Chicago, IL – A standing room only crowd filled the Holy Covenant United Methodist Church on September 29 to commemorate Reverend Bruce Johnson and Eugenia Johnson. The reverend and his wife Eugenia were remembered for supporting the Young Lords and their role in the struggle against poverty, war and oppression. They were savagely murdered in their own home 50 years ago, stabbed to death, during a U.S. government campaign of repression known as COINTELPRO or the Counterintelligence Program.

Ministers of the United Methodist Church, the Bishop of Chicago’s Episcopal Church and leaders from the Presbyterian McCormick Seminary honored the couple’s commitment to equality, justice and peace. Those who knew the martyred couple best spoke with reverence for their commitment to humanity and their dedication and love for their children and each other.

During the church service, it became clear the radical Christian ideas espoused by Reverend Bruce Johnson were both a challenge and an inspiration to many. Those honoring him continue to try to live up to his ideas. It was during the Young Lords occupation of the McCormick Seminary in May of 1969 that Reverend Bruce Johnson stepped forward to offer aid and solidarity to the Young Lords. It was only a few months later he and his wife were killed.

Along with the many women ministers who spoke, DePaul professor Jacqueline Lazu explained the history of the Young Lords. DePaul was one of the three big institutions involved in displacing people. Professor Lazu said, “Every day I think about how I came to teach at DePaul and how I benefit from the struggle of the Young Lords to open up access for Puerto Ricans.”

Young Lords founder Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez said, “We are here today, to remember and honor the Reverend Bruce Johnson and Eugenia. They are our martyrs. Along with Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton and Mark Clark who were killed two months later. They gave their lives, as did Young Lords Manuel Ramos and Jose “Pancho” Lind. The Young Lords led our neighborhood struggle against displacement of poor people by the big developers.”

Pat Devine, a religious and community organizer related, “70,000 people were forced out of the Lincoln Park neighborhood in four years, as developers made land grabs and built housing for only the wealthiest in Chicago.”

After the memorial mass, nearly 100 people marched through the Lincoln Park neighborhood to the former site of People’s Church. People’s Church is where Reverend Bruce Johnson hosted the Young Lords. “We ran a day care center, breakfast program for school children and organized protests and occupations to stop the displacement of our community. We also rallied to free Puerto Rico!” Jimenez said.

Tony Baez, Young Lord Minister of Education, said “Their deaths made us more serious as revolutionaries and propelled us forward. Young Lords went on to organize in other parts of society and in many other cities where Puerto Rican people lived.”

The march ended with a rally at People’s Church. “We honor their sacrifice. We will be Young Lords until the day we die! Free Puerto Rico!” proclaimed Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez.

#ChicagoIL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PuertoRico #PoliceBrutality #COINTELPRO #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #YoungLordsParty #ReverendBruceJohnson

Vaun L. Mayes, a leading activist in Milwaukee's African American community, has been attacked with trumped-up charges resulting from a coordinated campaign of political repression reminiscent of the 1950’s and ‘60’s Counter-Intelligence Program, or COINTELPRO.

The Wisconsin District of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization calls on activists, progressives, and socialists to take a stand against the outrageous politically motivated frame-up of Vaun Mayes by the ATF and Milwaukee Police.

Mayes is currently in custody facing three charges including attempted arson. Federal prosecutors claim Mayes tried to organize people to firebomb a police station and throw rocks at police two years ago during the Sherman Park uprising, but never carried the plans out.

The Milwaukee Police killing of Sylville Smith sparked the Sherman Park uprising in August 2016. Police said Smith pointed a gun at officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown, who was pursuing Smith. During the mass uprising that ensued, protesters demanded the release of body camera footage. The camera footage revealed that Milwaukee Police lied to the public about details of the incident. It showed that Smith had thrown a weapon to the ground before officer Heaggan-Brown fatally shot him.

Officer Heaggan-Brown was charged but acquitted in the murder of Smith. Earlier this year Heaggan-Brown was sentenced to three years in prison for sexual assault.

The police have a long history of using repression, lies, and deceit to cover up their crimes and target political activists. In the two-years since the Sherman Park uprising, Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) has been working with federal agencies to try to file charges against people involved in the protests. The charges against Mayes come at a time when Milwaukee Police have been the subject of national attention for the racist harassment and tasing of Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown. The plot against Mayes is an effort by MPD to take the focus off police crimes that are the cause of mass uprisings in Sherman Park, Ferguson, and Baltimore.

In response to the mass movements demanding police accountability, the federal government is taking steps to protect killer cops and put activists on the defensive. There is no doubt that Trump's racist Attorney General Jeff Sessions wishes to return to the days of COINTELPRO. COINTELPRO was a secret and illegal federal program that targeted the Black Panther Party and other left-wing activists with disinformation campaigns, threats, and assassination. In Chicago, local police worked with federal agencies to carry out the political assassinations of African American liberation movement leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in 1969.

In the frame-up of Vaun Mayes, the Milwaukee Police also worked with federal agencies. This is not the first time the MPD and ATF have carried out a campaign based on lies in an attempt to bring arrests. In 2012 Milwaukee Police and ATF agents worked together on a comically mismanaged operation to take illegal weapons off the streets. The MPD opened a storefront called “Fearless Distributing” in a quiet residential neighborhood. The storefront was robbed of $35,000 in merchandise, including an ATF military-grade machine gun that ended up on the streets, unaccounted for. Police filed bogus charges against at least three people. The charges had to be dropped, according to a report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The operation ended in utter embarrassment for the MPD and ATF.

Mayes is the most recent target of the MPD and ATF collaboration, this time it’s a transparently ridiculous effort to retaliate for the Sherman Park uprising and conviction of killer cop Dominique Heaggan-Brown. Just last month, Mayes posted a report on social media about suspicious activity outside his home, sharing images on Facebook of gas cans with wicks in them someone left outside his home.

Mayes is a well-respected activist, community leader, and youth mentor who is being targeted because of his role as an unapologetic fighter against police crimes, racism, and oppression of the African American community. Mayes was also an active leader in the high profile movement to hold MPD accountable for the killing of Dontre Hamilton in 2014. Mayes has worked tirelessly to fight for the residents in Milwaukee's African American community, which suffers from some of the highest poverty and incarceration rates of any major US city.

The charges against Vaun Mayes, for an act that never happened, are a blatant attempt to silence criticism of Milwaukee Police for their crimes. We must defend Vaun Mayes and the African American liberation movement. We must continue to fight to hold police accountable for their lies and crimes.

Community groups are asking supporters to stand in solidarity with Mayes at his court hearing on Thursday, July 5, at 3:30pm (arrive at 3:00pm for security screening) at the Federal Courthouse room 242, located at 517 E. Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee WI.

#MilwaukeeWI #BlackLiberationMovement #PoliticalPrisoners #PeoplesStruggles #COINTELPRO

Chicago, IL – Dec. 4 marked the 48th anniversary of the assassination of Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton, and Defense Captain Mark Clark. They died in a predawn raid by a joint operation of the Chicago Police Department, Cook County State's Attorney's Office and the FBI.

Every year since 2001, people in solidarity with the Black liberation struggle gather at 2337 W Monroe Street to join Hampton’s son, Chairman Fred, Jr., Hampton’s widow, Comrade Mother Akua Njeri and the Black Panther Party Cubs in observing International Revolutionary Day (IRD) in remembrance of Fred Hampton’s contributions to the struggle.

In 1969, Hampton was organizing revolutionary education campaigns, serve the people programs and working for unity around street organizations (‘gangs’). The FBI was implementing their Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) against the Panthers.

COINTELPRO and the state's war against the Black liberation movement was the theme of Chairman Fred, Jr.'s statement for IRD 2017. The statement read in part, “the Oct. 21 position by President Trump to release the long-blocked and classified JFK files, although redacted, not only opens for an objective re-analysis of the Kennedy era, its respective administration and subsequent assassination of then-President John F. Kennedy…from the perspective of a people, who have in particular been subjected to attacks, assaults, as well as assassinations, deem it pertinent to seize the time to recall the policies, positions, and practices implemented on the Black community today, yesterday, and proceeding into the future, in particular those which were responsible for the military defeat of the Black Power movement of the 1960s, the infamous COINTELPRO.”

The statement added, “We call on that same administration that acknowledged the Kennedy files be re-opened to release the COINTELPRO files – release 'em all!”

#ChicagoIL #AfricanAmerican #COINTELPRO #FredHampton #PoliticalRepression #MarkClark

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following article by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire.

On the 40th anniversary of the shooting and capture of Assata Shakur, the FBI and the State of New Jersey has now placed the African American revolutionary on the most wanted terrorist list. This latest provocation against Shakur, 65, is directed not only against the veteran Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA) member, but represents an overall attack on the struggle of African Americans against racism and national oppression in the United States.

Assata Shakur has now been placed under a $US2 million bounty offered by the racist government of the U.S. She had previously been subjected to a sum of $US1 million instituted a decade-and-a-half ago.

Since 1984, Shakur has been living as a political refugee in the revolutionary Caribbean-Island nation of Cuba. She sought asylum there after living underground in the U.S. where she escaped from maximum security prison in New Jersey on November 2, 1979.

Shakur was arrested on May 2, 1973 after being stopped by the state police while riding in a car traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike. She was seriously wounded in the routine traffic stop where Zayd Malik Shakur was killed and Sundiata Acoli (formerly known as Clark Squire) was also captured. Acoli remains in prison until this day some forty years later.

During the traffic stop New Jersey state trooper Werner Forester was killed. Shakur was charged with numerous crimes during a series of trials between 1973-77. However, she was acquitted of all these charges and was finally falsely accused and convicted in the death of the law-enforcement officer.

At the time of the arrest of Assata Shakur and Sundiata Acoli and the murder of Zayd Malik Shakur, the Black Liberation Army had been vilified for years in the corporate media. Many law-enforcement agencies throughout the country were on high-alert for the capturing or killing of members and associates of this organization.

Assata was held for six-and-a-half years in maximum security prisons in New Jersey. She wrote in her political biography entitled “Assata: An Autobiography,” released in 1987 by Zed books, that she was detained in all-male correctional facilities and subjected to torture by prison guards and other law-enforcement officials.

In late 1979, a group of BLA and Weather Underground activists liberated her from prison. She later immigrated to Cuba where the revolutionary socialist government of President Fidel Castro granted her political asylum.

Background of Repression Against the Black Liberation Movement in the U.S.

The Black Panther Party grew out of the southern Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the state of Alabama. In Lowndes County, Alabama in the aftermath of the Selma to Montgomery March that preceded the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) moved into the area to begin organizing for independent political action.

Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture) was a leading organizer with SNCC at the time and played a significant role in the struggle in Lowndes County during 1965-66. SNCC partnered with the John Hulett of the Lowndes County Christian Movement for Human Rights which eventually led to the formation of the all-Black Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO).

The LCFO rejected attempts to integrate into the all-white Alabama Democratic Party which was segregationist and thoroughly racist in character. The LCFO took on the Black Panther logo and was consequently labeled the Black Panther Party. This idea spread throughout other regions of the state leading to the formation of the Alabama Black Panther Party by early 1966.

These efforts in Lowndes County gained national attention during 1966. Although the party registered thousands of African American voters, the November 1966 county elections were stolen by the racists.

Nonetheless, by this time the idea which time had come spread throughout other sections of the U.S. There was the establishment of other Black Panther organizations from New York State to California.

In October of 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense which eventually became the most dominant within the entire movement by mid-1968. By 1967, there were at least three different organizations working under the banner of the Black Panther in California in both the southern and northern regions of the state.

Carmichael, who became Chairman of SNCC in May 1966, pushed for a more nationalist orientation for the organization and the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. The Black Power slogan, which became popular in the summer of 1966, was advanced by Willie Ricks, a SNCC field secretary, (now known as Mukasa Dada) and Stokely Carmichael during the “March Against Fear” in Mississippi in June of 1966.

In 1967, Carmichael was drafted as “Honorary Prime Minister” of the Newton-Seale organization. Carmichael and other SNCC leaders entered into an alliance with the BPP for Self-Defense in February 1968.

Later this alliance broke down but Carmichael and other SNCC organizers continued to work with the Panthers based in Oakland through mid-1969. As a result of both the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO-Black Nationalist) as well as ideological and political differences, there was a split within the Black Panther Party during the summer of 1969.

COINTELPRO and the Splits Within the Black Liberation Movement

In 1967, the FBI stepped up its efforts to undermine and neutralize the Black Liberation Movement in the U.S. This took placed amid burgeoning urban rebellions which had struck over 200 cities by the end of 1967.

By October 1968, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had labeled the Black Panther Party based in Oakland as the most serious threat to the internal security of the U.S. Hundreds of Party members and supporters were indicted on spurious charges and several organizers were killed by the police and their collaborators.

Leading members of the Party were imprisoned and driven into exile during 1968-69. Newton was wounded and convicted in the murder of an Oakland police officer in 1968. Eldridge Cleaver and Kathleen Cleaver went into exile in Cuba and later Algeria in 1968-69.

In 1969, Bobby Seale was arrested and charged with a conspiracy in the murder of fellow Panther Alex Rackley who was killed in New Haven, Connecticut. During that same year, Seale was bound and gagged on the orders of Judge Julius Hoffmann in Chicago during the conspiracy trial for allegedly attempting to disrupt the Democratic Convention of 1968.

With the Party being a relatively young organization, these actions by the federal government had a devastating impact. By late 1970 after the release of Newton on appeal, tensions grew between the factions within the organization headed by Cleaver, then still living in Algeria, and many of the Panthers on the east coast on the one hand and Newton and Chief-of-Staff David Hilliard along with their adherents based in northern California on the other.

In February 1971, an open split erupted with Cleaver calling for the expulsion of Newton and Hilliard and Newton condemning Cleaver for his public criticism of Party policy. Cleaver and his cohorts soon called for the intensification of the armed struggle inside the U.S.

With the ideological and political struggles coming to the fore inside the Party, various members were forced underground to avoid imprisonment and assassination. These cadres began to call themselves the International Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army.

The BLA was already a part of the Party prior to the split. Rule number six of the Black Panther Party 26 rules, said that no Party member could belong to any other armed force but the Black Liberation Army.

Political fracturing escalated in early 1971 with the acquittal of the New York 21, a group of leading Panthers in New York City who were falsely charged with attempts to carry out bombings in the city. A letter signed by some members of the New York 21 openly criticized the west coast leadership under Newton, prompting their expulsion.

Assata Shakur in her autobiography described this period in detail. Many Party members who had been purged were deliberately sent into the BLA, the underground.

Shakur wrote from the Middlesex County Workhouse on July 6, 1973 that “There is and always will be, until every Black man, woman and child is free, a Black Liberation Army. The main function of the Black Liberation Army at this time is to create good examples to struggle for Black freedom and to prepare for the future. We must defend ourselves and let no one disrespect us. We must gain our liberation by any means necessary.” (Break the Chains pamphlet)

She continues in this essay noting that “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains!”

The prevailing governmental, corporate and reactionary forces were in mortal conflict with the Black Liberation Movement of the period. The heightened repression against the Movement came amid the major re-structuring of the U.S. and world economy.

Inside the African communities of the U.S. large-scale capital flight, police repression and the proliferation of drugs served to level whole areas which weakened the ability of the struggle to rejuvenate on a revolutionary basis. The split within the Black Panther Party between 1969-71 was replicated in other revolutionary organizations such as the Republic of New Africa, formed in Detroit in 1968 and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, also established in Detroit in 1969.

These political developments grew out of the material conditions in existence at the time. The African American struggle between 1975 and the second decade of the 21st century appeared to have shifted into the electoral arena.

However, the greater exposure of domestic neo-colonial constraints is causing a rethinking among the masses in regard to the overall strategic and tactical imperatives of the struggle. The ascendancy of President Barack Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus has fully laid bare the futility of Democratic Party politics and its utility for African American liberation.

The Significance of the Continuing Persecution of Assata Shakur

With the abysmal failure of the electoral political strategy dominated by the Democratic Party, the ruling class in the U.S. knows that sooner or later the African American masses in alliance with other oppressed nations and exploited workers will move in the direction of revolutionary politics. The decline in the world capitalist system has illustrated to billions around the world that there is no future in the current economic dispensation.

Even inside the U.S. it has been estimated that nearly half of the people are now living either in poverty or close to it. The spokespersons and political agents of the ruling class through their own pronouncements make no pretense in regard to addressing the growing impoverishment of the workers and oppressed.

During the 1960s there was deceptive rhetoric related to the so-called “War on Poverty” and providing greater opportunities for the oppressed nations and marginalized workers to receive a larger share of the wealth owned by the top echelons of society. Today this rhetoric has totally disappeared from the lexicon of the corporate media and the political functionaries of both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Consequently, revolutionary politics must be criminalized by the ruling class, the corporate media and the repressive apparatus of the state. Yet large segments of the African American, Latino/as, Arab-Middle Eastern and Muslim sections of the U.S. and world populations have already been criminalized.

Therefore, the recent attacks on Assata Shakur will ring hollow in the minds of the oppressed and conscious workers inside the imperialist-dominated system. This will be the case because there is no future in the current oppressive structures and revolution, or fundamental change and transformation, is the only solution to the problems of poverty, economic exploitation, state repression, environmental degradation and wars of aggression.

The most just response of the ruling class would be to grant a general amnesty to all political prisoners inside the U.S. and those held by the imperialists throughout the world. People living in exile like Assata Shakur should be granted a pardon and allowed to walk free among the masses of the U.S. who are yearning for such revolutionary leadership and consciousness.

Even if an amnesty is not granted to political prisoners by the Obama administration or successive White House occupiers, the struggle against capitalism and imperialism will continue to accelerate. The people have no other choice other than reject the system that is creating the conditions for their own destruction.

#UnitedStates #OppressedNationalities #Racism #BlackPantherParty #COINTELPRO #InjusticeSystem #Cuba #FBIRepression #AssataShakur

Los Angeles, CA – On May 20, a lively crowd of over 100 supporters gathered in front of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles to denounce the recent home invasion and arrest of Carlos Montes. Montes is a veteran Chicano activist and member of the Los Angeles Committee to Stop FBI Repression. The crowd represented a diverse range of local activist groups and movements – including LAUSD teachers and parent activists, members of the immigrant rights movement, anti-cutback activists from the University of California, organizers against police brutality and representatives from international solidarity movements.

The afternoon rally was also a press conference, convened in response to the May 17 morning raid conducted by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department SWAT Team and members of the FBI. At around 5:00 a.m. that morning, agents armed with automatic weapons broke down the door to Montes' home while he slept. The agents seized computers, cell phones, current and historical political documents and left Montes' home in shambles. Montes was arrested on one charge dealing with a firearm code and released on bail the following morning. His first court appearance is set for June 16.

At the rally, activists expressed outrage over the raid and arrest. Many speakers compared the operation to a COINTELPRO tactic, where trumped-up criminal charges provided the pretext for suppression of political activities critical of the government.

Prior to the raid, Carlos Montes was active organizing against the FBI and Grand Jury witch hunt being conducted against 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists in the Midwest. Montes was also named in the search warrant for Sept. 24, 2010 raid on the Twin Cities based Anti-War Committee, and like many of the 23 called before the Grand Jury, he helped organize the massive anti war march on the opening day of the 2008 Republican National Convention. The fact that FBI agents were present to question him about his political associations while he was arrested makes it clear that his own visit from law enforcement was not a coincidence.

Bev Tang, of Anakbayan Los Angeles, compared the repressive tactics used by the police and the FBI against Montes to the treatment that political activists in the Philippines often received from the U.S.-backed government there.

Nativo Lopez, a leading member of the Los Angeles immigrant rights movement who has also been targeted with criminal charges, spoke about the two-tiered justice system in Los Angeles: one tier for the rich and the political elite that allows them free reign to do what they like, and another one for the ordinary people of the city, where trumped-up charges and police misconduct are the norm.

A number of speakers stressed the need for continued unity in the face of the attacks on Carlos Montes and other leading members of the progressive movement in Los Angeles and committed to showing up to demonstrate at the June 16 court date.

The Los Angeles Committee to Stop FBI Repression will continue to organize in defense of Montes and the other 23 activists who have been targeted by the U.S. government for their political views. More local actions will be announced shortly. For information about upcoming meetings and actions, please visit stopfbila.net.

#LosAngelesCA #AntiwarMovement #ImmigrantRights #ChicanoLatino #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #FBI #CarlosMontes #COINTELPRO #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression

Minneapolis, MN – At a press conference here, Jan. 12, Jess Sundin of the Twin Cites based Anti-War Committee (AWC) blasted police infiltration of the anti-war and international solidarity movement, stating, “We are here today to express outrage that our democratic rights have been violated by a government operation of spying, infiltration and disruption of our anti-war movement, which was carried out over the course of at least two and half years.”

The exposure of an undercover law enforcement agent in the Twin Cities anti-war movement is linked to the Sept. 24, 2010 FBI raids on peace and international solidarity organizers and the subpoenas that have been served on 23 activists to appear in front of a Chicago Grand Jury.

The infiltrator, who used the name ‘Karen Sullivan,’ joined the AWC in April 2008, and about a year later she joined the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. A statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression notes, “In conversations between our attorneys and the prosecutor’s office in Chicago, we have had confirmation that Karen Sullivan was in fact a law enforcement officer working undercover.”

Sundin said, “In April 2008, law enforcement officer Karen Sullivan joined the Anti-War Committee. In 2008, we were involved in organizing the anti-war marches on the first and last days of the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul. At that time, there was a massive security operation here which included the infiltration of the RNC Welcoming Committee. We now have it confirmed that in this same time period, we too became the subject of government investigation. The difference is that our spy made herself comfortable and decided to stay awhile, posing as a fellow anti-war activist and pretending to befriend us.”

Misty Rowan, of the Anti-War Committee, said, “The AWC played an important role in organizing the permitted march on the Republican National Convention on Sept. 1, 2008 and also organized a rally and march on the fourth day of the convention. We can only assume that this First Amendment protected organizing was the reason that this agent, Karen Sullivan, infiltrated the AWC. It is the same kind of infiltration criticized in the October 2010 Inspector General report and highlighted in the recent release of documents from the Richmond, Virginia, police, where any sort of assembly is defined as a disturbance and threat.”

Sullivan’s spying was local and national in scope. She was present in Detroit, at the 2010 United States Social Forum, where she spoke on Plan Colombia. She was also present at the School of the Americas protests, at Fort Benning, Georgia, where she claimed to have met her partner, who goes by the name ‘Daniela Cardenas.’

Sundin states, “Unfortunately, Officer Sullivan took a special interest in the Anti-War Committee’s coalition work. She represented our committee at meetings of the Iraq Peace Action Coalition and the Coalition for Palestinian Rights. She also represented us in national venues – the Latin America Solidarity Coalition, at the School of the Americas Watch protests and at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit last summer. About a year ago, she also joined Freedom Road Socialist Organization, which is talked about by the government in this case, in a manner reminiscent of the McCarthy era political witch hunts.”

Disrupter

In the summer of 2009, Sullivan signed up to go on a solidarity trip to Palestine. Three members of the delegation were denied entry at the Tel Aviv airport and eventually sent back to the U.S.: Sarah Martin, Katrina Plotz and the agent.

Jess Sundin said, “When I speak of disruption, I am referring to an August 2009 solidarity delegation to Palestine. This delegation was a fact-finding mission, where participants were to witness the conditions for Palestinians living under U.S.-backed occupation, and to express our solidarity in a person-to-person way. Officer Sullivan made public her plans to join this delegation, she helped to promote it and fundraise for it here in our community. At the same time, she was secretly working to sabotage the trip entirely. Through her work, reports were passed onto Israeli authorities, who then barred entry to the two Minneapolis women traveling with Karen Sullivan. Her action, on behalf of the U.S. government, deprived these women of their rights to travel, association and dissent. The government was wrong to disrupt our important and legal work against U.S. aid to Israel.”

Attacking international solidarity

According to reports, it seems that the investigation of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is focused on small donations to the daycare and women’s center projects of the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, an NGO registered with the Palestinian Authority, with local offices in towns across the West Bank and Gaza. The Union is a progressive women's organization that strives to build respect for women's rights.

“It has become apparent to us that this delegation, and some of the fundraising work done to support it, is of great concern to the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago. In order to help fund the travel of the three women from Minneapolis – including Officer Sullivan – and to send a token symbol of solidarity to the Palestinian people, a series of fundraisers were organized. We were very open about our work to support the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, which is an NGO registered with the Palestinian Authority, and which is not illegal under Israeli or international law,” said Sundin.

Sundin continued “The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees works for women’s equality. Their activities include support for women refugees and women political prisoners, and providing basic social services for women, including several child care centers. These women are right to be working for justice in Palestine and there is no reason we should be criminalized for supporting them. However, that is exactly what has happened.”

Push back against repression

Steff Yorek, of Freedom Road Socialist Organization denounced the infiltration, “We are appalled that we were infiltrated by police agents, targeted for our political organizing and views. This violates our rights to freedom of association and speech.”

Speaking at the press conference, Joe Callahan of the Iraq Peace Action Coalition demanded the “immediate end to government spying” and the removal of all agents from peace groups.

Jess Sundin conluded, “We, the anti-war and international solidarity activists being targeted by Fitzgerald, have the support of every progressive movement in this country – from trade unionists to the immigrant rights movement, from students to people of faith and everyone in between. Opposing war is no crime. International solidarity is not a crime. We are not alone, we have done nothing wrong and we will not be afraid.”

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is planning a National Day of Protest for Jan. 25, in cities across the country. This protest is in solidarity with people refusing to testify at the secret grand jury in Chicago on that day.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #COINTELPRO #September24FBIRaids #PatrickFitzgerald

Peltier is a Native American political prisoner currently imprisoned at Lewisburg Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. He is one of the longest held political prisoners in the world. Peltier was wrongly convicted as part of a political frame up in 1977 and has now spent more than 30 years in prison.

Peltier is serving two life sentences for the deaths of two FBI agents during a 1975 confrontation on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was targeted for his activism and leadership with the American Indian Movement (AIM). In the early 1970s the American Indian Movement’s leadership of sharp struggles demanding justice for Native Americans led the FBI and U.S. government to target them as part of the secret COINTELPRO program that aimed to neutralize AIM as well as other radical movements fighting for justice and liberation. The FBI continues to vindictively oppose Leonard Peltier’s release, even though the government has admitted they are not sure who actually killed the FBI agents during the 1975 conflict at Pine Ridge.

#LewisburgPA #News #IndigenousPeoples #LeonardPeltier #AmericanIndianMovement #COINTELPRO #PoliticalPrisoners