Thread by @sarahmei

It’s been more than a week since Stallman resigned from the @FSF. The organization has still not communicated even _vague_ plans for moving forward.

#cancelstallman means not just removing him from power. It means rethinking what the org he created is for - & who it serves.

Beyond the 57-word resignation statement, published on September 16th, the @FSF website has zero content about the upheaval.

Since the 16th, though, they’ve published two blog posts and one news item on unrelated free software topics.

Where are the signs of introspection? Where are the apologies to Stallman’s harassment victims? Do they really think they can just keep going like nothing happened?

The board is still run by this person:

Oliva, who is the acting board President according to their bylaws, has expressed no sympathy for Stallman’s hundreds of harassment victims.

He has expressed no sympathy for the adult survivors of child sexual assault who had to listen to Stallman defend that crime for decades.

Yet Oliva has found the time - twice! - to express deep sympathy for the man who harassed those women.

The man who spent decades defending child sexual assault.

The man who compared developmentally disabled people to pets.

The @fsf board members, of course, can choose for themselves whether to stay.

But the organization they built, & that they run, enabled an abuser to harass & belittle & push innumerable people out of the free software movement.

Make no mistake: the @fsf was _purpose built_ to enable Stallman - both in his activism, and in his harassment.

Without drastic structural change, it is inevitable that the same story will play out again.

Activism and harassment need not be so conjoined. A new board, along with internal restructuring, could separate them.

Just getting a new president, though, will not be enough.

Right now the @fsf looks like they’re trying to pretend this didn’t happen. Even if that’s not true, it represents a profound misreading of what the situation calls for.

I call on the @fsf board to resign.

If they truly care about the cause of free software, more than they care about their personal empire-building, they’ll do it.

However, if they fail to make structural change in the organization, they’ll continue their descent into obscure irrelevance.

As an industry, we no longer have time or patience for shitty institutions. Our standards have gone up. And right now, @fsf is well below the bar.

All of the (many!) interesting discussions happening in the industry right now about software and freedom are happening without participation (or, seemingly, the notice) of the FSF.

We can decide for ourselves - and we are! - what kind of “freedom” we want in our software.

It’s early, yet, but it’s safe to say that even in broad outlines, the type of freedom we need now looks *very* different from the version that the FSF currently champions.

The FSF could lend their support & experience to this process of finding the right modern conception of “software freedom.” I’d love if they did.

But we can do it regardless.

And we will.

❤️

Hey @fsf, your supporters are in my mentions defending Stallman and saying he did “nothing wrong.”

Your silence on this matter, along with your attempts to move on without addressing it, indicate that you ALSO think he did nothing wrong.

If that’s the case - just fucking own it, @fsf.

Say you think it was a “witch hunt.”

Say that your sympathy is with Stallman.

Say that the pain his victims endured was worth it for “software freedom.”

SAY IT.

This isn’t going to blow over. Take a stand.

Choose carefully.