Portland Anarchist Bookfair Schedule and List of Vendors Announced!

i'm attending, and I'm really hoping what I've heard about Jeff Monson speaking isn't true. Jeff was responsible for patriarchal intimidation and domestic violence two years ago and, instead of taking responsibility for his actions, blamed COINTELPRO rumors. This is not someone who needs more of a platform.

Jeff Monson WILL NOT be appearing at the bookfair.
 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Portland-Anarchist-Bookfair/112736552148147

I fail to understand why Jeff Monson was uninvited.

To preempt a shitstorm coming my way, I want to say a few things first:

Domestic violence is unacceptable. One partner physically abusing another is unacceptable. In the radical community or anywhere else. Whether the partner or the victim is male, female, trans or anything else does not make a difference. It is always unacceptable.

Further, domestic violence is not limited to direct physical force. Threats of violence, condescending comments, bullying etc. are also a key part of domestic abuse patterns.

Finally, I believe that when one person in a relationship accuses another of abuse, they have a right to be heard and believed. People do not make these allegations lightly, unlike what certain dominant discourses would like us to believe.

However:

In adult romantic relationships, people get hurt. When relationships end badly, people are likely to shout profanities at each other, decry the other's personal traits and habits, badmouth the former partner and, regrettably engage in physical violence.

I believe that the last item on this list falls in the category of clearly unacceptable behavior. However, the former ones are simply part of people fighting. Ugly as such scenes may be, they do not necessarily mean there is a fucked up power dynamic at play, or even that there is a clear winner / loser, let alone victim or abuser.

Thus after a cursory search for Jeff Monson's alleged domestic abuse, I would like to share the single source I have found that extensively cites the alleged victim's interpretation of events (based on my statement of believing victims).

 http://www.cagepotato.com/jeff-monson-arrested-not-graffiti/

Please ignore the dismissive tone of the author with regard to the serious manner at hand. However, please do pay attention to Stephanie Trapani's statement in which she openly admits to throwing Monson's phone out of a moving vehicle. Upon finding this out, Monson smashed Trapani's laptop. So far so bad. Sounds like an ugly breakup. However I do not see the power dynamic in this situation being one that is excessively unbalanced. Two former lovers got mad at each other and broke each other's shit. No threats of violence were made, no actual violence inflicted. Is this then domestic violence?

The aftermath:

According to this article ( http://profightnetwork.com/jeff-monson%E2%80%99s-domestic-violence-charge-dismissed/) Monson was cleared of the domestic violence charge. I am not one to blindly believe what courts decree. I have more sense than that. However it does appear that for once the court system has correctly identified the situation (broken watch being right I guess).

Anyway, just my two cents. Hope I do not get chewed out needlessly. If people want to argue, I am more than happy to have a reasonable discussion and will consistently use the same moniker. I am not the enemy, just a critical voice.

Why is he being denied the space to teach a workshop if there is actually no domestic violence incident that happened? And, even if there was, is barring someone from our scene the best way of dealing with it? Does that mean we now have a one strike and you're out policy?

It sounds like the over enthusiastic crowd that are very happy to hunt about for anything that could be considered racist/sexist/homophobic/insert your choice of oppression here/etc.. It's like game of point scoring pseudo-radicalism, pointing fingers at anyone that doesn't fit the perfect sub-cultural image you have of yourselves, and it's leftist youth identity politics at it's worst, and shouting loudest over imagined things just over-shadows the real horrors that happen in both our scene and society at large.