By Debra Sweet
Political Repression Alert
It’s outrageous that the Obama administation is carrying forward the political repression of the Bush regime, and is searching, raiding homes, issuing subpoenaes, arresting, prosecuting, and imprisoning political activsts for speech and activities aimed at exposing and stopping unjust and immoral actions of the government. As we’ve covered in this newsletter, in many ways the Obama administration is doing even worse on civil liberties than the Bush regime did.
Last week, the Department of Justice released a report that the FBI, according to The Atlantic, "FBI agents misled officials and the public, violated their own policy manual, used poor judgment, and engaged in sloppy police work when they investigated certain left-leaning, high-profile, domestic advocacy groups in the years immediately following 9/11, the Justice Department announced today following a four-year-longinternal investigation by the Office of the Inspector General." Michael Ratner, attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, on the radio broadcast "Law and Disorder" covered the report, released on September 20.
On Friday September 24, the FBI carried out raids in Minneapolis, Chicago, North Carolina and Michigan. See coverage in the Minneapolis Independent and today on Democracy Now.
This is quite alarming. We are all concerned and we should mobilize politically against this repression. People and movements opposing an unjust war their government is waging should not be facing political intimidation and repression in the form of raids and grand juries being used to silence them.
I recommend studying:
- A recent booklet from the Center for Constitutional Rights, If An Agent Knocks: What to do if you or your organization are targeted by federal law enforcement. (download online).
- A March 27, 2010 article from Revolution, Don’t Be Bamboozled by Agents of Repression-"Don’t Talk", a review of an approach and resources to resist government repression.
Many anti-war organizations are joining to protest the September 24 FBI raids. The following cities will protest at federal buildings:
Monday 9/27:
Minneapolis, MN – 4:30, FBI Office Monday, 111 Washington Ave. South
Chicago, IL – 4:30 FBI building, 2111 W. Roosevelt Road.
Kalamazoo, MI – 4:30 Federal Building, 410 W Michigan Ave
Salt Lake City, Utah – 9 AM at Federal Building
Durham, NC – 12 noon Federal Building, 323 E Chapel Hill St
Buffalo, NY- 4:30 pm at FBI Building – Corner of So. Elmwood Ave. & Niagara St.
Gainesville, FL – Monday, 4:30 PM at FBI Building
Duluth MN, Monday 4:30 PM Duluth Federal Building
Kansas City, MO 6:pm at the J.C. Nichols fountain.
Houston, TX, 5:00 PM, Mick Leland Federal Building, 1919 Smith St. at St. Joseph Parkway
Boston, MA – 4 to 6, JFK Federal Building, Government Center
Tuesday 9/28:
NYC, NY – 4:30 to 6pm Federal Building, 26 Federal Plaza,
Newark, NJ -5 to 6pm Federal Building Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA – 4:30pm Federal Building, 6th & Market,
Washington DC – 4:30 – 5:30 FBI Building, 935 Pennsylvania Ave NW.
Boston, MA – 5 pm, JFK Federal Building
Detroit, MI – 4:30 pm McNamara Federal Building, Michigan Ave. at Cass
Raleigh, NC – 9 am. Federal Building, 310 New Bern Ave
Asheville, NC – 5 pm Federal Building,
Atlanta, GA – Noon, FBI Building
Los Angeles, CA – 5 pm, Downtown Federal Building, 300 N Los Angeles St
Tucson, AZ – 5 pm Federal Building
Pittsburgh, PA 5 pm Federal Building on Grant St.
Cleveland OH – Tues 4 pm Federal Building E. 9th & Lakeside, March to FBI Building
Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday 5:00 PM, Federal Building, 200 N. High St.
Wednesday 9/29:
Albany, NY – 5 to 6 pm Federal Building
This is indeed a serious matter and one that demands our voices and our presence. Criminalization of dissent is becoming more and more common. Even Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant secretary of the treasury in the Reagan administration, hardly a leftist “extremist,” is horrified by these FBI actions. He says the US is now a police state. Let us take a stand in these protests and not fail to work together until such repression is a thing of the past.
We need to stop funding the police state with our Corporate purchases. Buy local small business, do without if need be rather than fund our own demise as police bash our heads in & imprison us!!