This is not a resignation letter. Though I’ve yet to receive official notice, I have essentially been forced out of the IMT following a secret vote that took place while I was on a flight. Content warnings for sexual assault, domestic violence, transphobia, public harassment, child endangerment, and grooming.
BACKGROUND
I started with the International Marxist Tendency as a contact in 2017 in Phoenix, AZ, after meeting the city’s sole member online. He’d been building for at least a year, and so far had only developed a loose group of contacts. I became the second member in February after months of vetting, discussion, and consolidation with him and a full-time member in California.
Four months later, when I left AZ for a new job in Las Vegas, the branch had grown to seven. One of them, a close friend I recruited, joined the US Central Committee and became a full-timer within two years. When we last spoke, there were some two dozen comrades in three branches and he was organizing and consolidating at-large members. The person who initially introduced me to the IMT was eventually asked to leave following his confirmation of allegations by several women and gender nonconforming comrades – not dissimilar to the current situation.
In Vegas, I focused my time on recruiting and consolidating a contact who had reached out to us online, as I already planned on leaving after a year for another job. I ensured, too, that he was connected to the next closest branch in AZ. It was, I believe, my efforts to establish a connection between branches in Vegas, Phoenix, and Tuscon that facilitated a one-day conference in October 2018. This event continued as the “Arizona Cadre School” at least through 2019.
I left Vegas in summer 2019 to pursue an advanced degree in Virginia where I once again became, effectively, the only IMT member. There was one other comrade, though she had not done much local work and was quite busy. Nevertheless I met with her routinely to discuss texts and participated in branch development when I could.
That summer, I initiated a relationship with a Canadian comrade. He was the sixth or seventh member of what is generally considered the best area of Fightback’s work, in a city that now has more than fifty members. We met at the inaugural Marxist Summer School in Edmonton. I had attended other IMT schools, including the larger 2019 Montreal Winter School, but my friendship with local comrades helped me feel more truly involved in the work than ever before.
Inspired by the event and the connection I’d developed to Edmonton, I supplemented the education I was unable to get at home by attending branch and other IMT events each time I visited. I even gave a lead-off at my partners’ branch in December. Having only briefly participated in stable branches with experienced comrades, I felt this was the best way to develop myself as a cadre capable of building in VA over the next few years.
Unfortunately, all of this changed in March of 2020 when I was visiting my partner on break. Thankfully, my university lengthened the break period before continuing classes remotely; but as I am high-risk, I decided against flying through two of the busiest airports on the continent, hoping the situation would soon be resolved.
I continued working remotely from Edmonton and officially joined the local section. Branch and reading groups were moved to Zoom and I participated enthusiastically every week. Soon enough I was elected to a leadership position as the Bulletin Report officer. During the BLM movement – in which Edmonton saw the largest protest in Canada – I pushed leadership to increase our involvement. When locked out workers picketed their workplace, I risked the disease to join them. I started using the Socialist Fightback Alberta Twitter account and argued that we should be utilizing it to produce analysis of Alberta labor news and history to better engage with the local movement. The idea was met with enthusiasm, and the Twitter account produces similar content to this day.
Although I was living in Edmonton for most of 2020 and the bulk of my political work was focused here, I was still employed in Virginia. Thus when asked to join a new chapter of United Campus Workers (UCW) in August, I leapt at the chance. The union became affiliated with UCW, part of the Communication Workers of America, in September. I joined the steering committee in October and organized a committee to write bylaws for all chapters in VA, as workers at a second major university were in the process of affiliating.
We returned to the US early next year to conclude the spring semester and finalize our long-term plans to move to my partner’s native Ireland. The pandemic had made continuing my degree to its completion financially unviable.
My attendance at Edmonton branch was less than perfect during this period as I often did not have the energy to start branch at nine on a weekday. But I made sure to channel my efforts into the next best place for furthering the cause of socialism, UCW-VA. Though I did not make a point to recruit for the IMT here, I was clear about my own membership and aims. As the sole representative of my university and of non-faculty union members in the state on the bylaws committee, I fought for those groups on an explicitly Marxist basis. From January to June, I put an average of ten hours a week into the union, taught for six, and dedicated another three to branch while maintaining my GPA.
Although the main focus of this article is the work in Ireland, I wanted to start with my background. Not because I need to justify my right to criticize the IMT; as explained in this letter by an ex-member with which I largely agree, there is no such thing as a right to criticism. I covered this background to illustrate the futility of playing by their rules. If, after five years of work and elected positions, they can take a secret vote against my leadership status while I’m on a flight because I stated my intent to disagree with Fightback and the International Section in the “proper channels”, it is not worth wasting another second of my time or money fighting “the right way.” I suggest it’s not worth yours either.
THE IRISH GROUP
My partner and I moved to Dublin in May. He had already started a very tenuous and demanding job and spent the remainder of the year working ten hour days six days a week. I took a week to settle in, then set an online meeting with the full-timer from the International Section (IS) advising Ireland, Ben Curry, and the branch secretary, who had joined in 2019 following a split in the Socialist Party (SP, part of International Socialist Alternative). The Irish group consisted of five members across Ireland on both sides of the border. Only two had been with the IMT longer than six months. All but one of the five are now gone and the last is rarely able to attend.
The Irish group was combined with a small “Turkish group,” then composed exclusively of people living outside Turkey. After years of trying to start branches alone, I was starstruck at the idea of an IS full-timer, the Ben Curry who wrote half our articles, in my branch. So it took a while for me to notice the political and professional level of the Irish section wasn’t quite what I’d seen even in Phoenix.
It was several weeks before I met a comrade in person, and I was less than impressed. The member, visiting from the west coast, loudly and rudely argued the merits of individual terrorism. A few weeks later I met the secretary when he and the same comrade visited to participate in the World Congress together. This was also the first meeting of the Irish Marxists which my partner was able, briefly, to take some time away from work to attend. The west coast comrade eventually left work after being repeatedly asked to stop attending branch and events high.
I was elected Education Officer in July but as summer turned to autumn, it became clear that the group mainly consisted of Ben Curry and the secretary. Others attended without participating or were unable to attend altogether, though members from other sections became involved here and there. In August the secretary stepped back, and, as the only active member with experience, I inherited the office. At first this was presented as temporary, but my position became official in October when the former secretary was asked to take another. I published an article about a local political scandal in Socialist Appeal around this time. It was difficult and sometimes frustrating work while my partner and I struggled to settle in a new country, but I knew the sacrifice would be worthwhile.
In November, another long-time SP member, based in Dublin, expressed interest in joining the IMT. It took some time before schedules could align, but Ben Curry and the other former-SP member met with him mid-November. Although he had worked with the SP for five years, their poor educational policy had limited his development and whatever he knew was self-taught. I immediately started working with him on the classics and discussing our positions on issues such as the national question. The four active members, Ben Curry, and our new contact met in person for the first time in December.
We were six dedicated, semi-experienced Marxists discussing our goals for the year. Writing this, though, I recall something that should have struck me more. It was primarily at the in-person meeting that we discussed these goals. There was a “discussion” planned for the final Zoom branch afterwards but it’s a rather lengthy list and we only covered it briefly. Turkish comrades expressed confusion at this branch and the next, having expected a discussion in which all comrades could participate. They also expressed concern that a recent recruit was in dire need of consolidation, and needed some opportunity to discuss topics more specific to Turkey.
“DEMORALIZATION”
One of our goals for the year was establishing an editorial board for the publication of articles on a website which we would begin building. This was discussed late January and the seven attendees agreed I would discuss with comrades and propose a slate of three for a vote in two weeks.
It was at this time one could, if they were trying to draw a map of my “demoralization”, begin. I reached out to Ben to discuss my concerns about the reliability of anyone beyond myself and the now-comrade in Dublin to serve on a board. It was out of the question that Ben would participate in any official capacity, for the same reason that he did not attend reading groups. He wasn’t really a member of the Irish branch, he was attending as an advisor. Each time I expressed to Ben how much stress the lack of engagement from other members caused, the “help” I was offered amounted to little more than a lecture on patience.
However demoralized I may have been, I didn’t once consider leaving, though many others had. I was convinced that this was the revolutionary party. I put my work in the IMT before everything even to the detriment of my life and relationship. I declined a temporary job in late 2021 to set up a stall to which no one – save a long-term contact – came, while we were having difficulty managing paycheck to paycheck.
On the last day of February, with six present, the slate I proposed of the two former-SP members and myself was approved. I had not planned on proposing myself as I felt I had already taken on too much, but the new member in Dublin insisted. This, to my knowledge, was the last vote taken on branch leadership, prior to 8th August.
Attendance worsened again in March. On no occasion was anyone besides the editorial board, and Ben, present. Only once were all board members able to attend the entire meeting. As I did not have access to a working computer at this time, I attended on my phone and took detailed handwritten minutes for each branch. On all but one occasion, I then typed these minutes into my phone. When I did not have time to do this, I posted my handwritten minutes to ensure comrades had access.
I do not wish to disparage those who helped start the Irish work and have since been pulled away. I know how difficult it is to start something from scratch. But clearly something was thoroughly dysfunctional about this approach and I had become extremely unhappy holding the branch together almost single-handedly. For most of spring I was the only member consistently attending and arriving on time.
Thankfully, at least, things had improved in other parts of life. Having finally secured safer, more stable jobs, my partner and I were able to start settling, planning vacations, and enjoying life. Although he still had too much going on, my partner was at least now able to passively keep up with ongoing events at branch. Having been largely inactive for the last period, he was energized and enthusiastic to contribute later in the year.
The Turkish group split off to form their own branch early in April. Two weeks later attendance dwindled once again to myself, the new Dublin member, and Ben Curry. We had five contacts in Dublin and I suggested this may be a good time to start focusing on local work. Perhaps Dublin comrades could meet every other week in-person to give us more time to build here? The suggestion was immediately rejected by Ben Curry who insisted we build the national leadership instead. It was around this point that the stars began to fall from my eyes. Though I spoke of demoralization, this was not the right word. I was disappointed.
The situation was absurd. The Irish group had almost nothing to do with Irish politics or the Irish working class. Instead, it was unilaterally run by a man who had visited the country twice in his lifetime. Never mind that since Ben Curry was not actually a contributing member but an advisor, he was not entitled even to vote in this branch. Had I really struggled and sacrificed for years to build Ben Curry’s IMT franchise in Ireland?
RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT
One of these contacts was introduced by Ben as a “high school student”. I set a meeting, initially planning a one-on-one. But when I noticed the number 2008 on his account, things started to feel off. Far from high school, he had either just turned 14 or was as young as 13. Had I not spent so many months keeping the branch from falling apart, I probably would have put a stop to things there. But against my better judgment I agreed to meet, bringing along the the Dublin comrade who was at least a citizen and so at lower risk. Although clearly too young to be involved, we were impressed by his enthusiasm and knowledge. The meeting ended with him offhandedly mentioning that his parents didn’t want him participating before he turned sixteen.
At the next branch, Ben labeled him the number one priority contact. Another potential contact, who has since been recruited, was de-prioritized to be revisited in the future. Not long later I first expressed some misgivings to the comrade in Dublin. I know from several years of teaching that teenagers are often smart and well read. That kind of intelligence can develop early, but emotional intelligence and decision-making ability are things humans don’t fully develop until more than a decade later.
Just eight days after our first meeting, the child was invited to branch. He kept his camera off, said very little, and left midway when his parents called him to dinner. Only two weeks after he was first mentioned in branch.
The now-comrade, by comparison, was added to the contact list on Valentine’s Day and assigned to members in Northern Ireland. By and large, though, he was ignored for two months until I gave up and met with him for an Imperialism reading group. He had not done the reading, because no one had told him to or explained what a reading group entailed. We had another priority.
Ben was excited at the prospect of a contact so young because it meant getting to surround someone with Marxism before they were influenced by other ideas from friends and family. He described the ideal situation as effectively cutting him off from these “alien” influences. To him, the fact that this contact’s brain was not fully developed seemed a benefit.
There are certainly examples of young people throughout the international who developed theoretically, joined the IMT, and made excellent contributions. It is worth acknowledging, however, the difference between a 17 or 18 year old participating with their parent’s permission in a sufficiently large and professional section and a 13 year old participating against his parent’s wishes with a group of two or three, all at least 15 years older. I will remind the reader, too, that the first comrade I met in Ireland loudly and publicly encouraged participation in individual terror and was under the influence of drugs at every IMT event. From what the kid had told us, his parents were deeply conservative and against his involvement in anything outside school. We learned, too, that he had lied about meeting friends when he met with us.
When I expressed my discomfort with the situation in branch, I was largely ignored. Instead, Ben asked the minor to join the IMT the second time he attended, barely two weeks after the first contact meeting. Since we didn’t have finances set up, we wouldn’t be taking money from him and so there should be no issues, right? Toward the end of this meeting, when I was the only member of the Irish group present, Ben Curry exclaimed that “if you consider yourself a member, that’s good enough for me.” I did not agree, but I didn’t know what to do. Even forgetting the serious risk Ben was putting a child and local members under, one cannot declare members by decree. Especially when one is not a voting member of branch.
More than once I had pointed out how dangerous this situation was, how you need police-vetting to even enter a school in Ireland. Ben agreed at first that we would need to get the parents’ permission, but encouraged the minor to attend branch until he got it. When after a few weeks that didn’t happen, his plan changed to “if they don’t give permission then he can still attend branch with his camera off”.
I’d had enough, and it was clear Ben was not going to listen to me. Having developed a friendship with the new member in Dublin, I confided in him that I did not feel Ben had our best interests at heart. Should something go wrong, he would suffer no consequence. On the other hand, as a transgender immigrant in the midst of a mass anti-LGBT “grooming” narrative, I was at great risk. The Dublin comrade seemed sympathetic, and agreed to take over meetings to lower my risk.
While this was happening, I had started my first permanent, fulfilling job in Ireland. And although I enjoyed the stability and foundation for a new career, I rarely got home before six thirty. Preparing for and attending branch Monday at seven was killing me. Though I hated doing this, I sent apologies on 16th May with a message requesting branch be moved to any other day.
They decided to keep branch on Mondays as it was the only day the “priority contact” – once again, a 13 or 14 year old child whose involvement I found deeply troubling – could attend. They’d just move the start time by fifteen minutes.
Seeing how troubled and hurt I was by the situation, my partner implored me to take a step back. It was clear my efforts were being taken for granted and continuing would be detrimental to both myself and the future of the branch. As painful as it was, I agreed that the revolutionary leadership cannot be built by one person. We hoped that in my absence, others would step up, contribute, and develop the political and professional level. This also coincided with our first vacation in years, for a week in early June. I explained the situation and promised to return in late June.
When I did return, the child had disappeared. No explanation was offered for his absence, and branch was once again held at seven on Mondays. However, the issues I previously held were eclipsed by an extended rape and domestic violence scandal and cover-up involving the Canadian section of the IMT, Fightback/La Riposte. To this day I do not know what happened with the child and at times wonder how his parents would have reacted to learning of the situation in Canada.
IMT IN CRISIS
It’s hard to describe my feelings reading Jamie’s letter. I was both shocked and completely unsurprised. Like many others, I had seen the organization’s abysmal procedures for handling misconduct and abuse firsthand. It was only a matter of time before someone was really hurt. In my initial shock, I felt obliged to share this news with the Dublin comrade. I had come to consider him a close friend and felt responsible for bringing him into this organization under the repeated assurance that it was a safe and professional place. Having recently left the SP, he knew the pain of comrades viciously attacking him.
He responded as I expected, horrified at the alleged actions of Fightback leadership, calling them “sheer lunacy” and expressing solidarity with the victims. I was reassured about the future knowing that at least the Dublin comrade would be on the right side of this. The idea that Ben Curry would side with survivors against the IMT was of course laughable; indeed the International Section, for which he works, would close ranks with Canadian leadership only days later.
My partner and I saw just how quickly the initial reaction of sympathy toward Jamie and their partner turned to vicious attacks and victim blaming. As more cases of sexual harassment, assault, abuse, and cover-ups across the international came to light, the fights on social media became more vitriolic. Horrified, we decided this was a situation about which we would need to keep our own council and considered our next move carefully.
I was much less engaged in this period but I had committed to being the point person for coordinating the International Marxist University (IMU) event months ago. As uncomfortable as constantly seeing the names of full-timers actively censuring victims of sexual assault and abuse made me, I continued to post the requested IMU advertisements to the Irish Instagram account as often as my work allowed.
At my first branch back, there were a number of new contacts, and the one who had been previously ignored in favor of the minor had become very active. At the following branch, Ben Curry declared them members of the IMT, and four agreed. I had only met one. Within a week two changed their minds.
It is worth revisiting again that the IMT has specific procedures to vet contacts, discuss potential political disagreements, and develop an understanding of our work prior to taking a vote on membership. But I couldn’t see a future for myself here and didn’t bother putting up a fight. I didn’t want to be there at all but felt bad leaving the Dublin comrade in the position I had been for months. I wanted to at least help him get through the IMU.
Though it had been me who spent at least six hours a week doing IMT work for the last year while my partner was inactive, I wanted to quit. Social media had become a nightmare. I wanted to scream when Alan Woods’ name was mentioned in branch. But my partner convinced me to stay and fight. Yes, the IMT leadership had entirely discredited itself, but we believed in the work we had done and the extraordinary people we had met and worked with over the last five years. Besides, the Irish group was practically unaffiliated. We weren’t even allowed to call ourselves a section. We received nothing from the international besides Ben Curry’s presence at branch. I was convinced by now that this presence was entirely detrimental to the Irish work. When he was not actively trying to recruit minors and inviting contacts to join without any input from membership, he was shutting down any attempt to move the Irish work forward on our own terms rather than those prescribed by himself and, presumably, the International Section.
DISAFFILIATION?
To rescue the Irish work from the pit into which the IMT had fallen, we had to ensure our actions were proper and above board. Though we were in full solidarity with our comrades fighting the IMT privately and publicly, we did not associate with them. The only person we were prepared to speak with was the Dublin member, in advance of bringing the matter to branch. We felt it important for him to be prepared, and even more than that, hoped he would be convinced to fight for the cause of genuine Marxism and democratic centralism. If nothing else, I wanted to speak with him as a friend who I felt guilty for bringing into this before abruptly leaving.
The reason I started with him rather than bringing the matter directly to a branch meeting is simple: he and I made up the active leadership, and really the active membership. Before I was accepted as a member, I had to read the US section’s eighty page handbook. It explains that the basic organizational unit of members in the IMT is the branch, and from the branch all other structures grow. Leadership, according to this and other national handbooks, is elected by delegates from these branches at a National Congress. This leadership plans work between Congresses.
It goes without saying that the Irish section has not held a congress. It has, however, elected a leadership. Until 8th August, that leadership effectively consisted of myself and the Dublin comrade. By mid-July there were a few others active in branch meetings, but all of them were contacts – it would be completely nonsensical to introduce such a contentious issue without first discussing it with the only other active member and elected leader.
Though I was the active force behind all our decisions, I asked my partner to lead the discussion with the Dublin member. As a survivor myself, it was difficult even to participate. We met on the first day of the IMU for which the comrade had rented a room to watch the first event, a lecture by Alan Woods. My partner and I were preparing for another vacation, this time for two weeks, so we only planned on attending briefly.
We discussed the situation for about an hour before the other two attendees arrived. It seemed promising. He was especially sympathetic toward the treatment of former members on social media, not dissimilar to his own experience. He cautioned, too, that when caught in situations like this, leadership in sectarian groups have been known to run off with the money. We explained that we planned to bring this to branch, i.e. the proper channels.
We were very clear about the fact that we did not expect anything to come from this. Many had tried throughout the international. Serious, long-time members who had struggled and sacrificed, were derailed, silenced, discarded, and smeared for taking sexual assault and the organization seriously. We explained the next logical step would be to vote, as a branch, to disaffiliate from the international and continue to build here organically. Using the same method we apply to expose the limits of reformists, we sought to discredit the anti-democratic tactics through participation.
For anything worthwhile to grow here, it would have to be on the basis of open discussion. Though we were firmly convinced and intended to continue as decided, we insisted he read the allegations, the subsequent responses on both sides, and draw his own conclusions. Specifically, we stressed the Fightback article, the IMT’s public response, as the piece that mattered. Even if every opposing article, letter, and personal account is discarded as false, their article was worse than all of it. If he was not convinced, that was fine, we asked only that he not inform Ben of our position while we were out of the country so that we may do so on our own terms. If he wanted to discuss the situation with Ben regarding his own beliefs, that was his business. But after nearly a decade of combined contributions, we had the right to express disagreement through proper channels. Should the situation be brought to branch by Ben or for another reason before our return, we even offered to participate from abroad. He enthusiastically asked that we send along all this material but insisted we wait to discuss until after the holiday.
The next two hours were miserable; I couldn’t even bring myself to glance at the screen of the IMU. But I felt even more confident about the future of the Irish work.
A few days later we met again to drop off a key to our building so he might check on our cat in case of emergency. He still seemed to be on our side, and despite our recommendation that he avoid the social media fighting, wanted to look into it himself. His last words to us were that he was “looking forward to the photos” from holiday.
SECRET VOTE
On 8th August, the Irish group met for branch after a two-week break following IMU. Previously, we had agreed to discuss the Situation in Britain on the 8th. So when the Dublin comrade posted an agenda weeks later with the lead-off now on Identity Politics by Ben Curry, I found the timing suspicious. There wasn’t much I could do about it, though, as I was due to be on a flight, which all members knew about in advance. I am listed as apologies in the agenda and minutes for the meeting, as is the branch’s official chair, and the lead-off I was scheduled to give on the 22nd was now double-booked with a lead-off by the comrade in Dublin.
I checked the minutes later to see if I could glean anything on the Identity Politics discussion. There are no details and the minutes and group messages seem generally normal, save for the somewhat odd remark next to the point on Political Education that reads “An article from marxist.com a day keeps opportunism and sectarian [sic] at bay!” Interestingly, though four names are listed in apologies, attendance was not recorded.
On Tuesday the 9th I asked for my key. Since it was a rare and expensive key, whatever else may be happening, I had to have it back. I didn’t hear anything until late evening, when the Dublin comrade offered to meet later in the week. I sent another message on Wednesday, and did not hear back. Later that evening, I receive a long message from Ben Curry.
It begins by telling me he hopes I’m “feeling on the mend and on the up” before quickly shifting gears to reveal that the Dublin comrade told him about our discussions. He goes on to characterize my partner as an ex-member working with other ex-members to damage the IMT, bullying or otherwise coercing me to go along with this approach. He’d like to speak with me to get my side but, as a now-declared ex-member, my partner had no right to criticism. I found the notion laughable and entirely unserious, especially since we were both expected to pay a year’s worth of dues – should the section ever set up a bank account – now around €600-1000, and another 200 for books provided on credit. Even if I were to accept Ben Curry’s ability to make and unmake members by decree, which I don’t, or that my partner ought to be considered inactive and thus barred from discussion, which I also don’t, am I not entitled to an advocate to ensure my views are faithfully represented?
Most scandalously, Ben informs me that a vote was taken at this branch, during which it was known for weeks that I would be on a flight, against my admin status on the social media accounts. I characterize this vote as secret not only because it was taken with no notice and no invitation to discuss my position, but also without recorded attendance. Nor any record of its having taken place beyond Ben’s message. Without wasting too much time on speculation, I would guess attendance consisted of the Dublin comrade, Ben Curry, and perhaps the two recently declared members, on whose membership I obviously was not given a vote. A total of eight or nine months experience in the IMT and a non-member consultant took a vote on my five years. It was the kind of move that would make a Stalinist blush.
Finally, he implores me against conflating my “demoralization” with “this blatant attack by ex-comrades on the organization”. This intentional obfuscation of the IMT’s criminal enabling of rape and domestic violence by leading members, subsequent cover-up and censuring of critics, and the orchestration of a now months-long public harassment campaign against survivors as a “blatant attack by ex-comrades” told me everything I needed to know about the integrity of the discussion that took place prior to the secret vote.
I can guarantee the word rape was never used during this discussion and most likely, neither domestic violence nor sexual abuse. I had seen several accounts of comrades, including this letter signed by twenty one ex-members of Fightback, describing the cowardly and dishonest tactic. The problem is presented as a cynical identity politics-based attack from which the organization must be defended without question. After all, the attack was blatant, wasn’t it? Fightback’s entirely unserious approach to sexual misconduct among its leadership and the resulting well-deserved consequences are presented as if this were malicious ideological code inexplicably turning comrades into zombies. He implored me not to conflate this with his near-criminal actions with a 13 year old boy, reckless endangerment of members, and total mismanagement of the Irish work.
I would not dignify this nonsense with a response, least of all on his terms. To the International Section I say: make this right or send me an expulsion letter. You have my email.
The Dublin comrade finally responded asking to meet Friday. I asked that he drop the key through our mail slot or that my partner would meet him at whatever public place he preferred. This man had betrayed my friendship of ten months and didn’t have the courage to tell me about it long after the fact. Instead, he held my house key hostage for the better part of a week. He finally agreed, only to backtrack again the next day offering to bring it himself on Saturday. I refused and reiterated that my partner would meet him that evening.
My partner arrived on time and waited around ten minutes before the comrade showed up. He said hello, held out his hand, accepted the key, and walked back without another word. Two minutes later I received a message complaining about my partner’s impolite behavior, followed by a half hour of intermittent typing, culminating in another very long message. I must confess, I did not bother actually reading it. My partner did and found it amusing. The message painted me again as an innocent, unthinking lamb corrupted by his poisonous influence and needing to be rescued while simultaneously decrying my methods “against our comrades” as “underhanded and bureaucratic”. This dishonest approach, along with a focus on social media administration which had never once come up in our discussions, made me wonder how truthful his report had been. Though Ben, for his part, had no interest in hearing my side until after he had allowed, if not himself orchestrated, a secret vote against my leadership status.
I do not know who these comrades were against whom I was employing “bureaucratic and underhanded methods,” as the criteria for what constitutes a member had eroded to nothing. Either way, it’s unclear why I would be obliged to announce my feelings to branch before discussing them privately with local leadership. One could argue that it was inappropriate for my partner to be involved in these discussions, but he had also met this comrade before a majority of these other now-members. He had joined the organization before me and was involved at the epicenter of the current crisis for years. If nothing else, he was present as my advocate.
I am sure the irony of accusing me of taking bureaucratic measures at the same time as I was being informed of a vote against me at a branch with no recorded attendance that I couldn’t attend is not lost on the reader. Nor the reaction I received for expressing principled disagreement on this matter, given that Alex Grant required self-confessed rapists re-confess to him before any action would be taken by Fightback leadership.
Naturally, my partner was horrified at the bizarre and insulting way I had been treated by someone I trusted as a friend. Though we knew his agreement was not guaranteed, I never expected the Dublin member to conspire against me in this despicable fashion and then to paint my actions as underhanded. Had he expressed disagreement at our first meeting or second or at any point in the next two weeks, I would have accepted the result, presented my disagreements to the International Section, and resigned. Had the two comrades expressed an interest in discussion prior to the August branch, I would have accepted from abroad. Of course there was no way for me to attend the branch, as all parties knew in advance.
Worse still was accepting my key and holding it hostage for a week. This gentleman could and should have returned it long before starting on this road or the first, second, or even third time I asked without making my partner commute nearly all the way to his house and wait around for ten minutes. Disagreeing is disagreeing but this was intentionally done in the most disrespectful way possible. Setting aside the personal aspect, which is only of incidental interest in this narrative, his political actions can almost be forgiven. After all, he had only recently joined and may not have the fullest understanding of our procedures. But no such excuse applied to Ben Curry. Regardless of how it was qualified, the vote he condoned through his participation was intended to drive an irreparable wedge between members and, presumably, to intimidate me into leaving silently. A situation which could have been handled at least amicably was instead monstrously escalated.
But unlike my partner, all I felt was relief. Without wasting a minute of my time, I was out. I owed the branch nothing, nor the Dublin comrade. Best of all, as the organization’s representative had dismissed my right to disagreement, I was free to dismiss their right to discretion. I had everything I needed to write my public letter. However hurt I felt, I knew no friend nor comrade of mine could ever stand by the Fightback article. Nothing of any value had been lost.
LESSONS FOR THE MOVEMENT
The IMT will lie about what happened here, so I hope they have my handwritten minutes available. They will try to claim this is unprincipled, undialectical, etc., etc., and therefore illegitimate. For a leadership that cannot shut up about safe spaces, it is interesting how many hoops they’ll have you jump through before you’re allowed to challenge them in an arena where they have the deck stacked against you – and still we’ve all played by their rules so far.
But they have declared us enemies, and we do not need our enemies to approve of our methods. What we need is to see the public defeat and humiliation of these ideas in our movement.
Just as they sought to make an example of Jamie and our comrades, we must make an example of the IMT so no sect has the nerve to compare themselves to the Black Panthers while running a public harassment campaign against survivors again. The broad left in Canada is already aware of and actively spreading the news. Ex-members and other “political enemies” worldwide will soon follow. From there it's only a stone's throw away to organizers, student unions, and entire universities banning IMT activity – this account of the York incident may be instructive. Every time the story gets told, it’s further and further distorted. More public letters, more leaks, more tension, more paranoia. The money stops flowing and the inner circle start turning on one another.
The sad thing is, I believed in the work we were doing. Every one of the now surely hundred worldwide who left did. We wanted so badly to believe in this organization that we failed to see the rot in its foundations. As evidenced by dozens of recent leaks, this leadership has nothing but contempt for members. They value us for our money and our time, in that order. The entire business model is snatching the best elements of the movement to pay a few dozen checks while contributing nothing to local struggles. As Bolsheviks we understand the need for professionalism, for seriousness in finances, but this is not that. This is a parasitic layer of professionalist racketeers who have taken too much from too many. I don’t know about others who have left but after taking a few months to revisit the classics and challenge the assumptions I uncritically absorbed over the last five years, I intend to return to the movement. It is high time for those of us who have left – and those who have been removed—to develop our own perspective and make this split official.