Battersea Redevelopment Action Group (BRAG)

Battersea Redevelopment Action Group (BRAG) was a community campaign group active between 1974 and 1984 which was infiltrated by HN300 'Jim Pickford' HN300 'Jim Pickford' ‘Jim/Jimmy Pickford’ was the assumed name of an SDS undercover who from November 1974 to December 1976 infiltrated the International Socialists, Freedom Collective, Pavement Collective, Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council Anti-Fascist Committee, Kingston Anarchist Workers Collective, South London Anarchist Workers Association and Federation of London Anarchist Groups. HN300 had a reputation as a philanderer in the SDS and was withdrawn from his deployment in December 1976 after he told another undercover that he had fallen in love with a member of his target group. After leaving the SDS he divorced his wife and married this activist. He is dead and his real name has been restricted.  between 1975 and 1977. It was one of a handful of groups that Pickford infiltrated that was both based in south-west London and involved Ernest Rodker, including the street newspaper Pavement. Pavement and Lower Down 'Pavement' and 'Lower Down' were both community groups based in the Wandsworth and Clapham boroughs of South West London that published newssheets in the 1970s. The first issue of Pavement was produced by the Wandsworth Community Workshop as a wall newspaper in April 1970, and pasted round the borough for passers-by to read. Both groups were reported on HN300 'Jim Pickford' between 1974 and 1977, and by HN298 ‘Michael Scott’ to a lesser extent. Full page: Pavement and Lower Down  Ernest Rodker described BRAG's activities:

Our main activity revolved around what was happening at Battersea power station. The council and developers wanted to transform it into luxury housing. If the power station was to be developed, BRAG wanted there to be affordable council housing and community projects and facilities. This was BRAG's overarching objective. We also campaigned against the council selling off other property, council houses in the area. 

Another focus of both BRAG was the demolition of the Morgan Crucible site in Battersea and its subsequent redevelopment. Rodker said that the group’s tactics involved lobbying the local council and non-violent direct action (NVDA). 

Image

Brian Barnes, a noted community artist and member of BRAG, created a large mural with assistance from local residents along the site's wall in 1976. A film about the mural can be viewed here: 

Later, in 1978, many locals mounted a considerable campaign to stop the mural's destruction, and the issue even reached the UK parliament. In 1979, Brian Barnes and Julian Turner, another BRAG member, were arrested for stealing bricks from the now-demolished wall. The case was brought to court but collapsed when the witness, purporting to be the arresting officer, was found not to have been involved in the arrest.

Sources

Ernest Rodker's witness statement to the Undercover Policing Inquiry First Witness Statement Ernest Rodker (non state core participant), given in the UCPI, Tranche 1, Phase 2, 24 Feb 2020.View Document