UK blacklist of whistleblowing construction workers

[Magda Hassan]

Police colluded with blacklisting agencies over 70 years

Posted on August 19, 2013 by admin

Today the Guardian reported on how British police were working with the blacklisting agency, the Consulting Association (CA). However, the CA grew out of an organisation much larger and with a 70-year old history: the Economic League. In its early days the Economic League worked hand-in-glove with the security services as well as with the Tory right. It is inconceivable that it did not work similarly with the police. The current inquiries by the Scottish Affairs select committee into police involvement in, basically, blackmail because of someone's political beliefs or their concerns, say, over health and safety matters, should be extended into the Economic League years. The primary evidence is at hand see below…
The diagram below, courtesy of Spies At Work , shows the history of the Economic League and how it spawned the Consulting Association. A book covering the entire history of the Economic League and its links to the Tory right can be found here . The above video is by Reel News and documents the current anti-blacklisting campaign.
HERE IS THE ENTIRE LIST OF OVER 2000 COMPANIES THAT SUBSCRIBED TO THE ECONOMIC LEAGUE.
See also many more exposes on the Economic League and the Consulting Association by clicking on the Blacklisting' menu item above.

The revelations in the Guardian article about police (Special Branch) collusion with blacklisting agencies going back at least four decades' emanate from whistleblower Peter Francis. The Consulting Association was closed in 2009 after the data watchdog, the information commissioner, declared it was amassing files unlawfully. But Dave Clancy, the senior investigator from the watchdog that raided and closed down the blacklisting agency, testified that "some of the details in the files he seized would have been supplied by the police or the security services". Also, that "the wording of information about vehicle registrations and deportations appeared to originate from police records".
An ongoing investigation, as part of Operation Herne, into the activities of the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a deep undercover section of Special Branch, is underway. Officers of the SDS are alleged to have colluded with blacklisting agencies after a complaint submitted by the Blacklist Support Group (BSG). The Metropolitan Police originally refused to investigate the complaint but was forced into a u-turn after a successful appeal to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) by Christian Khan solicitors.
Sarah McSherry partner at Christian Khan said: "The IPCC's decision to uphold our clients' appeal and require the Metropolitan Police Service Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) to record their complaint is in stark contrast to the DPS' original view that "the complaints process is not the correct vehicle to forward their concerns or allegations". We will be making further representations to the IPCC that, given the seriousness of the allegations of widespread corruption and criminal behaviour on the part of Metropolitan Police officers, the DPS should have no involvement in the investigation of this complaint which should be the subject of an independent investigation".
The issue first came to light in January 2012 when David Clancy (head of investigations at the ICO and himself an ex-police officer) gave evidence to an Employment Tribunal that "information on some of the blacklist files could only have come from the police or the security services". Mr. Clancy repeated the assertion when giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee investigation into blacklisting.
The involvement of police or security services in the blacklisting of trade unionists has been raised in parliament by shadow Employment Minister Ian Murray MP. Labour's John McDonnell MP and Michael Meacher MP have both demanded a full Leveson-style Public Inquiry, a call which is supported by the TUC and all the major trade unions.
In addition, Ian Kerr (the deceased Chief Executive of the Consulting Association) told The Times about a meeting in 2008 where eight construction industry directors were addressed by a "key officer" of a police organization the National Extremism Tactical Co-Ordination Unit (NETCU) and agreed a two-way sharing of information. Also, it was disclosed that the names of over 200 environmental activists appeared on the Consulting Association blacklist so making claims about the involvement of undercover police officers even more credible.
Dave Smith, from the Blacklist Support Group added…"There are entries on some blacklist files that are detailed surveillance reports about anti-racism demonstrations that took place nowhere near a building site. We already have other evidence to suggest that this information was compiled by undercover police officers. There are entries on other blacklist files that contain private sensitive information that has never been in the public domain and that no manager or Director of a building firm would ever have access to. It is difficult to conceive of any possible way this information could appear on the construction blacklist without the police, security services or some other arm of the state being the original source. Undercover police and big business spying on trade unionists and anti-racism campaigners where are we living: Nazi Germany? Apartheid South Africa? We want to know why information collected by the police has ended up on a secret blacklist of trade unionists operated by multinational companies. If police collusion is proven, at best it is individual corruption. At worst it is systematic state involvement in a major human rights conspiracy."
In another article in the Guardian Dave Smith emphasised, further, how police collusion in blacklisting goes way beyond industrial matters. "Blacklisting is no longer an industrial relations issue; it is a conspiracy between multinational construction firms, the police and the security services. The parallels with phone hacking are obvious. While that led to a once-in-a-generation opportunity to clean up the worst excesses of the press, blacklisted workers are still asking: "Where is our Leveson?" There is, however, a significant difference from phone hacking, where the police involvement was supposedly due to individual corruption. The police collusion in blacklisting is not one or two rogue officers, but standard operating procedure by the state to target campaigners under the guise of "domestic extremism", routinely sharing information with big business."
See also http://www.theguardian.com/p/3t6jc/tw

http://darkernet.in/police-colluded-with...-70-years/