Dr Raphael Schlembach has published a new book Spycops, written from the perspective of the ‘policed’ and in it he draws on his first-hand experience of police infiltration through his participation in climate campaigns. Join him and author and trade union activist Donna McLean at the launch on 17 May.
Dr Raphael Schlembach who lecturers in Criminology at the University of Brighton has written the first academic analysis of the activists’ experiences and their attempts to find answers and accountability in the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
Book launch and interview
Friday 17 May, 3-5pm – Mithras House 214
At the launch of the book, Raphael will be joined by the author and trade union activist Donna McLean. The abuse she suffered as a result of the Metropolitan Police’s undercover deployment into her personal life is nothing but shocking. She will tell us about her remarkable fight to find truth and justice for her and the other women deceived into relationships with undercover cops.
In this discussion, Raphael is in conversation with the author and activist Donna McLean. In 2015, Donna discovered that her former partner was in fact an undercover police officer. She has written a raw and honest memoir (Small Town Girl, 2022) about her experience of being deceived into a long-term relationship by a man who was paid to lie.
Donna’s story made headlines news. She has written about her search for answers and accountability in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, with appearances on BBC Newsnight and ITV’s Lorraine.
Raphael Schlembach and Donna McClean, Book Launch for Spycops: Secrets and Disclosure in the Undercover Policing Inquiry (Policy Press)
- “In this excellent, vital work, Schlembach shows that, despite strenuous state efforts to keep its murkiest secrets hidden, activists can make public inquiries an important ‘site of struggle’ and resistance.” Professor Mark McGovern, Edge Hill University
- “The undercover policing of left-wing activists was unjustified and anti-democratic. Raphael Schlembach meticulously documents the victims’ fight for answers and accountability. In revealing police strategies to conceal and obstruct, his book is an indispensable part of this fight.” Jenny Jones, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb
More about the book:
The ‘spycops’ scandal has laid bare the existence of secretive police units that sent undercover police officers to infiltrate and undermine hundreds of political campaigns and activist groups. This is the first academic analysis of the activists’ experiences and their attempts to find answers and accountability in the Undercover Policing Inquiry. Written from the perspective of the ‘policed’, the author draws on extensive fieldwork and his first-hand experience of police infiltration through his participation in climate campaigns.
Buy your copy of Spycops here!
Published by