SEMI-CONSCIOUS LIBERATION ORGANIZATION, Continued...
The beginning of the end came when Stein received a memo from P.O.O. instructing her to use her family connections to sell software in South Africa. Stein was already working as an official fundraiser for the ANC -and now the "O." was telling her to violate the worldwide economic sanctions on South Africa.
“That was one thing where I said ‘no.’ Here were my parents, who were old comrades of Nelson Mandela [who] had supported the struggle their whole lives, and he wanted me to break the sanctions! You can pull the wool over my eyes about a lot of stuff, but I knew about South Africa better than anyone else in the organization. It was just madness!”
“Those kind of things started adding up eventually. I always talk about the three things that finally helped me get out: the whole thing with the ANC was one.”
Working with the ANC had also forced Stein to relax some of the "O's" rigid security procedures. “In order to do that fundraising work, we had to exist publicly. So it was almost the opposite [of the "O."]. We had to have a phone number where people could reach us; we had to have a proper address in order to be registered as a 501 (C)3.”
After traveling to London to meet with her official contacts in the ANC, Stein became acutely aware of the contrast between the paranoia of the O. and the openness of the African National Congress –which was still officially banned in South Africa. “In fact, it was kind of odd, because we were so used to being underground and secret that when we were doing these fundraising letters, and the ANC wanted me to sign my name… I kind of balked.”
“I started wondering why was there this irrational security?” Seeing as how the ANC were conducting an actual guerilla campaign made Stein think that there must be something wrong:
“Because I knew that the South African security was real. And I could feel that what we were doing wasn’t real.”
“They were changing the world, but they still had a sense of humor, these ANC cadre! They worked really hard, but they also had a life. They had some personal autonomy. So I had this role model of an organization that was really revolutionary. And that wasn’t crazy like we were.”
The other major turning point came when the "O." purged all of the senior employees at their community daycare center. “My kids were at the daycare, and you know, kids are often a trigger for people to leave cults. Not always, sadly, but I really didn’t want my son to get screwed-over. So when I started seeing the care deteriorate… it upset me terribly.”
Upset about the changes, Stein broke ranks and started talking to “Julie” –her former roommate. “And we started talking about ‘Why are they doing this? Why are they getting rid of all the good workers? This is crazy!’ And it opened up a space for me and Julie to break the rules about not talking about things, because it seemed like my kid’s welfare was more important.”
“So we started talking, and slowly (as we started to build up trust) that led to us actually talking about the real issues. Like what the hell is going on in this crazy organization?!”
“Julie” was also talking to her husband. “What it did was kind of open up that space for free speech.”
Criticism of the organization was forbidden -it could get you purged. So the conversations had to be held in secret. “All you could criticize was other members,” says Stein. “That was encouraged. Like if I thought my husband didn’t do something right in the household, it was good for me to write up a criticism of him and send it to the center. I got praised for that.”
It was around this time that Stein first learned that “P.O.O.” was actually a man named Theo Smith. “That was a warning sign –if you don’t know who the leadership is.”
As a result of these “secret conversations,” Stein discovered that “everyone had their own imaginary version of who the leadership was -- because we didn’t actually know! So my ex-husband thought that they were a collective based in Oakland… And that’s not what it was. It was just one crazy guy.”
While her husband was sympathetic to many of Stein’s concerns, Theo had successfully turned him against her. Stein was now “the enemy.” She filed for a divorce.
“My now ex-husband -- who was also in the group – stayed a year longer than I did… So when I left, Theo told him to file for custody of the kids. Which made no sense in any way. We were very progressive parents. We always did everything 50-50. It made no sense for him to have full custody. It was clearly an attempt by Theo to keep the kids –and that’s very classic cult behavior: when one spouse leaves, they try to keep the kids.”
“I think that’s part of what helped my ex get out, ‘cause he really loved the kids… It was a line he wasn’t willing to cross. Because he knew that it was crazy.”
Stein formally left the "O." in 1991.
* * *
It took seven years for Alexandra Stein to recover from experiences in the "O." During that time, she began attending meetings of Free Minds, a support group for former members of political and religious cults. She became involved in anti-cult work and researching cults. And she began researching the history of the "O.,"
unearthing some rather unsavory details about the leader Theo Smith –who had killed a man and fled to Chicago.
In 1998, Stein was accepted into the Masters of Liberal Studies program at the University of Minnesota, “Which is one these slightly useless degrees – but the advantage is that it’s very open."
"I talked my way in, ‘cause my first ever publication was in the ‘Cultic Studies’ journal, and it was an article called ‘Mothers and Cults,’" -one of the first scholarly articles on the subject. “So I had this peer reviewed article to my name, and with that I talked my way into the Masters of Liberal Studies program at the U, without an undergraduate degree, and without a high school diploma.”
In 2001, Stein was accepted into the doctoral program in the department of Sociology. And in 2002, she published her memoirs. “School’s been great,” she says.
In addition to her academic work, Stein has also been engaged in creative writing. “I try to have a light humorous side,” she says, “and a heavy side that studies totalitarianism and genocide."
READ MORE ABOUT THE "O" in Co-op Wars
© 2006, by Erik Farseth |
