We wholeheartedly endorse the following call, written by Revolutionary Student Front – Austin. We are sharing it here in order to ensure that the broadest possible audience sees this statement and helps protect the masses and revolutionary organizations.

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Note: Pictures of Carlos are at the bottom of this post.

Following a thorough investigation, the Revolutionary Student Front has found ex-member and former UT student Carlos Salamanca guilty of abuse and manipulation of multiple women over a period of multiple years, including while he was organizing with RSF. We have determined it is necessary to ban him from participating to any degree within the revolutionary left in Austin. Though he had gained a negative reputation among some groups at the University of Texas throughout his years there, we were not made aware of specific accusations against him nor the severity of his actions until the last few months. During the past three months, he was removed from the organization as he was investigated for multiple transgressions, including physical and sexual assault, emotional abuse and manipulation, serial cheating, and more patriarchal behaviors. We found all of these to be true even at Carlos’s own admission when confronted with the facts.

Soon after the investigation began, Carlos relocated to his hometown. Since then, he has decided to relocate to Chicago within the next few months. Because we believe that even some of the worst types can be transformed into true revolutionaries through hard-fought struggle and rectification, the Steering Committee of RSF initially offered Carlos a chance at political transformation. This process would have included being under very specific and strict guidelines designed to keep both organizers and the masses safe from his abusive behavior. Ultimately, he rejected this offer so that he could continue on his plans to move to Chicago. We see this as a rejection of any and all accountability for his actions, a rejection of the necessity for him to change, and thus a desire to continue forward with his self-serving, manipulative behavior.

In his time at UT, Carlos repeatedly jumped from organization to organization and from one social group to the next, leaving each as he lost the ability to manipulate the people in those groups to his social, sexual, and emotional benefit. He ultimately burned bridges entirely with each organization, and hopped to the next group, taking up the cloak of whatever political tendency suited the space (in RSF as a “Maoist”). By leaving Austin entirely, he expects to turn to a blank page in his book where he can continue his exploits without having to deal with the bridges he burned in Austin.

Carlos utilizes identity-reductionist politics in order to gain access to emotional and sexual intimacy. He is thoroughly liberal despite being a self-proclaimed communist. He has been involved with national liberation movements, anti-gentrification activism, and student organizing. He often rejects, underhandedly, the leadership of women or feminine-presenting people. Carlos is an alcoholic, and though he claims to have been sober for a while, he is very likely to begin drinking again, which nearly always exacerbates his misogynistic behaviors. The physical and sexual assaults that we investigated occurred while he was drunk, though he should be considered a threat both while sober and intoxicated. He has repeatedly engaged in gaslighting and lying both to romantic interests and comrades he organized with. He consistently acts in service of himself with no care for the emotional or physical repercussions suffered by others.

Carlos was in Mexican-American Studies at UT. Currently, we do not believe he intends to return to UT, but we believe he will attempt to continue his studies elsewhere, online or at another university. He has claimed that he will stay away from all radical spaces from now on. We do not believe this in the least bit given his long history of political organizing and the political nature of his studies.

Before he rejected the opportunity to attempt rectification, we notified organizations in Austin whom we are friendly with of the results of the investigation and included a request to bar him from organizing with them or attending their events. We now believe that, in order to protect others and to prevent him from organizing in Chicago or any other city, we must notify our supporters, the broader Austin activist community, and any organizers and students in Chicago that he may try to cozy up to. In order to protect the safety of the women in activist organizations, on campuses, and all around, we ask that anyone who reads this chooses to bar him from their organizing and social spaces by any means necessary. If he is seen in Austin, please inform us immediately. If he begins to organize in Chicago we will do everything in our power to notify those he organizes with of our investigation and conclusion.

Revolutionary Student Front – Austin

December 5, 2017

Pictures of Carlos: