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| Radical bookshops exploited by secret agents | Radical bookshops exploited by secret agents |
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| Tomorrow evening, I am giving a talk about our book, Undercover - the true story of Britain's secret police, at Housmans, the radical bookshop in King's Cross, London. Details of the event can be found here. | Tomorrow evening, I am giving a talk about our book, Undercover - the true story of Britain's secret police, at Housmans, the radical bookshop in King's Cross, London. Details of the event can be found here. |
| Housmans is one of the few remaining radical bookshops in the country. There was at one time - in the 1980s - around 60 radical bookshops across the country, but now there are just a handful. | Housmans is one of the few remaining radical bookshops in the country. There was at one time - in the 1980s - around 60 radical bookshops across the country, but now there are just a handful. |
| This article here discusses why radical bookshops - defined as those selling progressive or radical literature - have declined (and may perhaps be reviving). | This article here discusses why radical bookshops - defined as those selling progressive or radical literature - have declined (and may perhaps be reviving). |
| It quotes Malcolm Hopkins, of Housmans, and Andrea Butcher of Bookmarks, a socialist bookshop in the heart of Bloomsbury, central London, on why radical bookshops are more than just a place to buy things and are also important venues for campaigners to meet, discuss issues and organise protests. | It quotes Malcolm Hopkins, of Housmans, and Andrea Butcher of Bookmarks, a socialist bookshop in the heart of Bloomsbury, central London, on why radical bookshops are more than just a place to buy things and are also important venues for campaigners to meet, discuss issues and organise protests. |
| But radical bookshops have also been - inadvertently - useful to the authorities. For years, plainclothes police officers have frequently popped into the bookshops to buy the latest newspaper or pamphlet published by left-wing groups. | But radical bookshops have also been - inadvertently - useful to the authorities. For years, plainclothes police officers have frequently popped into the bookshops to buy the latest newspaper or pamphlet published by left-wing groups. |
| They would then take the publications back to their offices and fillet them for information about groups that were being monitored. It was one fruitful source of information for their files, along with reports from undercover officers, informants and the such like. | They would then take the publications back to their offices and fillet them for information about groups that were being monitored. It was one fruitful source of information for their files, along with reports from undercover officers, informants and the such like. |
| Such visits were often well-known to those running bookshops - they would amuse themselves trying to spot the coppers. | Such visits were often well-known to those running bookshops - they would amuse themselves trying to spot the coppers. |
| Bob Lambert, the police officer who spent four years undercover in animal rights and environmental groups in the 1980s, regularly visited Housmans as he built up his cover of a radical activist. | Bob Lambert, the police officer who spent four years undercover in animal rights and environmental groups in the 1980s, regularly visited Housmans as he built up his cover of a radical activist. |
| The radical books also proved useful to another secret surveillance operation that has been exposed in recent years. More than 40 major firms in the construction industry financed a clandestine blacklist that prevented trade unionists from getting work (for background see here and here). | The radical books also proved useful to another secret surveillance operation that has been exposed in recent years. More than 40 major firms in the construction industry financed a clandestine blacklist that prevented trade unionists from getting work (for background see here and here). |
| The man running the blacklist for many years was Ian Kerr. He has told MPs how he would also go to radical bookshops such as Housmans to buy the publications of left-wing groups. He would then cut out articles reporting the activities of individuals and add them to the thousands of files he kept on them. | The man running the blacklist for many years was Ian Kerr. He has told MPs how he would also go to radical bookshops such as Housmans to buy the publications of left-wing groups. He would then cut out articles reporting the activities of individuals and add them to the thousands of files he kept on them. |
| This process was, he says, "helpful". Below (in testimony to MPs) he describes what he did : | This process was, he says, "helpful". Below (in testimony to MPs) he describes what he did : |
| "I read—I obtained—I made it my business either by subscription or trawling around a lot of the very interesting, I have to say, radical bookshops that existed in London. There used to be a very good one in Camden, which closed, the Compendium. There was another one in Charing Cross and in Caledonian Road called Housmans. They used to be helpful. There was one in Leamington […] I had a subscription to the Socialist Worker, The Socialist, Labour Research, which was a very good radical and statistical magazine, and to a lot of anarchist magazines, which kept coming and going by the nature of anarchy and anarchists. There was a whole range of fringe publications around then." | "I read—I obtained—I made it my business either by subscription or trawling around a lot of the very interesting, I have to say, radical bookshops that existed in London. There used to be a very good one in Camden, which closed, the Compendium. There was another one in Charing Cross and in Caledonian Road called Housmans. They used to be helpful. There was one in Leamington […] I had a subscription to the Socialist Worker, The Socialist, Labour Research, which was a very good radical and statistical magazine, and to a lot of anarchist magazines, which kept coming and going by the nature of anarchy and anarchists. There was a whole range of fringe publications around then." |
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