Senate Subpoena & FBI Warrants: Dangerous Continuation of Biden Policies
When Donald Trump took office, his new Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum on her first day in office stating that “the foreign influence task force” would be disbanded and that charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) would be limited to “conduct similar to more traditional forms of espionage.” The memo began by saying it was intended to “end risks of further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion.”
This move from the Trump administration was welcomed by anti-imperialists. It signaled that Biden’s policy of using the Foreign Agents Registration Act to target anti-imperialists like the Uhuru Movement and Scott Ritter, as well as Biden’s political rivals like Sue Mi Terry and Eric Adams, had come to an end. The Center for Political Innovation believes that FARA is unconstitutional. We call for the Supreme Court to strike it down and for lawmakers to overturn it completely.
While the Trump administration has not prosecuted anyone under the unconstitutional FARA law, two disturbing developments have recently taken place. First, on June 11th, the U.S. Senate sent a subpoena to the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a woke liberal activist group that defends anti-imperialist countries like Iran, China, and People's Korea. The Senate has demanded the group turn over its emails, and it appears that they intend to drag PSL members before Congress as part of an investigation into the role of pro-China billionaire Roy Singham in funding Palestine protests and anti-ICE demonstrations in Los Angeles.
Political Theater Feeding War Narratives
We do not endorse the way PSL has run the Palestine protests, and we have very little information about their role in ICE demonstrations, but we strongly doubt any significant criminal behavior has taken place. This subpoena is a threat to the freedom of all Americans and a complete waste of U.S. government resources and time. Neocon Republicans hope to play up the idea that the Democratic Party and the government of China are politically identical—a common trope in conservative media.
Conservatives should stop spreading this disinformation created to help sell the wars that red-state voters consistently oppose. Woke politics is about vengeance, stoking resentment, emphasizing disempowering feelings of victimhood, and atomizing people while following a Malthusian economic program of degrowth. Socialist and anti-imperialist states emphasize raising living standards, increasing the population, patriotism, and love for the community and the family. Woke-ism and 21st-century socialism are opposites.
The Senate’s act of political theater—threatening civil liberties and potentially leading to PSL activists being imprisoned for refusing to answer questions—should be loudly condemned by all who believe in peace and the First Amendment. The days when activists were forced to “name names” before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) or go to prison for contempt of Congress were a dark moment in U.S. history that should never return.
Additionally, during the month of June, Alex Dillard, a young anti-imperialist activist living in California, had the FBI execute a warrant on his home and seize his electronic devices, apparently as part of a FARA-related investigation. This is a violation of his privacy and a threat to the right of all to peacefully organize. CPI stands with Alex Dillard.
Whatever political differences we have with PSL and Alex Dillard are not relevant. The attacks on them represent an escalation of government repression of anti-imperialist voices and must be opposed.
COINTELPRO in Our Time
However, as we speak in their defense, we must bring up how these forces have related to CPI. It is no secret that during the 1960s and ’70s, the FBI COINTELPRO program used poison-pen letters, rumor campaigns, and other tactics to sow distrust. There is no doubt that in our age, the same kind of activities go on—and such operations are much more massive due to the flow of information online.
PSL and Alex Dillard have both been very hostile and unfriendly to CPI. PSL members routinely repeat the lie that CPI is a “white supremacist” organization across social media. This is particularly offensive to the many people of color in CPI. Furthermore, in PSL’s Marcyite worldview, it is a coded call for violence against us. PSL members routinely say “the only good fascist is a dead one.” They then label another group marching in support of Palestine and opposing war with Iran as “fascists.” These are fighting words, and PSL must immediately stop its campaign of defamation and harassment against us.
The PSL members clearly do not simply mean “white supremacist” as a political epithet, because they have actively tried to get us banned from anti-imperialist spaces and worked to incite physical violence against us from activists at rallies. CPI members are usually unable to publicly announce themselves at anti-war demonstrations and must attend Palestine protests covertly because of PSL’s effort to falsely claim we are somehow the equivalent of KKK members. PSL has essentially put an Antifa hit out on the Center for Political Innovation.
PSL practices strict Leninist democratic centralism, so the public words of every member are not random and represent the line of the organization. A single order from Brian Becker, PSL’s undisputed leader, could end the years of smearing, blacklisting, and personal harassment our members have faced at the hands of PSL members. Because this intentional campaign of harassment directly impacts our ability to organize and our personal safety, we must call it out—even as we defend PSL against government targeting.
Alex Dillard aligns himself with certain unprincipled social media voices who routinely defame CPI and its leadership. Dillard traffics in internet gossip and rumors and has often tried to drag us into social media drama, repeating false claims linking us to individuals, controversies, and disputes that have nothing to do with us. Even after becoming hostile to CPI, Dillard dispatched suspicious individuals with far-right and racist views to attend our Inauguration Day event in Washington, D.C.—a behavior that certainly raised eyebrows at the time.
Solidarity Against Repression, Not Internet Bickering
We would prefer not to raise these issues at all and just give a blanket statement of support, but these unprincipled attacks and the threat of further government repression walk hand in hand. The online hate is no doubt being boosted by the state, and it is intended to create an atmosphere more conducive to planned repression. The hope is to isolate anti-imperialists from each other, atomizing the movement so that gradually all voices of opposition to war can be picked off one by one.
The primary voices repeating the claim that CPI is “white supremacist” or other defamations or exaggerations have been pro-NATO “leftists” from the BreadTube sphere. Caleb Maupin’s heroic journalism exposing that such forces have links to the U.S. government has been thoroughly validated by subsequent revelations—Grayzone’s discovery of documents, Contrapoints’ collaboration with Hillary Clinton, etc.
The fact that Alex Dillard, individuals linked to PSL, and other unprincipled and artificially boosted social media voices repeat these claims while claiming to be anti-NATO is extremely disappointing. These individuals obviously have a scarcity mindset. Rather than aiming to build a mass movement to actually change the world, they want to “own” the small niche world of online anti-imperialist politics for themselves. They see attacks from the enemy on other anti-imperialist voices as an opportunity for themselves. This is the equivalent of strike-breaking in the labor movement, naming names before the HUAC, and other acts that might benefit an individual in the short term but hurt the entire movement and endanger all of us. By calling anti-imperialists “fascists” or “Nazis,” repeating gossip about people’s personal lives, exaggerating individual grievances, leaking internal communications or private conversations without permission, repeating unproven rumors, or stoking up already existing personal rivalries—anti-imperialists are tightening the noose around their own necks. The culture of tearing down other anti-imperialists for clicks and shares hurts all of us.
Regardless of how unprincipled both PSL and Alex Dillard have conducted themselves in regard to us, CPI still opposes state repression against them. Our members have been instructed to sign petitions supporting both PSL and Alex Dillard as a matter of principle. We will defend them—and loudly. We only mention their smears against us in this moment as a plea: if anti-imperialists are going to repel the forces of state repression and protect the freedom to organize, the culture of internet bickering and hyperbolic threats and insults must end. Real lives are on the line, and real activists are facing prison time, FBI raids, and other harsh measures. The time for treating this like a video game or internet debate must end. We plead with all anti-imperialists to put principles over personalities. A rule of solidarity in the face of censorship and repression must prevail.
Opposing attacks on civil liberties and FBI suppression of activists is not optional—it is required. We will march in the streets, sign petitions, raise money, and otherwise support any anti-imperialist voice that becomes the target of repression—and we encourage others to do the same. An injury to one is an injury to all!