SEPTEMBER 15-In a move totally without historical precedent, the attorney general of the United States has ordered the FBI to end its "investigation" of the Socialist Workers party and the Young Socialist Alliance.
Peter Camejo, the presidential candidate of the SWP, greeted the decision as a "victory for the democratic rights of all Americans."
Camejo, appearing today presidential running-mate, Willie Mae Reid, at a news conference in Washington, said the SWP and YSA would move "full-speed ahead" with their campaign against government spying and harassment.
He said the ruling Edward Levi would now scope, and impact" of the suit against the FBI and other federal police agencies, which is being heard in federal district court in Manhattan.
The presidential candidate told reporters at the news conference that the socialists are seeking:
• "a permanent injunction to outlaw all of the techniques of spying and disruption used against us by the FBI and other political police agencies." Such an injunction would mean that no attorney general could reverse this decision on the SWP without going to court to lift the injunction;
• the immediate transfer to our hands of all files the government has on the SWP; and • "$40 million in damages.
*The Levi decision is the biggest opening yet for all those determined to La halt to the government's program of political spying and ha rassment," Camelo said. This decision paves the way for the American people to learn the truth about the FBI's forty-year war against the SWP.
It removes the last barrier to the release of the files the FBI has maintained on its investigation."
Camejo and Reid announced at the news conference that they are demanding the immediate withdrawal of the FBI's informers from the SWP and YSA, and Socialist Workers campaign committees.
Levi ruling clearly illegal the continuing use or any informers against the Socialist Workers party," Camejo said.
If the FBI does not comply with this demand, Camejo announced, the party's attorneys will move immediately in federal court for a preliminary injunction ordering the removal of the government spies. Outrageous "This is an outrageous situation," said Camejo. "Here we are less than months Ene presidential elections, and the government is operating a ring of informers and dirtytrick artists inside the campaign committees of one of the candidates. This must be stopped and stopped with his Attorney General "accelerate the pace, Camejo termed the Justice Department directive a "vindication of the right of the SWP to engage in political activity free from government interference "It is a vindication of the rights of all Americans to engage in political whatever their ideas may be. makes "It is a vindication of the struggle by the Socialist Workers party and other organizanons ments use of intormers. bugging, wiretapping, physical assaults, and even assassinations.
offices implementing "appeared to views and SWP and YSA. Lawsuit burglaries kidnapping, Justice Department tial criminal activities.
the Attorney General's decision will be issued very Washington, The New York Times reported today are worried that the Levi order, issued last Friday, overrule an interna 01CCURS decision" of the FBI last month that it would continue its investigation of the is as phony are doggedly insisting that the decision had nothing to do with the socialists lawsuit. They claim it was merely the result of the process of administrative review set in motion when the attorney on tne socialsts general adopted new guidelines covering so-called domestic security investigations. The "guidelines," adopted last March, say the FBI can carry out a "domestic security" investigation only if there is evidence of actual or poten no legal justification.
*The lame pretense that this is not a direct political response to our suit and the widespread public support this case mobilized is transparently ab . Stapleton is the national secretary of the Political Defense Fund, which was established to organize support and FRI I do not note in these activities any gross abuse of authority. 'How many times do I have to explain, Henderson? There are good guys and there are bad guys and no matter how it looks, we're still the good guys!" tions," Stapleton added.
Some Justice Department officials in according to reporters that simultaneou: departure of the sixty-six FBI stool would identify them. They would like to spread out the time period over which the informers drop from the "This plan for 'phased withdrawal' as it was when the U.S proposed it in Vietnam," said Staple- gation ton. "We say 'Out Now!""
The Levi decision opens the door to a whole range of initiatives by the SWP files. and YSA in their case. Hirst and foremost on the list is the fight that will ensue over the FBI's admission that it has eight million pages of files "Levi's order to the FBI means that the maintenance of those files is now outside the law," Stapleton told the Militant. "Those files have been compiled under cover of an investigation that the government now concedes has New From A2].
"The files themselves constitute an illegal arsenal against the SWP and YA so long as they remain in the hands of the FBI. Their retention by the bureau also amounts to a continuing cover-up of their forty-year con spiracy to disrupt and destroy the SWP. The Justice Department ruling, if implemented, removes the last barri er to our obtaining those files.
"You must remember that the censored files we have already forced out of the FBI archives are only a minute portion-and, we can assume, the least damaging to the government-of what exists. Now we are going to insist that we get immediate possession of all the rest. And without one word deleted!
"If the FBI doesn't go along, then we can only assume that the FBI's investi isn't really Why else would they retain the files?
Stapleton added that the party would fight any move to destroy the "The SWP and the YSA, and every single one of our supporters and former members, have a right to know what is in those files. The American people have a basic right to know What's more, the files are important evidence in our suit."
The socialists are also demanding from the government the full text of the orders to the FBI's field offices ending the "investigations" of the SWP and YSA reportedly sent out by FBI Director Clarence Kelley.
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ARTICLE REPRINTED FROM THE 24 SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF THE MILITANT, PAPER OF THE SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY