
The Socialist 18 November 2020
1110

Tory crisis cannot be 'reset' - workers need a new mass party
Tories in turmoil... 'Reset' the whole system! Fight for socialism
Croydon Council declares bankruptcy - no cuts in Croydon or any other council
System failing thousands of children in care
Race disparity gets worse - fight to improve living standards for all
Covid, vaccines, 'big pharma' - and the need for socialism
Tories student 'evacuation' plan will not work
Wales exams scrapped: What's behind the headline?
Campaign for school Covid safety must continue
Women workers need strong trade unions to defend their jobs, pay and services
Optare: Right to strike defended
Overcrowded Little Ilford School strikes against more expansion
Strike action ballot at UEL over job cuts
Hackney council parking services brought in-house
After Corbyn: TUSC and the fight for working-class political representation
Manchester student occupation - end rip-off rent, free education now
#SpyCops inquiry - Revealing police violence against Socialists
Stop Leicester hospital closure
Young Socialists organising for our future
PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT
020 8988 8777

Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1110/31655
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#SpyCops inquiry - Revealing police violence against Socialists
Lois Austin, non-state core participant
Six years since it was first announced, the Undercover Policing inquiry finally started taking evidence from witnesses last week. This phase of the inquiry concerned the earliest days of the Metropolitan Police's spy cops unit, the Special Operations Squad, later called the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), for the years 1968-72.
It is clear from the evidence so far that the SDS was set up to spy on the revolutionary socialist left by the secret services. They were scared that British workers would be inspired by the revolutionary events in France 1968. While some of the intelligence reports disclosed to the inquiry exaggerate the role of SDS officers in subverting the left, it is clear that the state was genuinely worried about how the idea of socialist change could win wide support.
The most harrowing parts of the inquiry so far are the stories of women deceived into intimate sexual relationships. The lawyer representing 30 women told of how 'Rosa', as she is known to the inquiry, escaped an abusive relationship with an undercover police officer and started a new life, only for him to turn up at the bookshop she was working in to plead with her to get back with him. She told of how, once Rosa found out that her partner was a spy, SDS officers made a 'welfare' visit to her home telling her that she couldn't tell anyone, and if she did the full might of Special Branch would be used against her.
One undercover officer unwittingly gave the game away, saying the two leading figures he targeted were not planning violent disorder. "They were very nice people, very intelligent", he said. He was also asked how he came to be whacked over the head by a police truncheon on an anti-Vietnam demo, he said: "Because I looked like a protester, long hair and scruffy and the police wanted to hit the protesters." So there you have it; an admission of a police riot and brutality.
There are big problems with this inquiry. Lawyers representing non-state core participants are prevented from questioning undercover officers. Rajiv Menon QC was told by the head of the inquiry Mitting, that "he will be silenced" after he attempted to ask questions aimed at probing the evidence.
There is also no live stream of the inquiry so we have a public inquiry held in secret. We are still campaigning for live streaming, the right to ask police witnesses questions, full disclosure of cover names and the names of organisations spied on.
- See also 'Spycops inquiry: why the capitalist state feared and continues to fear socialism' at socialistparty.org.uk
In this issue
What we think
Tory crisis cannot be 'reset' - workers need a new mass party
News
Tories in turmoil... 'Reset' the whole system! Fight for socialism
Croydon Council declares bankruptcy - no cuts in Croydon or any other council
System failing thousands of children in care
Race disparity gets worse - fight to improve living standards for all
Covid
Covid, vaccines, 'big pharma' - and the need for socialism
Students
Tories student 'evacuation' plan will not work
Wales exams scrapped: What's behind the headline?
Schools
Campaign for school Covid safety must continue
Workplace news
Women workers need strong trade unions to defend their jobs, pay and services
Optare: Right to strike defended
Overcrowded Little Ilford School strikes against more expansion
Strike action ballot at UEL over job cuts
Hackney council parking services brought in-house
TUSC
After Corbyn: TUSC and the fight for working-class political representation
Campaigns
Manchester student occupation - end rip-off rent, free education now
#SpyCops inquiry - Revealing police violence against Socialists
Stop Leicester hospital closure
Youth
Young Socialists organising for our future
Obituary
Letters
Home | The Socialist 18 November 2020 | Join the Socialist Party
Related links:
Cardiff: Hundreds protest to free Siyanda
US cops shoot dead another black man
Bristol North Socialist Party: The role of the state and the police
1981 Brixton riots: Racism and poverty - the anger explodes
Waltham Forest Socialist Party: Could Britain become a fascist state?
Oxfordshire & Aylesbury Socialist Party: The role of the state
Pickets exonerated after almost 50 years
150th anniversary of the Paris Commune
Childcare in crisis: A socialist solution
Sexism in education: It shouldn't be like this!
Sheffield Socialist Party: When Liverpool beat Thatcher
Tyneside Socialist Party: Our TUSC against cuts electoral challenge