Weavers singer Ronnie Gilbert asks: McCarthyism Again?

The following letter is from Ronnie Gilbert,famous as a member of the 1950s folk group The Weavers, one of whoseoriginal members, Pete Seeger, is still on the road.

For the second time in my life, a group that I belong to is beinginvestigated by the FBI. The first was the Weavers. We were arecording industry phenomenon. In 1950 we recorded a couple of songsfrom our American/World folk music repertoire, Leadbelly’s “GoodnightIrene” and (ironically) the Israeli “Tzena, Tzena, Tzena” and soldmillions of records for the almost-defunct record label. Folk musicentered the mainstream, and the Weavers were stars. By 1952 it wasover. The record company dropped us, eager television producersstopped knocking on our door. The Weavers were on a private yetwell-publicized roster of suspected entertainment industry reds. TheFBI came a-calling. This week, I just found out that Women in Black,another group of peace activists I belong to, is the subject of an FBIinvestigation.

Women in Black is a loosely knit international network of women whovigil against violence, often silently, each group autonomous, eachgroup focused on the particular problems of personal and stateviolence in its part of the world. Because my group is composed mostlyof Jewish women, we focus on the Middle East, protesting the cycle ofviolence and revenge in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. TheFBI is threatening my group with a Grand Jury investigation. Of what?That we publicly call the Israeli military’s occupation of themandated Palestine lands illegal? So does the World Court and theUnited Nations. That destroying hundreds of thousands of thePalestinians’ olive and fruit trees, blocking roads and demolishinghomes promotes hatred and terrorism in the Middle East? Even PresidentBush and Colin Powell have gotten around to saying so. So what is toinvestigate? That some of us are in contact with activist Palestinianpeace groups? This is bad?

The Jewish Women in Black of Jerusalem have stood vigil every Fridayfor 13 years in protest against the Occupation; Muslim women fromPalestinian peace groups stand with them at every opportunity. Wepraise and honor them, these Jewish and Arab women who endure hatredand frequent abuse from extremists on both sides for what they do. Weare not alone in our admiration.

Jerusalem Women in Black is a nominee for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize,along with the Bosnia Women in Black, now ten years old.

If the FBI cannot or will not distinguish between groups who colludein hatred and terrorism, and peace activists who struggle in the fulllight of day against all forms of terrorism, we are in serioustrouble.

I have seen such trouble before in my lifetime. It was calledMcCarthyism. In the hysterical atmosphere of the early Cold War,anyone who had signed a peace petition, who had joined an organizationopposing violence or racism or had tried to raise money for therefugee children of the Spanish Civil War, in other words, who hadopenly advocated what was not popular at the time, was fair game.

In my case, the FBI visited The Weavers’ booking agent, the recordingcompany, my neighbors, my dentist husband’s patients, my friends. Inthe waning of our career, the Weavers were followed down the street,accosted onstage by drunken “patriots,” warned by friendly hotelemployees to keep the door open if we rehearsed in anyone’s room so asnot to become targets for the vice squad. It was nasty. Every two-bitlocal wannabe G-man joined the dragnet, searching out and identifying“communist spies.”

In all those self-debasing years how many spies were pulled in by thatdragnet? Nary a one. Instead it pulled down thousands of teachers,union members, scientists, journalists, actors, entertainers like us,who saw our lives disrupted, our jobs and careers go down the drain,our standing in the community lost, even our children harassed. Ascared population soon shut their mouths up tight.

Thus came the silence of the 1950s and early 60s, when no notablevoice of reason was heard to say, “Hey, wait a minute. Look whatwe’re doing to ourselves, to the land of the free and the home of thebrave,” when not one dissenting intelligence was allowed a publicvoice to warn against zealous foreign policies we’d later come toregret.

Today, in the wake of the worst hate crime of the millennium, adragnet is out for “terrorists” and we are told that certain civilliberties may have to be curtailed for our own security. Which ones?I’m curious to know.

The First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech, or of the press?The right of people peaceably to assemble? Suddenly, deja vu: haven’tI been here before?

Hysterical neo-McCarthyism does not equal security, and never will.The bitter lesson of September 11’s horrific tragedy is that only anhonest re-evaluation of our foreign policies and careful, focused andintelligent intelligence work can hope to combat operations like theone that robbed this country of 6,000 decent working people. We owethe dead that, at least. As for Women in Black, we intend to keep onkeeping on.

—-Ronnie Gilbert