When the FBI Infiltrated the Women’s Liberation Movement
Summary
This episode explores how the FBI’s COINTELPRO program spied on and attempted to disrupt the second-wave feminist movement in the 1970s. It details the Church Committee’s exposure of these abuses and the Bureau’s recruitment of women informants to infiltrate consciousness-raising groups. The narrative also covers the case of Jane Alpert, a fugitive bomber who turned feminist, and the FBI’s aggressive tactics against the Lexington Six, which fueled internal paranoia and accusations of infiltration within the movement.
Topics discussed
Introduction: FBI surveillance of second-wave feminism
Feminist groups, acronyms, and the Church Committee
Church Committee findings on intelligence abuses
COINTELPRO history and expansion of targets
1971 break-in and the scope of COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO tactics: disruption and MLK targeting
Surveillance of Black women and insidious memos
FBI focus on white, middle-class feminists
FBI justification: links to radical left groups
Baltimore case: suspicion of clinics and collectives
Agent memos: using feminism to undermine radicals
J. Edgar Hoover's paranoid view of the movement
Recruitment of female informants nationwide
Informant reports on consciousness-raising groups
Betty Friedan, NOW, and infiltration fears
Impact of paranoia on feminist trust and unity
Jane Alpert and the Sam Melville bombing spree
Jane Alpert's arrest, flight, and hiding
Jane Alpert's feminism and the Weather Underground
The Lexington Six and FBI pressure on families
Conclusion: Intra-feminist suspicion and next episode
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