# The Unsafe Space Policy



## VomitIsJustSkimMilk (Oct 12, 2012)

Comrades, I've been mulling an idea around with one of my comrades because of fundamental holes that we've seen in a lot of PC Anarchist cultures/collectives.

A safer space policy dedicated to non-violence is very hard to enforce and depends on those in the house/squat to step up when someone is out of line. Usually friends and allies get more leeway than newcomers. This is fundamentally hierarchical and wrong.

The Unsafe Space Policy goes a little like this:

1. We can't stop anything that comes out of your mouth.
2. We don't like racist, queerphobic or bigoted speech/action.
3. We will beat the shit out of you if we hear it.


No leeway, or remorse. We can't build a fair society by picking favorites.

***

What do ya'll think?


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## Deleted member 125 (Oct 12, 2012)

i dont tolerate that kind of shit and will stand up against it anyday, if it takes a fist then thats that. ide rather get in a fight and later explain myself to people around me (if need be) then have meetings for 10 weeks after about how to not have that happen again. that being said theres been times when me and friends are around other people (i wouldnt call them pc anarchists, ide call them fucking idiots) and were threatened for doing things they thought of as oppressive (like having a smoke, or drinking a beer and talking to a female at the same time, because everyone knows ALCOHOL MAKES MEN VIOLENT AND RAPE)

when anarchists cant govern themselves its just a bunch of monkeys trying to fuck a football. but again, its harder to get people to just act fucking decent to one another without the threat of a broken nose sometimes.

violence is a important part of anarchism's history, and as soon as people get afraid to stand up to somebody whos hurting them in some way, they might as well go back to college and study about a movement they know nothing about.


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## Kim Chee (Oct 12, 2012)

Have you considered showing people the door when they misbehave? Maybe they can come back later sometime after cooling off or maybe receive a permanent ban. Some people are ok with getting their asses whipped if they can still "belong". 

It's an old bouncer trick and it really works. You don't have to lower yourself to violence to drag a piece of shit out of the house.


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## Earth (Oct 12, 2012)

Tolerance does not equal acceptance.
Lately, I just light people up who don't get it, solves the problem almost instantaneously before affairs get severely out of hand...


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## kokomojoe (Oct 12, 2012)

I get what you're saying. Everyone should treat others equally as long those people do the same. Just because someone doesn't have the same view as you doesn't mean you have to oppress their views through violence. If you come across someone and you guys don't see eye to eye, you can either tolerate it or move on. Easiest solution, don't hang around people that you know will cause conflict.


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## NM Black Cross Medic (Oct 13, 2012)

I think the policy of "auto-shit kicking" to oppressive language sounds a lot like the state's "justice" system. Even the most conscious person sometimes slips. Call them out on it immediately. If they understand and apologize, let the offended party decide if it was enough (in my experience, they'll usually forgive in a first-offense). For Chronic cases of oppressive language (not fascists, just those who don't know what they're saying), hold an anti-oppression training, corny, but it works. If they don't want to go to the training, they won't be welcome.

As always, if a Racist, Sexist, Classist, Homophobe or Transphobe comes to the door, kick the shit out of them. Do it outside so you don't get blood in your squat.


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## Alex the Weaver (Oct 13, 2012)

Different situation call for different actions, but I was comitted to non-violence as a tactic for ten years in the Catholic Worker Movement which I left a little over a year ago For The Last Time and lazily regret never punching out certain people...


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## plagueship (Jan 4, 2013)

beating people up will only teach them not to hang out with anyone who might oppose their sexism/racism/etc. it might make you feel good, but all you're doing is making it someone else's problem. a lot of people say ignorant shit because of how they were raised and conditioned, and being in the punk/radical/etc scene could be an opportunity for them to learn better. of course this shit shouldn't go unopposed, but it really ought to depend on the specific situation, and obviously there are options between total inaction and merciless ultra-violence. it sounds like you're trying to find a way to feel morally righteous about ganging up on and hurting people you don't like, which not only doesn't solve the problem but replicates it in a mirror image (groupthink + bullying as the basic blueprint of the kind of oppressive social conditions you are supposedly against). positive social change will not come about through terrorizing and brutalizing people, and if you think so you're thinking like a cop.


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## thapoet (Jan 4, 2013)

Bottom Line, if I am willing to destroy the government for infringing upon my rights to speak my feelings, thoughts, and ideologies, then I will destroy any anarchist who tries to do it as well... ANYONE who limits my freedom when I have spent my whole life fighting for theirs can kiss my white ass... When will people realize that for one person to have a voice, ALL must have a voice... So maybe I don't like the thought or the people that incorporate the practice of homosexuality... I have have a right to speak against it, but I do not have a right to stop them from speaking against me... (replace homosexuality with anything, doesn't matter what topic it is)... Try to stop me, in the name of anarchy??? well then, you are exactly the same as the fascists, the commies, the socialists, the liberals, the republicans, and the monarchies... freedom requires no ones permission, and allows equality even through indifference... The modern day anarchist movement forgets what they are fighting for... anarchy is sovereignty... of ALL... not just those who agree with you... I will speak, because I can.. I will live, as I choose... I will fight, for what I want... I will die, a free man....


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## thapoet (Jan 4, 2013)

"No leeway, or remorse. We can't build a fair society by picking favorites" 


by beating the shit outta people who "offend" you or disagree with you, aren't you picking favorites???


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## Johnny P (Jan 4, 2013)

This sounds just as oppressive as the society you say you are against.


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## wokofshame (Jan 5, 2013)

retarded original post. Plus "#3- beating the shit out of them" means ten veganically anorexic skinny little housepunks piling onto one traveller who slipped and said "nigger".
Ten on one is not a fair fight and fuck people who think that shit is justified. I can take down two skinny little motherfuckers, and yes, I don't always speak politically correct.
I'll go back to eating borscht and living in Siberia, "Comrade"


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## thapoet (Jan 5, 2013)

well put MURT.... very well put! couldnt agree more... i don't understand people that claim to be anarchist yet obviously don't understand the "rules" of having no rules.... oppress others in the name of fighting oppression...lmfao!


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## Johnny P (Jan 6, 2013)

I think PC anarchists are just like fascists. Do say this. Don't do this. It's assholes like this that deter me from most punk houses. Ya I eat meat, drink, whisky and curse like a sailor. I definetly don't use PC language.

Funny. The people who seem most offended by the word nigger are white and have never even been called one. I dare some PC assholes to attack me cuz I slipped on some word or called a girl a chic.

Anarchism: the ideology of the petty bougouise


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## trainfinder222 (Jan 7, 2013)

What if "racism" or anyone that hold such veiwpoints actulay has a right to express there oponion?
In the Skokie Marches were Neo-Nazis petitioned to march down the then predomitaly Jewish Streets of Skokie IL the ACLU took there side and so did the courts. You have the right to hold any opnion no matter how ridculas the majority may think it is.
As for as racisim there are those who belive that Israel should be exclusily jewish and they are called Zionist while there Arab Neighboors call them racist....
Here in America people who are similer to live next to people of like ethnic and class backgrounds.
Is it reverse racism to have blacks get upset when white upper class gay men start buying houses and then fixing them up and forcing rent and property values up and thus disintrgrating the working black low income community? Seen it happen in Chicago,New York and now Detroit...
Everyone has ethnic pride as we are a nation of imagrants....However we have free speech and should feel free to critize other ethnic groups culture and behavoir that threatens ours....Like for instance the high hispanic birthrate which is unsustanible at present levals. Where do already depressed citys that have growing hispanic populations get money to expand schools? Who has the balls in public to say to the hispanic commnity that smaller familys is why causcasion and asians are more ecomicaly successfull? In reverse the conversation goes as to why arent white owned buisneses investing in the inner city?
America is not a colorless society and its bullshit to say that the way you act and think and what color you are does not matter. Each ethnic group is unique and brings its own flavor to the table and its own pschohistory with its own problems. To be a member of one ethnic group and complain about the behavoir of another that is causing conflict is a nessary part of workiong things out.
In Baltimore it has been a long standing complaint about black youths hanging out in fromt of stores and on corners making whites feel uncomfortible about shoping in such stores. When the city tried to address this via law enforcement all hell threatened to break loose. The reply that it was a long standing tradition to hold down certain street corners and that it was passed from father to son. http://www.jhsph.edu/research/cente...th-violence/field_reports/growingupbmore.html Johns Hopkins was awarded a grant to look into the issue and then educated the white community about what the culture was about and thus reducing fear. The black community also became aware of the problem thru the church worked out more alternitives for socialising then just hanging out on street corners.....
What I am saying is when someone makes what is percived as a racist statement you have to ask from what and where is that person coming from? Its been only 45 years from the race riots in the inner citys that forced whites to the burbs and kept blacks in there own guettos of semi-perminate poverty....People remember the gangs and the gurriral warfare that went between blacks,whites and Porto Ricans that terrorized each other in places like the Bronx and South Chicago and East Cleveland. Its hard to forgive what happened or who was respsible. But not talking is not the answer.


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## urbanflow (Jan 13, 2013)

i completely disagree. im buddhist by nature so i tend to try and defuse aggressive situations or at the very least shy away from conflict. im not afraid to speak my mind but, regardless of the words of others i hold them to the higher standard of actions speaking louder than words. 

if a person was deceived by the prior generations in their life, this is uncontrollable until they realize what they have become. even letting them know through violence or alienation will only get so far. telling someone their belief system is wrong when its what they grew up with will only get a momentary realization in my experiences.

i believe the best course of action is to politely but, sternly announce to the group that ignorance is unacceptable to you and that you would like it if people could hold their tongue and think about what they want to say before they say it. its a very difficult situation to be honest, there is no black and white as we all know by now. 

violence does NOTHING but, put up a wall. if you allow the ego of another to it will create a story about how the perp is a victim and the world is against him. if he still comes around he will respect out of fear, not understanding. which in my honest opinion is just as bad as being an ignorant little shit.


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## noitanicullaH (Jan 13, 2013)

*Tyranny*


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## meathook (Feb 9, 2013)




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## Kamera (Feb 9, 2013)

i used to volunteer at an infoshop and one of the other volunteers (not gay) stole my laptop so i called him a faggot and kicked his ass in front of our 'anarchist' friends and they kicked me out and now they all hate me and i cant even go to food not bombs so fuck PCness


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## Weston (Feb 9, 2013)

I'm somewhat of a lonely loner so I don't have to deal with this type of stuff often... But fuck a policy. FUCK YOUR POLICY. If someone says or does something that will negatively effect someone emotionally or physically the group collective will deal with the situation however they feel like at the moment - and this happens naturally without any "policy".

WHO will enforce your policy? Are we going to have anarchist police now?

That being said - don't fuck with people. Don't talk down on people or be violent against people who aren't an immediate threat to you. This isn't a law or policy - it's just a person who doesn't give a fuck what you think saying if I see someone picking on someone I'll fuck you up yo.

But I probably won't be there to fuck anyone up - you know why?? Because I don't know anyone and I don't have any friends or a group to hang out with anyway :-D

EDIT: I like UrbanFlow's response to the OP too... even though he is shit talking my fuck you up yo method. It isn't really about fucking anyone up really as much as taking a stand and saying I will help defend those being wrongfully blasted either diplomatically or forcefully if I feel within myself it is what I should do.


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## p4r4d0x (Mar 3, 2013)

I completely thought this thread was about how close you let someone you don't know get to before ideas of different ways to judo flip them if they try to bust a move on you starts crossing your mind.

I am disappoint.

Sorry to derail.


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## Margin Walker (Jun 24, 2014)

Thumbs down to nearly everything about this thread. Fuuuuuuck.


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## Margin Walker (Jun 24, 2014)

How about this: wherever you may be, check your privilege, check your entitlement, check your behavior and language, be conscious of power dynamics, recognize the cultural and societal context in which you/we inhabit, and put your politics into practice.

How about not perpetuating idiotic macho bullshit and marginalization of already systemically subjugated people by "letting slip" queerphobic, racist, or misogynistic (etc.) epithets? Getting this defensive about being called out or ostracized for perpetuating social inequity and oppression and fumbling through witless arguments against political correctness instead of owning up to your short-comings is ignoble.

Don't attach yourself to anarchism or punk if you're gonna pose so hard. It's embarrassing. Try to be a little more consistent.


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## Thrasymachus (Jun 24, 2014)

Most of the shit that anarchists do is about coming together as a group and being what they consider anarchists together. I hate capitalism, and the state, but I don't want to deal with anarchists as a group, because it is not useful. Could you get a non-anarchist to care about something like Anarchist News, which often has non-news about safe spaces in anarchist ghettos?
http://anarchistnews.org/
Or to listen to something like Free Radical Radio?
http://freeradicalradio.tumblr.com/

No. And I am not talking about a narrow appeal to populism. I mean that, unless you identify as an anarchist already, almost nothing anarchists do or talk about is for the most part very relevant. It is about as relevant to struggling against and understanding capitalism as belonging to the black metal scene, more or less(black metal music to me is a response to the alienation of a certain point capitalism development, a childish response with guttural vocals and brutish blast beets to reflect an equally bane contemporary existence, but a response nonetheless). And the same way that what is discussed in black metal zines is totally ignored by those outside of the subculture is the same way that the anarchist sub-culture is totally irrelevant in the world. To be an actual social movement it would have to alot more relevant, something that could actually draw non-anarchists in. Instead they seem to try as a group to repel others with their Dungeon and Dragons role-playing games full of arcane, useless rules and unhelpful stances.

This identity politics and safe-space mythology is just hilarious for everyone else. Only in the North American milieu will you hear nonsense guilt tripping about cis-gender privilege. Thus the anarchist sub-culture attracts alot of transgender people who I suspect are not really as interested in social struggle against the established order as they are about latching onto a place to promote their oddball sexual views.


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## Kim Chee (Jul 18, 2014)

I'm not saying your points don't have merit, but I am saying they are off topic OP is here:


VomitIsJustSkimMilk said:


> Comrades, I've been mulling an idea around with one of my comrades because of fundamental holes that we've seen in a lot of PC Anarchist cultures/collectives.
> A safer space policy dedicated to non-violence is very hard to enforce and depends on those in the house/squat to step up when someone is out of line. Usually friends and allies get more leeway than newcomers. This is fundamentally hierarchical and wrong.
> The Unsafe Space Policy goes a little like this:
> 1. We can't stop anything that comes out of your mouth.
> ...


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## DesertRat (Jul 19, 2014)

For too many years I (basically) ran an Unsafe Space/Squat/whateveryouwannacallit, in my parents house, for the time that I was in high school. 

We had our core group of 12-15 on a daily basis, and on party weekends/weeks the numbers often got upwards of about 100, but I knew the Lions Share of the attendees at the time. 

The rules were simple, easily followed, and enforced by everyone. If a new person showed up, they learned the ropes quick enough. Dissension was dealt with decisively and swiftly.

We all had a good time, nobody got injured beyond what a bandage or a bottle of Pepto could take care of, nothing got broken or stolen. 

We even had a cigarette box for those who ran out while there, as well as a condom box (for obvious reasons), and even a feminine hygiene box if it became necessary.

The cost? BYOB/D, Bring your own food, The House pays for nothing for and during the party.

TLR version: It's a simple, yet complex thing to operate an Unsafe Space. As long as most of the people assist in the successful operation of all phases, you're good to go. 

Good grief I miss the 80's...


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