How to Spot an Infiltrator in your Movement.

By: Staff Writer

There has been a lot of talk about agent provocateurs and infiltrators into movements such as Fees Must Fall and other Leftist groups. This should not surprise us. It is clear that no movement would be devoid of plentiful infiltrators in this day and age and that some of them would be conspicuous on the picket line and found in organisational capacities within the struggle.

Throughout modern history radical movements such as the Black Panthers, Anti-Apartheid and Occupy have been plagued by infiltrators and agent provocateurs. But nowadays, when the matter of infiltrators or moles is suggested in the South African context there is a tendency to push it aside as exaggeration or paranoia and thus agents are given the space to carry on with their business without scrutiny. However the global problem of state funded agents is as rife now as it ever was, perhaps even more so, as neoliberal governments are intent on smashing any uprising, individual or organisation that threatens their share-based partnership with monopoly capital.

Based on observations and research, we have put together a lengthy composite of what traits and methods a modern day infiltrator would manifest. Of course, some of these traits may be those of an over enthusiastic member – but a combination of these traits should not be ignored.

This guideline list is not intended to create paranoia or sow divisions among activists, but to create an awareness around behavioral traits of people who are there to report back to business or government on the plans and activities of your movement or organisation.

A bogus activist or agent appears out of nowhere but becomes a best friend very quickly, ensconcing themselves into the targeted movement seamlessly.
They are quick learners and start to speak the language of the movement in a short space of time.
Their hairstyle and clothing quickly changes to adapt to the going trends.
Not long after they arrive on the scene something calamitous happens which injures the solidarity between members irrevocably.
This bogus activist is usually at the center of organising actions around the calamity.
It is through this that this person’s role is created and endorsed in the movement.
They have come with a mandate so they gravitate to and befriend people whom they can use to fulfill this mandate.
They look for the most vulnerable in this group and reach out to them, helping them with their material needs such as shelter, food a shoulder to cry on and lifts to direct action.
They use flattery, bolstering certain people’s self-image by casting them as the potential ‘leader’ and speaking of their leadership qualities.
The more useful a person can be to them the more flattery they apply.
Simultaneously they encourage their friends to do outrageous things to prove these attributes.
They set them up against other comrades – sometimes referring to others as agents.
The more people they can pit against each other the better their intervention.
They hone in on vain people who clearly want social recognition and celeb.
They may help to fund these aspirant individual’s fame-seeking social media campaigns, or connect them to people who can help.
They encourage their protégés to use these social media platforms to launch vitriolic attacks on people who need to be silenced or destroyed by government.
They encourage their unsuspecting foot soldiers to work in packs.
This means attacking an individual target as a pack – preferably on a public platform.
They themselves make suggestive comments, contradict themselves and spin outright lies on public platforms so casually that many do not notice. It takes a certain skill to spread rumors as truths.
They usually have high intelligence, are charismatic and play the role well – changing not only their dress code, but also language and philosophy to suit the occasion.
They are masters at mirroring the essence of the struggle and people who are genuine activists.
They display narcissistic tendencies and tend to name drop quite a bit.
Their tweets are more about themselves, their endless inner musings and navel-gazing, rather than the socioeconomic issues of the people they claim to represent.
Their educational history and work history is usually haphazard and not well presented.
Their Google profile is scant but they start to build up an online profile via the movement.
They disappear on many family-duty trips or overseas trips – not that you see the photos or hear about what went on much.
They are able to creep right into the inner workings of the movement and lay claim to all sorts of internal good work.
The mandate is to destabilise the struggle/org and create mistrust among the members.
They hone in onto the topics that are of legitimate concern to people in the struggle.
They pinpoint the most contentious issue and work with that – often building exaggerated constructs around the problem to create massive cleavages in the struggle.
Where once, members were able to negotiate terms of engagement and debate the problems, this person plays a big role in casting these issues as irreparable, and soon enough in-fighting replaces engagement.
This means that one side must be seen as victim to another side that is demonised.
Once the ‘victim and demon’ narrative has been entrenched the cracks begin to show.
They spend a lot of time engaging their group and new recruits to prove their theory.
This often involves their favourite form of narcotic and many late evenings sitting listening to them.
They use every single available opportunity to push their unwavering and monolithic framework no matter what the occasion or the agenda.
As such even events that are focused on a specific agenda will be derailed if their framework has not been included in the agenda.
If called out for derailing they will gaslight you with this term and use it against you – denying that it is a derailing – though everyone is indeed derailed, discombobulated disillusioned and depressed at the end of the disruption – with little will to continue the agenda initially planned.
Job well done. That was the intention no matter how loudly the agent and the minions claim otherwise.
Because they make use of legitimate concerns to push their destabilisation agenda it is very difficult to stand up to them.
They know there is an outrage and fundamentalist moralism that comes with certain topics and anyone who challenges this approach will be called an apologist or denialist or an assaulter.
This is called the weoponisation of legitimate narratives for ulterior motives and agents receive training in this field because it is so effective in breaking up unity in movements.
This is an injustice to those who developed sound theory which is then warped for maximum negative impact and sold to young minds as truth.
No matter how many authentic overtures you make to them to engage on the contentious issue, workshop it, write manifestos and codes of conduct to deal with the issues they will all be turned down.
It does not suit this agenda to solve the issue.
The mandate is to make sure the problem is perpetual until it breaks the movement.
Their methodology is to spread chaos as widely as possible not to create harmony.
They have a clear adversary and everything they do, or ask you to do, is to discredit or destroy their targeted adversary.
The adversary is usually the group or individual that gets things done on the picket line, can hold the masses together with impassioned revolutionary speeches, and tie up the state in demonstrations and direct action for months on end.
Those marked as adversaries are most often the people that are not answerable to the powers that be and push a more progressive ideology.
Socialism, Black Consciousness and Environmental Justice are the most threatening doctrines to neoliberal state because they directly challenge cultural imperialism, white supremacy as well as big business and the economic status quo in a profit driven world.
Their orders are to destroy these leader’s at all costs.
Reputational damage is a common strategy against leaders of movements.
It is no mistake that it is the strong male leaders of movements that are most often accused of sexual assault, rape and abuse with no evidence provided or police dockets and court cases to back this up.
An infiltrator is often at the center of these accusations.
This is a well-worn tactic and easy to push given the real problem of machismo, misogyny and abuse of women in a Capitalist world which encourages these binaries.
More often it is not about proving the rape but making sure the accused has a life sentence hanging over his head and he is never granted the opportunity to defend himself even when he has requested that a charge be laid against him.
The public buy the accusation as truth.
The colonial and contemporary construct of the Black male as sexually deviant and a rapist makes this the ideal vehicle to garner consent for the destruction and incarceration of the threatening black male.
No amount of pointing out how much of a disservice false rape allegations does to those who are actually victims of rape, will be entertained in this framework.
This is not to say that there are not times when the allegations turn out to be true or that abuse and patriarchy does not occur in movements. It does and should be reflected upon and corrected by the men in the organisations and movements.
Strong women leaders will be accused of being ambitious, dangerous, a publicity fiend and various unflattering terms. This is to delegitimise her role as a leader and cast doubt on her integrity.
In a nutshell these bogus activists perform different tasks which include attacking and/or disrupting legitimate groups, or creating a diversion with constructed propaganda in order to discredit the leaders, distract members away from the focus and involve them in time-wasting turmoil intended to prevent them from doing anything that enhances the common good.
These bogus activists are also used to implement hostile actions through hand-picked third parties so that it creates decoy politics that looks like a disagreement between two individuals or groups, or yet another violence between and by members.What this does is buy time for the other stakeholders.
Though this is government-funded infiltration it is difficult to prove any connection back to government operations and the mandate is to erase this connection through various methods.
The fact that they use legitimate and sensitive struggles and discourses to push their agenda, which is ultimately to destroy the struggle/movement/revolution from within, makes it very difficult to hold them accountable as the issues they work with are ‘untouchable’.
They often move to different locations of the national movement and wherever they have spent time they leave the movement in tatters.

Personal Impact

Agents manipulate you into believing their doctrine, which they preach often and it is exciting to you because you can relate to what they are preaching.
In fact you relate so much that you fail to notice how they are weaponising that doctrine while turning you into one of their minions in their own private bouncer squadron.
You find yourself going all out to protect this person from critique.
You will start to feel low-grade depression and a pit of anxiety in your stomach when you have been in the company of this person.
This is a sure sign that you are being manipulated to act against your instincts
If you keep ignoring your truth, as they demand that you do, you may end up having a nervous breakdown.
Once this happens you have become a threat to this person and are no longer useful. At this point hey will drop you with no compunction.