title: COINTEL PRO: Are ‘Anti-Fascist’ Media Personalities Playing to the Cameras?
text: 21st Century Wire says In this age of hyper-politicized mass media, it s becoming harder to differentiate between those who are acting for the cameras, and genuine political protesters. Considering the FBI s own documented history of infiltrating left-wing activists groups in America, is it possible we are witness to some staged performances again?Fox New s Tucker Carlson interviews Yvette Felarca, a self-described middle school teacher  from Berkley and leader of the radical socialist  Anti-Fascist  flash mob mobilization organization known as  By Any Means Necessary  or BAMN. In this interview, Felarca can be seen openly advocating for physical violence against anyone, or any speech, whom she or her activist group deems as a fascist.   Earlier this month, Felarca was one of the media faces of the UC Berkeley unrest which sprung up over an event hosted by gay conservative personality Milo Yiannopoulos. According to Felarca,  Alt-Right  speaker Yiannopoulos should not be allowed to speak in public. Watch her adroit, and intense performance from last night here: Yvette Felarca first gained media exposure after previously leading an alleged counter-protest against a  Fascist Rally  at what was branded by the mainstream media as the  Battle of Sacramento  in July 2016.  On its face, this protest looked very much a staged media event, perfectly scheduled ahead of time, and with activist actor Felarca playing the part of agent provocateur for the cameras. At the Sacramento event, supposed protesters on both sides were holding what appeared to be light weight wooden props, apparently meant to be fighting sticks. Felarca s leftist group were wearing face masks and balaclavas to conceal their identities, another strong indication that these are not real protesters, and could very well be  activist  actors playing for the cameras. What is perhaps the biggest give-away of the staged performance was the fact that the scores of police who were on site just stood back while what appeared to be violence and heavy fighting broke out, allowing it to carry on for quite some time   which means that either they were not actually policing but supervising, or they were there as part of the backdrop for the media. It was a bizarre scene to say the least. Certainly, FBI programs like COINTELPRO which began in 1956, come to mind here.Watch the following montage of this media event: Watch what appears to be a well rehearsed, albeit overly dramatic, and borderline sociopathic TV performance here:  Despite the comparatively small size of both the CP and the American SWP by the late 1950s and early 1960s, their members  implantation in industrial workplaces, independent electoral campaigns, desegregation, and antiwar activities, as well as the bureau s fanatical obsession with  communism,  made them targets. New Left activists who were not only hampering the ability of the U.S. to fight in Vietnam, but also challenging ideological assumptions about women s roles, sexuality, and segregation garnered attention and harassment by the state as well. But the most disruptive and violent COINTELPRO operations in the period from the late 1960s into the mid-1970s were directed against the Black and Native American struggles.It was a general rule throughout the 1960s, that local police departments would devote at least 1 percent of their resources to surveillance and infiltration.13 These local agents, acting in cahoots with the feds, read the left-wing press and became familiar with the fact that organized leftists were involved in liberal and pacifist groups and that individuals were often radicalized by these ideas as well as by their own experiences of struggle. Media Lightning Rods  As far as the FBI are concerned, traditionally their justification for managing  radical  rightwing persons as is with the FBI s PATCON program, or leftwing personalities as confidential informants as with the Weather Underground and other groups   has always been that these colorful personalities were effective in attracting or recruiting  the worst of the worst  and therefore by attracting the most radical activists, the FBI would then be able to ensnare them in a sting operation in order to root out what the agency sees as potential threats by  taking this dangerous person off the street  or to  avert a future domestic terrorist incident.  This is also the same rationale applied to the use of informants to stir-up radical activity in Islamic mosques, and to entrap and convict  future terrorists  in the US.Certainly, Felarca plays a very unique dual protagonist-antagonist role in this very public political drama   as a recruitment tool for the radical left into her political front organization, but also as a media object of scorn for the Alt Right and for conservative media outlets like FOX and others. Hers is an active role in increasing political tension and polarization in the US. In this tenuous post-election environment, her scathing rhetoric  calls for violence will appeal the most extreme leftwing activists, while simultaneously giving some media (mainstream cultural) legitimacy to the most radical elements of the extreme left.Here agitator Felarca is allowed to start a physical fight which led to men kicking someone on the ground, and then police seem to recognize her before allowing her to leave the scene quietly: READ MORE COINTELPRO AT: 21st Century Wire COINTELPRO Files