Thread by @copscampaign

We are starting again at the #spycopsinquiry - with a return to *live-streaming* - as Nick Stanage QC reads out the contents of Ernest Tate's statement

Ernest Tate is now 85 years old, and lives in Canada. He was living in Britain between 1965-69, and during the time heavily involved in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign

He was also involved in the 'International Marxist Group' (IMG), and since his return to Canada, active in the trade union movement
He was asked to file this witness statement by 31st Jan 2020 [yet today is the first time it's been shared with most non state core participants]

He has been shown 23 Special Branch reports in which his name is mentioned. He believes a file was first opened on him in 1966, that these files were routinely shared with MI5, and that his full file remains 'top secret' now, 50 years after he left the UK

What has been disclosed to him represents a tiny fraction of the secret surveillance files held on him.
This @ucpi has decided not to disclose any of the witness statements made by the #spycops who targeted him, or unit managers, or photos of these officers (bar Conrad Dixon)

@ucpi As far as he knows he was spied on by:
TN0039 CI Conrad Dixon;
HN299/342 'David Hughes';
HN321 'William Paul Lewis';
HN329 'John Graham';
HN326 'Douglas Edwards;
HN332 [no cover name provided]

@ucpi The #spycopsinquiry has not asked the @metpoliceuk to provide a position statement, setting out:
why the Special Operations Squad was set up, its operational parameters,why it was considered necessary to adopt more intrusive surveillance (eg intimate relationships with targets).

@ucpi @metpoliceuk ...and also, why it was allowed to continue after the VSC demo of October 1968 had passed off peacefully.

Tate can only assume that the State will seek to justify these intrusive policing practices by claiming there was a threat of serious violence from those targeted.

@ucpi @metpoliceuk However he notes that MI5 and Special Branch have a long history of spying on political and peace activists - incl philosopher Bertrand Russell

@ucpi @metpoliceuk He said "It seems to be that the creation of the SOS in 1968 is merely a reflection of existing policy, without any care at all for people's basic human rights".

@ucpi @metpoliceuk "I profoundly disagree with the notion that I, or the VSC, or the IMG, threatened violence, especially serious violence".

@ucpi @metpoliceuk "And the notion that we should have been infiltrated in order to allow the #spycops to monitor other political activists" (the State's argument that 'collateral intrusion' is warranted)

@ucpi @metpoliceuk After the October demo had passed off relatively peacefully, the Special Operations Squad should have been disband, having served its purpose, which was explicitly, as I understand it, to go 'undercover' in order to gather intelligence in advance of that demonstration.

@ucpi @metpoliceuk It should never have morphed into a unit that infiltrated hundreds of groups and spied on individuals in such an intrusive way.

@ucpi @metpoliceuk There is no justification for this gross intrusion into people's private lives by the police.

@ucpi @metpoliceuk Tate knows that Special Branch files – from 1887 onwards – are kept almost completely secret.
The Special Branch Files project was set up following some Freedom of Information Act requests ten years ago, but there has been very limited disclosure through this Inquiry.

@ucpi @metpoliceuk Tate was provided with a list of 'Rule 9 requests' – specific questions for him to answer. He will do his best to do so, despite the very limited disclosure.

He notes that the State have full access to “every file they want”.

@ucpi @metpoliceuk Ernest Tate has always been open about his poltical views and involvement, and has even published his memoirs.

The #spycopsinquiry, police and members of the public can read what he has written.

“I have nothing to hide”
Unlike the British State

@ucpi @metpoliceuk In reply to the questions he was sent, Tate had to explain to the @ucpinquiry that VSC stood for 'Vietnam Solidarity Campaign', not 'Vietnam Solidarity Committee'.

@ucpi @metpoliceuk @ucpinquiry He was one of its founders, in June 1966, and served on its National Council and various committees.
He didn't work in its London office, but often spoke and wrote on behalf of the organisation.

@ucpi @metpoliceuk @ucpinquiry The aims of the VSC: to build a solidarity campaign with the Vietnamese against the American aggression, calling for its immediate end and the withdrawal of all American forces, and the end of British collusion with the Americans....

@ucpi @metpoliceuk @ucpinquiry It also called for support for the Vietnamese National Liberation Front.

The VSC aimed to build broad united-front coalitions to build mass mobilaisations vs the war. He explained that VSC held public meetings and debates. Business and policy meetings were open to all members.

@ucpi @metpoliceuk @ucpinquiry Asked if they were concerned about infiltration, he had this to say
“It was never an issue. We knew the police were interested in what we were doing, but because we were not doing anything illegal...

"...we explicitly warned our members against pointing fingers at anyone based solely on rumours and innuendo".

"We were too well aware of the long history of working class where the police and employers and malicious factions have used this vicious tactic for their own ends, to help split and destroy the movement.”

He was asked about the violence at the demo in March 1968. His memoir contains his account of the day – he remembers hundreds if not thousands of uniformed police, many on horseback, and remembers the violence and aggression meted out by them.

He holds the police responsible for the violence, and the injuries suffered by both police and protesters that day.

Tate was involved in the IMG, which as he describes was “the main organisation which brought the VSC into existence”.
He was asked:
if the IMG was “a revolutionary group?” Yes.

“Did the IMG believe that revolution would or might, require the use of force?” Yes

“Did the IMG believe that force should be used to bring about revolution in 1968-69?” No

“Did the IMG believe that public disorder would advance its cause?” No

“Did the IMG believe that breaking any laws was justified or necessary to advance its cause? If so, which laws and for what purpose?”

The IMG did not believe in breaking the law, but if a particular law was oppresive or dangerous to our democratic rights, and there was mass opposition in society to it, then the IMG might have explored ways to challenge the law”.

You can now read the full witness statement of Ernest Tate on the #spycopsinquiry website – see ucpi.org.uk/publications/f… - so we will not be tweeting about the rest of it.