The Opuscular Outpost

Have you experienced partner abuse/intimate partner violence within an
activist community?

Want to break the silence and change our communities forever?

The Revolution Starts At Home Collective is creating a zine to break the
long-held silence about partner abuse in activist communities. We are a
collective of Asian and South Asian activists and writers, women and
genderqueer, who believe that it’s time to create communities that are
true safe zones, where people are held accountable and those who speak up
are not further isolated, invalidated, or deemed crazy/trouble makers/
airing dirty laundry/ a drama queen/king/ taking energy away from the
“real problems.”

What have your experiences been like? Was your abusive girlfriend’s best
friend working on the DV hotline? Were you able to successfully kick an
abuser out of your group? Were you able to find a solution where
accountability didn’t mean isolation for either of you? Was your partner a
high-profile activist? Did your anti-police brutality group fear
retaliation if you went to the cops? Was the “healing circle” a bunch of
bullshit? Was the trans community so small that you didn’t want you or
your partner to lose it? We want to hear about what worked and what
didn’t, what you learned, what you wish folks had done, what you never
want to have happen again. We want to hear about folks’ experiences
confronting abusers, both by using the cops & courts and by methods
outside the criminal justice system.

Please send submissions and a short bio both attached and cut and pasted to
revolutionathome@riseup.net by July 1, 2006. Writing, poems, visual artwork,
sticker designs and stencils are welcome. Please include contact info:
name, email and print address. We promise your words will be held in
confidence. Anonymous contributions and those using a pseudonym are fine,
but please include a name we can reach you under. Both survivors and
supporters are welcome to contribute.

Peace,
The Revolution Starts At Home Collective: Ching-In Chen,
Dulani, Sham-e-Ali al-Jamil, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha