PSL President Candidate Claudia De la Cruz Responds to Infamous Steven Powers Case
Updated Oct 6 with picture of Powers.
On July 17 independent presidential candidate Claudia De la Cruz on the ticket for the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) gave a speech in Gainesville about her presidential campaign and goals of ending capitalism in America. De la Cruz is running alongside her Vice-Presidential (VP) pick Karina Garcia, however, Garcia was not present in Gainesville, as they appear to be campaigning separately to cover more ground across the United States.
During an interview De la Cruz was asked if internal investigations are acceptable in governance or if outside parties should be able to come in and investigate allegations of misconduct.
De la Cruz responded, “No one should ever investigate themselves. Even when you think about corporations, a lot of the folks that investigate or do any type of federal assessment are not outside bodies. They actually allow them to regulate and access themselves, like Boeing for example. In terms of the government and in terms of any of these corporations, having bodies that are actually accountable to the people of this country is important.”
Immediately after this question, De la Cruz was asked if she had knowledge to or awareness of any internal handlings within PSL regarding allegations of date rape made against a vetted PSL Philadelphia member Shawn Powers in 2020.
De la Cruz responded “Oh you waited real long for that one. I wasn’t a part of the PSL then but I can tell you this much. I’m a woman in leadership at PSL and there's a lot of women in leadership in PSL. We do have an internal process to deal with those issues. I will also add that every organization existing in the capitalist system has baggage that comes from living in a capitalist system. The question is what do you actually do to solve those problems internally within an organization? Anarchists have that problem, Black organizations have those problems, collectives have those problems. We have an internal process with a committee of women that actually engage in investigating such cases. People have been purged out of the organization and people have been placed on hold while the organization investigates the process. We are an organization that has an internal process and I think that people reading on Medium rather than talking and asking like you are; are not necessarily helping the movement and are doing the job of agents.”
In December 2020 De la Cruz's VP pick, Garcia, signed a response along with a dozen other women PSL leaders denying allegations of covering up alleged sexual abuse by a PSL party member in Philadelphia, Steven Powers, against his then partner who is commonly referenced with pseudonym Griselda Aclarado. It was reported to PSL that Powers had sex with a woman, who is referenced as Maya, and proceeded to coerce Aclarado into sex without a condom and give them a sexually transmitted infection, which PSL vehemently denied.
PSL’s statement alleged that Aclarado was making the allegations out of vengeance due to Powers being romantically involved with Maya. PSL’s statement alleged Aclarado defamed Maya by discrediting the consentualness of their relationship despite Maya being 23. PSL additionally stated that Aclarado was racist against Maya for being Black and made racist anti-Black statements against her.
Sometime during or shortly after PSL’s internal investigation into the matter, a transgender man named Dakota made a public resignation from PSL, saying PSL had punished him because he advocated for Aclarado and questioned the process of PSL’s internal investigation. Dakota said he was internally charged with violating multiple statutes of PSL’s party constitution because of bringing up these concerns, such as being asked by an investigator for all the text messages he sent Aclarado despite already sending all the messages which related to the investigation.
PSL said in their statement that there were text messages proving the coerced rape being alleged by Aclarado was in fact overtly consensual, however, these text messages were not shown in the statement. Dakota did provide screenshots of the text messages he alleged to have occurred in his statement.
Dakota acknowledged that several of the allegations may not be true due to the accuser's proneness to manic episodes and diagnosed bipolar disorder, however, his point was that the PSL leaders investigating the allegations should’ve taken this into consideration instead of using it as evidence that the allegations were false.
Shortly after Dakota’s resignation, a document containing the aforementioned allegations which PSL responded to began circulating internally within the leadership of PSL along with some rank-and-file members. The document was titled “Statement of Criticism Regarding Serious Errors in the Handling of the Philadelphia Branch Situation,” and was made by six PSL members who referenced themselves as endorsers of the statement. Whoever leaked the document wrote that most of the names of endorsers were manually removed due to some of them still being in PSL.
The endorsers made it clear that they were not criticizing the internal investigators for their ultimate finding that sexual assault had not been committed, but were criticizing them for their perceived misconceptions about sexual assault and rape, as well as their conduct throughout the investigation. They reported that three endorsers had found the alleged violation had been committed by Powers, with two abstaining from an opinion, and one questioning the validity of the allegations.
The endorsers said that PSL lied in their statement when they said Aclarado had not originally alleged overt sexual abuse showing text messages that were allegedly shown to PSL party members at the start of the investigation. The messages stated “So Friday, when he was being overly coercive to get me to have unprotected sex— I was patient with him. I said no 10 times before I would literally move away from him— and that happened like 5 separate times on Friday. Pushing his boner into me, putting my hand on his cock. Because I thought that this is just how he grieves, and that he needs to feel connected to me this way and he needs this escapism.” Aclarado went on to text that she eventually relented and coercively agreed to sex for an “escape.” In PSL’s statement they referenced these text messages of Aclarado saying they had sex for an “escape” as consent, however, this shows the text messages were taken out of context and that the consent was being coerced.
Additionally, the endorsers say PSL doxed Aclarado, revealing that in the original statement published, Aclarado’s real name was not redacted, as it is in the version which was found by GnvInfo.
The endorsers said the allegations of racism against Aclarado by PSL were warranted, reporting she “has engaged frequently in anti-Black racism against PSL members in vitriolic attacks on Twitter, which we strongly condemn.”
The endorsers go on to accuse PSL of ableism for making out Aclarado to be erratic in their statement without acknowledgement of their diagnoses with bipolar disorder. They reported PSL contributed to the “‘hysterical women’ stereotype.” They also reported that at the time of the document’s release (2020) the PSL branch in Chicago did not have a wheelchair ramp, causing disabled party members to be put in uncomfortable carrying situations, and that concerns about this were repeatedly ignored.
The endorsers also acknowledged text messages from Aclarado alleging Powers had threatened to kick her door down writing, “The open question of whether the accused member intended to use misogynist violence in this instance has no bearing on the fact of its impact as misogynist violence.”
The endorsers concluded that Powers had committed date rape due to coercing Aclarado for sex by repeatedly asking her for sex until she relented. The endorsers implored that the rape didn’t justify Aclarado’s anti-Black racism, while also holding that PSL did not have any right to use Aclarado’s racism to discredit the allegations. They wrote “It is ripped straight from the script of a daytime courtroom procedural drama, only now [PSL] has cast thirteen women in the part of the sleazy defense lawyer.”
The endorsers credibility increases as they originally reported that one of PSL Philly’s members had violated rules by hanging out with Powers during the investigation in an informal social capacity, and later revising that it was clarified that this member had not violated the rules as it was permitted for PSL members to hang out with Powers in an informal social capacity as the investigation was ongoing.
The leaked document is approximately 23 pages long and goes into more detail about allegations of transphobia along with more specifics of PSL’s alleged coverup to the extent of Powers’ allegations.
Two days after PSL released their statement in response to the endorsers, a former PSL Atlanta member who goes by Shae wrote publicly on Medium that they were concerned about the situation and asked a leader, being assured that PSL was handling the allegations appropriately with a diverse group of investigators. Shae wrote PSL’s statement “was revealed to be nothing more than an attempt to discredit the victim based on flimsy accusations of anti-Blackness and erraticism.”
Shae also reports “comrades who left after [PSL’s] statement was released were subjected to calls where leadership attempted to justify the horrendous nature of the statement, most notably the decision by the ‘Women of the PSL’ to doxx the survivor of Steven Powers’ abuse.”
After the statement, PSL Philly encouraged their members to like a tweet which contained Aclarado’s real name. PSL took the thread down after being begged by Aclarado.
After PSL released their statement the endorsers issued a 10-page response, which said the statement was made by a “collection of strawmen meant to discredit concerned members and resignees in order to retain membership.” They report, “Rape is never acceptable. It is not acceptable to rape a woman who engages in racist behavior, and a man who would rape a racist woman would rape anti-racist women as well. Therefore, any investigation by leadership into the perpetrator’s sexual assault, and any presentation of the situation to members not involved in the investigation, should have been conducted professionally and without consideration of the victim’s putative racism. Instead, it has been cited by the party as ‘discrediting on political grounds.’ Among many things, this professional conduct would have included not citing harassment to erode sympathy for the accuser among rank-and-file members before the investigation had even concluded. Despite the continued assertions of PSL leadership, this issue was in no way handled in the only way it could have been.”
The endorsers said PSL’s claim that the endorsers were part of a “‘white male’ ‘coverup’” was a lie, and that the endorsers included two people who are “trans-masculine…. A Palestinian woman, an Indigenous trans woman, and two other trans people who are not men. The white male signatory of this document is a gay survivor of both child abuse and intimate partner abuse.” The endorsers held that if they were all white men it wouldn't have affected the credibility of their findings. They also criticized PSL for not acknowledging Powers is a white man while Aclarado is Latina.
Two years ago Gainesville Police Department 2023 Officer of the Year Emma Spaulding, along with Officer Tommy, allowed Corporal Brooke Shutterly to commit sexual assault against three exotic dancers under the authority of Sergeant Aaron Wagle. All were permitted to remain GPD officers after an internal investigation. Similarly, after PSL’s internal investigation, Powers was permitted to “resume political activity,” after his suspension.
The endorsers said this represents a pattern of poor handling of alleged sexual abuse in various PSL chapters around the country. The PSL Gainesville Chapter doesn’t appear to have participated in this pattern, with there being no reports or allegations of sexual abuse or any other form of misconduct within the local chapter to GnvInfo’s present knowledge.
All of the documents relating to PSL that are referenced in this article are held within an even larger document which contains over a dozen first-hand accounts and criticisms against various PSL chapters around the U.S. for their handling of alleged misconduct, whether it be physical, emotional, sexual, financial, or racial.
One of the items contained in the document is a screenshot which appears to show that sometime after Powers’ suspension was lifted he was permitted to “[interact] with comrades on a social basis.” Powers reportedly requested a leave of absence to “rebuild his personal life” and “make it easier for the branch to move forward and put the controversy behind us.”
After the interview with De la Cruz, while Gnvinfo was waiting for the event to begin, De la Cruz approached Gnvinfo in an attempt to dissuade the allegations more, saying Gnvinfo didn’t ask the intended questions and that PSL Philly should’ve been asked directly. Gnvinfo informed her the intended questions were asked.
De la Cruz asked if Gnvinfo was aware of how long PSL was a party and told no, and she responded 20 years. She made it a point saying this incident was “one thing” in 20 years. De la Cruz was then told there was knowledge that it was not “one thing” as the document also included allegations of misconduct in Chicago. De la Cruz said the Chicago branch should be asked. Gnvinfo told her it was presumed to be appropriate to ask her as she’s a leader in PSL.
Presently, allegations of misconduct into the PSL Chicago branch have not been looked into by GnvInfo to the same extent of research done into the Powers case in Philadelphia, however, transphobia is alleged along with allegations of an alleged abuser in PSL Chicago being transferred to the PSL Atlanta branch.
De la Cruz implied that GnvInfo was getting misinformation from federal agents on medium, presumably in reference to Shae’s article. Gnvinfo referenced the larger document which contained text messages from Aclarado that directly conflicted with PSL's statement.
De la Cruz said there was a video that should be watched regarding the allegations and that it could be found on their campaigns’ Tik Tok account. She implied that it could be found easily. The pinned videos on the account i.e. the videos purposely posted to the top of the account do not appear to address any of the allegations. The only form of allegation addressment from De la Cruz and Garcia which was found on Tik Tok was a reposted screen recording of a live stream which did not reference the Powers case and was in reference to a different situation which initially appears to involve alleged financial misconduct. Presently, these allegations haven’t been investigated by GnvInfo. If a different Tik Tok video regarding the Powers case is found this article will be updated.
One of the prominent accusations in the overarching document containing the Powers case accuses PSL of engaging in “cult-like activity at the institutional level.”
De la Cruz and her VP Garcia will be continuing their tours across the country to promote their independent presidential campaign.
