Thread by @copscampaign

Starting again after lunch, the #spycopsinquiry -
moving transcript of HN304's evidence will appear at

#spycops

(in ten minutes....)

HN304 was asked about his memories of the Grunwicks dispute.

He remembered that it was something to do with the discrimination faced by Asian women workers.

(1)

ucpi.org.uk/publications/s…

We were shown [UCPI0000010956]

reporting a member of the SWP describing this industrial dispute as a good training ground for the party – an opportunity to develop tactics – he recommended forming cells & planning even better for future actions.
(2)

He is said to have declared the party had the ability but not the 'know-how' to organise.
(3)

HN304 expanded on what this might have meant – that the SWP had experience of organising small pickets and demos, but not on the scale of the mass protests at Grunwicks – he said they lacked 'joined up thinking' and foresight.
(4)

He says these (unusually large) protests resulted in public disruption and disorder.
He was not privy to the levels of cooperation between the SWP's organisers and the police, but said he assumed they would have used “inflationary figures”.
(5)

How far down the road to revolution had the SWP got?
“No further than they are now” he retorted,
<prompting some giggles in the hearing room>

estimating their “revolutionary prospects” to be “remote”.
(6)

They had minimal involvement in any crime, and he thought this would have been 'wildcat'/ spontaneous rather than pre-organised.
(7)

ucpi.org.uk/publications/s…
[UCPI0000017375]
This report, dated11th May 1977 – accompanied the SWP's bulletin of February 1977.
(8)

HN304 moved into the “anarchist field” in the spring of 1977.
He says he was fascinated by the subject of anarchism.
(9)

He found the socialists “boring, for want of a better word, and not very active”

(10)

In his statement he describes infiltrating them as “very dull” and went on
further today, accusing them:
“they didn't do very much to make my life interesting, or more sparky.
They were, to use a modern word, really quite nerdy”.
(11)

So he was personally interested in the anarchists– how did this fit with the SDS's interests? He explained that another UCO “was about to vacate the anarchist field”.

(12)

He didn't seek out HN300 for any kind of handover' he says he didn't think it would have helped him infiltrate the anarchist scene.
(13)

He told us more about his tradecraft – how he used his initiative, made himself look “thoroughly disreputable” and then went off to the East End to look for anarchists.
(14)

He met Dave Morris – he describes him as “very cagey” but also “very approachable at the same time”.
He saw Dave as a “key mover in the area at the time” so got close to him – he says they had a close friendship for 12-18 months, getting to know him “moderately well”.
(15)

ucpi.org.uk/publications/s…
HN304 tells us that in his experience, Dave Morris was not a violent man.
However he filed this report [UCPI0000011003] about the risk of Dave “resorting to violence”.

(16)

ucpi.org.uk/publications/s…

[UCPI0000013241] In this, he reports that Dave Morris intended to attend violent protests in France; Graham says he has no idea whether he did or not.
(17)

He also met Albert Meltzer, at the Freedom bookshop in Whitechapel, but only twice.

He entered the anarchist scene in the spring of 1977, but does not recall attending the protest in Wood Green that April.
(18)

He wrote articles for anarchist publications during his deployment.

He wrote in his cover name: Graham Coates. He doesn't remember telling his managers about this, but says he would have submitted copies of the publications, so they would have seen his name in them.
(19)

HN304 told us more about anarchists, and how organised they were.

Barr described him as a “police officer with anarchist leanings” and HN304 did not correct him.

(20)

The Zero Collective was very small. Meetings of 3 or 4 were common.

Graham says he felt more comfortable in this political climate than he had in Hackney IS:

“I felt more at home”.

(21)

The group didn't commit any criminal offences – or public disorder – that he is aware of.

(22)

The Anarchy Collective was also small. He mentioned Stuart Christie, and says the people he was mixing with were in contact with him.
(23)

Again, he said that they were not involved in any crime or disorder; that they hadn't effected any change to the political system and - in his opinion - had no prospects of doing so.
(24)

He is not surprised to learn that 'Graham Coates' has a Special Branch Registry File (RF)
(25)

Persons Unknown (known as PUNK) was a support group for three of the defendants (Mills, Bennett and Ladd) that also campaigned vs increased police powers.
(26)

HN304 commented that Special Branch was “like a vacuum cleaner” with “a strong suck” when it came to gathering information.
(27)

Again, he says he has no knowledge of PUNK committing crimes or any public disorder.
(28)

He had previously said that he may have reported on another group, the East London Libertarians – he remembers them a 'rag tag' group, not a threat to anyone.
(29)

Finally he spoke about syndicalists like the London Workers Group.
They were more linked to trade unionists and probably more effective at calling out support.
(30)

He says he was aware of a publication of the 'Anarchist Cookbook' – and even saw a copy once – but says it was rare.
(31)

He got to know the Freedom Collective – he describes them as “an organisation of wishful thinkers”
(32)

@Freedom_Paper

@Freedom_Paper “I followed my nose” - Graham explained how he moved through the scene from group to group.

He is adamant that without #spycops the police would not have been able to find out so much about these anarchist groups.

(33)

@Freedom_Paper ucpi.org.uk/publications/s…
[UCPI0000017641]
At this Federation of London Anarchist Groups (FLAG) meeting in December 1966, Dave Morris proposed inviting other groups, like Big Flame, to join their discussions.
(34)

@Freedom_Paper ucpi.org.uk/publications/s…
[UCPI0000010997]
The next meeting was from a more private meeting of anarchists – 23 people discussing how to respond to the threat posed by racist/ fascist groups.
(35)

@Freedom_Paper The report describes two 'factions' whose preferred tactics differed – between holding public meetings and engaging in physical resistance in the streets.
(36)

@Freedom_Paper ucpi.org.uk/publications/s…
The next report [UCPI0000021703] was about a speaker meeting at the London School of Economics (LSE) on 1st May1978.
(37)

@Freedom_Paper A speaker from the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) had been invited, and this info leaked to the NF in the hope that they would come along.

Anarchists – including HN304 – went up on the building's roof, armed with missiles for any required ambush.
(38)

@Freedom_Paper ucpi.org.uk/publications/s…

According to this report [UCPI0000021710] someone at this meeting suggested 'attacking' Highbury Grove school – for just 15 minutes – in which they would distribute leaflets to the pupils and publicly beat the head teacher and other senior staff (!)
(39)

@Freedom_Paper HN304 cannot recall anything about this and has no idea if any demo of this kind actually took place
(40)

@Freedom_Paper HN304 spied on the Croydon branch of the SWP for a few months, and again is not aware of them getting involved in any criminality or disorder.
(41)

@Freedom_Paper Barr asked him about socialising with those he spied on.

He recalled going out to the pub occasionally with IS members, but never visiting them at home.
(42)

@Freedom_Paper The Anarchy Collective met in people's homes, and he probably socialised a bit more with them.

He doubts that his managers knew about this; they never asked him.
(43)

@Freedom_Paper How much did he drink?
The answer was unclear (and went on for a while)
(44)

@Freedom_Paper ucpi.org.uk/publications/s…

A report of police raids carried out in June 1978 [UCPI 0000021776] authored by HN304. It included a physical description of Dave Morris – including his “large Jewish nose and full lips”
(45)

@Freedom_Paper ucpi.org.uk/publications/s…
[UCPI0000010823]
Was there a need to describe the (woman) speaker at this IS meeting as “attractive”?
“I guess there wasn't, no” admitted Graham.
(46)

@Freedom_Paper Barr listed other kinds of problematic language seen in #spycops reports (attributed to HN304) in his opening statement. (47)

@Freedom_Paper ucpi.org.uk/publications/s…
UCPI0000013269
He says he never came across the offence of robbery in connection with the anarchists he spied on.
(48)

@Freedom_Paper He found the work became more and more stressful as time went on. By 1979 his home-life was also difficult.
He found his police work “onerous” and says he “made an error of judgement on a particular day” which resulted in him being withdrawn from the field.
(49)

@Freedom_Paper This was to do with a traffic matter. There was no prosecution. But Graham admits that he was indiscreet.

In his witness statement Graham describes a conversation between him and CI Ferguson (who was “incandescent”)

(50)

@Freedom_Paper He felt that this reaction wasn't purely about his case, but about the #spycops unit as a whole.

HN304 didn't see Ferguson this angry at any other time, but believes he had a 'short fuse'.

(51)

@Freedom_Paper He was next asked about welfare issues.
HN304 has said that it would have been useful for potential/ new recruits to be given a
“much broader, fuller, longer period of immersion”.
(52)

@Freedom_Paper He points out that by the time he joined, the SDS had had plenty of time to set up systems to look after the #spycops welfare, but had not done so.
(53)

@Freedom_Paper He goes onto say that nobody can know how a deployment will affect them until it does.

Should management have done more to check on Graham's welfare, including after his deployment ended?
(54)

@Freedom_Paper He observed that after all his experiences as an undercover he was left feeling a bit forgotten about.
(55)

@Freedom_Paper They were introduced to him, and thanked for their work.

He recalls Sir Mark's response to meeting HN155:
“ah yes, your name should be gold”

(a reference to his overtime claims, it is assumed).
(56)

@Freedom_Paper The Commander of Special Branch also visited. HN304 believes these senior officers (and others had a favourable impression of the #spycops unit.

He sometimes saw these officers when he was in the back office, but said their interest in the SDS was “not obvious”.
(57)

@Freedom_Paper He maintains that the SDS served a useful purpose – helped the police to better plan for demonstrations and not waste money on over-policing, or be caught out by under-policing the crowd.
(58)

@Freedom_Paper He knew Mike Ferguson as a manager. Did he ever hear about his time undercover (spying on the Stop the Seventy Tour and other anti-apartheid protests)?
“No, I didn't” said Graham.
(59)

@Freedom_Paper What sort of feedback did he receive from his managers?
He recalled sometimes being asked to find out more about certain things.
(60)

@Freedom_Paper When asked about the Grunwick dispute HN304 said he didn't go there. However in his written statement, he writes of witnessing public disorder whilst at demonstrations at Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories” - he changes his story and says he must have been there once.
(61)

@Freedom_Paper It was not uncommon to hear of activists being hit by the police.

According to HN304, for some activists this was a “badge of honour”
“because it just proved how rotten they <the police> were”
(62)

@Freedom_Paper After a short break, we returned for HN304 to be asked a few more questions...

Was any of the safe house banter and joking racist in nature?
HN304: No, not overtly so, I don't think so.

(63)

@Freedom_Paper In your written statement, you said you couldn't remember 'Vince Miller' (HN354) but now you can. Why is that?
“The cipher list” explained HN304.

Have you read the statement of 'Madeleine'?
No.
(65)

Were you surprised to hear (in 2011) about he number of sexual relationships between #spycops and their targets?

HN304 referred to “almost a sense of inevitability” about this occurring

(66)

Did you hear any discussion -during your deployment- of #spycops fathering children in their undercover identities?
No
(67)

Mitting came up on screen to remind us that Monday will be a short day. And although the evidence of Madeleine will be heard in the hearing room on Monday morning, it will not be shown.
(68)
and with that, today's hearing ended
#SpyCopsInquiry
#spycops

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