Undercover cop inquiry call

A review into undercover policing in Scotland is too narrow and needs to be broadened into an inquiry that will include the use of police spies during the historic 1980s print workers strike, Unite’s Scottish secretary has said.

Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty said there are still big questions to answer about the use of undercover police officers during the News International dispute at Glasgow’s Kinning Park printing plant between 1986 and 1987.

Concerns have also been raised that the Scottish review will not take into account undercover police activity during the miners’ strike, poll tax protests or blacklisting scandal.

Speaking at an exhibition in Glasgow to mark the three decades since the News International dispute began, Rafferty made clear that a review of undercover policing by the Scottish government is toothless and does not reach far back enough in time.

He said, “For years, trade unionists have felt that there was something wrong with the policing at Kinning Park. Secret police files uncovered earlier this year show that Special Branch officers were spying on trade unionists involved in the dispute, and recording them as they went about lawful, peaceful protest.

“In England and Wales, the Pitchford Inquiry will look at all aspects of undercover policing going back to 1968. The Scottish government has announced that there will be review of undercover policing in Scotland. But it is only a review by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC). It won’t take evidence in public, it won’t be able to compel evidence, and its remit only goes back to 2000.”

Unite has been given special status as a core participant in the Pitchford Inquiry and will raise questions about the News International dispute.

Many believe that during the dispute, which was one of the biggest of the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher’s government colluded with News International owner Rupert Murdoch to break the trade union movement and victimise its members.

Scottish people denied inquiry

Given the seriousness of the subject matter, Rafferty said it was simply not good enough for Holyrood to deny the Scottish people a wide-ranging inquiry of their own.

He said, “We have to ask – why is the Scottish government doing less on this issue than the Tory government at Westminster? If the Pitchford Inquiry’s remit cannot be extended to Scotland, then Scotland needs its own inquiry.”

In January 1986, Rupert Murdoch shifted production of his papers overnight to a new, non-union printworks, at Wapping in London, sacking the existing production and administration workforce of 5,500 employees. He also opened a new printing plant at Kinning Park in Glasgow.

At the time the High Court ordered the sequestration of the funds of SOGAT, the largest union involved, when distribution workers in London refused to handle News International papers. Other unions were ordered by the courts to refrain from solidarity action and fined for contempt.

More than 1,400 strikers and supporters were arrested, six were jailed and hundreds injured during demonstrations and picketing.

Complaints of police brutality and unwarranted arrests at Wapping led to an independent inquiry by Northamptonshire Police that described police actions as violent and undisciplined.

In January this year, the Special Branch Files Project unearthed evidence that strikers in Glasgow and elsewhere had been spied on by undercover police officers. It is just one of many lines of investigation in Scotland that will be left out by both the Pitchford Inquiry and the Scottish HMIC review, said MSP Neil Findlay.

Findlay said, “Any malpractice and abuses that occurred during the miners’ strike, poll tax protests, the News International dispute or the height of the blacklisting scandal will not be covered.

“The outcome from this will mean ordinary Scots involved in legitimate activity in these disputes and other activities, who were victims of police undercover operations, will in all likelihood not get any closer to justice from this review. This in itself is an injustice.”

He added, “I really do hope that the Scottish government will reassess that decision and ensure that Scots get the same access to justice as others, elsewhere in the UK, will get from the Pitchford Inquiry.”