Why Misogynists Make Great Informants: How Gender Violence on the Left Enables State Violence in Radical Movements

by Courtney Desiree Morris

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Theory

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Alyx Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any leftist who ignores the political content of this essay does so at their own peril (or more accurately the peril of women in our organizations)

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Most of those guys probably weren’t informants. Which is a pity because it means they are not getting paid a dime for all the destructive work they do. We might think of these misogynists as inadvertent agents of the state. Regardless of whether they are actually informants or not, the work that they do supports the state’s ongoing campaign of terror against social movements and the people who create them. When queer organizers are humiliated and their political struggles sidelined, that is part of an ongoing state project of violence against radicals. When women are knowingly given STIs, physically abused, dismissed in meetings, pushed aside, and forced out of radical organizing spaces while our allies defend known misogynists, organizers collude in the state’s efforts to destroy us."

A short doc, gets at the inseparable connection between good politics and good movement security, bad politics and bad movement security. Thus, movement security isn't about being constantly paranoid of infiltration since infiltration is basically part of the whole organizing game—it's gonna happen no matter how prepared an org or party is. What Morris gets at is that the efficacy of infiltration is a symptom of a deeper disease. Brandon Darbys and Crazy Toms will either consciously or unconsciously function as agents so long as oppressor society continues to exist. But the tells are there.

From Basic Politics of Movement Security: A Talk of Security with J. Sakai & G20 Repression & Infiltration in Toronto: An Interview with Mandy Hiscocks:

"...but bad politics covered for agents. So we don't need good politics because that makes us into super people because it doesn’t. It’s that bad politics like opportunism, patriarchy, sexism, class privilege rips up the fabric of our terrain, the area of our radical culture and it weaves instead into that terrain all their old oppressor politics, their values. At which point we’re confused, it’s all backwards. We’re alice-in-wonderland now on their side, their ground, so to speak, even though we don’t have their views."

[Rocky · Rating 4 out of 5]

“By not allowing misogyny to take root in our communities and movements, we not only protect ourselves from the efforts of the state to destroy our work but also create stronger movements that cannot be destroyed from within.”

[Starrunner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kind of wish the author used “provocateur” or some other term that isn’t informant, as a friend mentioned to be honest. I understand the connections being made between the literal State (government) and the abstract state as social hierarchies we reproduce in the day-to-day, but informant particularly implies passing on information to government agents, which wasn’t always the case.

Anyway, that’s me being nitpicky. This was a great reading.