Resist Grand Juries and FBI/Police Harassment

Repression against activists is not new. From the McCarthy "investigations" in the 1950's, to the counterintelligence programs (COINTELPRO) of the 1960's and '70's, to the grand jury investigations of Puerto Rican, Black liberation and white anti-imperialist movements in the 1980s, secret grand juries, FBI, and police investigations have long been used against social justice activists and revolutionary movements.

Today, FBI, police harassment and secret grand juries are being used to attack Muslims and other immigrants, Black, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Native, anti-war, anarchist, environmental and animal rights activists and movements. These incidents are not isolated, and they are not happening because the government wants to "solve crimes." They are an attack on all our movements: an attempt to divide us, isolate outspoken individuals, create fear and distrust among us, and rewrite our history of resistance as "criminal."

We will not give in to these attacks. As individuals and organizations, we must refuse to talk to the FBI or any other repressive police investigation. As a means of resistance to efforts of political intimidation and repression, we must not give testimony or evidence to grand juries. It does not matter whether or not we "know" anything. It does not matter whether or not we agree completely with every action taken against the government, corporate powers, or police. It does not matter whether or not we fully support the ideology of the people under attack.

Historically, government has acted with impunity to suppress dissent and radical social change. In this regard, we know that government is not our friend, and its goal is to defeat our movements. Countless lives have been destroyed as a result of government actions, yet where is the justice for those responsible for three to six million people killed in Viet Nam and southeast Asia, for the architects of the MOVE massacre in Philadelphia, for the people who bombed Judi Bari and assassinated Fred Hampton, for the White House that has cynically killed more than 100,000 people in the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, or for the lawyers who have instituted torture as a US foreign policy.

Embrace a strategy of resistance! Pledge to personally resist any repressive investigation, to give all possible support to people who resist, and encourage others to do the same.