Police Spies Out of Lives is organised by and for people deceived into relationships with undercover police.
See https://policespiesoutoflives.org.uk/ also Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance http://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/ The Monitoring Group,
The Blacklist Support Group and Undercover Research Group.
The Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS) helps coordinate, publicise & support the quest
for justice for people affected by political undercover police infiltration and spying and to ensure
such abuses do not continue.
Model Motion
They have drafted a template motion for discussion in your branches, regions &
groups/parties.
This (branch/region/national) supports Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS)
in collaboration with sister organisations Police Spies Out Of Lives, The Blacklist
Support Group, The Monitoring Group and the Undercover Research Group, who
coordinate, publicise and support the quest for justice for people affected by
political undercover police spying to ensure such abuses do not continue. Swathes of
left-wing, progressive & labour movements & individuals have been targeted by
Britain’s secret police for decades.
We believe that everyone has the right to participate in the struggle for social &
environmental justice, without fear of persecution, objectification, or interference in
their lives. We now know over 1000 groups have been spied on.
We condemn senior police & successive Governments who authorised:
1. The spying on families, friends, witnesses and campaigners seeking truth and
justice over the deaths of loved ones, such as the Lawrence family, & associated
institutional racism
2. The gross intrusion of undercover officers forming intimate & sexual relationships
whilst in their undercover persona & associated institutional sexism
3. The theft of the identities of dead children
4. Aiding the illegal blacklisting of trade union members and political activists, &
passing information on individuals to private investigators & corporations
5. The wrongful convictions brought about by misconduct of police & prosecutors
6. The excessive secrecy, delays, and redaction of files for the non-state core
participants to the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
We call for
1. An end to political undercover policing covering social justice, environmental,
union & family campaigns
2. The outlawing of intimate and sexual relationships by officers whilst undercover
3. The release of all cover names of the officers involved and a truly public inquiry
with a panel of experts in institutional misogyny, racism & class bias to assist the
Chair in reaching Inquiry conclusions & recommendations.
4. Protective measures to prevent serving and retired intelligence-gathering officers
from passing information to private sector corporations & investigators.
5. Support and encouragement for police whistle-blowers.
6. A public apology from the police to all those affected & confirmation this will not
happen again
7. Repeal of the CHIS (Covert Human Intelligence Sources – Criminal Conduct)
2021 Act which scandalously sanctioned the above abuses to continue.
This branch/ region/ national union/ organisation will
1. Affiliate/Donate – Affiliation at a sliding scale from £50 upwards. Donate
whatever you can!
2. Communicate – Share relevant updates to the full branch membership &
communications channels
3. Distribute the motion to Region/National/National Executive/Political a liates
or departments for further support & integration into wider political policies &
political education.
4. Lobbying on this issue to your MP, & any political organisations that have
delegates in your union or communities.
Affiliation/Donation
We campaign for Everyone to have the right to participate in the struggle for social &
environmental justice, without fear of persecution, objectification, or interference in their
lives. Please do affiliate, donate & join the mailing list for updates and opportunities to work
with us.
1. Branch/Trades Council – £50 or Region/ Devolved Nations – £100
2. National (Fewer than 100,000 members) – £200 | National (100,000+ members) –
£400
3. We also welcome donations for Tranche 2 continuing in Oct-Dec, we need at least
£5000. This will support travel to hearings, some care support, subsistence
reimbursement and paid hours for the increased communications, and wider
support needed at these times.
Please write cheques to: ‘Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance’
Bank transfer: Unity Trust Bank, 60-83-01, 20343239.
————————
PUBLIC INQUIRY – updates on https://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/
Interim Report published by the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI) on 29th June 2023 summary, published by Police Spies Out Of Lives, at
https://policespiesoutoflives.
“The most important takeaway from the report are the conclusions that it was very quickly clear these spying operations were not justified, that some of the worst practices (such as theft of dead children’s identities and abusive relationships with members of the public) were present from the very beginning, and that the units should have been shut down in the early 1970s.
These were clearly unjustifiable operations, deploying unethical and illegal tactics, which the Police and Home Office deliberately kept secret to avoid public outcry.”
The following links are just a fraction of the extensive media coverage of the Interim Report, including the press conference from COPS and some of our affiliates:
Undercover policing unit tactics not justified, says report – BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-
Victims hold news conference after undercover policing inquiry – Sky News Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
‘Spy cops’ scandal: what is it and why was public inquiry set up? – The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/
NEW SPYCOPS PODCAST
The first half of a powerful new BBC podcast series on spycops, “Undercover: The Spycops” focuses on the case of officer Mark Kennedy, who deceived numerous women into relationships whilst infiltrating environmental and social justice groups and whose unmasking revealed the whole scandal of Britain’s political secret police. You can listen to the first 10 episodes at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/
The second phase of the inquiry is looking at the actions of undercover officers from 1983 to 1992.
Those targeted in the 1980s and early 1990s include environmental groups, trade unions, support campaigns for people killed by police or for those arrested/facing trial, groups opposing war, racism, destructive road-building proposals, left-wing and anarchist organisations, MPs, animal rights groups, and anti-fascists.
The disgusting secret tactics pioneered in the 1970s were expanded upon in the following decade, including the hoovering up and passing to MI5 vast amounts of personal information on activists including for blacklisting, the abuse of women for sexual relationships, the theft of dead children’s identities, the manipulation of groups by taking positions of responsibility and by acting as agents provocateur.
Core Participants at the Inquiry are currently receiving many of the thousands of secret reports made by infiltrators in the 1980s and early 1990s. Restriction orders are in place on this information, but COPS will continue to provide information as it becomes available to the public.
Latest updates on the Undercover Policing Inquiry http://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/ucpi-public-inquiry/
Police Spies Out of Lives is a campaigning support group working to achieve an end to the sexual and psychological abuse of campaigners and others by undercover police officers. We support the women affected by the issues to expose the immoral and unjustified practice of undercover relationships, and the institutional prejudices which have led to the abuse.
Police Spies Out of Lives is organised by and for people deceived into relationships with undercover police. We were set up to support the legal action by eight women deceived into long term intimate relationships with undercover police officers who were infiltrating environmental and social justice campaign groups. These women won an historic apology from the police, and the police no longer contest liability in Kate Wilson’s ongoing case. We continue to support these women in the remainder of their legal actions, as well as through the Public Inquiry into Undercover Policing. On many of the historic pages of our website, their case is referred to as ‘the case’.
Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill
Undercover officer won’t face prosecution over relationship https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46570224
WB&DTUC affiliated at our Feb 2019 meeting and passed the following motion which was sent to Midlands TUC and Midlands Trades Union Council conference
Motion Opposing Undercover ‘Political Policing’
This meeting notes with concern that police chiefs have admitted that undercover infiltration of political, activist and justice campaign groups in the UK has been consistent since 1968, in the form of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU).
This meeting understands that a tactic of these infiltrations was for officers to form long-term intimate relationships with women activists, to bolster officer’s cover identities in activist circles. Many of these ‘relationships’ lasted for years.
This meeting believes that this reveals that institutional sexism is endemic within the police and other state bodies that sanctioned this behaviour.
This meeting understands that police were forced to admit, in just one case so far, that they infringed upon a woman’s right not to be ‘subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’. This was a violation of the women’s rights to privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of association and assembly. Also this was a violation of the women’s rights to a home and family life, and to privacy of communications. Further, this was an infringement of the women’s right to participate in the struggle for legal, social and environmental justice.
This meeting believes that the use of sexual relationships has no place in any form of undercover policing and the Regulation Of Investigatory Powers Act (2000) should be amended to reflect this.
This meeting firmly opposes this type of political undercover policing and believe that infiltrations of this kind have no place in a democratic society.
This meeting calls for the Undercover Policing Inquiry to be extended to Scotland and Northern Ireland, and to undertake a fully transparent and truly public inquiry, providing disclosure to those whose rights have been violated by undercover operations and to fulfil its terms of reference as a means to allay public concern.
This meeting agrees to:
1/ share details of this motion and profile the work of Police Spies Out Of Lives in bulletins and newsletters
2/ raise awareness amongst trade unionists of undercover ‘political policing’, to help prevent a re-occurrence of this type of grossly intrusive policing
3/ support and publicise the demonstration by those spied upon and their supporters.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.