Undercover policing inquiry
On 23 July, the witness statement of a former undercover policing officer (UCO) was published as part of the government-ordered inquiry into undercover policing which is expected to continue until the end of 2026. The UCO’s statement was given to the inquiry in May 2022 and details his deployment against a range of left organisations and campaigns in London between September 1988 and September 1992, including the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group (City AA) and the Revolutionary Communist Group.
From joining the Metropolitan Police (MPS) and then Special Branch, he went on to join ‘the hairies’, so called because of their scruffy appearance as part of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). After adopting the identity of a dead child, ‘Mark Kerry’ describes how he was;
‘Initially tasked against the Revolutionary Communist Group (‘RCG’) but, because this was a small and security conscious organisation, my “way in” would be through the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group (‘CLAAG’)’ which, he claimed, ‘was a more moderate, single issue front organisation for the RCG.’
After spending a couple of months involving himself in City AA, which ‘maintained a 24-hour vigil outside the South African High Commission in South Africa House’ he was ‘diverted’ to the SWP which he joined and remained a member of, recalling the absence of a ‘vetting process for membership’. In total he claimed to have made over 4,000 reports relating to matters of intelligence, identification, public order and sometimes on specific ‘large and well attended events’ during his deployment.
In his assessment ‘there was limited MPS public order interest in CLAAG because the vigil was generally easy to manage, although it might occasionally attract extra numbers or the hostility of racists’. The ‘interest in the RCG’, he understood ,‘was more from a counter subversion perspective, and therefore much more directly related to the Security Service’.
This is one of many statements and declassified documents published as part of the inquiry. On 15 July a Special Branch report from 1984 about a prospective RCG member was also published.
Those who were involved in or who are familiar with the history of City AA’s non-stop picket of the South African embassy between 1986-1990, will know it was a popular expression of militant and democratic unity with the black people of South Africa fighting apartheid and those fighting racism in Britain. The RCG’s role was to encourage and politically defend this trend.
DOMINIC MULGREW
Scotland
The IWOC can help incarcerated workers
Attention all prisoners! We are the Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee (IWOC) of the IWW labour union. We are a movement supporting prisoners, helping them fight back against the ongoing economic exploitation of prison labour. We also stand for prison abolition.
IWOC wants to ensure that all people imprisoned across Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England are treated with the dignity they deserve. We stand against structures of racism, patriarchy, queerphobia, ableism and other forms of oppression as they exist within the prison system. And aim to eradicate the enslavement of prison labourers by private companies. IWOC believes all prisoners should be paid fairly for all the work they do inside and have their rights as workers recognised!
To get involved with IWOC you must become a member of the IWW. The IWW offers free union membership to all prisoners. A union member will serve as your point of contact so they can relay to the committee the support that you need and your ideas on how we can fight back. Screws and cops can’t become members of the IWW.
In the past IWOC has organised solidarity demos and letter writing campaigns and published the prison abolition zine Bulldozer. As IWOC grows, we will engage in shutdowns, strikes and other collective actions inside prisons. We will also continue to build links with comrades across Europe and North America fighting to abolish prisons. But greater collective action begins with more individuals signing up. We need eyes and ears and radical voices in every prison across Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England.
IWOC refuses to see prisoners as anything else but our fellow workers. We believe fundamentally in establishing solidarity between all workers of all genders, colours and backgrounds. The IWOC is here for you because an injury to one is an injury to all.
IWW
PO Box 5251
Yeovil BA20 9FS
Website: iwoc.iww.org.uk
JAY
IWOC United Kingdom
Cuba leads the way in biopharmaceutical research
I wonder if your readers are aware that Cuba, a nation steeped in vibrant culture and historical significance, has quietly emerged as a powerhouse in biopharmaceutical research? Cuban-made medications and their potential to revolutionise healthcare has already captured the attention of the medical community. Itolizumab, a groundbreaking monoclonal antibody born in Cuban laboratories and already registered in Cuba, has demonstrated promising results in managing autoimmune diseases. Its impact is transcending national borders, with upcoming clinical trials being prepared in China. They are targeted studies which will focus on challenging conditions such as graft-versus-host disease and dermatomyositis. If successful, Itolizumab could transform treatment options for patients worldwide.
The joint venture between Biotech Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (BPL) and Cuban partners exemplifies global cooperation; by pooling expertise and resources, Cuba and China aim to accelerate medical breakthroughs.
DAVID WAIN
West London
Young Chauvinist League embraces racism
Of all the opportunist left’s responses to August’s racist riots, the Young Communist League’s (in their editorial ‘After the Riots and Before the Next: Immigration, Integration and Class Unity’) is the most shameful.
In their senseless crusade against ‘identity politics’ and to ‘reclaim’ English nationalism, they equate the self-defence of Harehills’ majority non-white workers against the British police’s racism with the later, nation-wide pogroms. The YCL make it a binary choice to fight either for oppressed workers or the white working class, insist migrating to Britain is ‘easy’, and even push for immigration controls to further privilege white workers. In an article published by the YCL’s magazine, Challenge, they made the following assertions:
‘The murders in Southport were promptly interpreted in a similar style to the Harehills child removal: an act of racial injustice to be opposed.’
‘…we must reject the present levels of immigration and the lazy repetition of the idea that immigration is automatically “good for us,” when “us” doesn’t refer to we, the wage reliant working class.’
‘The left made a foolish investment in trying to become the illustrious champions of the oppressed rather than the vanguard of the working class.’
The YCL’s goal in condemning the anti-racist uprising with less forgiveness than when making excuses for murderous racists (in the streets and in office) is to mask the real fact of the matter. The racist riots’ wildfire spread was due not to the ‘failure’ to stop ‘mass migration’ as they claim, but the failure of their own forces, the opportunist left, to organise disenfranchised workers to politically challenge the British state on an anti-racist, anti-imperialist basis. It is their forces’ failure to do anything but tail the labour aristocracy and smother anyone willing to do what they won’t: break completely from Labour and organise the working class’ oppressed majority.
FRANK KAASEN
Brighton
Gilead’s greed kills
On 24 September, activists targeted Gilead’s London office demanding the company allow generic manufacturers the ability to make generic Lenacapavir – a new and effective long-acting HIV prevention drug – in order to ensure global equitable access.
Unveiling a banner urging ‘Gilead Stop Your Delay: Generic Lenacapavir Now!’ along with a giant PrEP syringe, activists submitted a letter to Gilead demanding they make the drug available and affordable to low- and middle-income countries where people are most at risk of acquiring HIV.
Activists also rang a bell every 24 seconds to symbolise that someone newly acquires HIV every 24 seconds (1.3 million people per year). In many parts of the world, particularly in oppressed nations, HIV rates are rising, including by 9% in Latin America from 2010-2023.
Lencapavir, a new long-acting, twice-yearly injectable HIV prevention drug that is almost 100% effective in preventing the acquisition of HIV can be produced for $40 per person, per year, including a 30% profit margin. Gilead instead has chosen to price this ‘miracle’ drug at upwards of $40,000 a year – a price unaffordable for those who need it most.
Gilead is yet to announce an access strategy. They could share the technology and recipe freely or follow precedent with their drug Tenofovir or other HIV drugs with a voluntary licence to the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool. If this licence included all low- and middle-income countries it would allow other manufacturers to produce the drug, helping bring the price down through generic competition whilst also enabling greater supply to meet demand and ultimately help to end new HIV transmissions.
AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) have been fighting tooth and nail for the lowering of the price of lifesaving antiretrovirals, PrEP, and access to medication for all since the beginning of the pandemic and we won’t stop until the fight is over!
ANDRIA MORDAUNT
London
