On 10 January 2020 The Guardian revealed that a Prevent guidance document sent out in November listing extremist organisations had included Extinction Rebellion (XR) alongside proscribed terrorist groups. By the time the article appeared, the government was already backtracking; however the episode is far from accidental or isolated.
The guidance was aimed at staff in schools, hospitals and prisons, who are required by law to report concerns about ‘radicalisation’. It describes XR as ‘a campaign encouraging protest and civil disobedience to pressure governments to take action on climate change and species extinction’, claiming that this is a threat because ‘an anti-establishment philosophy that seeks system change underlies its activism; this group attracts to its events school-age children and adults likely to be unaware of this. While non-violent against persons, the group encourages other law-breaking activities.’
Uncharacteristically embarrassed by the media attention, the police told The Guardian that the inclusion of XR was ‘an error of judgment’ and the guidance had been ‘produced at a local level’. The latter point is clearly not true, as a further Guardian article on 27 January explained that the guidance had been sent to the Home Office, Department for Education, NHS England, Ministry of Defence, Prison and Probation Services and Ofsted, as well as 20 local authorities, five police forces and Counter Terrorism Policing HQ.
The same embarrassment and race to retract did not apply to a second document which was flagged up in the course of The Guardian’s investigation: the ‘Counter-Terrorism Policing National Operations Centre Intelligence Signs & Symbols Guidance Document’ had been in circulation since June 2019. It lists organisations deemed to fall within the following four categories: 1. Right Wing (including White Supremacist and White Nationalist), 2. Left Wing, 3. Animal Rights and 4. Environmental. Each category is illustrated with a page or pages of symbols, most of which appear to have been collected from website logos. Aside from the odd omission, the entire British left is detailed in category 2, with the RCG appearing in the middle of the alphabetical list between Plan C and the Socialist Party.
In a statement issued on 17 January, Dean Haydon the Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing said the Signs & Symbols document ‘was produced to help police and close partners identify and understand signs and symbols they may encounter in their day-to-day working lives, so they know the difference between the symbols for the many groups they might come across’.
Unreassured by this, some organisations listed in the guidance, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, have instructed solicitors to take legal action over their inclusion in the document. Their challenge focuses on the fact that they are ‘peaceful organisations focused on lawful protest and engagement to pursue their legitimate aims’; however the police monitoring campaign group Netpol correctly stresses that ‘It is important we don’t say “I shouldn’t be on this list”. We need to say this list shouldn’t exist.’
While it is hardly shocking that the British capitalist state should perceive any anti-establishment agenda as a potential threat to its interests there is no room for complacency here. The provision of guides to the police on ‘how to spot a left-wing group’ is just another softer part of the ‘domestic extremism’ agenda, the same agenda which for years informed the conduct of the police officers from the Special Demonstration Squad who infiltrated animal rights, environmental, anti-imperialist and left wing protest groups, as well as anti-racist campaigns like that of Stephen Lawrence’s family, and which continues to stalk, attack and criminalise protesters by myriad means. As we wrote in our review of Undercover: the true story of Britain’s secret police by Rob Evans and Paul Lewis:
‘This is the “democratic” state that sends its agents into legal protest groups and organisations to commit crimes, steal the identities of dead children, act as agents provocateurs, burgle offices and homes, pervert the course of justice, make secret recordings, form relationships (and in some cases have children) with bona fide activists and then simply walk away. As the sordid details leak out, the ruling class of course throws up its hands in horror and trots out the well-rehearsed mantra: “We didn’t know… none of this was officially sanctioned… actions of rogue individuals”. Hypocrisy and lies – the very modus operandi is summed up by the unofficial motto of one of the state’s spy outfits: “By any means necessary”.’
Nicki Jameson
- ‘The enemy within’ – Cat Alison https://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/britain/police-prisons/3090-te310713
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 274, February/March 2020
