Thread by @copscampaign

Next at the #SpyCopsInquiry, James Scobie QC, representing Richard Chessum and “Mary”. They were spied on by #Spycops officer Richard Clark ('Rick Gibson' 1974-76).

We were told to make this statement by 14 April as we'd have had material about the spycops a few weeks earlier, but some was provided late, little on officer Colin Clark & nothing at all on officer Phil Cooper. We cannot be talking about our case properly

The #SpyCopsInquiry is looking at those who were spied on, not those who were doing the spying who should be the focus. Is this all deliberate?

We will show the SDs went far beyond its remit, Clark abused a democratic organisation to achieve office & destabilise it, abusing trust of law abiding citizens inc 4 women he deceived into relationships. His mangers were fully aware.

His deployment made subsequent officers also take office in orgs they infiltrated. This went to the top - Prime Minister were aware of the activity & remit of the SDS. There was widespread blacklisting of workers because of their political views.

In Dec 1974 Chessum & Mary were students at Goldsmiths doing sociology & teacher training, & were in the college socialist Society., Mary had come from South Africa & campaigned on anti racist & civil liberties issues.

Chessum had been a Methodist lay preacher, & was political officer for his local Labour Party. He protested against war & for civil liberties.

At this time #SpyCops officer Richard Clark - 29, married with kids - was deployed into Goldsmiths College. He stole the ID of a dead child, Richard Gibson, aimed at the Troop Out Movement.

TOM was no public order risk, merely advocating troops out of Ireland & doing talks and film screenings. Spycop Mike Scott reported TOM had 'no subversive objectives'. There was no history of public order before or after. So why were they targeted?

Richard Clark is dead, so we have no opportunity to question him. But his reports show what he did.

Clark's deployment was well planned. He wrote to TOM head office in advance asking about a local branch, knowing there wasn't one. Chessum had been in the Anti Internment League & so was known to TOM, who put him in touch with Clark.

Clark created a new TOM branch, founded by Mary, Chessum, Chessum's partner, another student & Clark. He encouraged & organised demos inc at homes of MPs, drumming up the public order issues the SDS were supposed to prevent.

Chessum & Mary only had spycops files started after involvement with Clark. Their lives were reported to an extent that was both sinister & ridiculous. This was passed to MI5. Health issues, addresses, holiday destinations, brand of cigarette they smoked.

They were no threat to anyone, they were targeted for their politics, but they were useful, and Clark used them. He developed a place in their social network. Clark used sexual advances to ingratiate.

Clark initiated a sexual relationship with Mary, having been invited into her home. He also had relationships with at least 3 other activists. He did this to gain position & tactical advantage.

the other women were Mary's flatmate & 2 activists from the group Big Flame. He used this to get access to the national TOM. He managed it with an astonishing level of ruthlesseness.

He was secretary of the branch, & so delegates to the national conference & contact with leaders, knowing he'd be accompanied by Chessum who had a track record of genuine activism.

Clark ensured he was elected delegate to the TOM National Coordinating Committee & London Coordinating Committee in 1975. He saw members of Workers Fight coming into the branch & ensured they could not take over

Clark attended a private meeting of senior TOM, with leader Gerry Lawless, to discuss Workers Fight's attempt to take over. In his report, Clark noted Big Flame had 'uneasy alliance' with Lawless.

Mary's flatmate was in Workers Fight & attended TOM pickets. She attended a large TOM branch meeting stacked with WF members. Clark saw his post under threat. A

WF person was elected to go to a London conference that would elect national posts - Clark competed with Chessum for the second post & won. One of the people voting for him would have been Mary's flatmate.

It worked - Clark got elected to the organising committee for London, a national position. A spycop deprived the movement of Chessum, a decent man who supported the movement, & put himself in, with the help of a woman he was in a relationship with.

Con 13 Oct 1975 Clark resigned as Branch Secretary as he no longer needed it as he had a national position. He says he made a scathing attack on WF, but Chessum said it was nothing of the sort. It showed to national leadership inc Gerry Lawless that he was on the side

Lawless nominated Clark for a position on the national secretariat and got it - one of 7 people in charge of the whole of TOM. He continued to see Chessum & report, inc his new job with the Electricity Board.

Clark organised a national TOM rally & failed to secure the appearance of any of the headline acts. He arranged speakers for meetings & organised student protection from attacks from fascists (even though the SDS targeted groups doing the same thing!)

Due to Lawless paternity leave, Clark was acting head of TOM for 4 months. He cancelled delegations to Ireland. He criticised certain members. At least 1 affiliate withdrew from TOM. 2 member of the secretariat resigned.

Clark then turned against Lawless. He held a meeting with Big Flame in his cover flat to organise opposition to Lawless' leadership, to decapitate TOM.

They planned a coup in the next conference. New leadership proposed were 5 people inc Clark himself. Was this about TOM, or getting in Big Flame's good books? He started sexual relationships with 2 Big Flame members.

He used Mary for background, her flatmate to get to national level of TOM, and the 2 Big Flame women to get in that group.

But he went too far and Big Flame rumbled him. We don't know quite how. Different stories to different women? Too conniving? Or simply a lack or political authenticity?

They found both the birth and death certificates for his identity, 'Rick Gibson'. He went white & started to cry. He wrote to an activist saying he had to go away.

It stands out that none of the groups infiltrated were interested in violence unless in self defence. there was no retribution on Clark after his exposure. This shows the Met's applications for anonymity for spycops at this public inquiry on safety grounds are highly questionable

Home Office guidance from 1969 specifies that spycops must not take office in groups they spy on.

Two of his contemporaries admit Clark's sexual relationships were know about, one of them - Graham Coates - says it was discusses in meeting with mangers. Why are the others so forgetful?

If officers lie on oath, how will the Inquiry deal with it? Senior officers knew Clark took senior office & sexually abused, yet he left with a medal, a big pension, & with his conduct described as exemplary. And it was accepted - it continued for decades.

spycops may tell the Inquiry that they don't remeber holding positions of trust, or that it couldn't be avoided, or that it wasn't actually a real position of trust.

Mike James HN96 was elected to Hackney Distruct Committee of SWP, then into TOM. He said he was National Secretary of TOM to say he was important & deserves anonymity at the Inquiry. With anonymity granted, he now downplays his role. But he was one of 9 who directed TOM

It then became normal for spycops to take organising roles & steer the orgs they spied on. Sandra Davies said she didn't remember being elected to the Womens Liberation Front & voting to oust its founder.

Roger Harris HN200 'doesn't remember' being contacts organiser from Twickenham socialist org. Jim Pickford wrote articles, ran classes, became a branch treasurer. HN353 Gary Roberts 'doesn't remember' being asked to be an international delegate for the International Marxist Group

HN354 Vince Miller was elected to office in East London SWP, who used resignation & strong criticism to destabilise the branch.
HN351 Geoff Slater can't remember being International Socialists North London newspaper organiser.

HN296 Geoof Wallace was elected to Hammersmith & Kensington SWP & was 1 of 3 people organising the ANL carnival. Why hasn't the inquiry even spoken to him? The fact that he's s abroad is not a credible excuse.

[Scobie is rattling through a list of spcops 1973-82 who held office in organizations they spied on, and their stories to the Inquiry of saying they were important to secure anonymity, then downplaying after - he's going too fast for us to keep up with the specifics!]

Clark & James made statements to the inquiry when no SWP members were involved. But 3 are now Core Participants, but due to the Inquiry's late disclosure they won't be fully involved in this set of hearings. But they can tell us about the structure of the SWP & if cops are lying.

SWP's newspaper Socialist Worker was its heart. The role of organising it was pivotal - at branch level it was 2nd to secretary. Regionally it was more important, it was the link between Central Committee & branches.

The spycops knew all this. Spycops took this role & wilfully undermined it by not doing the job properly. In this era, from Clark onwards, every spycop bar Coates (who was infiltrating anarchists without hierarchy), every spycop took a role

We've had no answers about spycops involvement in #blacklisting. But Clark opened a file on Richard Chessum, who subsequently could not get jobs teaching lecturing or researching - or even sorting mail. There is no legitimate reason for such exclusion.

Many spycops say personal details reported were incidental tom update files. But some officers talk of it preventing problems in workplaces. Special Branch & MI5 specifically asked about employment details.

We've seen an SWP member was sacked for her politics, but the Inquiry redacts her name & role. The spycops spoke of the need that the sacking wouldn't be traced back to the officer who'd caused it.

There was not rationale for spying on TOM, nor spying on Chessum & Mary. Nor the SWP , even though it was seen as self-evidently bad - yet officers describe them as 'dull' (presumably from a policing perspective).

The SWP expelled members who organised violence. They weren't a public order threat. Spycop Paul Gray said the SWP was subversive & violent, but it's plainly untrue. His colleagues contradicted it. His accounts of public events are exaggerated. He is clearly lying.

There is no reference to Gray witnessing any violence in his reports, only in his claim for anonymity at the Inquiry.

Gray says he is extremely angry that the SDS has been exposed at all. He says his deployment didn't affect his welfare, but the Inquiry is. That's because he just did pointless & intrusive reporting on SWP members.

He talks of activists sexual relationships, yet doesn't mention those of his colleagues, and says he had no idea.

Gray also reported on more children than any other officer, inc pics of the kids. eg, on 15 & 13 year old girls & their parents. He comments on an 'effeminate' schoolboy. The only violence he ever reported was a boy's fight with his brother.

He reported on kids if they had SWP parents or were invovled in Schoolkids Against The Nazis. He says that was a violent organisation. All the while, the far right were murdering and burning down buildings.

Instead of investigating the racist firebombing that killed 13 Black people in New Cross, the SDS was supplying MI5 with SWP babysitting rotas.

A spycop said there was support 'straight from 10 Downing St', and another who went on to a senior role said that approval of SDS funding was 'one of the 1st decisions a Home Secretary has to make'

MI5 witness has told the #SpyCopsInquiry 'the pressure to investigate these organisations often came from the PM & Whitehall'.

Government authorisation for #SpyCops to continue was granted on condition that secrecy would be maintained & not embarrass the government by intruding on law abiding citizens. The mandatory use of dead children's ID must have been known to government, & was done to protect govt

This was all done to protect the government from 'embarrassment'. Why would it be embarrassing unless they knew full well what #SpyCops were doing was totally unacceptable?

These causes - eg antiracism, antifascism, trade union rights - are the best of reasons and traditions for activism. The Inquiry must be unflinching in pursuit of the truth as to why they were infiltrated and undermined.

With that, Scobie concludes. The #SpyCopsInquiry will be a break until 12.35, when we'll hear from Rajiv Menon QC, representing Piers Corbyn.