New Books from Black Classic Press - The COINTELPRO Papers and Agents Of Oppression introduction by Ward Churchill

The COINTELPRO Papers and Agents of Repression

www.blackclassicbooks.com     W. Paul Coates. Founder, Black Classic Press and BCP Digital     NOW AVAILABLE   Two newly republished groundbreaking titles by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall   Free Shipping When You Order Both!     AGENTS OF REPRESSION The FBI's Secret War Against The Black Panther Party and The American Indian Movement   The mentality and operational priorities of the FBI have remained constant despite the supposed "reforms" it underwent during the late 1970s. In light of the Homeland Security Act, a measure which formally sanctions many of the worst abuses in which the Bureau engaged a generation ago, every activist in the country should become intimately acquainted with the experiences of the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement.   $24.95, ISBN: 978-1-57478-217-2 BUY NOW THE COINTELPRO PAPERS Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States   Readers anxious about the loss of civil liberties under George W. Bush will find ground for their fears—and suggestions for activism—in The COINTELPRO Papers. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall's exposé of America's political police force, the FBI, reveals the iron fist hiding beneath the velvet glove of "compassionate conservatism."           $24.95, ISBN: 978-1-57478-215-8 BUY NOW     From the new introduction by Ward Churchill   In some respects, the reception accorded Agents of Repression in the months following its release was quite unexpected. The general approbation with which it was greeted in AIM/LPDC circles was hardly unanticipated, of course, and the same applied to the raft of favorable reviews appearing in mostly progressive periodicals. That Agents would be a recipient of the prestigious Gustavus Myers Award, on the other hand, was entirely unpredicted. What we'd really not foreseen, however, was the degree of excitement the book generated among former Panthers. As Kathleen Cleaver later told me, long before Jim and I could manage to finish The COINTELPRO Papers, it had already become common in that milieu to refer to Agents as "The Book." The reason, as was explained to me later still by one-time New York Panther BJ Johnson, was that the effect of reading the opening chapters was at once revelatory and deeply personal: "Oh, so that's what happened to me," as he put it. Variations on the theme have been offered by any number of others, from both coasts and the midwest as well.   It's clear that we'd seriously underestimated the emotional impact upon many Party veterans of encountering the details of the Hampton/Clark assassinations and the frame-up of Geronimo Pratt for the first time. Our deployment of these two cases in conjunction with that of the assassination of Panther field marshal George Jackson in San Quentin to emblematize the FBI's brutal drive to "destroy the BPP and all it stands for" seems to have afforded much-needed relief and validation to people who, like most others who've undergone combat, had accrued varying degrees of PTSD from their experiences as members of the target group. More often than not, they were gratified by our debunking of the "official truth," e.g., the systematic minimization and denial marking the Senate Select Committee's 1976 "exposé" of the Bureau's COINTELPRO illegalities, wherein a range of "dirty tricks" were acknowledged while far more egregious crimes such as false imprisonment and assassination were carefully elided.    To quote a former LA Panther, the late Ron Freeman, "It was really important to finally have proof for all to see that we weren't just peddling paranoid fantasies about what the FBI had done." That the mechanics of how COINTELPRO operations were carried out were described in veritable textbook fashion lent Agents a further layer of utility, as witnessed by its being quickly put to use by mature radicals cum street-level organizers intent upon furthering the political education of younger activists while enhancing their survival skills.      Praise for the Original South End editions of  AGENTS OF REPRESSION and THE COINTELPRO PAPERS   When Agents of Repression first came out, it was like a bombshell, proving that our worst suspicions about the FBI had been correct all along. We started calling it "The Book." —Kathleen Cleaver Former Communications Secretary Black Panther Party   If you want to know what the FBI was doing to Indians on Pine Ridge during the so-called "reign of terror" after Wounded Knee, read Ward Churchill's [and Jim Vander Wall's] Agents of Repression. It's a book that pulls no punches at all. —Russell Means American Indian Movement   There's no better book on the case of Leonard Peltier than Ward and Jim's Agents of Repression, unless it's their COINTELPRO Papers. I always recommend that people read them both. —Bob Robideau Peltier codefendant and Director, Leonard Peltier Defense Committee   The COINTELPRO Papers is a godsend for all of us that write, litigate, or otherwise delve into the arcane mysteries of a government gone mad. —William Kunstler radical attorney   The COINTELPRO Papers is key reading not only for those who are interested in exploring or exposing the unlawful activities of the FBI, but also (and maybe particularly so) for those who resist unjust racist and genocidal policies and support national liberation and self-determination for those within and without U.S. borders. —Mary K. O'Melveny radical attorney   In this detailed review of the subversive activities of the national political police over many years, the authors show that the commitment to undermine free association and independent thought is deeply rooted in national policy and subject to only superficial challenge. Their harrowing and extensively documented study lends much credibility to their supposition that "COINTELPRO lives on," and efforts to organize poor and oppressed people and dissident movements will be targeted for destruction by state power. —Noam Chomsky

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Free Cuban 5 Month Film Festival and Benefit for POW Sekou Odinga

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign is asking folks to support these two events in NYC dedicated to the Cuban 5 and our brother Sekou Odinga!

FREE THE CUBAN 5 MONTH/FILM FESTIVAL!

 Friday Sept. 30th, 2011 at 7pm-10pm
Casa de Las Americas 182 E. 111th St. (Btwn. Lexington and Third Ave.)
Take the 6 train to E. 110th St.
Suggested donation: $5 (No one will be turned away)
¡Salud!:

 

A timely examination of human values and the health issues that affect us all, ¡Salud!looks at the curious case of Cuba, a cash-strapped country with what the BBC calls ‘one of the world’s best health systems.’ From the shores of Africa to the Americas, !Salud!hits the road with some of the 28,000 Cuban health professionals serving in 68 countries, and explores the hearts and minds of international medical students in Cuba -- now numbering 30,000, including nearly 100 from the USA. Their stories plus testimony from experts around the world bring home the competing agendas that mark the battle for global health—and the complex realities confronting the movement to make healthcare everyone’s birth right.

A feature documentary, ¡Salud! is directed by Academy Award nominee Connie Field and co-produced by Gail Reed. The film spans three continents to look at the philosophy and health professionals placing Cuba on the map in the worldwide movement to make health care a global birthright. Today, Cubans are among the world’s healthiest people, despite the island’s poverty. Cuba’s volunteer corps now posts 28,000 health professionals in 68 countries; and Cuban medical schools will graduate an unprecedented 100,000 new doctors from developing countries over the next decade.
 

A Benefit for POW Sekou Odinga

Support One of Cointelpro's Victims!

Film, Discussion, Culture

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Riverside Church
490 Riverside Drive, Room 9T
(120th and Claremont, Manhattan)

6 to 10 pm

Host: dequi kioni sadiki

Panelists: Pam Hanna, andrew of NYCABCF

Other Panelists and Cultural Performances
to be Announced!

COINTELPRO began in 1956 and continued through the 1960s and into the 1970s, focusing particularly on the Puerto Rican Independence, Black Liberation, Chicano Liberation and American Indian Movements. COINTELPRO 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 by Freedom Archives 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 under false accusations, as in the case of Geronimo ji-Jaga Pratt) or on the run.

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.

COINTELPRO 101 is a well made and appealing primer on the history of the US police state. Produced, written and directed by individuals who have themselves been the target of tactics documented in the film, it has an authenticity and immediacy that pulls the viewer in. Although too short to cover the history in as full detail as some may desire, the film’s intelligence and conscientious presentation of the historical narrative makes it a film that the student, the citizen and the activist can all appreciate.

Dinner will be Served for $5!

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign

www.ProLibertadWeb.com

ProLibertad@hotmail.com

718-601-4751

Sponsored by: Sekou Odinga Defense Committee,
Riverside Church Prison Ministry

For more information:
• www.jerichony.org
• nycjericho@gmail.com
• 718-512-5008