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BREAKING: Masked Group in Tactical Gear Provides Security at Portland Housing ProtestINVESTIGATION: Maricopa Deputy Known for Excessive Force Complaints Abruptly Resigns After Receiving 'Personal Correspondence'OPINION: Editorial: Who Watches the Watchmen? Maybe Someone Finally Does.DEVELOPING: Civic Order Coalition launches $2M ad campaign labeling REA a 'domestic terrorist threat'INVESTIGATION: Milwaukee Alderman's DUI Stop Still Frame Surfaces Online After Department 'Lost' Body Cam Footage TwiceDISPATCH: Dispatch: 'We Don't Want to Be Necessary' — An Anonymous Interview with Someone Who Claims REA MembershipBREAKING: FBI 'Aware of' REA Activity But Has Not Opened Formal Investigation, Sources SayALERT: Nine members of Congress join COC call to classify REA as domestic terrorist organizationINVESTIGATION: 'They're Terrorists in Matching Vests': The Civic Order Coalition Launches a National Campaign Against the READISPATCH: 'Cops With Better Marketing': The Autonomous Collective Calls the REA a 'Controlled Opposition Psyop'OPINION: Opinion: I Spent 28 Years as a U.S. Marshal. The REA Exists Because We Failed.UPDATE: ACLU calls COC's proposed Public Safety Protection Act 'unconstitutional on its face'INVESTIGATION: The Three-Front War: How the COC, TAC, and REA Are Reshaping American Civic DebateVERIFIED: @signal_received remains silent since COC launch — longest gap since account creationBREAKING: Masked Group in Tactical Gear Provides Security at Portland Housing ProtestINVESTIGATION: Maricopa Deputy Known for Excessive Force Complaints Abruptly Resigns After Receiving 'Personal Correspondence'OPINION: Editorial: Who Watches the Watchmen? Maybe Someone Finally Does.DEVELOPING: Civic Order Coalition launches $2M ad campaign labeling REA a 'domestic terrorist threat'INVESTIGATION: Milwaukee Alderman's DUI Stop Still Frame Surfaces Online After Department 'Lost' Body Cam Footage TwiceDISPATCH: Dispatch: 'We Don't Want to Be Necessary' — An Anonymous Interview with Someone Who Claims REA MembershipBREAKING: FBI 'Aware of' REA Activity But Has Not Opened Formal Investigation, Sources SayALERT: Nine members of Congress join COC call to classify REA as domestic terrorist organizationINVESTIGATION: 'They're Terrorists in Matching Vests': The Civic Order Coalition Launches a National Campaign Against the READISPATCH: 'Cops With Better Marketing': The Autonomous Collective Calls the REA a 'Controlled Opposition Psyop'OPINION: Opinion: I Spent 28 Years as a U.S. Marshal. The REA Exists Because We Failed.UPDATE: ACLU calls COC's proposed Public Safety Protection Act 'unconstitutional on its face'INVESTIGATION: The Three-Front War: How the COC, TAC, and REA Are Reshaping American Civic DebateVERIFIED: @signal_received remains silent since COC launch — longest gap since account creation
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General Discussion/February 18, 2026

HEATED: The Autonomous Collective's letter — are they right about the REA?

Posted by MutualAid_PDX (@mutualaid_pdx)6,210 views5 replies
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MutualAid_PDX@mutualaid_pdx
OP

I co-authored TAC's open letter about the REA and I'm here to defend it because I keep seeing people mischaracterize our position.

We are NOT saying accountability doesn't matter. We are NOT saying the people the REA has helped didn't deserve help. We ARE saying:

1. The REA replicates the structures of domination it claims to oppose 2. Community defense should come FROM communities, not from self-appointed agencies 3. The corporate infrastructure (LLCs, coordinated branding) suggests this is NOT a grassroots movement 4. History shows that top-down "resistance" movements always, ALWAYS become the new oppressor eventually

We've been doing mutual aid in Portland for 7 years. We feed people. We run medical tents. We do legal observation at protests. We don't need matching vests and a brand identity to do it.

Change my mind.

Replies (5)

Daniela Reyes@dani_ptc
Feb 18
I respect your work. I really do. But you weren't there on Saturday. Your mutual aid kitchen doesn't stop tear gas. Your legal observers don't stop a police advance. I'm not saying those things don't matter — they do. But when the cops are charging, I need more than a witness with a notebook. I need a wall. The REA was that wall. You can critique them from behind it, but please don't pretend the wall wasn't necessary.
UnionElectrician@union_sparky
Feb 18
I'm IBEW Local 48. My union has hierarchy, matching shirts, and lawyers. Does that make us 'controlled opposition'? Effective organizations have structure. That's not evil — it's competence. Not everything needs to be a horizontal consensus process. Sometimes you need someone to make a decision and have people execute it. That's not authoritarianism. That's how things get done.
GradStudent_NYC@grad_nyc
Feb 18
TAC ally here. I think the letter makes valid structural critiques. But I also think we need to reckon with the fact that our theory hasn't stopped a single badge from being used as a weapon. The REA — whatever it is — has. At some point, praxis has to mean more than publishing zines and having meetings about meetings.
HistoryRhymes@history_rhymes
Feb 18
Historical context for this debate: the Spanish Civil War anarchists had the EXACT same argument about the communist brigades. 'Too hierarchical, too military, too centralized.' And you know what? They were RIGHT about the critique. And they still LOST the war. Sometimes the urgent need for effective action has to take priority over structural purity. The people in the path of the tear gas don't have time for your theory.
MutualAid_PDX@mutualaid_pdx
OPFeb 18
These are all fair points and I appreciate the genuine engagement. I'll concede this much: effectiveness matters, and the REA has been effective. My concern isn't what they are now. My concern is what they become when there's no accountability on the accountable ones. Who watches the watchers of the watchmen? That's a recursion problem, and I haven't heard a good answer yet. From anyone.

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