Thread by @copscampaign

We're live tweeting this afternoon's #SpyCopsInquiry hearing, as a thread under this tweet.

David Barr QC, Counsel to the Inquiry, will spend the afternoon setting out what the Inquiry will be doing. The Inquiry will publish 6 documents that pre-date the March 1968 Vietnam War demo, showing Special Branch trying to find out about the scale & plans for the day

Barr: One Special Branch document describes Special Branch attending a Vietnam Solidarity Campaign meeting but being recognised & asked to leave. Another attempted to attend a private meeting was aborted due to cops not knowing ayone & dressing like cops.anyone

Barr: Special Branch clearly felt a problem in not being able to get into meetings of anti-Vietnam War activists. Even in 1968, Special Branch is noting union & Labour party affiliation of prominent anti-war protesters.

Barr: Internal police reports focus on foreign demonstrators - Tariq Ali contests the accuracy & validity of this focus. [this is something that continued with later #SpyCops targeting people whose activism was international as a much greater threat of some kind]

Barr: report from March 1968 Vietnam War demo says protesters forced their way through police lines & things thrown, showing demonstrators were 'prepared to use every means' with 'terrifying ferocity'. Police kept them away from the US embassy & after an hour dispersed.

Barr: Windows were broken in the US embassy & police felt it had got too close for comfort. Chief Inspector Conrad Dixon resolved to prevent a repeat

Aaaaand now our third interruption of the day, while David Barr waits to see if some background noise can be made to stop...

Barr: Dixon's report of April 1968 said no intel had shown anyone planning violence at the demo, & yet it happened. [Police tend to believe in a rigid command structure similar to their own, & if that can't be seen it must be because it's being well hidden]

Barr: of 200+ prosecutions from the March 1968 demo, 9 resulted in imprisonment. Tariq Ali is 'the subject of a dismissive appraisal' of his position in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, in contrast to his public image!

Barr: Special Branch continued to gather intel about the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign after the March 1968 demo. But there's little contemporaneous documentation of the formation of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) #SpyCops unit. Appears to be 30 or 31 July 1968.

Barr: Early SDS docs say it is formed to obtain intel for 27 Oct 1968 Vietnam demo from publications, informants, technical devices, & undercover police officers. Other docs confirm this broad-tactic intent but very rapidly became pretty much solely undercover

Barr: Docs show Chief Inspector Conrad Dixon infiltrated meetings & verified info personally. For Oct 1968 demo, Special Branch were expected to share info directly with uniformed police & gather evidence for prosecution [as opposed to gathering intel]

Barr: Huge Special Branch effort went into prep for the Oct 1968 Vietnam demo. Numerous intel reports inc some sourced from SDS #SpyCops.

Barr: Conrad Dixon reported that a lot of left wing leaders want to overthrow parliamentary democracy in order to instate workers control, socialism & anarchy [seemingly unaware of his contradiction], even though they won't admit it in public

Barr: As the anti-Vietnam War movement factionalised, the SDS #SpyCops infiltrated the various groups. Officers 'Don de Freitas' & 'Margaret White' posed as a couple to infiltrate a group.

Barr: One black power leaflet led to prosecution & imprisonment of its distributor, and the #SpyCops officer gave evidence in her real identity.

Barr: By the time of the Oct 1968 Vietnam demo, Chief Inspector Dixon saw all the factions & anticipated less volatility compared to the March demo. Was this necessary? Was it proportionate? Could intel have been got without #SpyCops?

Barr: on 29 Oct 1968, US ambassador congratulated Special Branch for a less volatile demo than March. [Have to wonder if there would have been such a strong reaction to March demo if it had been at a target that didn't embarrass the UK in front of the USA]

Now we get a contemporaneous news report. As with the earlier one, there's a striking difference between the pictures & the commentary - the 'Maoist anarchists' 🤔are violent for linking arms & walking into police, police 'keep their cool' throwing punches & kicking.

Barr: The #SpyCops were had been deployed into groups, even taking active roles in the organising. Police regarded the comparatively peaceful nature of the Oct 1968 Vietnam demo as a big success.

Barr: Within a fortnight of the Oct 1968 demo, #SpyCops boss Chief Inspector Dixon had proposed long term infiltration of the relevant organisations. Funding was requested from the Home Office. Home Office wasn't keen on making it permanent, but coughed up

SDS #SpyCops unit was directly funded by the Home Office until the late 1980s, which would have been discussed & presumably they wanted to know what they were getting for their money, yet somehow there are no documents of any kind about the SDS in any of the Home Office archives

Barr: 1968 document shows Assistant Commissioner says the Commissioner [John Waldron] & MI5 want the #SpyCops made permanent, & that MI5 get to see the intel, but the Home Office is reluctant not because of their ethics but the public's - they fear the fact leaking to the public.

Barr: funding was granted for the calendar year in 1970 & 1971, but in 1772 it moved to the financial year, indicating that the old temporary spying on Vietnam War protesters had become permanent & broader. Home Sec Reginald Maudling is very afraid of personal impact of exposure

The fact that the government was terrified of #SpyCops being public knowledge indicates a belief that the public would be outraged, as indeed they were once the truth came out in 2010. They always knew it was profoundly unethical, abuse of citizens & of political dissent

Barr: Early 1970s docs have #SpyCops stated aims being forecasting the scale & mood of demonstrations, & identifying organisers, and 'gathering information for long-term intelligence purposes' - people profiled 'within weeks' of first expressing interest in 'extremist ideas'

Barr: Vague mention of the #SpyCops in the press yielded no serious opposition from public or civil liberties groups, leading to increased confidence in making the unit permanent, continuing & expanding their roles

Barr: Between May 1969 & Feb 1975 there were between 11 and 17 #SpyCops in the SDS at any given time.

Barr: by 1975 the #SpyCops reported penetrating the Shrewsbury 2 Defence Committee @Shrewsbury24C, a definite workers' rights spying operation

Barr is now reading a list of groups targeted according to reports made by the #SpyCops bosses (going too fast for me to type them all) though it's broad - Hackney United Tenants, Women's Liberation Front & black power groups are included.

Be interesting to see if there's any groups being named now by the Inquiry in these early #SpyCops reports that we haven't already mentioned in the @UndercoverNet/Guardian list: theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-int…
@robevansgdn @PaulLewis

Groups specified by early #SpyCops bosses as succesfully targeted include:
Maoists
Anarchists
International Socialism
International Marxist Group
Vietnam Solidarity Campaign
Independent Labour Party
People’s Democracy
Save Biafra

‘Commitment’ Group
Croydon Libertarians
Ceylon Solidarity Campaign
Action Committee Against Racialism
Northern Minority Defence Force
the Black Unity and Freedom Party
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
the Black Defence Committee
the Stoke Newington Eight Defence Group

International Marxist Group
Red Defence Group
Vietnam Solidarity Campaign
Friends of China
Marxist-Leninist Workers Association
Schools Action Union
London Alliance (in Defence of Workers Rights) Revolutionary Women’s Union
Women’s Liberation Movement
Claimant’s Union

#SpyCops bosses said Big Flame was among groups 'penetrated to a lesser degree'. They were infiltrated by 'Rick Gibson' but they became suspicious of him & found he was using the stolen identity of a dead child. They confronted him & he left. The story was unpublished at the time

'Rick Gibson' was #SpyCops officer Richard Clark. He deceived at least four women he spied on into relationships. One of them, Mary, gave this powerful statement to the #SpyCopsInquiry in 2018
ucpi.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

"I came from South Africa, thinking I had escaped that kind of interference by the state in the life of its citizens. To find that the police & the state in the UK operate in a similar fashion is very disturbing"
- Mary, deceived into a relationship by Richard Clark in the 1970s

Here's the @UndercoverNet profile of #SpyCops officer Richard Clark / 'Rick Gibson'

powerbase.info/index.php/Rick…

Barr: #SpyCops reports lamented the 'obvious problem' of finding it hard to infiltrate black power movements. "Coloured & foreign organisations, because of their exclusivity, continue to be resistant to penetration"

Barr: The SDS said that the Communist Party & extreme right wing groups weren't covered by its remit, but was up for doing it if they were told to. [This is essentially asking for mission creep]

Barr: Cheif Inspector Dixon said #SpyCops are more reliable than other sources because they're trained & there's no waiting for intel. He wanted recruitment by personal approach, & daily supervision of officers, with a maximum of 12 months [average ended up being 4-5 years].

Barr: Chief Inspector Dixon said women officers provided credibility & cover, reducing risk of suspicion & denunciation. [officers had fake partners as late as Lynn Watson and Rod Richardson in the 2000s both having occasional partners turn up at events]

Barr: Chief Inspector Dixon was firm that #SpyCops should not get actively involved in groups, drafting leaflets, etc. This went right out of the window shortly after.

In the early 1980s, #SpyCops officer Bob Lambert didn't just draft any old leaflet but the #McLibel leaflet that triggered the longest trial in English history. Here he is handing them out with @ARspycatcher theguardian.com/artanddesign/2…

Barr: in these early days, no #SpyCops officer recalls formal training. Little evidence of specific guidance on criminal activity, sexual relationships, breaching legal privilege. Most say they didn't commit any offence when undercover [they would, wouldn't they]

Barr now showing picture of Conrad Dixon in 1968. He asks for a new photo and we get 'cover sheet'. He waits a while and asks them to scroll to the photo he wants. £30m inquiry and it can't do a slideshow.

Now showing pics of Saunders in 1968, who went on to run the SDS. Now one of SDS #SpyCops Dave Fisher and Ray Wilson. Now Helen Crampton, with HN328 & HN334 who are blacked out

Now a group pic of 16, with half blacked out. Det Insp Wilson & Det Sgt Roy Creamer among those shown. Now a doc - report on large public meeting of Vietnam Solidarity Campaign from 1968. Routine form for early SDS work reporting on event.

Doc lists all the officers present at the meeting (inc Dixon head of SDS, Saunders the 2nd in command), all of whom were able to vote at the meeting. Doc is noted as having been copied to MI5.

Now a doc by #SpyCops officer 'John Clinton' on the April 1972 International Socialists conference. Almost 400 attended. Long report.
Now another from same officer, resulting on the results of International Socialists national committee election, noting specific person's politics

now cover note saying managers of #SpyCops were very pleased about the reports on International Socialists, that it proves the value of the SDS, and reports have been copied to MI5

Now a 1969 doc from #SpyCops officer 'Bill Lewis' on International Marxist Group's summer camp in Scotland, attended by 42 people. This shows acting across borders & jurisdictions very early [& making a mockery of the Home Office limiting the #SpyCopsInquiry to England & Wales]

Here's the @UndercoverNet profile of #SpyCops officer 'Bill Lewis'
powerbase.info/index.php/Bill…

Now a 1971 doc by 'David Robinson', reporting on a Maoist couple, personal details about financial affairs, home life, child - this was common

Now 1968 doc from 'Don de Frietas' & 'Margaret White', #SpyCops who pretended to be a couple to infiltrate the Havering branch of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. Report on meeting in a pub with details of all 9 attendants

Now a 1971 report from 'John Clinton', on member of International Socialist who wants to get fellow members to work within a trade union.
Now another Clinton one from 1973 reporting on membership changes in International Socialists, noting their locality & trade uinion.

Now a Feb 1973 report of #SpyCops officer HN338, noting names of 3 people who've asked for info on the International Marxist Group - not even members.
Now a Dec 1971 report also from HN338 on Black Defence Committee talk 'Rhodesia & the racist problem in Britain'

Now a Feb 1971 report by 'David Robertson' on Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) meeting after a delegation had visited China, but includes details of industrial action & remarks about the ethnicity of certain attendees.

Now another 1971 'Robertson' report, submitting a Women's Liberation Front leaflet. Advocating no exploitation or repression of any kind, equal pay without regard to gender, access to contraception & abortion. Stamped as copied to MI5.

Now a 1971 report from HN338 reporting on a meeting of editorial groups of an activist publication called Indo-China. [Numerous #SpyCops wrote articles whilst undercover, encouraging the political activity they were there to undermine]

Now a 1973 report from HN338, reporting on meeting about police oppression by International Marxist Group, Socialist Labour League & International Socialists. Example of police regarding well-earned threats to their reputation as seriously as any other threat.

Finally for the example docs - report from 1974 by 'john Clinton' reporting on a Socialist Worker rally for the Shrewsbury 24 @Shrewsbury24C & their families. Shows #SpyCops defending reputation against those who'd expose miscarriages of justice.

Inquiry will take oral evidence in Phase 1 from:
Tariq Ali, activist
HN329 'John Graham' infiltrated VSC
HN328 'Joan Hillier' VSC
HN326 'Douglas Edwards', West Ham Anarchists, Independent Labour Party
HN 336 'Dick Epps', 1969-70

HN340 'Alan Nixon', Red Circle, Irish Solidarity Campaign & VSC
Dr Norman Temple, activist Irish National Liberation Solidarity Front
HN347 'Alex Sloan', reported on Dr Temple

HN348 'Sandra', Women's Liberation Front
HN345 'Peter Fredericks', Black Power Movement, Action Bangladesh, Young Haganah.

And that's it for today. The #SpyCopsInquiry will be back tomorrow at 10am here: ucpi.org.uk/hearing/openin…
We'll be live tweeting tomorrow too