Our DSA chapter has a misogyny problem. When we tried to speak up about it, we were silenced.
This statement shares the experience of 6 women in Olympia DSA (WA) with bullying and misogyny between 2018–2022. Those women are:
- A socialist matriarch since 1957 who describes women in early versions of the org as “the ones who brewed coffee and were objects of sexual desire” — and that not that much has changed
- A BIPOC immigrant who experienced multiple marginalizations in the chapter
- A labor leader pushed out of a leadership role
- A woman with disabilities bullied by a man who filed a false grievance against her
- Two women whose initial concerns about problematic power dynamics in the chapter have been supported
We share this publicly after making multiple requests — spanning 6 months and 2 Executive Committees — to address these issues through open discussion and education/training. Our leadership has never used the words bullying, misogyny or sexism in any official communication. We have advocated for ourselves in a chapter where our comrades have yelled at us, called us not real members/real socialists, and threatened us with censure/expulsion. Most recently, a formal complaint about Code of Conduct violations — a last attempt to address our concerns at the chapter level — has been deliberately ignored.
4 of us have been bullied by the same person. During a recent case involving that person, the National Harassment and Grievance Officer, Paula Brantner, dismissed concerns about misogyny in the Local. We have seen conflicts of interest and corruption at every level of the grievance process and cannot trust this broken system to protect us. For those reasons as well as the intense condemnation and retraumatization of women who raised these concerns, we are choosing not to file formal grievances at this time. The NHGO must be replaced and the process reformed.
More immediately, we demand that:
- Olympia DSA leadership makes a statement acknowledging that some members have identified bullying and misogyny as problems in our chapter.
- The person who bullied many of us receives anti-oppression training, ideally selected and overseen by National Socialist Feminist Working Group or other National body.
We are fundamentally opposed to any member’s suspension, expulsion or removal from leadership as a result of this statement. No action at all, however, is unacceptable.
A comrade who witnessed some of our experiences writes this: “we are taught that safety lies within a carceral system that punishes, alienates, and replicates harm. In reality, these systems actually perpetuate trauma and harm. Recognizing this, which I know many of us have, is the first step to dismantling capitalist patriarchy within ourselves. The next step is arguably much more difficult, and that is working to dismantle capitalist patriarchy within our shared spaces. This is not something that will happen overnight. It is an ongoing process of working with each other to untangle our identities and ways of relating to one another in shared spaces from the tendrils of capitalist patriarchy that threaten to strangle us otherwise.”
Thank you for joining us in this difficult & necessary work, comrades.
In solidarity,
Olympia DSA women
dsaconres@gmail.com
