Sunday, June 19, 2011
Editorial Comment on QC Call, April 2011
Editorial on the October 2010 “QC Call”
by Daniel Frontino Elash and Michael Z. Ladson
It has now been six months since our original call to build Queer Communist consciousness, perhaps leading to QC formations, and the results have been encouraging. We are two issues into a new publication exploring vast fields of issues, we’ve generated relatively major support, and we’ve started establishing distribution channels that will lead to a wider distribution than just the people we already know.
At the same time, there have been interesting (if predictable) wrinkles in the scheme. To begin with, elements of leadership in the American Marxist-Leninist movement remain nervous about, and even resistant to, the effort-- but that is part of the point of mounting this particular challenge. At the same time, good comrades (both independent and of other parties) have consistently expressed concerns that the framing of the original Call was perhaps too exclusive to really allow them room to participate. We addressed this in the first issue of the QC newsletter, but we’d like to reiterate that this Call is for all Marxist-Leninist (and supportive) comrades of goodwill to come together in support of forming a real Marxist approach to LGBT issues. We do not see this work as defying organizational boundaries. Rather, we think that LGBT folks naturally tend to organically connect social formations that are in fact connected, but in practice seem quite divided. We are sinews between muscles. This is part of the glory of our peoples, and an important contribution wherever we make it. And here, we would like to make it among the socialist left in America. All comrades of goodwill are welcome in this work.
Furthermore, we don’t just see this as a pragmatic approach to current class-organizational problems under the conditions capital would impose on us in 2011, though of course that’s really important. Also, we see this work as healing a historical rift in the history of both the American Communist and the American LGBT movements. As we said in the original Call, this contradiction is intolerable in practice in our lives, and by now, it’s intolerable organizationally. Queer folk have always built the Communist movement, worldwide, and likewise, queer Communists have have always contributed to building American Marxism-Leninism. And yet the two movements stand apart. There are historical reasons for this on both ‘sides,’ and plenty of evidence that the problem widely persists, despite all we’ve collectively learned in the past 50-some years.
This contradiction is long overdue for synthesis, whether on the part of comrades well past it or on the part of those yet to face it. This is our great work. Please join us in it.
Philadelphia PA, April 2011
by Daniel Frontino Elash and Michael Z. Ladson
It has now been six months since our original call to build Queer Communist consciousness, perhaps leading to QC formations, and the results have been encouraging. We are two issues into a new publication exploring vast fields of issues, we’ve generated relatively major support, and we’ve started establishing distribution channels that will lead to a wider distribution than just the people we already know.
At the same time, there have been interesting (if predictable) wrinkles in the scheme. To begin with, elements of leadership in the American Marxist-Leninist movement remain nervous about, and even resistant to, the effort-- but that is part of the point of mounting this particular challenge. At the same time, good comrades (both independent and of other parties) have consistently expressed concerns that the framing of the original Call was perhaps too exclusive to really allow them room to participate. We addressed this in the first issue of the QC newsletter, but we’d like to reiterate that this Call is for all Marxist-Leninist (and supportive) comrades of goodwill to come together in support of forming a real Marxist approach to LGBT issues. We do not see this work as defying organizational boundaries. Rather, we think that LGBT folks naturally tend to organically connect social formations that are in fact connected, but in practice seem quite divided. We are sinews between muscles. This is part of the glory of our peoples, and an important contribution wherever we make it. And here, we would like to make it among the socialist left in America. All comrades of goodwill are welcome in this work.
Furthermore, we don’t just see this as a pragmatic approach to current class-organizational problems under the conditions capital would impose on us in 2011, though of course that’s really important. Also, we see this work as healing a historical rift in the history of both the American Communist and the American LGBT movements. As we said in the original Call, this contradiction is intolerable in practice in our lives, and by now, it’s intolerable organizationally. Queer folk have always built the Communist movement, worldwide, and likewise, queer Communists have have always contributed to building American Marxism-Leninism. And yet the two movements stand apart. There are historical reasons for this on both ‘sides,’ and plenty of evidence that the problem widely persists, despite all we’ve collectively learned in the past 50-some years.
This contradiction is long overdue for synthesis, whether on the part of comrades well past it or on the part of those yet to face it. This is our great work. Please join us in it.
Philadelphia PA, April 2011
The Queer Communist Call, October 2010
A Call for Queer Communist Organizing in the USA
The same material conditions, such as massive urbanization, that contributed to the development of the proletarian class and its social and political expressions also contributed to the emergence of communities of long-oppressed sexual minorities. Communities of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queer (LGBTQ) people began to form collective consciousness and historical memory after hundreds of years of oppression under the superstructural elements of prior periods of human historical development. Therefore, the development of this unique part of the human family should be of special concern for all Marxists, as we hope to understand how to advance human progress.
As a part of this common development, LGBTQ people have been involved in the proletarian movement for the entirety of its existence, as evidenced in the life stories of such comrades as Grace Hutchins, Anna Rochester, Will Geer, Harry Hay and many others. Likewise, the Communist movement in the USA and globally has always contributed to the LGBTQ movement. Nevertheless, both movements remain unconfident of their ability to draw on respective experience for the sake of moving the entire progressive coalition forward in the American social and political context.
However, at this point, in the USA in 2010, we confront a situation in which there is no explicit formation of LGBTQ Communists in the USA. LGBTQ communities, hegemonically dominated by their internal bourgeois elements, show few, precious signs of any kind of working-class LGBTQ expression, let alone class struggle formations. Likewise, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) is at best uncomfortable with anything beyond the agenda of heteronormativity dictated by the gay bourgeoisie, because our Party does not yet grasp the full extent of the situation in the LGBTQ communities of the United States.
In the USA, the “gay rights” agenda of the gay bourgeoisie -- effectively limited to struggles for “equal rights” to marriage and military service -- is a reactionary one. It is designed by the gay bourgeoisie to serve their own interests to the exclusion of others, by securing their property and limiting the scope of LGBTQ-led social discourse. It is the attempt of a small clique of bourgeois LGBTQ “leaders” to guarantee their own position in the affairs of the governing regime, securing their wealth in exchange for controlling their “market segment” of the population. Clothed though this agenda is in the language of equality, it does little but reduce the political life of LGBTQ communities to another vector from which spews the same classism, racism, and other such attitudes used by the bourgeoisie to divide and rule the working class. Furthermore, the heteronormative agenda of the gay bourgeoisie is in fact opposed to the traditional, progressive LGBTQ agenda, one that calls for and engages in a broader examination of fundamental gender issues of relevance to people of all sexualities.
Any approach to contemporary LGBTQ communities in the USA must also consider the distinct characteristics of LGBTQ oppression. Like in cases of other oppressed nationalities, fundamental problems persist, such as difficulties with forming LGBTQ historical memory across generations. Furthermore, the diverse, heterogenous nature of LGBTQ communities presents practical difficulties, even as it’s the strength of LGBTQ communities and a valuable weapon in our common struggles as workers.
As LGBTQ Marxist-Leninists, we find the current situation intolerable, not only in our own lives, but also because this situation damages both the LGBTQ and the Communist movements. We rely on both these movements for our rights and dignities as working people, and for LGBTQ survival as a people. Therefore, we hereby issue this call for the formation of a Queer Communist organizing committee (QC). The point of this organization is to create an intermediate formation that can simultaneously draw LGBTQ people closer to the Communist Party USA, and draw the American communist movement closer to the LGBTQ communities in the USA. Our common fight against the ultra-right depends on such formations, and we dare not shirk our historical responsibilities.
Michael Z. Ladson and Daniel Frontino Elash, 13 October 2010
The same material conditions, such as massive urbanization, that contributed to the development of the proletarian class and its social and political expressions also contributed to the emergence of communities of long-oppressed sexual minorities. Communities of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queer (LGBTQ) people began to form collective consciousness and historical memory after hundreds of years of oppression under the superstructural elements of prior periods of human historical development. Therefore, the development of this unique part of the human family should be of special concern for all Marxists, as we hope to understand how to advance human progress.
As a part of this common development, LGBTQ people have been involved in the proletarian movement for the entirety of its existence, as evidenced in the life stories of such comrades as Grace Hutchins, Anna Rochester, Will Geer, Harry Hay and many others. Likewise, the Communist movement in the USA and globally has always contributed to the LGBTQ movement. Nevertheless, both movements remain unconfident of their ability to draw on respective experience for the sake of moving the entire progressive coalition forward in the American social and political context.
However, at this point, in the USA in 2010, we confront a situation in which there is no explicit formation of LGBTQ Communists in the USA. LGBTQ communities, hegemonically dominated by their internal bourgeois elements, show few, precious signs of any kind of working-class LGBTQ expression, let alone class struggle formations. Likewise, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) is at best uncomfortable with anything beyond the agenda of heteronormativity dictated by the gay bourgeoisie, because our Party does not yet grasp the full extent of the situation in the LGBTQ communities of the United States.
In the USA, the “gay rights” agenda of the gay bourgeoisie -- effectively limited to struggles for “equal rights” to marriage and military service -- is a reactionary one. It is designed by the gay bourgeoisie to serve their own interests to the exclusion of others, by securing their property and limiting the scope of LGBTQ-led social discourse. It is the attempt of a small clique of bourgeois LGBTQ “leaders” to guarantee their own position in the affairs of the governing regime, securing their wealth in exchange for controlling their “market segment” of the population. Clothed though this agenda is in the language of equality, it does little but reduce the political life of LGBTQ communities to another vector from which spews the same classism, racism, and other such attitudes used by the bourgeoisie to divide and rule the working class. Furthermore, the heteronormative agenda of the gay bourgeoisie is in fact opposed to the traditional, progressive LGBTQ agenda, one that calls for and engages in a broader examination of fundamental gender issues of relevance to people of all sexualities.
Any approach to contemporary LGBTQ communities in the USA must also consider the distinct characteristics of LGBTQ oppression. Like in cases of other oppressed nationalities, fundamental problems persist, such as difficulties with forming LGBTQ historical memory across generations. Furthermore, the diverse, heterogenous nature of LGBTQ communities presents practical difficulties, even as it’s the strength of LGBTQ communities and a valuable weapon in our common struggles as workers.
As LGBTQ Marxist-Leninists, we find the current situation intolerable, not only in our own lives, but also because this situation damages both the LGBTQ and the Communist movements. We rely on both these movements for our rights and dignities as working people, and for LGBTQ survival as a people. Therefore, we hereby issue this call for the formation of a Queer Communist organizing committee (QC). The point of this organization is to create an intermediate formation that can simultaneously draw LGBTQ people closer to the Communist Party USA, and draw the American communist movement closer to the LGBTQ communities in the USA. Our common fight against the ultra-right depends on such formations, and we dare not shirk our historical responsibilities.
Michael Z. Ladson and Daniel Frontino Elash, 13 October 2010
Exercise One
When you're looking at life
In a strange new room
Maybe drowning soon
Is this the start of it all
Turn down your TV
Turn down your pulse
Turn away from it all
It's all getting too much
When you're looking at life
Deciphering scars
Just who fooled who
Sit still in their cars
The lights look bright
When you reach outside
Time for one last ride...
Now, who said it? ;-)
In a strange new room
Maybe drowning soon
Is this the start of it all
Turn down your TV
Turn down your pulse
Turn away from it all
It's all getting too much
When you're looking at life
Deciphering scars
Just who fooled who
Sit still in their cars
The lights look bright
When you reach outside
Time for one last ride...
Now, who said it? ;-)
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