On May 28, 2016, Richard Anthony Morrisett, a professor at the UT College of Pharmacy, was arrested at his home by a Travis County Sheriff’s Deputy and received family violence assault charges for pushing and strangling his then-girlfriend. The court immediately entered an emergency protective order against Morrisett, barring him from communicating with the victim or going within 200 yards of her. Despite this, 2 months later, she was in the hospital with more injuries which Morrisett had caused by grabbing her and throwing her to the ground. The victim stated that Morrisett attacked her this second time out of anger at his indictment on the first charge. UT Police Department arrested Morrisett on the third degree felony charges of continuous family violence and repeated violation of a protective order.

In August 2016, UT placed Morrisett on paid administrative leave and conducted an “investigation” process which ultimately allowed Morrisett to keep his job. This is in spite of the fact that in the UT Handbook of Operating procedures, domestic violence, physical assault, and dating violence are on the list of “prohibited conduct” that it “will not tolerate.” In the past, UT has expelled and barred student athletes from campus after similar domestic violence incidents. We know that UT is willing to concede its “commitment to principles” and apply double standards in this case because they desperately want to keep the grant money that Morrisett’s research brings them. President Greg Fenves, following the release of an Austin American-Statesman article on Morrisett’s case which exposed the situation to the public, stated that he would conduct a “review” of the official UT policies regarding domestic violence. How long does Fenves estimate it will take to review the policies already in place? He says approximately within the next two months.

This two month review process, carried out by the very same institution that upheld the decision to keep Morrisett at UT, is purposeful foot-dragging on the part of UT, which wants to keep abusive professors around at UT to squeeze out as much grant money as they can before being forced to let him go. Considering the fact that both of Morrisett’s assaults happened within two months, this is far too long to let him go without punishment. We knew that carrying out a campaign, not to appeal to the administration to get him fired, but to run him off campus entirely, was necessary to protect the women and students who have to be around him on campus every day.

Last week, a propaganda action was carried out by unknown individuals against the College of Pharmacy building which targeted Morrisett and called out UT for their complicity in covering up his abuse. On the tail end of this, we decided that hosting a rally on Tuesday, February 13 to materialize the popular character of the demands for Morrisett’s removal was a necessary complement to ramp up public pressure on Morrisett. We spent a great deal of time in the past week both informing students on the ground about the issue and posting up propaganda all around campus and surrounding areas to spread word about the rally. Unsurprisingly, covering up the initial incident was not enough for UT – we witnessed the administration undertake an all-out campaign to remove flyers that warned students about the presence of this dangerous, abusive professor on campus. Naturally, when posters appeared calling for a rally around the issue, they went about taking these down even more quickly. The UT administration will do everything possible to remove any smudge from its good name except take action against the abuser on their staff.

On the day of the action, we made our way to the protest site, passing approximately 5 bike cops from the UT Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety – a group of pigs known for being particularly violent against political protesters. We eventually arrived at the meetup site, but not before passing two more pigs on foot. On the opposite end of the meetup site were at least six more UTPD pigs a UT K-9 unit, and a custodial van also filled to the brim with pigs. It was clear that the pigs had shown up to pick a fight.

We quickly began passing out chant sheets and signs and started chanting outside of the College of Pharmacy at our scheduled time around 12:30 as the crowd continued consolidating. During this time, no sort of action beyond tame chanting was taken, and all protesters were reminded by the pigs to not wear any masks under threat of removal from campus. Chants like “We won’t hide, we will fight! Punch abusers on sight!” and “Fuck your grants! Fuck your greed! Student power will succeed!” were heard during this time, reflecting the anger of the crowd at both Morrisett and the university which has covered his ass. After about 15 minutes of chanting, five pigs made their way through the crowd to specifically target one lone protester, who had been doing nothing besides chanting and passing out flyers. The pigs arrested this protester on the false charges of “criminal trespassing”, while in reality, despite the lies coming from UTPD spokespig Cindy Posey, this person has never before received an official trespassing warning.

For the next 10 minutes, the anger of the protest was directed at UTPD and the Texas DPS, who showed their true selves to the onlooking crowd as nothing more than the armed enforcement wing of a violent institution which covers up abuse and protects abusers. Chants of “Who protects abusers? Pigs do, pigs do!” grew popular among the crowd, as the demarcating line between those who stand and fight against abuse and the pigs who stand in defense of abuse became more apparent. In fact, according to two studies, the pigs themselves are in large part violent abusers as well, with 40% of cops’ families experiencing domestic violence – two to four times the national average for domestic violence.

After the protester was driven away to the jail, the crowd was markedly more agitated after witnessing the direct relationship between all of the state institutions in allowing abuse against women to go unnoticed or unpunished, instead punishing those who dare to speak out. From there, the crowd marched from the pharmacy building to the steps of the UT tower, where chanting continued and a long speech followed that laid out our goals and objectives in our campaign against Morrisett.

The speech, which was originally going to be given by the arrested comrade, reiterated the facts of the situation regarding Morrisett and UT and also stated:

“We are here because we want Morrisett out immediately. We don’t ask that the University fires him, because we know that they are the ones who have been harboring this abuser and we know we cannot rely on them for our safety. We want him to be too afraid to show his face at UT and around Austin. We want Morrisett to feel the pain he has caused in the most intimate way possible. We want him to see stars as his own throat is crushed by the hands of a militant women’s movement filled with righteous anger. Abusers deserve to be driven out from any place they are found. They deserve to face the harshest of consequences. This is not just another “me too” moment where we speak up about our experiences with abuse. That kind of movement has always been insufficient and failed to bring sufficient justice to any victim of abuse. With the rise of a more openly reactionary government and a fascist movement that greenlights the open abuse and oppression of women, it’s time for us to decide whether we will be swept away by this rising tide or if we will take up arms and fight back against it.

While running Morrisett out is our immediate demand, we do not intend to stop there. Our fight against Morrisett is just one step on the long road towards building a movement that will crush abusers and eradicate patriarchy in its entirety. And all those who choose to turn a blind eye to abuse or materially support abusers for their comfort or benefit will face harsh consequences too. Greg Fenves and the UT administration were motivated to keep Morrisett on staff because their decorated doctor and his lab’s research bring in too much grant money to risk dismissing him. This is the nature of universities – they are not institutions that are run for the public good; they are run purely for profit. This case is merely one of many that shows that UT will abandon whatever “principles” they claim to have just to save their profits. We hold Fenves and the bureaucrats of UT accountable for being complicit in covering up Morrisett’s crimes, which we wouldn’t even know about today if it wasn’t for journalists’ work. We condemn the UT administration for the part they have played in endangering women and students, whether it is the ones who have to be around Morrisett or the thousands of survivors at UT that experience violence but see no justice.

On campus and across the world, patriarchy will always thrive where there is class society and capitalism. As long as there is private ownership, men will exercise ownership over women’s bodies and subject women to every type of violence. This will not end without feminist movement for working women whose ultimate goal is to end capitalism and patriarchy through revolutionary violence. A feminism that is truly for the destruction of patriarchy means a feminism that reclaims violence, which has too long been relegated for men only, and puts guns in the hands of women for the purpose of destroying capitalism. We know that begging on our hands and knees to the same institutions that are complicit in violence against us will never work. If we do not take power into our own hands, then we will remain slaves to the power of the patriarchal ruling class. We must reclaim violence so that every abuser may never again know peace inside their own homes and their jobs. So that every abuser comes face to face with the raging fury of their victims and all the women in the world. And we must take up the task of going beyond the #MeToo movement in arming ourselves and defending ourselves if we want to make these wishes a reality. We know that patriarchal violence goes way beyond Morrisett – this case is merely the most visible and institutionalized form of this violence that survivors experience every single day. We seek to move forward from this movement not only to run off Morrisett, but to see that every abuser and the trash who cover up for them is stopped with all of the anger and bullets we can give them. We want to attack Morrisett, but we can’t, and won’t, stop with him. In the interest of advancing a feminism that fights for the working class and working class women – a proletarian feminism – we must set out to destroy every institution of rape culture and patriarchal violence that exists in our society. The frat houses need to be destroyed. The co-ops where fuckboys and softboys regularly get away with date rape need to be destroyed. This university which covers up and neglects the needs of survivors needs to be destroyed. The entire global system that exploits workers and abuses women needs to be destroyed. And we can’t make that happen until we organize for proletarian feminist power to defend ourselves and launch an all-out assault to defend women and every person who is subjected to patriarchal violence. Let us go away from this rally and take this call to arms seriously. We with the Revolutionary Student Front want to see this happen through developing community self defense and campaigns to reclaim violence and launch attacks against abusers, rapists, and the institutions which promote this violence. There is a necessity, now more than ever, to develop these forms of organization for the defense of women. Let us raise up our fists and dare to struggle, dare to win, and dare to fight back!

FISTS UP, FIGHT BACK!”

Following this speech, several members of the crowd gave their personal testimonies, wherein they also pointed to their experiences of the utter uselessness of the university system and the police in dealing with abuse. Before dispersing around 1:20, the crowd ended off with one final chant – “UT and Morrisett sitting in a tree, A-B-U-S-I-N-G!”

It is the job of revolutionaries to defend survivors of patriarchal violence and launch an assault on the structures and ideas which reproduce this violence. It is also our job to defend our comrades, like the one who was arrested at this protest, who selflessly sacrifice their time, energy, and safety to help lead the fight against this system. We should also take the ideas they wrote out very seriously in looking at what it means to organize women for carrying out revolutionary violence against capitalism and against patriarchy. In building a movement that can seize power for the people and for women, we must take these ideas and forge them into weapons that can be wielded against the oppressors! There is no other way to move forward with forcing Morrisett and all other abusers into the holes in which they belong but through holding strong to the principle of revolutionary violence wielded by the people against the enemies.

We will fight tirelessly for our comrade’s timely release and for their bullshit charges to be dropped. Their role in helping to lead this campaign and their efforts against abusers all around Austin cannot be discounted. They play an absolutely crucial part in the revolutionary feminist leadership of our movement and they must be defended at all costs. We will come out of this fight prepared more than ever to undertake the necessary war against the Morrisett, the UT administration, UTPD, and all other abusers on campus. We commit ourselves from this point forward to consciously developing a movement which will arm and train women in the revolutionary struggle against abusers, patriarchy, and capitalism. This is not a choice for revolutionaries – it is an absolute necessity. The move to reclaim violence in the interest of proletarian feminism should signal terror for abusers like Morrisett and the thousands of others in this city. We will ensure that their nightmares becomes reality.

We ask for help from everybody reading to aid in this valued comrade’s legal defense fund, which can be found here: https://fundrazr.com/b1KOt6?ref=ab_078g55

FOR A FIGHTING FEMINISM!

DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!

Revolutionary Student Front – Austin