Spotting Infiltrators

Spotting Infiltrators

I will be researching and  putting this together as a kind of series by a suggestion of a244 and for everyones benefit.  I will also comment on what I think in bold print on occasion.  shera~

“There are actually two kinds of informers. The deliberate informer is someone who infiltrates an organization with the specific intent of getting incriminating evidence against activists or even setting them up to be arrested. These infiltrators are either on the payroll of a government agency or may be hired by industry. The second type of informer is the activist-turned-informant — either unwittingly or because of pressure put on them by the authorities. Make no mistake, both kinds exist throughout our ranks and are equally dangerous.

Let’s discuss the deliberate informer (infiltrator) first. They
are often difficult to identify, they come in all ages and types, but they usually have a similar modus operandi–they come out of nowhere and all of a sudden, they are everywhere. Whether it’s a meeting, a protest, or an action, this person will be right in the thick of it.”

The above is taken from http://www.animalliberationfront.com/ALFront/ELF/sec-handbook.pdf

A few notes for the British political scene.

The authorities here, as elsewhere, work on the principle of either “Infiltrate, Subvert, Control” or “Infiltrate, Subvert, Wreck”. The goal is usually to infiltrate the group, find out a lot of information and then report back. If your activist group is involved in direct action, the infiltrator will try to cause the group to collapse from the inside but if your group is more of a lobbying group (or political party), the infiltrator is more likely to attempt to take it over and control it.

Actually the infiltrator will want some members of your activist collective to suspect them of being infiltrators. Anything that undermines group solidarity is within the domain of the wrecking infiltrator. By having group opinion divided over a particular person’s validity is very useful to the wrecker. Seeds of mistrust will be planted everywhere.

For example:
The infiltrator may attack one member (or one section) of the collective accusing them of being “racist”, “vanguardist”, “sexist”, “infiltrator”,
“mysoginistic”, “perverted”, “authoritarians”, “in it for the sex”, “conspiracy theorist” or similar. Anything that attempts to cause distrust and disharmony are in the wreckers arsenal. Anything that is hard to defend against is in the wrecker’s arsenal.

The wrecker will go to every single meeting, but probably not really take part in actions. They may be members of several unrelated groups. Activists will generally trust people pretty quickly, so the wrecker only has to hang around the scene for a month or 2 before being fully trusted. But it is not uncommon for an infiltrator to be involved for a year or more.

In order to split your activist or political group, the wrecker will try to undermine group solidarity. Creating arguments that are unrelated to the group’s focus. Stealing money and accusing others of doing this. Pointing out flaws with people in order to undermine solidarity. e.g. “They shop at tescos, wear nike, don’t recycle, fly in planes, are rich” etc. These flaws may be real, but they will be exploited by the wrecker in order to destroy your group.

Wreckers will be at every meeting, but you will probably not get to see their home. If you regularly get invited to someone’s home, they are probably not wreckers.

Sometimes wreckers work in pairs – In order to disrupt the group 2 wreckers will have cleverly-timed but meaningless arguments. They’ll argue about anything that is unrelated to the activist group. They’ll argue about fundraising, priority of actions, etc. They’ll call each other “trots”, “leeches” or try to exploit the “social anarchist v lifestyle anarchist’ divide. They’ll argue about the validity of violence, about some finer philosophical points or the merits of veganism. They’ll argue, argue argue until you all want to run away and they have suceeded. They’ll argue about sexism, they’ll argue about which book to read. They’ll argue about group direction.

A pair of wreckers may take over a mailing list by having arguments. They may also send many many mails forcing some people to unsubscribe due to excess traffic.

Some wreckers will often advocate militancy and violence. Nothing will discredit your group more than the use of violence. Be Non-violent. Wreckers will fight the police which will can cause clamp-downs on activists. We urge you all to remain non-violent for the sake of safety, public relations and outing infiltrators.more

WHAT NOT TO SAY/ “DON’T ASK & DON’T TELL