In October 2019, a jury trial was held in Newcastle, with Northumbria Police in the dock. They faced a civil claim following the arrest of 14 anti-racist activists in 2013, as they attempted to join a ‘Newcastle Unites’ demonstration against the English Defence League (EDL). Many of these activists were supporters of FRFI, and at the time of their arrests they were simply petitioning and distributing literature. What distinguished them from other members of the demonstration was that they were connecting the racism of the EDL with the racism of the British state, and arguing that resistance to the EDL needed to confront the roots of racism – British imperialism. They were arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit violent disorder – a very serious charge, amounting to organising a riot – and had their homes raided and computers, phones and other belongings seized.
Following a public defence campaign[i] the arrested activists were told that no charges would be brought. Since then the campaign has filed complaints and a civil claim against the police. In 2018 the IOPC ruled that Chief Superintendent Neill, who was in charge of policing the demonstration, had a case to answer for misconduct over the arrests – or rather he would have done, but because he has since retired from the police to take up a cushy part-time role with Sunderland Football Club he was let off scot-free. The purpose of the civil claim was to force the police to answer for the arrests, and to uncover further information about who else was complicit.
Policing dissent
Chief Superintendent Neill’s evidence and questioning extended over two days. Neill described his leading role in a national review of public order policing following the G20 protests in London in 2009, where Ian Tomlinson was killed by police as he made his way home from work and the police’s approach was widely criticised. The conclusion Neill drew from this review was that police need to differentiate between groups of protesters, building up long-term relationships of ‘trust and confidence’ and using specialist Police Liaison teams. This represents a reinforcement of the ‘counter-insurgency’ strategies that were first introduced to Britain in the 1970s, and codified in Frank Kitson’s Low Intensity Operations, which provided a manual for repression, surveillance and psychological operations against working class and anti-imperialist movements. A fundamental part of this strategy is low-level intelligence gathering on all parts of a movement, to inform targeted repression and misinformation with the aim of encouraging divisions and isolating movements’ most revolutionary elements.
Neill made clear to the court that the Newcastle 14 arrests specifically targeted supporters of FRFI. He admitted that he could not have justified kettling protesters in 2013 because in his view there was no breach of the peace or imminent threat of a breach of the peace. To justify the arrests under those circumstances, he gave a dramatic account of another protest against the EDL in 2010, claiming that on that occasion a Special Branch officer had burst into the police control room shouting that ‘the RCG are going to charge down Grainger Street’, in the centre of Newcastle, toward the EDL. When CCTV footage that supposedly corroborated this was presented to the court it showed nothing of the sort – instead showing only a stationary line of people holding banners. There were no arrests of FRFI supporters at the 2010 protest. When Neill was asked if he could confirm whether any member of the RCG was present in the group on Grainger Street in 2010 – or indeed whether he could identify any individual at all – he could not, yet he continued to rely on this to justify the arrests in 2013. He claimed the ‘intelligence’, which was given the security rating ‘B21’, about the RCG’s plans to run down a street in 2010 had been received from an informant within the RCG who also supposedly told police that the RCG were planning ‘something spectacular’ in 2013. It is well known that the police employ spies in many political groups, but if an informant is giving such inaccurate information then Special Branch would be well advised to give this one the sack.
Newcastle Unites: Coppers’ narks
The other source cited by Chief Superintendent Neill was Howard Dickinson, Chair of Newcastle Unites. This is the first time that Dickinson has been named in connection with the Newcastle 14 arrests; previously Labour councillor Dipu Ahad claimed that he was the only person speaking to the police on behalf of Newcastle Unites. Whatever the specific role of individuals, there is no doubt that Newcastle Unites’ leadership explicitly told the police that FRFI supporters were not welcome at the protest and this led directly to arrests. Prior to the demonstration in 2013, Newcastle Unites excluded FRFI supporters from their organising meetings – in one case physically assaulting two comrades. At one point Dipu Ahad told an FRFI supporter that we would be ‘allowed’ to participate only on the condition that we promised not to mention state racism. Because we would not agree to such gross censorship, they resorted to using the police against anti-racist activists. Several other police officers involved in the arrest confirmed to the court that they understood the issue between the RCG and Newcastle Unites was a political disagreement, and that there was nothing in FRFI supporters’ behaviour to justify arrest.
Neill told the court explicitly that if Newcastle Unites had agreed for FRFI to join the protest, there would have been no need for arrests, because if that happened, ‘The best police officers I would have had on the streets at that time would have been Newcastle Unites protesters, because the pressure on them [FRFI supporters] not to do something disruptive, in the middle of that protest, would have been huge’. The role of the Labour Party and their allies in Newcastle Unites, in keeping protests ‘respectable’, contained and ineffectual, could not be clearer.
The verdict
After a five-day trial the judge and jury found in favour of the police, arguing that the arrests were justified. This came as little surprise – the British courts are part of the capitalist state apparatus and the judge didn’t attempt to hide his bias, guiding the jury in favour of the police, repeatedly interrupting the claimants’ barrister, and helping the police barrister to make his case. At one point he blustered: ‘of course they wouldn’t cooperate with the police, it’s in the name, Revolutionary Communist!’
Since the Newcastle 14 arrests, FRFI supporters in the city have continued to confront state racism and to call out Newcastle Unites for their attempts to restrict opposition to racism to protect Labour Party politicians. We will not be silenced, either by police or their allies among the left.
Tom Vincent
[i] For details of the campaign see: https://defencecampaign.wordpress.com
