State provocations, security and Socialist Alternative

The failure of the protest organisation Socialist Alternative (SA) to issue any serious response to revelations that a police agent provocateur spent a considerable period of time working within their ranks provides a revealing insight into the class character of the organisation and the opportunist nature of its politics.

Last month the Age reported that a police agent targeted a number of political and protest groups. According to the newspaper, Socialist Alternative was the first organisation to be infiltrated, at some point in 2006. In September 2007 the cop travelled to Sydney with a SA contingent for antiwar protests held as US President George Bush attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

The provocateur's unit, the Victorian Security Intelligence Group (SIG), is primarily responsible for counter-terrorism activities. Another SIG covert agent—Security Intelligence Operative 39—befriended Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika, offered him ammonium nitrate, and demonstrated how to detonate a small quantity of the explosive. This exercise in entrapment helped ensure the recent convictions of Benbrika and six other men on terror charges.

In an article on November 15, the World Socialist Web Site noted: "While details of the SIG agent's activities in Socialist Alternative and the other protest organisations remain scant, there is no reason to believe that the modus operandi was any different to that of Security Intelligence Operative 39—infiltrate and gain influence in pursuit of a prosecution and conviction based on provocation and entrapment."

("Police provocateur infiltrates political and protest groups in Australia")

We explained: "The two-year operation represents an extraordinary abrogation by the state of the right of citizens to participate in public activities and join political organisations without fear of police harassment. It underscores the extent to which basic democratic rights and established legal norms have been torn up under the banner of the so-called war on terror. Political dissent—any form of disagreement with the existing social and political order—is now being effectively criminalised."

SA's response to the Age's revelations came in an article titled "Nothing new about cops spying on the left", posted on its web site on November 10 and also published in its printed magazine. The headline of this extraordinary article points to its central purpose. Rather than denouncing the police operation, explaining its political significance, and providing details on the agent's identity, activities, and modus operandi, the SA leadership's priority is to pre-empt any concerns about the incident among its membership, and within Melbourne's wider radical protest milieu.

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