How do we push sexism back to the fringe?
Millions of women and men are disgusted by Trump’s casual misogyny, and they make up a not-so-silent majority that can drive a new resistance, writes Elizabeth Schulte. Originally published in the US Socialist Worker It’s the face of bigotry, of sexual assault, of xenophobia and of contempt for women. And it’s also the face of […]
Opening up a debate on black America – Beyoncé’s Lemonade
Monique Alicia Bell considers her favourite album of 2016 – Lemonade from Beyoncé I have been a Beyoncé fan since the days of Destiny’s Child, expressing my teenage moods by blasting ‘Emotions’ on repeat. As I watched women freaking out in excitement over this year’s visual album Lemonade, I decided I had to dedicate one full […]
“Ni Una Menos” – No Woman Left Behind
Suzie Wylie writing from Argentina discusses the Ni Una Menos movement On 8 October, 16-year-old Lucia Pérez was drugged, brutally raped, tortured and killed by 3 men in the Argentinian seaside city of Mar del Plata. Her heart stopped as a result of the pain she endured during the brutal attack. The men cleaned and dressed […]
Acting the part: emotional labour in the workplace
Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal explains how emotional labour at work is on the rise Konstantin Stanislavsky was a Russian actor and director who revolutionised theatre at the start of 20th century. Stanislavsky’s system of actor training, which drew on the actors own emotional memory to create a character, ushered in the psychological based form of acting that remains […]
Revolutionary portrait: Claudia Jones (1915–1964)
An early proponent of intersectionality, Claudia Jones’ life and legacy deserves recognition and another look argues Samir Kinks. “I was deported from the USA because, as a Negro woman Communist of West Indian descent, I was a thorn in their side,” Claudia Jones told a 1956 Caribbean News interview after her deportation to Britain. As […]
Notes on women, men, trans and intersex: “the gender binary does not fit the facts”
Colin Wilson discusses why the gender binary’s imposition is something to be opposed. One of the most widely accepted “common sense” ideas about society is that human beings – apart from a tiny number of exceptions, none of whom you are ever likely to meet – can be simply divided into two groups, men and […]
Review: America’s Hate Preachers
William C reviews America’s Hate Preachers, Hannah Livingston’s documentary on the homophobia and Islamophobia of the Christian far-right in the United States. “To me, LGBT stands for Let God Burn Them.” The churchgoers laugh as if they’re listening to a cute anecdote about a child learning to walk. This scene, shocking yet typical, sets the mood of America’s […]
Ched Evans and rape
Hazel Croft responds to the disgraceful final verdict in the Ched Evans case, which cleared the footballer of all charges of rape I am still feeling angry and nauseated by the response to the Ched Evans verdict. There is the vile abuse on twitter and other social media, which I can’t bring myself to look […]
A turning point in Polish politics: the #czarnyprotest and Monday’s women’s strike
Large protests have taken place in Poland against a proposed ban on abortion in all cases. On Monday (3 October) Polish women are taking part in a nationwide strike to defend their basic reproductive rights. Mark Bergfeld, who researches Polish immigrant workers as part of his PhD, spoke to Aleksandra Wolke who is a feminist […]
Review – Sex and the Weimar Republic
Colin Wilson reviews Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis by Laurie Marhoefer. This book offers a glimpse of a different kind of LGBT politics. Today we’ve made advances, but in the context of neoliberalism. In the Weimar Republic – Germany from 1918 to 1933 – there also existed a […]
Review: Lean Out
Kate Bradley reviews Dawn Foster’s Lean Out (Repeater Books, 2016), a book that challenges the liberal feminism promoted by Sheryl Sandberg’s business advice book, Lean In. Lean Out was a book that needed to be written. Liberal feminism is little better than no feminism at all, and now, instead of having to explain why every time […]
Eleanor Marx – Unrestrained by convention, unafraid to live her contradictions
The recent biography of Eleanor Marx shows she didn’t just interpret the world but acted to change it, says Charlie Burton. ‘Tussy is me’, Karl Marx once said of his youngest daughter, Eleanor. For not only did Tussy (the nickname given to her in infancy) inherit her father’s looks, she also inherited his thrust for […]
The rise of Red Pill philosophy and neo‑misogyny
Ciaran Colleran analyses the emergence of right wing ‘men’s rights’ groups ‘Men’s Right’s Activism’ and Red Pill Philosophy first revealed itself to the public in 2014 when Elliot Rodgers, who was associated with the movement, went on a murderous rampage, killing six people. In his online tirades against women he repeatedly referred to the jargon […]
Why I’m not celebrating the fall of Keith Vaz
Colin Wilson argues that the manner of Keith Vaz’s fall from grace is nothing for the left to rejoice in. I never thought I would feel the slightest sympathy for Keith Vaz. The parliamentary watchdog twice found he had received money without declaring it; he was sacked over his relationship with the wealthy Hinduja brothers; […]
Obituary: Bartley Willcock
Ian Allinson and Sam O’Brien describe the remarkable life of Brian Bartley Willcock who died last week at the age of 82. Note: this has been updated with some details about funeral arrangements at the bottom. From an early age Bartley got very involved in his local church, St Clement’s Higher Openshaw, across the road […]
Orlando vigil: We will not live in fear
Colin Wilson reports from central London. Thousands of people crammed the whole length of Old Compton Street on Monday evening to send the message “London stands with Orlando”. The huge crowd included Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor. Gay and lesbian couples stood side by side with tourists. Several young women wearing hijabs took part. […]
Don’t turn homophobia into Islamophobia
rs21 members feel both deep sorrow and anger at the murder of 50 people at an LGBT club in Orlando. We send our love and solidarity to everyone affected. Here we reproduce the response of Nicole Colson, writing in American Socialist Worker. Vigils are planned around Britain this evening: we hope to have a report […]
Trans politics today: an interview with Roz Kaveney
Back in 2014, Time magazine ran a front cover featuring actress and trans activist Laverne Cox with the headline ‘The transgender tipping point’. In the past five years the number of trans figures in the public sphere has grown, whilst at the same time the murder rate of trans women, predominantly women of colour, hit […]
Marxism and LGBT politics: a new wave of discussion
Colin Wilson reviews Peter Drucker’s book Warped: Gay Normality and Queer Anti-Capitalism, recently published in paperback. The last few years have seen a thoroughly welcome trend: the publication of a series of academic books which aim to bring together radical LGBT politics – often in the form of queer theory – and Marxism. It’s a […]
Reclaiming the future – new rs21 magazine out on Saturday
The Spring 2016 issue of the rs21 magazine will be out on Saturday. Order your copy or subscribe here*. Below, Rob Owen gives an overview of the new edition. Part of the union? What should socialists argue in the EU referendum? Our hot topic section lays out the different anti-capitalist arguments around how to approach the referendum. […]
The struggle for reproductive justice
On 16 April the Feminist Fightback collective led an action which prevented an anti-choice procession from reaching a local abortion clinic. Here the collective reports on the background to the action, tactics and the wider struggle. Now is a critical time in the struggle for reproductive justice. The movement to extend the abortion law that […]
Interview: Sex work in France
What attitude should we take to sex work? One approach is that of the “Nordic model” which criminalises those who buy sex, very largely men, rather than those who sell it, most of whom are women. Sex workers, however, object that the rhetoric behind such laws about improving the social position of women doesn’t match […]
Poles resist the attack on women’s rights
Aleksandra Wolke reports on a protest against the proposal to ban abortions in Poland, the largest Polish-led political protest in the UK in recent years. On Saturday 9 April thousands of people demonstrated across Poland against the proposed ban on abortion. The demonstrations were called by the Reclaim Choice Coalition (Porozumienie Odzyskać Wybór) which recently […]
What we should learn from Clinton’s lies
Colin Wilson puts Hillary Clinton’s comments on Nancy Reagan and AIDS into a personal and historical context.
On consent
Siân Ruddick, an independent sexual violence advocate, unpicks how revolutionaries should understand the politics of consent. In this article perpetrators are referred to as male and survivors as female. This is most common, but in no way seeks to deny that women can be perpetrators of sexual violence, that men can be survivors, or deny […]
Social reproduction: from theory to practice
Sara Bennett discusses the relevance today of Lise Vogel’s understanding of women’s oppression and the dynamics of capitalism Lise Vogel’s 1983 book Marxism and the Oppression of Women is an attempt to bring women’s oppression into the realm of Marxist political economy. She theorises the role of women in the reproduction of labour power, and […]
Peckham Community Pride 20/2/16 – report with photos and video
Report, photos and video by Steve Eason Peckham Community Pride, a political, non-commercial march through SE15 from Peckham Library down Rye Lane, protested the anti-immigration raids and the intimidating “go home vans” that have targeted Peckham. Community pride was called by the civil rights group Movement For Justice and Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSMigrants). […]
Review: The Imperial Radch trilogy
Amy Gilligan reviews Ann Leckie’s series of SciFi novels, set in a post-gender galaxy. Recently I found myself racing through Anne Leckie’s excellent Imperial Radch trilogy: Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Mercy and Ancillary Sword. It’s a great SciFi series, but also quite political, addressing questions around imperialism, workers’ rights and especially gender. There is also a lot […]
David Widgery: “Why do Lovers Break Each Other’s Hearts”
For Valentine’s Day we are reposting an article about love and sex under capitalism, by the activist and journalist David Widgery (1947-1992). Written in 1972, this piece was first published by Oxford Left Review in the October 2013 issue. Sexual love is the movement that breaks the rules; an uprising of the senses that abolishes propriety. Time alters. […]
Sexual and domestic violence after austerity: it’s bigger than Roosh V
Kat Burdon-Manley argues Roosh V the unsavoury face of a much bigger problem with structural and institutional racism and sexism Bang, Day Bang, 30 Bangs, Bang Poland, Bang Iceland, Bang Estonia, Bang Lithuania, Don’t Bang Denmark, and Bang Ukraine are just some of the titles of Roosh V’s books, and pretty much sum up his character […]