In part one of our ongoing series, we discuss the documentary ‘1971’, where direct action brought forth public knowledge of the FBI’s domestic counterinsurgency operation dubbed ‘COINTELPRO’ after 8 brave young activists broke into an FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania, seizing documents they would later release to the press. They were never caught, and they were only known as the ‘Citizen’s Commission to Investigate the FBI” until 2014 when they revealed their identities to tell the story in book and film.
Watch the incredible documentary for free here: 1971
Read the book for free here: The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI
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Show notes:
[2:30] - 1971 Documentary - 7 young activists break into an FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania
[4:52] - Book: The COINTELPRO Files by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall
[6:00] - FBI on Marcus Garvey: The COINTELPRO Papers, Page 5:
[11:53] - Excerpt from ending of The COINTELPRO Files (p. 236-238):
“To be sure, mere hope is no solution to anything. It represents a point of departure, no more. The development of viable options to avert consummation of a full-fledged police state in North America will require a deep rethinking, among many who purport to oppose it, of priorities and philosophical positions, including the near hegemony of pacifism and nonviolence on the left. The emphasis accorded confrontation with the police and penal systems will have to increase rapidly and dramatically within virtually all groups pursuing progressive social agendas, from environmentalism to abortion rights. The fates of prisoners, particularly those incarcerated for having been accused of engaging in armed struggle against the state, must thus be made a central concern—and primary focus of activism—in every politically conscious sector of the U.S. population. Understandings must be achieved that what is currently being done to political prisoners and prisoners of war, in “exemplary” fashion, is ultimately designed for application to far wider groups than is now the case; that the facilities in which such things are done to them are intended to eventually house us all; that the enforcement apparatus which has been created to combat their “terrorism” simultaneously holds the capacity to crush all that we hold dear or seek to achieve, soon and perhaps irrevocably. In sum, if we do not move — and quickly — to overcome our tactical differences to the extent that we can collectively and effectively confront the emergent structure of “law enforcement” in this country, all the rest of our lofty and constructive social preoccupations will shortly be rendered meaningless by the very forces we have all too frequently elected to ignore.
There are many points of attack open to us, places where important victories can and must be attained. These include renewed and concerted efforts to extend real community control over local police forces, the dismantling of localized police SWAT capabilities, the curtailment or elimination of national computer net participation by state and local police forces, the abolition of police “intelligence” units, and deep cuts in the resources (both monetary and in terms of personnel) already allocated to the police establishment. The judicial system, too, must become an increasing focus of broad-based progressive attention; not only is substantial support work vitally necessary with regard to activists brought to court on serious charges, but every judicial ruling —- whether or not it is rendered in an overtly political trial - which serves to undercut citizen rights while legitimating increased police intervention in the political process must be met with massive, national expressions of outrage and rejection. It is incumbent upon us to infuse new force and meaning into “the court of public opinion,” using every method at our disposal. By the same token, maximal energy must be devoted to heading off the planned expansion of penal facilities across the U.S. and securing the abolition of “control units” within every existing prison in the country. The BoP and state “adult authorities” must also be placed, finally, under effective citizens’ control, and the incipient “privatization” of large portions of the “prison industry” must be blocked at all costs. Plainly, this represents a tremendously ambitious bill of fare for any social movement.
Coming to grips with the FBI is of major importance. The Bureau has long since made itself an absolutely central ingredient in the process of repression in America, not only extending its own operations in this regard, but providing doctrine, training and equipment to state and local police, organizing the special “joint task forces” which have sprouted in every major city since 1970, creating the computer nets which tie the police together nationally, and providing the main themes of propaganda by which the rapid build-up in police power has been accomplished in the U.S. Similarly, the FBI provides both doctrinal and practical training to prison personnel — especially in connection with those who supervise POWs and political prisoners — which is crucial in the shaping of the policies pursued within the penal system as a whole. Hence, so long as the FBI is able to retain the outlook which defined COINTELPRO, and to translate that outlook into “real world” endeavors, it is reasonable to assume that both the police and prison “communities” will follow right along. Conversely, should the FBI ever be truly leashed, with the COINTELPRO mentality at last rooted out once and for all, it may be anticipated that the emergent U.S. police state apparatus will undergo substantial unraveling.
In the concluding chapter of Agents of Repression, we offered both tactical and strategic sketches of how the task of bringing the Bureau to heel might be approached. In his book, War at Home, Brian Glick extends these ideas in certain directions. At the same time, both we and Glick indicated that our recommendations should be considered anything but definitive, and that readers should rely upon their own experience and imaginations in devising ways and means of getting the job done. Since publication of those books, a number of people have contacted us to expand upon our ideas and to enter new ones. Although the specifics vary in each case, there are two consistent themes underlying such contributions. These are first that is it is imperative more and more people take the step of translating their consciousness into active resistance and, second, that this resistance must be truly multifaceted and flexible in form. We heartily agree.
Hence, we would would like to close with what seems to us the only appropriate observation, paraphrasing Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton: We are confronted with the necessity of a battle which must be continued until it has been won. That choice has already been made for us, and we have no option to simply wish it away. To lose is to bring about the unthinkable, and there isn oplace to run and hide. Under the circumstances, the FBI and its allies must be combatted by all means available, and by any means necessary.”
[24:01] - Biderman’s Chart on Penal Coercion (The COINTELPRO Papers, Page 323)
[35:24] - John Punch (1605-1650) was an Angolan-born resident of the colony of Virigina who became its first ‘legally” enslaved person in British colonial America under criminal law.
PBS: John Punch, James Gregory, and a man named Victor were all indentured servants contracted to Virginia planter Hugh Gwyn. These three men each performed similar tasks as slaves and each also felt so exploited he was willing to take unimaginable risks to pursue freedom. John, James, and Victor ran away and were captured within days.
Though fleeing similar circumstances, the fates of the runaways differed under the court's aegis. A judge sentenced all three to whippings. He then added four years to the indenture terms of James and Victor, both white Europeans. John, a black man, alone he condemned to lifelong servitude.
Read the transcript of the court decision:
MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL AND GENERAL COURT OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA, 1622-1632, 1670-1676 (Library of VA, 2nd ed. 1979)
Further reading: The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist
[38:39] - FBI documents on plans to divide the SDS to BPP through sabotage and informants
[39:50] - The Church Committee
[40:30] - SDS leader unknowingly furthers FBI narrative: The COINTELPRO Papers, Page 5
[43:26] - FBI on Jane Fonda, Jean Sanburg and the BPP: The COINTELPRO Papers, Page 214-219
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