Mark Kennedy, the English undercover cop who was exposed last year, is coming to Denmark during the CPH DOX documentary film festival. He is invited to speak in connection to the screening of a documentary telling his story.
The Climate Collective strongly opposes that Mark Kennedy gives a talk at the festival or for that matter that he makes any appearance in Denmark at all. Having spent years infiltrating English climate activists, Mark Kennedyis to many a symbol of the massive repression activists have experienced the last couple of years.
Using undercover cops is a huge democratic problem undermining peoples’ right to act politically. That the English police uses undercover cops to such an extent is in itself shocking, but the fact that Mark Kennedy and probably many of his colleagues have been collaborating with the Danish police clearly shows how far Danish police is willing to go in the use of undemocratic methods in order to prevent political activism.
The festival argues that it is important to discuss the methods used by the state to obtain information about political activities. However, the Climate Collective argues that showing a film, which only tells one side of the story, namely the story of Mark Kennedy who since his exposure will do anything to clean his reputation, does not invite for a fair discussion. Moreover asking the same person to speak after the screening gives a platform to someone that has been lying and betraying people who considered him their friend, and who should not have another chance to explain himself. In fact the whole film project stinks of a person without morals or conscience trying to make money on the pain he has caused on others.
It is an insult to the many people whose lives Mark Kennedy has done his best to ruin that he is made to feel welcome (back) to Denmark. In respect for our Danish and English comrades who have been the victims of Mark Kennedy’s lies and betrayal we strongly urge the CPH DOX festival to cancel his appearance and the screening of the film. Below is a letter sent to the film festival by English friends.
As people who are involved in UK environmental activism and who came into contact with Mark Kennedy, we were disappointed to hear that he would be speaking in person at the Copenhagen Film Festival in November, accompanying a screening of the documentary Undercover Cop.
Having lost his lucrative career as an undercover police officer, Mark Kennedy decided to do anything to maximize his income. He hired notorious publicity agent Max Clifford who helped him sell his story to the media – an agent more usually known for clients like reality TV stars or people who have sex with footballers.
In his media appearances Kennedy has continually lied about both his police career and his life as an activist. He has contradicted himself on numerous occasions in interviews.
Clifford secured Kennedy a large fee for this documentary, irrespective of the quality of its content. Having spent many years lying, and now seems unable to know what truth is any more. His unreliability means that neither his police colleagues nor activist comrades wanted anything to do with the making of this film. It is a shame that a well-respected film festival has been compromised by a documentary with such a dubious basis.
The long term existence of Kennedy as an undercover police officer in our movement has caused extreme emotional and psychological distress to the people who counted him as a friend, or in some cases as a partner. Some of the people who had sexual relations with Kennedy feel that his use of sex as a means of ingratiating himself within the community in order to obtain information was essentially state-sponsored sexual abuse.
After all the damage that he has inflicted on so many people’s lives, it is morally repugnant that he is now building a career based on exploiting the damage that he has caused. It is unacceptable for him to profit from this while at the same time many people are still picking up the pieces of their lives that were shattered by his lies. You are intending to give this man a platform, and presumably you intend to financially reward him for going over the details of how he intentionally damaged the lives of those around him. We ask you to reconsider your actions.
Read more: http://modkraft.dk/nyheder/article/klimaaktivister-raser-mark-kennedy#.TrRUFSlnA8o.facebook
For information about the screening: href=“http://www.cphdox.dk/d/film.lasso?ser=1676&s=2011112&e=1
If you want to send a letter to the festival, they can be contacted at: info@cphdox.dk
Source: http://www.climatecollective.org/post/186
