University of Virginia Library

Repression

Reprinted from The Duke Chronicle, February
18, 1970.

They're after you.

If you are under thirty and politically or
socially active in a radical way chances are
that you could be the next target of the new
wave of American repression. In one way or
another, locally or nationally, intentionally or
unintentionally you are probably either
violating a law of this country or violating the
standards of some official who could extend a
law (any law) to ensure that you might be
violating something. The crunch is on.

The most important lesson of the Black
Panther and "Conspiracy 7" battles, legal and
illegal, is that the government's tools of
"justice" can be used as weapons of
repression. Even now, before John Mitchell
gets the extra clubs of preventive detention
and no-knock search warrants, police and FBI
agents can strike out personally at radical
people. The Panthers were punished in
Chicago with a trumped-up, middle of the
night raid that was used as an excuse to gun
some of them down and arrest others.
Likewise the Conspiracy trial has tied up some
of the best minds of the antiwar movement
for almost half a year, in court, before putting
them away for up to four years, without even
the verdict of guilty.

The situation is not much better locally.
Howard Fuller is arrested on one charge or
another whenever he tries to communicate
with other blacks protesting their situation.
Small minds continually try to bar the sale of
the Radish and SBI and FBI agents have
attempted to intimidate its printer. Our own
phone has been tapped.

In the military, publishers of underground
papers, advocates of free speech and operators
of coffeehouses more and more often find
charges leveled against them on dubious
grounds, irrelevant to the real political issues.
Even if a court - military or otherwise -
maintains its integrity and acquits these
people, valuable time and momentum has
been lost.

The ugly wave of repression represents a
challenge to radical movement in this country,
and it proves that the silent majority's
tolerance for dissent ends as soon as
traditional mores and values are challenged.
American freedom is acceptable, if it is used
to wave the flag. But when people begin to
leave the churches, and talk about love, and
live together unmarried and refuse to kill for
their freedom, why then they are seen as
threats which must be checked. Prejudice, as
strong as racial prejudice, becomes dominant.
And the more radical the rebels become, the
more threatening they are, and the more
repression there must be. The two groups
cannot communicate - ever try to tell a racist
why he is wrong? - and warring camps are
formed.

Although the federal government certainly
has given impetus to this repression, by its
action and its proposals for new laws, there
are men in powerful positions all over the
country who have thought like the Attorney
General for years. Now they have been
encouraged to act on their beliefs.

According to an Associated Press story
printed in yesterday's Durham Morning
Herald, more than half the people approached
on a street in Texas and asked to sign a copy
of the Bill of Rights, in the form of a petition,
refused. An elaboration of the figures given
shows that of the 136 persons who took the
time to read the petition, 19 recognized it; 40
signed and 77 refused to sign. It would be
interesting to see what the response would be
to a copy of the Declaration of Independence.
Obviously the forgotten American holds more
closely to a perversion of national ideals
rather than their actual form and content.

It is difficult to decide how to react to the
current situation. Certainly the most tempting
alternative is to get out of politics and
withdraw into a personal, social world. Many
people in activist areas of the country where
the repression has been strongest are doing
just this. Another alternative is to begin
preparing for the revolution, stocking in guns
and practicing guerrilla tactics. We are
reluctant to say that such extreme measures
are necessary now. It seems that at this time
the most difficult aspects of the struggle for
liberation lie within the individual. For in
times like these the temptation to forsake
one's own goals for an active means becomes
especially intense. We must not lose heart,
even though as an radical once said, "these are
the times that try men's souls."