Dan Gillman Gives Evidence at the Undercover Policing Inquiry
ben83735
5 hours ago
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Dan Gillman has given evidence at the Undercover Policing Inquiry as part of the Tranche 3 Phase 1 hearings.
His evidence covered his role as a steward on major anti racism demonstrations and the policing tactics used during events such as those in Welling. He spoke about the work carried out by stewards to keep protesters safe, the nature of the confrontations they faced, and the way anti-fascist organising was described in undercover reports.
Mr Gillman concluded his evidence with the following statement:
“I want to say it because I think I have answered all your questions and I felt there was a direction they kind of went. The direction was to try and present me and others as a bunch of thugs, and the more that we were seen as a bunch of thugs, the more you could justify the social and sexist abuse of young women, the spying on us, the using dead children's identities, the blacklisting of us, and the spying on victims of racial abuse rather than protecting them.
And yet, I am proud of what we have done. I am proud of all the things we talked about today. I have tried to explain that we have never chosen violence, never chosen criminality. It has always been forced upon us by the fascists.
When we all, ten thousand people, went out on to Hoe Street in Walthamstow recently, we did not choose violence, we did not choose criminality, but every single one of us was breaking a public order law. Every single one of us was prepared to put our body in the way of a fascist boot or a fascist fist. That is No Platform. That is anti fascism. But when you stand there, the fascists do not turn up. They disappear into the ether.
Again, I think I said today that I have always defended democracy. I have not firebombed it, like Carlo tried to make us do. It is a different democracy to what Carlo believes in. It is a democracy where we defend families of colour who want to go out on the streets, rather than defending the fascists when they goosestep up and down Whitehall. It is a democracy where we arrest the fascists. We do not arrest one thousand old ladies who are in Palestine Action T shirts.
I am a history teacher and I teach one thousand years of mostly British history. Most of it the kids find a bit annoying and it is a bit embarrassing, nothing much I am proud of, but I am proud that this country has a proud history of standing up to fascism.
I think I am a small part of that. No Platform did not achieve much but we had a go, we picked up the baton, and if I see my grandads, I can say well, I did my bit. I am not sure Carlo, Mark and Peter can say the same. No passaran.”
His evidence forms part of the Inquiry’s examination of the Special Demonstration Squad between 1993 and 2007, including allegations of political surveillance, racism and wider misconduct.
