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 […]
LBGT organisations close in the face of Tory cuts despite claims of support
Organisations supporting LBGT people are currently closing down at a rapid rate. Colin Wilson discusses why this is happening despite the British ruling class claiming to support LGBT people. The number of LGBT youth groups in the North West has halved since 2010, reports the Guardian recently in an article headlined “Services for LGBT young people […]
Sexism is not an imported product
Dozens of women were sexually harassed on New Year’s Eve in Germany. But rather than connecting the events to everyday sexist violence in Germany, the political and media establishments have focused on the nationalities of the alleged perpetrators argue Silke Stöckle and Marion Wegscheider. Originally published in German by marx21, translated into English by Kate Davison. […]
A homosexual Christmas in 1905 Berlin
Colin Wilson rediscovers a forgotten chapter of LGBT history in this account of a “uranian” Christmas, written by a leading campaigner over a hundred years ago. Magnus Hirschfeld was a doctor and a leader of the German LGBT movement from the 1890s to the 1930s.The text translated here is an excerpt from one of his earliest books, […]
Review: She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry
This documentary aims to celebrate the women’s movement of the 60s and 70s. But, argues Kate Bradley, it does little to offer inspiration to feminists today. “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women’s movement from 1966 to 1971.” So claims the website […]
HM 2015: Social reproduction and intersectionality
The Historical Materialism conference that took place in London earlier this month continued important debates around social reproduction and intersectionality. Here, Colin Wilson introduces the concept of social reproduction and summarises the discussions that took place in meetings with Tithi Bhattacharya, Alan Sears, Hester Eisenstein, Kate Davies and Lise Vogel. What is “social reproduction”? The first plenary of Historical Materialism, […]
Debating the work of sex work
Melissa Gira Grant responds to questions from Estelle Cooch about her work and her understanding of sex work today. Sex work has become the subject of heated debate within feminism. That debate is highly polarised – so much so that the two sides even tend to use different terms, “prostitution” and “sex work”, for the topic […]
Black Dissidents interview: “Real power comes from collective fights for liberation”
Black Dissidents were formed earlier this year and since then have been involved in fights against oppression from migration struggles to resisting evictions. Tomorrow they’ll be taking part in the UFFC Annual Remembrance Procession, 1pm, Trafalgar Square, London. Jaz Blackwell-Pal caught up with Shanice McBean from Black Dissidents to discuss the politics of the group, […]
Our existence is not up for debate: A reply to Germaine Greer and her defenders
Activists at Cardiff University started a petition a week ago to cancel a talk by Germaine Greer on the grounds of Greer’s transphobic hate speech. Greer has since cancelled, but not before many liberal and left commentators came to her defence. Sølvi and Shanice argue that with violence against trans people at appalling levels, solidarity with them should be […]
This story of a trans life is a step towards imagining real liberation
Sølvi reviews Trans: A Memoir by Juliet Jacques (Verso, £16.99) When Juliet Jacques started writing her Transgender Journey blog in the Guardian, I’m reasonably sure I didn’t even know what transgender was. I wish, in hindsight, I had. Perhaps it would have explained some aspects of my life. The fact that Jacques’ blog was the first […]
And so the radical vagina was most patriarchal of them all
Annie Teriba has had enough of a style of identity-politicking that delivers nothing for most women, but beats the war drum against Jeremy Corbyn, This summer, the trajectory of the Jeremy Corbyn surge has been mirrored by the most fascinating but also irritating brand of identity-politicking. After frequent reminders of Yvette Cooper’s radical vagina, comment pieces about how […]
Cops raid gay escort website: time to stop criminalising sex work
Colin Wilson condemns the US authorities’ raid this week on the New York-based website rentboy.com. On Tuesday, the New York Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security raided the offices of rentboy.com, taking away computers as evidence and arresting the site’s Chief Exec and six others on prostitution charges. The defendants face up to five years […]
Discrimination in selection?
Professional statistician Nancy Carpenter and Unite activist Ian Allinson explain how to check for discrimination in situations like redundancy selection. It’s common for employers to select employees for various purposes, including recruitment, redundancy, appraisals, pay rises, bonuses and promotions. It’s common for people to say such actions should be subject to “equality impact assessments” to […]
Women’s lives under austerity
Christine Bird, in an article originally published in the Leeds publication Northern Star, discusses the realities of many women of lives under capitalism and austerity, arguing that things weren’t always this way, and they won’t be like this forever. The Tory – LibDem coalition just gone was hardly at the forefront of the global struggle for […]
London Pride 2015: a snapshot of struggles past, present and to come
The Pride march in London was a snapshot of the strides LGBT politics have made over the years, writes Colin Wilson. And despite the huge corporate presence, it showed signs of a growing left. Photographs by Steve Eason. I went on my first Pride march in 1980. A few thousand people took part. I was 19, […]
London Pride: a chance to challenge the neoliberal LGBT agenda
London Pride is taking place this Saturday and in the run up has been hitting the headlines. Colin Wilson argues that the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners’ contingent on this year’s march provides a crucial opportunity for radical voices to be heard. As soon as the Pride Committee published the order in which groups […]
Five reasons why tomorrow’s Tower Hamlets election matters
Rabina Khan would be a mayor for women and a mayor against austerity, writes Andrew Ward Tomorrow morning brings the mayoral election in Tower Hamlets. The two frontrunners are Labour’s John Biggs and independent candidate Rabina Khan. Here is why a victory for the latter matters for left-wing politics in the East End, but also beyond. […]
Feminism from above and below
Estelle Cooch surveys the new feminist movements. This article first appeared in the Spring 2015 Issue of rs21 magazine. 2014 was a year of watersheds and contradictions. The global movement against rape and sexual violence seemed to gain its first major victories. In the UK a series of celebrity abusers faced prison and the horrific […]
We must fight domestic violence, but not with the hypocritical help of the Sun
Last week the Sun launched its “Give Me Shelter” campaign in defence of women’s refuges. A member of campaign group Sisters Uncut speaks out against the paper’s hypocrisy. Spread across the Sun’s front page last Monday were images of murdered women. The newspaper was right to report the shame of refuge closures and called on the UK […]