Sunday Times story, lessons to be learnt
Ian | 08.07.2012 13:55 | Smash EDO | Anti-racism
The extensive story today in the Sunday Times asks questions of all of us involved in radical politics and campaigns. That Smash EDO comes out looking bad perhaps predictable as most of the information the paper has is a result of a private detective infiltrator however there are facts which we need to face.
The infiltration of Smash EDO by private detective who was presumably in the pay of EDO shows once again how we must assume that infiltrators will always target campaigns that are making a difference, this is something we can take pleasure from - we are making them sweat. However we must understand how once a campaign is targeted the infiltrators can be successful as was listed in the article when the author talked about "reducing participants as a priority". The success that was achieved in this area is one we can all now understand, in short the campaign was nobbled.
The second key area in the article is one that will proably receive more attention, the deliberate decision to exclude three campaign supporters from active involvement because of their religion with one of those involved saying that legal proceedings are process. No debate needed here, this was wrong and although it may have been done for reasons that seemed ok at the time a mistake was made and needs to be faced up to.
Mistakes have been made, that is true but this was a campaign targeted by a well funded, motivated group with a determination to see it fail, the fact that they contributed to that failure with a major intake is really immaterial.
The second key area in the article is one that will proably receive more attention, the deliberate decision to exclude three campaign supporters from active involvement because of their religion with one of those involved saying that legal proceedings are process. No debate needed here, this was wrong and although it may have been done for reasons that seemed ok at the time a mistake was made and needs to be faced up to.
Mistakes have been made, that is true but this was a campaign targeted by a well funded, motivated group with a determination to see it fail, the fact that they contributed to that failure with a major intake is really immaterial.
Ian
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