QUARREL THE COMIC
Stories of survivor self-defense and Self- Determination in a White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy.
Based on the 2015 comic in QUARREL the Zine.
This comic is originates from a zine by the Bay Area queer anti-imperialist abolitionist survivor led group QUARREL (2011-2016).
QUARREL used harm reduction inspire techniques in survivor led direct actions to call for safer spaces for survivors in Bay Area queer communities.
While much has changed, more than a decade after this zine was created, many of the issues of abuse apologism, survivor blaming, cooptation of justice language and accountability processes continue to plague survivor support and alternative justice movements.
Even in QUARREL itself, several of the masc identified people that particpated were harming or went on to perpetuate harm and abuse against queer femmes of color and use our very own language to avoid accountability.
There is a chasm in radical communities between the reality of lived experiences for survivors, those most impacted by violence and our abolitionist vision and dreams of the world we want to live in.
Im publishing this online the week the truth about the abuser Cesar Chavez went public, in the midst of the Epstein files release, in the wake of the me too movement,
All these years later some of the same people who perpetrate harm are still around causing problems while survivor after survivor drops out of political organizing and dont come back.
We need solutions to harm outside the violence of the state but false solutions can cause more harm while building abuse into our movements. Transformation, healing and abolition are practices, we have to practice them and we have to stay vigilant for how anti-survivorship, patriarchy, misogyny, transphobia, ableism and other anti-liberatory behaviors have creeped in and coopted our dreams and possibilities.
Expect More!
Believe Survivors!
Dont Give up!
While more than a decade old now, QUARREL still offers insight into survivor led responses to harm. The Full QUARREL the zine is available at https://quarrelthezine.wordpress.com/