UAF demo in 2008
Reading yesterday’s article piece about an undercover cop infiltrating trots groups came across like a badly written thriller novel. I mean, the way they (this undercover unit) organised was based on Day of the Jackal. Ideas above their station if they think they are that sophisticated and daring. infiltrating Trot groups…. c’mon Deep Throat obviously picked the short straw, sitting in meetings listening to abstract analytical debates about the way forward…’Comrades, we must be clear’…. yada yada… But to be honest the article would have been utterly laughable if it wasn’t so offensive. For starters the preamble and headline about PC Plod’s infiltration is utterly surreal where he is described as giving a ‘chilling account’… Chilling and Trotskyism in the same sentence. Oh, and ‘violent UK Left’…?!
What about the vicious brutal violence of the fascists? When fascists organise in an area violent attacks increase and people have been murdered. Yet it is the anti-fascist Left that is being demonised in this article.
I remember those protests around East London during the early 1990s, demonstrating against the fascists in Brick Lane amplified with the shocking election of Derek Beacon in Tower Hamlets during 1993. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to the protest at Welling in 1993 as I was working on that particular Saturday but reports from comrades exposed the police brutality and violence.
The truly terrifying element of political demos that turn violent is the behaviour of the police. From Southhall in 1979 to the Miners Strike to Wapping to the Poll Tax Demos to G20. There has been a long history of police violence being condoned and indeed encouraged by the rest of the state. This is on top of all the racist violence including deaths in custody that has been dished out by the cops to Black youth over the decades. Not the either the Militant/YRE or the SWP/ANL were perfect. Both organisations were fronts for their respective organisations.
Both will wind their memberships up a lot and did during the 1990′s, the decade in which our brave undercover officer faced the terrifying face of Trotskyism in Britain ( difficult to write that with a straight face). There is also the timing of this veil being lifted. Fascism is on the rise and is more powerful than it has ever been in Britain. Elements within the establishment flirt with it. The economy is screwed and we are about to see a huge neo-liberal assault on the welfare state and on pay and conditions for ordinary people. It looks like unemployment will continue to rise. As a result people will want a voice. Mainly this is involve taking to the streets in protest. The story being told is that the left-wing organisers of political demonstrations are mainly interested in fighting the police.
The objections to fascism, illegal wars etc are simply a cover to ruck with the cops. The ordinary respectable should and will stay away. What is telling about this copper is that he seems to have realised that a lot of demos occur because there is huge injustice in this society. People need to be able to protest against injustice. They do it because it is the only response that is available to them.
Very well put. I couldn’t believe how awful this article was, tho I should have long ago moved on from that sort of suprise.
My tuppence here: http://brockley.blogspot.com/2010/03/combination-of-thinning-hair-on-top-and.html
[...] lies and the state 18 03 2010 In an update to the Observer’s piece about undercover cops operating in anti-fascism during the early 1990s there’s a CiF from [...]