I was there from 2015 until the very end. Storytime. I'll do my best to omit details such that might hurt someone, but this is a lesson in a lot of things that doesn't need to be forgotten and repeated. Apologies for the long read.
So... We were organized in chapters based off of local membership, but the idea was that with a national network we could call on each other for support, either people for an event or funds for equipment. To that point, we all sent in monthly chapter dues based off of membership. How chapters organized was up to the chapter: most followed the network's lead and formed loose consensus-based voting with no leaders just volunteer positions. The network's funds were held by Beth, she went by Beth Durruti, and was the partner of Dave Strano. Dave Strano's friends held positions of leadership in 3-4 chapters nationwide, they'd worked together in Kansas and then Colorado on various projects including the OG John Brown Gun Club, originally intended to culture-jam rural folk at gun shows and shit.
Early on, there were allegations of sexual misconduct against Dave. I missed that. I joined after. We were told there was an accountability process being built, and mediators were being found with specialties in sexual assault and victim advocacy. We were told that until that process was done, Dave was voluntarily stepping down and would have nothing to do with organizing. We bought that.
We went from 20 chapters to 40. There were Nazis, Proud Boys, people died, people were arrested, it was a busy time. Chapters would occasionally go dark, stop communicating or sending money in, but we didn't think much of it because that happens in organizing. Some of these chapters were 2-3 people, and organizing be like that sometimes.
Rose City, Portland, they didn't quit quietly. They quit loud, with condemnation of harboring a sexual predator and a lot of accusations with little receipts. Since Dave Strano wasn't in the organizing committees and we were mostly hella busy, it was easy to swallow the line that Rose City were being dramatic and trying to wreck things. Beth was there, but Dave wasn't, and Beth was adamant that it was all a misunderstanding that would be cleared up soon. He was a kind person, dedicated activist, gentle soul etc who was respecting his accuser. We couldn't exclude her for the accusations against her partner. She wasn't Ofdave, after all, not property or an extension of his will... Right? As far as we knew, it was one accuser and it was an ex who had tried to kidnap the kids or something. That was the story.
Chapters kept leaving, and more and more cited discomfort with Dave Strano as a reason. Around the time of our last national conference, we learned that there was a new set of evidence and new survivors coming forward. We're all mostly leftist with a couple antiracist libertarians and liberals thrown in, so by default we listen to survivors. Or should. Had to learn the nuances of that lesson and how to put in practice. The "restorative justice" process had been stalled for 2 years at this point. Every time a chapter would leave, the people leaving would be called out for perceived racism, antisemitism, homophobia, ablelism, etc. It gave the people who missed the drama something to latch onto, something to hear instead of the reasons they left. Brown folks ran out. Jews ran out. Gay folks ran out. Jews for homophobia, brown folks for sexism, gays for racism? Can't really remember the excuses. Someone was always offended.
We (a coalition of southern, Eastern, and Midwestern chapters) decided to work together to share information privately and investigate these claims outside of the western Strano buddies' chapters' influence. We'd been working on some ground work together regionally and it gave us opportunity to work in person. Beth and Dave were in Phoenix, his buddies were in Colorado, California, and Arizona I think? They held the money, the organizing email, the website, the Discord we used for primary organizing, the spreadsheets, everything. In the middle of the night someone deleted the Discord server used by 30+ chapters. A member leaving and saying 'fuck it' was blamed. We reformed a new server but the Western chapters never joined it. They had their own server. Again in the middle of the night, our passwords were revoked for everything we needed to keep functioning. Turns out they held a vote among their chosen chapters to vote the excluded 12+ chapters out of the national network. Obvs, they didn't let us vote. We were denounced on social media, accused of conspiracy and "toxic behavior".
The Western chapters were never that active on the ground, just online. While they kept the "Redneck Revolt" name, they never did anything after and quickly went silent. Dave Strano formed a border activism/LARPing group called Land and Liberty out of the dozen or so Phoenix members. They ran around and made slick videos in plate carriers for a couple months, haven't heard anything more. The Southern/Eastern/Midwestern coalition formed COAL, the Coalition of Armed Labor. A throwback to the original rednecks of Blair Mountain. We're all in local orgs and things like SRA, but national organizing around leaderless consensus was a terrible idea.
Takeaway lessons: 1) cut out predators and salt the earth behind. You can't kill them or jail them, but you can exclude them. Accountability processes don't work. Not when they're ran by the accused's buddies, and not when survivors don't want to forgive and forget.
2) Leaderless organizing turns into popularity contests. The guy with buddies gets control. If it hadn't fallen apart like this, we were still absolute fedbait and honestly this might have all been COINTELPRO shit anyway. Organize around ideals, theory, and use accountable committees.
3) Left online culture is a shithole idea. It's a great way to get cred online, but at the end of the day it's going to push out everyone but the half-dozen straight white middle class activists who talk most correct. Organize in person where when someone makes a verbal mistake, you can struggle session, punch them, or just view them as human and fallible and forgive. If they have bad history, you can assess and work with them, see if they've changed. Real organizing is going to involve people who are human and have fucked up. Lumpen. People who don't speak perfectly and say things that reflect their upbringing and biases. Help them learn and grow.
4) if the sexual predators' partner is in the chatroom, you'll never know if it's her typing or him. Her ideas or his. Burn the bridge, salt the earth, piss on the ashes. Especially if they're coming off as super nice people. They got married and have a kid together I think. He's a charismatic likeable fucker and to this day I don't know if the "Aw shucks, I'm just here to help" routine was genuine or an act. Beth was kind and always helping, always there, den mother to everyone. Moral decisions get murky when they're involving people you know. Racists are human, many are super nice folk in their daily life, will give a stranger their last dime or the shirt off their back. Predators that don't see YOU as prey can come off as likeable bros. Don't let emotions or personal connections stay your morals when you see a wrong.
