Surveillance as Suppression - From the Republic of New Africa Archives, Part 1

Always fascinating to look at documents concerning state repression as it provides some useful insights into what governments are thinking.  ​

For example, looking at declassified government documents concerning the Republic of New Africa detailed in my latest book "How Social Movements Die", one can see that the US government was concerned with

• who showed up to challenging events; 
• what the person's name and institutional affiliation was (names were) - so that they knew who to look for;
• who said what - so that they could be held accountable for such utterances as well as actions related to them;
• where people lived - so that they knew where to look and where to go if they needed to pick them up; 
• what events were undertaken - so that they had some idea of the nature of threat confronted; and,
• what events were being planned - so that they could be monitored or pre-empted.

Informant names were left out to protect those working for the authorities within the social movements themselves.  The contact in the relevant policing organization is also blacked out.  

​What do you see?