I'm
a "domestic extremist"! Proof police are spying on us!
Message written and distributed by Steve
Wallis, 26/10/2009
Note that I couldn't find the following
diagram, showing the structure of the police apparatus spying on us, on the Guardian
website. I have therefore scanned it in from the newspaper (pages 6-7,
Guardian, 26 October 2009)
I've been aware for many years that, since I (as a key
revolutionary socialist) am a threat to the powers that be, that they are
spying on me and interacting in various ways to try to prevent a socialist
revolution from taking place. Of course I've not been sure whether the spies
are in the police force, MI5 or conspiratorial infiltrating organisations
outside the realm of the state (and perhaps on an international basis -
socialists organise internationally and it is only sensible for our enemies to
do likewise, especially in these days of the internet).
[Recently I've discovered from website statistics, with many more accesses from
the USA than the UK, even after distributing documents in this country, that
the main surveillance is actually from the USA - perhaps the CIA. It seems that
computers are being used to read most of my material, perhaps because if human
capitalists did so, it would be likely that they would be converted into
socialists! I've also noticed a lot of accesses of my songs/musical poems from
China, suggesting that the Chinese regime is attempting to compete with the CIA
in its modelling of society (internet censorship prevents them from accessing
my web pages, almost entirely, but for some reason they have much less
restricted access to my songs than elsewhere in the world); stats from the
Indian mirror of my personal website suggest that most of these accesses are
from computers rather than human beings (partly because files in obscure
formats get as many hits as those in MP3 or
WMA formats).]
Anyway, today's Guardian contains a number of articles (in the first of a three
part series presumably continuing tomorrow and Wednesday) reporting on police
surveillance of "domestic extremists" - "far left groups
including anti-war campaigns", "environmental protesters such as
Climate Camp and Plane Stupid", "animal rights protesters" and
"far right groups such as the English Defence League" (a picture
below the latter caption shows an EDL skinhead making a fascist salute despite
EDL claims they are not Nazis). I've included links to all the articles in
today's Guardian below. The second contains photographs of 24 activists on "spotter
cards" dropped on an arms fair protest in 2005, including of the comedian
Mark Thomas to whom they were sent - perhaps it says something about the
balance of forces in society then and now that they have finally appeared on
the Guardian front page four years later! I'm not on either card but recognise
some people who
are. ID cards haven't been introduced yet but there is a "giant national
database of activists labelled 'domestic extremists'" (run by the National
Public Order Intelligence Unit).
The articles explain that not having a criminal record (or even being charged)
are not reasons for exclusion from this database which reportedly lists
thousands of us. I don't have a criminal record but have been arrested on two
protests (charged at one) - the first an anti-fascist demo in Oldham where the
police used divide-and-rule, using a cordon to sepaeate mainly white protesters
on my side of the road from mainly Asian youths who'd been defending their
areas under threat from the BNP and NF on the other (I was the first person to
attempt to break through the cordon); the second handing out leaflets calling
for a boycott of Israeli goods outside Marks & Spencer in Manchester.
The Guardian predictably objects to this massive level of surveillance, but
let's be honest - the powers that be would be exrtremely stupid to simply stand
by and let us change society without a big struggle! Automatic number plate
recognition (ANPR) systems have been developed for speed cameras to catch
speeding motorists, so it would be utterly stupid not to use the same cameras
for spying on left-wing activists! When we've spotted police with video cameras
on demonstrations, we wouldn't expect them to chuck the footage away if no
criminal activity took place!
The most disturbing aspect of all this to me, a point not mentioned by the
Guardian, is calling us left-wing activists "extremists". Much
legislation has been passed supposedly targeting terrorists and potential
terrorists - so-called "Islamic extremists". Of course it would have
been discriminatory to mention Islam in the legislation, and I have long
realised that (if they could get away with it) the state would sooner or later
use it against people like myself, even if we don't take up arms to try to take
power. This is not just hypothetical - such legislation has already been used
against "animal rights extremists". But, unlike an ex-comrade of
mine, the late Terry Fields MP who said "a militant is a moderate who has
got off his knees", I'm not frightened to admit that us revolutionary socialists
are extremists!
Police in £9m scheme to log 'domestic extremists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/25/police-domestic-extremists-database
Spotter cards: What they look like and how they work
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/25/spotter-cards
How police rebranded lawful protest as 'domestic extremism'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/25/police-surveillance-protest-domestic-extremism
Campaigner uncovers police files for £10 and a letter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/25/police-files-data-protection-act
Activists repeatedly stopped and searched as police officers 'mark' cars
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/25/surveillance-police-number-plate-recognition
Doth I protest too much? (by Mark Thomas)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/oct/25/doth-i-protest-too-much
There's also a surveillance page on the Guardian website at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/surveillance