The inimitable Louis Proyect has challenged me to document my claims--posted here on LBO--relating to the SWP and FBI informers.
(actually, in crude terms, he said I should go have intimate sexual relations with my mother, but I am disinclined, and lack a permit to dig in a cemetery).
Here is an excerpt from:
Berlet, Chip. "Socialist Workers Party V. Attorney General: Using Civil Rights Litigation Against Federal Intelligence Agencies (Parts I & II), Police Misconduct & Civil Rights Law Report, Vol.1, No.17/18, 1986.
INFORMANTS
As the following abridged charts from the court ruling indicate, the FBI use of informants in the SWP/YSA was far from casual.
SWP YSA
Year Inf. Year Inf.
1960 52 1960 9 1973 28 1973 77 1976 19 1976 41
Since the SWP and the YSA have relatively few members, these informants comprised a not insignificant percentage of the membership.
Year % and # of members who were FBI
SWP YSA 1960 11% (52/466) 8% (9/115) 1973 3% (28/1095) 6% (77/1256) 1976 2% (19/1000) 3% (41/1185)
The court took a dim view of this level of infiltration given the lack of evidence of criminal activity by the SWP.
"Presumably the principal purpose of an FBI informant in a domestic security investigation would be to gather information about planned or actual espionage, violence, terrorism or other illegal activities designed to subvert the governmental structure of the United States.
"In the case of the SWP, however, there is no evidence that any FBI informant ever reported an instance of planned or actual espionage, violence, terrorism or efforts to subvert the governmental structure of the United States. Over the course of approximately 30 years, there is no indication that any informant ever observed any violation of federal law or gave information leading to a single arrest for any federal law violation."
The court did note somewhat sarcastically the one positive effect of the use of FBI informants - it provided the court with a detailed record "recording peaceful, lawful activity by the SWP and YSA."
The court found that "one use of informants was to gain information useful to the FBI in its program to disrupt the SWP," and that the FBI "encouraged the member informants to frustrate the growth" of the SWP and YSA.