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<a href="http://angola3news.blogspot.com/2010/09/fbis-war-on-democracy-claude-marks.html" eudora="autourl">
http://angola3news.blogspot.com/2010/09/fbis-war-on-democracy-claude-marks.html<br>
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<br>
</a>The FBI's War On Democracy <br>
--Claude Marks discusses the new film <i>COINTELPRO 101<br>
</i> <br>
By Angola 3 News<br>
<br>
Claude Marks, Director of <a href="http://freedomarchives.org/">The
Freedom Archives</a>, talks to Angola 3 News about the highly anticipated
new documentary film, entitled
<a href="http://freedomarchives.org/Cointelpro.html">COINTELPRO 101</a>,
which is premiering on October 10, at the Mission Cultural Center of
Latino Arts in San Francisco.<br><br>
According to its website, the Freedom Archives contains over 8000 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.<br><br>
Freedom Archives has released other audio and video documentaries,
including the recent video about the
<a href="http://www.freethesf8.org/">San Francisco Eight</a>, entitled
"Legacy of Torture."
<a href="http://freedomarchives.org/BPP/torture.html">Legacy of
Torture</a> can be viewed online, as well as the previous films
<a href="http://freedomarchives.org/3PP.html">Voices of Three Political
Prisoners</a> (featuring Nuh Washington, Jalil Muntaqim and David
Gilbert), <a href="http://freedomarchives.org/Charisse.html">Charisse
Shumate: Fighting for Our Lives</a>, and
<a href="http://freedomarchives.org/Mabel_Williams.html">Self Respect,
Self Defense & Self Determination</a> (featuring Mabel Williams and
Kathleen Cleaver, introduced by Angela Davis).<br>
<br>
<b><u>Angola 3
<a href="news:%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0" eudora="autourl">News:</a></u></b>
<a href="news:%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0%A0" eudora="autourl">
</a> <i>What can you tell us
about your upcoming film COINTELPRO 101?</i> <br>
<br>
<b><u>Claude
Marks:</u></b>
We've been aware of the need to talk more about COINTELPRO since we made
The Legacy of Torture, the video about the government torture of the
Panthers in New Orleans in 1973 which later became the unjust basis for
the San Francisco 8 Case. In travelling with that film and
organizing for the dropping of charges, we referred to COINTELPRO but
often were talking to younger people in particular, who had not heard the
term and had no historical frame of reference for that period of intense
repression. <br>
<br>
So we undertook to make this new film, knowing that no government agent
or agency has ever been held accountable for the assassinations of
leaders, the destruction of organizations, the imprisonment and political
targeting of so many people - people who still remain prisoners of the
wars against movements for liberation and self-determination within the
US borders. <br>
<br>
COINTELPRO 101 is not the first or only film on the subject, although
there have not been many, but we hope it can help reinvigorate some
organizing work, and reopen some thinking about the violence directed
against progressive movements, this hidden history, and nature of the
state and its agencies of repression. <br>
<br>
<b><u>A3N:</u></b> <i>How was the film showing and related
workshop at the US Social Forum received by the audience?</i> <br>
<br>
<b><u>CM:</u></b> This was a good opportunity to infuse
the very broad conversations at the Social Forum with a self-conscious
discussion about the nature and continuity of government repression. From
the European invasion & Middle Passage forward, we have always seen
genocide. Prisons, COINTELPRO, Abu Ghraib - all represent the continuity
of what any movements to change power relations are and will be up
against. <br>
<br>
<b><u>A3N:</u></b> Your website states that the film's
intended audiences are the generations that did not experience the social
justice movements of the sixties and seventies. Given that COINTELPRO
officially ended in the early 1970s, why is this story so important for
the younger generation to know about? <br>
<br>
<b><u>CM:</u></b> Well, the mission of the Freedom
Archives is to help educate people, and especially the rising new
generations, as to the true nature of recent radical history. The
high point of struggle represented by the loosely used term 'the sixties'
and the violent repression against it, contains essential lessons for
every young person seeking a more just society. More generally, people
should not be misled by the myth of democracy, the idea that the system
can be made to work for us or that those in power will somehow reach a
moral epiphany and give up anything of consequence without a fight. <br>
<br>
We see this myth exposed today in many ways - mass imprisonment, the
tearing up of families and communities - driven by racism - the
criminalization of dissent so any act of resistance becomes by their
definition an act of "terrorism."<br>
<br>
This is a continuum that is unleashed upon the world's peoples as well as
internally. Black, Brown, and Indigenous people are targeted. Muslims and
South Asians are targeted. Women and queer folks are targeted. Prisoners
are subjected to the worst inhumanities, and if they are ever released,
what do they have they to look forward to? <br>
<br>
The U.S. has by far the largest incarceration rate in the world - as they
build more prisons, the schools deteriorate and the public education
system lies in racist tatters. <br>
<br>
<b><u>A3N:</u></b> <i>How do you think the US government's
repression of the Left today differs from the COINTELPRO era?</i> <br>
<br>
<b><u>CM:</u></b> In the 1970s, the public and some
officials, faced with the exposure of the illegal acts of government and
police agencies against dissent, feigned concerns about the loss of civil
liberties, held hearings, and alleged that reforms would take place. But
today, the acts of the FBI, police, and other agencies, once illegal, are
now legitimate, legal - via the Patriot Act and other unconstitutional
measures, all in the name of homeland security and defending the nation
against "terrorism." <br>
<br>
The playing field has changed. The government now openly conducts
assassinations anywhere in the world, can declare people to be
"enemy combatants" and imprison them indefinitely without
charges; drone warfare permits mass civilian murders by so-called
military experts thousands of miles away without risking US military
casualties - it's a 'game' except to the thousands of victims. <br>
<br>
Today the government claims the right to breach international human
rights laws and conventions with no accountability. And the corporate
media is so integrated into this strategy, that there is little room for
'legitimate' opposition to get a hearing. So it becomes incumbent upon us
to organize and message independently and with few resources. <br>
<br>
COINTELPRO 101 is made with mainly love and fumes, but we hope that it
will be a useful tool to engage in dialogue and to help organize
movements that challenge the mythology that dissent is a guaranteed
right, that seek the release of political prisoners, that counter the
miseducation of our youth with an understanding of the past so they can
better shape the future. <br>
<br>
<b><u>A3N:</u></b> <i>Knowing what we do about this
repression in the past and present, how can activists today best defend
ourselves? How should our organizing strategies be modified?<br>
</i> <br>
<b><u>CM:</u></b> We must organize to show our outrage
with more consistency and despite risks. There is an urgency to demand
more of one another as well. Challenging the state is serious and will
not succeed as a result of stroking egos or the pronouncements of
self-declared leaders. It is hard work and requires a deep commitment and
a passion for serving the people and rebuilding our communities. Our
capacity must grow in realistic ways as there are no shortcuts, and the
path includes defeats and sacrifice. This is one of the things that our
political prisoners and the many martyrs can teach us. <br>
<br>
<b><u>A3N:</u></b> <i>For our readers not close enough to San
Francisco for the October 10 premiere, how will folks be able to watch
the new film? <br>
</i> <br>
<b><u>CM:</u></b> The film will begin to show in
communities and on campuses this fall and winter. People can reach us to
make arrangements. At some point we will also manufacture DVDs. We hope
to have it available with subtitles in other languages as well. Also
check the website as we have resources about COINTELPRO posted and will
also add a teaching curriculum to accompany the film. <br>
<br>
<b><u>A3N:</u></b> <i>How can folks best support your
efforts?<br>
</i> <br>
<b><u>CM:</u></b> We are very much a grassroots
organization. We have no corporate or government funding. We are one
voice among many, but we encourage people to support the work of
independent media, including ourselves. We welcome your questions
and comments and greatly appreciate your support. <br>
<br>
Also please use the audio and video documentaries that we've produced as
educational materials and organizing tools. The actual Freedom Archives
is searchable on line and is intended to preserve radical history and
culture. So check us out! <br>
<br>
<b>A3N:</b> <i>Any closing thoughts?<br>
</i> <br>
<b><u>CM:</u></b> Years ago, as the movements grew and
we worked in various political and media organizations, we were fond of
quoting part of an 1857 speech by Frederick Douglass, often using Ossie
Davis's dramatic rendition of his famous words. They sum up a
lesson that is central to what I am saying, and is at the heart of
COINTELPRO 101. Many of your readers are probably familiar with it, but
its essence bears repeating: <br>
<br>
"The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all
concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest
struggle. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess
to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation - want crops without
plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They
want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Power concedes
nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
<br>
<br>
<b><i>--Angola 3 News is a new project of the International Coalition to
Free the Angola 3. Our website is
<a href="http://www.angola3news.com/">www.angola3news.com</a> where we
provide the latest news about the Angola 3. We are also creating our own
media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story of the
Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights, solitary
confinement as torture, and more.<br><br>
<br>
</i></b></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
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