Reflection on The Women Who Uncovered the Spycops Scandal screening at GWL

This week the Library hosted a screening of an extremely powerful film, which set out to tell the story of what has become known as the ‘spycops’ scandal.

‘The Spies who Ruined Our Lives’ is a full-length documentary, featuring some of the campaigners whose lives have been turned upside down as the result of the revelation that people they considered fellow activists, comrades, close friends and, in some cases, more than just friends, were not who they seemed.

In many of these cases, it was women who, having grown suspicious of their ‘partner’ (often after he’d vanished without trace from their lives) tried to track him down and discovered that he was in fact a police officer being paid to spy on them.

It has also been women who have been at the fore-front of the campaign for truth and justice that has been ongoing for over a decade now. We heard from two of these campaigners, who took part in a question & answer session after the film.

“Wasn’t it grooming?” asked one attendee, disgusted to hear about the way that undercover officers had deceived women into sexual relationships. ‘Jessica’, one of those who’d been deceived, when she was in her own words still “a naive teenager”, agreed that in her opinion it certainly was.

We asked other members of the audience what they’d learnt. “It made it very clear that these weren’t ‘rogue officers’ at all, that this was a deliberate strategy on the part of the police, and that as an institution, they’re utterly misogynist”.

The film contained a lot of disturbing details, and many individual stories, but also gave us the bigger picture. “I found all of it quite overwhelming” said another audience member. “I hadn’t realised how political the policing was”.

Some of those who came along said they weren’t surprised to hear that the police had spied on activists, but were shocked by the sheer extent of these operations: the number of groups that were infiltrated and the number of events that were reported on, “how insidious the whole thing was”.

“We still don’t know the full truth, and it sounds like we never will”. This was in reference to the secrecy that still surrounds this issue, and the ongoing public inquiry. Many of the officers involved in this have been granted anonymity, and many of the reports they filed have been destroyed or continue to be hidden, despite campaigners demanding to see their files.

“I thought the film was amazing”. “I feel like I need to learn more about this now”.

The campaigners’ recommended reading list included a number of books, some of which were written by women, and are now in the Library’s collection.

These include ‘Small Town Girl’ by Donna McLean, ‘Secret Manoevres in the Dark’ by Eveline Lubbers and ‘Deep Deception’, collectively written by five of the women from the Police Spies Out of Lives group. All three are also available in Glasgow Libraries.

A display of four books; ‘Small Town Girl’ by Donna McLean, ‘Secret Manoeuvres in the Dark’ by Eveline Lubbers and ‘Deep Deception’, collectively written by five of the women from the Police Spies Out of Lives group, and ‘Was My Friend a Spycop?’ by [an] Undercover Research Group.

This last one willl form the basis of a new three-part series on ITV1 & ITVX, starting on 6^th March, and is due to be reissued as a paperback (with a slightly different title) on 13^th March.

There is a new graphic novel, covering the history of policing and showing how the spycops developed from this, some pages of which were displayed on the wall during the event.

A wall with four black and white posters printed from the graphic novel ‘Spycops: An introduction & historical context’ by Glen Hustler.

Front cover of the book ‘Disclosure: Unravelling the Spycops Files’ by Kate Wilson. The cover has various strips as though text has been redacted, and in the strips there is a photo of a woman.

Another of the women featured in the film, Kate Wilson, has a book coming out in May.

‘Was my friend a spycop?’ is essential reading for all activists, especially anyone who is worried that their group might have been infiltrated.

Front cover of the book ‘Was My Friend a Spycop?: A guide to investigating suspicions and providing emotional support’ by [an] Undercover Research Group. The cover has a shadowy illustration of a police officer waving a baton.

There is a long-running public inquiry into these intrusive, abusive police units, which only covers England and Wales, and despite costing over £100 million, seems unlikely to uncover as much information as we’d like, or

Front cover of the book ‘Political Undercover Policing in Scotland’ by Eveline Lubbers. The cover is blue with a yellow map of Scotland.

Campaigners tried to have it extended to cover Scotland as well, and took the Scottish Government to court over its refusal to hold an independent inquiry into undercover policing up here. Both of these attempts were unsuccessful. The Undercover Research Group produced a report on ‘Political Undercover Policing in Scotland’ in 2019.

As another attendee said, “it’s critical that we learn from history”.

“I’d urge everyone to read and watch more about this topic”.