Podcast: COINTELPRO And Black Labor Rights

Learn about COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) and Black labor rights in MuslimMatters’ latest podcast. Sit down with us as Hena Zuberi  chats with Sister Shafeah M’Balia, who experienced the Civil Rights era as a young adult, and has continued with community organizing ever since. Shafeah M’Balia is Southern Regional Coordinator of the Imam Jamil Action Network, Co-Director of The Communiversity, a member of Black Workers For Justice and Muslims for Social Justice. A retired postal worker, she lives in Savannah, Georgia in the GullahGeechee region of the US South.
Hear what she has to say in this podcast episode about how the infamous COINTELPRO was meant to destroy the Civil Rights Movement, its impact on the Muslim community and how you can take action now by advocating for the passage of a bill to release all the FBI records from that program. Here, she also mentions what led her to accept Islam and the activism she is involved with now, including Black labor rights.

Here’s how you can help the current  COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Bill get approved.

“The FBI’s COINTELPRO remains one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history. For decades, the FBI carried out covert actions and dirty tricks against social movements. COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) included -among the program’s many targets-, organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and individuals such as Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as local, state, and federal elected officials.

There’s a bill in Congress that will open up the FBI’s files.  HR 2998 would require full, public release of the FBI’s COINTELPRO files. This historic bill is an important step to reconciling with the FBI’s continued legacy of undemocratic abuses of power.

Please help us make history and expose the FBI’s dirty tricks. Please write to your member of Congress today to ask them to support this bill, as well as to support efforts to broaden it to cover the full scope of FBI files.

Email Script:

‘I am a constituent. I want my representative to support HR 2998 that will require full, public release of the FBI’s COINTELPRO files and to support efforts to broaden it to cover the full scope of FBI files records subject to disclosure. This historic bill is an important step to reconciling with the FBI’s continued legacy of undemocratic abuses of power.’

Calling script:

‘I am a constituent. I want my representative to support HR 2998 that will require full, public release of the FBI’s COINTELPRO files and to support efforts to broaden it to cover the full scope of FBI files records subject to disclosure.’

(Source: Imam Jamil Action Network)