С днем видимости лесбиянок! Нет лесбифобии! За право на сапфическую любовь для всех!

 

This Thesis were elaborated, discussed and adopted at the RCIT congress in April 2021. It is not only a crucial document of our current but rather a foundation for future elaborations. The Thesis are published now – in the weeks of Pride month – and dedicated to all the heroic fighters for the liberation of LGBTQIA2S+ worldwide.

Marsha P. Johnson, we dedicate this to you. Not only because you have been one of us – working class, black, LGBTQIA2S+, but because your bravery in the Stonewall uprising have been an inspiration. We likewise dedicate this to Sylvia Rivera (Latinx and working-class) and Stormé DeLarverie (Black and working-class) who equally played a leading role in the uprising and beyond. We will always remember your fighting spirit, your revolutionary spark, your thirst for an end of oppression and exploitation.

 

We dedicate this Thesis to all of you who still fight and who will never obey to a world of cruel capitalism and outrageous oppression.

 

The Editorial Board of the RCIT

 

*****

 

 

 

1. The last decades have shown the deep crisis of the bourgeois family, ideas of human nature as they are defined by state ideology and bourgeois norms of sexual reproduction are questioned. Patriarch institutes are suffering a significant decline and the idea of the single and dominant sexuality is tackled. Preserving and conserving family relations, reproduction, and the exploitation of the working class was linked to strict gender norms – until now. A deep degradation of bourgeois disciplinary institutes like the school and educational bodies as such, police, army, and capitalist state structures have taken place during the era of neoliberalism. Biopolitical population control faces a significant deterioration due to the collapse of public infrastructure and declining demographic rates. In short, the crisis of the bourgeois family is linked to the decay of the bourgeois society itself. All these reflects poverty and social crisis on current society.

2. Moreover, intergenerational inequality creates a considerable obstacle to maintain the bourgeois family. Imperialist societies like Japan, South Korea, Australia, Western Europe, and the United States have lost larger family structures. Without the migrant work force, the population in those regions would not only decrease massively – it would be wiped out. All these developments were dominant especially in the Western imperialist world and the semi-colonial countries dominated by those beasts. Neoliberalism weakened state capitalism and the ideological reflection of this are post-modern ideas, mainly occupying universities and academic institutions. The bourgeois sexual ideology suffers from scientific discoveries and still the struggles of the LGBTQIA2S+ people for social recognition is marginalized by postmodern intellectuals at best. Instead of integrating the struggle of the community into the general struggle of the working class and all oppressed, giving it the prominent place which it deserves, this struggle is still ignored by the bureaucratic leaderships of the labor movement. Instead, it is hijacked by specific petit-bourgeois elements.

3. Nevertheless, the crisis of the bourgeois family is as deep as the crisis of the capitalist system and even bureaucratic ignorance and post-modern distortion cannot change the explosive potential of the struggle for equality of all sexual identities and orientations. The general decline of patriarchal families to support children financially and the decrease of financial help from the state capitalist especially during the period of neoliberalism, was going hand in hand with the increase of psychiatry and medicine. In addition, those fields have been used as an outlet to deal with people effected by the inequality of the capitalist society. This is especially true for people from the LGBTQIA2S+ community, increasing both the marginalization, individualization, and the reduction of their struggle to a psychological respectively medical issue.

4. Revolutionary Marxists are confronted with a limited interpretation of the struggle for equality and liberation of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Either moralistic petite bourgeois approach or pseudo-scientific views of human nature but never a scientific understanding of historical development of sex and sexuality.

5. Hence, we must understand that the contemporary understanding of sex and sexuality is neither final nor adequate. Instead, it is related to capitalist basis and its superstructure. Sexuality is highly personal and, in this sense, also individual. However, the class society does not stop its influence in front of a bedroom door. Current sexuality expresses inner demands for reproducing social relations along with biological reproduction. Biological reproduction (especially of the working class and poor) is openly instructed in fascist societies, as we have seen with the Cross of Honour of the German Mother. But even under bourgeois democratic rule the prohibition of abortion respectively its prohibition after three months into pregnancy is nothing else but an open invasion into reproduction rights and in the end into sexuality as such. Furthermore, sexual violence in any form reflects the violence of the class society and all forms of repression it embodies. However, not only those seemingly extraordinary influences into sexuality reflect the capitalist class society. The simple understanding that heterosexuality is the absolute normal form of sexuality and everything beyond is not the norm is a product of today’s class society.

6. A look at former class societies proofs: various forms of sexuality and sexual identities have existed without the stigma (and the oppression) that the capitalist system has put on them. Just to name some examples: Creole women enslaved since the 15th century have used a specific term to describe other enslaved women who were on the same ship and with whom they formed a relationship, sometimes platonic, sometimes romantic respectively sexual and often enough a fluent mix of all these characteristics. Archeologic funds from more than 3,000 years old graves in Persia have indicated that a third gender (aside of female and male) was acknowledged at that time as approximately 20% of the graves were full of insignias attributed to both female and male gender criteria of that time. Many of North America’s indigenous people have terms to describe gender and sexuality beyond the female/male and heterosexual “norm” that capitalist society created. Two-Spirit is an actual movement to revive the traditional understanding to counteract the discrimination of LGBTQIA2S+ which is understood as a product of the forced assimilation the Native Americans have suffered from. While Revolutionary Marxists do not share any nostalgia for pre-capitalist class societies, we fully acknowledge the progressive character of movements like Two-Spirit who try to battle the discrimination of the LGBTQIA2S+ community in linking it to their own history of oppression as indigenous people.

7. Thus, contrary to this organic fusion into a joint struggle of various oppressed layers by Two-Spirit, the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) proofed once again their crude anti-dialectical materialism. With the correct intention to tackle the wrong individualistic, libertarian, and petit-bourgeois character of the leading forces in the LGBTQIA2S+ community, the IMT however does it the worst way possible. They compare identity politics to national liberation and argue that their approach to both is quite the same (anybody who knows how IMT deals with national liberation struggles should be alarmed by now). They argue that above all the working-class question is the key, and all other questions are subordinated to this, comparing their own politics with Lenin (blasphemy) in his argumentation with the Jewish Bund. As Revolutionary Marxists we indeed put the working-class first, but not in a stiff hierarchic way which belittles liberation struggles beyond economic struggles of the working class. To put working-class first is meant as pouring the revolutionary liberation struggle of the working class into ALL areas of resistance of the oppressed.

8. In a meeting of people from an oppressed nation, comrades of the IMT would stand up to argue that instead of fighting for national liberation all should join forces with the working class of the oppressor nation and fight for socialism – because this is the higher road to take. In consequence the IMT would turn their back away from such an assembly if it still holds on to national liberation, i.e., struggle against the oppressor nation as such because IMT comrades see this as nationalism. Revolutionary Marxists would instead put forward a program for national liberation that includes putting the vanguard of the working class into a leadership position of the national liberation struggle. Yes, we support the idea of working-class solidarity beyond national lines and even embrace it. But it is mainly the task of the working class of the oppressor nation to make these steps. Same is indeed true for the struggle of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. We challenge the wrong leadership but do not belittle the importance of the struggle of the LGBTQIA2S+ people. Yes, we think that the struggle of LGBTQIA2S+ must be organically integrated into the labor movement but not in a way where LGBTQIA2S+ must beg the bureaucratic leadership of the labor movement to acknowledge them and not in a way where they must dissolve their own structures. Furthermore, the vivid experience of struggle against oppression by LGBTQIA2S+ activists is an important asset for the labor movement. It enriches and may even radicalize the labor movement. Often enough, comrades of the IMT simply “forget” that the labor movement as such has a wrong bureaucratic (hence petit-bourgeois or even bourgeois) leadership which is not even an inch superior to nationalist leaderships in struggles of oppressed nations or libertarian leaderships of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. The political, practical and often enough financial dependance from the labor bureaucracy may have to do something with this form of dementia IMT comrades suffer from.

9. No wonder that the IMT is putting their whole effort into arguing: "But emancipation cannot be achieved merely by imagining that there is no such thing as gender. One can imagine oneself to be anything one pleases. But in the end, one is compelled to accept material reality over the mental meanderings of philosophical idealism. Among the innumerable weird and wonderful variants of Queer theory (we should not really dignify this as a theory at all) there appears to be a common thread: firstly, it presents gender (and even sex) as a purely social construct, denying all biological and material aspects. The next step is to create in the imagination an almost infinite variety of genders, from which everyone is free to take their pick."[i] We understand that sexuality and gender expression relate to historical development and concrete class realities, not just question of “feelings”. The IMT, however rejects understanding that gender and sexuality is indeed linked to the way the class society operates. Hence, the “natural” acceptance of a third gender 3,000 years ago in Persia and the “natural” categorization into “pink is for girls and blue is for boys” in capitalism today. More so, if IMT really wants to argue with biological and material aspects, why not putting the finger on the wound. Embryos have a set of chromosomes that decide at a certain point if someone is being born with a visible male or a female sex respectively both. However, there are numerous hormonal influences and even rudimentary or more developed organs to challenge these visible categorizations. If we would live in a society that uses categorizations of male/female/both only to describe the sex a newborn has when we look at it with our eyes with no consequences than any Queer theory would be obsolete. But we do not live in such a society. We live in capitalism embodying various forms of oppression like the women oppression (suddenly being born with a visible female sex becomes a disadvantage – likewise a mixed sex) and oppression of LGBTQIA2S+. Everything in society is a primary social construct because individuals can operate and use their labor only in the concrete historical society. But even if we stuck by simple science as IMT comrades demand from us: “What's more, new technologies in DNA sequencing and cell biology are revealing that almost everyone is, to varying degrees, a patchwork of genetically distinct cells, some with a sex that might not match that of the rest of their body.”[ii] To put things into a concrete perspective: 1.7% of newborn have some sort of intersex identity, which is approximately the same number of people born with red hair. We know that people like coloring their hair in red even if they are not born this way. Further, the shades in which red hair are colored are different and have thousand different names. Why is it so hard to accept that people might define another gender (sex) as they are born with, respectively might change their mind on their identity more often?

10. There is a clear line in this which showing how the question of “human nature”, “biology”, and “gender” is a political one and touches essential questions that cannot be dismissed as “not crucial” by various centrist and opportunist forces. Portraying the relativistic nature of gender (sex) and sexuality as something negative reflects the capitulation to capitalism and its ideology. A capitulation we have seen from reformist and centrist forces also undergoing when it comes to bourgeois parliament, government, and governmental institutions.

11. We reject portraying non-heterosexual behavior as either “illness, degeneracy or deviation” or an “imagination”. Anthropological studies reveal that non-binarity has existed for a long time and was a common phenomenon reflected in classical religious texts like Talmud with the tumtum notion with six gender identities including "transgender" one like sairis and ay'loinite to Islam with the concept of the mukhannath. To the various so-called third gender identities from the pan-Indian notion of two-spirited to the muxe in Mexico, koekchuch in Syberian tribes of Itelmens and Koryaks, to mahu in Hawaii and others. We must say that it is more reasonable to consider non-binarity to be a human nature rather than a state-assigned male and female identity, which exists for several hundred years and already misses the spectrum of human sexuality and gender expression. Why should it be normal to define sex and sexuality less diverse than other bodily needs, like eating preferences?

12. Dealing with religious argumentations, we must state that institutions' interpretations of sexuality from sacred texts and people with religious views are not the same. As a social institute, the church integrated into the state primarily not as an independent and direct expression of spirituality instead as a social institute of control and repression. For hundreds of years, Italy, the heartland of Catholicism, has an identity of femmenielli - assigned by the birth male who expresses himself later as a woman. Pakistan, quite conservative and strongly dominated by Islam, has an identity of hijra, representing intersexual respectively transgender person. Going further to the myth of Sodom, contemporary scholars cannot give a defined answer if the story means to put a stigma on the “homosexual act” as being a sin, or if it is rather meant to explain punishment for rape. Similarly, hadiths on mukhannath cannot express a clear answer on how to treat the transgender person. Even Islamic scholar in Middle ages separates cross-dressing from people who cannot stop presenting self as women even with the best efforts. Only later religions started to put all non-heterosexual behavior into the broad umbrella of “homosexuality”. Thus, we can clearly state that modern religious groups utilize religion to benefit modern capitalism rather than express original views on sex and sexuality.

13. Moreover, studies of contemporary sexuality demonstrate the political and non-neutral nature of modern homophobia and sexual discrimination. A famous historical example of different understanding of homosexuality compared to today, is the Sacred Band. This was an elite warrior troop of 150 gay couples from Theben fighting against and defeating the Spartan army. Their success was explained by the braveness they showed to protect their partners in battle. This was just one of many examples where homosexual relationships were encouraged in Ancient Greece. Homophobe attackers today insult homosexual relationships as signs of weakness while Theben linked the strength of its warriors to the love they had for each other.

14. The absolute control over the life of the workforce (the working class) was and is a necessity for the capitalists. Begging, for example, was prohibited the first time in human history when the emerging class of capitalists blamed beggars for withdrawing from the labor force they wanted to exploit. This went to such an extreme that the original jails were workhouses to discipline folks not willing to work the whole day in factories. To force gender criteria and heterosexuality as a norm is nothing else than the grip of the capitalist class into yet another aspect of working-class lives.

15. There is no objective necessity to put a gender definition into documents (like birth certificates, applications for social welfare, etc.) which are not used for medical purposes. While we do not reject the minimal demand of implementing a third gender category into documents of all sort, we demand the complete drop of any gender category in such documents. Putting the same category (a third gender) for all forms cannot be considered scientific but rather a scapegoat used to terrorize non-conforming youth or persons. We demand as consistent communists and democrats the right to express individual sexuality and gender without application of bureaucratic means, respectively we demand that this very personal information should not be asked by the capitalist state bureaucracy respectively the managers at a workplace, be it formally or informally. There is both no necessity and no rational reason why naming the gender (not to speak sexual orientation) shall be demanded.

16. Communists fight for society without strict walls of bureaucratic identification. Why shall we not dismantle all sexual or identity walls raised by state control? Liberated from the state, class oppression and wage-slavery, society would not limit sex and sexual orientation to assigned identities. Rather all people would explore them without the experience of oppressive control, without the influence of rulers and oppressors.

17. We must recognize that despite Marxist methodology, i.e., dialectical materialism, various (so-called) Marxist forces and currents demonstrate a long-standing stagnation and even degradation of the revolutionary theory. This is obviously true in terms of questions of gender identity and sexuality. The well-known critics of contemporary sexuality are developed by middle-class academics and grass-root activists who lack a strategical and political framework to combat capitalism. They lack working class influence (not to speak about leadership).

18. Simultaneously, so-called “orthodox” Marxists and trade-union activists dismiss notions of (mostly young) popular masses to combat existing gender norms and sexuality by adapting to backward and conservative layers of the working class. We must promote authentic Marxist methods which means positive approaches to the struggle of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. It includes the struggle for democratic freedom of expression, workplace equality, but also the struggle against imperialism and the fight against various forms of oppression and discrimination. It includes the orientation towards a leadership by the working class. As the working class is by far the biggest oppressed and exploited class, we also see the biggest number of LGBTQIA2S+ people in our class. It is a working-class issue in itself. And it is the ignorance of the bureaucratic and backward leadership of the labor movement that has led to numerous publications and ideologies on LGBTQIA2S+ by middle class and petit-bourgeois academics instead of proletarian forces. Thus while dealing with elaborations of non-working-class forces on LGBTQIA2S+ with the highly appropriate criticism, authentic Marxists today need to fill the void and elaborate revolutionary answers to the struggle of the LGBTQIA2S+, which means neither blindly following the petit-bourgeois short-sighted ideologies nor repeating the blatant ignorance of the labor bureaucrats towards the just struggle of this oppressed community.

19. LGBTQIA2S+ people are facing various forms of oppression. One of the most common is a refusal to recognize their identity and express their sexuality or gender without fear of being assaulted or attacked by state officials respectively bigoted individuals. LGBTQIA2S+ people suffer a significant issue with self-expression in the public sphere and even in private, from the attacks of right-wing forces and conservative police officers to the mistreatment by parents and relatives. Thus, the task of the communists is to fight against such attacks and not just verbally promote but defend and ensure the ability of LGBTQIA2S+ persons to express themselves. It includes fighting for the public sphere to protect against the discriminatory treatment of family members, including financial and law support, attempting to create safe spaces to find non-bigoted professionals, etc. It also includes the unconditional integration of the liberations struggle of LGBTQIA2S+ people into the labor movement.

20. The democratic struggle includes the unconditional support for the right to express their gender identity and sexuality without being assaulted. We fight for the right of LGBTQIA2S+ people to freely express themselves in the public sphere. Hence, we stand for sexual self-determination of individuals!

21. Furthermore, we oppose any double standard in treatment of LGBTQIA2S+ people, especially when it comes to criticism, legal prosecution, etc. For example, we oppose the approach to see transgender women who have not undergo surgery automatically as a potential threat to other women. Unfortunately, this is an argument that is often brought forward in attacks against transgender women. Meanwhile white women, women from imperialist countries, the middle class, etc. do not face the same general suspicion. Equal rights do not exclude that a person from the LGBTQIA2S+ community threatens or harms other people. Equal rights however exclude that any suspicion, not to speak punishment is harder on LGBTQIA2S+ people than it is on others.

22. We do not promote the institute of marriage and other family formations. Nevertheless, we fight for full and equal rights in terms of marriage, adoption, visiting rights, social security in case of the death of the partner, and all other family matters for LGBTQIA2S+. We reject notions of family values as an attempt to promote and justify bigotry and hatred to anyone.

23. We fight against any attempts for conversion therapy, not to speak corrective rape. The task of the communists and working-class activists is to protect the mental and physical health as allies of all LGBTQIA2S+ people threatened by any of these ultra-reactionary attacks. We call for the formation of self-defense units of the workers and oppressed to protect people who are forced to undergo conversation therapy. We call the labor movement to fight for the closure of conversion therapy camps and for the unconditional, immediate, and cost-free access to mental health treatments as well as all other medical treatments for survivors of conversion therapy. We reject any remaining eugenic laws like sterilization of transgender person or forced demand to go through any surgery to get legal recognition for their gender. The most prominent forms are still present in countries like Japan and Finland. Those laws present one of the most barbaric forms of reproduction control in our times.

24. Contrary to Stalinists or reformist readings, Marx fought against social alienation and discrimination in any form. Thermidor reaction in USSR essentially started with criminalization and discrimination on social bases, allying to conservative views on family and social relationships, likewise enforcing heterosexual relationships via criminalization of the LGBTQIA2S+ people. Authentic Communists respect and defend all rights of LGBTQIA2S+ people and have nothing in common with bigot Stalinists respectively other centrist or reformist forces who do not support the liberation struggle of LGBTQIA2S+! We reject any identity violation like attacks on people for not defining/not having a clear gender identity or asexual persons for their reality towards sexual relationships.

25. We demand that all forms of health treatments (both for mental likewise physical health) for LGBTQIA2S+ must be accessible, cost-free, and completely confidential. We call the labor movement to start a campaign together with organizations of the LGBTQIA2S+ people which shall educate scientists and general medical staff to guarantee a respectful and inclusive treatment of patients from the LGBTQIA2S+ community. This includes, that we reject any attempt to construct or essentialize sexual identity and orientation via pseudo-medical theories and treatments. Outdated diagnosis of transsexualism in ICD-10 or pseudo-scientific notions on “gay genes” are an attempt to control sexuality via biopolitical institutes of the capitalist state. We promote full access to Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), surgery and all other forms of medical procedure that patients from the LGBTQIA2S+ community demand. Every individual must have the freedom to get the necessary consultation of possible side-effects, but the decision must be granted not in the hands of the state, the parents or anybody else but the person itself.

26. We call for the full acknowledgment of the sex and the sexual orientation of every person without demanding criteria like undergone surgeries, history of relationships, etc. People shall have the right to wear clothes, use specific manners, express themselves in all ways they want if it does not harm others. Where a conflict of interests of different oppressed groups occurs, the solution shall be to create more space for the rights of all oppressed groups to co-exist without conflicts. The logical conclusion is simple: When LGBTQIA2S+ demand mixed bathrooms to not be forced to choose a gender norm and likewise some women oppose such mixed bathrooms in fear of harassment by men, the solution is to create likewise bathrooms which are mixed and bathrooms for women and men. All oppressed are only granted a very small portion of the general resource – be it space, time, financial support, etc. Instead of accepting of these limitations and competing for the breadcrumbs, we demand more space, more time, more financial support, etc.

27. We therefore reject any attempt of gatekeeping by some members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community who try to expose others and attack them to normalize themselves in the eyes of the capitalist state. While such a behavior reflects fear, bad experiences and even trauma because of the experienced oppression, it still must be stopped – in both the most diplomatic and effective way possible.

28. We reject keeping knowledge away from children and youth when it comes to information about sex and sexual orientations in all forms. Informing and educating youth in an age-appropriate way will substantially help the individual to develop and express their own identity with far less fear, less struggle against ignorance and less barriers in understanding and accepting themselves. We demand a campaign led by the labor movement together with LGBTQIA2S+ community to educate caretakers, teachers, etc. how to explain sex and sexual orientation in the most inclusive way. We demand the creation of space which enables children and youth to raise questions and lead debates aside of the influence of their parents and other relatives. It is of special importance that those kinds of discussions are not concentrated in the hands of only one or two educators. It is rather important to have a diverse team of professionals, preferably from other educational institutions to lead such meetings. Likewise demands from children and youth to not be educated by specific caretaker, teachers, etc. must be taken seriously.

29. We defend the right of children and youth to decide about their body themselves. For example, providing puberty blockers for gender non-conforming youth who feel discomfort with their assigned birth gender shall stay as an option to choose by the individual. Contrary to wrong believes, puberty blockers are not affecting health significantly but rather allow young people to develop their bodies in the way they desire. It helps avoiding severe gender dysphoria in present and future.

30. There is a significant mistreatment of LGBTQIA2S+ people at the workplace. Resumes are often rejected, and interviewers are constantly provoking or even attacking LGBTQIA2S+ people. Communists call against any such practices and promote defense against discrimination in various forms, from equal pay for equal work to the respect of a person's sexual identity and orientation. We call the labor movement in collaboration with organizations of the LGBTQIA2S+ community to delegate observers who should participate in the application procedure from the very first minute and who are dedicated to fight any discrimination of LGBTQIA2S+ job candidates.

31. Furthermore, we fight against any changes in treatment or firing individuals after their medical and legal transition. Likewise, all persons have the right to freely express their identity, as well as having their coming-out (if they want to) without facing any form of discrimination.

32. Constant fear of being beaten, attacked, or even killed by bigots is the daily reality of LGBTQIA2S+ people. The labor movement in collaboration with the LGBTQIA2S+ community must organize a broad legal team willing and competent enough to defend LGBTQIA2S+ at the bourgeois court when it comes to charges – especially linked to defense against any attackers. While there cannot be real justice for the oppressed as long as the capitalist society exists, we still use all means to defend ourselves be it in front of the courts of the class enemy or on the streets against attackers. We demand that trials where LGBTQIA2S+ people face charges are decided by a jury trial nominated by the labor movement in collaboration with organizations of the LGBTQIA2S+ community.

33. We consider the fear of coming out as a primary example of the repressive and barbaric nature of current sexual norms where individuals must perform a significant effort to correctly inform society about their sexual orientation. Communists defend and provide help for the LGBTQIA2S+ people disowned by their bigoted parents respectively by other relatives. The labor movement in collaboration with organizations of the LGBTQIA2S+ community must campaign for special support of poor and likewise homeless people who are endangered to suffer even more violence. Furthermore, special support via self-defense units of the workers and oppressed must be organized in order to protect sex workers and alike from the LGBTQIA2S+ community against the disgusting attacks they are often confronted with.

34. Revolutionary Communists are aware of the manyfold forms of oppression, be it chauvinism and racism, sexism, islamophobia, transphobia, and many others. We understand that rising economic and democratic demands is not enough. Hence, we expand our struggle to a global fight against imperialism, the main source of national and chauvinistic discrimination and a huge accelerant of women’s oppression, oppression of the youth, LGBTQIA2S+ people and many others. We link the fight against all forms of oppression strongly with anti-imperialism. Furthermore, it is the history of colonialism and later imperialism that enslaved the world, the people of the semi-colonies and all oppressed manyfold. In the struggle for LGBTQIA2S+ liberation, the liberation struggle of the black people, of migrants, of Muslim people, indigenous people, oppressed nations, and ethnicities is strongly linked with each other. It is of highest necessity that all oppressed educate themselves in those strong links. Likewise, it is not by accident that with the exploitation up to the near annihilation of various people by colonialism and imperialism, those oppressors destroyed traditions which might have worked as enablers for equality of LGBTQIA2S+ people. Unity of all oppressed must be faced against the common enemy, which is represented in capitalist society and its ruling class.

35. We can see how in various ex-colonies, for instance, the countries of the African continent, the criminalization of various sexual and gender identities was introduced by the colonial powers. Dozens of gender identities were subordinated to the Orientalist definition by Western European Nations, erasing original identities and replacing them with bastardize or reductionist ideas.

36. Contrary to myths, decolonization has not shattered colonial structures. Rather, representatives from military as well as national bourgeoisie and their middle-class apparatus got the existing relationships untouched and utilized them to oppress the working-class, the poor peasantry and the urban poor. Criminalization of LGBTQIA2S+ which was often implemented during colonial rule remained untouched. Furthermore, the same imperialists who criticize semi-colonial countries as backward because of the open repression of LGBTQIA2S+ people are the former colonial powers which brought (at least some of) these ideas to them and forced it upon the legislations of these countries. Same is true for religious segregation, various forms of women’s oppression, corruption and bureaucracy, environmental crimes and many more.

37. However, important examples for counteracting colonial influences existed. Post-Revolutionary Iran for example established several new laws which improved the situation of transgender people to a certain degree. However, we must be aware that the right for expanding medical treatment which was established in post-revolutionary Iran goes hand in hand with the lack of acceptance of sexual identities not willing to undergo surgery and homosexual people who must go through a transition and medical procedures. It only demonstrates that the struggle of LGBTQIA2S+ cannot be delegated to the weak and treacherous semi-colonial bourgeoisie.

38. Nevertheless, as communists, we must be aware of phenomena when a group of oppressed used to oppress others by various justification and bribery of leading cadres. Hence, Revolutionary Communists say to LGBTQIA2S+ people who are claimed as allies by imperialist forces, the liberal bourgeoisie and alike: “You are not a personal army of oppressors! You must not transform self for limited gains into a weapon of oppression.” Communists practically and ideologically call LGBTQIA2S+ to fight for their independent goals and reject collaboration with any reactionary force. Because imperialist states are not calling out solidarity with LGBTQIA2S+ people (who they constantly discriminate against every day) to get them means to liberation but rather to use them as a weapon for their imperialist goals.

39. As such, the struggle of LGBTQIA2S+ people in semi-colonies and in imperialist nations must maintain an inherent struggle against imperialism. In the imperialist states, it is the fight for own rights of LGBTQIA2S+ people together with promoting revolutionary defeatism. In semi-colonies it is the fight for own rights of LGBTQIA2S+ people together with the struggle against national oppression, against imperialists and their agents.

40. Moreover, we reject any attempts to separate and encourage fights between the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Groups like the LGB Alliance for example fear that changes in legislation of gender definitions might lead to attacks on LGB people. The LGB Alliance formulates it in the following ways: “The confusion between gender and sex means that lesbians must accept that a transwoman is a woman as a matter of absolute fact. The real-life impact of this is that a lesbian who prefers not to form a romantic or sexual relationship with someone who is male-bodied but identifies as a woman is pilloried as a transphobe. Women who express these views may lose their jobs or face prosecution for a hate crime.“[iii] One has to recognize that indeed capitalist legislation was been often enough used against the one oppressed group in the name of another. A prominent example of these method is the claim to protect women’s rights by attacking Muslim people with Islamophobic legislature. However, to exclude transgender, non-binary and genderqueer people from the struggle means to promote transphobia and enbyphobia (hatred towards people who do not define clearly as male respectively female).

41. We strongly argue that it is a dangerous trap, a clear attempt by the ruling classes to coopt more “recognized” groups into the hierarchy of oppression with preserving existing social structures. We oppose censorship and defend the right of LGB Alliance and similar groups to openly argue their point of view (also) insight of the LGBTQIA2S+ community – as long they do not verbally or even physically attack Transgender, Queer, and Intersexual people. However, we oppose their logic as a reactionary trap for reproducing the oppression which people of the intersexual, transgender, etc. spectrum face on a daily base.

42. Similarly, we oppose the logic promoted by so-called “radical” feminists in their various forms. Women face oppression in our society, and this does not exclude discrimination coming from white, bourgeois- or middle-class, heterosexual women of the imperialist nations. So-called Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERF) are well-known for their homophobic and transphobic politics. Same is with another variation of those radical feminists, the Sex Work Exclusionary Radical Feminists who oppose the right of sex workers to participate in the women’s movement. Both movements have become more prominent in states like Britain and the United States, making them nearly an Anglo-Saxon specialty. The Logic of those “radical” feminists is essentially the same ideology used to oppress women based on what is then described as “biological”, “natural” respectively “God-given” facts. In reality it is nothing else then terrorizing all people from the LGBTQIA2S+ community (and beyond) who oppose their ideas of superiority of a female identity.

43. However, serving oppressors against other oppressed is a double-edged sword. History knows about Jewish middle-class nationalists, who supported Hitler to gain recognition and attack communists. History knows very well what happened then. Similarly, feminists or even LGBTQIA2S+ persons supporting oppressors against the working class and other oppressed only delay their future defeat through the hand of those wrong “allies”. Revolutionary communists criticize such groups for their ignorance and egoism, we warn them: “You are not serving yourselves but rather heading towards your own future demise! Drop your blind bigotry and join the fight for liberation of all oppressed!”

44. We further defend the right of all people who claim the gender definitions of their ethnicity/tradition to be acknowledged as such. Non-Western gender identities should not only be expressed openly and be respected as equal in all public spaces (including kindergarten, schools, etc.), we also defend them against any violations and demand the equal treatment of all traditions and definitions. Thus, we also support the resurgence of gender definitions of the past as part of the struggle against remaining elements of the colonial era.

45. Further, we defend the right of all people to define themselves and their gender/sex likewise sexual orientation in any way they want. We do not share the post-modern approach to individualism and deconstruction, likewise we do not see the magic power of language as a game changer in the liberation struggle of any oppressed layer. However, we clearly support the right of all people to use terms to describe themselves the way they want to, and we clearly oppose any insensitive language (not to speak racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. language). Revolutionary communists, democrats, and activists raise a principal battle against utilizing hate language against oppressed groups.

46. Authentic communists do not oppose language reforms, especially not those brought forward by oppressed. There is a long history in challenging the acceptance of racist terms like negro, sexist terms like spinster (not to speak about worse insults) and many more. Likewise, language undergoes a permanent change. Today, far more shortcuts are used in daily language (both oral and written) thanks to the digitalization. Youth is permanently creating new words which often enough become genuine part of language for all other layers. We fully support and acknowledge the right for any person to choose pronounces (likewise choosing their own names - something also oppressed ethnicities and nationalities claim) they feel comfortable with. We defend them from being misgendered respectively from being called by the wrong name. Nevertheless, we oppose the argumentations and ideas by post-modernist intellectuals that the change in language changes relations of oppression and reality as such. Furthermore, language is not a weapon to deconstruct the class society and its various forms of oppression. It is indeed a sign of their elitism and decadency that those petty-bourgeois intellectuals put so much emphasis on arguing about the power of language because it is the only change, they are willing to contribute to. Only socialism will liberate human language from bureaucratic control of the state and exploiting classes. Scarcity of language is the consequence (not the cause) of our social poverty and of oppression.

47. LGBTQIA2S+ people together with all oppressed, led by the vanguard of the working class, is able to take the power from capitalists by revolutionary deeds. Only via joint revolutionary organizing, we will be able to redirect all resources and means of production to develop artistic and creative labor instead fighting over outdated norms of the past. Only then we can smash capitalism and rise the banner of socialism. Only then we can achieve the scientific and artistic freedom to use science and knowledge as tools for the sake of humanity.

48. Moreover, imagine if we, workers of all nations and identities, would take power from the capitalists. We would destroy all borders, all segregations, and limitations. No repression, no more fighting over crumbles left from the table of exploiters. Instead, we would achieve true liberation, which takes effect in all areas of life. We can achieve liberty to such a degree that we choose partnerships and all forms of relationships in order to express inner feelings and desires – not by calculations, fear, financial or family pressure, etc. – in short not by the bitter and inhuman realities of the repressive class society.

49. In the capitalist society we see these resources exploited for the profit and the wealth of few while billions of people suffer from poverty and face the consequences of the destruction of nature. Huge sums of money are spent to wage wars, to surveil the people, to arm the repression apparatus in order to maintain the class system. Imagine all energy, steel, oil, technology, and all other resources would be used to really serve humanity. We, being workers of all identities, would take control over productive forces and organize them in democratic planned ways. We would produce everything we need to express ourselves without fighting for leftovers of capitalists and oppressors. We would achieve a social paradise to satisfy everyone according to their needs. Not like capitalist abundance of commodities which forces everyone to buy cheap and unreliable goods, but abundance of sustainable resources, of mutual social relations, of time and space to live in freedom.

50. Thus, achieving total liberation is impossible based on the struggle of individual forces. Hence, we call all communists, workers, and oppressed from the LGBTQIA2S+ spectrum to join RCIT in the struggle against capitalism and against all forms of oppression! Only socialism can open the road for a society free of class oppression and with that a society where truly all sexes and sexual orientations can be lived out freely, safe and respected in all its forms and variations! Only socialism can open the road to a society where threat and violence against LGBTQIA2S+ have become a chapter of history, far away in its barbarism, leaving humanity in disbelief of those dark ages! This is a world worth fighting for! This is a world worth taking the path of revolutionary organizing, of protests and uprisings, of fighting for the total destruction of capitalism and imperialism by the working class and oppressed!

 

Unity-Struggle-Victory!

 

 

 

[i] https://www.marxist.com/marxist-theory-and-the-struggle-against-alien-class-ideas.htm

 

[ii] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-redefined-the-idea-of-2-sexes-is-overly-simplistic1/

 

[iii] https://lgballiance.org.uk

 

 

tw: mentioning violence and rape

 

Nao Hong (she/he), #RCIT supporter in Russia, April 26, 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/

 

 

 

Since April 26, 2008 the day of lesbian visibility has been celebrated around the world, in recent years it has been included in the Lesbian Visibility Week at the end of April and the beginning of May. The purpose of this day is to show the various forms of discrimination and problems faced by the lesbian community.

 

Lesbianphobia is a form of discrimination against LGBTQIA2S+ people, which is often coupled with misogyny and various forms of discrimination against non-binary and trans people. Various reports on the Russian Federation and the countries of the former #USSR note a high level of violence against lesbians both in the family and by the state. Unfortunately, lesbians are often subjected to forms of violence such as corrective rape (often carried out by family members), beatings, and systematic bullying in schools and educational institutions. It is difficult for lesbian women to find acceptance and get the necessary support from the community and the state.

 

However, the community itself has also suffered in recent years when some lesbians are using to be "accept" in a cisgender-normative society at the expense of other women and non-binary persons. Transgender and non-binary women in particular subjected to these attacks, as is evident in the rhetoric of the "radical" feminist, #TERF and separatist lesbian communities. In Britain and the Anglo-Saxon countries this is represented by the so-called LGB Alliance (supported by the transphobic Tory Party). Unfortunately, such organizations include some lesbian feminists who promote a rhetoric of hatred against trans and non-binary persons. Similarly, this phenomenon is copied from Anglo-Saxon countries in the Russian Federation and a number of CIS countries.

 

Any socialist and progressive activists for sure oppose such ways of integrating into hetero-normative society and urge activists to fight such views and organizations, as well to reject the rhetoric of hatred against their sisters and brothers.

 

One of the symbols of the lesbian community is the poetess Sappho, who was one of the first recorded lesbians in queer culture. WLW is often referred as Sapphic love. This inclusive term is applied to cis, trans, and non-binary lesbians. We support such inclusive symbols because they include various forms of love and personal self-determination.

 

For the right of cis, trans and non-binary lesbians to love!

 

Against discrimination against lesbians and the #LGBTQIA2S+ community!

 

 

 

We also remind that due to the war between Ukraine and Russia, there is systematic harassment and life-threatening discrimination against lesbians and other LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The following organizations in Russia and Ukraine can be contacted for help:

 

Gender Stream https://www.facebook.com/GenderStream/posts/1178918272848614

 

CS "ИНСАЙТ" https://www.facebook.com/insight.ngo/posts/3091799444457680

 

ГО Когорта https://www.facebook.com/cohort.ngo/posts/492912239163307

 

Trans Generation https://www.facebook.com/transgeneration/posts/998095837517550

 

Trans Coalition https://www.facebook.com/transcoalition/posts/4800135630054937

 

ЛГБТ+ "Выход" https://comingoutspb.com/

 

t-action-team.org

 

In Russia psychological help for LGBTQIA2S+ people is also provided by Форсайт. https://f-ps.ru/

 

 

tw: упоминание насилия и изнасилований

 

Нао Хонг (она/их), сторонница #РКИТ в России, 26.04.2022, (www.thecommunists.net)

 

 

 

С 26 апреля 2008 года в мире отмечается день видимости лесбиянок, в последние годы этот день входит в отмечается неделю видимости лесбиянок в конце апреля и в начале мая.  Цель этого дня показать различные формы дискриминации и проблем, с которыми сталкивается лесби-сообщество.

 

Лесбифобия является одной из форм дискриминации ЛГБТК+, которое часто сопряжено мизогиниtq и различными формами дискриминации небинарных и транс-персон. Различные отчёты по Российской Федерации и странах бывшего #СССР отмечают высокий уровень насилия над лесбиянками как в семье, так и самим государством. К сожалению зачастую лесбиянки подвергаются таким формам насилия, как корректирующее изнасилование (зачастую проводимое членами семьи), избиения, систематическая травля в школах и учебных заведениях. Женщинам лесбиянкам тяжело найти признание и получить необходимую поддержку от сообщества и государства.

 

Тем не менее, само сообщество последние годы также страдает от явления, когда часть лесбиянок используют для  "принятия" себя в цисгетро-нормативном обществе за счет дискриминации других женщин и небинарных персон. Особенно этим нападениям подвергаются трансгендерные и небинарные женщины, что заметно по риторике сообщества "радикальных" феминисток, #TERF и сепаратистских лесбиянок. В Британии и англосаксонских странах это представлено так называемым LGB Alliance (получающему поддержку от трансфобоной партии Тори). К сожалению, в подобные организации входят часть феминисток-лесбиянок, продвигающих риторику ненависти к транс и небинарным персонам. Аналогично это явление копируется из англосаксонаских стран в РФ и ряде стран СНГ.

 

Любые социалисты и прогрессивные активисты, безусловно, выступает против таких способов интегрироваться в гетеро-нормативное общество и призывают активистов бороться с подобными взглядами и организациями, а также призывают отказаться от риторики ненависти к своим сёстрам и братьям.

 

Одним из символов лесби сообщества является поэтесса Сапфо, которая была одной из первых зафиксированных лесбиянок в пиьсменной культуре. ЖЛЖ зачастую называют сапфической любовью. Этот инклюзивный термин применяют к цис, транс и небинарным лесбиянкам. Мы поддерживаем такие инклюзивные символы, так как они включают в себя различные формы любви и личного самоопределения.

 

За право цис, транс и небинарных лесбиянок на любовь!

 

Против дискриминации лесбиянок и #ЛГБТК+ сообщества!

 

 

 

Мы также напоминаем, что в связи с войной между Украиной и Россией существует систематическая травля и угроза жизни лесбиянкам и другим ЛГБТК+ персонам. Обратиться за помощью можно в следуюшие организации России и Украины:

 

Gender Stream https://www.facebook.com/GenderStream/posts/1178918272848614

 

ГО «ІНСАЙТ» https://www.facebook.com/insight.ngo/posts/3091799444457680

 

Когорта ГО https://www.facebook.com/cohort.ngo/posts/492912239163307

 

Trans Generation https://www.facebook.com/transgeneration/posts/998095837517550

 

Транс Коалиция https://www.facebook.com/transcoalition/posts/4800135630054937

 

ЛГБТ-группа "Выход" https://comingoutspb.com/

 

Т-действий t-action-team.org

 

Также в РФ психологическую для ЛГБТК+ помощь оказыват Форсайт. https://f-ps.ru/