Strategy for a queer pl
During the first week of August Amsterdam made good its claim to be the gay capital of Europe by hosting the Olympic-style international Gay Games (previously held in 1982 and 1986 in San Francisco, 1990 in Vancouver and 1994 in New York). "Given that lesbians and gay men are so visibly emancipated nowadays," asked the Dutch media, "is there any need for a liberation movement?" Peter Drucker thinks there is. The Gay Games are not the only recent landmark event. In Mexico City a congress for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights was held earlier this year with the support of newly elected PRD mayor Cuauhtemoc Cardenas and of Patria Jimenez, Latin America's first openly lesbian member of parliament. Over 300,000 people attended Europride '97 in Paris. In Brussels "Pink Saturday" has been growing every year, above all because of big turnouts from Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern region.
Lesbian/gay/bisexual movements are increasingly internationally coordinated, particularly through ILGA (the International Lesbian and Gay Association) and ILGA Europe. But ILGA's orientation is mainly lobbying the UN, European Union and national parliaments.
Activists who see extraparliamentary mobilisation as crucial, including for parliamentary reforms, are less well organised internationally.
The August 98 Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Strategy Seminar at the International Institute for Research and Education (IRE) in Amsterdam was one of the first opportunities ever for activists from the far left to meet for a whole weekend to discuss theory and strategy.
The participants came from Belgium, Bolivia, Denmark, England, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sri Lanka. The atmosphere was one of excitement and personal warmth. While most of the participants were members of far left organisations, unaffiliated participants joined on an equal footing in the discussions.
Eight of the 20 participants were women, but they gave half the reports, participated fully in the discussion and 6 International Viewpoint #303 that an unlimited strike, self-organised by those who struggle, in coordination with the unions has proved itself an effective weapon.
This is what forced Allegre to retreat because it faced the government (with a serious political problem and forced it to take its responsibilities.
In this sense the struggle which has just taken place and only encourage further action in the national education system and in French society in general
The teachers of Seine St-Denis have shown that they can force this government, which they helped elect, to retreat. anet ensured that the lesbian dimension was not lost from sight.
The strong tradition of feminist discussion in many of the participants' organisations provided an important backdrop for exploring theoretical and practical questions of lesbian and gay liberation. Unfortunately the non-Europeans were less visible, both numerically and perhaps because the separate session on Third World themes came last. There was criticism that the discussions focussed too much on northwestern Europe. Community or integration?
There are nonetheless profound historical differences in practical and theoretical orientation, even among the gay/lesbian/ bisexual movements in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain.
France has a tradition of 'republican integration' , which makes any form of minority politics suspect. French theorist Jean Nicolas harshly criticised the 'myth of gay identity' in the 1970s; his perspective shows interesting similarities with the post-structuralist-influenced 'queer theory' of the 1990s.
The Dutch tradition of independent Protestant, Catholic and social-democratic subcultures led to a different climate for gay organising, although considerable gains by the lesbian/gay/bisexual movement have more recently led to questioning of gay institutions.
Britain, like most English-speaking countries, has lagged behind most other Western European countries in terms of lesbian/gay/bisexual rights. So doubts about the need for a movement in Britain get less of an echo.
These varying traditions have also left their mark on the lesbian/gay/bisexual left. The consensus among activists from these countries at the Amsterdam seminar was all the more striking. They agreed with each other that the roots of sexual oppression lie feel deeper than many lesbians and gay men themselves see, in the structure of the heterosexual family where children are still raised to take their place in a gender-divided, capitalist labour force. This means that, while lesbian/gay/bisexual communities are not
Like the unemployed and the immigrants
"sans papiers" , they have shown the way to a generalised movement which must force this government to change its policy.
To satisfy the demand of those "from below". And not to return to the politics which the majority of wage-workers already showed that they rejected in
November-December 1995. *
* The author is a teacher in Seine St Denis and member of the LCR. The teachers in the LCR would like to have discussions with teachers from other countries to exchange experiences. Write to LCR-Enseignement, 2 rue Richard Lenoir, 93100, France; e-mail
<[email protected]>, stating "pour les enseignants". an end in themselves, the preconditions for oppression and thus the need for a separate subculture will continue to exist for the foreseeable future.
Even where conscious discrimination and prejudices are less widespread, as in the Netherlands and Scandinavia, this does not mean that lesbians, gay men and bisexuals can integrate themselves as equals into the broader society. Far-reaching social transformations are necessary in order to overcome the polarisation between heterosexuality and homosexuality.
There were lively discussions on other issues as well. Are we really for gay marriage? How much room is there for lesbian/gay/bisexual activists in the straight left? How can we make that room bigger? What sort of relationship existed early in this century - before fascism, Stalinism and Cold War witchhunts - between the left and 'sex reform' movements? When and how can or must lesbians and gay men work together? How can transgender people get an equal role in the movement, particularly in Third World countries? Could the unique victories for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender rights in South Africa be repeated in other Third World countries, even in the midst of neoliberal austerity? Participants plan to publish articles on these and other topics in the year to come. Only a beginning
This network has to be maintained and expanded. Discussions will be continued, including on Internet. Reading lists will be mailed out. Documents will be translated. Many people hope to attend the Euromediterranean Summer University on Homosexualities being held in the South of France in July 1999, some of whose planners were present at the seminar.
The next IIRE seminar in this series will take place in summer 2000. It will last a whole week. Among the possibilities for extra discussions are youth, trade-union work, the organisational situation of the movement in several countries, and some controversial aspects of sexuality. The 2-year delay should enable us to raise funds for more non-European participants, making it a more genuinely international event. One well worth the wait! *
The "Good Friday Agreement" was approved by an overwhelming majority of the nationalist population in the North of Ireland. Sinn Fein, the political voice of the community which has opposed British rule over the last thirty years, called for its supporters to vote "yes" in the referendum to approve it and presented candidates in the subsequent elections to the new Assembly.
The Sinn Fein leadership presented support for the Agreement as a reflection of the "adaptation of its strategy and tactics to fit the objective conditions at any particular phase in the struggle." (An Phoblacht, May 14, 1998). it considers that the Agreement was achieved by "a political offensive [by Sinn Féin], one of such intensity and pursued with such relentless determination, that it has reshaped the political landscape North and South" and with this "new political self-confidence" Sinn Féin must fight "to turn the current political situation into a transition phase towards Irish unity" ' (Int. Viewpoint #300, May '98)
There can be no doubt that the new situation in the North, first of all the calling of a cease-fire by the IRA (followed, after Omagh, by two dissident nationalist forces, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and Real IRA), is a huge relief to the war-weary population of the North. Another important point for the community is the freeing of political prisoners foreseen in the Agreement. The hope that the next generation will not know only a situation of civil war and military occupation, as is the lot of all those under 30 today, is palpable. The horror and condemnation expressed on all sides at the August 15th explosion in Omagh is proof of that.
However, the protracted conflict over the Orange (pro-British Unionist) marches at the beginning of August had already shown that the situation is still far from stabilised. The introduction of new "anti-terrorist legislation" risks harening the attitude of the nationalist population which will feel targeted while Unionists are stating that they will refuse to sit in the Assembly alongside Sinn Féin representatives.
Some voices in the nationalist population, including Bernadette McAliskey, are very critical of the Agreement. They think it will be a block to advancing towards the historic goals of the nationalist movement because it is formulated in terms laid down by the British and Irish governments and thus accepts the partition of Ireland between the Six Counties in the North which are part of the British state and the Twenty-Six Country Republic. This position is expressed in the following article by John North, writing for Socialist Democracy, the group of Fourth International supporters in Ireland. Philomena O'Malley
After the Good Friday agreement