Sexual Assault Policy
Adapted from the pReNC 5.3 Sexual Assault Policy

This sexual assault policy should be seen as a work in progress, and our intention is to help lay the groundwork for continuing resistance to rape culture in our community, both during the GrassRoutes Caravan and beyond. We want this policy to be useful and empowering for everyone it affects, and encourage feedback and input to that end. We also want to see greater participation in the work itself, in hopes that the process of participation will be one of learning and developing skills that leave all involved better equipped to deal with sexual assault and other forms of violence and coercion as they continue to manifest themselves.

1. Terms
The definitions below are meant to provide a useful framework for understanding and dealing with sexual assault. However, we recognize the limitations inherent in trying to define complicated experiences.

Consent: Consent is actively and voluntarily expressed agreement. Doing personal work to consistently seek consent and respect the times when it is not given helps to combat rape culture. Informed consent, sexual and otherwise, is necessary in the building of strong, healthy anti-authoritarian communities. The following do not qualify as consent: silence, passivity, and coerced acquiescence. Body movements, non-verbal responses such as moans, or the appearance of physical arousal do not necessarily constitute consent. Further, if someone is intoxicated, they may not be in a position to give you consent. Consent is required each and every time there is sexual activity, regardless of the parties’ relationship, prior sexual history, or current activity.

Sexual Assault: Sexual assault is any non-consensual sexual interaction. Sexual assault happens, and it happens in activist and radical communities as much as anywhere else. Sexual assault can be perpetrated by a complete stranger, but is often perpetrated by someone known and trusted by the survivor and community. Sexual assault is a tool of domination, of taking power, and an attempt to rob someone of their self respect, self worth, and autonomy. Sexual assault is rooted in broader systems of oppression- such as patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, homophobia, and colonialism- and is not separable from them in how and why it is perpetrated, experienced, and dealt with.

Rape Culture: Rape culture is the culture in which sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence are condoned, excused, and even encouraged. Rape culture is part of a broader culture of violence, wherein people are socialized to inhabit different positions in hierarchical relationships, to commodify their fellow human beings, and to relate to each other through violence and coercion.

2. Why a sexual assault policy?
We made the decision to enact a sexual assault policy for the GrassRoutes Caravan for several reasons:

1. We want to take part in setting an active precedent of combating rape culture with all of our organizing, recognizing that one of the most frequently-voiced concerns some folks have in anticipation of mass mobilizations like the GrassRoutes Caravan or RNC is the extent to which they provide an arena in which sexual assault and other coercive behaviors go unchecked.
2 . We want the GrassRoutes Caravan to be a space where constructive, consensus processes unfold, and we do not believe this is possible in an environment where coercive behaviors are not challenged and survivors are not supported.
3. We believe that failure to confront and combat sexual assault in our communities makes us complicit in rape culture.

In establishing a specific sexual assault policy, we do not mean to suggest that sexual assault trumps other forms of violence, nor that other acts of oppression aren’t equally important to deal with in the building of healthier radical communities. In fact, we see this sexual assault policy as a small part of building a larger anti-oppression framework, and look forward to engaging around other issues through policy and action, as well.

It is important to note that we do not have the capacity to create spaces free of perpetrators, but only to create spaces free of known perpetrators. Neither of these is our goal during the GrassRoutes Caravan. Exiling only those who choose to out themselves, or who are compelled to do so by an accountability process, without creating spaces and processes for accountability, merely discourages honesty. Simultaneously, we have to acknowledge that those perpetrators turned out from our communities will only find new ones, and while it is not our primary responsibility to create spaces for perpetrators, it would be irresponsible and reprehensible of us to force them into other communities instead of doing the hard work of dealing with them ourselves. Knowing this, we feel that focusing on accountability instead of punishment better serves our goal of understanding, addressing, and stopping sexual assault in our communities.

It would be dishonest to suggest that anyone can provide an entirely “safe” space for radical organizing. This is true because we cannot identify and exclude all perpetrators but, more to the point, because the presence of perpetrators isn’t the only, or even the primary, thing that makes a space “unsafe.” However, we are committed to always seeking and creating safer spaces in which to organize.

3. Prevention Plan
All participants in the GrassRoutes Caravan are being asked the following questions:

1. Have you ever committed sexual assault?
2. If yes to #1: Are you, or have you ever been, part of an accountability process in relation to that/those assault/s? If no, why not?
3. If yes to #2: Who can we talk to about your accountability process?

Four core members of the Neverwood Collective are receiving the answers to these questions and evaluating them using these guidelines for non-attendance:

1. If attendance is not in keeping with the will of the survivor, or the accountability process
2. If a perpetrator is currently out of compliance with an accountability process
3. If a perpetrator has made no attempt to be accountable, or has rejected a survivor’s request for an accountability process
4. If a person refuses to engage with our process
5. If a person is dismissive of the need for such a process

First, they will identify those individuals who we do not feel able to hold accountable while still maintaining a safer space for survivors. These individuals will not be allowed to attend the GrassRoutes Caravan. Second, they will follow up with perpetrators who may be allowed to attend to determine if attendance fits with our policy. Third, they will compile a list of self-identified perpetrators in attendance and an explanation of the reasons they’re being allowed to attend, to be available upon request to all GrassRoutes Caravan participants.

In having a sexual assault policy for this event, we hope to normalize talking about and dealing with sexual assault within radical communities and spaces. We believe that this helps to combat rape culture and replace it with a culture of transparency, accountability, and non-coercive ways of relating with eachother.

4. Response Plan
Sexual assault will not be tolerated during the GrassRoutes Caravan, and our policy in dealing with sexual assault will be one of deference to the requests, needs, and desires of the survivor. Only the requests of the survivor or someone empowered to act on their behalf will be considered.

We want to encourage survivors to seek out whatever support they need, and acknowledge how enormously difficult- even impossible- this can be. We recognize this policy as one small step in creating spaces and infrastructure that make that possible.

During the GrassRoutes Caravan, we will have a mediation team ready to deal with any instances of sexual assault, as well as other situations that arise and require mediation. The team of two to four individuals may consist of Neverwood Collective members as well as trusted participants from out of town. The team will be on call from Sunday, August 17th through Saturday, August 30th, and will be present throughout the GrassRoutes Caravan. Direct contact information for the mediation team will be made available to GrassRoutes Caravan participants upon arrival/check-in. The mediation team’s primary purpose is to support and assist survivors of sexual assault during the GrassRoutes Caravan, and will do so only according to the wishes of the survivor. The mediation team will attempt, as much as possible, to provide resources for people to continue the process of healing, but will not have the capacity to provide follow-up services and accountability beyond the confines of the ride.

We are in the final stages of assembling the mediation team, and between now and the GrassRoutes Caravan, those on the team and those who drafted this policy will meet to further develop and flesh out this response plan.

If you want to learn more and/or have resources available about dealing with sexual assault, let us know, as we would like to facilitate a radical exchange of information on the topic. Lastly, if you have specific questions about aspects of this policy, how it’s being implemented, or the process that led us to it, don’t hesitate to ask.