This real-life drama from the Guardian (UK) has a little bit of everything – environmental protesters, undercover agents, mass arrests, trial controversy, the works. I encourage everyone to read it, as I think it captures a large part of the current dynamic between the green movement, on one side, and the government/law enforcement, on the other.
Essentially what we have is an undercover cop infiltrating over 20 environmental groups (including the Nottingham group discussed in the article), possibly provoking them to carry out mass trespassing and/or sabotage, and then – according to reports, at least – ultimately realizing that after years of moving in green circles, he’s become a green himself! We’ve got a convert!
In the meantime, six activists are arrested, charged and put on trial, only to see the trial collapse when the undercover agent’s role was exposed and evidence came out that the agent himself may have been one of the prime instigators, if not THE prime instigator, of the protest action in question.
Those are just the details – there’s more where they came from if you follow the chain of links related to the story. I’m more interested in the big picture, because, despite the undercover-agent-turned-rogue-agent spectacle and the Law & Order-style courtroom drama, there are some lessons that we can take away from this story.
The first lesson, I must humbly admit, is that green politics, green values, green lifestyles and green causes are strong enough on their own to win over the most unlikely of individuals. Give yourselves a pat on the back, any of you who helped to put Mark Kennedy on the right path over his seven years as a mole.
The second is that government and law enforcement officials are still frightened and threatened by the environmental movement, a symptom that I believe extends far beyond the UK. From my admittedly outsider’s perspective on this matter, the authorities in Nottingham and elsewhere were not exactly dealing with Al Qaeda or even the Earth Liberation Front. Yet they saw sufficient threat to send in undercover officers and pursue these groups for YEARS. This, to me, is the most unsettling bit of the drama.
As the activists’ attorney remarked to the Guardian: "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 preemptive arrest of protesters, to extremely restrictive pre-charge bail conditions, to the seemingly arbitrary nature by which the 114 initially arrested were reduced to the final 26 who were eventually charged…This is a serious attack on peaceful, accountable protest on issues of public and pressing importance…One expects there to be undercover police on serious operations to investigate serious crime. This was quite the opposite.”
Quite the opposite indeed, and harrowing if you stop to think about it. Which brings me to the third lesson in this: you, green activist, are possibly being watched. The longer you’ve been around, the higher your profile, the more likely it is that your file has come across the desk of someone like Mark Kennedy. Your activities, although probably harmless, are of interest to the state. All the more reason to do things the RIGHT way, to be on your best behavior, to let your words and responsible actions do the talking – instead of dumping barrels of human waste or chaining yourself to an information desk or hitting women in the face like Steve Munson.
There is even less room for error than you may have realized. Don't screw it up. Be smart, be civil and lead by example. Don't give some overzealous investigators a reason to make you the fall guy. Even if it seems like it couldn't happen to you, we've got yet another case study to tell us that it certainly can.
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