(en) US, Collective response to "Racism at North American ABC Conference" by JoNina & Lorenzo Ervin

We are writing as the crew that organized the North American ABC Conference, in response 
to JoNina and Lorenzo's public letter "Racism at the NA ABC Conference.? We are nine 
people spread across the country, from New York to Sacramento, in conjunction with Denver 
ABC, and as such have a range of views on their open letter. This response is not a full 
statement of all of those views, or even a consensus of what things we all agree on, but 
rather a response required to urgently address the letter and to clarify information 
within it. This statement is NOT to discredit, disqualify, disregard, or fault JoNina and 
Lorenzo for their experience(s). The information provided is correct to the best of our 
account, and is provided for the purpose of transparency. ---- We also note that our 
public response to this matter is made against our preference for dealing with conflicts 
internal to anarchist movements.

We are troubled by JoNina and Lorenzo's decision to publish their letter
on the Internet (including Facebook) in addition to sending it out over
our closed listserv. We find it inappropriate to publicly handle
internal matters, where anyone and everyone is privy to internal
conflict, that typically makes it difficult to move forward and lends
itself more to internet flame wars than revolutionary efforts to deal
with oppression within our movements. We do not wish to hide these
issues or sweep them under the rug, yet we do value resolving internal
conflicts present in anarchist movements and our ABC organizing amongst
ourselves?autonomously, collectively, internally. Our preference for
handling this situation and the issues it raises includes dialogue
between JoNina and Lorenzo, us as conference organizers, members of the
panel during which the letter was read, and all other conference
attendees and their associates. Thus, we would like to make it clear
that this response is being made public only in response to JoNina and
Lorenzo's open letter. We do not make any promises to address this
matter in public forums in the future.

Before we respond, we are providing some context, especially for
international readers who expressed confusion about the situation. At
the 2014 North American ABC conference, held outside of Denver,
Colorado, there were a variety of panels, workshops, and discussions
covering an array of issues around prisoner support. The panel in
question was one on ?Playing Lawyer,? and featured speakers who talked
about working on parole cases, working on their personal and other legal
cases, and finally, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests on behalf
of Jalil Muntaqim's parole campaign. Jaili's parole was recently denied,
largely due to a letter-writing campaign conducted by prison guards and
fraternal police organizations. Racist cops and guards sent dozens of
letters to the parole board, and Jalil requested that a white activist,
who is involved in his support and was a member of the panel, read the
letters to the panel attendees. The letters, most of which were read
aloud or had sections of them read aloud, became progressively more
racist and disturbing. There was tension in the air, some nervous
laughter, and groans accompanied by outbursts of ?What the fuck?? and
other such exclamations. The final letter read was comprised almost
entirely of racial epithets and slurs directed at people of color in
general, and displayed a disgusting level of racism leveled against
Jalil and all people of color in the name of keeping him from parole. It
is this letter, and the reaction or lack of reaction to it, which
prompted the open letter from JoNina and Lorenzo.

We acknowledge that internal oppression and privilege exist at the NA
ABC conference, within the NA ABC network, and within NA anarchist
movements. At the conference, we have experimented with various ways of
addressing internal oppression (including, but not limited to, racism)
as a group. Last year, we held three fishbowl discussions: one on race,
one on class, one on sexism/patriarchy/gender. This year, we held two
group exercises exploring privilege and oppression within our groups and
at the conference. While these efforts are clearly not sufficient for
countering our internal privilege and oppression or from preventing
incidents such as this one, we feel it is important to acknowledge the
work we have been doing in this area and are committed to do in the future.

As organizers, we are certainly accountable for what happens at the NA
ABC conference. With that understanding and with our commitment to
addressing all forms of oppression within our organizing, we have
organized these conferences under this statement of purpose and these
points of unity:

?The Annual North American ABC Conference exists to provide an
inter-generational forum for anarchist, autonomous and
anti-authoritarian people engaged in anti-repression work with an
emphasis on PP / POW support. It is a unique convergence of peers with
an expectation of dynamic participation in mutual aid. Moving in a
direction of international organizing, we aim to build and sustain
working relationships, ultimately existing as a much greater weapon
against state repression. This event utilizes group discussions and
working groups where everyone is encouraged to participate equitably and
where their unique experiences and knowledge are valued. We facilitate a
space that is 100% sober from beginning to end out of respect to the
boundaries set by the indigenous principles of the event center. An
added benefit is the creation of a focused working environment in which
to heal, learn, strategize and hopefully emerge with greater strength
and resources to better do our work. We seek to dismantle hierarchies,
challenge privileges and break down sectarian barriers within ourselves.
Engaging in any oppressive behaviors will not be tolerated and will be
addressed immediately. We warmly invite the participation of those
willing to co-create this space in which we will further strengthen
anti-repression work and PP/POW support.?

We included this statement in our registration forms that went out to
everyone invited to the conference. We take this statement seriously and
worked hard to adhere to it throughout our organizing and during the
conference. As conference organizers, we clearly fell short of living up
to all the aspirations in this statement, and for that we take
responsibility. We deeply regret that our failure to immediately address
the harmful effects of the letter being read in the moment hurt some of
our comrades and made them feel so unsafe that they are no longer
willing to join us at future conferences.

Accordingly, we cannot stand by while blame is unjustifiably directed at
people. JoNina and Lorenzo directly called out Paulette D?Auteuil, the
National Secretary of the Jericho Movement, for comments she made during
the panel discussion. We believe that the statements made about Paulette
mischaracterize the content and intent of what she said at that time.
Paulette, who neither organized nor was a participant on the panel,
proposed a hypothetical in which people of color attending the panel
would have been warned of the contents of the letter and would have had
full control over how to handle it, whether to read it or not, or
indeed, to leave the room during its reading if they chose to do so. We
understand that the suggestion that people of color should simply leave
during the reading of a racist letter would have been a racist and
inappropriate suggestion. Certainly we, as the organizing crew (which is
not all white), do not advocate or condone ?white radical racial
segregation? at this or any conference. To characterize a small part of
Paulette's hypothetical as an actual proposal, however, is unfair.

Paulette has worked to support Black political prisoners and prisoners
of war for decades. She was invited to this year's conference because of
her dedicated organizing and will be invited in the future for the same
reasons. She can speak for herself as to her motives and intentions for
her comments and suggestions, if she so chooses, and we certainly do not
hold her or the Jericho Movement responsible for the panel or its
content, as neither she nor Jericho had any involvement in organizing it.

Yet there is responsibility to be taken for what happened and that
responsibility was taken during the conference, however imperfectly and
inadequately in the eyes of JoNina, Lorenzo, and others at the
conference. The reader is responsible for reading the letter in an
insensitive way. He immediately accepted that responsibility during the
panel and engaged in discussions about the issues afterwards.
Additionally, all attendees within earshot are responsible for
inadequately addressing the situation in the moment. We are upset that
the people in the room (many of us were in the room) collectively failed
in those responsibilities, and we are glad that most people engaged in
difficult and productive conversations about it during the panel, during
the anti-oppression group exercise immediately after the panel, and
during the rest of the conference. Despite these efforts, JoNina and
Lorenzo are right that such inaction and failures reveal internalized
oppression that needs to be addressed.

Finally, we would like to address the other quotations included in the
open letter from JoNina and Lorenzo. None of the quotes included in the
letter were spoken by anyone at the conference to the best of our
collective knowledge and it is problematic to present statements as
quotes when they were not actually spoken. No one vocalized that the
panelist who read the letter ?meant no harm,? the person who made the
analogy about a letter being from a misogynist never used the term
?bragging letter? even though what she did say was not far off from that
idea, no one said that JoNina and Lorenzo or any other people of color
attending the conference were ?too thin-skinned,? and no one said that
the protests of the letter being read were ?racial agitation from
Lorenzo and people he brought.? Additionally, the two attendees
insensitively identified as ?Hispanic? (a colonizer's term for colonized
peoples) did not make the statements attributed to them in the open
letter. To put forth these fragments as direct quotes from anyone
attending the conference is simply untrue.

We are in full agreement that North American ABC chapters and our
comrades should develop in-depth, comprehensive, and continuous
anti-oppression programs, including workshops, readings, discussions,
and continued support for political prisoners, prisoners of war, and
mass prison movements.

Further thoughts will be forthcoming, privately and individually if not
publicly and collectively.

With respect,

The NA ABC Conference Organizing Crew & Denver ABC