This text serves as a call-out of the Gorillas Workers' Collective for ungoing sexist and queer-hostile events (in 2021). Gorillas Workers' Collective is a group supposedly organising for the "rights" of workers in the bike delivery sector. The events arranged from vocal female passing people getting comments about their bodily ability to get a period, to an attempt of kicking half of the flinta* people in the collective off a candidate list for the previous workers' council election - as a punishment for resisting the hostile, exclusive male/heterosexual atmosphere.
Being active as proud queers and gender-nonconforming people in the male-dominated sector of labour organizing, has made us face impossible obstacles to climb. Which, we thought, we wouldn't have to fight anymore in the 21st century in Berlin. Wrong. Being a strong queer feminista, or having an assertive stand towards the heterosexual and male dominance in Gorillas workers' collective, made us receive a patriarchal witch-hunt kinda type of reaction. We did not only receive victim blaming from the men, but also from heterosexual women clinging to the defence of either their boyfriend, or male authority. We tried to get support at various instances, but got very little reaction. Even FAU Berlin failed to stand up against a sexist member. A heterosexual cis-guy who openly made sexist comments behind the back of an "AFAB" "comrade". There they could not provide us a space that is standing up against sexism and/or queerphobia. Let alone, have any kind of structure to deal with this. There we got attacks too. So, we retracted and found healing with ourselves, trying to remain a friendship with those who were affected, showing up together at other political struggles and so on.
Recently, we have been seeing (ex-)members of Gorillas workers' collective on the streets, in our spaces, and so on... We thought that it cooled down and that we could go on with our lives, until one of us got a message from one of the guys - who was partly complicit to this dynamic - to ask for a meet-up to talk about intersectionality for his master' thesis at fucking university. There was no excuse, no empathy, sympathy, or recognition for the struggle we have been through. Just a display of plain tokenism and entitlement to our trauma, turned into some academic shitshow for the self-profilation of another heterosexual class-privileged cisman. It made us realize how little progress there had been made and how there had been a complete absence of reflection, or understanding. We have had many many talks about putting forward a public statement, but each time we decided that we did not want to, because we did not want to fight fire with fire, sabotage our so called "movement", or have our own burn-at-the-stake moment again. Well, fuck this.
The riders' struggle, the "labour struggle" is a hetero-patriarchal system reformist shitshow. Put your support elsewhere if you can, and possibly going for direct boycott and sabotage. Steal our bikes, burn our warehouses, don't do home delivery or order useless packages if you have the bodied ability. Most of the Gorillas / Getir e-bikes are left unlocked during deliveries without any gps-tracking device. Often with multiple orders inside. Take it, use it. Fuck up these companies instead of trying to arrange them from the inside with German bureaucratic works' councils. instead of begging for higher tips and working for more comfortable chains, instead of waving empty flags at demonstrations. Please rethink where you place your support. Please rethink what you support. There is nothing revolutionary, when your organising isn't anti-sexist, or in support of queers, dykes, other genderbenders. We're the offspring of the witches you didn't get to burn, fuckers!
