SHUT THE FUCK UP

An open letter to other men in the movement:

Shut the Fuck Up

or, How to act better in meetings

"Even with my mask I often spoke the tyranny of power. My first duty was to cultivate a revolutionary silence."

-Subcomandante Marcos

Introduction

Being an activist these days means fighting for a thousand different things - indigenous rights, rainforests, corporate accountability, etc. Despite this diversity of campaigns, there seems to be some agreement on the kind of society we want to create. It

Well, that was a long essay, but in my opinion, quite accurate in most everything. But while, definitly needed to be said, perhaps, more succinctly, my experience with 8 years of meetings with SF Food Not Bombs compells me to remark that as well as dominating, egoistic, privileged class, white guys there is the problem of the controlling, manipulator women. I've seen one woman control the entire group of mindless seeming activists with a few choice remarks. I've also seen people spread bullshit rumors (sorry about the redundancy) about myself, where activists would relate to me coldly simply on the basis of rumor, never having the decency to confront me with my "sexism". Something I've always, even before feminism, eschewed, while realizing that living within its miliew, that I could possibly slip unconsciously into some form of sexism and would hope to be corrected for that, though if that ever actually occurred, it would be extremely rare. To me it would be as onerous as a racial slur.