Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS)

Victims of Britain’s political secret police speak out at an open meeting in Brighton during Labour Party conference week.

Richard Burgon MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, will introduce the meeting.

Speakers include:

Helen Steel, spied upon as an activist with London Greenpeace at the time of the McLibel trial, was deceived into a long-term relationship by undercover officer John Dines. She is one of the eight women subjected to this who, after a tenacious legal battle, secured an unprecedented apology from the Metropolitan Police in 2015.

Dave Smith was a construction worker put on an illegal blacklist of 3,000 trade unionists and activists, maintained with the active collusion of secret police. Secretary of the Blacklist Support Group, he co-authored the Blacklisted book that reveals the full shocking story.

Shamik Dutta of Bhatt Murphy solicitors represents spied-upon activists who are core participants at the forthcoming public inquiry into undercover policing.

Mark Thomas is an activist and comedian whose recent work Cuckooed documents how one of his closest comrades in anti-arms campaigning was actually a corporate spy working for the weapons firms.

The meeting will be chaired by Liz Davies of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.

Although the meeting is timed for Labour Party conference week, all are welcome and entry is free.

Venue is the auditorium of the Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton.