I thought this might be helpful... Larry Déjà Vu >The FBI's Assault on Civil Liberties >By Ronnie Gilbert > >For the second time in my life -- at least -- a group that I belong to is >being investigated by the FBI. The first was the Weavers. The Weavers >were a recording industry phenomenon. In 1950 we recorded a couple of >songs from >our American/World folk music repertoire, Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" and >(ironically) the Israeli "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena" and sold millions of records >for the almost-defunct record label. Folk music entered the mainstream, and >the Weavers were stars. > >By 1952 it was over. The record company dropped us, eager television >producers stopped knocking on our door. The Weavers were on a private yet >well-publicized roster of suspected entertainment industry reds. The FBI >came a-calling. > >This week, I just found out that Women in Black, another group of peace >activists I belong to, is the subject of an FBI investigation. Women in >Black is a loosely knit international network of women who vigil against >violence, often silently, each group autonomous, each group focused on the >particular problems of personal and state violence in its part of the world. > >Because my group is composed mostly of Jewish women, we focus on the Middle >East, protesting the cycle of violence and revenge in Israel and the >Palestinian Territories. > >The FBI is threatening my group with a Grand Jury investigation. Of what? >That we publicly call the Israeli military's occupation of the mandated >Palestine lands illegal? So does the World Court and the United Nations. > >That destroying hundreds of thousands of the Palestinians' olive and fruit >trees, blocking roads and demolishing homes promotes hatred and >terrorism in the Middle East? Even President Bush and Colin Powell have >gotten around to saying so. So what is to investigate? That some of us are >in contact with >activist Palestinian peace groups? This is bad? > >The Jewish Women in Black of Jerusalem have stood vigil every Friday for 13 >years in protest against the Occupation; Muslim women from Palestinian peace >groups stand with them at every opportunity. We praise and honor them, these >Jewish and Arab women who endure hatred and frequent abuse from extremists >on both sides for what they do. We are not alone in our admiration. >Jerusalem Women in Black is a nominee for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, along >with the Bosnia Women in Black, now ten years old. > >If the FBI cannot or will not distinguish between groups who collude in >hatred and terrorism, and peace activists who struggle in the full light of >day against all forms of terrorism, we are in serious trouble. > >I have seen such trouble before in my lifetime. It was called McCarthyism. >In the hysterical atmosphere of the early Cold War, anyone who had >signed a peace petition, who had joined an organization opposing violence >or racism or had tried to raise money for the refugee children of >the Spanish Civil >War, in other words who had openly advocated what was not popular at the >time, was fair game. > >In my case, the FBI visited The Weavers' booking agent, the recording >company, my neighbors, my dentist husband's patients, my friends. In the >waning of our career, the Weavers were followed down the street, accosted >onstage by drunken "patriots", warned by friendly hotel employees to keep >the door open if we rehearsed in anyone's room so as not to become targets >for the vice squad. It was nasty. Every two-bit local wannabe G-man joined >the dragnet searching out and identifying "communist spies." > >In all those self-debasing years how many spies were pulled in by that >dragnet? Nary a one. Instead it pulled down thousands of teachers, union >members, scientists, journalists, actors, entertainers like us, who saw our >lives disrupted, our jobs, careers go down the drain, our standing in the >community lost, even our children harassed. A scared population soon shut >their mouths up tight. > >Thus came the silence of the 1950s and early 60s, when no notable voice of >reason was heard to say, "Hey, wait a minute. Look what we're doing to >ourselves, to the land of the free and the home of the brave," when not one >dissenting intelligence was allowed a public voice to warn against zealous >foreign policies we'd later come to regret, would be regretting now, if our >leaders were honest. > >Today, in the wake of the worst hate crime of the millennium, a dragnet is >out for "terrorists" and we are told that certain civil liberties may have >to be curtailed for our own security. Which ones? I'm curious to know. The >First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech or of the press? The >right of people peaceably to assemble? Suddenly, deja vu - haven't I been >here before? Hysterical neo-McCarthyism does not equal security, never will. > >The bitter lesson September 11's horrific tragedy should have taught us and >our government is that only an honest re-evaluation of our foreign policies >and careful, focused and intelligent intelligence work can hope to combat >operations like the one that robbed all of us and their families of 6,000 >decent working people. We owe the dead that, at least. As for Women in >Black, we intend to keep on keeping on. > >Ronnie Gilbert is a veteran of the folk music band The Weavers and a Bay >Area civil rights organizer and peace activist. >