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Berlin's anarchist black cross on Mark Kennedy

abc berlin | 15.01.2011 17:29

an article of berlin's anarchist black cross about the case of Mark Kennedy

News about Mark „Stone“ Kennedy – a Text from ABC Berlin

Since the 10 of January the story around Mark „Stone“ Kennedy turned hot again.
During a trial against so-called „climate activists“, the „Ratcliff 6“, one offered the stage again to Mark Kennedy.
The „activists“ gave away many informations about him and his links to the local scene; the medias, which have been fed and supported by the „activists“, launched themselves on this hot story which, day by day, uncoils new developments and manages even to overshadow the ongoing unrests in Tunisia.

What is happening right now in England is really dangerous.
People who describes themselves as political activists (who thanksfully have no pretence to understand themselves as revolutionaries, anarchists or whatsoever) got in touch with Mark in order to save their asses at the trial.
Mortifying phonecalls between one well known english movement-manager and Mark have been broadcasted on television, shaking the english „public opinion“ who now asks for elucidation since she shows surprise in regards to the normal way how the repressive autorithy works.
But grassing and spying on have been always belonging to the means of any sort of repressive agency.

Through this operation, one allowed a partial rehabilitation of Mark, who apparently reconstructed his new life in USA, since he can appear now as the grass who „shows regret“, potentially obtaining the compassion of some.
This story is being very present in the medias since many are not shying away from talking to the press, feeding them with informations who partly not even people from the movement (intended here in the widest possible acception) have been entitled to receive.
Now, all of the sudden many pictures of him appear as also the information that he was working with a private spying company after quitting the cops, a company which is specialised in spying on radical movements.
Many had to read some things on the newspapers which are important parts of this all puzzle, in England as also otherwise.

We ask us what' s happening right now in England. We believe this way of acting to be a very dangerous and irresponsible one. As also not respectful towards the comrades who would like to get informations about this case since they are personally met by it.
We have absolutely no understanding for the tactic how this case has been dealt with in England and we are disappointed by the lack of its critic.
Surely it is difficult to draw a picture from other countries and we do hope that some people will bring forward a fierce debate around this case.
Because silence does not help us to overcome critically such hard moments.

The ones who currently are feeding the media circus might like to define themselves as climate activists, for sure they are not the ones with whom we feel to be on the same side of the barricade (and we will never be).
Indeed we like to say things clearly, diplomacy has never been our strenght.
We do wish a heated debate with such characters to the comrades in England who did not yet lost their face and their ideals.

We are happy to deliver a counter example from Germany where comrades from Heidelberg, who recently have been confronted with a similar case, made everything possible in order to render impossible the life of the grass, also by giving out immediately all needed informations to the rest of the movement.
We are glad of this and we believe that some people in England might learn from this example.

We would like to underline how this story crossed the channel and expanded to Germany.
English journalists animated by curiosity wrote us a couple of emails during the last days (probably because we have been here the first ones who made public this case) and tried to talk with other comrades with the aim to ask us if we ever met Mark or if we would like to meet with them in order to sketch a picture of his activities and friendships here in Berlin.
They offered also the nice option to meet „under three eyes“ in the case that we would not like to appear in public.

Our answer could have only been that one of a clear and decided refusal and let the piss off, since we believe to be extreme dangerous to give more informations to the press so that they can keep up with their scandal.
Moreover we do not have to forget a clear interest from cop's side, who surely have not been chilling about during all this time and are lurking behind the corner.
Therefore we want to call up all the comrades to not give any informations about Mark!
The processing of this story has to lie in the hands of the ones who had to deal with him, nobody else has to carry an interest in that, and the press for sure not at all!

In closing we hope that Mark „will have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life“, as an english cop declared.
That is the minimal price he has to pay.

Abc berlin

www.abc-berlin.net

abc berlin
- e-mail: mail@abc-berlin.net
- Homepage: http://www.abc-berlin.net

Comments

Hide the following 13 comments

lost in translation?

16.01.2011 01:33

no one contacted stone, he submitted a statement to the prosecutor...whether the post trial media strategy was correct is another story...perhaps a solidarity statement at this point would be more appropriate than criticisms... thanks comrades.

translator


FFS!

16.01.2011 13:01

Maybe ABC Berlin should spend a bit more time showing solidarity with victims of state surveillance and a bit less worrying about whether "climate activists" hundreds of miles away call themselves anarchists or not.

Bored


Don't believe everything you read in the papers!

16.01.2011 13:23

Some of the information appearing in the media has not been given to them by activists but has been discovered by mainstream journalists themselves, e.g. confirmation from the police that Lyn Watson was also an undercover officer.

Other "information" appearing in the mainstream press has been entirely fabricated by them.

This may be why you feel you have learned things from the mainstream media which your comrades did not tell you.

He is now under the wing of Max Clifford, who is well known for manipulating media stories about his clients to suit their own purposes. It is not activists who are generating any sympathy for Mark Kennedy!

You really shouldn't have to be told not to believe everything you read in the papers.

An activist


An unacceptably disrespectful statement

16.01.2011 14:20

Your conclusion belongs at the bottom of a different article. You're damn right you get a distorted picture from abroad. And with less and less information and personal involvement there are far more gaps to be smudged over with divisive generalisations. Why didn't you respectfully ask for a wider picture? It's not enough to say diplomacy isn't your strong point, especially when you viciously attack strangers for their public statements but give no thought to your own. Stop copping out of your responsibility to treat people with respect, IN PARTICULAR those currently experiencing trauma and struggling to deal with it. How dare you sit thousands of miles from what's happening and smear my comrades for actions you know you have no way to understand. How dare you claim they're not part of the movement and attack them for naivety. This macho culture that anyone complaining about state repression must be really naive has gone too far. How dare you challenge a woman from screaming from the rooftops if she was violated by an agent of the state. If you want a balanced picture of how things have unfolded then you could have one. But going straight onto the attack is not the way to do it. I've never been so angry at a so-called anarchist statement in my life.

Oh and for the record, I don't think this copper giving himself sympathy is the most tragic outcome. We've seen individual cops ostracized so many times by a police force determined to sell out individual officers to protect the force. This latest daily mail article giving kennedy's personal story attacks the general perception that always follows these stories - that one bad apple got out of control and has been dealt with so all can return to normal. Instead we're seeing the entire undercover culture challenged even in mainstream press. How is this a bad thing? Unless of course you're the kind of subculturalist anarchist I encountered far too many of during visits to berlin.

Oliver


Some balance

16.01.2011 14:27

The posh twit who communicated with Kennedy is hardly "a well known english movement-manager".

It is not true that "many" activists have spoken to the media. The few (three I think) who have done so have been heavily criticised. They are all primarily or solely involved with Climate Camp, which was a good initiative at the outset, but has been substantially hijacked by liberals for the last several years.

Stroppoldgit


No Solidarity with Collaborators

16.01.2011 15:01

No Solidarity at ALL. All those defending the collaborators and lying about it can FUCK OFF.

Anarchist


Island Monkeys

16.01.2011 15:53

Oliver
Whilst I understand you are angry and that the ABC Berlin comment has upset you. You really have missed the point they are making,,,

Like many UK based activists you seem to believe that our movement is some how disconnected from our comrades abroad. You are completely wrong in your understanding of how this has affected people throughout Europe.

Berlin is not a thousand miles from the people effected by the infiltrators MARK WAS OPERATING IN BERLIN, Mark himself claims to have controlled police during a riot in BERLIN. Questions have been raised in the German parliament about his sexual liaisons and political influence. Dose it not occur to you that ABC Berlin might also be “currently experiencing trauma and struggling to deal with it”.

Anger at betrayal is not an exclusively English phenomenon.

The factual piece here
Https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/01/472162.html
Shows that both “Stone” and “Jacobs” operated throughout Europe.

I think Berlin ABC's sense of betrayal at the media worship of a small number of climate campers is quite reasonable. In fact if (as you appear to be) you are someone close in to these events you will be aware that many activists in Britain also feel betrayed.

@rchie


Half truths, lies and speculation...

16.01.2011 15:56

This article is full of half truths, lies and speculation. It is destructive and so damaging it is unreal. Please stop reproducing the idea that any people are collaborating. Some people are talking to the media, but in this case it is proving to be very useful in exposing a spy ring in the UK scene, and it is damaging the cops more than we could have imagined.

Even if you have disagreements with the way things are being done, this is the time to suspend criticism and show some solidarity with people and movements that the cops are trying to destroy.

Bob Roberts


ABC Berlin = state assets?

16.01.2011 17:01

This is an unbelievable article - the amount of infighting and slating of activists in it makes me wonder if ABC Berlin are actually working for the other side. Even if they aren't, they are certainly doing the state's job for them. And I say this as very much a supporter of anarchism and someone who thinks the Anarchist Black Cross do a great job of prisoner support.

Fucking hell, how about spending your energy attacking the state and corporations, instead of those who are basically on the same side?

anon


Unity please

16.01.2011 18:59

In my mind when Kennedy's usefulness as an infiltrator, informer and instigator was expended he was used for a different purpose - to divide, disrupt and destroy. These events have seriously shaken a lot of people in the activist networks here in the UK and that in itself is useful for the institutions attempting to destroy those networks. Till now that my concerns have been about the personal impact on people he was close to and the subsequent impacts of this, but also and the wider impacts on the scene about being paranoid and suspicious. But this thread raises (for me) new and, potentially for our movements, more serious danger. The more we fight amongst ourselves the more we are doing exactly what they want us to do.

According to a Fitwatch article "Some activists at the heart of international organising believe that the involvement of Mark and others like him ultimately led to the collapse of international networks aimed at organising protest on a European and International scale."

Lets not let him make this any worse.

And yes, of course, don't trust the media. They talk about 'anarchist leaders'. Morons being oxymoronic.

 http://www.fitwatch.org.uk/2011/01/10/police-refuse-to-make-public-the-role-of-undercover-cop/

Unity


internal debate, ok, but what are next steps forward

16.01.2011 19:00

first off, I must say that ABC Berlin has done a lot of fantastic work.
that said, i clearly have a different perspective with them, and i am speaking as an anarchist in berlin who was a "friend" of Mark for nearly 6 years until we all found out about his being a cop last october. by the way, i have also done my small bits of soli work with various ABC's over the last 22 years.

as an indivual who is pissed off and feels personally betrayed by mark, i certainly have a right to do what i feel is best to bring as much justice as possible to this case.
what i personally feel is effective is:
1. talking to whoever possible to see how we can work together to tackle this fucked up problem. i have been doing that since october, in berlin, as well as with anarchists and activists i know who personally knew mark in 5 other countries.
2. talking to press, such as Guardian (which i think has done a great job) and Der Spiegel in Germany, (which I think had a quite good report today, will be online tomorrow i think).
3. talk to some more radical politicians about making policing and repression a big topic in the german parliament. anarchist/radical friends of mine who personally knew mark are also working on this tactic in four countries right now, that i know of.
4. talking to other people who are personally affected by mark about how they can make a civil case against him, whether in their own country, or together at EU. (see EU Human Rights Charter, Article 8, reported in Guardian)
5. preparing public lectures in our social centres. there will be one in berlin on 2 february, ABC of course is encouraged to join
6. putting out our own press, which people across europe are clearly doing

personally, I think all of these tactics are valid. i hope that soon we can see some demos on the streets too.in germany there is another explosive case of an exposed undercover cop, some of us try to "boost" attention to those cases by successfully bouncing media back and forth across from UK, and further abroad.

i hope that soon with some time to breath with all the recent hectic stress, we here in berlin can have a bit more internal communication in our "scene" to work on this fight together and not get bogged down by internal fights.

in solidarity,
jfk
berlin

jfk


Confused

16.01.2011 22:52

Why is secretly phone-tapping an ex-undercover cop to prove the state are lying, that brings about the aquittal of 6 activists and collapse of a 1 million quid trial some form of collaboration with the state?

The involvement of Kennedy with global open was exposed by journalists within 3 days of the collapsed court case, which activists failed to find out in 3 months. Isn't that a tactical use of the media???

Finding out about Lynn and marco as cops for certain was via working with the press. This is useful information. They get confirmation, we print photos. Everybody finds out what they want to know. Or is that collaboation to be outlawed??

???

????


reflection

17.01.2011 13:42

I can understand that ABC Berlin is angry about Mark Stone's role in German activism, amongst others.
Mark wrecked a lot of actions and may indeed have been responsible for the break down in communications internationally. But it take more than one infiltrator to do so. ABC's tone does not help. Why would one want to work with people who denounce everyone who is not part of their tight circle as 'so called "activist" '? Even using "information" from the Daily Fail to smear them?
It's not like the german activist scene has no problems of its own.
"Black" demonstrations in Germany and by germans elsewhere (The 2009 NATO summit and some events during NoBorder Brussels spring to mind) show clear signs of having become a well thought out media spectacle in a not too threatening area far away from any place which could cause serious damage or disruption. Set piece riots. This is not just a matter of grasses. The tactic has become as much a part of the official ritual as the obligatory press conference of the police offcier in charge. The closed structure of the block and the relative safety and anonimity guaranteed by it gives lots of opportunities for anyone with a different agenda to manipulate the process -not just the police. It would be nice if the Berlin ABC and the Berlin activist scene would start to examine it's own role in this and stop charging wildly at others.

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