clatterbane:

youneedacat:

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

witchsistah:

noonereadstheurl:

FBI records show that 85% of COINTELPRO resources targeted groups and individuals that the FBI deemed “subversive”,^[8] including communist and socialist organizations; organizations and individuals associated with the Civil Rights Movement, including Martin Luther King, Jr. and others associated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Congress of Racial Equality and other civil rights organizations; black nationalist groups; the American Indian Movement; a broad range of organizations labeled “New Left”, including Students for a Democratic Society and the Weathermen; almost all groups protesting the Vietnam War, as well as individual student demonstrators with no group affiliation; the National Lawyers Guild; organizations and individuals associated with the women’s rights movement; nationalist groups such as those seeking independence for Puerto Rico, United Ireland, and Cuban exile movements including Orlando Bosch’s Cuban Power and the Cuban Nationalist Movement; and additional notable Americans —even Albert Einstein, who was a socialist and a member of several civil rights groups, came under FBI surveillance during the years just before COINTELPRO’s official inauguration.^[9] The remaining 15% of COINTELPRO resources were expended to marginalize and subvert white hate groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and the National States’ Rights Party.^[10]

85% on leftists, 15% of white hate groups.

Especially leftists of color.

And they were successful.

And one of the things they did was start the stereotype that activists should be full of rage all the time or they weren’t “real” activists.

And many of the other things currently embodied by large amounts of standard SJ types. (Which is one thing that makes standard SJ approaches, unlike actual social justice, pretty ineffectual: they were designed to be. And people emulate them thinking that’s what activists are supposed to be like, that’s what activists are supposed to do. With no idea they’re modeling themselves on agents sent to disrupt real social justice work.)

(Anti-SJ types are usually just as bad.)

Yes. 😦

I would also add that these agents assigned to infiltrate groups were apparently usually a bit smoother with it than the (often state/local police) ones who reeked of undercover cop and were pretty quickly starting into “Off the pigs! Does anybody know how to build some bombs?”

And even those were very disruptive. Some hotheads *always* embraced them, while everybody else was trying to get away as fast as they could. I have heard plenty about that pattern from my mother and some other people who were politically active then, besides reading more. It totally broke up a lot of groups, and kept them from focusing on actually getting stuff done. Which was kinda the point, besides often prodding the hotheads into doing something stupid to further discredit the threats to the status quo.

We’re not even to COINTELPRO proper yet. The lower-level clowns also provided some cover for the FBI guys, who were more competent and a lot harder to spot anyway. And much more effective at setting people up to look like angry nutters who are easily dismissed. 😦

It’s frustrating to watch people who aren’t that aware of how this got/no doubt still gets strategically used to disrupt, totally running with the Angry Activist trope. It’s really easy to get your chain yanked that way, too.

Bringing this one back, from 2013, after I couldn’t find another post I was looking for.

One current discussion suddenly refreshed off my dash earlier before I could reblog with some commentary, not to be found again. As mobile is so fond of doing. But, that concerned the FBI/DHS “Antifa as domestic terrorism” mess, and COINTELPRO 2.0.

I mean, I don’t know that 2.0 is even appropriate, because this stuff never really stopped even if that particular official program did get disbanded on paper, under pressure in the ‘70s.

Anyway, there is plenty of ongoing relevance there, which is important to bear in mind going forward.

This particular move also seems less than unpredictable, particularly in light of some other fairly recent happenings: FBI warned of white supremacists in law enforcement 10 years ago. Has anything changed?; Report: FBI Finds White Supremacists Infiltrated Law Enforcement Agencies [a different later report].

From that second link:

While the FBI has been aware of this infiltration for some time and raised concerns in a 2006 internal assessment, federal agencies have been wary of discussing the issue publicly. Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano even disavowed a 2009 intelligence study warning of the “resurgence” of far-right extremists sparked by President Barack Obama’s election, as The Intercept noted.
Daryl Johnson, the lead researcher on the 2009 DHS report who was pushed out of the agency, told The Intercept that he was deeply disappointed by DHS’ decision to shrink the unit investigating right-wing extremists.
“Federal law enforcement agencies in general—the FBI, the Marshals, the ATF — are aware that extremists have infiltrated state and local law enforcement agencies and that there are people in law enforcement agencies that may be sympathetic to these groups,” he said.

A bit more about that DHS mess with a link to an interview with Daryl Johnson, which came up on here recently.

White supremacists’ involvement in law enforcement is hardly a new thing either. But, this was specifically talking about a concerted push to get them looking all clean-cut and socially acceptable, and being quieter about their nastier views, so as not to raise red flags. With the explicit aim of sneak-packing these positions of power with extremists.

One of the problems there, of course, is that the feds have kept presenting this threat as limited to state and local agencies, rather than also coming from inside the house.

“Federal law enforcement agencies in general—the FBI, the Marshals, the ATF — are aware that extremists have infiltrated…agencies and that there are people in law enforcement agencies that may be sympathetic to these groups,” he said.

Fixed that. (And he seems to have found out the hard way that it is a way more accurate version.)

At any rate, it’s truly amazing that there might be some pressure to officially cast antifa as a domestic terrorism. Given some of the history there, and some more recent developments making the situation that much better.

They also have plenty of tactics to play mix and match with. Again, good to bear in mind.