A Lesson For My Fellow Revolutionaries…

When citizens rise up and threaten the establishment, the FBI is set loose like a rabid attack dog. False claims are used to fuel unconstitutional surveilence and general harassment of activists and movement leadership. Thats how it was done in the 60’s anyway. Today, they don’t even have to make the bogus claims, they can just submit a list of names to the Presidential Rubber Stamp for illegal surveilence approval. Say the wrong thing to the wrong person and you may get a free one way trip to Cubas lovely Guantanamo Bay. But I don’t aim to simply rant about how our liberties have been depleated, no, far from it! I wanna share with you a report that details the tactics the FBI used on Martin Luthor King from 1963 to 1968.

First, in order to push for permission to conduct their opperation, they manufactured and perpetuated the falacy that the civil rights movement was infiltrated by communist outsiders. From there they moved forward to outright slander.

Among the activities that stand out in my mind, especially with the Minniapolis event coming up, along with a notable spike in inflammatory behavior by obviously phony freedomlovers, was this gem.

Congressional leaders were warned “off the record” about alleged dangers posed by Reverend King. The FBI responded to Dr. King’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize by attempting to undermine his reception by foreign heads of state and American ambassadors in the countries that be planned to visit. When Dr. King returned to the United States, steps were taken to reduce support for a huge banquet and a special “day” that were being planned in his honor.

We are already familiar with many of the other tactics they have used. Suppression of positive media reporting, trying to coerce civil rights friendly news sources into printing attacks on King, attempts to isolate our leaders and divide our community. These are the very same tools that they used against Dr. King over 40 years ago. Their playbook lack creative revision. That is to our benefit, because we can learn, adapt, and grow to rise above their subterfuge.

Moving on. The FBI used wiretapping rigorously in Kings home, motel/hotel rooms, offices, and the offices of his closest allies. they blackmailed him, threatening to reveal details of his private life. They even went as far as to groom their own civil rights leader to take Kings place, once they destroyed his credibility. They cut off funding to labor unions, and community organizations that supported Dr. King and even tried sicking the IRS on him. The same tactic they used 20 plus years earlier on Chicago Mob Boss Al Capone.

These are just the officially accepted claims made against the FBI in the “Final Report Of The Select Committee To Study Governmental Operations With Respect To Intelligence Activities” otherwise known as The Church Committee.

I can only imagine what slipped through the cracks of an official investigation into the FBI 40 years ago, especially after witnessing in my life time the sham 9/11 investigation. The unproven claims run from arming and informing white supremacist groups to the assassination of Dr. King himself.

I would not be so paranoid as to think that the FBI is going full bore against our movement at this point in time, however I would not be so naive to think that this manner of COINTELPRO operation is not already under way to some extent within our movement.