An alliance of people spied on by Britain's political secret police
The Undercover Policing Inquiry was appointed following revelations that undercover police officers kept lawful political campaigns under surveillance, assumed the identities of deceased children and deceived women into having sexual relationships.
This meeting will hear from three speakers who are directly involved:
‘Alison’ gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on her experience of having been deceived into a five year relationship by undercover officer Mark Jenner, and told her story to Newsnight in 2014.
Harriet Wistrich, Human Rights Lawyer of the Year 2014, represents numerous women (including Alison) who have successfully pursued civil claims and obtained an apology from the Metropolitan Police, and others that will be giving evidence to the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
Dr Eveline Lubbers is a member of the Undercover Research Group and has published research on the activities of undercover police officers. She is also the author of Secret Manoeuvres in the Dark: Corporate Spying on Activists and Battling Big Business: Countering Greenwash, Front Groups and Other Forms of Corporate Deception.
Core issues that will be raised before the Undercover Policing Inquiry, relating to lawful police surveillance, the right to privacy and family life, freedom of expression and the law on sexual offences, will also be discussed at the seminar.
NOTE: Entry is free but advance booking is required.
Hi
its on my blog today https://lipsticksocialist.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/stoplooklistenmy-weekly-selection-of-favourite-films-books-and-events-to-get-you-out-of-the-house-163/
solidarity
LS
Yet another all white panel?
Great stuff, really impressed by this type of ‘activism’
Do I really have to point to my comrades on the left that racism occurs through acts of, both, COMMISSION and OMISSION?
The truth is that the Under Cover Public Inquiry has only been established because of the Ellison Review into the SDS coverage of the family of Stephen Lawrence, before and during the MacPherson Inquiry. The Lawrence family are black, and there are a good number of black justice campaigns involved in the UCPI. However this is seldom reflected in the meetings organised on this subject by the white left.
Can I ask why this is?
Stafford Scott
To clarify: COPS has no involvement in organising this event, we think it’s good and so we have put it in our events calendar.
The Lawrence revelations tipped the scales for a public inquiry only after years of other official reports that couldn’t contain exposure of political policing. It all started with women investigating their partners, women exposing them, women bringing court cases. There are dozens of people known to be targeted for intimate relationships and they’re all women (incidentally all white as well). It is institutional sexism.
Even in the life and death racial justice campaigns targeted, the leaders are disproportionately women like Marcia Rigg and Janet Alder. Are they all black justice campaigns? Do Celia Stubbs, Sukhdev Reel and Patricia da Silva all identify as black?
The people suffering most from the political policing are women, the work to fight back has been disproportionately by women. Stafford Scott is organising a conference on it where men speaking outnumber women 2:1 but he comes on here and complains about the make up of the speakers at the Manchester event. It’s the same partiarchal oppression that led to targeting of the women by undercover police.