COINTELPRO, short for counter intelligence program, waged war on the American Left. Anti-communist paranoia grew in the 50s to encompass widespread surveillance and sabotage of progressive and radical social movements in the United States. From the letter sent to MLK pressuring him to kill himself to the assassination of Fred Hampton, the FBI is responsible for many horrors. As we have seen from the treatment of activists in the Green Scare, anti-fascist action, the Movement for Black Lives, and Indigenous rights and land defense, the playbook was never discarded. But how did the public find out about all this?

The documentary 1971 (2014) by Johanna Hamilton tells the story of The Citizen’s Commission to Investigate the FBI, as they called themselves. A handful of activists from the anti-war movement broke into an FBI office on a hunch, and stole over 1,000 classified documents. The FBI’s investigation into the burglary ended in 1976 after the 5-year statute of limitations ended. For almost 40 years they kept their silence and held solidarity with each other. Then in 2014 they decided to come forward. Please join us to watch their story.

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