Dear Subscribers,
I thought this would be my final post on runarchism. I am facing extreme, trumped-up criminal charges related to my participation in a protest for a free Palestine, and out of an overabundance of caution I decided to take my content offline while my case moves through the courts over the coming year or more. However, a friend and mentor advised me not to give up speaking out and writing. Doing so would give the state what it wants: to silence me and strip me of who I am. I thought I was going to take down my Substack altogether, but I’m not, so let’s call this a reboot.
While this is a frightening situation for me and my family, we are being held closely by supportive community. No matter what happens, I believe we’ll be okay. Eventually.
I remain committed to the struggle I’ve written about consistently on this platform: an end to colonialism and white supremacy everywhere, from Turtle Island to Palestine. I come to the struggle as a messy, imperfect, aspiring accomplice to resistance, trying to live into a liberated future by any means necessary, even when it costs me. And if the struggle costs me nothing, then it wouldn’t be a struggle, and I wouldn’t be free of the shackles of privilege that keep me separate and apart from community and land.
I am struggling to make meaning of this recent arrest. It was traumatic, as it was meant to be. They came for me in my home. Part of me wants to imagine myself as a victim of political repression, but I’m not the perfect victim that respectability politics would want me to be. Part of me feels the stigma of the charges, as politically inflated and trumped-up as they are, and can relate to the stigma of the criminalized everywhere. I exist in the gray. It is a reminder that the political context of my situation does not make me “better” than any other person caught in the system. But the truth is, the stigma is a lie. It is repression. It is oppression, and that is true no matter what I did, no matter what the allegations are, no matter who it happens to. Getting arrested shouldn’t happen to anyone, ever.
Now that I am personally ensnared by the full weight of the criminal legal system, I have more of a stake than ever in its total abolition. Dismantling the cops and courts and prisons is a personal, existential fight for me and my family. Whoever you are, wherever you are, I hope you will join the fight. The so-called USA has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and the system particularly targets Black, Indigenous, queer, disabled, and poor folks who have a lot fewer resources, a lot less support, than I do. While the genocidal system seems bent on burying me, I am coming to the fight with more privilege.
Even so, between bail and legal expenses, our financial cushion has been wiped out. We are raising money to afford my legal defense, and thankfully we are approaching the amount needed for now. So instead of making an appeal to you to support me, I’ll appeal to you to give to your local bail fund or legal defense fund. And if your town is like mine and you don’t have one, create one. My crew is dreaming that up right now. We need more infrastructure in our communities to protect each other when the state comes for us, so take a look around your community and ask whether everyone there is getting the support they need. Then give it to them, regardless of their so-called respectability or the veracity of the charges they face. And please write to prisoners.
I am inspired by the masses of students rising up in a global intifada at this moment of history, keeping each other safe through collective risk-taking and collective care, imagining bright futures only we can create ourselves. I hope all of you who are reading this are paying attention to the ways the students honor the martyrs of the Palestinian resistance, making principled stands against settler colonialism and the police, putting everything on the line. I’ve been sharing ideas here, but the students who follow in the footsteps of the resistance are leading by example.
With love and resistance,
Eric
Eric, I'm grateful you aren't allowing them to silence you. Durham does have a community bail fund, coordinated by my friend Muffin, and we give to it regularly, especially this week for Mom's Bailout Day. Sending love to you and your family, with thankfulness for your leadership and prayers for your safety.
"And if the struggle costs me nothing, then it wouldn’t be a struggle, and I wouldn’t be free of the shackles of privilege that keep me separate and apart from community and land." Goosebumps here!
Your voice matters. A lot. It matters so much they've arrested you and vilified you. But your refusal to be silenced says it all and by refusing it, you're committing yourself to community, to something far bigger than yourself.
You will prevail. We will prevail. Liberation will prevail.