Mark Kennedy - old news?

There is something intrinsically untrustworthy about our police force. Not your typical British bobby of course – s/he remains the bastion of everything we hold sacred – personal safety, community engagement, respect for authority and the rule of law. Or, am I just being a tad naïve?

Recent press revelations about the Mark Kennedy case raises a plethora of issues government, the media and the public as a whole should discuss. Not least of these questions must be – are we content the police use undercover agents to infiltrate legitimate democratic protest movements?

Of course, nothing has been proven yet. But, if we assume for a moment that Kennedy has been telling the truth then it suggests Kennedy’s (and others) insertion into campaign groups came with the full knowledge and authority of his handlers. But why?
The most logical answer is that police and UK security managers are concerned about the protection of property – ranging from ‘sit-in’s’ at universities and colleges, the blocking of fuel to power stations, or breaching perimeter fences at airports and military bases.

None of these campaigns are new. Just ask the Greenham women I the 1980s whether they faced police infiltration during their campaign, or the Anti-Apartheid movement during the 60s and 70s. Even more politically ‘acceptable’ movements like Amnesty International and Stonewall have not been without problems from police involvement.
So why is Kennedy so relevant today? The answer is simple – he isn’t. What he did is symptomatic of a deeper problem. Let me demonstrate. All families live by rules – do the chores, don’t lie, come home on time, don’t have sex outside the relationship etc … but the greatest of these rules is: don’t talk about the rules.

Now, if we assume Britain is one very big ‘family’ it is apparent that Kennedy breached the ‘golden rule’ – he talked about the rules. You see, we have known for years the police have been watching us. Any demonstrator will have seen the cameras trained on our faces. Indeed, the questionable funding of Socialist Worker Party and possible links with the CIA has long been discussed in boozy pubs amongst those on the left. Whether they are in fact funded by the CIA remains unclear, but it has certainly proved to be a cause of debate for many years.

Equally, police infiltration of CND and the peace movement has long been known. There is no surprise therefore they have now extended this to include climate change campaigners. The question is how do we react to the news?

The answer is simple – we cannot afford to simply demand the withdrawal of police from one sector of political discontent. Agent provocateurs should have no role in modern society and those on the left (including people like Ed Miliband) should be doing everything to ensure their immediate withdrawal. The left need to vocalize loudly that the police have been doing this for a long time and it needs to come to an end.

Unfortunately, socialists in this country are much more likely to do what they have always done – grumble loudly as they discuss latest reports in the Guardian and by the end of the month accept the inevitable and assume infiltration to continue.

So much for the angry left! But please feel free to prove me wrong.