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“Notes from the Borderland” Sporadical
periodical. Issue reviewed #5, Winter 2003-4.
64pp, A4. Illus. £3.50 from
Larry O’Hara, BM Box4769, London, WC1N 3XX.
After a long wait issue 5 of this publication has finally
made it through the letterbox, and the initial impressions are favourable, as
the production values have been improved and it now sports a glossy full-colour
cover. The magazine, for those who have never heard of it, is a radical left /
green / republican / libertarian ‘zine which focuses on the whole shadowy
world of spookdom, in particular contemporary UK spookdom.
The magazine is an on-going project; so many of the
articles in this issue follow on from those in previous issues. Fortunately
these are still available from the above address, along with a range of other
NFB goodies so interested readers can order them. After an editorial, which
takes Robin Ramsay to task for re-focussing Lobster away from spooks and onto
the wider (para) political agenda,
the first major article is on Eliza Bulling-Manner, the recently appointed head
of MI5 and her family’s links to the House of Windsor. (I would say Royal
Family but what with all the scandal in the papers at the moment who knows how
long they will last?) Both of her parents came from aristocratic families and
her father served in very senior legal roles in various Tory Governments. The
speculation then is that she was chosen as a safe pair of hands in these
troubled times.
Next up is a report on the attempted frame-up of 7
activists from the WOMBLES after a fracas in Oxford Street a couple of years
back. This is a strange case as this report suggests that the State pulled back
from a full-blown prosecution and only half-heartedly went for them supposedly
in response to their spirited and political defence. Or maybe the State
prosecution people realised their case was so flimsy once most of
the defendants refused to be verballed (emphasising, once more, that you
should never admit to anything under police questioning.)
Larry O’Hara is something of a specialist on the far
right (he has done excellent research on it) and so it is no surprise to see
that the magazine is following up its investigation of the David Copeland case
with suspicions that on the day of the last bombing he was being tailed by
Special Branch and/or MI5 and they lost him. Certainly the warnings that were
circulated suggested that some police / intel people knew that gay targets in
Soho were to be the next ones hit. The magazine also has two items on the BNP,
one a political critique and the other highlighting how failures in their
security make them an easy target for state infiltration. (Although why an
anti-fascist should spend time in print advising far right-wingers of their
security failings is beyond me – shouldn’t people be exploiting them?)
Readers of earlier issues and of the pamphlet “At War
With the Universe” (about former neo-nazi and more recently ufologist Tim
Hepple / Matthews) will know of the magazine’s interest in this area. In this
issue Max Burns takes umbrage at the way he has been treated by two of
ufology’s start turns: Andy Roberts and Dr David Clark. That Max appears to
have been hard done by looks clear, but I’m not convinced that it is at the
behest of the Secret State. I suspect a minor turf-war amongst the fragile egos
of the UFO fraternity might be nearer the case. However, as anyone who has read
the items on the Flying Triangle “UFO”s on my web site will know, this is
certainly an area which has a great deal of sensitivity for the military and
where deception and disinformation is rife.
The media is another domain that the magazine attempts to
cover. This issue has another swipe at Donal Macintyre and his dodgy reporting
practices and there is a very lengthy appraisal of Peter Taylor’s series on
BBC2: “True Spies”. For those who missed these programs they were an attempt
to show what the secret state (MI5 and Special Branch in particular) were up to
in combating what the right sees as domestic subversion, others might describe
it as class struggle. In spook parlance I’d describe the operation as a
limited hangout. Hardly anything was admitted which wasn’t already in the
public domain – apart from probable disinformation and propaganda. For those
who no inkling the spooks routinely spy on trade union leaders (and militant
rank and file) and supposedly “revolutionary” groups this might have all
come as a revelation. To the rest of us it’s part of our reality set. We
assume it goes on all the time and many can recount times when it has happened.
Still it’s useful to have a detailed analysis of the programmes.
One of spookdom’s more prominent (ex?) members is David
Shayler. Although many liberals have taken up his case on a freedom of speech
angle, the fact that Shayler has been very unforthcoming about (on-going)
operations against radical left-of-centre, environmental, animal rights and
other groups has not made him very popular in those milieus. To add to his poor
reputation Tony Gosling circulated some remarks made by Shayler regarding the
apparent State infiltration of Class War. I was sent his comments and passed
them on to people who I believed might have been in a better position to comment
on this. Much hilarity ensued (not!) As
predicted having made the allegation Shayler did nothing to back it up and just
kept it hanging there, to do the maximum damage. And he wants people to trust
him? No chance.
There are a few more bits and pieces about anti-EU
shenanigans and various smaller finger pointing, items which will very little to
those outside the relevant groups. And finally (although it is in the middle of
the mag!) there’s David Black’s review of Christy Campbell’s “Fenian
Fire”. Or rather it is more of a comprehensive summary of the book which is
about the various attempts to infiltrate and expose Irish nationalist groups and
politicians in Britain in the middle / late 19th century. Black does
an excellent job and anyone reading the parallels between what happened then and
what will doubtless, strike it happened 100 years later. Even after the media
furore about “Stakeknife” and British military collusion with loyalist
paramilitary murder squads one suspects that there is so much more to come out.
OK that’s quite a “review” for a magazine but it’s
a biggie and it’s well-worth reading. I suspect some people will be put off by
the tone of the mag, whilst others will be left cold at the exposes of people
and groups about which they know little and care even less. That said anyone in
any form of oppositional group, which goes beyond polite protest, and
politicking would be well advised to read Notes from the Borderland. Meetings
will never be the same again as you sit there wondering who is the spook – and
are they working for the same firm that you are!
Recommended
7/10
Richard Alexander