McCarthyism alert: FBI labels anti-war and pro-affirmative groups "terrorist"

As Nick Burbules of the indispensable Progressive Blog Digest notes, "You knew this was coming":

The document released today is an FBI report labeled, "Domestic Terrorism Symposium," and describes a meeting that was intended to "keep the local, state and federal law enforcement agencies apprised of the activities of the various groups and individuals within the state of Michigan who are thought to be involved in terrorist activities."

Among the groups mentioned are Direct Action, an anti-war group, and BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), a national organization dedicated to defending affirmative action, integration, and other gains of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The FBI acknowledges in the report that the Michigan State Police has information that BAMN has been peaceful in the past.

"Labeling political advocacy as 'terrorist activity' is a threat to legitimate dissent which has never been considered a crime in this country," said Kary Moss, Executive Director of the ACLU of Michigan.

See this Progressive Magazine article for more details.  Evidently, any kind of principled resistance that goes beyond signing a petition or sheepishly standing in a "free speech zone" is counting these days as a terrorist activity.  Indeed, any kind of meeting with a progressive agenda is a "protest":

The FBI document said a detective, whose last name was blotted out, “presented information on a protest from February 8-10, 2002, in Ann Arbor, Michigan,” by the group [BAMN].

That “protest” was actually the Second National Conference of the New Civil Rights Movement, which was co-sponsored by the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH, with keynote speaker Jonathan Kozol.

If the FBI is looking for groups engaging in terrorist activities, it would do better to look down the street to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  As per Tommy Simon, a member of Direct Action:

“What is a terrorist? The word is just a propaganda tool used to dissuade people from getting involved in activism—especially young people,” he says. The group has never been violent, unlike the Bush Administration, he adds.