This article will be a political assessment of Stephen F. Cohen, who died of lung cancer two days ago rather than an obit. I am including the NY Times obit at the end in order to put my remarks into context. My advice is to read the NYT obit first since it overlaps to some extent with my own attempt to assess his contribution to Marxist scholarship and the left.

In 1980 or thereabouts, when I had some on my hands, I attended the deliberations of the SWP’s suit against the FBI. Because of Watergate and outrage over FBI harassment, the party filed suit against the FBI for $40 in damages and an end to Cointelpro, which caught a small fish like me in its net. Cointelpro, which was short for Counterintelligence Program, was used to disrupt socialist and other radical organizing efforts. Supposedly, the government was trying to forestall the violent overthrow of the government but the real intention was to weaken civil rights, antiwar and other social struggles.

full: https://louisproyect.org/2020/09/20/notes-on-the-passing-of-stephen-f-cohen/

$40 in damages

$40 million obviously but Griesa's cash award to the SWP was not much bigger.

Judge Griesa's 1986 damages award to the SWP was $264,000. From the Court's decision:


The government dropped its appeal of Griesa's ruling in 1988.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-03-17-mn-2024-story.html

I agree with Louis that damages paid to SWP by government were
minimal. I recall the SWP rejecting a much more generous settlement
offer early on (1976?, suit was initiated in 1973) in order to
continue exposing government repression. I believe the government
also paid over $400,000 to SWP attorneys for legal expenses. But
total government payout is put somewhat in perspective by report (in
NYTimes article) that the government had paid at least $1.7 million to
their informants in/on the SWP.