BPPP is happy to support Zee in their process of seeking this money for work done. This open letter (that can also be accessed here) adds to the trove of documentation about the situation inside the US Human Rights Network available here and here. It is time for the perpetrators to leave the network.
On October 20, 2021, the US Human Rights Network was paused indefinitely. Its employees and I, an independent contractor, were terminated without cause or notice to the organization’s many stakeholders. I learned of the decision from my colleagues the afternoon of October 20 when we were suddenly unable to log into our work accounts. I have yet to be contacted personally by the persons who made the decision to terminate all contracts, shutting down the work of the USHRN Coordinating Center indefinitely.
Eric Tars, Molefi Askari, and Noel Didia refuse to settle my outstanding compensation. My contract requires a 30 day notice period prior to termination, a condition that no effort was made to honor. I have written several times to the cohort that has seized responsibility for the network from the hands of members by occupying the board. I have sent an invoice outlining the outstanding balance and I have not so much as received an acknowledgement of receipt. Almost a month later, there has been no indication as to if, or when, I will be paid.
This blatant disregard for communication is, on the face, incompetence on the part of the occupying cohort. It is important to note that these are not hapless amateur saboteurs. Their disregard of the staff’s wellbeing is a deliberate attempt to perpetrate harm. This cohort’s actions are a microcosm of white supremacy in community organizing. The cohort’s disconnect with members’ wishes shows commitment to a hierarchical and necessarily ineffective mode of governance. In this hierarchy, these three acting as the board have seized control without a mandate from members, disregarding those who are directly engaging with and within our human rights movements. There is no organizing space that isn’t vulnerable to these white supremacist tactics. Eric, Molefi, and Noel have proven themselves perfectly compliant tools of the dynamic they claim to oppose as nominal human rights defenders; the dynamic that leads to a young, directly impacted worker, through no fault of their own, being deemed dispensable and their stability inconsequential. It has been disheartening but I am not deterred.
I will not go into the hardship that the cohort’s actions have caused. I am unconvinced that there is a moral thread to pull at here that will change their course. I write here because when the powers that be refuse to levy justice, I have always found recourse in my community. I consider the community a sacred space where truth and integrity are held as worthy goals. Eric, Molefi and Noel have withheld $2,200 USD of earned income with no explanation. This is not the action of human rights champions and it is important that this cohort be curtailed in the harm they are actively causing to the former staff at the US Human Rights Network.
Zee Xaymaca