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Science Report By Pete Dickenson enquiry is clear. But it must be an enquiry carried out by the movement itselt. Previous 'enquiries by the Security Commission or by judges (like Lord Denning on the Profumo scandal) were clearly farcical. Their real purpose was to reassure the public on the basis of a cover-up. In Britain, though it would be better than anything so far, a Royal Commission composed of the 'great and the good' is not likely to get very far.
Labour movement enquiry The labour movement, however, has both the authority and the resources to set up an effective enquiry. There is now a mass of documentary evidence which could be collated and There would be no shortage of experts, both in Britain and internationally, willing to give evidence. If Tory ministers, Whitehall mandarins and intelligence officers are concerned about the bias of such a tribunal, they would be welcome to give their own evidence. Above all, the trade unionists, left- Computer Surveillance of the Labour Movement.
By 1980 MI5 had built up the largest 'on line' computer installation in Europe. The storage capacity of the system, known as the Joint Computer Bureau, was 20 gigabytes In 1978, equivalent to the information stored in 50,000 paperback books. Yet, according to a recently published book by Duncan Campbell and Steve On the Recconnor, ord-Surveillance, Computors and Privacy, in 1984 they began a major upgrade and expansion.
Computerisation of Mi5 records began in 1971 with the purchase of an ICL 1907 machine, small by modern standards but the largest British built computer at the time. In the late 1970's a much more powerful system was installed, based on dual ICL 2980 processors. first-hand evidence.
security services.
evalued.
activities.
trade union Like the ICL 1907, this was the most powerful British built machine of its day. Only three were ever bullt, the other two going abroad. In 1972, computer the manufacturer ICL was asked to begin to write a program, called MOD-mult, to link together the Mi5 machine with several other large government computers. The largest Installations, from MI5's, are those for car registrations at Swansea, National Insurance at New- VAT castle computer.
MI5 There is mounting evidence that MI5 use the National Insurance computer to monitor activists In the labour movement. A Special Branch detective sent a report on a shop steward at the Carnation food factory at Dumfries to MI5 in London. It arrived by mistake at the offices of the magazine Out.
report Time The quoted the steward's MI5 file number and revealed wing activists, CND members, students, and other people who have suffered directly from secret service surveillance, burglaries, black-listing, secret reports, or provocation, would be invited to give service.
The results of such an enquiry should be transmitted to the ranks of the labour movement, to provide the basis of a real campaign against the undemocratic, reactionary activities of the In the USA, the Congressional enquiries (Church and Pike Committees) set up after the Watergate scandal, brought home to the American public the sinister role of the CIA and other secret agencies (including sections of the FBI). For a time, the Freedom of Information Act allowed organisations and individuals to expose some of their sinister Unfortunately, the labour movement did not seize on this opportunity to demand the disbanding of these undemocratic organisations, and democratic control over police agencies like the FBI. In many cases, corrupt leaders were themselves in the future.
implicated in the intelligence apparatus. that individuals are identifled by their Natlonal Insurance number.
It Is obvious that the computer run by MI5, which can store information on up to 20 million people, is not '35 Nevertheless. that period showed the effect that massive public exposure can have, in this case very temporarily, in limiting the activities of the secret Future threat however strong, does not in the last analysis alter the balance of class forces Our spies should perhaps reflect on the fall of the Tsar, the Shah, Marcos, and other dictators. It was not for the want of spies that they were overthrown. Nevertheless, security services are a significant part of the capitalist state apparatus, another reserve weapon which, as the experience of Ireland shows, will attempt to play a much more active role against the working class in a period of intensified That is why their real role must be brought out, and the labour movement mobilised to counter both their present activities and the threat they may pose needed to catch spies, but to monitor not only left wing activists but large sectlons of the general population. This shows the true face of the capitalist state behind the democratic facade.
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