Mark Kennedy: A chronology of his activities

Date

Place

event

organisation/campaign involved/facilitating

mark's role

target

groups/people he was in communication with

potential paper trail

additional comments

source (inc URL) media

source person (incl contact details / or ref if anonymous)

photo material yes/no

who could tell us more

noteworthy oddities

13/08/2003-17/08/2003

Yorkshire

Earth First! Gathering

Earth First!

Turned up as a punter. First time anyone has really met him. He later capitalised on the fact that people assumed he was OK as he had been at EF. MK was generally active with the Nottingham local group first and GM was what was going on at the time.

Earth First! Uk / Anti- GM

MK turned up at the Sumac centre in Notts before the gathering asking about transport to it.

anon

no

When he was talking to friends in 2005 he cited the EF! Gathering as a transformative experience; being impressed by the people and politics etc.

Autumn (2003)

UK

Anti-GM action, office occupation

Anti-GM

Driver

Bayer

Earth First! Uk / Anti- GM

? unlikely, quite long time ago

MK drove a white people carrier on the action. He impressed activists by reporting accurate information about the location of the police in the area.

anon

no

05/11/2004-06/11/2004

London

European Social Forum

European Social Forum

Main driver; delivering leaflets and food to 3 different occupied buildings during ESF. 1,000-1,200 were housed in these buildings.

Wombles

unlikely, he used his own vehicle.

anon

MK mainly used his own vehicle, a white Toyota pick up for missions.

Spring/Summer ( 2004 )

Germany, London, Brighton, Nottingham

Picked up Zapatista coffee from Hamburg Germany and transported it to social centre in North London

Ex-Grand Banks Social Centre/Wombles

Van driver

Ex-Grand Banks Social Centre/Wombles/ Cafe Rebelda ( Hamburg ) / Sumac

Spring (2004)

Ireland

Grassroots Gathering promoting G8 Scotland

Dissent!

Driver of roadshow, bingo caller

G8 Scotland

Workers Solidarity Movement, Rossport Solidarity Campaign, Shell to Sea.

Travelled extensively with Trapese collective, useful way to gain contacts and trust networking across UK and beyond.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/97967

Was the only person at that time to have high-tech equipment such as a laptop with wi-fi connection, he always allowed people to use to check emails and research stuff.

01/05/04

Ireland, Dublin

EU summit

Supported a black bloc of over 100 people. Was on the front row of the bloc which pushed through police lines

MK part of affinity group who secured a squat to act as housing. The squat was raided. Attacking police. Supplied defensive equipment. 3 people from London, UK were arrested during the raid.

Police and government

WSM / Wombles

People serve prison sentences relating to material delivered by him from UK. Some people were in jail for a week, others were made to stay in Ireland to answer bail for 6 months until their court case.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/97967

anon

yes

One of those taking part in the protest recalls being astonished by Kennedy's action on the day. "I saw him taking off his balaclava as he was coming out of the crowd. I was amazed that someone would stand close to police lines and take his mask off.” Unconfirmed but suspected that police had intelligence on the activities of some anti-capitalist activists who had travelled across the Irish Sea from Britain. A unit from the garda's Pearse Street station smashed its way into a flat on Leeson Street in Dublin occupied by English anarchists and arrested several people. MK had a newspaper cutting in a frame on his boat which showed line of masked up people at Dublin Mayday 2004 and he was one of them. He also had this up on the wall in his house for many years.

2004

Ireland, Dromoland Castle

Anti-George Bush protest

Participant

WSM

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/97967

anon

Ireland 2004-2006

Trainer for anarchist groups

MK made at least two other visits to Ireland over the next two years. These included acting as a trainer on a programme for anarchist activists later in 2004 on civil disobedience.

September (2004)

Nottingham

Rising Tide gathering

Helped organise a Rising tide gathering, was part of organising collective.

06/04/2005-10/04/2005

Lanarkshire

Festival of Dissent

Gathering

Helped with set-up and transport.

April (2005)

Planning meeting for banner drop

Anti-BP campaign

Anti-BP banner was meant to be hung during ESF but banner wasn't ready. He came to meeting place when banner was being made; it was postponed.

BP

Autonomous action

26/04/05

England

Banner drop

Anti-BP campaign

Climber and banner hanger

BP

Autonomous action

no

Banner drop coincided with BP annual financial review (originally meant to be during ESF). 10 climbers, MK hung the banner and others helped. He coordinated.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/10/mark-kennedy-undercover-cop-activist

anon

no

From early on in his involvement MK helped establish himself with frequent climbing and mountaineering trips with friends. He continued to do this up until his exposure.

07/04/2005-10/04/2005

Ireland, County Clare

EYFA winter meeting

EYFA

Participant

Organising meeting

EYFA

check with EYFA

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/97967

anon

EYFA

24/06/05

Belfast

fund-raiser for the G8

06/07/2007-08/07/2005

Gleneagles, Stirling Scotland

G8

Dissent!

Coordinated transport for the protests around the G8 in Scotland, organised a fleet of minibuses and other vehicles.

Dissent!

Started a fight outside the gates of the “Horizone” camp in Stirling by the main gates of the site. Was often seen standing their using his handsfree kit (uncommon at the time) which may or may not have been directly transmitting to the police who were constantly standing nearby. Organised at least 1 second hand car that was used as part of a blockade during the summit. He communicated with activists over a “secure phone” to arrange collection in Edinburgh and position in blockade.

Dissent!/indymedia uk

anon

?

Dissent!

Gained the name “Transport Mark”. Sorted equipment and coordinated activists to use vehicles to disrupt talks.

Summer 2005

Iceland

actions against ALCOA and the dams at Karahnjukar.

Saving Iceland

Participated in actions against the dam; participated in Olafur Pall Sigurdsson international SOS tour. MK shared contacts and skills with the campaign and introduced people to those across Europe. MK networked a lot and gained trust by doing a lot of driving and sharing resources. MK Kennedy did not play a major role in actions in Iceland in the years that he visited. He had already left the protest camp before it was evicted from Karahnjukar, and was not present when it relocated at Vad Farm in Skriddal. MKonly participated in two mass lock-ons at the Karahnjukar dam site, prior to the eviction, and consequently he played no part in a number of actions that were carried out following the eviction later that summer, both at Karahnjukar and at the construction site of the ALCOA smelter in Reydarfjordur, or the actions we carried out in the Reykjavik area in August. Kennedy also never ran errands to Reykjavik on behalf of SI. MK was NOT pivotal in the birth of Iceland’s environmental movement; that he was NOT instrumental in training Icelanders in direct action; that he was NOT a key figure in various protests in the east of the country; or was a key decision maker within Saving Iceland.

ALCOA and dams

Saving Iceland

possibly

So far the Icelandic State police have not answered the request of the Icelandic National Broadcasting about whether they communicated with Mark Kennedy and his superiors. Only the local police force in the east, where the dams and ALCOA factory are located, have issued an evasive answer stating that they had not “intervened” with the “protester” Mark Stone during the protests. MK did not return to Iceland for the 2006 protest camps at Karahnjukar, Snaefell and Reydarfjordur. Although he continued attending some gatherings, his activities within the campaign gradually diminished, and finally ceased in 2007. The level of his involvement has been greatly exaggerated by the Guardian, specifically Amelia Hill. In other articles that are concerned with Mark Kennedy’s involvement with British groups the Guardian several times quotes British activists in saying that Kennedy did not act as a strategist or decision maker in their movement, but that he made him himself useful as a driver and an energetic facilitator in day to day logistics. One source is reported by the Guardian in even going so far to say that Kennedy was not considered the sharpest knife in the box.

http://www.savingiceland.org/2011/01/statement-concerning-the-case-of-undercover-policeman-mark-stone-kennedy/, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/14/mark-kennedy-iceland-green-movement

anon

Saving Iceland

MKwas never a trainer for Saving Iceland nor did he train any Icelanders. Did MK take part in the training of Icelandic police officers when they attended a course with the British police in the winter of 2005-2006 where they received training in how to violate groups such as Saving Iceland? Also he used a different email address than normal for this campaign: levelingtheplayingfield69@yahoo.co.uk None of the activists in the first two lock-ons at Karahnjukar in 2005 were actually Icelandic; these were the only actions MK was part of in Iceland. All the people involved apart from Kennedy were highly experienced activists from different countries who had no need of any training or introduction to such methods, by MK or anyone else. Furthermore, road blocks and tripods were not even employed that summer. SI did not use tripods as means of protest until in the summer of 2008 at the site of a Century Aluminum smelter in Hvalfjordur, near Reykjavik, several years after he had come to Iceland. The actual direct action training courses in Iceland took place in May 2004 and June 2005, MK did not come to Iceland until July 2005, after the protests at the G8 summit in Gleneagles.