Britain: Protests and political campaigning redefined as “domestic extremism”

[Hannah Bell]

A series of articles in the Observer and Guardian newspapers reveals that the state and its various spying agencies now define all political protest and campaigning as “domestic extremism.”

The National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) was established under Prime Minister Tony Blair in March 1999. It now oversees the operations of the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit (Netcu) and the National Domestic Extremism Team (Ndet).

The three secretive units actively spy on and compile a database of thousands of “domestic extremists.” They also co-ordinate their work with the Confidential Intelligence Unit (CIU), whose existence only came to light in February of this year. According to the Guardian’s research, these three police units are run by the “terrorism and allied matters” committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), which receives “£9m in public funding, from police forces and the Home Office, and employs a staff of 100.” The Guardian adds that Anton Setchell “is national co-ordinator for domestic extremism.”

The newspaper comments that the NPOIU “runs a central database which lists thousands of so-called domestic extremists. It filters intelligence supplied by police forces across England and Wales, which routinely deploy surveillance teams at protests, rallies and public meetings. The NPOIU contains detailed files on individual protesters who are searchable by name.”

The Observer described the NPOIU files as “essentially a giant database of protest groups and protesters in the country,” whose purpose is “to gather, assess, analyse and disseminate intelligence and information relating to criminal activities in the United Kingdom where there is a threat of crime or to public order which arises from domestic extremism or protest activity.”

Originally targeting “animal rights groups,” NPIOU was expanded in 1999 to “include all forms of domestic extremism, criminality and public disorder associated with cause-led groups.” It contains some information supplied by companies that hire private investigators to spy on protesters, sometimes by infiltration...

The reports confirm that under the guise of the “war on terror,” Labour has established the apparatus of a police state. The focus on so-called “domestic extremism” is aimed at silencing the growing social and political opposition that is developing amongst millions of working people in opposition to the official parties and their policies of imperialist war and austerity.

Acpo is reportedly taking a close interest in the ongoing strikes by postal workers. The Guardian stated that the association “was closely monitoring the situation and had issued guidance to forces on dealing with large-scale strike action. Each police force is assessing and reviewing the implications for public disorder that might arise from industrial action.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/bspy-o29.shtml