Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century
 
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Review | Who’s Afraid of Gender?

Around the world, the right are mobilising around “gender”. Colin Wilson reviews Judith Butler’s new intervention.

Rishi Sunak grinning at a baby, and on right, Sunak at a conservative party conference stage.

The Tories’ pro-natalism agenda

Colin Wilson unpacks the right-wing agendas behind the new Tory childcare policy.

Cass Review: dangerous and transphobic

Lisa Leak and Colin Wilson explain why we should reject Cass and renew the fight for trans liberation.

Queers for Palestine

Opposing the ‘pink-washing’ of Israel – rs21 member Colin Wilson explains the importance of a slogan increasingly seen on Palestine solidarity protests.

Resisting transphobia at the Working Class Movement Library

The rs21 steering group reports on the campaign against transphobic attacks

Working Class Movement Library – Stand up to transphobia

Solidarity against transphobia must be a principle of the movement.

London Trans+ Pride shows that pride is a protest

On 8 July, rs21 members marched as part of a trade union bloc at London Trans+ Pride. Events like this remind us of our collective power and determination.

Schofield: a homophobic attack, an unequal relationship

The Philip Schofield affair highlights both homophobia and the reality of sexual abuse in certain workplaces.

Image shows five Indonesian protesters holding signs including 'Tolak RKUHP' - "resist the criminal code". It is a mix of men and women and their faces are masked.

The state strikes again: the new Indonesian criminal code

Frans Ari Prasetyo explains the new repressive criminal code that has just been passed in Indonesia – and outlines the resistance it faces.

People hold placard reading "trans bodies are not a political playground"

Stand together against attacks on trans people

Over forty local vigils for Brianna Ghey are planned. Stand together against the transphobes.

Trans+ Pride, London, 2020

Edinburgh fights transphobia

Staff, students and socialists stop the screening of a transphobic film at the University of Edinburgh.

Artwork of Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston and Derrick Rump

After the Club Q shooting: building a movement for liberation

The context of the attack, and the radical LGBTQ movement we need.

LGBT+ activists block out transphobic bigots

Gender Recognition Reform in Scotland

The de-medicalisation of Gender Recognition in Scotland appeared to have majority political support, but as rs21 members Graham Checkley and Leslie Cunningham describe it has revealed a vein of transphobia.

Image shows a row of men standing in the Qatari football stadium, with representatives from Qatar and Jair Bolsonaro.

Ideologues, apologists and the Qatar World Cup

Something ulterior is at work in the sudden outpouring of concern for queer fans at the Qatar World Cup, argues Lisa Leak.

Trans+ Pride, London, 2020

Fighting the US right and its anti-trans crusade

The US right has proposed over 200 bills attacking trans people. Why are they so obsessed? How can trans people and the left fight back?

Drag Queen Story Time in the US

Norwich campaigners defend Drag Queen Story Hour

Transphobic and far right protesters were greatly outnumbered.

Boycott Coors leaflet shown against Pride Progress flag

When unions and LGBT people fought together in the 1970s

San Francisco gay activists joined a boycott of a union-breaking, racist and homophobic beer company

LGSM members' die-in on the Pride route

Activists tell Pride in London: ‘no pride in cops or borders’

On Saturday 2 July, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants halted the Pride in London march to protest against police presence at the event.

Marchers in the Resistance contingent of the 2017 San Francisco Pride Parade hold signs reading "Stop Police Terror" and "Black & Brown Lives Matter"

Queer liberation and socialism: learning from the stories of a movement

Dana Cloud writes about the history of queer liberation struggle in the United States, its socialist origins, and lessons for today’s queer politics.

Rally of striking NEU members with the Girls Day School Trust (GDST) in Parliament square in February 2022.

Standing up for education – NEU Conference 2022 report

An unpredictable conference of the National Education Union showed an instinctive aversion to oppression and a desire to take action, but competing visions and priorities about how to deliver it. Conference delegates John Stephens and Andrew Stone report (in a personal capacity).

Ban conversion torture

The Tories’ attempt to exclude trans people from the ‘conversion therapy’ ban has triggered a massive backlash.

Photo shows protestors rallying round a speaker outside NHS england and Elephant and Castle underground station at the demonstration on 4 December 2021, called by transgender action block.

A huge step forward for trans protest in Britain

rs21’s Charlotte Powell reports on a demonstration outside NHS England and explains why it is a hugely important moment in the struggle for trans liberation in Britain.

Tweet by Kathleen Stock @Docstockk reads 'My former union branch @sussexucu has just effectively ended my career at Sussex University. This just sent to all members. 'Statement in support of Trans and Nonbinary communities at Sussex'. Screengrab of tweet overlaid with trans pride flag colours.

When is it right for a union to support dismissal?

Kathleen Stock has blamed UCU for her decision to resign from her position.

Review | Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment

We need a feminism integrated with struggles for economic justice and against racism, homophobia and transphobia.

Review | Let the record show

‘Let The Record Show’ is a pathbreaking history of ACT UP founded to fight the AIDS/HIV crisis in New York in the late 1980s.

graffiti in Holyrood Park, near the Scottish Parliament showing a heart transgender symbol

No more ‘delays’ to trans rights: reform the GRA now!

Scotland-based rs21 member Leslie Cunningham argues we should all be fighting in the struggle for trans rights, and asks: why the delays to reforming the Gender Recognition Act?

Large crowd at Black Trans Lives Matter demonstration in London

Video: building the fightback against transphobia in Britain

Charlotte Powell and Jules Joanne Gleeson speak about what is needed to win trans liberation and defeat transphobia in Britain.

A crowd of people marching through central london at a Black Trans Lives Matter demonstration

Video: The state of transphobia in Britain

In December, rs21 organised a meeting ‘Transphobia in Britain: Building the Fightback’. Here we present two of the speeches from that meeting, which give an overview of transphobia in Britain, its impact, and prospects for its defeat.

Image shows an internal chamber of the Seimas, the seat of Lithuania's parliament in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Civil partnerships and reproductive rights in Eastern Europe: an interview with Laima Vaige

rs21’s Leslie Cunningham interviews Dr. Laima Vaige, a feminist and LGBTQ activist from Lithuania, on same-sex partnerships in Lithuania, abortion rights in Poland, and LGBTQ people’s experiences across Europe during the Covid crisis.

Ash (Nathaniel Curtis, left) and Ritchie (Olly Alexander) in Russell T Davies' It's a Sin.

Review | It’s a sin

It’s a Sin is a compelling account of the human suffering of the AIDS epidemic and homophobia in the 80s, but the show sometimes seems to be dodging the big political questions.