I had two uncles who were Communists in the 30s and 40s.

[no_hypocrisy]

Would the FBI have files on them for just being Communists? (No violence, no civil unrest, just Communists)

If so, would I file a Freedom of Information request?

[drray23]

1. if they had any sort of public profile

then its likely.

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. Worth the effort, no shocker if J.Edgar had a one pager on every socialist/communist in 1930's

America.

[brush]

3. Careful. They might start a file on you.

It's kinda like checking your credit too much, causes you score to go down.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Being a progressive/liberal, I'd be surprised if there wasn't already a file on me.

[brewens]

5. File? Some of us probably had name plates on cells at Guantanamo before we threw the former guy

out. I tried anyway.

[Bucky]

11. Just ask your bank to notify you of your credit score.

You do lose lose 20 points on your credit score if you (or anyone else) run a credit check on yourself. But just have your bank or credit union do it for you, so there's no official activity.

[DBoon]

6. absolutely

File the request.

[murielm99]

7. A lot of early labor leaders were communists.

My dad knew at least one older railroader who was a communist.

[Laffy Kat]

8. Didn't the ACP have close to a million members at one time?

My BIL is a true "Red Diaper Baby" as both of his parents were members of the ACP until it dissolved, maybe sometime in the fifties?

[FuzzyRabbit]

9. If I recall correctly, the US Communist party had a huge number of FBI members.

Then sometime in the 1960s or early 1970s the FBI had all their people resign and the party pretty much withered away.

[Bucky]

10. I found I had a very thin FBI file from my anti nuke activities in the '80s

Well I flatter myself that's what it was about. In fact, they just added that to the file after it turned out one of my high school debate partners was a serious drug criminal. Lol.

They didn't write "mostly harmless" on the outside of my file, but they might as well have

[speaktruthtopower]

12. Sure, do a FOIA request

FBI FOIA requests are easy to do online.

[marie999]

13. My best friend in San Francisco in the 70s was a communist who had worked with Herbert Philbrick.

She did not know he was FBI. Her ex-husband was still a leader in the Communist Party USA. Both of them wanted to help the people of this country through socialism.