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Senia Barragan's I.W.W. Coup d' Twat
                                                                                                         by
                                                                                                           


............Senia Barragan undergoing metamorphosis...

Trying to cash in on her brown skin and vagina, activist Senia Barragan attempted a coup in the Providence IWW, a crypto-communist organization run by college students.  Barragan is a Brown University student (Class '08).  The coup attempt on 12/5/07 was cosigned by Gina Rodriguez, Dara Bayer, Julian Drix, Eric Larson, Emily Bray, Mark Bray, and Mike da Cruz.  In a manner similar to the tirades of Kelly Lenora Lee of Harvard SLAM, or Sofia Jarrin-Thomas of Boston Indymedia Center, Barragan launched an hysterical attack against fellow members of Providence IWW, trying to shake the organization down for more recognition and more power.  The attack on December 5 was the second part of an original attack on September 9, in which Senia, the two Brays and Mike and Mark were the original conspirators.

The coup letter is addressed to the entire Northeast section of the IWW, illustrating that it was a fame bid and power move by Barragan.  The tactic is to accuse one's local communist organization of various biases and then tattle to the regional collective.  Barragan attacks the targets Rob Hill and Jason Friedmutter, whom she identifies as "heterosexual white male[s] of a middle-class New York Jewish background" e.g. your typical communist activist, and proceeds to elaborate upon how they offended her as a "queer Latina woman born of poor uneducated immigrants who spent years on welfare."  In other words, she invokes her esoteric racial and gender privilege in Protesterland to "defend" herself against the "grave" charge that she is a Latin American Princess from a snooty college.

Emily, Mike, and Mark signed the original manifesto after Rob and Jason failed to show sufficient self-abasement during sessions where Barragan reiterated the totalitarian diktat that "white men need to shut the fuck up, listen (really listen), and admit that maybe, just maybe, they have a little soul-searching to do about the oppressive tendencies that they have been socialized into since birth by this hierarchical society."  This is the kind of mandatory self-abasement and totalitarian abuses of critical analysis that I address in my review of the book From Dylan to Donne.  No one can argue that "shut the fuck up, listen to me and admit that you and your whole civilization are wrong wrong wrong" is anything but a collegiate totalitarian line of reasoning.  A propos that it is from a Brown University communist organization. 

Barragan was specifically incensed that Hill and Friedmutter had apologized.  She then had to resurrect the animosity by pulling in her three co-conspirators and attacking the pair again for being not apologetic enough, and for being passive aggressive; as if the coup or the organization itself were not themselves passive aggressive.  Jason, a Jew accused of racial and gender bias, opted to shift the argument away from race and gender, saying he "sees people as people first, and as women or people of color second."  One imagines that being a communist he also believes injustice is about class, not race.  The race and the gender of the accuser are typically used to attack members of the outgroup, but when the same charges are levied against members of the ingroup, it is not permitted.  Hill and Friedmutter were thus backed into the corner unable to form the more robust counterattack on Barragan that she is in fact a professional female chauvinist and latina racist communist.  She further pussywhips Rob Hill because, in typical male response, he went silent while Barragan went into hysterical fits of rage.  Doubtless she would have preferred if he were provoked to violence and slapped her around a bit.  Doubtless? Very well: she knew he was unable to commit an act of violence and thus took the opportunity to further humiliate him, berate him, and then chastise him for not responding angrily and violently.  Thus did she behave as a typical domineering sexist to a castrated "male" "activist" and play one of the few pathetic power cards available within these types of organizations.

Jason Friedmutter was a little more "violent" with Barragan.  He "threw his hands up in the air" when Barragan donned the mantle of "500 years of Indigenous Oppression."  But Barragan was not intimidated by this gross display of manliness.  It is really hard to scare a 500 year old woman.  She and her conspirators proclaimed: "the perspective of not seeing people fundamentally as composed of their gender/race is simply a psychological impossibility!" Thus they invoked Perspectivism and replaced Jewish Boasianism with good old fashioned Comte de Gobineau scientific racism. They did however choose to keep the paradigm of "psychology."  It is likely that it took all four of the conspirators to come up with this intellectual argument.  Between them they invoked female supremacy, rejected the claim that "women of color need to figure out their [own] bullshit" and mandated that Jason and Rob are officially responsible for figuring out that very same bullshit for them while also "shutting the fuck up."  It is clear by this that Jason and Rob are the designated hypes of the organization.

The Barragan coup assumed the same form as the Boston Indymedia Coup of 2006.  In the first letter, Barragan & Co. "resign from the Providence IWW, but not the IWW overall" e.g. they fake their resignation under the guise of organizational and social criticism.  By December 5th, they are of course still in the organization continuing the largely theatrical "resignation."  Barragan alternately claims to have founded the Providence IWW and to have resigned under oppressive racist, sexist circumstances.  This is identical to the Sofia Jarrin-Thomas "resignation" and to Kelly Lenora Lee's "Unspoken Thing Collective" tirades.  A latina girl claims to have founded civilization, points to her stinking lesbian vagina a few times as proof, accuses everybody of everything under the sun, fake walks out the door, and then Waits for Godot.  Let's not forget that Barragan claims that she (as the spokeswoman for all people of color) is "not asking to be held to a lower standard."  If not, then what is the height of this particular standard?  I am perplexed.

True to the Fundamentalist Neanderthalism of collectivism, the coup "masterminds" encourage the shunning of certain members, the social uncleanliness of the Providence IWW local, and a general boycott of the organization which, amusingly could not but have resulted from the collective activity of its founders.  Like the fake resignation, the coup members laud their own decision not to send the manifesto out over the listserv, as they send the manifesto out over the listserv!  This is nothing but a psycho power move meant to escape the necessarily idiot-bounded local collective and become famous to the idiot-bounded regional collective.  If there were a functional international collective, the coup conspirators would have to reenact this passion play at the national level.

Barragan insists that her intellectual opponents within this dismally lame organization must follow these self-brainwashing guidelines:  If a "woman" accuses you of "patriarchy" you must immediately respond with physical cues that indicate to her that you are listening with feeling.  You may neither defend yourself nor shut off your emotions.  (e.g. you must allow her to fluff you into a rage and berate you more until she is tired of it, or until she is appointed head minister of the organization).  You must accept blame. You must make restitution.  You must apologize.  You must assume a womanly comportment.  You must put on an act of subservience later on so that you don't get targetted again.  You must become a feminist and attack other "men" as if you too were a woman.  You must react like a woman if a man says something about a woman.  You must shun your friends if they are not responsive to your passive aggressive attacks on their personality.

This of course explains how Barragan found the first four people to join her coup, not to mention that they are "old boys."  The other four who signed on to the manifesto in December did so because they believed the coup was winning, and that the designated shunning and excommunication blacklist victims were well identified and closed.  Mike Borucke and Brian Conley did this for Jarrin-Thomas in Boston during the Indymedia Coup d' Twat after Williams and Stidman made the blacklist. This should of course be viewed as a splintering of the Providence IWW local and a prelude to its reformulation under Barragan, the Brays, and da Cruz' dictatorship, with Rodriguez, Bayer, Drix and Larson as subservient or reserve members.  It is also important to note that the IWW is not a particular union of any particular thing.  Barragan & Co. are not industrialists, nor are they united in any meaningful or nondestructive way.  They are merely screaming art-punks recreating a 20th century Communist organization because they have nothing better to do, and no better way to promote their bands.  Thus is the Providence IWW exactly like the Allston IWW with Jake Carman.

Now for the network:  Providence IWW overlaps Providence SDS.  Barragan is the Brown New SDS Organizer.  Left Schachtmanites Paul Buhle, Mark Rudd et. al and now Barragan are attempting to capitalize on the "divisions in society unknown since the 1960s" (Buhle, The US and the 21st Century) thanks to the Right Schachtmanite Neocon's alienation of American civilization.  While organizations like the Providence IWW are largely insignificant, old school activists are happy to collect their tiny values as micropayments in their renewed attempt to socialize the US in wartime.  Ronald Radosh testifies in his book Commies as to how folk-rockers, bohemian radicals, and art-punks play into the general mission of keeping zombie marxism alive.  Paul Buhle elaborates extensively on the value of the IWW mainly as using stupid folk songs (i.e. Evan Greer) to intice people to people to abolish all the political offices of a modern state and hand the levers of power to a bunch of assholes from New York.  There are no shortage of these willing music dopes in New England; in fact they are churned out of the local prep schools.

But I don't want to bore you with the brainy details.  Ultimately the actions of Barragan and the IWW are almost wholly characterized by the buffoonery presented in the early part of this article.  But here is some insight into her attempted coup of IWW. Barragan says:  "“SDS’ relationship with MDS could be really something that is very beautiful, and functioning and radical. We’ve got to put our shit away. Move on. New era, new generation. Let’s make this happen.”  In other words, take over Northeast IWW, gain fame, integrate power moves with the SDS/MDS merger.  In October 20, 2007, Barragan lectured at The Watson Institute on behalf of the Columbians in opposition to the Free Trade Agreement.  Contrast this austere performance with the vaginal coup d' etat she tried to pull off as described above and indicated in her original letter republished at the end of this article.  She is in fact on the board of directors of the MDS alongside David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky, David Graeber, Tom Hayden, Mark Rudd and Howard Zinn!  Contrast this again with the antics listed above and the letter included below.

No one says these antics are not funny!  In 2004, Barragan, Bayer and Rodriguez pitted their Latina racism against the Jewish racism of ZOA member Mort Klein, in which they were particularly offended by his views against illegal immigration but little else.  This puts another slant on Barragan & Co since they "awaited an apology" from Klein in the Brown Daily Herald and again "awaited an apology" from fellow IWW members, Hill and Friedmutter.  Bayer and Rodriguez are reservist signatories from Brown, called in when more people are needed to "await an apology."   While they "await," they hold MDS/SDS unity conferences advertised on the NY Socialist Party (SPUSA) website and on the Utah Econ Marxism listserv, a humorous place where Haters Magazine was cited as an example of how the US allows people too much intellectual freedom.

The opponents of intellectual freedom, the advocates of craven secrecy and crypto-marxism in band promotion can largely be described as Anarcho-Communist Punk Rockers, AK Press, Infoshop, IWW, NEFAC, and Indymedia.  A lot of these slobs have been the incidental casualties of my own band promotion, as Boston and New England seem predisposed to fostering these other types of musicians.  Haters Magazine is really an experiment in shoving these other types aside and making room for individual, non-collectivized talents, capitalizing on the other types' anger, humiliating them, and using them as advertisement.  This is not any more particularly atrocious than the way they are used and allow themselves to be used by Leftover New Leftists, political partisans, and university professors.  Barragan was selected for use this week because of her outstanding coup attempt and the generalized mockery she made of herself. 

Haters Magazine has previously driven Boston Indymedia, Boston Animal Defense League, and BAAM membership underground.  Last month I pulled NYCIMC / NY-SDS Jed Brandt and Daniel Tasripin above ground because they were using their underground status to manipulate Wikipedia against Haters Magazine.  I taunted Daniel Tasripin over his art-school seminar / SDS convention meetings whereupon he boasted that people who defy the SDS party line get "their ass scratched off the floor."  Nobody has ever tried that on me.  Lest you think I give a crap about Jason Friedmutter, I don't. I was amused when Bray, Friedmutter, Alexandra Svoboda and friends tried in August to drive Jacky's Galaxie asian restaurant out of business and start a brawl with the police, only to end up photodocumenting getting their own legs broken on Indymedia.  They should have put the video on YouTube. It would have been hilarious!  They really go all out to promote their organization.  Now they can promote mine!
____________________________________________________________________


The Letters:

[providencesds] Providence IWW, Failure to Publicly Acknowledge White/Male Privilege

Wed, Dec 5, 2007

To: providenceanarchists@lists.riseup.net, providencesds@lists.riseup.net, newobs@lists.iww.org

Dear friends,

I realize that this email may not be of personal interest to some, but it is relevant to others. Take it or not; I hope that it may be of some educational value to most of you (especially Wobs throughout the northeast).

On Sept. 9th, I issued a statement [included in full below] condemning the failure of two members of the Providence IWW to confront their white privilege and male privilege when I raised concerns about race and gender within the organization.   Since this letter I received apologies from the two men involved, one, Rob, acknowledged that as a white male he cannot really see racial and gender oppression [and he deserves praise for this development], while the other, Jason, merely apologized for "hurting my feelings" without really acknowledging the underlying ignorance. He went so far as to characterize the timing of my concerns (following the police brutality rally) as "selfish."

But the letter also criticized the branch as a whole, many members of which remained silent on these issues with the intent of neutrality given that they live together, and taking a stand would be quite the inconvenience. Others even agreed with my concerns in private but pressured me to be patient and wait as these white men work out their prejudices according to their own schedules.

Since these events, the Providence IWW has denied my request for a public apology and admission of wrongdoing. Their reason is that the conflict was only a "personal misunderstanding," as if the conflict between an individual worker and her boss is only a "personal misunderstanding." Let the worker and the boss come to an amicable agreement, why intervene?

The reason we have a union is because these are systemic problems. The exploitation of one worker is part of the greater system of exploitation. Likewise every time a white person, or a man, or especially a white man, mistreats a woman of color and fails to recognize the implicit dynamics of power and oppression that characterize our society, and his role within it, they are participating in systems of oppression.

Another reason for the lack of apology, which is so comical as to be absurd, is that, there are now a few new members, and why should they apologize if they weren't in the union at the time? If they would rather be associated with the stigma of upholding racist and sexist actions within the group than be associated with the public condemnation of such behaviors, then the Providence union is doing well to recruit with ideological consistency!

Moreover, the group intends to hold sensitivity workshops and Spanish language classes. If they acted appropriately in my case, what could have prompted these changes? The branch has endorsed the Western Union boycott protest on Saturday in part to reach out to the Latino community (they even included the word 'companero' in their announcement for authenticity). If you have the time, attend this important protest, and, while you're there, ask them why they won't make a public acknowledgment and take a public stand against the admitted racism and sexism plaguing their organization.

 

Lastly, a number white men in the group have pleaded with me to stay silent about race and gender, to keep my criticisms within the organization (which is exclusively white and largely male) in order to preserve the IWW's reputation. Several people went so far as to demand that I apologize for publicly criticizing them...although they admitted that I was right in my criticism. Yet if the IWW, in providence or elsewhere, cannot deal with these problems, publicly when necessary, and instead pressures women and people of color into silence, then why bother?


Senia Barragan, IWW 620



In solidarity: Gina Rodriguez, Emily Bray, Dara Bayer, Mike DaCruz, Mark Bray, Julian Drix, and Eric Larson IWW 620, ISC Delegate


 PS. a thought-provoking and relevant quote from MLK who criticized the white moderate "who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

____________________________________________________________
(Letter from September 9th)

From: Senia, Emily, Mike, and Mark
 
"i hate being in a room where we're made to feel like everybody has an equal voice."

---bell hooks

 

When, in the course of a conversation attempting to address concerns about race and gender oppression, a heterosexual white male of a middle-class New York Jewish background accuses a queer Latina woman born of poor uneducated immigrants who spent years on welfare, of being privileged for having overcome centuries of oppression to be the first in her family to gain a college education, it is apparent that there is a grave problem.

 

Over the course of two internal meetings in the past two weeks Senia Barragan, IWW member, branch co-founder, and ( gasp!) Brown University student, raised concerns to the group that she was being saddled with a disproportionate amount of grunt work and receiving a disproportionate amount of condescending criticism. Given the fact that at the time she was the only active woman, and the only active person of color in the branch, these concerns were very important to address for the future growth of the Providence union.

 

As with many issues in life, the question is often more important than the answer. And so it was with this in mind that concerns about internal gender dynamics were brought up to kick off a vibrant, introspective conversation. The point was not that Senia is necessarily correct, but rather that her concerns are serious enough to be met with sincere empathy and self-reflection on the part of our almost exclusively white male organization.

 

We are sad to report that on two separate occasions Jason Friedmutter and Rob Hill responded to her comments with aggressive (or passive-aggressive, depending on the situation) denial. Denial not only of Senia's specific complaints, but of the very insinuation that a white-male, revolutionary organization could have ANY nagging issues about coming to terms with its overwhelming societal privilege, even among 'comrades.'

 

The fact of the matter is that when the only woman of color in a white male group raises concerns about gender inequality, white men need to shut the fuck up, listen ( really listen), and admit that maybe, just maybe, they have a little soul-searching to do about the oppressive tendencies that they have been socialized into since birth by this hierarchical society.

 

And it could be possible that after such a reflection it could be found that Jason, Rob, and other members of the branch were in no way at fault, and that Senia was wrong. But that process was blocked, and that is the real problem, and the true indicator of systemic ignorance.

 

The argument that Jason expressed to prove his lack of sexism, and to discredit a conversation about sexism, was that he "sees people as people first, and as women or people of color second" etc. Essentially he argues, and presumably Rob does too since he remained silent throughout much of the meeting, that the way to combat racism and sexism is to act as though those social constructs are already transcended by essentially "treating people equally" and therefore ignoring the complex ways in which these social constructs do real harm to the majority of the human population.

 

To do otherwise, he argues, is to be the 'real racist/sexist' and to hold women and people of color to a "lower standard" by considering them to be different. Presumably, Jason misses the parallel between his argument and those of conservatives who fight against affirmative action.

 

His remarks seem to echo the following "intellectuals such as Stephen and Abigail Thernstrom (America in Black and White: One Nation Indivisible , 1997), and Shelby Steele (A Dream Deferred, 1999), who assert that discrimination is old news. Consisting mostly, but not entirely, of conservatives, this group says the country needs to transcend race by acknowledging the progress made over the past several decades. Race-conscious policies, they argue, only stir up resentment among whites while also promoting a lack of ambition among people of color by holding them to a lower standard."

 

People of color are not asking to be held to a lower standard.

 

It was outrageous for Jason to throw his hands up in the air in frustration when the 500 years of indigenous oppression was referenced to explain the concerns of a Latina woman.

 

First, the perspective of not seeing people fundamentally as composed of their gender/race is simply a psychological impossibility. Next, this interpretation ignores the dominant understanding that radical women and people of color have about how systems of oppression operate. You cannot say to a woman of color that her concerns of gender and racial oppression are "too theoretical," "boxes," "beyond my level of understanding"; in fact, they are very real, living, breathing experiences. It is not for white men to explain to women of color how race/gender should be understood. It is not up to women of color to, as Jason phrased it, "figure out their bullshit," but rather up to white men to develop a thorough understanding of their societal privilege.

 

It is with great sadness that we therefore resign from the Providence IWW, but not the IWW overall. Currently the Providence IWW branch is complicit in the whitewashing of gender oppression and, at the very least, needs to spend some time considering white privilege. Furthermore this is not just a localized problem, it is a problem in society in general. While our critiques are mainly directed against Rob and Jason, those who fail to condemn their actions are guilty of putting personal friendship and commitment to a cliquish house over principles of anti-sexism and anti-racism. Since Friday night's meeting, we are discouraging potential members from joining the Providence IWW branch and encouraging current members to confront this problem. Despite our objections to the Providence branch, we decided not to send this e-mail out over the listserv because we did not want it to be construed as an attack against the IWW in general.

 

We are still supportive of the overall IWW, and intend to support other branches as best we can until the day comes when we can participate in a local branch again.

 

Unless Jason and Rob make a concerted effort to confront their white-male privilege or cease their participation in the union, then the Providence Branch can only be considered a blight upon the IWW.

 

Senia, Emily, Mike, Mark

 

p.s. here are some helpful essays, zines, and questionnaires on white privilege and male privilege in addition to some specifically male anarchist misogynist questions below:

 

White Privilege: http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/emc598ge/Unpacking.html

Male Privilege: http://colours.mahost.org/org/maleprivilege.html

 

From "Are you a Manarchist? Questionnaire"

 

If a woman discusses with you or calls you out on your patriarchy, do you make an effort to be emotionally present? Listen? Not emotionally shut down? Not get defensive? Think about what she said? Admit you fucked up? Take responsibility/make reparations for the mistakes you made? Discuss your feelings and ideas with her? Apologize? Work harder on your own shit to make sure that you don't make the same mistakes again with her or other women?

 

Do you talk to other men about patriarchy and your part in it?

 

Do you take on sexism and patriarchy as a personal struggle working to fight against it in yourself, in your relationships, in society, work, culture, subcultures, and institutions?

 

Do you say anything when other men make sexist or patriarchal comments? Do you help your patriarchal and sexist friends to make change and help educate them? Or do you continue friendships with patriarchal and sexist men and act like there is no problem?

 

 

Said the pot to the Kettle, feminist theory for anarchist men: http://www.tangledwilderness.org/pdfs/saidthepottothekettle-letter.pdf

Going Places that Scare Me: Personal Reflections On Challenging Male Supremacy:
http://colours.mahost.org/articles/crass15.html

Taking The First Step: Suggestions To People Called Out For Abusive Behavior:
http://www.soaw.org/article .php?id=613

Challenging patriarchy in political organizing:
http://colours.mahost.org/org/walia.html