This week I spoke with Colin Thomas and Tim Beasley of the Bristol Radical History Group to discuss the history of state surveillance in their pamphlet 'State Snooping - Spooks, Cops and Double Agents'. From the reign of Elizabeth I right up until the present day, the British state has used spies, informants and double agents to infiltrate what it perceives to be dissident organisations. We discussed the development of surveillance institutions and the ways in which their activities have been resisted.

Episode 51 - State Surveillance in Bristol and Beyond

Spycops Undercover II

The Undercover Policing Inquiry, which started in December last year, is examining the infiltration of more than 1,000 political groups by British police since 1968. How much has been disclosed? Will more revelations come to light? And what does justice look like for those whose lives have been destroyed by ‘spycops’? Aaron Bastani is joined by Tom Fowler, host of the Spy Cops Info podcast.

Novara Audio: Radio for a Different Politics

Downstream: How Britain's Police Spied On The Left w/ Tom Fowler

Tom Fowler, anarchist and animal rights campaigner, talks about police infiltration into left political activists groups, explains why we should be concerned and what we can do to protect ourselves from those who believe dissent is wrong

For less than a pint of beer a month, you can support the continued production of this podcast. Become a supporting subscriber on Patreon: 
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Episode 7 - spycops

Spycops conference

Subscribe at patreon.com/TrueAnonPod and never miss an episode.
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Fan-favorite Tom Fowler (twitter.com/tombfowler) returns to update us on Britain’s undercover policing inquiry. Since 1968, the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NOPIU) targeted over one thousand political campaigns and activist groups, with undercover officers tasked with abusing and manipulating members of the public all in the name of undermining political participation. 

You can check out more from Tom’s work at spycops.info, where he has been detailing the national inquiry into the SDS’ activities, the lives that were forever altered and details on just who these officers were and how they operated.

Episode 242: Spycops III

Suella Braverman’s Rwanda deportation policy has been ruled unlawful by the court of appeal. We speak to Sile Reynolds from Freedom From Torture who brought the case.

Plus: the Spycops inquiry has released a new report highlighting shocking undercover tactics by Met police officers; and a new podcast is launching with fronted by centrist politicians of yesteryear.

With Ash Sarkar and Shon Faye.

Novara Live: Braverman Humiliated Over Rwanda Scheme, Shocking Spycops Revelations

Produced by Ollie Sanderson-Nichols: Following the incendiary revelations in 2011 that members of the Metropolitan Police Service, posing as activists, had been tasked with implanting themselves within protest groups and social movements between the years of 1968 and 2010, producer Ollie Sanderson-Nichols explores the history and technique of police infiltration in the UK, and its impacts on the people and communities subject to it. Approaching police infiltration as a technology of power involved in the production and maintenance of sovereign order, this podcasts examines infiltration at the level of life and death: From the disruption to the lives of the activists who were deceived into forming (often intimate) relationships with these officers; to the forms of collective life against which the state pitted itself in developing its infiltration strategies; the peculiar necromantic rituals invoked in the formation of the undercover officers’ false personas; and the necrotic effects of infiltration upon the social and affective life of movements themselves. Featuring comments from Professor Michael Loadenthal, and engaging also with the work of Professors Ben Anderson and Michel Foucault, this is the story of the ‘unliving’.

Special thanks to Professor Michael Loadenthal (University of Cincinnati, Ohio), who kindly agreed to be interviewed for this piece of work, and whose insights, both in his published research and during our discussion, proved most valuable and thought-provoking.
Many thanks also to Professor Illan rua Wall (University of Warwick Law School) for his support, feedback and guidance throughout the project, without whom this podcast would not have been possible.

• BBC Sound Effect. “Cell Doors - Period cell doors. Cell door closed with keys, bolts, etc.” Available from: sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07011124
• BBC Sound Effects. “Animals - Horse whinnying.” Available from: sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07037453
• BBC Sound Effects. “Battle Crowd - Battle Ccrowd, with men shouting. (No gunfire.)” Available from: sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07019149
• BBC Sound Effects. “Cine Projector - 16mm RCA cine projector. Threading film and short test run.” Available from: sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07004203
• BBC Sound Effects. “Crowd Of 6000 At Protest Meeting - Chatter at close of protest meeting. (6000 people, recorded outdoors in England.)” Available from: sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07017038
• BBC Sound Effects. “Deciduous Woodland - Summer: Early Evening - With blowflies and distant song thrush.” Available from: sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=NHU05061094
• BBC Sound Effects. “Weather: Eerie Wind - Weather: Eerie wind.” Available from: sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07027033
• BBS Sound Effects. “Scratches: Records - Stylus jerked off vinyl record, record scratch” Available from: sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07058170

Music used (all last accessed 22nd April 2022):
• Aaron Ximm (2012) Spring Rain. Available from: freemusicarchive.org/music/Aaron_Xi…-_Spring_Rain/
• Diablo (2010) “Hollow Body.” Available from: freemusicarchive.org/music/Diablo/H…1_Hollow_Body/
• Filmy Ghost (Sábila Orbe) (2018) “Himuro Mansion.” Available from: freemusicarchive.org/search/?quicks…imuro+Mansion+
• Kasey, C @ White Bat Audio ‘Escape from LV426’ youtu.be/2-wKcIkElIc
• Kosta T. (2016) Red in Black. Available from : freemusicarchive.org/music/Kosta_T/…_Red_in_Black/

#48: The Unliving: Spycops By Orders in Decay is licensed under a  Creative Commons License.

Japanese Horror Tales

The Unliving: Spycops

First appearance on the podcast by Liz Fuller https://x.com/Lizfuller1, a woman who was deceived by HN1 into a long term intimate relationship, she joins with Chris Brian https://x.com/bristolnoborder from the Undercover Research Group and Tom Fowler https://x.com/tombfowler to discuss both his recent appearance giving evidence at the undercover policing inquiry and her own. 

More information on the undercover officer HN1 who used the cover name "Matt Rayner":
https://powerbase.info/index.php/Matt_Rayner_(alias)
https://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/tag/matt-rayner/

Credit for the cover illustration to Oliver Saunders KC who's suggestion of aging an old photograph of HN1 was presented to a free online AI.

Episode 37: HN1, the lying prick who called himself Matt Rayner

Anders catches us up on Uk politics—the Corbyn/Sultana party meltdown, Keir Starmer’s ongoing disaster government— and then gives a little history lesson on Blairism and New Labour. But first, Make a wish kid becomes deputized to fight immigrants.

FULL EP AT
PATREON.COM/PODDAMNAMERICA

(preview) Same Old New Labour

The second part of our recorded live stream trilogy from the London Anarchist Bookfair 2025. Interviews in the bubbling bowels of Waterloo with: Alex from the People’s Letter bookshop https://peoplesletters.org. Tom from Spycops Info https://www.spycops.co.uk.  Efe from Mangal Media https://www.mangalmedia.net/index-english. And Moss from the South Thames Hunt Sabs @Souththamesehuntsabs. Topped with reports from Unite the Kingdom counter protest in London, and ideas on sticking spanners in the works

Art: Efe Levent. From Greetings Aliens part 1

Anarchist Bookfair P2: The People’s Letters. Spycops Info. Mangal Media. South Thames Hunt Sab.

Podcast series about the secret undercover political police who infiltrated over 1,000 campaign groups in the UK. Stealing dead children's identities, deceiving women into long term sexual relationships, in some cases fathering children. 

Tasked with undermining democratic participation in politics, these "spycops" were publicly unmasked by activists in 2010. This led to a police apology, significant disclosure and now a Public Inquiry into Undercover Policing since 1968.

Presented by some of the activists affected, joined by large rotating cast, this weekly series covers all aspects of the issue. With profiles of officers, reports from legal hearings, discussions with researchers, lawyers and other activists.