Cop spying on movement exposed
Int'l Action Center leaders stand trial
Special to
Workers World
The trial of two key International Action Center
organizers is scheduled for a Washington courtroom Sept. 25.
The two were illegally arrested in a massive police sweep in
Washington April 15.
The defendants, IAC Co-Director Brian Becker and organizer
George Vavatsikos, face up to 90 days in jail and a fine if
convicted of disorderly conduct.
More than 650 people were arrested April 15 at a
demonstration to protest police repression and the
prison-industrial complex, as well as to support a new trial
for death-row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The demonstration was held one day before mass actions
protesting a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and
World Bank.
Protesters were not engaged in civil disobedience or any
other illegal acts.
Demonstrators were trapped by the cops in the middle of a
block of 20th Street NW in downtown Washington as they
marched along a route that had police approval. Everyone on
the block was confined there for two hours before being
arrested, put in handcuffs and penned in school buses and
ad-hoc jails for up to 36 hours.
Police never ordered the demonstrators to disperse.
Club-wielding police blocked those who tried to leave.
Those arrested in the sweep included shoppers and tourists
who had the misfortune of being on the block. Among them were
a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer on assignment for the
Washington Post and a visiting North Carolina Forest
Ranger.
"We were arrested in a planned act of preventive detention
by the police," Becker told Workers World.
"They wanted to put us in jail not because we were
breaking a law but because they wanted to clear the streets
prior to the scheduled April 16-17 meeting of that vultures'
club that goes by the name of the IMF."
Class-action lawsuit vs. gov't
Becker and Larry Holmes, another IAC leader, are among the
named plaintiffs in a large class-action lawsuit filed by the
Partnership for Civil Justice, American Civil Liberties Union
and National Lawyers Guild. The civil action represents more
than 1,200 people who were arrested in Washington during that
weekend of protests last April.
The lawsuit charges that police engaged in a massive
conspiracy to preemptively arrest IMF opponents, break into
organizers' offices, and confiscate literature, signs,
puppets and other property. It also contends that various
police agencies carried out illegal surveillance, spying,
intimidation and beatings of demonstrators.
"We believe that the police and the federal government
carried out a coordinated effort in Washington, and later at
the Republican Convention in Philadelphia and the Democratic
Convention in Los Angeles, to disrupt the new protest
movement against capitalism that first burst forth in Seattle
at the World Trade Organization meeting last year," Becker
asserted.
The class-action lawsuit's allegation that police are
engaged in a systematic, illegal effort to disrupt the
movement was confirmed by the recent unsealing of a legal
document in connection with the arrests at the Republican
Convention.
The document shows that the Pennsylvania State Police
spied on activists, infiltrated organizations with undercover
agents, carried out disruptive activities, planned on seizing
the progressives' property and carried out other acts that
violate the First- and Fourth-Amendment rights of political
activists.
The affidavit, submitted by the Pennsylvania State Police,
admits they decided on this course of action after observing
the effectiveness of police tactics in Washington.
The police insisted that the affidavit be sealed since
"disclosure of this Affidavit could endanger the lives" of
undercover agents who infiltrated a number of the progressive
organizations.
"The language of the court document is part of the effort
to criminalize those who oppose the domination of society by
a handful of capitalist billionaires and their two political
parties," Becker said. "It's the police who are criminally
engaged in the violation of our constitutionally-protected
right to demonstrate."
The organizations listed in the affidavit include the
Philadelphia Direct Action Group, People's Global Action,
Direct Action Network, ACT UP Philadelphia, a generic
category called "Anarchist," the National People's Campaign,
the Ruckus Society, Workers World Party, International
Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the
International Action Center.
'Use every avenue to defend
our rights'
"The outcome of our Sept. 25 trial and the class-action
lawsuit will have great importance in the legal battle to
push back the forces of police repression," according to
Becker. "We must use every avenue to defend our rights--in
the courts and in the streets.
"The limited democratic rights that exist in the United
States were not a gift given to the people by the rich and
powerful. These 'rights' were won through struggle and we
intend to keep struggling," he said.
The IAC urges supporters of Becker and Vavatsikos to pack
Courtroom 116 in the Washington Court Building on Monday,
Sept. 25, at 9:00 a.m. The court is located at 5th St. and
Indiana Ave. NW, Washington.
To support the IAC's Free Speech Legal Defense Fund, make
checks payable to People's Rights Fund/Free Speech, 39 W.
14th St., Suite 206, New York, New York 10011, or call (212)
633-6646.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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