Demands
I anticipate that organizing leadership will not sufficiently and properly handle this issue, given their pattern of behavior in normalizing misogyny and associating with abusers (re: PSL DFW, Jack's abuse of a brown femme) and will attempt to keep everything completely internal. This is both a tactic out of concern for their image and also because of their inability (As I've mentioned in Part 2, which is Austin but can apply to Dallas) to be able to be democratic and produce an open atmosphere where all community members can be allowed to hold leadership and members accountable. This is a result of their ineffective liberal organizing hierarchy.
We cannot interpret Ayed's behavior as merely a result of his own personal inclinations, but understand abuse as a part of a larger pattern of misogyny, which when unchecked allows people like Ayed to prey on younger women such as myself and abuse me.
It is not merely Ayed who I am labeling as complicit in my abuse -- but the organizers and community that allowed and enabled misogyny to exist in our spaces. We must all hold ourselves accountable -- for not taking the issue of abuse seriously enough, for not prioritizing having processes to support and protect abuse survivors, and for allowing marginalized men to weaponize their identities to act as if they cannot also abuse women.
I am completely against this -- and urge community members who are concerned to demand involvement in the accountability process. How exactly can the organization that he belongs to investigate their own member being abusive? This is the same organization that has condemned me for calling out abuse -- this is carceral behavior and necessitates broader community involvement.
We keep each other safe is not merely a paltry slogan -- but a commitment to justice from all of us.
Comrades, you must demand an immediately open public accountability process. I shall outline my following demands in the treatment of this abusive man.
Demands:
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Immediate removal of Ayed Abusaad from all organizing spaces.
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Investigation into Ayed's behavior and patterns of abuse.
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Community forums allowing people to provide their ideas on how to better combat abuse and assault in organizing spaces, how to support survivors, removal of abusers from spaces, understanding the various forms of abuse and to democratically decide what to do.
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Establishment of a community-based accountability process that involves all concerned community members to hold abusers and predators accountable within organizing and outside of it.
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An open process of restructuring within organizing to prevent and confront the issue of abuse. This would include mandatory internal and external political education on abuse, feminism, and community justice. It is also important to have workshops for men to understand how to combat abusive behavior and hold other men accountable.