I Bring Her a Flower
On the 100th anniversary of the murder of Rosa Luxemburg, we republish a poetic tribute to her written by Sylvia Townsend Warner.
Favourites of 2018: rs21 reviewers recommend…
Our reviewers recommend the music, films, books, exhibitions and TV they discovered in 2018.
A homosexual Christmas in 1905 Berlin
Colin Wilson presents an account of a “uranian” Christmas, written by a leading campaigner over a hundred years ago.
Review: Towards a Gay Communism
Colin Wilson reviews Towards a Gay Communism by the Italian gay liberation activist and writer Mario Mieli.
Video: Ele Não! Brazilians protest Jair Bolsonaro
rs21 spoke to Brazilians protesting against far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro as the country went to the polls for the first round of voting
Care, consent and coercion under capitalism
Alan Sears, a socialist activist based in Toronto, spoke to Hazel Croft about sexuality, sexual coercion and consent, and the possibilities for sexual liberation today.
Mobilise for trans equality now
A planned reform that simplifies how trans people gain recognition of their gender has sparked a wave of attacks on trans people, and not only from the right.
Get The State Out Of My Bedroom
Are civil partnerships a new freedom, or do they simply show us how far there still is to go for real liberation?
“Marielle’s death was not just more of the same”
The assassination of Marielle Franco marks a new phase in Brazil’s political repression of the left.
Queer emancipation in early Soviet Russia
A long letter from a gay man highlights the emancipation which touched LGBT people across Russia after October 1917.
What is Transgender Day of Remembrance, and why does it matter?
Charlie Powell and Taisie Tsikas write on the significance of Transgender Day of Remembrance in the ongoing struggle against the oppression of transgender people.
Reflections of a reluctant transsexual
Evren Filgate gives their perspective on the reform of the Gender Recognition Act and the struggle that trans people face in their daily lives. We heard news a few weeks ago that the Gender Recognition Act is being reformed. Hooray! Surely that is a good thing. We have Made It; it is just like 2013, […]
Things to read before you comment on the Gender Recognition Act
Following the announcement of reforms to the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, rs21 recommends reading to help socialists understand the key issues. This week, the government has announced reforms to the 2004 Gender Recognition Act to make legal processes for registering a change of gender less distressing. This has sparked debates across the media, including […]
The politics of mental health
Hazel Croft argues that, while reducing stigma is a good start, we also need a more radical approach to mental health
Did the 1967 Act start acceptance of LGBT people?
Looking back on the1967 Sexual Offences Act, which partly decriminalised sex between men, we ask: what really started to change things for LGBT people?
Review: The Politics of Everybody
Bill Crane reviews Holly Lewis’ standout book on the relationship between capitalism and oppression. One of the most promising trends on the intellectual left in recent years is the emergence of a strong and sophisticated Marxist-feminist current of academics and activists. The identification of the social reproduction of the working class as the root of […]
Solidarity with Chicago Dyke March: it’s not antisemitic to oppose Israel
In the last few weeks, controversy has erupted about events on the Chicago Dyke March, held on 24 June. Colin Wilson argues that we should stand in solidarity with the march’s organisers. The Dyke March has taken place annually for over twenty years as an alternative to a Pride Parade as its founders believed was […]
Pride not profit
The London Pride march takes place this coming weekend, on Saturday 8 July. Barclays, Tesco and Virgin Atlantic are all sponsors of an increasingly corporate event. But opposition to dominance of corporations and official state bodies is also emerging internationally. After Black Lives Matter, uniformed cops can’t march at Pride in Toronto, while on 10 […]
We burned the cop cars one by one: a review of ‘When We Rise’ by Cleve Jones
Colin Wilson reviews an inspiring memoir of decades of LGBT activism
Anti-gay atrocities in Chechnya: let asylum seekers into Britain!
Media reports from Chechnya bring Nazi persecution to mind and are leading to protests against the Russian government. Yet our own government regularly turns away LGBT asylum seekers – attacking that injustice is the best thing we can do to help Chechen gay men, writes Colin Wilson. Protest at the Russian embassy (photo: Steve Eason) […]
Peckham Pride: ‘When one marginalised group becomes a target, it is a risk to all of us.’
Last Saturday saw the second year of Peckham Pride; marching through south London in a show of solidarity between the LGBT community and migrants. Ida-Sofie Picard, an organiser for Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, writes on the politics of Pride, solidarity, and the importance of celebrating histories of resistance for struggle today. February the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.