Dear comrades,

After reflecting on the revelations of the past week and the debates and changes the organization has
undergone over the past year, I have decided to resign from the International Socialist Organization and
by extension, the Steering Committee. It took me some time to think clearly about what has been
happening but after gaining some perspective, I feel more assured about my decision.

Like many of you, the past two weeks have been some of the most difficult days of my political life. In
particular, the news of that the 2013 Steering Committee, a leadership we entrusted to politically lead
us, engaged in a rape cover that led to the exonerated rapist being elected into our 2019 SC. Sadly many
of the people who knew this remained silent while the rapist became a leading member of the
organization. Since this revelation, many of us have learned more about the cult-like practices,
obedience, and protectionist behavior that characterized leadership bodies and networks of members for
decades. With such leadership and the politics and practices they pushed, the ISO as a project
frankly had no chance of succeeding. We have been deceived and misled by the layers of leadership who
knew of this reality, and many of us have even experienced hurts and trauma from participation in this
toxic and unhealthy culture. I won’t share my own experiences but the recent revelations have led me to
revisit them with a different lens.

I don’t say all of this to discount the incredible work we collectively did in social movements and on the left
and the achievements we made; or the political analyses and theoretical contributions (the best of it, that
is) we made. I say it as part of a sober assessment in light of what a number of us are
increasingly learning about the depths of the toxic abusive and manipulative practices and actions in the
organization for the first time.

The need to dissolve the group

All of this has given me a reality check about the state of the organization and whether or not it can even
be re-founded. I don’t say this lightly—the ISO needs to dissolve. Here’s why. It is already happening. As
this new reality sinks in, more and more people and branches are moving to dissolve or disaffiliate;
dozens of members are leaving. With all the tasks needed to address this crisis, who will be left to do this
work? Moreover, the past week’s revelations and experiences, as well as my observations in the last few
days have made it clear to me that there is no way to completely end the patterns and cycle of this toxic
culture on different levels that misled the organization into this crisis without ending this organization
altogether.

Also, while I understand comrades’ desire to found a new organization in response to the crisis, I think
this is reactive and I question whether it can happen on a strong foundation given the depths and
impact of this toxic culture and the fact that we’ve barely started processing what we are learning. This
culture was not just about a few leaders or actions. But it was also about organizational structures and
models of development, as well as the politics that guided the work. There still remain political questions
about how we build a socialist left and multiracial organization; what our politics are on the question
of oppression and how do we fight it; how to relate to social and labor movements and elections; how to
define membership and structure ourselves organizationally; how we develop membership and
perspectives; and so forth. If I’m helping found a new organization, it will not be with people who
contributed to a toxic culture. It will not be with members who still cannot acknowledge that they were part
of a culture of racism and sexism in the organization or who exhibited racist behavior to some POC
comrades. If I’m starting over, it will be under conditions and terms of my choosing, with unwavering
feminist and anti-oppression politics and principles--not in reaction to a crisis.

In addition to these political questions, I’ve also been worried that remnants of the old ways of doing
things are still being accommodated or influencing us, which raises concerns that founding another
organization will only enable this cycle. I was a bit alarmed, for example, by the quickness with
which comrades dismissed and questioned the intention of the resignation note posted by four
former comrades. The letter needed clarification and the subject heading that introduced the letter did not
help matters (for example, I did not see any wording calling for a “split”). But I was taken aback by the
response. I was also concerned, as another example, with the discussion/motivations on the SC/
NC call on why some members of the 2013 SC should only be suspended from leadership while others
should be suspended fully from membership.
Old patterns are hard to break and I’m worried about a refoundation or even foundation that happens
within the same formation and modestly changed network of members and leadership. I think we need
reality to set in and for especially those who were within the leadership network that perpetrated or looked
away from this toxic culture damages to retreat and make take some space and
time to process and grapple with the seriously troubling and damaging impact this culture they
enabled had on real human lives, including many of ours and disproportionately specially oppressed
people.

What we’ve been able to do in the past week

Of the many people on leadership who played no role in creating this culture, it is specially oppressed
people who have disproportionately committed unthinkable amounts of time and labor towards correcting
these injustices related to sexual assault and rape. And we’ve accomplished many important things in this
short period. We took an important step to try to bring some ounce of justice for the survivor in the 2013
case by upholding the NDC’s original decision and finally expelling the rapist. We have also been able to
ensure as much transparency and accountability as possible to members not on SC/NC in our response
to this injustice. And we have made some progress in investigating and creating space for the
organization to process this development collectively.

I understand that this perspective on dissolving may be frustrating, perhaps even upsetting to hear,
especially given all what we’ve said we need to do in terms of the immediate tasks
of supporting survivors, a #metoo commission, investigating the 2013 case, and holding to account
leaders implicated in the 2013 case coverup. I think the former can continue to happen but I have
questions about the feasibility and possibilities of the #metoo commission given the scale of the damage
done and the low level of human and organizational resources we have. I also have questions about what
steps we can meaningfully/practically take now to hold these folks accountable, given the numbers of
resignations currently happening, including those of people we wanted to investigate.

And I am also seriously worried about burnout of comrades, especially those specially oppressed.

The nature and limits of the reckoning

When we left convention this year, there was a consensus that we needed to reckon with our past politics,
mistakes, and internal culture and retool the organization to relate to the growing socialist left and grow
our membership. I, and many other comrades have explained how the internal reckoning will be critical to
restructuring and facing outwards. This was when many of the new members in leadership bodies were
still in the dark about the horrific culture of abuse and damages done by the organization's leadership and
the fact that there was an accused rapist amongst our ranks.

That perspective, however, needs to shift given the recent developments. The reckoning as I see it, is no
longer a means to facing outwards or rebuilding the organization or saving a project as I do not think that
is even realistic or advisable. Even if we start a new organization, the left will still be associate the ISO
with any new organization that is created within the same framework and network of the old organization,
especially if created as a reaction to this crisis. As the Science for the People letter suggesting the ISO
disaffiliates from Socialism 2019 indicated, many on the left are questioning the organization's politics,
credibility, and reputation. And many members are leaving as reality sets in.

Rather, I now see the reckoning as including (although not limited to):
• Assessing the politics, structures, and practices that allowed this toxic culture to go on for so long
practically unchanged until rank and file members and a new socialist movement forced a shift.
• Learning lessons from these past politics, practices, and injustices so that we can bring them to
the emerging socialist left and so that we seriously strengthen our and the left’s politics and
commitment to fighting oppression.
• Apologizing and bringing some accountability where and when possible and productive (not re-
traumatizing)
Most importantly, is the need to support survivors and specially oppressed members as best as possible.
And to create spaces and provide resources to process and recover/heal from this serious betrayal. Many
of these can happen whether the organization exists or not, in groupings locally or nationally, perhaps
former branches, caucuses, working groups etc.

Personally, I cannot continue to do more work while still remaining in the dark about the depths of the
damage this leadership caused. The more I learn, the more repulsed I am and the more questions I have
and unfortunately it is taking a toll on my own health and my professional work (losing over a week of
work during this [redacted] that I’m now trying to make up for).

Comrades, I’m so so sorry and angry about the deception and abuse we’ve experienced and how
heartbreak it has caused. We deserve so much better. I will continue to work with the comrades in the
POC caucus and support the work of the survivors caucus and give any input that comrades may ask for,
to the best of my ability. And I will fight alongside you in the many movements and struggles to come.

In solidarity,
Akua