We Will Not Be Disrupted
Stroppyoldgit | 17.01.2011 02:34 | Repression
Disruption is one of the purposes of political policing and infiltration by the likes of Mark Kennedy and whoever Lyn and Marcos really are. As a counter to depression and disintegration, let’s look at how the pieces are falling from all this and think how to re-organise.
These destructors and their depraved controlling minds think they’re onto a “win-win”. With specific intelligence they may, and sometimes do, disrupt our activities directly, they can try to fragment us by sowing dissention, as Marcos apparently attempted, but if / when they are discovered they rely on us self-destructing through recrimination, mutual suspicion and internecine squabbling.
Is that’s what’s going to happen now? Is it fuck! Let’s not do that, eh..
So this is a call to arms
This is a call to legs
This is a call to brains
Sure, we have analysis to carry out and lessons to learn. Much of that is not going to happen on IM for Hugh Ordure and his ilk to lap up, so this is not a call to arseholes. It’s highly unlikely the last infiltrator has been rooted out, and there are bound to be new ones. How can we improve security whilst remaining open, because we have nothing to be ashamed of and everything to win?
It would be easy to get depressed in the current situation, to think we can’t trust anybody, to wonder if we can really achieve anything, to lose our future-orientation and determination to fight for the only planet we’ve got and for it to be free from all exploitation and oppression.
Paradoxically, a strong antidote to that and an important enhancement of security would be for us to trust and cherish each other more, to know ourselves and our comrades better, whilst being open to new people, new ideas and new inspiration. Above all, we need to discuss and understand our politics more deeply in a context where we’re never going to agree with each other about everything, but are bound together by a commitment to action, and to informing our ideas by, through and during what we do.
It’s significant that so many people who were close to Flash Mark, and shared many ventures, many stresses and many good times with him, now say things like “..but I never really had a political discussion with him”. We have been too readily infiltrated by taking our politics as read, or as signified by mere cultural superficialities.
Could the likes of Flash have remained unsuspected for so long if we’d had a more analytical and consciously transformative politics of direct action, without slipping into exclusivity or “right on” doctrine? Would he have been sussed much sooner against such a background? Not everyone has thought through their politics with equal clarity, of course, and some people are more instinctive than intellectual in their approach, but I can’t help feeling that Mark Kennedy’s fundamental motivations were never apparent because we don’t talk about such things as often or in such depth as we need to..
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
Many not to be, of course. On the shit side, there’s apparently people in Ireland who were sent down for possessing stuff Mark had supplied to them. People and networks in other countries may have been compromised. There needs to be a reckoning of all such damage and what, if anything, can now be done to repair it.
But on the jammy sandwich side, the powers of darkness have tripped over each other big time. The disruption, disintegration, unwelcome exposure and mutual recrimination frenzy they’ve managed to cause themselves is massive and will go on for some time. NPOIU, NETCU and their seedy mates are now hanging morosely round the Shit Creek Paddle Shop and may soon find the stock exhausted. We can also be quietly satisfied, though not complacent, that of the three infiltrators now confirmed (or virtually so in the case of Marcos), two of them came under heavy suspicion and disappeared. Only in the case of Kennedy was a stroke of luck required.
Certainly, there’s many bad aspect to all this, not least the hurt and distress some people are going through. But it’s not all bad by any means. We’re used to thinking and moving quicker than the cops on the streets and in the fields, to shifting, adapting and improvising while they stand around waiting to be told what to do. It’s one of our strengths, so let’s use it now and turn chaos into opportunity. Let’s fashion renewal and improvement out of Sir Hugh’s ordure.
P.S. The above is not the answer to everything. It’s meant to be just a start, and this may not be the best place to continue it.
Is that’s what’s going to happen now? Is it fuck! Let’s not do that, eh..
So this is a call to arms
This is a call to legs
This is a call to brains
Sure, we have analysis to carry out and lessons to learn. Much of that is not going to happen on IM for Hugh Ordure and his ilk to lap up, so this is not a call to arseholes. It’s highly unlikely the last infiltrator has been rooted out, and there are bound to be new ones. How can we improve security whilst remaining open, because we have nothing to be ashamed of and everything to win?
It would be easy to get depressed in the current situation, to think we can’t trust anybody, to wonder if we can really achieve anything, to lose our future-orientation and determination to fight for the only planet we’ve got and for it to be free from all exploitation and oppression.
Paradoxically, a strong antidote to that and an important enhancement of security would be for us to trust and cherish each other more, to know ourselves and our comrades better, whilst being open to new people, new ideas and new inspiration. Above all, we need to discuss and understand our politics more deeply in a context where we’re never going to agree with each other about everything, but are bound together by a commitment to action, and to informing our ideas by, through and during what we do.
It’s significant that so many people who were close to Flash Mark, and shared many ventures, many stresses and many good times with him, now say things like “..but I never really had a political discussion with him”. We have been too readily infiltrated by taking our politics as read, or as signified by mere cultural superficialities.
Could the likes of Flash have remained unsuspected for so long if we’d had a more analytical and consciously transformative politics of direct action, without slipping into exclusivity or “right on” doctrine? Would he have been sussed much sooner against such a background? Not everyone has thought through their politics with equal clarity, of course, and some people are more instinctive than intellectual in their approach, but I can’t help feeling that Mark Kennedy’s fundamental motivations were never apparent because we don’t talk about such things as often or in such depth as we need to..
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
Many not to be, of course. On the shit side, there’s apparently people in Ireland who were sent down for possessing stuff Mark had supplied to them. People and networks in other countries may have been compromised. There needs to be a reckoning of all such damage and what, if anything, can now be done to repair it.
But on the jammy sandwich side, the powers of darkness have tripped over each other big time. The disruption, disintegration, unwelcome exposure and mutual recrimination frenzy they’ve managed to cause themselves is massive and will go on for some time. NPOIU, NETCU and their seedy mates are now hanging morosely round the Shit Creek Paddle Shop and may soon find the stock exhausted. We can also be quietly satisfied, though not complacent, that of the three infiltrators now confirmed (or virtually so in the case of Marcos), two of them came under heavy suspicion and disappeared. Only in the case of Kennedy was a stroke of luck required.
Certainly, there’s many bad aspect to all this, not least the hurt and distress some people are going through. But it’s not all bad by any means. We’re used to thinking and moving quicker than the cops on the streets and in the fields, to shifting, adapting and improvising while they stand around waiting to be told what to do. It’s one of our strengths, so let’s use it now and turn chaos into opportunity. Let’s fashion renewal and improvement out of Sir Hugh’s ordure.
P.S. The above is not the answer to everything. It’s meant to be just a start, and this may not be the best place to continue it.
Stroppyoldgit
Comments
Hide the following 17 comments
well said
17.01.2011 07:32
The role of the police/state organisations is to disrupt our movements, arguably this is their promary function as this is more effective than just stopping a few actions or nicking a few activists. So, the unmasking of Kennedy et al is a win for the police; if WE let it be so.
concerned
finally
17.01.2011 07:37
Johann Neve
Tell that to SHAC
17.01.2011 08:36
Gotta be smart
@reality
Nice one
17.01.2011 09:58
Keep calm, regroup, carry on, never give up.
Lynn Sawyer
My point exactly......
17.01.2011 10:52
Shutting down power stations is similar in nature and is not understood by the man in the street.
It also has to be said tha admitting the conspiracy and hoping the Jury will aquit as they agree with you aims was never gona work for ever - the wheels came off with the Ratcliffe 20 - hopfully the Kennedy / Stone affair will dsitract all attention away from that!
@reality
good points
17.01.2011 11:52
cleveland steamer
@@reality
17.01.2011 11:54
SHAC didn't get up to "all sorts of stupid criminal acts" - they were and still are a legal organisation.
Some people in SHAC were stitched up with vague conspiracy and blackmail charges - not for doing anything illegal themselves, but just for running the campaign.
It is true that other individuals did commit criminal acts with similar goals in mind to SHAC, but they weren't stupid acts. Huntingdon Life Sciences are serious animal abusing scum and deserve all they get. I think most people would agree that people involved in things like torturing beagles to death by feeding them toxic chemicals are getting off extremely lightly by just having their windows put through, their homes graffitied and their cars torched. These people are absolute scum.
Here is a link to what Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty are campaigning against:
The animal rights movement has had many suspected and exposed infiltrators throughout the years. But the difference is that they don't really go in for the kind of large scale semi-legal civil disobedience that environmentalists are more fond of. So infiltrators waste all their time with totally legal campaigners and rarely get near the people doing the illegal acts, because they work on their own or in small groups with people they really trust. Infiltrators tend to get neutralised by people being aware of them, rather than being explicitly challenged. If you kick one out they will only put another one it, so better to have infiltrators that you know about than ones you don't.
anon
Good points, well made
17.01.2011 12:07
Not to say that people who don't know a lot about politics (or spend a lot of time discussing it) must all be grasses, I fully believe that we can be motivated by passion and anger that things are fucked up. But surely this is another area where suspicions can be raised...
How did this fucker respond when he had the crap beaten out of him by coppers for instance? Did he rant on about what wankers cops are? If not, if if he did but it seemed a little odd, wouldn't that arouse a little suspicion...?
In a way, I also think this case raises the issue of "full time activists". The "give up activism" text is great for all sorts of reasons, but I'd say one is that it'd be much harder for the state to give infiltrators a life that seemed like many other activists, if other activists saw themselves less as 'activists' and more as normal people engaged in struggle (ie, got less involved in the cliqueness of activism, brought their activist friends and non-activist friends together, got involved in workplace struggles, blah blah blah...
I appreciate that many people who devote their entire lives to activism are motivated by great passion - and make serious sacrifices for which I have to express respect - but personally, I always find it a little suspicious when people are happier to be more engaged in far off international struggles than in building on and radicalising whatever admittedly rubbish campaigning might be going on in their local area. I'd argue that this kind of 'activism' can actually be a hell of a lot more threatening to both the state and the status quo than the kind of militant lobbying tactics that have come to define much of the movement (particularly I really think a lot of people need to re-think what *Direct* action means)
Anyway, that's a lot that's not really connected to all this stuff. Love and respect to all those who are having to deal with this. I'm personally not sure regarding the value/problems of dealing with the corporate media on all this (perhaps it will help reveal others, advance our cause, make the general public hate the police even more, all good things), but as someone who didn't know mark, and isn't even sure I recognise him (though I've obviously been tangled in similar circles from the events I've heard he was at), I respect the right of those who HAVE had to deal with the shit to figure out how to deal with it themselves. We should be offering solidarity and support to them, not attacking them for decisions we might not have made personally. Critique is fine (and its definately worth having a no-holds-barred debate about how we deal with these instances, as there will clearly be similar ones in the future), but there's no need to add to the sense of paranoia and divisiveness by getting personal (or excessively strident) about it.
In fact, those who do so - without meaning to be divisive myself - make themselves out as nothing so much as police trolls or divisive undercovers themselves...
(p.s. Fuck that bastard. I'm sure he's not having a very nice mental time of it, and I feel a very slight pang of human sympathy. Plus, maybe some of what he's saying - amongst the lies - is useful. Nonetheless, fuck him. wanker. utterly agree that he should be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life. He'd have to do an awful lot of very helpful stuff for more than 7 years to be deserving of *any* forgiveness)
peterpannier
Yeah - really getting real....
17.01.2011 12:54
Most people on here - possibly. Most people - no they wouldn't.
As I said to the enviros 'Get real' - my comments were not addressed to AR - to far gone as your posting makes clear.
@realist
@@realist - I think you underestimate the public
17.01.2011 13:48
I think you underestimate how much sympathy there is around for animals and against animal abuse.
Don't believe all the media spin that has been pushed about animal rights recently at the behest of some very rich and powerful people. Although you are probably a part of this process yourself, so you will know it is bullshit anyway.
anon
Secret Police are shitting themselves
17.01.2011 13:58
They also don't have the bottle to infiltrate real terrorist groups or criminal gangs where they would be exposed to danger.
Right now while all this is in the media, there must be some still embedded who are shitting themselves knowing they could be exposed any minute.
Next time you meet your activist pals, mention how pathetic the exposed ones are, and how it must be real shit to live a double life and grass on people who trust you. If there are any secret police present, make them squirm inside, as they are expecting to be outed at any time. It may be interesting to see people's reactions when talking about this.
Mainly though, we just have to accept there will be a secret police quite close to us, but don't let that stop us from doing what we have been. The existence of these pathetic undercover Bond wannabees just shows how shit scared the state is of us and how affective we have been over the years.
La lucha continua!
info
Ratcliffe 20
17.01.2011 14:25
I don't think the wheels did come off. It very nearly DID work, and the sentences passed (conditional discharges for most, CSOs for those with "bad" records) certainly mean the whole expensive shebang didn't work for the cops and the prosecution. They were made to look complete dicks.
Although Mark Kennedy had not been exposed when the defendants first decided to argue self-defence, it happened several months before the trial, giving time for re-evaluation. Do you play watch rugby union? It's a bit like when the ref awards you a penalty, but play goes on. You can then try something very ambitious, even outrageous. If it doesn't come off, it doesn't matter because you're going to get a penalty in your favour anyway. It's a bit like that. It didn't quite come off, but now there's a likely opportunity for a second bite at the cherry on the basis Kennedy was an agent provocateur. Subject to what the defendants think and legal advice, of course, but I believe appeals are now being actively considered.
Stroppyoldgit
Nope - you miss the point
18.01.2011 11:42
It DID achive massive publicity - most now diverted to the UC questions
The 'wheels came off' when a jury, presented with the full fat - extra NASA inconvenient truth presenatation decided that these aims did not justify the means (or intended means). Thus reversing the Kingsnorth victories.
It isn't the end of protesting or this campaign but it may mean the end of this sort of protest. The next Judge may be less understanding.
Once agan (and I know I risk the wrath of the zealots) look at the downfall of the AR campaigns, from tangable victories to substantial jail terms. Eco protest dosn't have to follow that curve.
@Realist
Sawyer, get real
18.01.2011 17:00
A few months ago that advice would have has had us all standing together with Mark Stone. That is poor advice from you Lynne, and you don't seemed to have learned any lessons, espcially since you with the sloppy old shit that has consistently placed others at risk with consistently awful advice mixed with petty point-scoring. I can't think of a non-sexist way to say this, but grow a pair. We should be aiming for more than minimising damage to us, we should be aiming to do them some damage. That means admitting basic errors and genuinely learning from them, including excluding the unexposed sources of our problems. British activists are the laughing stock of Europe now, and the people most to blame for that are the people you are still praising. I know you are better than that so stop praising solidarity and start emphasising dissent .
not true
No risk, no reversal
19.01.2011 09:18
@ Realist Nothing, including the Kingsnorth acquittal, has been "reversed". NO precedent has been set which will affect anyone else. Precedents are made only if appeals are taken to a higher court. These self-defence, prevention-of-genocide type of principled defences rarely work but occasionally they do (as at Kingsnorth). It's all down to the casino-style randomness of a jury -to luck as much as to good legal work- and no precedent is set or damage done.
Obviously, the 20 people convicted will need to take careful legal advice about whether to appeal on the basis of Kennedy's role. They'd have to be sure the issue could be confined to that and not spill over into harming principled defences in future (i.e what you incorrectly say has already happened). It's at the appeal stage that precedents are made and previous gains might be reversed, not earlier.
Stroppyoldgit
Nice.....
19.01.2011 09:40
I have no problem with fighting back, I have no problem with dissent and I have no prblem with people forming small cliques with others for security purposes and steering clear of others but in general for a large movement and those of us who wish to engage with other activists it does mean there is a risk of infiltration. I personally would rather show some trust and freindship to a new activist or someone I didn't know and show solidarity than assume they were a cop. Many very experienced activists did not recognise Mark Kennedy as a cop but this does not mean that we should run to the hills screaming. I reiterate, this probably has not been handled perfectly, but I fail to see how it could have been handled better with information had at the time and the shock of those who uncovered this, of course there is much I do not know, nor do I wish to know. The sniping and backbiting against other activists on Indymedia has been appalling.
Lynn Sawyer
My point is to be realistic
19.01.2011 12:10
We need to be relalistic and take a measured view - dificult to those who are by nature idealistic
@Realist