The first #SpyCopsInquiry speaker today is Diane Langford, an activist in groups who were infiltrated by #SpyCops in the era that the current hearings are examining (1973-82). This is her opening statement, she will also give evidence on the afternoon of Monday 26th April.
As a young person Langford saw injustice in Aotearoa/NZ, racism, sexism and class discrimination. In 2010 she wrote a blog on outing a #SpyCops officer which by chance was seen by a lawyer. What opportunities were denied to me due to police files & surveillance?
I was only aware of Dave Robertson HN45, but I was alslo spied on by HN348 who spied on women s liberation, & others reported on me such as 'Dick Epps'. The Inquiry failed to ask me to give evidence in Phase 1.
I was described by the Inquiry as 'the widow' of Abhimanyu Manchanda rather than an activist in my own right. This is institutional sexism.
Langford expresses solidarity with others targeted by #SpyCops, esp those no longer here to tell their story and push for justice.
Vintage #SpyCops reports reek of racism & misogyny, with details of thousands of individuals and groups. When I was given copies they ironically came with a legal warning not to show them to anyone else.
By the time I knew HN348 who spied on me was giving evidence to the Inquiry it was too late to book a place at the limited screening venue. Well done @out_of_lives for doing a live readout of evidence.
HN45 threatened my friend with violence when she outed him as a #SpyCops. Banner Books was burned down by fascists while #SpyCops had surveilled & had access, & I believe a man died. This wants investigating
Officer HN45 ignored a report of rape at a meeting, instead focusing on my domestic arrangements and ridiculing my partner.
The 1960s/70s women's liberation movement was world changing, & it's still a fundamental issue in global struggle. In the early 60s my teenage flatmate died of a backstreet abortion; like women everywhere I've been sexually harassed & assaulted.
that the basic goals of the movement are unachieved illustrates their fundamental nature. Patriarchal capitalism cannot meet those girls. It has been traumatizing to learn e were infiltrated by #SpyCops who unforgivably betrayed our trust.
It's troubling that #SpyCops get secrecy just because they fear their friends & families finding out about their abhorrent trade.
The new #SpyCopsBill legalises police to self-authorise to commit all crime, so what is the point of the #SpyCopsInquiry now?
Current Counter-Terrorism #SpyCops list peace protesters as extremists. Palestinian Solidarity Campaign seeks to uphold international law & promote peace, yet is targeted as a problem to be undermined.
Women's liberation is entwined with the Palestinian struggle - there is no liberation for women under the apartheid regime in Palestine.
Am I still under surveillance? I became a busier activist in the 2000s, more than in the 60s & 70s that #police have admitted. Where are the recent files?
Officer HN348 spied on 77 meetings, inc 55 women's liberation. Sounds like more than I did! Why is the women's movement not a focus of the Inquiry? The Inquiry colluding with the state to limit the search for evidence. ucpi.org.uk/individuals/hn…
#SpyCops reports show the greatest ideas of our time crushed by a mentality with no ability to comprehend them.
Female #SpyCops, paid less than male colleagues, spied on groups campaigning for equal pay for women!
Perpetrators of #SpyCops abuse are granted secrecy & anonymity while out lives are put into the public domain & we are blamed for what we were subjected to.
white and male supremacy & other inequality isn't incidental but is the result of policy decisions. Another world is possible. But when improvement beckons, vested interests create a backlash.
Representational politics doesn't work - having Thatcher or Patel in positions of power is meaningless without a change in culture & policy. We need community & cooperation, not competition.
The #SpyCops reports of the 70s show sexist & racist ideas were endemic. Spying on Stephen Lawrence's family & Celia Stubbs, sexual abuse of women spied on all prove this.
If I was spied on as a women's liberationist in 1971, why would it have stopped? I was in the media a lot in the later 70s. Why won't the #SpyCopsInquiry search for records on me post 1973, or of the movement as a whole?
Current surveillance is not going it with grounds for suspicion, but to *find* the grounds for suspicion. It was always the way - the men in a van outside our house with aerials who we'd give cups of tea to, or the men who followed us when we went out
#SpyCops reports from officer HN348 included many intrusive small personal details. One here talks of a woman who's very interested in getting nursery care. They even spied on the Schools Action Union
Details aren't just tiny but racist & sexist - a 1976 #SpyCops report refers to 'a typically Jewish lilt & rather prominent nose, always scruffy & without a bra'.
What did 1970s #SpyCops do to stop the National Front attacking people of colour? They were hanging out in anti-fascists houses & reporting on them.
These patronising violations & bigoted descriptions that fill the notebooks & reports are endemic, reinforcing a culture that amounts to a 'petty apartheid'
Talking about my partner, Abhimanyu Manchanda. #SpyCops reports deplore Manu looking after our baby. Nothing about us overthrowing the state. HN45 portrayed Manu as a danger, saying he only went on demos to cause violence. It is rubbish, he knew you can't tackle the state head on
Why is Manu referred to by his surname while others get their full names? It smacks of imperialism.
We were spied on supposedly to do with public order issues. Yet 12 of us with cardboard signs supporting Huey Newton - hardly a threat - were met with streets full of police vans. It was about our politics.
Why did the Inquiry ask me about Dow Chemicals? Was the napalm manufacturer under the protection of the British state?
The #SpyCopsInquiry asked about our picket of the Playboy Club? Why does that institution warrant special protection from the secret police?
The 1970 Miss World protest was reported as being organised by us in the Womens Liberation Front. We actually didn't organise it, but it was a brilliant action. It was no threat to public order or safety.
Despite the length of reporting by HN348 who included details of food & music at Womens Liberation Front social events, she says she was told to filter out items that weren't of interest. She denies making ignorant & voyeuristic comments in her reports - did managers add them in?
I have no sympathy for #SpyCops, but found psychiatric reports of one officer distressing - he developed a dual personality disorder & was happier living in his fake ID than his real one. He had no assessment, treatment or counselling
When the #SpyCopsInquiry is so weighted in favour of the state, how can we find out the full truth about how it all started? Where are the files kept? Who has access?
Dozens of people named in #SpyCops reports have no idea they were spied on. Everyone named should be told & invited into the Inquiry
There are a swathe of separately funded lawyers for police, yet the hundreds of victims are often limited to 1 legal team. It's only a fluke that I was spotted and got to be involved in the Inquiry.
My lawyers are only funded on days when I give evidence, yet state bodies have a funded presence throughout. The State investigating the state is the ultimate conflict of interest.
We need to see the faces of #SpyCops, if only to stop suspecting our innocent old comrades of being cops. Why are the officers not compelled to supply contemporaneous photos themselves?
This Inquiry will never give us the world we need, but it may prove useful in our future struggles
Not sure the live tweets do justice to the breadth and clarity with which Diane Langford spoke. For a fuller grasp, the Inquiry have published her statement ucpi.org.uk/wp-content/upl…
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