All the diaries here, pro and con on ANSWER, have not made clear what is the greatest danger to the antiwar movement. It is the intervention of the government police and spy agencies to disrupt the antiwar and antigovernment movement, utilizing existing divisions within the latter. It is a technique as old as Tsarist Russia.
Activists on ALL sides must become familiar with the history and modus operandi of the governement intervention. Also, everyone should have at least a passing familiarity of what the government has been PROVEN to be doing now.
It does not take a tremendous amount of research. I suggest starting with the two sources below:
First, surf on over to
the ACLU page on police practices and surveillance. There, you can read up on FBI tactics targeting political protesters, or undercover FBI surveillance of university organizations.
In a letter to supporters of the ACLU, Executive Director Anthony Romero disclosed that Freedom of Information Act files released last month show that Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF -- legal partnerships between the FBI and local police) in Colorado opened "domestic terrorism" investigations on "the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center after reading notices on Web sites announcing protests in 2003 and 2002".
Elsewhere in his letter, Mr. Romero says, "We now know that the FBI has amassed more than 1,100 pages of documents on the ACLU since 2001, as well as documents concerning other non-violent groups including Greenpeace and United for Peace and Justice. . . . With these documents released, we can confirm what we've long suspected -- that the FBI is inappropriately treating people who engage in peaceful protest as potential terrorists."
Second, go over to Amazon (or use a different online bookstore; I don't care; I'm not getting any money from this, just using their link for convenience) and look up a book called The Conintelpro Papers. This classic, published in 1990, gives a detailed and documentary history of the infamous FBI counterintelligence program aimed at disrupting U.S. domestic dissent. This program went on for years. There are chapters in the book documenting the dirty tricks of the FBI as aimed against the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Black Liberation Movement, the American Indian Movement, the New Left and antiwar movement, and the Puerto Rican nationalist movement.
This book is not notable for its opinion or politics -- i.e., you may hate it or love it for that -- but for its extensive documentation and photographs of relevant FBI files and letters. It is an EYE-OPENER!
Below, I've quoted from an internal FBI memorandum, dated 2/30/1970. I think it's of some relevance for today, given the redbaiting of ANSWER at the antiwar demonstration, and the fanning of the flames of hysteria about what took place there within the boundaries of the antiwar activists themselves. Draw your own conclusions. (I'll briefly state mine after the quote.)
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
Memorandum
DIRECTOR, FBI DATE: 2/13/70
SAC, NEW YORK...
Enclosed for the Bureau is a copy of an unsigned leaflet entitled "Fly United", mailed this past week to some 230 selected individuals and organizaitons in New Left and related groups under the CONINTELPRO at New York with prior Bureau authority.
The leaflet is designed to cause disruption in the peace movement, primarily in the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, and to minimize the growing influence of the SWP in the movement. It is also designed to cause consternation and confusion in the SWP itself. . . .
No tangible reults have been detected at this early date, although one source, [name redacted] has attributed the leaflet to dissident elements in the New Mobilization Committee.
The Bureau will be kept advised of reported results.
[see pgs. 58-59 of The Cointelpro Papers]
The book is chock full of similar documents, the sum of which, I gather any reader could tell, makes an overwhelming case that the government is (or was; I say still is) very involved in derailing movements of dissent from the population as a whole.
We, in the DailyKos community must make a pledge not to engage in cop-baiting, e.g. this or that group is the cops, or in red-baiting, e.g. this or that group are Stalin lovers, or fascist-baiting, etc.
Keep the criticisms limited to political content, or how to conduct political conflict. If there is disagreement, let the result be determined in the free marketplace of ideas and organizational energies.
MAINLY, to fight the forces that wage war, you must realize how powerful they are and EDUCATE YOURSELF.
I encourage readers to make the pledge against name-calling and mud-slinging in the poll below, and check out the sites and readings I have mentioned above.