![]() ![]() The phenomenon illustrates the often intricate interdependence between a social movement and its environment. Social movements in the United States in the 1960s saw many examples of provocation, some in conformity with the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO.) (Donner 1990 Cunningham 2005.) A New York detective helped open and headed the Bronx chapter of the Black Panthers, and Malcolm X's bodyguard, who tried to resuscitate him when he was shot, was an undercover police officer. Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent provides a fictional account. The English Cato Street conspiracy offers a classic case. Roman Malinovsky, a highly paid agent of the Russian secret police (Okhrana), was an important Bolshevik leader. Police responded by infiltrating existing groups and, in a strategy that could backfire, creating their own. Some of the most dramatic occurred in Russia where, lacking basic democratic rights, clandestine groups sought to overthrow the Tsar. The term has entered popular culture as the name of a lingerie brand and British electronica band. The concept initially referred to an activist secretly working with authorities who might provide information, sow suspicion and internal dissension, and/or provoke violent actions that would turn public opinion against a social movement and offer legal and moral grounds for its repression. The idea of the agent provocateur entered popular consciousness in the 19th century as Europe experienced dislocation and conflicts associated with industrialization and urbanization. One extreme form of the latter is provocation. When authorities or elites are challenged by a social movement, they may ignore it or respond with a variety of tools from cooptation to redirection to repression with many points in between. Marx | Bio | Back to Main Page | References and further reading (eds.) Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. MarxĪgents Provocateurs as a Type of Faux Activist Agents Provocateurs as a Type of Faux Activist-Gary T. ![]()
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