Travis has never directly hurt me, but I’m an anarchist from Phoenix who has seen the abusive tendencies Travis has used to manipulate and bully people who dissented from his grip. I have seen friends’ self esteems be destroyed, reputations destroyed, and even anti-capitalist political rallies attacked by Travis’ followers. I was largely unaware of the sexual assault allegations until recently, but the victims coming forward made me take a step back and think about the patterns of behavior I witnessed and didn’t recognize until now. I’m going to give my account of what strife he has caused in our community.

 

I first met Travis in 2012 at an anti-capitalist march. He was going around interviewing people for a radio show he was doing at the time. I knew nothing about his whereabouts, however he came off as very chill, cool, and charming. I was new to anarchism in general, so I thought it was nice to meet someone who shared my beliefs. Later that year, there was a general assembly to start a new anarchist group in Phoenix. I ran into Travis and he told me about his music. I looked it up and was very intrigued, so I showed my friends (Who later got way more into it than I ever would). At this point, the most he had ever done to me was vehemently make fun of my political ideology, the brand of anarchism I subscribe to, which I brushed off.

 

The bullying, manipulation, and abuse became clear at a May Day march sometime in 2013 or 2014. There was a May Day anti-capitalist march organized by some local anarchists, some of whom were Travis’ partner’s (at the time, who was also 17 or 18) exes. Travis took it upon himself to organize a sort of counter-demonstration he called the “Nihilist Bloc”, in which they harrassed and physically attacked the anti-capitalist demonstration, bullying the demonstrators until they left. In today’s context, it would appear like something a fascist group like Patriot Prayer or Vanguard America would do to an Occupy ICE or Antifascist demonstration except with purely personal, petty motives. It caused much infighting and division among radicals here, and I believe he always has caused this everywhere he has been. Any effort to build a radical movement has been met with the naysaying and harrassment by his followers, which in my opinion has allowed right-wing/fascist groups to plant their seed here with little resistance. Nihilism and egoism was (and still is) being used as an excuse to do nothing about increasing police and right wing violence, while criticizing those who catch charges and jail time fighting against these things in an already hostile climate like AZ.

 

I began to see how Travis almost exclusively surrounded himself with people aged 16-22, drinking and doing drugs with them. There is a narrative that is spit out by him and his followers, that it is their “individual autonomy” to hang out with someone almost twice their age and get drunk with them without questioning the motivation. A few individuals, who I will not name for obvious reasons, had their reputations ruined and were bullied out of the radical scene for pointing out his problematic behavior. In one instance, it got out that Travis was either paying his partner for sex or inticing them with drugs to have sex. Travis then ruined the person he suspected leaked out this info’s repuation by making group chats and making memes of this person, bullying them so they would be discredited. Another instance, Travis bullied his then-partner’s Ex by making fun of him in a video promo for his upcoming album, bragging about “stealing people’s girlfriends!”….who are 18. Using this hazing tactic, as well as using radical politics to justify predatory behavior allowed him to build a cult-like following in the punk scene, and a culture of “Hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing” when it came to him.

 

As I started to get more into the music scene, I saw the following he had and how loyal they were, which prompted me to take a step back and tread very carefully. People very close to me started to follow Travis in a cult style, looking like him, dressing like him, and disgarding their personalities in order to fit his standards. I never spent much time in close proximity to Travis, so I didn’t understand how or why this was happening. There was always a feeling of “Travis or No social life”, you were either a fan of his or you were a simpleton. If you ever disagreed with him politically, you were called an idiot and harassed by his loyal following. His influence, or as others put it, social capital was used as ammo to feed into a cult of personality. 

 

The punk scene in Phoenix started to thrive a bit in 2016-2017, shows were starting to be well-attended and bands were gaining followings. During this, I saw musical projects he was involved in fall apart because of his abusive actions, I saw friends of mine turn to hard drugs and alcohol, and completely lose their personalities to fit his narrow definition of what a good “punk” is. As a result of this, the punk scene has died down as people started to take sides and hold grudges because of his bullshit, which is very sad, because there was a beautiful thing going on, and it will take some time to rebuild what he has destroyed. It isn’t entirely his fault, I should note, but he played the most crucial role.

 

I’ve seen people who have wonderful, beautiful, creative abilities get put down because of Travis’s bullying, and the outcome became another clone of Travis’s style. He bullies anybody who he finds to be intimidating and preys on the vulnerable. Anyone who dare speak up lost all of their friends and ruined their social lives. Travis is a fucking predator.

 

Smash rape culture, and mean it. Right now, that means smash the rape culture of Travis James for the sake of the youth in our radical and punk scene. Keep your friends away from this monster. Fuck Travis James.