Activists and the Surveillance State

Analysis of the surveillance state from the perspective of those who have been subjected to its repression.

The use of secret police, security agencies and informers to spy on, disrupt and undermine opposition to the dominant political and economic order has a long history. This book reflects on the surveillance, harassment and infiltration that pervades the lives of activists, organisations and movements that are labelled as 'threats to national security'.

Activists and scholars from the UK, South Africa, Canada, the US, Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand expose disturbing stories of political policing to question what lies beneath state surveillance.

Problematising the social amnesia that exists within progressive political networks and supposed liberal democracies, Activists and the Surveillance State shows that ultimately, movements can learn from their own repression, developing a critical and complex understanding of the nature of states, capital and democracy today that can inform the struggles of tomorrow.

Acknowledgements
Part I
1. Lessons Learnt, Lessons Lost: Pedagogies of Repression, Thoughtcrime, and the Sharp Edge of State Power - Aziz Choudry
2. The Surveillance State: A Composition in Four Movements - Radha D’Souza
3. Activist Learning and State Dataveillance: Lessons from the UK, Mauritius and South Africa - Jane Duncan
Part II
4. Coming of Age Under Surveillance: South Asian, Arab and Afghan American Youth and Post-9/11 Activism - Sunaina Maira
5. ASIO and the Australia–Timor-Leste Solidarity Movement, 1974–79 - Bob Boughton
6. The Plantation-to-Plant-to-Prison Pipeline: David Austin Interviewed by Aziz Choudry
7. Forgetting National Security in ‘Canada’: Towards Pedagogies of Resistance - Gary Kinsman
8. Prevent as Far-Right Trojan Horse: The Creeping Radicalisation of the UK National Security Complex - Nafeez Ahmed
9. Political Policing in the UK: A Personal Perspective - Emily Apple
10. Spies Wide Shut: Responses and Resistance to the National Security State in Aotearoa New Zealand - Valerie Morse
Part III
11. Undercover Research: Academics, Activists and Others Investigate Political Policing - Eveline Lubbers
Notes on Contributors
Index