Call to Action!

Saturday, June 29 @ 12 noon
MARCH ON THE FBI AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT HEADQUARTERS
IN WASHINGTON DC
Pennsylvania Ave. between 9th and 10th St. NW

Say no to the FBI attacks on civil rights and civil
liberties

Stand up against racism and racial and religious
profiling

No new COINTELPRO

Defend the Arab American, Muslim and South Asian
communities

Stop the new witch hunt against political and
religious
organizations

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier & all political
prisoners in the U.S.

Money for jobs, education and healthcare - not
repression and war
ENDORSE THESE DEMANDS TODAY!!!

The Bush administration announced in the last week of
May that the FBI would be seizing vast additional
powers to spy on the people of the United States. We
must act now to stop this assault on our rights.

These powers pose a grave danger to civil liberties
and civil rights, and will - unless defeated by the
people - lead to a new round of persecution of people
based on their political or religious convictions.

There was no vote in Congress. No public referendum.
No judicial review. George Bush, Attorney General John
Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller decided to
unleash the FBI on people targeted by the Bush
administration - not because they have committed a
crime, not because they are being investigated for a
crime. They will be targeted because the government
has determined that their political or religious views
or affiliations warrant surveillance, infiltration,
and disruption of their personal lives or the
organizations to which they belong.

Ashcroft and Mueller are adopting the tactics of the
vicious reign of J. Edgar Hoover's secret police
tactics that were used against unions, progressive
groups, and African American, Latino and American
Indian civil rights organizations. Tens of thousands
of people lost their jobs, were falsely imprisoned,
were deported or went into exile and were subject to
government harassment. Scores of political activists
in the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Party and
in many others movements were murdered by FBI
COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence) programs.

Pressure brought to bear on the government from the
mass people's movements of the 1960s and 1970s
eventually led to the government adopting new
guidelines, purportedly designed to curb FBI abuse of
people's rights. In fact, this kind of FBI abuse has
never stopped. What is new is that the FBI is overtly
shifting from focusing on criminal investigations into
focusing on counter-intelligence programs - a code
word for an attack on dissent and on political and
religious organizations that Bush and Ashcroft have
decided should be targeted. Following on the heals of
the Patriot Act - which has put the CIA back into the
business of domestic spying - the FBI and the CIA are
teaming up to conduct secret police activities.

Since September 11, 2001, thousands of Muslim, Arab
American and South Asian people have been subjected to
the complete violation of their civil rights and civil
liberties. Charitable organizations have had their
assets seized. Thousands have been illegally detained.
Educational institutions, homes and businesses have
been raided. And the FBI has carried out a massive
interrogation campaign of people based on race,
religion and ethnicity.

Bush, Ashcroft and the ultra-right are taking
advantage of the so-called war on terrorism to beat
back the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights. They
think that people will be frightened and intimidated
and unwilling to carry out a political mobilization to
stop this attack on free speech.

As Bush proclaims endless war and diverts billions of
dollars from social services to the
military-industrial complex in the coming years, the
government is putting into place repressive mechanisms
aimed at stopping the growing anti-war movement in the
United Sates.

We can defeat this attack on civil rights and civil
liberties. We must unite against racism and racial
profiling.

More than anything, the people of this country need to
be back in the streets to let the government know that
we will not be silenced and we will not be
intimidated. Everything that we have learned from the
union movement, the civil rights movement and the
anti-war movements of the past is that the people can
defeat the government's plans through their own
mobilization.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

*ENDORSE the June 29 protest!

*DONATIONS are urgently needed! Tax-deductible
contributions can be made online.

*HELP GET THE WORD OUT - organize others to come to
Washington DC on June 29. (downloadable flyers, local
contacts and more are now available). We are calling
on all nearby cities in the East Coast, South and
Midwest to come to Washington DC on Saturday, June 29
for a regional demonstration at the FBI headquarters.
If you can't make it to DC, organize a local action at
a Federal Building on Friday, June 28.