For the past few months, our friend and political comrade Jen has been sexually harassed and exposed to racist and sexist bullying by the anarchist collectives Labitat and Biologigaragen. This is an experience that has been echoed by several other female ex-members of the collectives, many of whom left because of the culture of harassment and bullying.

As they claim to be anarchist and open, one would expect the collectives to listen when called out on their discriminatory behaviour. This is sadly not the case. Instead, the members have continued and intensified their grossly oppressive behavior. In fact, the main perpetrators are currently preparing the Kopenlab Festival which is a supposedly open and collaborative space– except the team behind is notoriously sexist and have a hidden agenda in using the festival to further their own financial interests and CVs. This is not what we know as anarchist or open knowledge integrity.

The sexual harassment, sexism, and racism faced by Jen has had a severe impact on her physical, mental, and social health. The hacking community has been incredibly damaged as well by this incident, due to the behaviors of the perpetrators. Due to this, the international hacking community at large has expressed their horror at the behavior of the organizers of the Kopenlab Festival. Almost all international backers have pulled out. Please join us in protesting the festival– let’s show the Kopenlab Festival, the community and the perpetrators that sexism or racism has no place in open source hacking spaces, anarchist collectives or anywhere on this earth, period.