Ernest Rodker was a founder with Bertrand Russell of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and of the anti-war Committee of 100. From 1958, Rodker helped organise the Aldermaston anti-war marches. He later became active in the anti-apartheid movement through Stop the Seventy Tour. Although the earliest-dated police reports on Rodker released through the Inquiry start in 1969, other Special Branch reports indicate that his Registry File opened in 1960.
In 1972, Rodker and others were tried and convicted for obstructing the British Lions’ tour bus, en route to play a rugby fixture in apartheid South Africa. [[link]] Evidence to the Inquiry led to his conviction being overturned. A Wandsworth community activist, Rodker founded Battersea Redevelopment Action Group (BRAG) in 1995, to campaign against gentrification on the south bank of the Thames.
Having submitted a written statement to the Undercover Policing Inquiry in February 2020, Rodker was too ill by April 2021 to give evidence in person. Oliver Rodker read his father’s statement to the hearing. In October 2021, the Court of Appeal quashed the 1972 convictions of Ernest Rodker and two fellow activists. Rodker died in April 2025, aged 87.
Ernest Rodker (1937-2024) was born in Odessa into a prominent intellectual family, the grandson of Whitechapel émigré poet John Rodker. His parents – peace activist and TV producer Joan Rodker and German actor and resistance fighter Gerard Heinz – met as actors in a Soviet theatre company that was touring Ukraine’s collective farms.
Having trained as a cabinet maker, Rodker fitted out the Partisan Coffee House, a Soho watering hole of the London left. He became a founder member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In 1960, Bertrand Russell invited Rodker and 98 others to form an anti-war, civil-disobedience group, the Committee of 100.
Rodker helped to organise anti-war marches through Aldermaston in the 1960s. In the 1970s, he joined Stop the Seventy Tour , campaigning to break UK sporting and economic ties to apartheid-era South Africa. In 1972, Rodker and 13 others stood trial for obstructing the British Lions rugby team’s tour bus, en route to fly to South Africa.
Thanks to the Undercover Policing Inquiry, 50 years later, Rodker and two others had their convictions quashed. The Inquiry revealed that the case was compromised as an undercover police officer, HN298 ‘Michael Scott’ , stood trial and was convicted under his fake identity, having infiltrated the anti-apartheid group.
With pacifist and anarchist leanings, Rodker was a grassroots community activist. In 1970, he cofounded Pavement , a collective campaigning in Wandsworth and Battersea on council funding, housing, healthcare, and development. The collective published a community newspaper, also called Pavement.
From the 1990s, Rodker campaigned against war in the Middle East and on green issues. He became the UK spokesperson for the Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu. The final police report disclosed to Rodker was dated 1998. Rodker pressed the Inquiry to no avail to release all his files from the 1950s to the present.
Because the Undercover Policing Enquiry supplied no photos from the time or details about how and where they met, Rodker could not identify any of the six spycops who reported on him.
The first SDS officer revealed to have reported on Rodker was HN298 ‘Michael Scott’, deployed in 1971-1976. Scott and HN300 ‘Jim Pickford’ infiltrated Pavement, whose ten core activists met at each other’s homes. Pickford spied on a number of groups that Rodker was involved with.
HN155 ‘Phil Cooper’ reported Rodker joining a Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council day of action on Clapham Common in May 1980, alongside Piers Corbyn and Lambeth Labour council leader Ted Knight.
In the early 1990s, HN2 Andy Coles (‘Andy Davey’) reported on Rodker’s environmental and anti-war activities. Rodker was also reported on during the Newbury road protest. The final document released to the Inquiry that related to Rodker, from February 1998, was filed by spycop HN14 James Boyling (‘Jim Sutton’). It covers Rodker's plan to protest against a proposed open-cast coal mine.
Rodker asked the Inquiry to release all his files, dating back to his anti-war activism in the 1950s. He received no further disclosure.
Miscarriage of justice
HN298 ‘Michael Scott’ had infiltrated anti-apartheid groups from 1971. Scott was among the 14 people arrested, charged and fined for blockading the exit to the Star and Garter pub to prevent the British Lions travelling to Heathrow to tour apartheid-era South Africa. Scott was among those arrested and appeared in court under his fake identity.
Scott’s managers, including Detective Inspector HN294 , Special Branch Deputy Assistant Commissioner HN151 Ferguson Smith and Metropolitan Police Commander, operations MD Rodger , discussed the matter. They decided that it would benefit Scott’s cover story to stand trial.
HN294 concluded:
HN298 ‘has proved himself to the extremists and may well become privy to subsequent mischief’.
Having heard how HN298 ‘Michael Scott’ appeared in court using his fake identity, Inquiry chair Sir John Mitting referred the convictions of Ernest Rodker, Jonathan Rosenhead and Christabel Gurney for review. That decision was a first for the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
The panel considering miscarriages of justice referred the convictions to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which referred these to the Crown Court. The convictions were overturned in January 2023, 50 years after the event.
Rodker, Gurney and Rosenhead issued a joint statement on their acquittal:
The undercover policeman who had infiltrated our group was charged and convicted under his false name. He was party to key discussions with our lawyer about our defence, which hinged on the location of our action. At the trial, the arresting police asserted that we were in the roadway, and we were convicted on that basis. Neither counsel nor magistrate was informed that “Michael Scott” was a police officer.
Intrusive police reporting
Rodker was spied on through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. No detail was too personal or too small. In 1976, one report noted the birth of Rodker’s son. A second gave inaccurate details about Rodker being admitted to hospital. Rodker told the Inquiry:
The information about the birth of my son was of course known to close friends and family. But it was not reported formally, publicly, anywhere or of wider interest. Similarly, my health condition would have been known among my friends and family and there would have been some concern but it was not more widely known than this or of wider interest.
In December 2019, the Undercover Policing Inquiry invited Ernest Rodker to give evidence. He received a bundle of 53 documents, dating from 1968 to 1998. Having submitted his witness statement in February 2020, Rodker was too ill to appear in person. Instead, Oliver Rodker read his father’s statement at the live hearing in April 2021.
Nevertheless, Ernest Rodker was a key witness during Tranche One of the Inquiry – one of the earliest, most spied-on activists from the 1960s onwards.
After the Inquiry heard that HN298 ‘Michael Scott’ [[link]] had stood trial, given evidence and been convicted under his fake identity, its chair, Sir John Mitting, referred the 1972 convictions of Ernest Rodker, Jonathan Rosenhead and Christabel Gurney for review – a first for the Undercover Policing Inquiry. The Appeal Court overturned their convictions in January 2023 – 50 years after the event.
In February 2023, Rodker signed a joint closing statement to the Inquiry with Jonathan Rosenhead and Peter Hain. Ernest Rodker died in April 2025, aged 87.