NOTE: This letter was sent out publicly in response to the “Mike Krebs resigns from Fire This Time, is assaulted by Ali Yerevani”. It was sent under the organizational name of Y3WA.
May 6, 2005
Mike;
Your first and second emails to us seem to be an attempt to indicate that you have some sort of power over us. You seem to think that you have gained some power by hurling ridiculous slander and absurd accusation at us and by holding hostage some materials and so on that we have built together.
First of all, we flatly deny all of the ‘charges’ you have publicly slung at us. It seems you have cleverly set up these charges against your naïve ex-comrades with premeditated action (taping conversations even before resigning etc…) and your delusional fantasy of the ‘reactionary campaign’ against you.
After three days of your idle talk about resigning we received your official written resignation letter at 10:52pm Thursday May 5th – only ten minutes before Project X and whatever other email list received your letter denouncing us for ‘refusing to accept’ this resignation. Having received this letter, we have taken you seriously and although we have accepted your resignation at your request, this insistence and perseverance on your behalf was not necessary. It is not up to us to accept or deny the resignation of anyone who wishes to leave this or any voluntary organization. You’re right, you have the absolute right to leave Fire This Time and no one has the power to stop you. What we told you was that yours was not just an ordinary resignation because of your position and responsibilities in our movement and therefore a respectful resignation on your behalf requires a more open and careful approach.
For all your slander, lies and set-up, one thing is correct; we did not take your resignation seriously until you sent it in writing. This was because you had not delivered it in writing and because of your history with us. In the two years that Fire This Time has existed you have demoralized and decided to resign no less than three other times. Every six months, like clockwork, you have decided to resign and have changed your mind after calling on us – your comrades – for support and long discussions. How were we to know that this fourth wave of demoralization and political degeneration (that has left you ranting about your sacred ‘individual right’ and so on…) was unresolvable with the same sort of discussion? Your official resignation letter has clarified this.
Fire This Time and Youth Third World Alliance have held a joint meeting to discuss your second letter. We have decided that on the basis of the ultimatums, lies and slander you have put forward in your two letters you are expelled from Youth Third World Alliance.
It is also true, as you say, that you have complete and sole access to “documents, files, contacts, materials” … “as well as the Fire This Time website and email” and now you are trying to hold these things hostage against us. How could you hold all these critical, central, internal and organizational documents, networks and tools if you, as you imply, were not a trusted and central member of Fire This Time and Y3WA? You can keep all of these things that you have been trusted with. You can take them with you to wherever you plan to go and to do whatever you plan to do. We don’t need you or your help and you can consider yourself relieved of all responsibility towards us.
Mike, you know that Fire This Time has been under attack from the ruling class and its institutions directly and indirectly since our formation. It is disappointing to see you join this camp against us and we have no illusions about you and what you are capable of now with your new perspective and your “few close comrades, friends, and family members” that you “trust”. We fully expect you and your new “friends” to make more of these attacks against us and everything that you have built with us in the last 2 years – up until you developed these political and organizational ‘differences’ that we never heard a word about and are still unaware of.
Your “family problems” are a thin cover for your demoralization. If you really wanted to leave Fire This Time “responsibly, quietly and with dignity” then why did you refuse to discuss and organize this departure with us, the same people who you have organized everything with in the past two years? Your resignation tactics reek of an underhanded set-up. Unfortunately we cannot attach a transcription of our discussions with you because we did not think to tape our conversations. We acted towards you with good faith, care for you as a human being, and trust and you have responded with the sharpest premeditated betrayal. Now you are on a different path, do whatever you want to do – it’s your history on the line.
Because of your reckless and irresponsible behavior we are cutting all lines of communication with you. We will entertain no correspondence with you, will not meet with you directly or indirectly through your cloak and dagger fantasies and you are barred from attending or participating in any meetings, events or actions we organize.
We look forward to seeing your contribution to the fight for a better world in the future “based on [your] reassessment of [your] position within the overall relationship of forces in Vancouver and beyond.” For our part, we remain committed to building a movement in defense and for the advancement of poor, working and oppressed people internationally against the reactionary forces of capitalism and imperialism.
Signed;
Shannon Bundock
Coordinator – Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice
Kira Koshelanyk
Coordinator – Youth Third World Alliance
