Repression of Dissent

The FBI, Political Surveillance, and the Repression of Dissent

Red Squads, COINTELPRO, McCarthyism. Throughout its history the US left has aroused anger from the powerful, who have sought to silence them. This Socialist Night School session will cover the history of repression of dissent and the US left, focusing largely on the role of the FBI in conducting political surveillance.

This Socialist Night School will be presented by Chip Gibbons. In addition to helping to organize the Socialist Night School, Chip is a researcher and journalist whose writings on the FBI have appeared in The Intercept, Jacobin, The Nation, In These Times, and The Washington Post. He is also the Policy Director of Defending Rights & Dissent where he authored the report Still Spying on Dissent: The Enduring Problem of FBI First Amendment Abuse. Chip recently published an exposé in The Intercept uncovering FBI investigations into Palestinian solidarity activism.

Below, you will find a recording of the session.