Seeger, a champion of folk music and progressive causes-and the writer, performer, or promoter of now-classic songs, including as “If I Had a Hammer,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” Turn! Turn! Turn!,” “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine,” “Goodnight, Irene,” and “This Land Is Your Land”-was a member of the Communist Party for several years in the 1940s, as he subsequently acknowledged. According to documents in Seeger’s extensive FBI file-which runs to nearly 1,800 pages (with 90 pages withheld) and was obtained by Mother Jones under the Freedom of Information Act-the bureau’s initial interest in Seeger was triggered in 1943 after Seeger, as an Army private, wrote a letter protesting a proposal to deport all Japanese American citizens and residents when World War II ended. Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.įrom the 1940s through the early 1970s, the US government spied on singer-songwriter Pete Seeger because of his political views and associations.
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