> The police were doing nothing about far-right violence and disorder or were complicit in it. That was not paranoid or imagined. It is not just racist language evident in some of the reporting. Or the widespread perception that the Police protected the National Front. Or the
massively disproportionate stops and searches of young black people. Or the subsequent findings of institutionalised racism in the police
In 1968, the Chief Superintendent of Special Branch was advising SDS officers to hobnob with the “politically well-informed” Lady Birdwood, “well-known to Special Branch for her anti-communist views and activities”, to glean any information she or associates might have on their left wing targets.
Birdwood, an anti-semite and racist, an associate of the National Front, British Movement, and BNP, “was later convicted for multiple offences of inciting racial hatred.”
Further, the racist right’s proclivity for violent disorder was well known to the police involved in Spycops:
> Certainly in 1975, the SDS knew, that “Most of the public order problems were concerned with the activities of the National Front”. Special Branch knew that National Front members were responsible for “several brutal attacks onmembers of ethnic minorities” and they knew that this brutality heightened opposition to them. SDS officers experienced the National Front violence themselves, although we rarely see it reported.
> He said “You would be selling the papers and then suddenly from out of the blue some National Front or National Party people
would turn up and try and have a go at you… Physically… I had a fight with someone who was trying to attack me… they were quite big and you know some of us were puny creatures. So, it wasn’t in our interests to confront them physically… From the SWP side, it was mostly shouting. From the Far Right thing, it was mostly physical violence”.
> But there was no infiltration. D.I. Angus McIntosh (HN244) recalls that there was a “high level policy decision” not to infiltrate the far right.
Evidence like this suggests infiltration of anti-racist groups could just as well be done to assist the racists as it could to combat supposed subversion.
Now it’s single women. Think we need to change recruitment methods.
3 comments
The Spycops [opening statement](https://www.ucpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/20220425-T1P3-LG_RC_M-Opening-Statement.pdf) for Lindsey German et. al. asserts:
> The police were doing nothing about far-right violence and disorder or were complicit in it. That was not paranoid or imagined. It is not just racist language evident in some of the reporting. Or the widespread perception that the Police protected the National Front. Or the
massively disproportionate stops and searches of young black people. Or the subsequent findings of institutionalised racism in the police
In 1968, the Chief Superintendent of Special Branch was advising SDS officers to hobnob with the “politically well-informed” Lady Birdwood, “well-known to Special Branch for her anti-communist views and activities”, to glean any information she or associates might have on their left wing targets.
Birdwood, an anti-semite and racist, an associate of the National Front, British Movement, and BNP, “was later convicted for multiple offences of inciting racial hatred.”
Further, the racist right’s proclivity for violent disorder was well known to the police involved in Spycops:
> Certainly in 1975, the SDS knew, that “Most of the public order problems were concerned with the activities of the National Front”. Special Branch knew that National Front members were responsible for “several brutal attacks onmembers of ethnic minorities” and they knew that this brutality heightened opposition to them. SDS officers experienced the National Front violence themselves, although we rarely see it reported.
Anonymous police officer HN2170 had infiltrated the SWP, and as such was obliged to go on the streets as a [*Socialist Worker*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Worker) vendor:
> He said “You would be selling the papers and then suddenly from out of the blue some National Front or National Party people
would turn up and try and have a go at you… Physically… I had a fight with someone who was trying to attack me… they were quite big and you know some of us were puny creatures. So, it wasn’t in our interests to confront them physically… From the SWP side, it was mostly shouting. From the Far Right thing, it was mostly physical violence”.
> But there was no infiltration. D.I. Angus McIntosh (HN244) recalls that there was a “high level policy decision” not to infiltrate the far right.
Evidence like this suggests infiltration of anti-racist groups could just as well be done to assist the racists as it could to combat supposed subversion.
Now it’s single women. Think we need to change recruitment methods.
We’re not racist we’re just anti anti racist