Describes the decades-long covert counterintelligence program code-named Cointelpro directed against socialists and activists in the Black and anti-Vietnam War movements. The operations revealed in the documents cited in this book many of them photographically reproduced provide an unprecedented look at the methods used by the FBI, CIA, military intelligence, and other U.S. police agencies. Despite their authors intentions, these documents also record pieces of the history of efforts to build the communist movement in the United States.
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Editorial Reviews
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"Cointelpro is the first book to disclose, in indisputable and chilling words of FBI officials themselves, the two-pronged attack with which the FBI has attempted to discredit and destroy lawful and effective groups working for social justice." --Gloria Steinem
"Using taxpayers money, large numbers of federal officials have been-and still are-working overtime in an attempt to disrupt, confuse and thwart the black, labor, and socialist movements from achieving their goals of eliminating oppression and exploitation. That is the only conclusion to be drawn from reading the book." --The Black Scholar
Background essays ... and facsimiles of nearly 100 FBI memos and other documents are worth the study of thoughtful readers." --Publishers Weekly --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"Using taxpayers money, large numbers of federal officials have been-and still are-working overtime in an attempt to disrupt, confuse and thwart the black, labor, and socialist movements from achieving their goals of eliminating oppression and exploitation. That is the only conclusion to be drawn from reading the book." --The Black Scholar
Background essays ... and facsimiles of nearly 100 FBI memos and other documents are worth the study of thoughtful readers." --Publishers Weekly --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A shocking and fascinating account,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cointelpro: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom (Paperback)
Cointelpro by Nelson Blackstock is a close and penetrating look at the illegal FBI counterintelligence program code-named COINTELPRO. Brought to light by a lawsuit filed in 1973 and settled thirteen years later, the COINTELPRO program, its methods for political disruption, techniques used by the FBI, CIA, and military intelligence, are all covered in-depth in this shocking and fascinating account. Enhanced with an introduction by Noam Chomsky, Cointelpro is especially timely reading in view of the radical measures being passed into law and implemented under the aegis of Homeland Security.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
They did it then and they do it now and will do it until we stop them,
By Tony Thomas (SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cointelpro: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom (Paperback)
Though this book is almost thirty years old, it catalogs the tactics that the United States Government has been carrying since the spectre of fundamental social change came on the scene after the Russian revolution. The government continues to do this, and they will continue to do this as long as it is controled by the capitalist wealthy who know that the interests of the majority of working people in the and theirs are in conflict. Wherever movements that question this society's exploitation and injustice arise, they use the police forces both secret and public to disrupt them illegally, they spy on them, and they are not above violence.
I was active as a member, full time volunteer, and leader of the Socialist Workers Party during the years covered by this book. The law suit and struggle against FBI disruption of our organization, the antiwar movement, and the Black rights movement showed that the apartment I shared with other party activists had been broken into. The deposition the FBI had of me before the trial indicated that the FBI had been following me around, taking notes at everything I said from the time I became an SWP member at the age of 20 and even before. Yet, the FBI spying, that began in the 1930s, had not led to any prosecution of the SWP or any of its members. We successfully fought this suit not because we believed that the legal system in this country will end the use of the government as a weapon against working people, against unions, Black rights, immigrants, women's rights, or antiwar fighters. We know they will use the government for that purpose as long as the government is in the hands of the capitalists and not in the hands of workers and farmers. We did this to use the leverage brought about by the antiwar struggles and the outrage at the murders and persecution of leaders of the Black liberation movement, to fight back and fight for the space working people need to change the entire system. Read this book and you see not only a picture of government disruption in the past, but a picture of what they are doing now, how we can fight against it, and why we need to keep fighting until the government is not controlled by billionaires, but by the workers and farmers who produce the real wealth of society. While this book is not always available on Amazon, it is always available from BooksfromPathfinder, an Amazon Z store that you can get to by clicking on New and Used further up this page!
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
COINTELPRO: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom,
By
This review is from: Cointelpro: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom (Paperback)
If you're concerned about the future of democratic rights under the so-called Patriot Act, just take a short glimpse back in American history with COINTELPRO, the code-name for FBI's covert and illegal counterintelligence program. This book takes a look at the program through the prism of the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialist Alliance because it was those two groups that went to court against the FBI in 1974. Through the lawsuit these two organizations launched, an avalanche of documents came to light. You'll read how the FBI used every dirty trick in the book to discredit these groups--getting members fired from their jobs, discredited as candidates, how they sought to drive a wedge between the followers of Malcolm X and the SWP, how hard they worked to upset the antiwar movement and more. Many important copies of documents appear in the book. Must reading for anyone concerned with attacks on freedom of speech and association, and how to fight back against government disruption plans.
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