Thread by @copscampaign

Next at the #SpyCopsInquiry, opening statement of Matthew Ryder QC speaking for Core Participants represented by Mike Schwarz, Simon Creighton, Tamsin Allen & Jules Carey - ie majority of spied-on CPs + others such as families whose dead child's identity was stolen by #SpyCops

A list of the #SpyCopsInquiry's core participants, the category they have been assigned & their legal representatives is on the @ucpinquiry site:
ucpi.org.uk/core-participa…

Ryder: I speak for 100+ individuals & groups whose targeting by spycops inappropriate & improperly regulated & abused their rights. From a variety of backgrounds, all deserve answers. Officers must be called to account, as must system that permitted it

Ryder: Clients cover 40+ years, communitysecretary activists to a Peer who was a Secretary of State. Spycops weren't merely out of control but politicised.

Ryder: Political bias affected whole process of spycops. It included racial bias, & we expect an assiduous exploration of that in the Inquiry. Included discrediting of legitimate campaigns.

Ryder: We'll never know the true cost of hindering such campaigns. Voices that should have been amplified because their cause was right were targeted for silencing

Ryder: so many anti racists, environmentalists and others spied on have been vindicated over the years. They were wrongfully convicted, encouraged into acts by spycops whose spycops was involvement hidden from courts

Ryder: personal info was held and used for decades. 4 of my clients are in tranche 1, 3 of whom were anti-apartheid campaigners, 4th is Celia Stubbs, partner of Blair Peach, an anti racist campaigner killed by police in 1979 & spied on for her campaign

Ryder: Most people spied on have not seen documents from Inquiry, which is a disgrace. Undercover politicalregulate policing is not historic, it continues to the present. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 was supposed to regaulte spycops but failed.

Ryder: Most people spied on have not seen documents from Inquiry, which is a disgrace. Undercover politicalregulate policing is not historic, it continues to the present. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 was supposed to regaulte spycops but failed.

Ryder: Inquiry must be forward looking in order to stop the political undercover policing from continuing. If done properly, this can be a moment of much-needed change.

Ryder: Victims are keen to know the life changing details that have been kept hidden for so long. They want fullest disclosure. They've had basically none so far.

Ryder: 5 recurring themes:
1 - politicised nature of spycops
2 - lack of checks
3 - lack of oversight
4 - racial bias
5 - culture of contempt & abuse toward lives of targets

Ryder: Targeting of political & social justice campaigns covered whole period of spycops. Cops didn't merely attend, they took active political roles, influencing direction & means of protest. They took active roles in the very thing they were surveilling

Ryder: It's the antithesis of what political culture should be about. SDS founder Dixon said 'firm line must be drawn between follower & leader, spycops mustn't speak in public, take office, draw leaflets'. This was swiftly ignored

Ryder: Spycops targeted many groups who did not seek to overthrow the 'established democratic order' unless we take it to mean basically any political or social change

Ryder: Anti apartheid campaigner opposed one of the most repulsive racist regimes of the 20th century. The SDS targeted those who opposed it much more than the often violent supporter of apartheid.

Ryder: From the start, spycops had political bias. The anti apartheid movement identified in 1st annual report of Spycops. Black power groups were of particular interest too. Sporting boycotts were a key part of protesting against apartheid, and were targeted

Ryder: 3 core participants were active in the Stop The Seventy Tour (STST) groups opposed to the al white South African rugby and cricket teams. They made a real contribution to wider anti racist movement.

Ryder: Anti apartheid campaigns brought democracy to South Africa, yet the police lawyer's opening statement to the Inquiry talked of 'totalitarian objectives' of target groups

Ryder: Police say they must protect law & order but they're also supposed to protect our rights. The 3 anti apartheid campaigners were supposedly targeted by spycop Mike Ferguson, but his identity is protected even though he's dead.

Ryder: one of the 3 campaigners is Lord Hain who, as Secretary of State, was entrusted with the most serious secret info, yet is still not being told which spycops targeted him in his own home

Ryder: This wasn't police using informants, this was police trying to take control of a political movement, a serving officer was placed in the group to help direct activity.

Ryder: Mike Ferguson wasn't a rogue officer, his colleagues knew about him and have testified about what he did.

Ryder: Campaigner Ernest Rodker says it was just civil disobedience, nothing compared to what the South African government was doing to defend apartheid

Ryder: It appears spycops retrofit excuses for their surveillance. If records don't support the justification the Inquiry should remain sceptical

Ryder: it's clear that personal info on campaigners had no policing use but may have been shared & used against them in other ways. Rodker says it is reminiscent of authoritarian states

Ryder: anti-apartheid campaigners worried about spycops collusion with the South African government.

Ryder: London Greenpeace was founded in 1971 for individuals to take action to preserve the ecosystem, the first GP group in Europe. Focused on a number of issues, initially nuclear weapons testing.

Ryder: LGP initally promoted home composting, turning off lights not in use, bricks in cisterns to save water, planting trees. Stayed as small group without leaders. Encouraged others to make similar networks

Ryder: 1981 LGP leaflet describes itself as nonviolent & libertarian. In 80s spycops Bob Lambert & John Dines infiltrated LGP. Actions of both, esp Lambert, require serious scrutiny by the Inquiry

Lambert's behaviour is truly shocking. He had multiple relationships with women he spied on inc fathering a child bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-…

Lambert encouraged activists to join other actions & drove them there. After his deployment he ran the SDS. He was still undercover in 1987 when fellow spycop John Dines joined

Ryder: Dines became LGPO treasurer, gave lifts to find out addresses, & deceived @helensteel12 into a relationship
powerbase.info/index.php/John…

Ryder: LGP people are concerned about spycops steering the direction of the group, inc toward the anti McDonald's campaign which he encouraged & went on 1st demo against theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/21…

Ryder: Both Lambert & Dines deliberately had relationships with LGP activists. Lambert had more than one policespiesoutoflives.org.uk/our-stories/be… It was unjustifiable by any measure

Ryder: the way intel was collected was a serious infringement of the subject's life, & they have no idea what was gathered & how it was used. But we know it was shared with private companies such as McDonald's who also influenced the spycops operations

Ryder: Some LGP are on the construction industry blacklist despite never having worked in the industry. Was it given by spycops?

Ryder: it can't be claimed it was necessary for Lambert to infiltrate LGP to prevent serious crime who, Lambert himself admits, weren't involved in any such activity. It was a violation of democratic rights. And it was absolutely not necessary to form relationships with women

Ryder: we don't know which officers infiltrated LGP before Lambert, but a Cabinet report suggests it was being spied on in the late 1970s long before Lambert. So LGP calls for files & all officers' cover names so those who were spied on can realise what happened and give evidence

Ryder: Reclaim The Streets was founded in the late 1990s to challenge the noise, pollution & dominance of cars, ideas that have now been taken up across society. It shows the role of protest groups in progressive change in society

Ryder: Reclaim The Streets was infiltrated by spycops Jim Boyling, Jason Bishop & Jackie Anderson. There may well be others. During the infiltration, spycops were arrested & prosecuted under false identities, though their co-defendents didn't knowwo

Ryder: Boyling was arrested for a protest in 1996 in support of striking tube workers, occupying TFL office. He & Bishop were both arrested on the Mayday 2000 anti capitalist protest.

Ryder: From 1999-2005 spycop Bishop was actively involved in campaign against DSEI arms fair. It appears Bob Lambert was Jim Boyliong's direct supervisor. Many of Lambert's tactics in LGP were used by his charges.

Ryder: Active involvement in steering campaigns, sharing intel with private firms, & abusing women. Boyling had at least 3 relationships while undercover with huge impact. There can be no justification for this tactic. The fact that it echoes Lambert shows it was institutional

Spycops officer Jim Boyling had 2 children with @rosawithanny one of the women he spied on walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-new…

Ryder: The Genetic Engineering Network opposed the introduction of GM crops. Spycops not only infiltrated but also travelled abroad with them. The #SpyCopsInquiry is limited to events in England & Wales so won't examine this

Ryder: The Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp is based at the UK's nuclear weapons factory. It is a purely political campaign against militarism. It's been going for 35 years. It's 1 of the few women-only protest spaces in the UK. #Spycops officer Lynn Watson infiltrated AWPC 2000-04

Here's the @UndercoverNet profile of #Spycops officer Lynn Watson powerbase.info/index.php/Lynn…

Ryder: Lynn Watson was at Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp while other groups were there who were presumably reported on, some of which she tried to infiltrate, yet have been refused core participant status at the #SpyCopsInquiry

Ryder: Spycops Mark Kennedy got actively involved in anti capitalist info group Trapese, paying for them to travel to Ireland & Germany.

Ryder: In 2006 the first @climatecamp took place at Drax coal fired power station. There were camps from then until 2010 at high carbon locations, bringing hundreds of campaigners together to educate each other & protest.

Ryder: Spycops officer Mark Kennedy was involved in planning Climate Camp, attending 5 and being arrested twice. Lynn Watson also attended & helped organise the first climate camp, where she engaged in sexual activity with an activist

Ryder: Dr Harry Halpin is a global academic expert in infomatics who worked at MIT. He's also an environmentalist, who was spied on at the Kingsnorth & London climate camps, since when he's had repeated problems when travelling, inc being stopped under terrorist legislation

Ryder: It appears @harryhalpin has been blacklisted for his environmentalism

Ryder: Cardiff Anarchist Network was a group of about 20 people. It was infiltrated by #SpyCops officer 'Marco Jacobs' where he got involved in the group's admin. He caused discord, & deceived 2 women into relationships.

Ryder: Jacobs formed close friendships, attending funerals of friends of those he spied on. He was iinvolvednvovled in a prosecution too

Here's the @UndercoverNet profile of #Spycops officer Marco Jacobs powerbase.info/index.php/Marc…

Ryder: Defend The Right to Protest aimed to reposnd to the criminalisation of young protesters after the anti-cuts and student protests around 2010. It was an identified target of the National Domestic Exteremism Unit. #Spycops officer Simon Wellings was deployed 2001-07

Ryder: Wellings spent 4 years as part of the controlling group of Globalise Resistance. He outed himself by accidentally dialling one of the group while in a police meeting identifying the people he spied on

Here's the @UndercoverNet profile of #SpyCops officer Simon Wellings powerbase.info/index.php/Simo…

Ryder: In 2009 #Spycops officer Mark Kennedy approached anti militarist campaigner Kirk Jackson to organise UK activists going to Germany. Jason Kirkpatrick @SpiedUpon was spied on in is home in Berlin by Kennedy 2005-09

Ryder: Mark Kennedy spied on Kirkpatrick in several countries, and politicians in them - Germany, Ireland, Northern Irelands - have called for answers, but the #SpyCopsInquiry will ignore this as it only looks at activity in England & Wales

Ryder: This was political policing. There was no constraint to comply with the law, not even the basic rights of those targeted. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 did not restrain spycops - we've seen how they carried on well into the 2000s

Ryder: The collection, use, retention & use of data is a major concern. It went on with no legal framework in mind. There was no meaningful system of oversight of spycops. Courts & prosecutors were deceived even as they carried out legal processes.

Ryder: Senior officers either failed to control or gave approval to inexcusable acts of spycops. It continued for decades under various managers. It was institutional.

Ryder: The Inquiry limiting access to data and even the names of who the infiltrators were means the victims cannot engage with the #SpyCopsInquiry meaningfully.

With that, Ryder completes the section on the social justice activists, and will return after lunch to talk about spycops targeting black justice campaigns. The #SpyCopsInquiry will resume at 2.05pm.