Thread by @copscampaign

Finally today at the #SpyCopsInquiry, an opening statement from Matthew Ryder QC. He is representing anti-apartheid activists Ernest Rodker, Professor Jonathan Rosenhead & Lord Peter Hain, as well as Blair Peach's partner Celia Stubbs.

From the 1960s there was a large anti apartheid movement around the world. They were right, and their opponents were wrong. The British government appeased & supported a regime it should have opposed.

It should be a matter of deep regret that #spycops targeted anti apartheid campaigners. The real threat to democracy was apartheid itself.

The Anti Apartheid Movement (AAM) was formed in 1959 & not affiliated to any party. Peter Hain was in the Stop The Seventy Tour which campaigned against sporting tours by South African team.

Dambusters Mobilising Committee opposed the Cahora Bassa Dam in Mozambique, which would benefit South Africa. DMC was also targeted by spycops.

Spycops spied on anti apartheid groups well into the 70s, long after the Stop The Seventy Tour, while ignoring growing far right groups. This was partisan. Right wing violence & intimidation against anti apartheid groups was seen as a problem caused by the victims

Promoting racial equality was seen as a problem by spycops, while violence against them was seen as regrettable but understandable.

The first spycops infiltration of the National Front came by accident, when an officer infiltrating the Workers Revolutionary Party was asked by his unwitting targets to spy on the NF!

Spycops suffered 'mission creep', not just the 'ultra left' but anyone on the left, irrespective of whether they had anything to do with disorder. Any group was excusable as a stepping stone to someone that was more of genuine interest to police.

A 1974 report on a Special Branch/MI5 meeting records a complaint that SB think they collect a lot of info & do a lot of work with little feedback or idea if it's useful, but they keep doing it regardless.

The South African state security were active in London, targeting the ANC and Anti Apartheid Movement. Peter Hain had a letter bomb delivered in 1972, opened by his 14 year old sister. It seems uninvestigated.

Bombings and murders were committed against anti apartheid campaigners. Military materials were used. Few charges were ever brought. Some of these attacks were later admitted by South African agents.

The #spycops seem to have been wholly uninterested in pro apartheid violence. Instead, they obsessively collected information on a wide range of left wing groups.

The police lawyers said we needed historical context to understand the #spycops. Here it is.

Yesterday the police told the Inquiry said they would have behaved identically if a racist campaign had opposed a black sports team touring England. But supporting racism is not the same as opposing it.

This sounds a lot like the police 23 years ago telling the Macpherson Inquiry into the murder of #StephenLawrence that it had a colour-blind approach. It's as if they've learned nothing.

It's also a lie, given that there were active violent racist campaigners at the time and the #spycops left them alone. That now, today, they cannot see why this is wrong is highly regrettable.

The #spycops recorded extraordinary levels of detail. Ernest Rodker's family & medical details were reported & copied to MI5, as were reports about who was at Peter Hain's family home including his younger siblings.

This is what a totalitarian regime would do with dissidents. Parents reading secret police reports on their children is a chilling experience.

A 1975 report on Ernest Rodker names elected councillors and their choice of reading material. It was copied to MI5.

The Labour Party conference was reported on by #spycops. Peter Hain asks if the Liberal and Conservative conferences were ever spied upon.

If, as is plausible, this information was passed by MI5 to their South African counterparts, it's the very opposite of protecting the public.

The Stop The Seventy Tour was not 'subversive'. #Spycops officer Mike Ferguson had a key organisational role in the group. He went on to hold senior positions in the spycops unit, recruiting & advising new officers. It seems his work was viewed as a good example.

The excuses for targeting anti apartheid groups need debunking. Contrary to the police version, violence was never an aim or method. Contemporaneous documentation proves it. It wasn't secret or revolutionary, it simply opposed the cruel racist South African regime.

Spycops infiltrator Mike Ferguson's reports don't suggest any violence at any time. Officer Dick Epps says at one demo people were told to attack police. This is untrue & emphatically denied.

The arrest & prosecution of #spycops officer 'Michael Scott' art the 'Star & Garter demonstration' shows how spycops eroded the judicial process.

Home Office guidance in 1969 is unequivocal about undercover agents avoiding misleading courts at all costs. the spycops ignored this.

ucpi.org.uk/publications/h…

The SDS #spycops manual from 1995 specifically says that they may disregard the rules about not lying to courts ucpi.org.uk/publications/s… [credited author is spycop Andy Coles, now a Tory councillor, see @sackandycoles]

On 12 May 1972 at the Star & Garter in Richmond, when activists blockaded a coach taking rugby players going to the airport to go to tour South Africa. One of those arrested & convicted was #spycops officer Mike Scott

Scott was using the stolen identity of a man who was still alive. Scott was also a police spy in communications between lawyers & defendants, a breach of privacy. He swore to tell the truth to court but, from the first question about his name, he lied to court.

Scott did not correct the police claim that the protesters were on the road when they were in fact in the car park on private land. Senior officers endorsed his going to court to lie.

This is an early example of spycops creating miscarriages of justice. If we conservatively estimate 1 per officer per year of service, it means there are about 600 wrongful convictions. It is a huge scandal that's going relatively unremarked upon campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2017/02/16/law…

HN13 Desmond/Barry Loader was prosecuted in 1977. he was acquitted but others convicted. 3 days later he was arrested again & this time convicted. Disclosure was made to 'a court official' to ensure he got preferred outcomes, but the official's name is redacted.

The 2015 Ellison Review said that #spycops must have withheld evidence from court, inc evidence that exonerated those being prosecuted gov.uk/government/pub…

In 1974, infiltrating the Troops Out Movement, spycop Mike Scott was accused of being a #spycops officer by Gerry Lawless. Scott punched Lawless so hard he broke a finger. The officers considered themselves to be above the law in many ways.

Mike Ferguson who infiltrated the Anti Apartheid Movement, uniquely, has his real name published but his cover name is restricted. This means others he spied on cannot know he was a spy & cannot come forward.

This has led to Mike Craft being suspected of being the spycop. Craft's comrades here emphasise that he was wholly innocent.

Christabel Gurney was at the Star & Garter and others, eg those in the Workers Revolutionary Party that was extensively reported on, have been refused Core Participant status at the #SpyCopsInquiry. They should have been included, and the Inquiry fails itself by excluding them.

Even by the standards of the day, the #SpyCops targeting anti apartheid campaigners was an unjustified, disproportionate and political choice. The SDS made a serious & grave error. The Inquiry should confirm that as a matter of historical record.

Ryder now moves on to talk about Celia Stubbs. She is a Core Participant because of her relationship with Blair Peach & campaign about his death. He was by a police officer killed on an anti racist demo in 1979

No officer was ever brought to justice for due to a major police cover up. Officers refused to cooperate with investigations. The killing of Blair Peach remains one of the most notorious events in British police history, a national disgrace, & a permanent stain on the Met.

Celia Stubbs' experience show the #spycops were corrupted by misguided political motivation. Campaigners for police accountability were a core focus for the SDS. It continued for decades after. campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2018/02/14/whi…

Stubbs' account shows the brutality of the Special Patrol Group, the Met & the SDS #spycops. Peach was a respected socialist, teacher & trade unionist. He & Stubbs were members of the SWP & active anti-racist campaigners, both in the Anti Nazi League.

On 23 April 1979 there was a plan to march & sit down at Southall Town Hall protesting at a National Front meeting. SPG Officers emptied out of a van and one struck Peach. All 6 refused to cooperate. They themselves were obstructing police officers in the execution of their duty

Commander Cass' report at the time confirmed a police officer had killed Peach & identified officer Murray. Illegal weapons & Nazi regalia were found in the lockers & homes of the SPG officers. Cass' report was not published until more than 30 years later met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/…

Stubbs has campaigned all her life, always to strengthen civil society. She was targeted by #SpyCops. Both Stubbs & Peach had #spycops files before Peach was killed (started in 1974 & 1978). We have not seen any of the documents involved that pre-date Peach's death

An SDS annual report to the Home Office cites the death of Peach & the campaign for justice as a key focus. This is not about subversion or disorder. The Home Office responded by renewing SDS funding.

SDS reported on campaign info suggesting writing to MPs and ringing talk radio shows. Again, this is not serious disorder or subversion. Spycops attended Peach's funeral. Police evidence gathers took photos of attendees.

Combined with the cover up, it's clear that spying on the Blair Peach campaign was about preventing guilty police officers from being held to account.

Spycops still targeted a 20th anniversary commemoration of Blair Peach's death. Campaigns were always portrayed as some sort of public order risk, even when no such risk existed.

Celia Stubbs was involved in the Hackney Community Defence Campaign & Colin Roach Centre, both of which were targeted by #SpyCops. Her lawyers were reported on and had Special Branch files kept on them.

The Met told their lawyers to give a knowingly false version of events to Blair Peach's inquest. They will have seen the Cass report, but still they lied. The corruption extended beyond the police.

Police lawyers told the #SpyCopsInquiry last November that #SpyCops never directly targeted justice campaigns. But the documents we see in these hearings proves that is wrong. Officers were tasked to spy on the Peach campaign. The police comment should be corrected & withdrawn.

Why would the SDS highlight the Peach campaign to the Home Office if it were not a direct focus? Why are some reports only about the Peach campaign? Why were so many other campaigns targeted later? Police lawyers' denials are simply not plausible.

the 1979 SDS annual report says the Peach campaign was a focus, yet there are suspiciously few reports disclosed. Info must be in individuals 'registry files' at Special Branch. We should be shown any that survive in these. Reports may have been destroyed to cover up the facts

There are references to a report about the Southall demonstration at which Peach was killed, yet the report hasn't been disclosed by the Inquiry. Did it get deliberately destroyed?

Why are there no reports to do with the Southall demo? Missing evidence leads us to the conclusion that evidence about one of the most important historical events relevant to the Inquiry had not been shown to the Inquiry. For Stubbs, it's one more obstruction in a long pattern

We're relying on SDS Annual Reports which were drafted to justify #spycops. They cannot be taken as objective, fair or balanced.

The #SpyCopsInquiry has had police material for years, yet only passes it to witnesses shortly before the hearings, giving little time to properly anaylse and respond. The very limited opportunity for victims to question witnesses limits the inquiry's ability to get the truth

Celia Stubbs & Blair Peach sought to bring people together and make a fairer world. They were spied upon. She wants answers & accountability. She doesn't have to prove innocence, the state must show why it spied on her.

There is nothing in the police documents disclosed by the #SpyCopsInquiry that justifies spying on Celia Stubbs.

Mitting reminds us tomorrow is the 42nd anniversary of Blair Peach's death. The #SpyCopsInquiry will begin at 10am with Mitting speaking briefly about Blair Peach and a minute's silence.

That concludes today's Inquiry hearing.