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    Lowkey - SpyCops: How the UK Police Infiltrated Over 1,000 Political Groups 📂 Archived Message

    Posted by sashimi on August 6, 2021, 10:03 am

    5 August 2021

    Lede: As part of their false personas, many officers entered romantic
    relationships with politcal activists, leading to the births of a number of
    children whose mothers were completely unaware of their partners' double lives.




    Since the 1960s, the U.K. police have been charged with surveilling and
    infiltrating some 1,000 political, environmental or social justice
    organizations. Much of this involved undercover work. As part of their false
    personas, many officers entered romantic relationships with activists, leading
    to the births of a number of children whose mothers were completely unaware of
    their partners' double lives. More than 20 women have come forward to claim they
    were "raped by the state" in such a way.

    Today, The Watchdog is talking to Tom Fowler about the so-called "Spycops"
    scandal in the United Kingdom. Fowler is a veteran activist from South Wales
    involved with a number of groups that were spied upon and infiltrated by
    police. His work can be found at SpyCops.Info, where he hosts a weekly podcast
    that shines a light on police malfeasance.

    In this conversation, Fowler notes that after the spectacular success of the
    anti-Vietnam War movement in the United Kingdom, the police have looked for any
    way to prevent other widespread radical movements from gaining momentum. In
    time, this technique expanded to the point where spy cops had infiltrated
    virtually the entire New Left, as well as the environmental movement and
    anti-war groups. Greenpeace, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the National
    Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, and the Fire Brigades Union were
    all targeted.

    So effective was this strategy that, at one point, the National Secretary of the
    Troops Out [of Northern Ireland] movement was an undercover police officer. On
    the other hand, the police showed no interest in surveilling violent far-right
    gangs or organizations, with which they became almost tacitly aligned.

    And while so many commentators complain about the excesses of cancel culture,
    the police are known to have worked with the private sector to maintain a secret
    blacklist of radical subversives (i.e., people who were the best union
    organizers), who were barred from jobs in their professions. In this sense, they
    became the enforcers for the upper class.

    The police have been less than forthcoming throughout the Spycops scandal,
    attempting to deny as much involvement as possible. To what extent is this
    policy still in place? And what techniques do police continue to use to
    infiltrate and derail any movement challenging the status quo? Fowler and Lowkey
    discuss all this in a free-flowing and explosive conversation.
    -- https://www.mintpressnews.com/spycops-how-the-uk-police-infiltrated-1000-activists-groups/278164/

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