Sheffield Newswire Archive

Everyones being talking about Mark since Oct but what have people learned or changed? We always knew that the state was interested in our activities and that they send people to our meetings and monitor our email etc. However it seemed unlikely that the cops would take us seriously enough to go to such extreme lengths to embed a cop in our circles so deep or for such a long time. Sure, the cops would have their snitches among us, those who dedication to the cause could not compete to their own dedication to drink, drugs, parties and easy cash. Of course we also knew that the corporations we target would also be spying on us and that there were companies who specialised in infiltrating our groups and selling info to whoever would pay. When the news about Mark broke, the surprise wasn't that we had been infiltrated, it was the it was a cop and not simply a private detective or a friend turned informer.

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This was the article that appeared in the Daily Mail which confirmed Mark Kennedy's link with Global Open and Eon.

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This MOPG's latest Press Release emphasises a different aspect of the argument as to why Communities in England should benefit from a 500m Buffer Zone law. It shows how many areas of England could be prone to opencast mining because local communities, unlike those in Scotland and Wales do not benefit from having a 500m Buffer Zone policy in operation.

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Along with many others, I was sickened when I discovered that the man I knew as a fellow activist, Mark Kennedy, was in fact an undercover police officer who had been spying on us since 2003. Yet my feelings were nothing compared with those who were close to him. The betrayal and loss they are feeling is a real grief – the equivalent of someone you love dying. I went through this myself a few years ago when one of my best friends, Martin Hogbin, was exposed as a BAE spy. I denied the facts for a long time simply because the truth was too difficult. I still miss my friend, miss the good times, miss him seeing my son grow up; I don't think this feeling will ever go away.

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Wikileaks today offered sympathy and condolences to the victims of the Tucson shooting together with best wishes for the recovery of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords, a democrat from Arizona's 8th district, was the target of a shooting spree at a Jan 8 political event in which six others were killed.

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Movement beyond ‘actions’: what we have been, what we can become

As the UK moves into times of potential mass unrest, how does our movement find a way of connecting with the people around us? What is the best use of our political time, energy and experience in this new, and maybe very exciting phase? We all know that deep social change is going to take a mass movement, not just a bunch of activists – but how can we best be part of and agitate for such a movement?

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An excellent summay of the unfolding situation in the UK.

 http://orwellianuk.blogspot.com/2011/01/britain-and-long-emergency.html

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In the wake of the Mark "Stone" story breaking in the mainstream media yesterday, a lot of journalists are trying their best to dig out all the gorey personal details. They are phoning up lots of activists and trying to find out more information. You may be one of those activists.

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The Met Police are facing serious questions and the threat of an investigation into the role of one of their undercover officers. PC Mark Kennedy infiltrated activist groups between 2003-2009. On Monday, the second trial relating to planned action at Ratcliffe on Soar power station collapsed after the prosecution offered no evidence. This is believed to be an attempt to conceal the extent of involvement of their undercover officer, Kennedy, who was one of those arrested in connection with the action. He was described as having taken a leading role in planning the action and has been described as an agent provocateur by some.

Newswire: Second Ratcliffe trial collapses | Ratcliffe Trial: Media interest outside court | Ratcliffe: 2nd Court Case of 6 activist Collapses

Previous feature: Mark Kennedy/Stone exposed as undercover

 

Over the last few weeks, 20 protestors had been appearing in Nottingham crown Court, accused of conspiring to shut down the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. They were found guilty and were sentenced on the 5th January.

Today was to have been the beginning of a trial of a further 6 people arrested during the police Operation Aeroscope in which 114 people had been arrested by Nottinghamshire Police to prevent the action going ahead.

Integral to this case is the revelations of the work of the undercover Metropolitan Police Officer Mark Kennedy.

Mike Schwarz,a solicitor at the Bindmans law firm who represented the activists, said last night:
“I have no doubt that our attempts to get disclosure about Kennedy’s role has led to the collapse of the trial. It is no coincidence that just 48 hours after we told the CPS our clients could not receive a fair trial unless they disclosed material about Kennedy, they halted the prosecution. Given that Kennedy was, until recently, willing to assist the defence, one has to ask if the police were facing up to the possibility their undercover agent had turned native.”

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer was spotted in Nottingham Crown Court this morning. A few of us were wondering if that his presence had anything to do with the trial collapse? A couple of journalist asked court staff if this was so. But, no!! Apparently he was on a routine visit to the court. We looked at each other and said: “yea right” at the same time :-)

Sitting in Court 3 the defendant initially seated in the dock glass tank! were invited to seating within the court. Before His Honour Judge Milmo QC, Miss Felicity Gerry for the prosecution said that on last Wednesday 5th January, the Crown Prosecution Service undertook a review of the case and that as a result, the crown had decided to offer no evidence. The judge therefore declares all six defendants not guilty. The defendant were represented by six individual barristers each of which then applied to the court for an assortment of legal and travel costs all being agreed by the judge.

He then rose.

The whole gig done and dusted in under ten minutes!

Of course the defendants had had this case hanging over their lives since Easter 2009. Obviously being in possession of more of the facts than they had let on. It would of course have been nice if the prosecution might have alleviated their distress by pulling the plug earlier. But no!

Outside, speaking on the court steps, solicitor Mick Schwartz said that the reason for the collapse of the trial was that:
“Previously unavailable material that significantly undermines the prosecution’s case came to light on Wednesday 5 January’. The discovery of this material came at the time when the prosecution were informed that we planned to pursue disclosure of the evidence relating to PC Kennedy with the judge. Unsurprisingly, they have declined to confirm whether the new material relates to PC Kennedy. In my opinion the two are obviously connected. The timing speaks for itself. These events also beg wider, serious questions. Would this evidence have been uncovered had the defence not become aware of it through other avenues?”

The primary difference in the defence operated in these two trials was that the first 20 said in court, that they were going to carry out the action that they were accused of, but claimed that it was ‘necessary’. A lawful excuse for action. This latest trial of the six, would have said that yes, they were there, but had not decided whether to have taken part in any action, or not. PC Kennedy being present there, might have been able to help the court with that!!

It seems obvious to me that with the scale of the climate emergency in front of us, these and similar cases are only just the beginning. As time progresses runs out, many other concerned citizens will be taking direct actions on these issues. The law will of course be 47 steps behind, uncertain if action is necessary or not, or, if democracy and political process can save us. Having heard all the evidence from the last trial ….. I think not. Personally, I hope one day, the law might progress that we can eventually take action against companies / government for the new offence of ecocide, rather than defending individual peoples actions to be ‘necessary’.

Why we need a law on ecocide – Polly Higgins barrister, international environmental lawyer Guardian 5 January 2011
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-gree...

This Is Ecocide | Making the destruction of our planet a crime
www.thisisecocide.com

I wish everyone with concerns about our future, the very best in any action they can take to help us protect it. For all future generations and species on the planet. My thanks.

+

Mike Schwarz’s of Bindmans Solicitors statement on undercover policeman Mark Kennedy and the Ratcliffe trial

On Easter Monday 2009 over 400 police officers were involved in a raid at Iona school in Nottingham, which led to 114 arrests. I represented 113 of those arrested. The 114th we now know was PC Kennedy, an undercover police officer. Six of my clients were due to face a long trial starting today. However, the prosecution told the defence on Friday 7th January 2011, just before the trial was due to begin, and almost 20 months after the investigation began, that ‘Previously unavailable material that significantly undermines the prosecution’s case came to light on Wednesday 5 January’. The discovery of this material came at the time when the prosecution were informed that we planned to pursue disclosure of the evidence relating to PC Kennedy with the judge. Unsurprisingly, they have declined to confirm whether the new material relates to PC Kennedy. In my opinion the two are obviously connected. The timing speaks for itself. These events also beg wider, serious questions. Would this evidence have been uncovered had the defence not become aware of it through other avenues? And is it appropriate that access to, and decisions about, disclosure of key evidence should exclusively be in the hands of a prosecution whose primary function is to secure convictions? Let me be clear about this. My clients were not guilty. They did not agree to join in any plan to occupy the power station. The evidence of PC Kennedy presumably confirmed this. Yet that evidence, had it been kept secret, could have led to a miscarriage of justice. Serious questions must be asked relating to the policing of protest, from the use of undercover officers, to the use of expensive and legally questionable mass pre-emptive arrest of protesters, to extremely restrictive pre-charge bail condition, to the seemingly arbitrary nature by which the 114 initially arrested were reduced to the final 26 who were eventually charged. The police need to answer some serious questions about their conduct relating to protesters generally.

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The dramatic collapse of the trial of the remaining six Ratcliffe power station defendants has been seriously misrepresented.

Read more | 4 comments >>

Outline of the founding principles and notice for the first organisational meeting of MASH a new community and workplace solidarity initiative for Sheffield.

Read more | 2 comments >>

Today was to have been the beginning of a trial of a further 6 people arrested during the police Operation Aeroscope

Ratcliffe: 2nd  Court Case of 6 activist Collapses

Over the last few weeks, 20 protestors had been appearing in Nottingham crown Court, accused of conspiring to shut down the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. They were found guilty and were sentenced on the 5th January.

Today was to have been the beginning of a trial of a further 6 people arrested during the police Operation Aeroscope in which 114 people had been arrested by Nottinghamshire Police to prevent the action going ahead.

Integral to this case is the revelations of the work of the undercover Metropolitan Police Officer Mark Kennedy.

Mark 'Stone/Kennedy' exposed as undercover police officer? - Indymedia UK 21 October 2010
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/10/466477.html

Mike Schwarz,a solicitor at the Bindmans law firm who represented the activists,  said last night:
"I have no doubt that our attempts to get disclosure about Kennedy's role has led to the collapse of the trial. It is no coincidence that just 48 hours after we told the CPS our clients could not receive a fair trial unless they disclosed material about Kennedy, they halted the prosecution. Given that Kennedy was, until recently, willing to assist the defence, one has to ask if the police were facing up to the possibility their undercover agent had turned native."

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer was spotted in Nottingham Crown Court this morning. A few of us were wondering if that his presence had anything to do with the trial collapse?  A couple of journalist asked court staff if this was so.  But, no!!  Apparently he was on a routine visit to the court. We looked at each other and said: "yea right" at the same time :-)

Sitting in Court 3 the defendant initially seated in the dock [glass tank!] were invited to seating within the court. Before His Honour Judge Milmo QC, Miss Felicity Gerry for the prosecution said that on last Wednesday [5th January], the Crown Prosecution Service undertook a review of the case and that as a result, the crown had decided to offer no evidence.  The judge therefore declares all six defendants not guilty. The defendant were represented by six individual barristers each of which then applied to the court for an assortment of legal and travel costs all being agreed by the judge. 

He then rose.

The whole gig done and dusted in under ten minutes! 

Of course the defendants had had this case hanging over their lives since Easter 2009. Obviously being in possession of more of the facts than they had let on. It would of course have been nice if the prosecution might have alleviated their distress by pulling the plug earlier. But no! 

Outside, speaking on the court steps, solicitor Mick Schwartz said that the reason for the collapse of the trial was that:
"Previously unavailable material that significantly undermines the prosecution's case came to light on Wednesday 5 January'. The discovery of this material came at the time when the prosecution were informed that we planned to pursue disclosure of the evidence relating to PC Kennedy with the judge. Unsurprisingly, they have declined to confirm whether the new material relates to PC Kennedy. In my opinion the two are obviously connected. The timing speaks for itself. These events also beg wider, serious questions. Would this evidence have been uncovered had the defence not become aware of it through other avenues?"

The primary difference in the defence operated in these two trials was that the first 20 said in court, that they were going to carry out the action that they were accused of, but claimed that it was 'necessary'. A lawful excuse for action.  This latest trial of the six, would have said that yes, they were there, but had not decided whether to have taken part in any action, or not. PC Kennedy being present there, might have been able to help the court with that!!

It seems obvious to me that with the scale of the climate emergency in front of us, these [and similar] cases are only just the beginning.  As time progresses [runs out], many other concerned citizens will be taking direct actions on these issues.  The law will of course be 47 steps behind, uncertain if action is necessary or not, or, if democracy and political process can save us.  Having heard all the evidence from the last trial ..... I think not. Personally, I hope one day, the law might progress that we can eventually take action against companies / government for the new offence of ecocide, rather than defending individual peoples actions to be 'necessary'.

Why we need a law on ecocide - Polly Higgins barrister, international environmental lawyer Guardian 5 January 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2011/jan/05/ecocide-law-ratcliffe

This Is Ecocide | Making the destruction of our planet a crime
http://www.thisisecocide.com

I wish everyone with concerns about our future, the very best in any action they can take to help us protect it.  For all future generations and species on the planet. My thanks.

+++

Mike Schwarz's of Bindmans Solicitors statement on undercover policeman Mark Kennedy and the Ratcliffe trial

On Easter Monday 2009 over 400 police officers were involved in a raid  at Iona school in Nottingham, which led to 114 arrests. I represented 113 of those arrested. The 114th we now know was PC Kennedy, an undercover police officer. Six of my clients were due to face a long trial starting today. However, the prosecution told the defence on Friday 7th January 2011, just before the trial was due to begin, and almost 20 months after the investigation began, that 'Previously unavailable material that significantly undermines the prosecution's case came to light on Wednesday 5 January'. The discovery of this material came at the time when the prosecution were informed that we planned to pursue disclosure of the evidence relating to PC Kennedy with the judge. Unsurprisingly, they have declined to confirm whether the new material relates to PC Kennedy. In my opinion the two are obviously connected. The timing speaks for itself. These events also beg wider, serious questions. Would this evidence have been uncovered had the defence not become aware of it through other avenues? And is it appropriate that access to, and decisions about, disclosure of key evidence should exclusively be in the hands of a prosecution whose primary function is to secure convictions? Let me be clear about this. My clients were not guilty. They did not agree to join in any plan to occupy the power station. The evidence of PC Kennedy presumably confirmed this. Yet that evidence, had it been kept secret, could have led to a miscarriage of justice. Serious questions must be asked relating to the policing of protest, from the use of undercover officers, to the use of expensive and legally questionable mass pre-emptive arrest of protesters, to extremely restrictive pre-charge bail condition, to the seemingly arbitrary nature by which the 114 initially arrested were reduced to the final 26 who were eventually charged. The police need to answer some serious questions about their conduct relating to protesters generally.


Undercover officer spied on green activists - Rob Evans and Paul Lewis Guardian 9 January 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/09/undercover-office-green-activists

Mark Kennedy: A journey from undercover cop to 'bona fide' activist - Rob Evans and Paul Lewis Guardian 10 January 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/10/mark-kennedy-undercover-cop-activist

http://ratcliffeontrial.org
____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham.  UK
Email:                 tash@indymedia.org
Web:                   http://digitaljournalist.eu
Member of the National Union of Journalists [NUJ]
____________________________________________
"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
                                   It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
___________________________________________
<ends>

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When I first got involved in left/radical political organizing in the 1990s, I don’t recall any of us referring to our efforts as “phone activism” or calling ourselves “fax activists.” A friend who started organizing in the early 1960s assured me that he never heard the term “mimeograph activism” in those days. We used telephones, fax machines, and mimeographs in our organizing work, but the machines didn’t define our work and we didn’t spend a lot of time arguing about the implications of using them.

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According to this BBC Newsnight report, the 10th January trial has collapsed after undercover cop Mark Kennedy changed sides and offered to give evidence on behalf of the defendant's.

Read more | 1 addition | 26 comments >>

Ever since their formation, the English Defence League (EDL) have insisted that they are not racist. They are only "opposing Islamic extremism", their publicity machine repeatedly argues, despite Hope Not Hate and other anti-racist organisations exposing a significant number of hardcore neo-Nazis on their marches. Funder Alan Lake's Holocaust fantasies, and rabid racist and knife criminal Jeff Marsh's jumping on the bandwagon of the (non-islamic) "Asian paedeophilia" hype, has now firmly confined EDL spin to the dustbin. The EDL are 100% racist!

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STOP THE WAR ON THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ
 http://www.collateralmurder.com/

FREE BRADLEY MANNING
 http://www.bradleymanning.org/

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Could colder winters in U.S. & U.K. be partly result of low Summer Sea Ice? Why does the Jet Stream dip? Climate disruption interview with Dr. Jeff Masters, Meteorologist with The Weather Underground (wunderblog.com) - th 56th largest site on the Net. Also covered: Australian flooding, stormy future. From Radio Ecoshock Jan 7, 2010 24 minutes 6 MB.

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Toxic incinerator meeting / consultation.
Consultation in to the South Leeds Toxic waste incinerator .

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Dog fatally injured during race at Owlerton Stadium

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Cables released by WikiLeaks reveal how the British government provides training to a Bangladeshi government paramilitary force specialising in executing political opponents.

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