Joseph Hansen

Following on from my earlier posts re LHO and The Militant, I thought I'd look into some of the individuals involved with editing the paper, and came across a fascinating article on the World Socialist Web Site about the paper's editor Joseph Hansen. Turns out he was a sometime FBI informer, and quite possibly still was in 1963.

Hansen has a fascinating back story. He was Trotsky's personal secretary in Mexico City in the late 1930s, and was on the scene within seconds of Trotsky's assassination, beating the assassin so badly he ended up in hospital.

But here's where the story takes an unexpected twist: ten days after the assassination Hansen made a secret approach to the US government. He offered to provide information about the assassination and inside info on party members, activities, etc. He also confessed to a relationship with the GPU (Soviet intelligence). It seems he was planning to return to the US and was looking for immunity from prosecution in what would become the Smith Trial of 18 Trotskyists in 1941. 

Hansen's clandestine meetings were followed closely by J Edgar and key members of the US government. He was provided with an FBI contact in New York, and avoided trial thanks to a personal intervention by Hoover himself. 

Hansen returned to New York in the autumn of 1940, where after an initial contact with the FBI 'the relationship took on a higher level of confidentiality subject to more stringent classification rules, which have hidden the communications from public view.'

Hansen's request for immunity appears to have been more complex than just avoiding entanglement with the Smith case, however. The FBI also suspected he was involved in the disappearance of George Mink, a Stalinist agent who disappeared in early 1940. According to the State Department, 'Hansen and his associates (in the GPU) liquidated George Minx ... shortly before the first attack on Trotsky in May of 1940.'

In terms of the subsequent Smith Trial, Hansen was not even subpoenaed, although his name cropped up frequently in evidence. Nor was he ever charged in relation to Mink's disappearance and probable murder.

The obvious question is, how long did Hansen's secret association with the US government continue? Certainly, the FBI would have had significant leverage over him, and there is evidence to suggest that he remained a key informant in the post-war era:

'The highest-level information came from at least 20 "Confidential Informants" who were in personal communication with FBI officials on a regular basis ... laying the foundation for a decades-long infiltration program.'

A Socialist Workers Party lawsuit in 1973 against the FBI's COINTELPRO actions against the party in 1961 notes the agency's use of 'over 1,300 agents against the SWP between 1961 and 1976.'

Was LHO one of these? Worth noting, perhaps, that Hansen was closely involved with setting up the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in 1960.

Hansen's name disappears from The Militant masthead following the March 25 1963 issue, and is replaced by associate editor George Lavan. This probably relates to Hansen's role as the SWP's representative in Europe from 1962-65, based in Paris. He's back on the masthead in August, gone again from October 21 to November 25.

All peripheral and coincidental, no doubt. But Hansen's murky past and possible/probable double-dealing and his participation in at least one 'assassination' does offer an intriguing window into the sinister political chess game being played at the time, and LHO's possible role - wittingly or unwittingly - as a (disposable) pawn.

Ref: 
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/09/secu-d09.html

The world of FBI informants and infiltrators is a fascinating subject.  Thanks for this perfect example.