March 2019: Activists and the Surveillance State book launch tour

Activists and the Surveillance State – Learning from Repression, is a new book edited by Aziz Choudry. Both Emily Apple and Undercover Research Group’s Eveline Lubbers have written a chapter about their experiences with undercover officers and the importance of mapping the spycops scandal.

Aziz Choudry is in the UK early March and we are joining him on his book launch tour, crossing England and Scotland in just over a week, the what and where listed below.Join us if you can, and help us spread the word!

Find more on the book and the author at the Pluto website, and a long blog post by Aziz, Activists, State Surveillance and Political Policing, explaining the content.B

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.

The UK book launch tour

Monday 4 March: Cambridge 4:00 – 6:00 pm

Activism, State Surveillance & Repression of Politics.


Join us in Cambridge for a talk on state surveillance, monitoring, and infiltration, and repression of activist movements.

The panel includes: Aziz Choudry (editor of Activists & The Surveillance State), Eveline Lubbers of the Undercover Research Group, and  ‘Jessica’ , a woman and activist who was deceived into a relationship by an undercover police officer. More…

Hosted by the Critical Theory & Practice Seminar Series, and Preventing Prevent at Cambridge University.

Where: Lightfoot Room, St John’s College, Old Divinity School.

Facebook event


Tuesday 5 March: Brighton 1:00 – 2:30 pm.

Past Struggles, Present Realities, Future Victories? Social movement learning and knowledge production.

Key features in resistance to state spying and repression have been collective organising, activist research and political education. This can break the isolation, fear and alienation, divide and rule strategies exercised by state power. More…

Hosted by the University of Sussex’s Centre for International Education

Where: University of Sussex Room 333, Arts C. See.announcement.


Wednesday 6 March: Glasgow 5:15 – 7:00 pm.

Activists vs the surveillance state: Learning from Repression

What can activists learn from each other across generations, communities, struggles and countries about state security practices, about the interests that they protect, and from the resistance of activists and movements being spied upon? With Aziz Choudry, Eveline Lubbers and ‘Andrea’, a woman and activist who was deceived into a relationship by an undercover police officer.  More…

Hosted by the Socialist Theory and Movements Research Network.

Where: Venue change! Lecture Theatre 718 in the Adam Smith Building (opposite Lilybank House), University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ. 

Facebook event.


Thursday 7 March: Nottingham 4:00 – 6:00 pm.

Aziz Choudry talks about how the book grapples with the social amnesia that sometimes exists within progressive political milieus and broader publics about the longer histories of ‘national security’ and political policing. Dónal O’Driscoll  from the Undercover Research Group will explain how mapping the infiltration of activist groups and political campaigns supports the struggle for justice and transparancy.

This is a free student led event, hosted by the Nottingham University Business School

Where: Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham, Wollaton Rd, NG8 1BB


8 March: Manchester, 5:30 – 7:30 pm.

NPMP host a panel discussion on Learning on Repression

 In order to discuss his new edited collection ‘Activists and the Surveillance State’, Dr Choudry will be joined by one of the book’s authors, Dr Radha D’Souza (Univesrity of Westminster), and long-standing member of the Northern Police Monitoring Project, Dr Waqas Tufail (Leeds Beckett University).

Hosted by the Northern Police Monitoring Project.

Where: Uni of Westminster, Lecture Theatre A, University Place, 176 Oxford Road, M13 9PL. Please register on Eventbrite.


9 March  Edinburgh, 4:00 – 6:00 pm. Pedagogies of Repression: Activists vs the Surveillance State
An evening with Aziz Choudry and Eveline Lubbers

Join us for an evening of discussion with Aziz Choudry and Eveline Lubbers, editor of and contributor to Activists and the Surveillance State: Learning from Repression respectively. We will hear about the surveillance, harassment and infiltration directed against activists, organisations and movements, and what we can learn from this.

Hosted by The Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh

Where: Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh. 17 West Montgomery Pl, EH7 5HA

See Facebook event

Monday 11 March: London 2019 6:00 – 8:00 pm.

The launch of Activists and the Surveillance State – Learning From Repression

The speakers are contributors to the book.

Nafeez Ahmed, an award-winning investigative journalist, best-selling author and international security scholar. He is currently editor-in-chief of INSURGE intelligence, a crowdfunded investigative journalism project.

Emily Apple, writer and activist. She is an editor and writer at The Canary and is a core participant in the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

Aziz Choudry, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Social Movement Learning and Knowledge Production in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University. He is an activist and author of several books on learning from activism and knowledge production within social movements.

Radha D’Souza teaches law at the University of Westminster and works with a number of social movements in the UK and India including Campaign Against Criminalising Communities.

Sam Raphael: Chair and moderator. Sam Raphael teaches International Relations and Geopolitics at the University of Westminster. He runs The Rendition Project funded by the ESRC and works with NGOs and human rights investigators to uncover and understand human rights violations in the “War on Terror”. 

Hosted by The Westminster Law, Development and Conflict Research Group

Where: Room RS UG04, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, W1B 2HW. Please register on EventBrite.

With thanks to the Undercover Research group for the above information.

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