Darren Thurston and Resist.ca
We've had a few requests, some polite, some offensive, to terminate Darren Thurston's support website and/or to provide an additional statement on our position in terms of continuing to host his support website. Our earlier statement on the issue implied we would provide an explanation for our support at a later date; so here is a response to the termination requests and some people's questions about why we choose to continue to host his site.
Resist.ca hosts a huge variety of sites of often differing political perspectives. The guiding principles of our basis of unity (http://resist.ca/basis) make clear that we value the diversity of ideas and tactics that is reflected in social movements that struggle for these shared principles. Over the years every member of this collective has had to at times put aside both personal and political differences to continue to support such a diverse network.
We very rarely turn away applicants as long they can show even the most basic understanding of and commitment to social justice. We make decisions about terminating an account very rarely, and base those decisions only on whether the user has failed to abide by the member agreement each person enters into before setting up services with us (http://resist.ca/magree).
Darren Thurston's support site does not violate either our basis of unity or member agreement. His community, friends and family use this site to keep up to date on his case and prison situation. We respect the work that is being done by his supporters and respect their right to stand by him during this difficult experience. No matter what we as a collective or as individuals might think about Darren's decisions and actions we see no reason to deny his supporters our services.
We are aware of the accusations made against Darren, claims that his plea bargain and confession were extensive and resulted in a drastically reduced sentence. Darren did not covertly collaborate with the state, provide evidence leading to any new arrests, or strive to deceive his community about the nature of his confession. As part of his plea bargain he confessed his involvement in the actions for which he was arrested. He did so in the face of overwhelming evidence that already confirmed everything he confessed to and in the hope that this would reduce his sentence. The letters we have received make it clear that for some this level of cooperation justifies complete political and personal abandonment. For the members of the Resist collective, we have come to the conclusion that it does not. This may not be the decision that everyone wishes he had made but in hosting his support site we don't feel that we are compromising our general principles, nor creating a situation that threatens the security of our network or violates our member agreement.
We also will continue to host his support site most of all on the principle that we see this kind of divisive in-fighting, demanding that everyone denounce and abandon Darren, as simply playing into a well-documented tactic used by the FBI and other state agencies: to breed distrust and fear, to ensure the division and isolation of our support, to encourage us to blame and fight each other rather than focus on them. It's what motivates them to cut deals and strive for confession or collaboration in political cases. We do not believe that our hosting of Darren's support site damages radical social movements; we do believe that engaging in and validating this kind of divisive in-fighting does.
The Resist! Collective
