San Diego IWW Statement of Solidarity with Survivors of Gender-based Violence

Statement of Solidarity with Survivors of Gender-based Violence and Condemnation of the PLP’s Defense of Rape and Class Reductionism


The San Diego Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World stands in full solidarity with a Fellow Worker who was raped by a prominent organizer in the Progressive Labor Party (PLP). The response of the PLP has been abhorrent, combining a meaningless self-evaluation and a slap on the wrist with insidious undermining of the survivor, her account, and her allies.

In their official response, they claim to fight “sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny in every aspect”, while in the same breath slander the survivor and her allies as “informant-provocateurs” acting in collusion with the fascist police state. The PLP has made clear that the oppression of women, even in its most horrific and violent manifestation, means nothing when it interferes with their prescription for revolution. They will do anything to make this go away. PLP would rather slander the survivor than take necessary action to address the problem that one of their members has committed sexual assault. Their response is class reductionism at its worst. It is being deployed here to protect the privileges of men and cloak rape apologism and victim blaming in the false armor of bogus class struggle heroics. It is our duty to recognize and take action when those that call themselves revolutionaries perpetuate the forms of oppression that keep the working class divided. There is nothing more damaging to class struggle than denying the separate existence of other forms of oppression.

We will work to stand in solidarity with all those who experience gender-based discrimination, assaults, and other forms of victimization-- both within the “revolutionary left” and in broader society. Our stance is that the work of class struggle must be combined with struggles against all forms of oppression, without the attempt to reduce or simplify them into a hierarchy. Members of the San Diego IWW pledge to redouble our efforts of addressing patriarchal behavior throughout our union and within the broader community. We will take action to create a working sub-committee to confront patriarchy in our union, and directly address the way that our dynamics contribute to the oppression of our comrades and women everywhere.