Last week, a group of youngish people took over the offices of Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE) demanding money for their involvement in the Ferguson uprising.
An existing bank account previously was activated to fundraise for Ferguson work with MORE and the Organization for Black Struggle (OBS) as the account stewards. The funds were to cover particular expenses emerging from the work, such as supplies, food, equipment, travel, etc. The occupation on May 14 resulted in checks being written to 17 people at $2,750 each, totaling nearly $50,000. The shake-down pretty much cleaned out a bank account designed to support movement activities.
I am consciously choosing to focus on the behaviors of these individuals so that our fragile movement can draw important lessons from the situation. As has been asked of all the stakeholders in the Ferguson work, they must be held accountable for their actions. They must show how the monies they received, designated for movement building, was used for organizing people to act and to build community programs.
It was an error in judgment for the heads of OBS and MORE to write checks to a few individuals under these circumstances. There is no rationale as to why this group was entitled to the monies over the thousands of people who have been a part of the Ferguson movement. I don’t believe this was good stewardship of community resources. I would say this even if I was not a signatory on the bank account (which I was).
The movement for social, political and economic justice is not for sale or trade. People have dedicated their lives to the struggle – getting old without pensions and dying without healthcare. Getting paid in dollars or recognition cannot be the motivating factors as to why people are in these democratic spaces.
The movement for social justice is built upon the work and sacrifice of many before us; we stand on their shoulders as part of that continuum of struggle. As a long-time organizer, I know our movements attracts both hustlers and serious people. The majority of participants fit into the latter category, but if our movement is to grow and become more sophisticated, we must find ways of quickly ferreting out those who compromise or attempt to destroy the spirit, integrity and progress of our collective agenda.
Our movement has not been consistent or forthcoming in exposing immoral, unethical or apolitical behaviors in our midst and addressing them in a proactive and unifying way. This leaves room for provocateur actions where negative setbacks are the same, whether they are unwitting or deliberate.
And what of redemption? When wrongdoing and harm has been acknowledged by those in our movement, there’s rarely a healing process that takes into full account both accountability and personal salvation. Restorative justice has a vital place in our movement, not just in the corrupt courts system.
The movement must recognize these issues, lay out remedies and move toward solutions; it cannot be held hostage to the incident or its fallout. It is critical that we understand that the way we resolve issues among each other is very different from how we deal with the white, racist power structure. This seems like a no-brainer, but when incidents like #cutthecheck happen, we are forced to realize that there’s more internal education that has to been done.
Our bigger challenges are to organize people and resources to take on the systems of oppression and exploitation that continue to put a chokehold on the working class. Such goals demand that we gold each other and our organizations accountable to the movement. Â
