We must Build a World for Survivors
Statement for Poor People’s Army by Fe Echavarria
When I began my journey into advocacy over a decade ago, I would write a lot about my traumas, which included surviving child sex abuse. I say write because while everyone loved to spectate at my catharsis, it wasn't a welcomed conversation face-to-face. In my experience with connecting with other child sex abuse survivors, we all notice the recoil when we tell you our stories.
I have watched Republicans, who once fueled conspiracy theories such as PizzaGate, distance themselves from wanting the Epstein files released. I watched Democrats, once the pillars of the MeToo movement, single-handedly kill the movement by upholding Joe Biden after Tara Reade went public with her experience with Biden sexually assaulting her and her being forced to leave the country out of fear for her safety. This simply isn't a safe world for sexual assault victims.
I'm exhausted on the hyper focus of individuals in the Epstein files. Everyone is using this as an opportunistic moment to attack individuals that they don't like rather than focusing on the very reality that the ruling class has a very large, worldwide network of human trafficking. The perceived masculine are fed into the war machine and the perceived feminine are fed into sex slavery. At the very least, intelligence agencies such as the CIA and Mossad have turned a blind eye, at the very worst, this is their project… which came first the chicken or the egg?
I think about all the decades upon decades of other missing girls and women in the United States alone. Black women and girls disproportionately represent a third of reported missing people; the high number of missing Indigenous girls, women, and two-spirit people; the missing unaccompanied and separated migrant children who are unaccounted for by OUR government; the significant issue of missing transgender people, who are disproportionately people of color. Is it connected?
We've all sat back for too long and waited for someone else to solve our problems and this is exactly why we are where we are today. We all need to take a moment and identify the part we play in allowing this system to exist in the way that it exists. We have very little left to negotiate with, the time is now. We must organize now. We must build unity now. We must respect each other and learn from each other's experiences now. Any safety that you feel is an illusion. When we lose our power as workers by being replaced by automation, what do you think they are going to do with you and your children?
Poor People's Army believes we can do better. We understand that there is a world of trauma survivors who feel alone. We understand that you need more effort put into creating a space where you can safely exist authentically. We are not looking to make sense of anyone's triggers, we are here to learn from them and act with intention to not engage them. We don't just talk about creating another world, we are actively building it among ourselves, teaching each other our diverse experiences and diverse needs.
To all the survivors of child sexual abuse, human trafficking, and grooming, I say to you, you are not alone. I am committed to building a world where I can authentically exist and people who have survived these traumas can authentically exist… where children get to live as children not being sexually exploited. Whether you are an individual or an organization, I invite you to join me and other survivors, so that I'm not building a world just for me, I want US to build a world that includes us because we helped build it.
