THE launch in parliament of the new book, ‘Blacklisted: the Secret War between Big Business and Union Activists’, saw Labour MP John McDonnell read a statement from a former professional undercover police spy, turned whistleblower, about the scope of capitalist state spying on the trade unions.
Peter Francis could not appear in person ‘for a number of reasons, including and primarily, because of some very serious outstanding legal issues/difficulties with the Metropolitan Police, that continue to hang over me ever since I became a whistleblower and therefore a potential criminal in their eyes.’
He added: ‘This remarkable, well-researched and must-read book clearly shows how police spying on political activists has destroyed lives and that I, most unfortunately and regrettably, played a part in this.
‘The forthcoming Home Secretary’s public inquiry into undercover policing must include a forensic, independent (in other words, non-police) examination into all the blacklisting files compiled by the Consulting Association and then cross-reference them with corresponding Special Branch individual activists’ records to look at the areas of collusion.
‘There will be multiple duplicates. Of that I have no doubt at all.
‘In relation to Mark JENNER aka Mark CASSIDY, exposed last week in the media as being a UCATT member. . .
‘But tonight, here in this supposed home of UK democracy, please let me state very clearly that Mark JENNER was 100% one of my fellow undercover SDS police officers deployed alongside me in the 1990s.
‘Jenner, who has now been very publicly exposed, should be forced to appear in person at the public inquiry to account for his spying on, amongst numerous other political protesters, the totally law-abiding construction union UCATT members whose only “crimes” were being union members.
‘I would also like to take this opportunity to unreservedly apologise to all the union members I personally spied upon and reported back on whilst deployed undercover in the SDS.
‘Including those not only engaged in working in the construction industry but also those in the National Union of Students (NUS), National Union of Teachers (NUT), Communication Workers Union (CWU), Unison and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU).
‘As everything I have previously stated, I am prepared to repeat all of this under oath at the public inquiry and should UCATT or any other union or the blacklisted campaigners wish me to, in any court cases they might bring against the relevant UK authorities.’
It was Karl Marx who established that the capitalist state and its bodies of armed men exist to maintain the ruling class in power and to hold down the working class by any and all means necessary.
From the beginning of capitalism, the ruling class has been clear that the trade unions were its number one enemy. At the start of the 19th century, the radical manufacturer Richard Cobden said that he would rather live under the rule of the Bey of Algiers than under a trade union committee.
Just a few weeks ago the Republican governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, compared the trade unionists that he has been battling with in Wisconsin to ISIS!
Therefore it is no surprise that an entire secret state apparatus had been created in the UK to intervene in the trade unions to draw up lists of workers to be blacklisted and kept out of employment for life.
In the course of waging this secret war against the working class, no holds were or are barred, including setting up bogus families as the cover for a number of these agents.
This was a situation where the ‘man of the house’ could vanish overnight and never be seen again, leaving behind a wife and children with not the slightest idea of what was going on, while he got on with other secret police tasks.
There is no doubt that all of these agents and their handlers right up to the government must be unmasked. However there is no reformist way to resolve this class issue. The only solution to the activities of the capitalist state is to smash it and destroy it with a socialist revolution. Nothing less will do the required job!