Post by tand on Sept 29, 2012 10:13:17 GMT -5
Fighting Bourgeois Heterosexism : Struggle & solidarity
Preface: As a communist and a queer, gender-bending woman, it is with great excitement, and a healthy dose of trepidation, that I take on this article. I come with great excitement, because I strongly believe that there is no true liberation from any form of oppression (among them, gender oppression and sexual oppression) under capitalism and this is a chance I have to take up the LGBT* struggle I share with you in solidarity. As for my trepidation, I can only attribute that to my awareness of my own set of limitations and biases when addressing these issues, and I do not make the mistake of underestimating the depth and pervasiveness of this particular form of oppression. And so, echoing the demands of a collective of Maoist Lesbians published nearly 40 years ago, and amending it to include trans* identified individuals, I demand on behalf of all LGBT* people-
1. that the Marxist-Leninist methodology of dialectical and historical materialism be applied to the gay question and that subjectivist, “natural” bourgeois ideas based on no investigation be cast aside;
2. that serious criticism/self-criticism be made of anti-gay attitudes among comrades;
3. that gay people who hold ideological, political and organizational unity with a communist organization be allowed membership;
4. that the democratic rights of gay people be firmly upheld and struggled for by communists;
5. that evidence of anti-gay attitudes among the working class be struggled with by showing whose interests such prejudices actually serve.” 1
Lal Salam!
Today, I hope to challenge the heterosexism, homophobia and trans*phobia capitalism has socialized us to perpetuate even within our most radical and militant factions with principled Marxist investigation. I urge you to take the path of revolutionary class solidarity regardless of whatever personal insecurities and opinions you may have regarding LGBT* (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Trans-sexual) groups or people.
Firstly, rather than trying to define who are LGBT* people, I will address who they are not. There are many reasons I chose to approach the question this way, mainly because LGBT* folks are not a subgroup of society that lives in a vacuum removed from the ‘rest’ of society; they are as complex and multifaceted as each and every individual who lives and toils alongside one another. Consequently, LGBT* people are not individuals who, either by choice or unintentionally, reinforce a vicious cycle of bourgeois decadence by abandoning class struggle. Likewise, ‘homosexual behavior’is far from an unnatural aberration or a ‘sickness’ of which one must be cured; ‘homosexuality’ is not a cunning and devious scheme orchestrated by the ruling class in order to further divide the working class. In the same vein, a transgender man or woman is not a confused or mentally-ill individual by the strict virtue of their being trans*, nor can they be accused of being a ‘gender traitor’.
As Communists, we are more than familiar with the relations between capitalism’s unquenchable lust for profits and, for example, institutionalized white supremacy which was methodically crafted by, and for, imperialism and colonialism. Now allow me to elaborate on the similar relations between institutionalized heterosexism and trans*phobia. Capitalism needs to divide in order to conquer; its relentless quest for continual increases of productivity in order for owners to take advantage of the profits thusly created, it’s fetishization of and devotion to the protection of private property, can only be achieved by pitting segments of the work force against one another, be it with bullets or be it with Bibles. In this endeavor, capitalism has been painstakingly thorough and has truly left no stone unturned in order to keep us, the oppressed, from overthrowing our oppressors.
International LGBT parade in Nepal
Within this capitalist system, each and every person is no more than a cog in the machinery that transforms raw material into goods. Their relations to one another are meticulously pre-determined and plotted out, and their movement within this hierarchy is limited by unbreakable glass ceilings (with very, very few exceptions). Consequently, ‘traditional’ gender roles, including but not limited to sexual preferences and exterior presentation, were crafted; and strict, rigorous, and immutable social norms have, through blood, sweat, and tears, been enforced - and continue to be. By engaging in homosexual and trans*behaviors and ‘life-styles,’ these individuals fail to fulfill prescribed roles and functions (and to relate to one-another based on these artificial constructs), they fly in the face of this pre-determined mold. It is this deviation, this ‘revolting’ set of social relations that constitute an act of rebellion. It is important to note that LGBT* folks are a varied and diverse group, and are far from exempted from perpetuating oppressions amongst themselves and society as a whole; the continual marginalization and silencing of trans* folks (and trans*women of color in particular) attests to the fact, and brings to the forefront this lesson painfully learned time and time again. This digression, unseemly though it was, is important because it highlights the ‘hierarchy of privilege’ which divides, weakens, and grievously harms all LGBT* folks in general, and hinders united action addressing the root cause of oppression: capitalism.
Similarly, when in historical retrospect, homosexuality has challenged private property by disrupting the accepted line of succession/heredity which permits the transmission (and continuation) of property from father to son in a clearly defined patriarchal society, I will argue that homosexuality presents/constitutes today rather a formidable act of defiance to the accepted, oppressive, and heterosexist gender roles I mentioned previously, with particular attention paid to reproductive labor. Let me explore the role of heterosexism in maintaining a worker dynamic where cis-men (that is to say people capitalist society has assigned the gender of male at birth) work, and cis-women (individuals who were assigned the gender of ‘female’ at birth) support and/or work.; the support is necessary in the up-bringing and development of the future work-force from which capitalists draw their labor for as little cost as possible. The painstakingly crafted norms of ‘women’s role’ provide a coercive force to ensure the support work is done entirely unpaid. If two or more people are in a homosexual or trans* relationship, who does the support work? Does the capitalist State take on the costs and efforts needed (a highly time-consuming and costly enterprise)? Thusly, trans* identifying folks are walking critiques of the accepted and violently enforced ‘gender as biologically determined’ view of social and labor relations, and threaten the coercive power of capitalist gender roles.Long before the ‘Great Discoveries’ in the 15th and 16th centuries by European powers (and the subsequent pillage, ethnocide, and exploitation that followed), multi-gender societies, cultures spread across the Globe where all manners of sexualities were accepted and practiced, were the norm.
Unfortunately, the social relations, and relations to property and to labor, were far from compatible with imperialist Europe’s budding capitalism. Consequently, the oxymoronic ‘burden’ and ‘enterprise’ of ‘civilizing’ was enthusiastically undertaken by violently and deliberately destroying and erasing from collective memory the pre-contact view and expressions of gender and sexuality; two-spirited folks and LGBT* individuals were the first to be murdered, and bore the brunt of religious imperialist projects. During its inception, homosexuality and, in particular, trans* ‘life-styles’ were a direct attack against the very foundations of the capitalist social system, I cannot argue the same today, for ‘homosexuality’ is not, in and of itself, a revolutionary force; one only has to look at the ultra-privileged members of the ‘Gay community,’ almost exclusively white cis-gay men, who’ve taken on the ‘struggle’ for marriage (and therefore, a whole host of property protection and perpetuation politics) and fight only to infiltrate the segment of the ruling class which had been, for a time, denied them. However, I maintain that the gender-binary is a pillar of social and class relations and capitalist oppression. If members of society cease to relate to each other in a reified class structure in one area, all areas are under attack. And so capitalism has, out of necessity and ubiquitous pragmatism, added heterosexism, homophobia, and trans*phobia to its arsenal against the people.
Looking back to the USSR in its early days when Lenin was Chairman of the Sovnarkom as an example of principled communist dismantlement of ALL oppressions, paying close attention to LGBT* (or queer) emancipation.When the Bolsheviks came to power in October of 1917, Tsarist laws criminalizing homosexuality and abortion were revoked.3
After the 1917 revolution, men, women, and individuals who didn’t identify closely with either of those categories, were greeted as ‘energetic and enterprising participants in the new society's political, economic and military life.’2 In fact, women freely and openly professing their love for women ‘could be found in academic and cultural institutions as well as in the military--even high up in the Red Army command.’ Likewise, folks who rejected their assigned gender roles (such as ‘cross-dressing army commanders’) were not rejected or vilified, their lifestyles were not considered ‘crimes against nature,’ they were not deemed mentally-ill by family and friends; rather, they were fully integrated and functional members of post-revolutionary society in a time of war and of peace.
LGBT* people are your comrades. We are mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, we are nurtures and protectors. We are teachers, and farmers, and workers.We have, we are, and we will fight this overabundance of oppressions alongside you, alongside all our comrades, regardless of the falsely concocted divisions of capitalism. As Huey P. Newton of the Black Panthers said, ‘[t]here is nothing to say a homosexual cannot also be a revolutionary. […] We should deal with the factions just as we deal with any other group or party that claims to be revolutionary. We should try to judge, somehow, whether they are operating in a sincere revolutionary fashion and from a really oppressed situation. […] If they do things that are unrevolutionary or counter-revolutionary, then criticize that action. [G]ay liberation front are our friends, they are our potential allies, and we need as many allies as possible.’4 Let the Internationale truly unite the human race.
1 kasamaproject.org/2011/07/12/early-maoist-critique-of-anti-gay-bigotry-among-maoists/
2
www.workers.org/ww/2004/prideseries0819.php
3 www.workers.org/ww/2004/lgbtpride130826.php
4 www.workers.org/2012/us/huey_p_newton_0524/
Regina Nagyrevi
toanewdawn.blogspot.in/2012/09/fighting-bourgeois-heterosexism.html
Preface: As a communist and a queer, gender-bending woman, it is with great excitement, and a healthy dose of trepidation, that I take on this article. I come with great excitement, because I strongly believe that there is no true liberation from any form of oppression (among them, gender oppression and sexual oppression) under capitalism and this is a chance I have to take up the LGBT* struggle I share with you in solidarity. As for my trepidation, I can only attribute that to my awareness of my own set of limitations and biases when addressing these issues, and I do not make the mistake of underestimating the depth and pervasiveness of this particular form of oppression. And so, echoing the demands of a collective of Maoist Lesbians published nearly 40 years ago, and amending it to include trans* identified individuals, I demand on behalf of all LGBT* people-
1. that the Marxist-Leninist methodology of dialectical and historical materialism be applied to the gay question and that subjectivist, “natural” bourgeois ideas based on no investigation be cast aside;
2. that serious criticism/self-criticism be made of anti-gay attitudes among comrades;
3. that gay people who hold ideological, political and organizational unity with a communist organization be allowed membership;
4. that the democratic rights of gay people be firmly upheld and struggled for by communists;
5. that evidence of anti-gay attitudes among the working class be struggled with by showing whose interests such prejudices actually serve.” 1
Lal Salam!
Today, I hope to challenge the heterosexism, homophobia and trans*phobia capitalism has socialized us to perpetuate even within our most radical and militant factions with principled Marxist investigation. I urge you to take the path of revolutionary class solidarity regardless of whatever personal insecurities and opinions you may have regarding LGBT* (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Trans-sexual) groups or people.
Firstly, rather than trying to define who are LGBT* people, I will address who they are not. There are many reasons I chose to approach the question this way, mainly because LGBT* folks are not a subgroup of society that lives in a vacuum removed from the ‘rest’ of society; they are as complex and multifaceted as each and every individual who lives and toils alongside one another. Consequently, LGBT* people are not individuals who, either by choice or unintentionally, reinforce a vicious cycle of bourgeois decadence by abandoning class struggle. Likewise, ‘homosexual behavior’is far from an unnatural aberration or a ‘sickness’ of which one must be cured; ‘homosexuality’ is not a cunning and devious scheme orchestrated by the ruling class in order to further divide the working class. In the same vein, a transgender man or woman is not a confused or mentally-ill individual by the strict virtue of their being trans*, nor can they be accused of being a ‘gender traitor’.
As Communists, we are more than familiar with the relations between capitalism’s unquenchable lust for profits and, for example, institutionalized white supremacy which was methodically crafted by, and for, imperialism and colonialism. Now allow me to elaborate on the similar relations between institutionalized heterosexism and trans*phobia. Capitalism needs to divide in order to conquer; its relentless quest for continual increases of productivity in order for owners to take advantage of the profits thusly created, it’s fetishization of and devotion to the protection of private property, can only be achieved by pitting segments of the work force against one another, be it with bullets or be it with Bibles. In this endeavor, capitalism has been painstakingly thorough and has truly left no stone unturned in order to keep us, the oppressed, from overthrowing our oppressors.
International LGBT parade in Nepal
Within this capitalist system, each and every person is no more than a cog in the machinery that transforms raw material into goods. Their relations to one another are meticulously pre-determined and plotted out, and their movement within this hierarchy is limited by unbreakable glass ceilings (with very, very few exceptions). Consequently, ‘traditional’ gender roles, including but not limited to sexual preferences and exterior presentation, were crafted; and strict, rigorous, and immutable social norms have, through blood, sweat, and tears, been enforced - and continue to be. By engaging in homosexual and trans*behaviors and ‘life-styles,’ these individuals fail to fulfill prescribed roles and functions (and to relate to one-another based on these artificial constructs), they fly in the face of this pre-determined mold. It is this deviation, this ‘revolting’ set of social relations that constitute an act of rebellion. It is important to note that LGBT* folks are a varied and diverse group, and are far from exempted from perpetuating oppressions amongst themselves and society as a whole; the continual marginalization and silencing of trans* folks (and trans*women of color in particular) attests to the fact, and brings to the forefront this lesson painfully learned time and time again. This digression, unseemly though it was, is important because it highlights the ‘hierarchy of privilege’ which divides, weakens, and grievously harms all LGBT* folks in general, and hinders united action addressing the root cause of oppression: capitalism.
Similarly, when in historical retrospect, homosexuality has challenged private property by disrupting the accepted line of succession/heredity which permits the transmission (and continuation) of property from father to son in a clearly defined patriarchal society, I will argue that homosexuality presents/constitutes today rather a formidable act of defiance to the accepted, oppressive, and heterosexist gender roles I mentioned previously, with particular attention paid to reproductive labor. Let me explore the role of heterosexism in maintaining a worker dynamic where cis-men (that is to say people capitalist society has assigned the gender of male at birth) work, and cis-women (individuals who were assigned the gender of ‘female’ at birth) support and/or work.; the support is necessary in the up-bringing and development of the future work-force from which capitalists draw their labor for as little cost as possible. The painstakingly crafted norms of ‘women’s role’ provide a coercive force to ensure the support work is done entirely unpaid. If two or more people are in a homosexual or trans* relationship, who does the support work? Does the capitalist State take on the costs and efforts needed (a highly time-consuming and costly enterprise)? Thusly, trans* identifying folks are walking critiques of the accepted and violently enforced ‘gender as biologically determined’ view of social and labor relations, and threaten the coercive power of capitalist gender roles.Long before the ‘Great Discoveries’ in the 15th and 16th centuries by European powers (and the subsequent pillage, ethnocide, and exploitation that followed), multi-gender societies, cultures spread across the Globe where all manners of sexualities were accepted and practiced, were the norm.
Unfortunately, the social relations, and relations to property and to labor, were far from compatible with imperialist Europe’s budding capitalism. Consequently, the oxymoronic ‘burden’ and ‘enterprise’ of ‘civilizing’ was enthusiastically undertaken by violently and deliberately destroying and erasing from collective memory the pre-contact view and expressions of gender and sexuality; two-spirited folks and LGBT* individuals were the first to be murdered, and bore the brunt of religious imperialist projects. During its inception, homosexuality and, in particular, trans* ‘life-styles’ were a direct attack against the very foundations of the capitalist social system, I cannot argue the same today, for ‘homosexuality’ is not, in and of itself, a revolutionary force; one only has to look at the ultra-privileged members of the ‘Gay community,’ almost exclusively white cis-gay men, who’ve taken on the ‘struggle’ for marriage (and therefore, a whole host of property protection and perpetuation politics) and fight only to infiltrate the segment of the ruling class which had been, for a time, denied them. However, I maintain that the gender-binary is a pillar of social and class relations and capitalist oppression. If members of society cease to relate to each other in a reified class structure in one area, all areas are under attack. And so capitalism has, out of necessity and ubiquitous pragmatism, added heterosexism, homophobia, and trans*phobia to its arsenal against the people.
Looking back to the USSR in its early days when Lenin was Chairman of the Sovnarkom as an example of principled communist dismantlement of ALL oppressions, paying close attention to LGBT* (or queer) emancipation.When the Bolsheviks came to power in October of 1917, Tsarist laws criminalizing homosexuality and abortion were revoked.3
After the 1917 revolution, men, women, and individuals who didn’t identify closely with either of those categories, were greeted as ‘energetic and enterprising participants in the new society's political, economic and military life.’2 In fact, women freely and openly professing their love for women ‘could be found in academic and cultural institutions as well as in the military--even high up in the Red Army command.’ Likewise, folks who rejected their assigned gender roles (such as ‘cross-dressing army commanders’) were not rejected or vilified, their lifestyles were not considered ‘crimes against nature,’ they were not deemed mentally-ill by family and friends; rather, they were fully integrated and functional members of post-revolutionary society in a time of war and of peace.
LGBT* people are your comrades. We are mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, we are nurtures and protectors. We are teachers, and farmers, and workers.We have, we are, and we will fight this overabundance of oppressions alongside you, alongside all our comrades, regardless of the falsely concocted divisions of capitalism. As Huey P. Newton of the Black Panthers said, ‘[t]here is nothing to say a homosexual cannot also be a revolutionary. […] We should deal with the factions just as we deal with any other group or party that claims to be revolutionary. We should try to judge, somehow, whether they are operating in a sincere revolutionary fashion and from a really oppressed situation. […] If they do things that are unrevolutionary or counter-revolutionary, then criticize that action. [G]ay liberation front are our friends, they are our potential allies, and we need as many allies as possible.’4 Let the Internationale truly unite the human race.
1 kasamaproject.org/2011/07/12/early-maoist-critique-of-anti-gay-bigotry-among-maoists/
2
www.workers.org/ww/2004/prideseries0819.php
3 www.workers.org/ww/2004/lgbtpride130826.php
4 www.workers.org/2012/us/huey_p_newton_0524/
Regina Nagyrevi
toanewdawn.blogspot.in/2012/09/fighting-bourgeois-heterosexism.html