The Spycops Inquiry and the Tottenham Red Circle
The latest round of hearings into police surveillance of left-wing and radical groups and campaigns, and trade unions, is currently underway in central London.
It is covering some very serious matters indeed, including where police officers deceived female activists into relationships. It also downloads on to its website on a daily basis a large amount of reports broadly relating to the witnesses that are appearing that day.
While a good deal of the reports detail is redacted they are still of interest to historians of the left and activists who were around at the time.
I have a look daily both on an historical basis and because I expect at some point my name to feature in walk-on role. Suffice to say I have never used an assumed identity or done anything that should be remotely worthy of police surveillance but that’s not really how these things work.
This should be clear from a report I found relating to the hearing on 29th April of the Tottenham Red Circle.
Its not really clear what the relevance of the report was or is-except there is mention of Ireland (the meeting doesn’t seem to have actually discussed it) and in the early 1970s the police were particularly interested in campaigns around Ireland and the role of British troops, internment and so on.
The meeting took place at the Bricklayers Arms on Tottenham High Rd (near Spurs and still open as a pub) on 7th April 1972 and the report suggests it contained 6 people. That is 5 people and a police officer or a ‘reliable source’ as the report suggests. It notes that the meeting didn’t really discuss anything much due to sustained interruptions from someone who was known for such things. It notes that a document on Cyprus was however circulated.
It’s not entirely clear who the Tottenham Red Circle were (there may be some still around who can remember)but it seems they may have been related to the then International Marxist Group.
The report raises some wider questions. The left in Tottenham at this point had a significant presence of the Communist Party and International Socialists and there were certainly Irish Republican activists. So far however no reports on any of the three have appeared.
Perhaps they were simply weeded out over the years or remain secret. Why the report of the 6 people of the Tottenham Red Circle was made and remains is unclear.
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