7 years ago...

The central problem of radical movement is that people are imperfect. A radical political activist can have a dark past as a fraudster or abuser or just plain madman. Idealistic approach makes people blind to the fact, that nobody is born a moral and fully aware anarchist -- we mostly have a history of our own struggle before we joined the movement. And this history sometimes is not pretty. At all.

Thus, any community should design and implement mechanisms to deal with this problem. It is a danger on moral and tactical level, whether we talk about a prominent founder of US countrywide network or a purser of local affinity group. Interesting, what would be your suggestions, folks. How to approach the problem?

Yes, we can go the way that we just sift out the bad seeds.

Or the way that the higher cause means automatic redemption.

But perhaps we can design a way of interactions within a radical collective that helps people to deal with their past in a moral way _and_ to strengthen the collective at the same time?

Today, we know that there are tools to help us:
#RestorativeJustice #SocialPermaculture (and perhaps, extending the metaphor, #SocialRemediation?).

There IS an alternative to #cancelling.

Further remark from N., my late partner:

If we are talking about unacceptable practices from the past, she says, we have to be sure whether they stopped when a person changed their life in a positive way, or whether they continue. The former case may mean that the reason behind misbehaviour was the lack of constructive way to direct one's energy. The latter may mean that there are deeper, even genetic, reasons.