transformative justice collective - interest form

Almost every queer, trans, activist or community space I enter comes with warning labels:

"ooh watch out for that person, they are an abuser"

"if you are friends with them I cannot be friends with you"

"i used to be in that org until ___ happened"

"we need to cancel this event due to allegations"

"they refuse to be held accountable"

Harm is happening in our most liberatory spaces. It is dividing us. Making us feel unsafe. Preventing our growth and de-railing our momentum. How do we address this harm, outside of state violence, so that not only the individuals directly involved can heal and change, but entire communities can transform to reduce recurring violence and to get us closer to collective liberation?

read more in the zine, who are we for us?

• What are our options when harm at ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized levels threaten to break the momentum of our movements (Four I's of Oppression)?

• Can we create a centralized place for our queer, trans, and abolitionist movements to convene, reflect, and share skills?

• Can we help build the relationships, capacity, and skills necessary to address harm within movements, communities, and organizers?

• Can we create a space where discomfort, complexity, and messiness are encouraged?

• Storytelling - gathering and sharing local stories of harm and accountability processes (in all of their messiness and imperfection) to understand the landscape and assess what skills we need to build

• Zines/workshops on pod-mapping and supporting sustainable mutual aid networks

• Centralized collection of non-state resources for the local community (see resources)

• Formation of a community accountability team as alternatives to police (CAT-911, Support NY)

  • perhaps working through the Creative Interventions Toolkit, and Fumbling Towards Repair together

• Shared library and book/discussion groups on topics of healing justice, decolonizing, abolition, anti-racism, anarchy, and more