From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: WAR AT HOME: POLITICAL REPRESSION IN THE US (2/8)
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 08:16:01 GMT

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** Written  6:46 pm  Jan 24, 1991 by nlgclc in cdp:pn.publiceye **

COINTELPRO's Main Targets

Though the name COINTELPRO stands for "Counterintelligence Program," the
government's targets were not enemy spies.  The Senate Intelligence
Committee later found that "Under COINTELPRO certain techniques the
Bureau had used against hostile foreign agents were adopted for use
against perceived domestic threats to the established political and
social order."  <f27>

The most intense COINTELPRO operations were directed against the Black
movement, particularly the Black Panther Party.  This was to some extent
a function of the racism of the FBI and police, as well as the
vulnerability of the Black community (due to its lack of ties to
political and economic elites and the tendency of the media--and whites
in general--to ignore or tolerate attacks on Black groups).  At a deeper
level, the choice of targets reflects government and corporate fear of a
militant, broad-based Black movement.  Such a movement is dangerous
because of its historic capacity to galvanize widespread rebellion at
home and its repercussions for the U.S. image abroad.  Moreover, Black
people's location in major urban centers and primary industries gives
them the potential to disrupt the base of the U.S. economy.

COINTELPRO's targets were not, however, limited to Black militants.
Many other activists who wanted to end U.S. intervention abroad or
institute racial, gender, and class justice at home also came under
attack.  Cesar Chavez, Fathers Daniel and Phillip Berrigan, Rev.  Jesse
Jackson, David Dellinger, officials of the American Friends Service
Committee and the National Council of Churches, and other leading
pacifists were high on the list, as were projects directly protected by
the First Amendment, such as anti-war teach-ins, progressive bookstores,
independent filmmakers, and alternative newspapers and news services.
<f28> Martin Luther King, Jr., world-renowned prophet of non-violence,
was the object of sustained FBI assault.  King was marked, barely a
month before his murder, for elimination as a potential "messiah" who
could "unify and electrify" the Black movement.  <f29>

Ultimately, FBI documents disclosed six major official
counterintelligence programs (as well as non-COINTELPRO covert
operations against Native American, Asian-American, Arab-American,
Iranian, and other activists):

Communist Party-USA (1956-71):  This was the first and largest program,
which contributed to the Party's decline in the late 1950s and was used
in the early and mid-1960s mainly against civil rights, civil liberties,
and peace activists.  Its targets during the latter period included
Martin Luther King, Jr., the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, the
NAACP, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Committee to Abolish the
House Un-American Activities Committee, Women's Strike for Peace, the
American Friends Service Committee, and the National Committee for a
SANE Nuclear Policy.

Groups Seeking Independence for Puerto Rico (1960-71):  Initially hidden
from congressional investigators, and still one of the least well known,
this program functioned to disrupt, discredit, and factionalize the
island's main centers of anti-colonial resistance, especially the Puerto
Rican Socialist Party (PSP) and Socialist League (LSP).  It also appears
to have targeted groups fighting for human rights for Puerto Ricans
living in the United States, such as the Young Lords Party.

Border Coverage Program (1960-71):  This program of covert operations
against radical Mexican organizations was similarly concealed from
Congress.  The few documents released to date do not indicate how much
the FBI used it against 1960s Chicano activists such as the Brown
Berets, the Crusade for Justice (Colorado), La Alianza (New Mexico), and
the Chicano Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam (Los Angeles), which
are known to have been infiltrated and repressed by other government
agencies.

Socialist Workers Party Disruption (1961-69):  In addition to ongoing
attacks on the SWP and its youth group, the Young Socialist Alliance,
this program operated against whomever those groups supported or worked
with, especially Malcolm X and the National Mobilization Committee to
End the War in Vietnam.

Black Nationalist Hate Groups (1967-71):  This was the vehicle for the
Bureau's all-out assault on Martin Luther King, Jr.  (in the late
1960s), the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Black Panther Party, the Nation
of Islam ("Black Muslims"), the National Welfare Rights Organization,
the League of Black Revolutionary Workers, the Dodge Revolutionary Union
Movement (DRUM), the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), the Republic
of New Afrika (RNA), the Congress of African People, Black student
unions, and many local Black churches and community organizations
struggling for decent living conditions, justice, equality, and
empowerment.

New Left (1968-71):  A program to destroy Students for a Democratic
Society (SDS), the Peace and Freedom Party, the Institute for Policy
Studies, and a broad range of anti-war, anti-racist, student, GI,
veteran, feminist, lesbian, gay, environmental, Marxist, and anarchist
groups, as well as the network of food co-ops, health clinics, child
care centers, schools, bookstores, newspapers, community centers, street
theaters, rock groups, and communes that formed the infrastructure of
the counter-culture.

White Hate Groups (1964-71):  This unique "program" functioned largely
as a component of the FBI's operations against the progressive activists
who were COINTELPRO's main targets.  Under the cover of being
even-handed and going after violent right-wing groups, the FBI actually
gave covert aid to the Ku Klux Klan, Minutemen, Nazis, and other racist
vigilantes.  These groups received substantial funds, information, and
protection--and suffered only token FBI harassment--so long as they
directed their violence against COINTELPRO targets.  They were not
subjected to serious disruption unless they breached this tacit
understanding and attacked established business and political leaders.


** End of text from cdp:pn.publiceye **

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** Written  6:49 pm  Jan 24, 1991 by nlgclc in cdp:pn.publiceye **

How COINTELPRO Helped Destroy the Movements of the 1960s <f30>

Since COINTELPRO was used mainly against the progressive movements of
the 1960s, its impact can be grasped only in the context of the
momentous social upheaval which shook the country during those years.

All across the United States, Black communities came alive with renewed
political struggle.  Most major cities experienced sustained,
disciplined Black protest and massive ghetto uprisings.  Black activists
galvanized multi-racial rebellion among GIs, welfare mothers, students,
and prisoners.

College campuses and high schools erupted in militant protest against
the Vietnam War.  A predominantly white New Left, inspired by the Black
movement, fought for an end to U.S. intervention abroad and a more
humane and cooperative way of life at home.  By the late 1960s,
deep-rooted resistance had revived among Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Asian
Americans, and Native Americans.  A second wave of broad-based struggle
for women's liberation had also emerged, along with significant efforts
by lesbians, gay men, and disabled people.

Millions of people in the United States began to reject the dominant
ideology and culture.  Thousands challenged basic U.S. political and
economic institutions.  For a brief moment, "the crucial mixture of
people's confidence in the government and lack of confidence in
themselves which allows the government to govern, the ruling class to
rule...threatened to break down."  <f31>

By the mid-1970s, this upheaval had largely subsided.  Important
progressive activity persisted, mainly on a local level, and much
continued to be learned and won, but the massive, militant Black and New
Left movements were gone.  The sense of infinite possibility and of our
collective power to shape the future had been lost.  Progressive
momentum dissipated.  Radicals found themselves on the defensive as
right-wing extremists gained major government positions and defined the
contours of accepted political debate.

Many factors besides COINTELPRO contributed to this change.  Important
progress was made toward achieving movement goals such as Black civil
rights, an end to the Vietnam War, and university reform.  The mass
media, owned by big business and cowed by government and right-wing
attack, helped to bury radical activism by ceasing to cover it.
Television, popular magazines, and daily papers stereotyped Blacks as
hardened criminals and welfare chiselers or as the supposedly affluent
beneficiaries of reverse "discrimination."  White youth were portrayed
first as hedonistic hippies and mindless terrorists, later as an
apolitical, self-indulgent "me generation."  Both were scapegoated as
threats to "decent, hard-working Middle America."

During the severe economic recession of the early- to mid- 1970s, former
student activists began entering the job market, some taking on
responsibility for children.  Many were scared by brutal government and
right-wing attacks culminating in the murder of rank-and-file activists
as well as prominent leaders.  Some were strung out on the hard drugs
that had become increasingly available in Black and Latin communities
and among white youth.  Others were disillusioned by mistreatment in
movements ravaged by the very social sicknesses they sought to
eradicate, including racism, sexism, homophobia, class bias and
competition.

Limited by their upbringing, social position, and isolation from older
radical traditions, 1960s activists were unable to make the connections
and changes required to build movements strong enough to survive and
eventually win structural change in the United States.  Middle-class
students did not sufficiently ally with working and poor people.  Too
few white activists accepted third world leadership of multi-racial
alliances.  Too many men refused to practice genuine gender equality.

Originally motivated by goals of quick reforms, 1960s activists were
ill-prepared for the long-term struggles in which they found themselves.
Overly dependent on media-oriented superstars and one-shot dramatic
actions, they failed to develop stable organizations, accountable
leadership, and strategic perspective.  Creatures of the culture they so
despised, they often lacked the patience to sustain tedious grassroots
work and painstaking analysis of actual social conditions.  They found
it hard to accept the slow, uneven pace of personal and political
change.

This combination of circumstances, however, did not by itself guarantee
political collapse.  The achievements of the 1960s movements could have
inspired optimism and provided a sense of the power to win other
important struggles.  The rightward shift of the major media could have
enabled alternative newspapers, magazines, theater, film, and video to
attract a broader audience and stable funding.  The economic downturn of
the early 1970s could have united Black militants, New Leftists, and
workers in common struggle.  Police brutality and government collusion
in drug trafficking could have been exposed in ways that undermined
support for the authorities and broadened the movements' backing.

By the close of the decade, many of the movements' internal weaknesses
were starting to be addressed.  Black-led multi-racial alliances, such
as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign and the Black
Panthers' Rainbow Coalition, were forming.  The movements' class base
was broadening through Black "revolutionary unions" in auto and other
industries, King's increasing focus on economic issues, the New Left's
spread to community colleges, and the return of working-class GIs
radicalized by their experience in Vietnam.  At the same time, the
women's movement was confronting the deep sexism which permeated 1960s
activism, along with its corollaries:  homophobia, sexual violence,
militarism, competitiveness, and top-down decision-making.

While the problems of the 1960s movements were enormous, their strengths
might have enabled them to overcome their weaknesses had the upsurge not
been stifled before activists could learn from their mistakes.  Much of
the movements' inability to transcend their initial limitations and
overcome adversity can be traced to COINTELPRO.

It was through COINTELPRO that the public image of Blacks and New
Leftists was distorted to legitimize their arrest and imprisonment and
scapegoat them as the cause of working people's problems.  The FBI and
police instigated violence and fabricated movement horrors.  Dissidents
were deliberately "criminalized" through false charges, frame-ups, and
offensive, bogus leaflets and other materials published in their name.
(Specific examples of these and other COINTELPRO operations are
presented on pages 41-65.)

COINTELPRO enabled the FBI and police to exacerbate the movements'
internal stresses until beleaguered activists turned on one another.
Whites were pitted against Blacks, Blacks against Chicanos and Puerto
Ricans, students against workers, workers against people on welfare, men
against women, religious activists against atheists, Christians against
Jews, Jews against Muslims.  "Anonymous" accusations of infidelity
ripped couples apart.  Backers of women's and gay liberation were
attacked as "dykes" or "faggots."  Money was repeatedly stolen and
precious equipment sabotaged to intensify pressure and sow suspicion and
mistrust.

Otherwise manageable disagreements were inflamed by COINTELPRO until
they erupted into hostile splits that shattered alliances, tore groups
apart, and drove dedicated activists out of the movement.  Government
documents implicate the FBI and police in the bitter break-up of such
pivotal groups as the Black Panther Party, SDS, and the Liberation News
Service, and in the collapse of repeated efforts to form long-term
coalitions across racial, class, and regional lines.  While genuine
political issues were often involved in these disputes, the outcome
could have been different if government agencies had not covertly
intervened to subvert compromise and fuel hostility and competition.

Finally, it was COINTELPRO that enabled the FBI and police to eliminate
the leaders of mass movements without undermining the image of the
United States as a democracy, complete with free speech and the rule of
law.  Charismatic orators and dynamic organizers were covertly attacked
and "neutralized" before their skills could be transferred to others and
stable structures established to carry on their work.  Malcolm X was
killed in a "factional dispute" which the FBI took credit for having
"developed" in the Nation of Islam.  <f32> Martin Luther King, Jr. was
the target of an elaborate FBI plot to drive him to suicide and replace
him "in his role of the leadership of the Negro people" with
conservative Black lawyer Samuel Pierce (later named to Reagan's
cabinet).  <f33> Many have come to view King's eventual assassination
(and Malcolm's as well) as itself a domestic covert operation.  <f34>

Other prominent radicals faced similar attack when they began to develop
broad followings and express anti-capitalist ideas.  Some were portrayed
as crooks, thugs, philanderers, or government agents, while others were
physically threatened or assaulted until they abandoned their work.
Still others were murdered under phony pretexts, such as "shootouts" in
which the only shots were fired by the police.

To help bring down a major target, the FBI often combined these
approaches in strategic sequence.  Take the case of the "underground
press," a network of some 400 radical weeklies and several national news
services, which once boasted a combined readership of close to 30
million.  In the late 1960s, government agents raided the offices of
alternative newspapers across the country in purported pursuit of drugs
and fugitives.  In the process, they destroyed typewriters, cameras,
printing presses, layout equipment, business records, and research
files, and roughed up and jailed staffers on bogus charges.  Meanwhile,
the FBI was persuading record companies to withdraw lucrative
advertising and arranging for printers, suppliers, and distributors to
drop underground press accounts.  With their already shaky operations in
disarray, the papers and news services were easy targets for a final
phase of COINTELPRO disruption.  Forged correspondence, anonymous
accusations, and infiltrators' manipulation provoked a flurry of wild
charges and counter-charges that played a major role in bringing many of
these promising endeavors to a premature end.  <f35>

A similar pattern can be discerned from the history of the Black Panther
Party.  Brutal government attacks initially elicited broad support for
this new, militant, highly visible national organization and its popular
ten-point socialist program for Black self-determination.  But the FBI's
repressive onslaught severely weakened the Party, making it vulnerable
to sophisticated FBI psychological warfare which so discredited and
shattered it that few people today have any notion of the power and
potential that the Panthers once represented.  <f36>

What proved most devastating in all of this was the effective
manipulation of the victims of COINTELPRO into blaming themselves.
Since the FBI and police operated covertly, the horrors they engineered
appeared to emanate from within the movements.  Activists' trust in one
another and in their collective power was subverted, and the hopes of a
generation died, leaving a legacy of cynicism and despair which
continues to haunt us today.

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** Written  6:50 pm  Jan 24, 1991 by nlgclc in cdp:pn.publiceye **

Black Panther Party Program:

What We Want

-adopted 1966

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny
of our Black Community.

2. We want full employment for our people.

3. We want an end to the robbery by the CAPITALISTS of our Black
Community.

4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.

5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this
decadent American society.  We want education that teaches us our true
history and our role in the present-day society.

6. We want all black men to be exempt from military service.

7. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of black
people.

8. We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and
city prisons and jails.

9. We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court
by a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, as
defined by the Constitution of the United States

10.  We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace.
And as our major political objective, a United Nations-supervised
plebiscite to be held throughout the black colony in which only black
colonial subjects will be allowed to participate, for the purpose of
determining the will of black people as to their national destiny.

** End of text from cdp:pn.publiceye **

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** Written  6:51 pm  Jan 24, 1991 by nlgclc in cdp:pn.publiceye **

THE DANGER WE FACE

Domestic Covert Action Remains a Serious Threat Today

The public exposure of COINTELPRO and other government abuses elicited a
flurry of apparent reform in the 1970s.  President Nixon resigned in the
face of impeachment.  His Attorney General, other top aides, and many of
the "plumbers" were prosecuted and imprisoned for brief periods.  The
CIA's director and counter-intelligence chief were ousted, and the CIA
and the Army were again directed to cease covert operations against
domestic targets.[f-37>

The FBI had formally shut down COINTELPRO a few weeks after it was
uncovered.  As part of the general face-lift, the Bureau publicly
apologized for COINTELPRO, and municipal governments began to disband
the local police "red squads" that had served as the FBI's main
accomplices.  A new Attorney General notified several hundred activists
that they had been victims of COINTELPRO and issued guidelines limiting
future operations.  Top FBI officials were indicted for ordering the
burglary of activists' offices and homes; two were convicted, and
several others retired or resigned.  The Bureau's egomaniacal, crudely
racist and sexist founder, J. Edgar Hoover, died in 1972.  After two
interim directors failed to stem the tide of criticism, a prestigious
federal judge, William Webster, was appointed by President Carter to
clean house and build a "new FBI."[f-38>

Behind this public hoopla, however, the Bureau's war at home continued
unabated.  Domestic covert action did not end when it was exposed in the
1970s.  It has persisted throughout the 1980s and become a permanent
feature of U.S. government.

** End of text from cdp:pn.publiceye **

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** Written  6:52 pm  Jan 24, 1991 by nlgclc in cdp:pn.publiceye **

Domestic Covert Action Did Not End in the 1970s

Director Webster's highly touted reforms did not create a "new FBI."
They served mainly to modernize the existing Bureau and to make it even
more dangerous.  In place of the backbiting competition with other law
enforcement and intelligence agencies which had previously impeded
coordination of domestic counter-insurgency, Webster promoted
inter-agency cooperation.  Adopting the mantle of an "equal opportunity
employer," his FBI hired women and people of color to more effectively
penetrate a broader range of political targets.  By cultivating a
low-visibility image and discreetly avoiding public attack on prominent
liberals, Webster gradually restored the Bureau's respectability and won
over a number ofits former critics.[f-39>

State and local police similarly upgraded their repressive capabilities
in the 1970s while learning to present a more friendly public face.  The
"red squads" that had harassed 1960s activists were quietly resurrected
under other names.  Paramilitary SWAT teams and tactical squads were
formed, along with highly politicized "community relations" and "beat
rep" programs featuring conspicuous Black, Latin, and female officers.
Generous federal funding and sophisticated technology became available
through the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, while FBI-led
"joint anti-terrorist task forces" introduced a new level of
inter-agency coordination.[f-40>

Meanwhile, the CIA continued to use university professors, journalists,
labor leaders, publishing houses, cultural organizations, and
philanthropic fronts to mold U.S. public opinion.[f-41> At the same
time, Army Special Forces and other elite military units began to train
local police for counter-insurgency and to intensify their own
preparations, following the guidelines of the secret Pentagon
contingency plans, "Garden Plot" and "Cable Splicer."  They drew
increasingly on manuals based on the British colonial experience in
Kenya and Northern Ireland, which teach the essential methodology of
COINTELPRO under the rubric of "low-intensity warfare," and stress early
intervention to neutralize potential opposition before it can take
hold.[f-42>

While domestic covert operations were scaled down once the 1960s upsurge
had subsided (thanks in part to the success of COINTELPRO), they did not
stop.  In its April 27, 1971 directives disbanding COINTELPRO, the FBI
provided for future covert action to continue "with tight procedures to
ensure absolute security."[f-43> The results are apparent in the record
of 1970s covert operations which have so far come to light:

** End of text from cdp:pn.publiceye **


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