UNDERCOVER SPY COP EXPOSED

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: june 2016 :: RMTnews 8 T he Blacklist Support Group has exposed that Carlo Neri, who was active in union circles in the 2000s, was an undercover police officer that had infiltrated peaceful RMT picket lines. Photographic evidence shows that in October 2004 the spy cop was present at the industrial dispute following the sacking of the prominent RMT activist and now senior assistant general secretary Steve Hedley at the Kings Cross terminal for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. The presence of the police spy from the Metropolitan police's disgraced Special Demonstration Squad was captured on camera by the freelance photographer Andrew Wiard. The photographs show the police spy standing behind an RMT banner with the slogan ‘Reinstate Steve Hedley’ while handing out leaflets to construction workers who had walked out in support of the victimised union activist. Steve Hedley said that he was appalled that a secret police spy thought that it was justified to turn up on a peaceful RMT picket line in order to gather information. “I had earlier housed this person rent free as he claimed he was being made homeless and feel shocked that taxpayers’ money could be used like this to betray the trust of people engaged in completely legitimate industrial action. “We heard a lot growing up about police states in other countries whilst it turns out our state was doing exactly the same thing here," he said. The identity of the person in the photograph was discovered by Dave Smith while researching for the updated version of the book Blacklisted and first made public this month. The author said that the Blacklist Support Group was only standing up for workers’ rights. “However it seems that the British state considered us such a threat, that we were kept under constant surveillance by shady anti-democratic units in the police. “This is nothing less than political policing and has no place in a democracy. “This took place during the Tony Blair government and I want to know why trade unions were being spied on under a Labour Home Secretary. David Blunkett has serious questions to answer," he said. The Channel Tunnel Rail Link dispute is recorded on Consulting Association blacklist files of Steve Hedley and GMB organiser at the time, Steve Kelly. Both Steve Hedley and Dave Smith have been granted core participant status in the Pitchford public inquiry into UNDERCOVER SPY COP EXPOSED Both RMT assistant general secretaries faced blacklist as union demands answers from police and bosses