Agent-provocateurs, Spies and How to Deal With Them

One of the oldest dirty tricks in the book and people are still falling for it. A few years ago in Minneapolis a couple of guys were encouraged to make molotovs by an agent provocateur. They never used those fire bombs but into the slammer they went. Now the three Occupy fellows set up by another secret police agent, for supposedly plotting to blow up a bridge.

There is a dirt simple and very basic rule of thumb that stops provocateurs dead in their tracks. If someone comes up to you and says "We gotta get more militant!" you agree, and he starts moving the conversation in the direction of guns, molotovs, bombs or anything else like that, you have an agent provocateur in your midst. Cooly and calmly tell him you are not into that sort of thing, leave and inform the rest of your group about the conversation. If possible get a picture of the person. Immediately exclude this individual from your organization or affinity group and inform other groups of the existence of this secret police agent.

Here is a very basic fact about people who are genuine armed struggle types. They act alone or in very small groups of trusted friends. Genuine illegals do not go around blabbing and do not casually recruit people. Genuine illegals act, they do not sit back and try to get others to do their attentats for them. So if you are approached in this manner, it is virtually certain you are provocateur bait.

Of course, there is the possibility that this person is not an agent and is just plain stupid or crazy. Too bad if this clown gets branded as a cop, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Mass meetings and large organizations will be infiltrated by secret police spies. Now in the real world, 98% of what we do does not need secrecy as it is perfectly legal and within our democratic rights. We can be totally open, and ought to be. Secrecy for no reason only encourages their paranoia. If it is genuine information that is wanted, there is no need for the authorities to sneak around to obtain it. What they want, however, is for you to say or write something that can be twisted into a statement encouraging violence or illegal acts that can then be used as evidence in bogus conspiracy trials in an attempt to bully the movement into passivity. (Think G20 trials!)

Simple rule of thumb – never write or say anything that can be manipulated into advocating violence or serious illegality. Try to overcome the long standing left wing love of violent rhetoric. Speak moderately, but act militantly, and not the opposite as has so often been the case!

There are the activities that cannot be broadcast to the world. If you are organizing a union, you don't want the boss finding out about it. If you are going to engage in a surprise civil disobedience blockade, you obviously do not want the authorities to have this information. Tasks such as these should never be planned at large or open meetings. They should be consigned to small groups of trusted people, of militants who known or who have worked together for many years and virtually impossible for the secret police to infiltrate.