming that she feels intimidated. Some people have suggested that the individual on the video is an undercover police officer. In part of the video, he can be seen to slip something into the pocket of a person accompanying Soubry, who is believed to be a personal assistant or security man.
LEGAL papers yesterday revealed that police have admitted that the managers of an undercover officer knew that he was having a long-term sexual relationship with a woman who he deceived. This is the first admission by senior police officers that undercover done this. Hitherto, the top brass had claimed that undercover officers were not allowed to have sexual relationships
with campaigners they were spying on under any circumstances.
This admission admission was made by police in a legal case launched by Kate
Wilson, an environmental and social justice activist who was deceived
into a two-year intimate relationship by the undercover officer Mark Kennedy.
This is the first case to be heard by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) from a woman who had a
sexual relationship with a police spy who concealed his true identity
from her.
Wilson is one of a dozen women who have successfully sued police
in high court case.
After a lengthy legal battle in the high court, the Met has been forced to
pay compensation to the women, although it successfully avoided handing
over any internal documents about the relationships.
Last week, John
McDonnell announced that a public inquiry into blacklisting would form
part of the first Queen's Speech for an incoming Labour Government.
More from the TUC Congress
Righting working class miscarriages of Justice:
Working
class miscarriages of justice: Ensuring they never happen again chaired
by Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett. Speakers include:
Sheila Coleman from the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, Chris Peace from
Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, Dave Smith from the Blacklist
Support Campaign, Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS) and Terry
Renshaw from Shrewsbury Picket.
Major
Morning Star Article at TUC congress on the need for a radical
manifesto for employment rights - including a public inquiry into
blacklisting. Lee Fowler representing.
Kier are to build the new Durham County Council HQ. The 2 contractors bidding for Manchester City Council's historic Town Hall renovation are Laing O'Rourke & Lendlease. Why can't some Labour councillors understand the policy: No Public Contracts for Blacklist firms?
Roy
Bentham will represent the Blacklist Support Group at this session at
the parallel The World Transformed conference to the Labour Party's.
Haldane Fringe meeting 6pm, Monday 24th Sept - The miners strike and undercover policing (flyer attached)
Tackling the Housing Crisis meeting - Unite the Union Holborn - 6pm Thursday 27th September.Speakers include: John McDonnell MP and blacklisted safety campaigner Tony O'Brien, whose book, 'Tackling the Housing Crisis', was published in July
Carillon
BSG demonstrated at Royal Liverpool Hospital project when exposing Carillion back in 2015. There’s a public meeting over the embarrassing predicament the long from complete Hospital now finds itself. Roy Bentham will speak on behalf of the Blacklist Support Group.
Launch
of a major new oral history archive from post war construction workers
covering building the new towns, the Southbank and the Barbican. Many
blacklisted workers took part in the project. Prof. Linda Clarke (long
time friend of the BSG) is the curator and project leader.
BBC story - Suicide risk for construction workers is 3 times the male average. One of the main reasons is precarious work. Top work Simon Pantry for representing.
No toilets? Seriously? Crossrail is a multi-billion pound publicly funded project. But watch out if you complain about it - Skanska & Costain have form on blacklisting workers who speak up about their safety concerns.
Blacklist
Support Group send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of
Gary Doolan, National Political Officer for GMB who has passed away.
Gary always fought our corner; standing with us on pickets, protests and
at the High Court. Gary also got us private meetings in parliament
which led to the Labour manifesto pledging a public inquiry into
blacklisting (under Ed Milliband). In his role as Labour Councillor in
Islington, he took the £16m a year housing
maintenance contract away from Kier because of their role in the
blacklisting scandal. All the workers were taken back in-house.
Islington were the first local authority in the country to publicly take
that step. This is what solidarity looks like and what our movement
should aspire to.
"There
are times when doing the right thing is easy. There was no other way to
deal with this, but to send a message loud and very clear to any
contractor wishing to bid for work in our borough, in that those
contractors who are guilty of blacklisting will be excluded from any
tendering for work. Islington is the first local council that’s made
this statement. If it’s right for one council to stand up for workers,
it’s good enough for all the others to take the same stance. Perhaps
that way blacklisting will finally be eradicated". Gary Doolan R.I.P.
On Wednesday 11th July, blacklisted workers and lawyers representing the FBU and UNITE the union held a 2 hour private meeting with Sir John Mitting, the judge in charge of the undercover policing public inquiry. There are legal restrictions on what can be disclosed about the discussions.
Dave Smith, Blacklist Support Group co-secretary commented:
'We had a frank exchange of views about the future direction of the public inquiry. We hope that Mitting is now fully aware of our serious concerns about a number of issues that we feel will impede the truth about the activities of the UK's undercover political police units being fully investigated. We continue to have fundamental disagreements with many of the decisions being taken by the Chair and believe that the Home Secretary should set up a panel that will allow for a greater understanding of issues such as sex, race and class bias that are at the heart of the public inquiry. However, for a number of our specific concerns relating to state spying on trade unions, we were given assurances that we view as positive. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating and until we see concrete action rather than fine words, our view of the public inquiry remains highly skeptical.'
Display highlighting misconduct of undercover police spies
A campaign to highlight the misconduct of undercover police spies, launched by the cosmetics retailer 'Lush', has been withdrawn after just one week after the company alleged that some staff in its 104 stores, had been threatened and intimidated by former police officers.
The retailer who removed the displays from its store windows last Thursday, said it needed to protect its staff for safety reasons and that some of its branches had removed posters following, "intimidation of our shop staff from ex-police officers and unhelpful tweets from those in high office."
It has been alleged that people disliking the campaign have been going into stores and intimidating staff to force them to take down the display. Yet many members of the public have supported the campaign. Two former wives of undercover police officers offered their support as well as the son of a police spy who abandoned him and his mother.
The Lush campaign was criticised by the home secretary, Sajid Javid, for being anti-police, poorly judged and potentially damaging to large numbers of officers who had nothing to do with the alleged wrongdoing.
In a letter to the Guardian, the two former 'spycop' wives, said the Lush campaign had done more to publicise the issue in a weekend than a public inquiry had done in three years.
Costing more than £10m so far, the inquiry into undercover policing led by Sir John Mitting, was due to conclude this year but will not hear any evidence until June 2019.
A spokeswoman for 'Police Spies Out of Lives', said: "We condemn the sort of threats that some Lush staff have experienced in the last few days."
David Smith of the Blacklist Support Group (BSG) said that the displays had "been blanked out due to threats to staff." He added: "All workers are entitled to a safe working environment - intimidation, abuse and threats, are totally unacceptable."
ROGER
Pearce, the former editor of Freedom the anarchist newspaper, has degrees in Theology from Durham University and Law from
London University. He is also a barrister-at-law. Married with three
adult children, he has homes in London and Miami and, until 2012, was
European Security Director of a high profile global company.
The
former Commander of Special Branch at New Scotland Yard, Roger Pearce
was responsible for surveillance and undercover operations against
terrorists and extremists, the close protection of government ministers
and visiting VIPs, and other highly sensitive assignments.
He was also Director of Intelligence, charged with heading covert operations against serious and organised criminals.
After
leaving the Yard he was appointed Counter-Terrorism Adviser to the
Foreign Office, where he worked with government and intelligence experts
worldwide in the campaign against Al Qaeda.
In Agent of the State, The Extremist, Javelin and
future titles the author draws upon his knowledge and first hand
experience of a career in national security at every level.
LAST Wednesday with the walkout of the Spycops inquiry
in a show of no confidence in Judge Mitting. The Blacklist Support Group
took that décision in solidarity with others families including the
Lawrence’s and other groups being represented within these proceedings.
Our collective message was clear - We are done with stonewalling and whitewashes.
Last Friday - The Met Police finally officially confirmed that
Special Branch and other police were involved in the Blacklisting of
construction workers. The following disclosures have now been widely
reported in the worlds news. Blacklisted workers appeared and our
supporters appeared on TV and radio throughout the day. This has been 6
years going back to 2012 since we first raised it through our QC Imran
Khan through the IPCC.
Blacklist Support Group would like to have it placed on
record our appreciation for all the activists, lawyers, investigative
journalists, researchers, trade unionists and politicians who have
worked alongside us and whose efforts have finally forced the Met Police
to make these admissions.
After the revelations about police collusion in blacklisting,
Unite the Union are now considering opening new legal proceedings
against the Met Police. Watch this space
With the above in mind, we ask supporters to highlight the Met
Police admission to their local elected Police Commissioner, many of
whom are Labour politicians and run our Police Forces. We suggest that
our supporters send letters using the text below as a standard template
making amendments as you see fit:
Blacklist Support Group open letter to our Police Commissioner’s over police collusion and spying.
The Blacklist
Support Group notes the recent and most shocking disclosures and
statement of the Metropolitan Police regarding the undercover policing
scandal. It is with huge dismay that it has taken 6 years for
the Metropolitan Police to admit that police supplied information to the
unlawful construction blacklist. And only then after our legal
representatives complained to the IPCC back in 2012.
Our
attention must now turn to the solutions. Aside from any legal action
against these political policing units, we call upon Police
Commissioners to now come out in full support of those who suffered as a
consequence of these clandestine anti-democratic operations. We therefore ask
the Police Commissioners to go on record and condemn the actions of the
undercover police units spying on trade unions unreservedly and call for
these covert political policing units that spy on legal democratic
political campaigns should be disbanded immediately.
Roy Bentham co-Secretary of the BSG added:
'This
culture of impunity has to end. As someone who seen it as a
Hillsborough survivor it’s appalling it still appears to be rife within
our police forces. As Labour politicians, our commissioners also have a duty to serve the people who voted them in. A
statement on denouncing these black ops is surely the bare minimum and
we need promises of transparency going forward as that is the only way
to win our trust back as ordinary working class citizens'
Police
plant edited the anarchist newspaper Freedom by Brian Bamford
Spy-cop Roger Pearce aka Roger Thorley
ON
the 20th, March 2018 Sir John Mitting Chairman, Undercover
Policing Inquiry, designated Freedom Press as a core
participant in Category K of the purpose of the Undercover Policing
Inquiry.
The
'person' categorised as 'Friends of Freedom Press'
('Freedom Press') did previously apply to Sir Christopher
Pitchford, when he was the previous Chairman of the same Inquiry in
October 2015, Pitchford then stated that he would keep under review the
application of any person to be designated as a core participant who
was not then so designated by him.
He
at that time, declined to designate them because, on the information
which he then had, it was unlikely that they were relying on a direct
and significant role in the subject matter of the Inquiry
On the 23 January 2018, Saunders Solicitors Limited again wrote to
the Inquiry to ask whether Sir John Mitting would now entertain a
fresh application for core participant status by Freedom
Press.
Having considered this new request last
week, Sir John decided:
'
I will designate Freedom Press as a core participant in Category K.
I do so on the basis of material which Sir Christopher [Pitchford]
would not have taken into account when making his original ruling:
Operation Herne interview notes, which suggest that HN85 became
editor of Freedom Press in Whitechapel and in that capacity wrote
virulent anti-police articles. Accordingly, Freedom Press did
play a direct and significant role in the subject matter of the
Inquiry and it is appropriate that they should be designated as a
core participant.'
Exclusive report on 'Spychief infiltration'
On
the 24th, March, the Freedom website carried an unsigned article
which it described as an 'exclusive' entitled 'The Met spy chief who
infiltrated Freedom Press'. In this post the Freedom
Press author wrote: 'Earlier
this week it was disclosed that Freedom Press would now be considered
a core participant in the Undercover Policing Inquiry, following
official confirmation that Pearce had operated as “Roger Thorley,”
a former writer for Freedom in the 1970s and ’80s.'
The
writer, who may well himself be a solicitor, says that after a
comprehensive investigation of the Freedom archives and
consultation with old comrades it is revealed that 'Freedom can
confirm that Pearce, writing under the moniker R.T, penned a series
of articles over the course of the period 1980-81 and then joined a
fact-finding mission to Belfast, before disappearing from sight.'
Special Branch man becomes Freedom 'editor'
This
weekend I spoke to several present and former members of the 'Friends
of Freedom Press' (F. of F.P.), and they all say they didn't know
Roger Thorley in the early 1980s. I haven't as yet spoken to
the present secretary of F. of F.P., Stephen Sorba, who may well have
been around, but I was writing for Freedom in the late 1979s and
early 1980s, when I believe my friend the carpenter Peter Turner was
still associated with the paper. Barry Woodling has just told
me that he's seen reports and articles written by me in March 1980,
after I had reported for the old Syndicalist Workers Federation
(SWF) on the V Congress of the CNT (National Confederation of Labour) in
Madrid, which took place in December 1979.
What
is so noticeably about the old issues of Freedom edited
by the police spy and future head of Special Branch, Roger Thorley/Pearce*, is that it is clear the quality of Freedom has
declined immensely since the 1980s. The analysis of the last
signed article of Roger-the-Dodger suggests he is so insightful about
the situation in northern Ireland, that it can only produce nostalgia
in those of us knew the old Freedom. The current
production, whether on the website or in the occasional hard copies
of Freedom, are so full of cookbook thinking, cliques
and childish slogans as to reduce one to tears.
The
author of Freedom's socalled exclusive report writing
this Saturday says: 'What
can be confirmed is that when inquiry head Mitting defined Pearce’s
writing as “virulently anti-police” he wasn’t exaggerating —
and it was specifically in favour of the IRA. In one article,
Prisoners of Politics (Vol 41, No. 22, Nov 8th 1980) the editors
debate “R.T” over his demand that IRA detainees should have
political prisoner status, noting that “all prisoners are
political”.'
Meanwhile,
the undercover policemen seem to have had a beano engaged in what my
Dad use to call 'Bobbies
Jobs'; employed
in cushy
numbers reporting on the activities and miscellaneous tittle-tattle
of anarchists and trade unionists. But with a job like that of
Roger Pearce, drafting columns and perhaps editorials for Freedom
in
the late 1970s or early 1980s, it must have given him a glorious
opportunity to hone his skills in spy craft; even with London
Greenpeace it has been said that Bobby Lambert actually wrote the
leaflet on McDonald's that
ultimately led to the famous libel case.. I suppose that the
conscientious policeman in his determination to do a decent job, will
actually get a thrill out of writing and polishing up articles using
anarchist analytical tools. Both Roger-the-Dodger Pearce and
Bobby Lambert seem to have been street-wise engaging in their
workman-like operations, and moreover to have had a good deal more
talent than many of the anarchists that they were spying on.
* According to the website 'powerbase' which does public interest investigatuons - Roger Pearce was appointed Director of Intelligence (SO11) on 2 November 1998 and held it until 4 March 2003.[13] In 1999, Pearce was appointed head of Special Branch (SO12) and held both posts concurrently until his retirement in 2003.[5][4][14] In this latter role he also had oversight of the Covert Operations unit SO10.[15]. As Head of Special Branch he was:[16] ... responsible for surveillance and undercover
operations against terrorists and extremists, the close protection of
government ministers and visiting VIPs, and other highly sensitive
assignments...
VICTIMS
of undercover police units and their lawyers staged a mass walk
out during today's hearing of the undercover policing public inquiry
calling for the removal of Sir John Mitting as the new judge in
charge of the inquiry. Sir John Mitting has told the inquiry,
that victims will be be met with a 'wall of silence' in key parts of
the inquiry and is granting anonymity to almost every police officer
- so the public inquiry will be held mainly in secret.
This will not be justice. We are not prepared to participate in
a process in which the victims are merely window dressing.
Below
and attached is the full transcript of the submission made by
Phillipa Kaufman QC, representing over 200 of the 'non-state,
non police core participants' in the inquiry including Doreen
and Neville Lawrence, women activist who were deceived into
relationships with undercover officers, anti-racist campaigners and
trade unions.
Blacklisted
workers and the Blacklist support Group have been granted 'core
participant status' in the inquiry because of undercover police
infiltration of trade unions and were part of the walk out.
******
Blacklist
Support Group Statement for Undercover Policing Public Inquiry
hearing on Wed 21st March 2018:
'Blacklisted workers who
have been kept under surveillance by political policing units were
always skeptical about whether the British state investigating itself
would truly provide justice. But under John Mitting, the public
inquiry has descended into a good old fashioned establishment
cover-up.
'Mitting
was put in charge to carry out a job of work on us - and he's doing
it. Time and again he gives the police the benefit of the doubt,
to the detriment of those whose lives have been torn apart by this
human rights scandal.
'Tinkering
around the edges isn't going to change things. We have no confidence
in Mitting. He must go and needs to be replaced with a panel of
experts who have have at least some degree of empathy with the
victims and are prepared to question the accounts of undercover
police officers who have been trained to lie.'
Dave
Smith: core participant in 'union strand' of public inquiry
(21/3/18).
Sir John Mitting - A Judge with a background in secrecy
1. Wed 6th December is the Blacklisting Day of Action.
Protests are planned across the UK plus a lobby of MPs at Westminster.
Blacklist Support Group urge all our supporters to publicize the events and where possible to attend. Bring your banners and wear your 'Blacklisted' t-shirts with pride.
Lobby of Westminster parliament
Assemble at Old Palace Yard, Westminster, SW1P 3JY
12pm – Rally with speakers from Unite including Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary
1pm – Photo call with MPs
2pm – Meeting with MPs in the Boothroyd room - please note, this is in Portcullis House not the Palace of Westminster
4pm finish & pre-Xmas drinks
Full public inquiry into blacklisting
Make blacklisting a criminal offence
No public contracts for companies involved in blacklisting
Sir John Mitting is the new head of the undercover policing public inquiry. Last week, in his first ever speech he told us that he was not intending to disclose which campaigns have been infiltrated by spycops or even all of their cover names during deployment. To paraphrase the rest of Mitting's statement - spying on the Stephen Lawrence family and what happened to the women activists was morally unacceptable. What happened to everyone else is a matter of national security and therefore we were considered fair game. Jonathan Hall QC representing the Metropolitan Police argued that it would be “extraordinary” if blacklisting by undercover police officers is to be considered as wrongdoing.
Currently every state institution complicit in the human rights violations carried out by the political policing units has a huge legal team including a 11 separate QCs for the Met Police, Home Office, ACPO etc.. all paid for by the taxpayer Whereas those who were spied on including the relatives of murder victims, the women activists, anti-racism campaigners and blacklisted workers have to share one counsel. The trade unions who were infiltrated have been officially denied any funding, so must pay their own legal costs. This is a massive imbalance of power and exactly what we talk about when people say that the legal system is stacked against us.
We responded to Mitting by protesting inside the courtroom.
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