An alliance of people spied on by Britain's political secret police
On 15 January 1990 smoke was seen rising from the Stasi HQ in Berlin as officers desperately tried to destroy the evidence of their abuses. Citizens stormed the building, stopped the destruction and, for the first time, saw the files that showed the scale and depth of what the political secret police had been doing to them.
On 15 January 2016 the High Court holds the latest hearing in the case of Kate Wilson, a social justice activist who was deceived into a long term relationship by undercover officer Mark Kennedy. More than four years in, the police are still obstructing her fight for truth and justice.
But it’s about more than Wilson. The other women who have received an apology from the Met have received little in the way of answers.
Beyond that, all the information about spycops comes from the 12 exposed officers, less than 10% of the total deployed since the Special Demonstration Squad was founded in 1968.
The only way we will ever get the truth is if those who were spied on can tell the stories of what was done by officers they knew. The only way that can happen is if they are told they were spied on.
The police must release all the ‘cover names’ of officers from the disgraced politcal policing units, and the list of groups targeted as well. Those who were spied on must be given access to their full files so they can judge for themselves what was done.
Police Spies Out of Lives, the group of Wilson and the seven women who got the recent police apology, have issued a statement and called a demo outside the High Court on the day of the hearing, remembering what was done by people power against the Stasi, and anticipating what will be done against the Stasi tactics used by the Met.
“The lessons from Germany during the fall of the GDR are clear: legal processes, courts, and government inquiries alone cannot be trusted to uncover the truth. It took direct action and pressure from the grassroots to forcibly expose the abuses of the Stasi. Today, as the court decides how to proceed over the question of disclosure in this case, we remember the bravery and conviction of the people of the GDR; and to the police and the Pitchford inquiry we have this message: enough is enough, it is time to release the cover names and open the files.”