COINTELPRO and the Jericho Movement
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez aka Deoliver47
I received an email to sign a petition yesterday.
It was from The Jericho Movement. Many of you probably receive notifications about online petitions covering a wide range of subjects and issues.
Some of you do sign them. I've heard other folks express the opinion that "petitions don't have any effect, so why bother?" or "petitions are no substitute for grassroots organizing". The latter is true, but here's why I think petitions like these are an important tool in our struggles for progressive change.
Much of our history gets erased. A lot of our history isn't taught in classrooms. I'm not just talking about "history" that may seem ancient, to many young people, like the enslavement of millions of Africans, or the genocide/ethnocide inflicted on Native Americans when this country was founded...I'm talking about recent history.
Those who forget are doomed to repeat. If you don't know where you've been, you won't understand where we are today and what the future holds in store for us. Most importantly it will show us how we can affect that future.
Hey, I'm not ancient yet. There are plenty folks still living - and reasonably young, who lived through some important eras of what is dubbed "history".
So if we can't get that recent history into textbooks, or school curricula - how do we educate and inform? Social media is an important education/information tool - not just blogs, but the entire spectrum of new technologies at our disposal.
Petition signing doesn't take a lot of effort. Click, sign...and you've done it. But while signing - something else can happen. It may just prompt the signee to take a deeper look at the issues presented in the petition. It may lead them to a group in their area that is taking action and doing organizing. Groups like those from the Jericho Movement - which has chapters across the US.
So with this in mind - the petition to push members of Congress to address the victims of COINTELPRO states:
COINTELPRO represents a part of American history that we would all like to forget. However, to forget is to repeat. Unfortunately, dozens of women and men are still incarcerated upwards of 40 years as a direct result of this heinous program.
Not only did COINTELPRO seek to defame, neutralize, discredit, and destroy the more militant organizations of that day, viz. the Black Panther Party, Republic of New Afrika, Nation of Islam, American Indian Movement, anti-war, socialist and communist organizations; but it also targeted anyone who stood up against racism and oppression, and who challenged federal and state government to correct these ills and change its policies.
It isn't "history" for those folks who are still locked up, their families, and their communities.
It isn't "history" if policies that allowed the abuses to occur are still in place.
I do bring up COINTELPRO in the classroom. Most of my students have never heard of it.
It's not like materials aren't available for them to learn about it. It just isn't getting any noise - for a host of reasons.
The petition leads to some powerful video available on you tube (I bless you tube everyday)
Trailer:
COINTELPRO may not be a well-understood acronym but its meaning and continuing impact are absolutely central to understanding the government's wars and repression against progressive movements. COINTELPRO represents the state's strategy to prevent movements and communities from overturning white supremacy and creating racial justice. COINTELPRO is both a formal program of the FBI and a term frequently used to describe a conspiracy among government agencies—local, state, and federal—to destroy movements for self-determination and liberation for Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous struggles, as well as mount an institutionalized attack against allies of these movements and other progressive organizations.
COINTELPRO 101 is an educational film that will open the door to understanding this history. This documentary will introduce viewers new to this history to the basics and direct them to other resources where they can learn more. The intended audiences are the generations that did not experience the social justice movements of the sixties and seventies.
Here is some more detail about what the film covers from a review of the film
Cointelpro 101 opens with the April 1971 break-in by antiwar activists at the federal offices in Media, Pennsylvania. The activists were searching for Selective service files to destroy when they came upon files labeled Cointelpro. After a quick perusal of the file’s contents, they removed as many as they could find from the office, made copies and released them to the press. The program was unknown to the broader public at the time and the files proved a revelation to the country. Many politicians were offended and, after the 1972 discovery of the Plumbers unit run by G. Gordon Liddy under the direction of the Nixon White House and the subsequent months of Congressional hearings around Watergate, Senator Frank Church called for hearings to investigate the Cointelpro program.
As the history related in the film makes clear, Cointelpro’s stretch was broad. Beginning in the 1950s with a focus on the Puerto Rican independence movement and continuing through the 1960s and into the 1970s when much of its focus had shifted to the black liberation, Chicano liberation and American Indian movement, the program racked up a number of assassinations, false imprisonments and ruined lives. No government official was ever punished for actions taken under the program’s auspices. The film details this history through the artful use of still photos and moving images of the period covered. Films of police attacks and protests; still photos of revolutionary leaders and police murders graphically remind the viewer of Washington’s willingness to do whatever it takes to maintain its control. Organizers who began their political activity during the time of Cointelpro discuss the effect the program had on them and the organizations and individuals they worked with. Indeed, several of the interviewees were themselves targets and spent years in prison (some that were false, as in the case of Geronimo ji-Jaga Pratt) or on the run. One of the interviewees, Wesley Swearingen, is a former FBI agent who was involved in Cointelpro operations in Los Angeles and elsewhere and later published a book exposing his knowledge. His recollections reveal the nature of the war the FBI was fighting.
Former Black Panther member Kathleen Cleaver states toward the end of the film that Cointelpro represented the efforts of a political police force making the decision as to what is allowed politically and what is not. Anything outside the parameters set by this force was fair game. Nothing that was done by government officials or private groups and individuals acting on the government’s behalf was perceived as wrong or illegal. As Attorney Bob Boyle makes clear in his final statement in the film, Cointelpro is alive and well. The only difference now is that most of what was illegal for the government to do during Cointelpro’s official existence is now legal. The PATRIOT Act and other laws associated with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security have insured this.
Those interviewed in the film include:
Muhammad Ahmad (Max Stanford)—Founder of Revolutionary Action Movement and professor at Temple University; Bob Boyle—Attorney representing many activists and political prisoners targeted by COINTELPRO; Kathleen Cleaver—former leader of the Black Panther Party, now Professor of Law at Emory and Yale Universities and an expert on COINTELPRO; Ward Churchill—just-removed Professor at the University of Colorado who has written extensively about COINTELPRO; Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz—Long-time Native American activist and educator; Priscilla Falcon—Long-time Mexicana activist and professor whose husband was assassinated for his leadership in the Chicano struggle; Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt—former leader of the Black Panther Party who was falsely imprisoned for 27 years in a COINTELPRO case; Jose Lopez—Director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago and long-time advocate of Puerto Rican independence; Francisco 'Kiko' Martinez—long-time Chicano/Mexicano activist and attorney; Lucy Rodriguez—Puerto Rican Independentista and former Political Prisoner; Ricardo Romero—long-time Chicano/Mexicano activist and Grand Jury resister; Akinyele Umoja—African American History scholar at Georgia State University; Laura Whitehorn—radical activist and former political prisoner who was targeted by the federal government.
One of the other sites of interest that you will be led to if you view the film, is to its producers: The Freedom Archives
The Freedom Archives contains over 10,000 hours of audio and video tapes. These recordings date from the late-60s to the mid-90s and chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international solidarity movements. The collection includes weekly news/ poetry/ music programs broadcast on several educational radio stations; in-depth interviews and reports on social and cultural issues; diverse activist voices; original and recorded music, poetry, original sound collages; and an extensive La Raza collection. These materials constitute a compelling record of 40 years of recorded sound, images and cultural diversity. The music/poetry mixes, production techniques, and sound collages represent an innovative contribution to the art of radio and the cultural ambiance of "the 60s" and subsequent decades.
Selected highlights are on a CD sampler, Roots of Resistance, to provide an example of the vast range of materials in the archive and to further promote the restoration work. While the preservation of the Freedom Archives is of immediate concern, future educational audio programs are envisioned for school use and radio broadcast.This historical treasure, preserved and made widely accessible, brings to life the stirring sounds and images of these tumultuous times. Just a few highlights include: dramatic recordings of Fannie Lou Hamer, Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, Angela Davis, Mario Savio, Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, and Ramsey Clark during the war in Vietnam; prison interviews with Lolita Lebron, Assata Shakur, and George Jackson.
We have recently acquired a number of audio tapes about Latino movements from independent producer Jesse ‘Chuy’ Varela—now at KCSM—and an extensive collection of the late Colin Edwards—who produced programs for the BBC, Canadian Broadcasting, Irish Radio, and Pacifica Radio about everything from the Black Power Movement to Vietnam and the Middle East. The archives contains much exclusive material on the civil rights, student, antiwar, prison, women's, and gay/lesbian movements along with an extensive La Raza collection and in-depth reports on key events from San Francisco to South Africa. The collection brings together the sounds and speeches of local and national leaders and protests, and the works of hundreds of poets, activists, and musicians.
Help get our his-stories and her-stories heard.
Pass them on.
Make sure to follow Angola 3 News, and Criminal InJustice Kos, right here on Daily Kos.
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Noted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses lack of minority representation in his field. Black Enterprise: Are African Americans Afraid of Science?
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Over the years, Neil deGrasse Tyson has become perhaps the most recognized scientist in the country. As the host of PBS’ NOVA scienceNOW, and a regular guest on such popular shows as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Colbert Report and Jeopardy! the astrophysicist continues to bring his own brand of scientific enlightenment to the masses.
BLACK ENTERPRISE recently spoke with the Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City to discuss African Americans in the sciences.
Why is it important to have or pursue a career in the sciences and have that skill set and knowledge base?
Neil deGrasse Tyson: A couple of things: I don’t claim that I have a special solution to increasing minority representation among the sciences. I have a few ideas; but I’m not putting them forth as, “This is how it will solve the problem.” Nor is it really a requirement of a society that everybody becomes a scientist. What should happen, which we should all embrace and value, is that as a minimum people are scientifically literate. So that as an electorate you can make informed decisions about issues that rise up, where your knowledge of science impacts how you might vote on one issue or another, or on important decisions related to the future of society, its economy, the environment. All of these, at their core, involve scientific fluency. So, everyone should be scientifically literate.
Are we anywhere near being on track where we’ll see more African American representation in the sciences?
Tyson: No. So, let me offer you a perspective. When I graduated college, there were something like 130 black graduates in my graduating class. This is the Harvard class of 1980. Of those 130, there was an article about the graduating class in The New York Times, and it cited these 130. Two went on for advanced academic degrees. And I was one of those two. Here I was, graduating from one of the most storied institutions of the land, where if there’s any institution that you might expect to be feeding academia, it would be the population of graduates from there. And there were only two. The simplest way I can understand that is that the community at that time did not yet have the luxury of using that education for that purpose.
And so, what that means is, if you’re the first to go to college or the first to go to a selective school where there’s a high expectation of opportunity, is the first thing you’re thinking of, “Oh, let me study science?” No, you’re going to sort of build capital. You’re going to choose a job where income is guaranteed and high. So, the legal, the finance, the business school, the law school, medical school.
(Image: Patrick Queen for Columbia Magazine)
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Anna Rothery speaks out for black community across the pond. The Voice: Black community in Liverpool 'is invisible'
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ONE OF Liverpool's few black politicians has spoken out about the lack of investment in the city's African Caribbean community since the 1981 Toxteth riots.
Labour councillor Anna Rothery said that despite early positive signs in the wake of the clashes with police over racism and harassment things still needed to improve, particularly with regard to unemployment.
She told The Independent: "We did get a law centre, but that's closed and we had a few boys' clubs, but there's been no real continuity of investment, much more needs to be done. We are still not a visible community. Liverpool is a tale of two cities."
Rothery added: "Look at some of the city's biggest employers. They have hardly any Liverpool-born black staff. They may have some who have come into the city, but few from Toxteth.”
Anna Rothery
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More than half the respondents to an online poll of 1,000 soccer fans including current and former players believe racism is the reason for the lack of black managers in English soccer. New York Times: Fans Blame Racism for Lack of Black Managers in England
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More than half the respondents to an online poll of 1,000 soccer fans including current and former players believe racism is the reason for the lack of black managers in English soccer.
The poll was designed and conducted by Ellis Cashmore and Jamie Cleland from Staffordshire University and their conclusions published in the journal "Ethnic and Racial Studies" (http://bit.ly/...).
"The number of black and minority ethnic managers in English professional soccer has been stable for nearly 10 years," Cashmore and Cleland wrote.
"There are usually between two and four (out of a possible 92). Yet black players regularly make up more than a quarter of professional club squad.
"The findings indicate 56 percent of respondents believe racism operates at the executive levels of football, i.e. the boardroom.
"While some accuse club owners of directors of deliberate discrimination, most suspect a form of unwitting or institutional racism in which assumptions about black people's capacities are not analysed and challenged and continue to circulate."
Cashmore, a Professor of Culture, Media and Sport, and Cleland, a Senior Lecturer in Sociology, said black players had been a "substantial presence" in English soccer since the late 1970s.
But, they said, blacks' involvement in soccer effectively concluded at the end of their active playing careers and most of the participants in the poll believed there would be no dramatic change.
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UN says that more than 10 million people are affected in areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. Global Development: Africa drought pushes Kenya and Somalia into pre-famine conditions
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The worst drought in 60 years in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis and high malnutrition rates, with parts of Kenya and Somalia experiencing pre-famine conditions, the United Nations has said.
More than 10 million people are now affected in drought-stricken areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda and the situation is deteriorating, it said.
"Two consecutive poor rainy seasons have resulted in one of the driest years since 1950/51 in many pastoral zones," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told a media briefing. "There is no likelihood of improvement until 2012".
Food prices have risen substantially in the region, pushing many moderately poor households over the edge.
A UN map of food security in the eastern Horn of Africa shows large swathes of central Kenya and Somalia in the emergency category, one phase before what the UN classifies as catastrophe/famine – the fifth and worst category.
Child malnutrition rates in the worst affected areas are more than double the emergency threshold of 15 per cent and are expected to rise further. High mortality rates among children are also reported.
A displaced Somali woman awaits humanitarian assistance from local residents in southern Mogadishu, Somalia. Photograph: Mustafa Abdi/AFP/Getty Images
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Hopefully Brazil does repeat the mistakes of America's "Urban Development" era. BBC: Rio Olympics: Favela poor evicted as city spruced up
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Berenice Maria da Neve is beside herself with grief and rage. As we stand beside a busy highway on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, she points furiously at a pile of rubble.
"Look at that," she says. "That's where my house used to be. That's where I lived with my children and grand-children.
"Then they came and knocked it down - they destroyed everything, my table, my sofa, even a wardrobe with all my clothes inside."
Berenice's misfortune was to live in one of Rio's slums being levelled ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games, as Brazil works to improve its infrastructure.
She is - or rather was - one of millions of people living in illegally-built favelas or shanty towns. She ekes out a precarious living by selling food to labourers on construction sites.
In the little community where she has lived for the past eight years, about 1,000 people have already seen their homes destroyed to make way for a new, improved highway, which the authorities say is part of their preparations to host the 2016 Olympic Games.
One day in May, Berenice was summoned to City Hall, more than an hour's bus ride away in the centre of Rio.
There, she was told that her house had been condemned, and was handed a cheque for 8,000 reais ($5,000, £3,000) in compensation. By the time she got home, her house had been bulldozed.
"What use is 8,000 reais?" she asks.
"I'd need at least four times as much to find a house to buy. And I had a terrible time trying to cash the cheque because I can't read or write."
Both the special rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council and the international human rights group Amnesty International have condemned Brazil for its policy of evicting people like Berenice from their homes.
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A federal appeals court struck down Proposal 2 on Friday, a 2006 ballot initiative in Michigan that banned Affirmative Action in college admissions and government hiring. TalkingPointsMemo: Court Strikes Down Michigan's Affirmative Action Ban
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In a 2-1 decision, the Appellate panel ruled that Prop 2 violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment. "The majority may not manipulate the channels of change in a manner that places unique burdens on issues of importance to racial minorities," Judges R. Guy Cole and Martha Craig Daughtrey wrote in the majority opinion.
Prop 2 was passed in November 2006 by a vote of 58%-42%, and the Detroit Free Press reports that in the breakdown, it was "overwhelmingly approved by white voters and overwhelmingly rejected by blacks."
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On some days, Michael Arkush’s interviews with Sugar Ray Leonard would last from 9 a.m. into the night. Other days, the boxing great would tell Arkush to stop the recorder, his mood darkened by the retelling of a troubled past. But in small doses over 18 months, Leonard began to open up about a career full of highs and lows.
The result was “The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring,” a book co-authored by Leonard and Arkush that was released June 6.
The book “was about me finding myself,” said Leonard, who grew up in the District and in Prince George’s County. “I didn’t think I would, but it’s been very therapeutic. Every day is better for me. Every day I have more confidence to talk about what bothered me for so long. And for the very first time, I’m talking about me and I’m not lying.”
The book’s most disturbing revelation — that Leonard was sexually abused by a boxing coach and another man while a young amateur fighter in the 1970s — came to light over months of conversations between Arkush and Leonard. Leonard, who said that he didn’t intend for the scene to make the book, initially revealed only a few details. Only after watching actor Todd Bridges explain how he was sexually abused on “Oprah” did Leonard begin to fully open up about the harrowing details of the abuse.
“It was clear the experience was very cathartic for him and liberating,” Arkush said. “It was difficult at times, of course. But you could could see how much satisfaction he got from just coming to terms with everything”
Before telling the world about his life-changing experience, only Leonard’s ex-wife, Juanita, and wife Bernadette knew about what had happened. Since the book’s release, Leonard has encountered a wave of support from his fans, although the subject still remains a touchy subject with some of his family members.
Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard opens up in a new book about being sexually abused, about using drugs and alcohol to keep up his image and recovering from his troubles.
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
How we got from there to here is a question all of us ask ourselves and wonder at. We can consider the sweat it took and the blood let; the cries of pain and of joy. We can consider the broken hearts left behind and we can consider those who left us with the broken heart. We can wonder at the sad trek of the sad soldier homeless and forgotten and we can wonder at the young mother celebrated in a...
Birthday Poem
First light of day in Mississippi
son of laborer & of house wife
it says so on the official photostat
not son of fisherman & child fugitive
from cottonfields & potato patches
from sugarcane chickens & well-water
from kerosene lamps & watermelons
mules named jack or jenny & wagonwheels,
years of meaningless farm work
work Work WORK WORK WORK—
“Papa pull you outta school bout March
to stay on the place & work the crop”
—her own earliest knowledge
of human hopelessness & waste
She carried me around nine months
inside her fifteen year old self
before here I sit numbering it all
How I got from then to now
is the mystery that could fill a whole library
much less an arbitrary stanza
But of course you already know about that
from your own random suffering
& sudden inexplicable bliss
-- Al Young
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The Front Porch is now open. If you haven't joined The Black Kos Community yet, and are interested in getting an invite, please give us a shout-out in comments.
Grab a chair, and join us for discussion. Barbeque is on the table and dessert is on the way.