"The Socialist Workers Party vs. Gay Liberation (or The Cuckoo Builds a Strange Nest)"

Forty-two years ago -- right around the time I was being forced out of the Socialist Workers Party's youth group -- the party announced a new public policy on the gay liberation movement. This change had a connection to my personal experience with the group's attempt to brainwash me but, owing to my overreliance at the time on the party's press for political information, it's a connection I wasn't aware of. I plan to write about that shortly.

At a public meeting May 11, 1979 at which the party was going to explain its new policy, gay rights activist and former SWP member David Thorstad, who'd resigned earlier over an internal memorandum of which this new policy was an extension, composed a leaflet and passed it out to those attending, who represented a broad cross-section of local activists. It was subsequently expanded into the article below. You can also read it at "The Socialist Workers Party vs. Gay Liberation (or The Cuckoo Builds a Strange Nest)" - William A. Percy (williamapercy.com)

Thorstad introduced it this way in a 2009 introduction:

This polemic was written in the heat of struggle, at a time when both left groups and the gay movement were in a different place from where they are today. The left has virtually vanished as a force in American society, and the gay movement has abandoned sexual freedom as a goal in favor of conventional and conservative assimilation into hetero society. The very concept of posing a challenge to heterodominance seems rather quaint nowadays in view of the widespread focus among same-sexers on conventionality and patriotism — the embrace of same-sex marriage, efforts to get into the imperialist military to do Wall Street’s dirty work against third-world countries like Iraq and Afghanistan — and support for thoughtcrimes legislation (hate-crimes laws). The gay movement no longer plays the radical role for social change that it still played in the late 1970s, and consequently, this polemic serves as a snapshot of a moment that has passed.

Since the late nineteenth century, when homosexuals took their first steps toward self-definition and organization, an exchange of views and even a certain amount of mutual interaction and support have characterized their relationship to the labor movement and the socialist movement. At times, especially during the 1890s and the first decades of the twentieth century, they have won outspoken backing for their demands from the left — socialist, communist, and anarchist. At other times, as during the Stalinist terror of the 1930s and under the Castro regime in Cuba, they have fallen victim to reactionary policies as severe as any in capitalist countries.

With the rise of the present wave of gay liberation, unleashed by the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, a new and more far-reaching debate than ever before has been going on within left-wing organizations throughout the world about the significance of gay liberation, the nature of sexuality and homosexuality, and the relationship between the struggle for sexual freedom and the struggle of the working class to overthrow capitalism and replace it with a more civilized, rational, and humane social arrangement — socialism. This is a debate in which homosexual revolutionists have been playing a central role. It is a debate that on one level is no different from the debate on homosexuality and gay liberation that is going on in the rest of society — in religion, the scientific community, and many other institutions—and it is creating just as much turmoil.

The debate within the left, however, differs in a number of respects from these other manifestations of the increased awareness of homosexuality and its social implications. First of all, the left in North America carries far less weight in the body politic than it does in many other areas of the world. Therefore, many people, including many gay activists, are only vaguely aware of the scope and nature of this debate. Second, many left groups refuse to discuss this question openly, before the gay movement and the working class as a whole, preferring instead to restrict it to their own memberships, and to put their best face forward in the gay movement itself. Third, the left shares with gay liberation, as well as with other movements of the oppressed, a vision of a better society. It shares a need to ruthlessly criticize the status quo. And it generally promises a future social order of freedom for the exploited and the oppressed. Put another way, the left promises more, so it is not unreasonable to expect more from it than one might from liberal capitalist politicians whose primary devotion is to maintaining a political, social, and economic system based on inequality and profits for the few, rather than on freedom for the vast majority.

The debate within the left has been uneven. Although it is making inroads in virtually all left-wing groups — Maoist, Stalinist, anarchist, Social-Democratic, and Trotskyist — it has been most extensive, and has made the greatest progress, in Trotskyist groups. Of these, by far the most important debate has taken place inside the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), where repeated discussions and struggle have occurred since 1970, when the party abandoned its policy of banning homosexuals from membership.[1]

The SWP is a small and generally uninfluential American organization, with close ties to Trotskyist groups in dozens of countries. It is, next to the Communist Party, probably the most important left-wing group in the United States.[2] It is also one of only a few left-wing groups to have actively, though inconsistently, participated in the gay liberation movement since the early 1970s. In general, its involvement in gay liberation has been most evident in New York City and California.

Even there, however, it only really got involved in any significant way following the Dade County defeat in June 1977. It, like some other left-wing groups, was compelled by the massive upsurge of the lesbian and gay movement that Anita Bryant provoked to reassess its abstentionist position and to dip its toes, however gingerly, into the struggle.

It did so, however, with a rather limited grasp of what the struggle for gay liberation is all about. It supports equal rights for (adult) homosexuals before the law, but at the same time it regards gay liberation as “peripheral” to the class struggle — that is, not as important as other layers of American society (such as the labor movement, women, and Blacks and other racial minorities). In fact, its position — which it has never fully made public in its own press — differs little from that of bourgeois liberals who oppose discrimination, but who regard homosexuality as an exotic deviation from the heterosexual norm that affects only a minority of people. Like any other institution in this society, it too has internalized antihomosexual prejudice fostered by the bourgeois ruling class — though it officially condemns such prejudice. It continues to suspend judgment on whether homosexual behavior is just as “natural” as heterosexual behavior, on whether homosexuality is a potential of the human animal or an aberration of class society, and seems particularly averse to solidarizing itself with the notion that Gay Is Good. And, like most leftist groups, it sees the struggle against capitalism, and all the forms of oppression and discrimination that go with it, through glasses colored by the political “line” it has adopted at any given moment.

The SWP “Comes Out” — A Bit

As the 1970s draw to a close, the SWP has finally decided to make public part of its true position on the struggle for gay liberation. This has taken the form of a two-page article in the April 13, 1979, issue of its weekly newspaper, The Militant.

The article, which appeared under the byline of Rich Finkel and Matilde Zimmermann, was entitled “The class-struggle road to winning gay rights.”

 The article has created a stir and considerable confusion among many gay liberationists, and no doubt among some members of the SWP itself. It is bound to have repercussions within the left as a whole, both within the United States and in other countries. For this reason, it calls for a response and an explanation.

There is another reason for answering it. And that is the fact that today, more than ever, the gay liberation movement is looking for answers, is attempting to develop a strategy for liberation, and this has led more sisters and brothers than ever before to consider socialism as an alternative to the repression, antisexuality, oppression, and exploitation of capitalist society. Today more than ever, people are becoming aware that the horse-and-buggy morality of American society is completely out of kilter with the needs and realities of the space age. At a time when our most vociferous opponents are clinging for dear life to this antiquated moral code, homosexuals are beginning to realize that we are part of a historic process of redefining traditional religious and moral values that belong to social orders that have long since disappeared. We do not know yet what the new order will bring, but we can say with certainty that its emergence is already beginning to sweep away the old crap. We should be glad to be a part of this historic process.

The Finkel/Zimmermann article is what is known as a “line” article. That is, although it is signed by individuals, it really represents a policy statement, publicly binding on all other members of the group. This in itself is interesting because the article appeared like a bolt from the blue, takes positions that are antithetical to Marxism, and at least in part appears to have been determined by leading bodies of the SWP rather than by the membership as a whole. To the extent that this is the case, it can be expected to provoke some consternation inside the SWP, which prides itself on being a democratic organization in which the party line on any major issue is elaborated only after thorough internal debate. The fact that a line article, which on the surface at least appears to deviate from the previously touted line on gay liberation, is being handed down from the top, without prior internal discussion, raises some serious questions about how democratic the SWP really is. It also suggests that there is more going on here than at first meets the eye.

Such an article is different from a trial balloon. Rather than testing the terrain or announcing the beginning of a discussion on a strategy for gay liberation within the SWP, it appears designed to whip the membership into line before such a discussion can even begin. In this connection, its timing can hardly be accidental. For 1979 is a convention year for the SWP, and its preconvention discussion—a three-month period during which members may submit documents on any subject for publication in an internal discussion bulletin — begins in May. So, in a sense, the Finkel/Zimmermann piece signals a decision by the party leadership to go public, so to speak, even before the ranks have had a chance to get involved.

Why such a bureaucratic maneuver should have been felt necessary is anyone’s guess. So is the extent to which the article may have poisoned the atmosphere inside the SWP and rendered a democratic discussion more difficult, if not impossible. But there is little question that it has helped to poison relations inside the gay movement, particularly in areas like New York where gay activists have been working together with members of the SWP for goals that were thought to be shared.

What Did The Article Say?

The ostensible setting for the article was an analysis of the Philadelphia conference February 23–25 which called a lesbian/gay rights march on Washington, D.C., for October 14, 1979. It took the Militant more than one month even to report on this important conference. This in itself was unusual, particularly since the SWP had a half dozen people at the conference. At least one of its members strongly argued from the floor in favor of the march. One of its lesbian members was even elected co-chair of the proceedings. And the SWP has a well-deserved reputation for supporting mass marches by any oppressed group.

Finkel/Zimmermann devote a few introductory paragraphs to summarizing the debate at the conference over whether or not a march by the gay movement should be called. They spend the remaining one-and-three-quarters pages laying the groundwork for opposing the march and belittling efforts of the lesbian and gay movement to develop a national focus and plan of action. What are their arguments? They correctly point to the fact that the capitalist ruling class is on a campaign to cut back on the social, economic, and political rights of the working class, to weaken the unions, and to erode the democratic rights of the masses of the American people. These attacks are “aimed at establishing an atmosphere of greater conformity and weakening the self-confidence of all oppressed or exploited persons. The antidemocratic assault must include attacks on personal freedoms that do not directly stand in the way of the employers satisfying their profit hunger. Attacks on gay rights fall into this category.” Nothing to quibble about here.

Nor are our authors wrong to claim, “Anything that succeeds in blocking this capitalist offensive strikes a blow for the democratic rights of all.” They list as examples a whole series of victories — the 1978 miners’ strike, the Iranian revolution, the ERA deadline extension, the defeat of an antilabor referendum in Missouri. These events are correctly described as “big advances for the gay rights struggle.”[3]

Nowhere, however, do we see here even lip service given to the massive mobilizations of gay people themselves in 1977 and 1978 in response to the mounting assaults on our rights and our very existence. But our mobilizations, in which hundreds of thousands participated, were the largest mobilizations by any oppressed grouping in American society for many years, and the biggest demonstrations of any kind since the anti-Vietnam War movement. In some areas of the country, such as in the South, gay demonstrations were bigger than any demonstration of any kind in history — including by the labor movement and the antiwar movement.

A year and a half ago, the SWP took a more accurate and realistic view and recognized that the fact that gay people themselves stood up by the hundreds of thousands and said “Enough!” to bigotry and persecution was an inspiration and a victory not only for gay people, but for the entire working class. In a report to the SWP convention in August 1977, SWP national secretary Jack Barnes pointed to the fact that the gay mobilizations had prompted a mineworkers’ official to get up at a meeting of 200 officials in Kentucky to argue in favor of a march on Washington by mineworkers by saying, “If the homosexuals in this country can get recognition, so can the coal miners.” (Militant, September 16, 1977). But today the SWP’s line has changed, as Finkel/Zimmermann proceed to make clear.

Gay Liberation Gets Cellar Priority

After pointing out the potential power of the labor movement, and its crucial role in the economy and society, as well as its importance for a revolutionary strategy whose aim is to overthrow capitalism, they warn their members and whatever unionists may read their paper that “the unions should not throw the same resources into the defense of gay rights that they must throw into the defense of women’s rights and Black or Latino rights.” They offer as a strategy for gay liberation, as well as for women and Blacks, one “that includes doing everything possible to strengthen and protect the working class. . .” They seem to be suggesting that gays are not in fact in their majority themselves workers, and that the only road for gay liberation is to join the unions and/or focus on working in the labor movement — which they have just advised not to put much energy into fighting for gay rights. To me, this sounds like advice to lesbian and gay activists to stop fighting their own battles, to stop building an independent movement that fights for us, even if no other group in society is willing to do so. Such an approach would be suicidal.

Let me be clear. I believe the lesbian/gay movement must do much more than it has so far to win the labor movement, as well as other oppressed layers of society, to support our just demands for an end to persecution and for freedom. But we can only do this by continuing to build our own movement, independent of any outside force, and under our own control. This is an elementary lesson that we should have learned from the history of the Black and women’s movements, the antiwar movement, as well as from the labor movement itself. This also used to be the view of the SWP — before it made what it calls a “turn to the industrial working class” a year or so ago.

It is revealing in this regard that three photographs accompany the Finkel/Zimmermann piece. The first, and largest, is of a West Virginia miners’ rally during the 1978 coal strike. (To me, they all look like white males.) The second, about half as large, is of the ERA march in Washington July 9, 1978. The caption credits the turnout to the assertion that the participants were “bolstered by [the] miners’ battle.” The third photo, also smaller, and at the bottom of the second page, shows two gay men carrying a sign urging: “Jimmy: Human Rights for All Americans.” Wouldn’t a photo of one of the many mass mobilizations for gay rights have been more appropriate? In a paper like the Militant, the selection and placing of illustrations is not haphazard. The message is clear: gay liberation is a distinctly peripheral aspect of the class struggle, one which needs to look elsewhere for validation, one which neither the socialist nor the labor movement should do much to advance. Such an assessment is not only out of line with reality; it also suggests a hostility to gay liberation itself.

Is Sexuality Irrelevant?

Finkel/Zimmermann sneer at what they call “the so-called gay movement defined by sexuality.” Is sexuality, then, irrelevant to the struggle for lesbian/gay liberation? Is it irrelevant to our oppression in a heterosexist society? Is it a mere side issue for a party that aspires to lead a revolution and usher in a new social order? Is it no longer true that the moral code and behavioral norms of this society are based on an active and ubiquitous proselytizing to exclusive heterosexuality?

Are lesbians and gay men preventing hordes of straight people from supporting our just struggle because we are open and proud about being queer? Are gay people wrong to be fighting to protect their rights to live their lives as they see fit, to defend a sexuality that they cherish as a gift? Would there even be a gay liberation movement at all were it not for the fact that homosexuals themselves stood up to fight back against centuries of oppression — at the very time, incidentally, that the SWP itself was banning homosexuals from membership? Considering the SWP’s own record, the Finkel/Zimmermann sneer will not be quickly forgotten by proud faggots and dykes. Nor should it be. Moreover, it is an observation that suggests an underlying hatred of queers; and coming from a socialist group, it is the kind of remark that gives socialism a bad name.

Furthermore, it is still not possible to imagine the Militant expressing similar contempt for other movements of the oppressed. What would Blacks think, for example, if they were to read in its pages a reference to the “so-called Black movement defined by race”? Or women if they were to see their movement described as the “so-called women’s movement defined by sex”? Where does the SWP think such movements come from anyway? They certainly do not sprout full-blown from the labor movement the SWP has so recently discovered.

For Finkel/Zimmermann, this “so-called gay movement defined by sexuality” appears to include only people they do not like. It includes “bar and bath owners who profit from the exploitation and isolation of lesbians and gays.” It includes “real or aspirant ruling-class politicians.” It includes “gay preachers whose religious role is not a bit less reactionary than that of more orthodox clergy.” It includes “individuals who insist that living a certain ‘lifestyle’ is the road to victory in the fight for gay rights.” Now this is truly something new! It is not often that the SWP rails against bar and bath owners, and one almost never reads in its press criticism of religion. Certainly, it is not in the habit of attacking the Black or women’s movements for such undesirable elements, which they have in far greater quantity than does the gay movement. I cannot recall ever reading a criticism in the Militant of the phenomenon of women’s banks. And surely there are far more Black capitalist politicians and preachers than there are gay ones — at least who are involved in the “so-called gay movement defined by sexuality.” The same could be said of the labor movement itself, whose leadership contains numerous unsavory characters. To judge from this nonsense, Finkel/ Zimmermann, and the SWP leaders who helped them write their diatribe, have never seen a gay worker, and never hope to see one, but they can tell you anyhow, they’d rather see than be one.

Covering Up an About-Face

But our authors have only been warming up. Now they are ready for their pièce de résistance. Supporters of a gay march on Washington, they moan, “did not even consider the broader framework in which their deliberations at the Philadelphia conference occurred. They failed to weigh thoroughly the political import of their demands, downplayed the narrow representation at the conference, and underestimated the forces lined up against the action.” Marching, which the SWP has strongly favored for more than a decade at least, is now demoted to a “tactic,” and in this case a “tactic” that the SWP wishes had been scrapped. Fine. They have a right to their opinion. But why don’t they explain why none of their own people at the Philadelphia conference took the floor to argue against the march? Or why none of them stood up to enlighten the benighted delegates about the “broader framework” they now say should have been discussed? To judge from their article, you would think they had not participated at all, but were there merely as observers. Why, then, did they allow their members to speak in favor of the march? Why did they allow one of them to be nominated by the women’s caucus to chair the conference? Why do they fail to report their participation in their article? Furthermore, why did they, as a member group of the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights, not object to the CLGR position paper distributed at the conference — a position paper for which they voted? Why did they wait until now to snipe at and undermine the call for a march on Washington, since they supported the idea before? Or did they mislead the Coalition into believing that they supported the march? Are they themselves now making common cause with the “forces lined up against the action”? Do they intend to support the march or not? If so, why are they actively campaigning against the march by urging other groups, like the National Organization for Women, not to endorse it? And what is the significance, if any, of the fact that one of the two authors was not even present at the conference? Isn’t this a bizarre form of reportage?[4] Finkel/Zimmermann provide no answers to these questions. But their lengthy delay in reporting on the conference, and the hostile nature of their “report,” may offer some clues.

The SWP, as well as other Trotskyist groups (in Canada, for instance), are now busy reorienting their members to take jobs in heavy industry. This no doubt worthy endeavor undoubtedly creates considerable difficulties for them, both on a personal and a political level. It is in light of this reallocation of their somewhat limited forces that the Finkel/Zimmermann piece must be seen.

Official Position on Gay Liberation

The SWP’s official position on the gay liberation movement was adopted in August 1973. It is called a “Memorandum on the Gay Liberation Movement.” This document, which was approved by a majority of its convention, contains a key section in which gay liberation is characterized as relating to a “relatively narrow sector of the population,” as lacking the “potential mass” and “social weight” of movements for women’s and Black liberation, and as “much more peripheral to the central issues of the class struggle” than those movements. It argues that it would be a mistake for the SWP to “generally assign comrades to this movement.” No point in wasting time on “peripheral” movements. The lesbian/gay upsurge following Dade County made such an abstentionist policy untenable for the SWP. Hence, it began to get involved, on a limited scale, in the gay movement in a few areas. But this involvement, such as it was, now appears to have outlived its usefulness. In fact, it may be getting in the way of more important things, like getting jobs in steel plants. Therefore, the party seems to be casting about for an excuse for pulling out of the gay movement — but it has to do so in such a way that it seems justified to its membership.

It is in this context that the report by SWP national secretary Jack Barnes to the SWP National Committee last December must be seen. In that report, published in the March 16, 1979, issue of the Militant, Barnes goes to great lengths to explain why the Briggs Initiative in California was defeated. Twice he warns the SWP membership not to “overestimate the weight of the gay movement” in defeating this antigay initiative. (Were some SWP members beginning to question the “Memorandum's" characterization of the gay movement as “peripheral” and nearly weightless?) He warns against pointing too much to the opposition of the labor movement, which was genuine and widespread, in helping to defeat Briggs. The ruling class itself, he suggests, played a key role in the defeat. But would Briggs have been defeated if the gay movement itself had not responded with massive mobilizations against it, if it had not reached out to the labor movement to enlist its support? Possibly, but not likely. Still, the whole thrust of Barnes’ analysis leads to a denigrating of the self-mobilization and struggle of homosexuals themselves. To be wrong on the character and scope of the forces in the fight against Briggs, he says, “could lead us to a false estimate of the state of the class struggle, the current tactics of the ruling class, an overestimate of the strength of the gay rights movement, and cause us to veer away from the correct strategic line of march for labor and our party.”

That “line of march” now appears to be straight out of the gay movement. Anticommunists in the gay movement will rejoice at this prospect, no doubt. But for socialists, for people who recognize that the ultimate goals of the gay movement, as well as of all the oppressed and of the working class, lie in the overturning of capitalism and its heterosexist dictatorship, such a retreat can only be interpreted as a betrayal of the struggle for sexual freedom and socialism.

A further clue to the SWP’s current behavior might be found in another passage of its 1973 “Memorandum,” which is still the party’s official line on gay liberation. This passage refused to “take a stand on the nature or value of homosexuality,” and suggested that to do so — that is, to recognize what science has already proved, namely, that homosexual behavior is a natural form of human sexuality — might jeopardize the effectiveness of the party as a political organization and alienate it from the masses (who, as we all know, hate queers). To take such a stand, it argued, “would cut across its purpose, dilute its nature as a political organization, transform it into an organization advancing one or another scientific or cultural viewpoint, narrow its appeal, and cripple its ability to mobilize the masses on political questions.”

These are strong words. They suggest that the gay liberation movement is inherently apolitical, little more than an exotic sideshow playing itself out on the fringes of society. Were the massive mobilizations of gay people during the past two years, then, not political? Just the opposite. They were extremely effective in thwarting our enemies and in extending the influence of gay liberation in American society. They inspired other layers of the oppressed and exploited to fight back. And they occurred in spite of the fact that the SWP believes gay liberation to be inherently “countercultural,” riddled with “lifestylism,” and “peripheral” to the class struggle. How far out of it can you get?

The SWP’s unscientific, un-Marxist view of gay liberation and sexual liberation is what it is now counterposing to its “turn to the working class.” It has long berated the gay movement for not having a national focus. Now that the movement is beginning to develop one, now that it has an opportunity to move onto the national scene with a march on the nation’s capital, does the SWP respond by encouraging this process? Oh, no. It is reluctant to go a step further. It seeks to force the realities of the class struggle to fit its own political line, rather than the other way around. It behaves as though the gay movement were in conflict with its “turn” toward the labor movement. It seeks refuge in its wretched “Memorandum” and its belief that gay liberation is, after all, really not “political.” It is doing what a revolutionary party should never do — it is pitting itself against a movement of the oppressed. Any party that does not champion the rights and demands of all the oppressed does not deserve to call itself a revolutionary party. Can a witch hunt against whatever proud lesbian and gay members it may still have left in the SWP be far behind?

The Sexual Rights of Young People

It is entirely possible that some members of the SWP may not be impressed with the arguments against the gay movement and the march on Washington that Finkel/Zimmermann have concocted. It is for their benefit, no doubt, that our authors pounce on an issue about which not only they, but most of their readers as well, are profoundly ignorant. This is the issue of cross-generational sex, an issue that is currently being widely discussed and debated within the lesbian/gay movement.

This issue arose at the Philadelphia conference when the Gay Youth caucus introduced a demand for “full rights for gay youth, including revision of the age-of-consent laws.” This motion was passed, but was subsequently replaced, following a poll of the delegates by mail, with another demand which read: “Protect lesbian and gay youth from any laws which are used to discriminate against, oppress, and/or harass them in their homes, schools, jobs, and social environments.” (Finkel/Zimmermann rewrote this demand in their report to omit the word “jobs,” though it is not clear why.) This substitute demand was proposed because of strong objections from the women’s caucus, which did not agree with the idea of altering the age-of-consent laws. I myself, let it be said, voted against this substitute because I am in favor of full rights for gay youth, including their right to have sex with whomever they want. As a non-ageist radical, I also favor a repeal of the age-of-consent laws, which punish consensual sexual acts between an older and a younger person. These reactionary laws protect nobody, and in fact cause great suffering to large numbers of young people and adults. I believe that both the gay and socialist movements should get in step with Freud and Kinsey and recognize that children have an active sexuality.

In my opinion, sexual freedom remains a distant dream so long as the state and the church are allowed to impose their sex-negative morality on young people, as well as adults. In my view, it is unscientific, as well as damaging to millions of young people, for the gay and women’s movements, not to mention the socialist movement, to kowtow to the bourgeois notion that sexual rights should be the prerogative only of adults, preferably heterosexual adults. I myself, and just about every male homosexual I know, have suffered greatly as children from this irrational and reactionary legal repression of sexuality.

Many gay movements in other countries have recognized this, and call for a repeal of the age-of-consent laws. The American gay movement is out of step with them, and with scientific knowledge about sexuality, so long as it refuses to support full rights for gay youth. This is my personal and political conviction, and I intend to continue to express it. But I recognize that the American lesbian/gay movement needs considerably more discussion on this subject before it is in a position to bring its horizons into line with reality.

Socialists tend to be ahead of other people in recognizing the importance of child sexuality, and in stripping their approach to such matters of all religious and reactionary moralizing. To my knowledge, the SWP has never had a discussion of the question of cross-generational sex. But that does not prevent Finkel/Zimmermann from jumping into the fray with both feet and no head. They devote two columns to a delirious and absurd discussion of the subject, as well as to a personal attack on me for having publicly expressed my views on it. Not only do they blow the whole issue all out of proportion, but they completely distort it as well. The repeal of age-of-consent laws is a reactionary demand, they assert, “even though its supporters try to pass themselves off as defenders of adolescents against legal victimization.” This may be news to some of the SWP’s co-thinkers in other countries, such as Australia, who are officially on record as favoring the repeal of age-of-consent laws. Certainly, it makes a mockery of the very real oppression that many men and boys face when they are caught up in the labyrinth of the law for their purely consensual and loving relationships. I know personally of such people, some of whose lives are ruined as a result. I have seen teenage boys dragged into Family Court and harassed by the authorities for sexual relationships they sought out and willingly, nay joyfully, engaged in with men. I am convinced that the “treatment” for such offenses against morality is far worse than the “crime.” Moreover, it is similar to the suffering of adult homosexuals caught up in the same heterosexist legal system. How do you “protect” a young person by putting his older lover in jail and hauling the boy into Family Court, or worse? Laws that punish sexual acts freely engaged in should be discarded as relics of human prehistory. This is the only humane and civilized solution to a very real and widespread problem.

Finkel/Zimmermann, however, not only come out against the progressive demand to repeal or revise such laws, they also resort to slander to make their reactionary case. Those who advocate the repeal of such laws, they claim, “are primarily adult men who believe they should be unrestricted in having sex with children.” (Why not just call them monsters?) Advocating such legal reform, they say, is “anti-working-class, anti-child.” It has “nothing to do with gay rights or human rights of any kind. It has no place in the struggle to end discrimination against lesbians and gay people.” And black is white, and white is black. How long will it be before Finkel/Zimmermann tell us that the earth is really flat?

They don’t go quite that far yet, but they do drag in a most original, but ridiculous, argument to bolster their flimsy case:

“Saying that children have the ‘right’ to ‘consent’ to sex with adults is exactly like saying children should be able to ‘consent’ to work in a garment factory twelve hours a day.” To me, these are in reality quite different matters. Sex is fun.

Sex is play. Sex is not work. And sex hardly resembles working in a garment factory for five minutes, let alone twelve hours. If this is an example of the SWP’s use of dialectical logic, or even formal logic, it is safe to say that the SWP is in serious trouble. After all, things are not always their opposite. Maybe our authors are simply trying to impress their readers with their formidable grasp of labor history. I, for one, can think of nothing more irrelevant to the subject of consensual cross-generational sex than working in a garment factory. I do hope the Militant will spare its readers such foolishness in the future.

Finkel/Zimmermann also show that they have learned well the guilt-by-association method perfected by the ignominious Joseph McCarthy of 1950s witch hunt fame. “Some of Thorstad’s associates,” they assert, “argue that, at least for male youngsters, prostitution can be a freely chosen and fulfilling ‘lifestyle.’” Who are these unnamed “associates”? Whoever they might be, they do not speak for me, for my view of prostitution, as well as that of all boy-lovers I know, is just the opposite. It is true that many boys in American society turn to prostitution, usually out of poverty, or because they can’t get jobs, or because they regard it as one of the ways they know about to meet men. But I can’t think of a single boy-lover who argues in favor of prostitution as a “fulfilling lifestyle.” I know several who consider themselves oppressed by the prostitution to which this society has driven some of their young male friends.

But isn’t this a strange argument to read in a socialist newspaper? After all, the women’s movement has made far more of an issue out of prostitution than pederasts have. It has even organized demonstrations in support of female prostitutes, and some prostitutes have been involved in the women’s movement. Yet the SWP has never chosen to attack or disassociate itself from the women’s movement on these grounds.

One of the SWP’s gay minions, Michael Maggi, even brought a motion to the CLGR on March 27 which stated that “adults having sex with children is exploitation and is the antithesis of the fight for lesbian and gay rights.” But this is not a true statement. Adults having sex with children may or may not be exploitative, just as adults having sex with adults may or may not be exploitative. These things must be determined on an individual basis. In many cases, adults having sex with children, or children having sex with adults, is just the opposite of exploitation. But this may all be too complicated for our pseudo-dialecticians to understand.

It is interesting to note, though, that this party, which takes a hysterical stand against homosexuality between men and boys, is the same party that refuses to “take a stand” on the “nature or value” of homosexuality. No longer does it merely pooh-pooh the concept that Gay Is Good; today it is saying that in cases involving young people Gay Is Bad.

Here are a few verbatim quotes made by SWP members during the debate on Michael Maggi’s motion at the March 27 CLGR meeting:

Finkel: “Man/boy love is not part of the gay rights movement; it’s exploitative of children.”

Maggi’s motion “does not oppose the right of children to have sex with whoever they want.” [!]

Maggi: “I originally supported abolition of the age of consent.”

“It would be deadly to take up David Thorstad’s position” on man/boy love.

[But Thorstad never asked the Coalition to do so.]

“Sex between a 30-year-old and an 8-year-old is child molestation.”

“I am not for giving children the right to consent to sex.”

It is one thing to have an opinion on these questions, however reactionary and unscientific. It is quite another thing, however, to go on a campaign in the gay movement around such a reactionary outlook. But that is what the SWP has done. Had its motion passed the CLGR meeting, it would have split the Coalition apart. Group after group stood up during the debate to state that they would have to leave the Coalition if the SWP motion passed. Fortunately, it was overwhelmingly defeated.

But surely the SWP knew in advance that its motion would not pass. Was that the reason they insisted on bringing it? Were they looking for a defeat that might give them an excuse to withdraw from the Coalition? Or were they actually trying to break apart the organization? For years I have defended the SWP against charges that they were “splitters.” But it is hard to come to any other conclusion in light of the recent behavior of its members in the CLGR.

Since Finkel/Zimmermann obviously don’t understand the first thing about this subject, why have they chosen to write about it at such length? Is it because they have joined forces with reactionary fools like Anita Bryant, the Interfaith Committee Against Child Molesters, Dr. Judianne Densen-Gerber, and William F. Buckley? Objectively, they most certainly have, because their arguments are exactly the same. Word for word. Perhaps they rushed into this whole thing too quickly. But one thing is for sure: They should get the facts before they start putting their half-baked ideas onto paper.

There may be more going on here than is immediately apparent. In nearly two years of more or less active involvement in gay liberation, the SWP has, to my knowledge, recruited not one single lesbian or gay activist. Certainly in New York they have not. This in itself is a devastating commentary on the inadequacy of their position on gay liberation and on the ineffectiveness of their activity in the gay movement — at a time when so many gay activists are seriously considering socialism as the solution to the myriad problems facing our society. At a time when the SWP has decided that heavy industry is where the action is, they need a rationale for not allocating their meager forces to a “peripheral” movement like gay liberation. In their rush to justify their current line, it seems, any and all arguments, however absurd and unjust, are acceptable. This is the only rational explanation I can think of for the Finkel/Zimmermann piece.

But time marches on. Efforts to build a mass movement for lesbian/gay liberation and sexual freedom will go on. The struggle to build a mass, combative movement of the workers and the oppressed will go on. And sooner or later I believe that capitalism will be overthrown. But what about the need to win the Marxist movement to gay liberation, and the gay movement to Marxism? On this, the SWP has once again shown that it has no constructive ideas to offer. Its “Memorandum” has come home to roost.

 

Notes

1.     ↑ The first, major debate inside the SWP has been documented in the book I self-published in 1976 entitled Gay Liberation and Socialism: Documents from the Discussions on Gay Liberation Inside the Socialist Workers Party (1970–1973). (Since 1973, two other internal SWP debates on gay liberation have taken place, and another one appears to be shaping up.) This book is now out of print, but can be found in a number of libraries. I was a leading participant in this discussion, which generated more than 100 documents, none of which had been made public prior to my publication of this compilation. I was told at the time that the SWP leadership regarded my decision to make the documents public “scurrilous.” Despite a small printing of only 200 copies, the book was welcomed by gay liberationists throughout the world, and has been reproduced in a number of areas by gay socialists who found it useful in understanding their own problems in winning the left to a Marxist position of actively supporting gay liberation and integrating it into an overall struggle to overthrow capitalism. Because of the continuing demand, I am considering putting out a new, updated edition. [The second edition came out in 1981, and is now out of print. — DT.]

2.     ↑ [This is no longer true. The SWP has devolved into an irrelevant sect around its longtime leader Jack Barnes, and the party abandoned the label Trotskyist in 1982, following a speech by Barnes rejecting the theory of permanent revolution. This speech was published as Their Trotsky and Ours: Communist Continuity Today. In 1983, a large number of dissidents, including longtime top leaders of the SWP, were expelled. The Communist Party as well has become virtually irrelevant.]

3.     ↑ [It is clear, even if it was not yet so clear then, that the Iranian revolution not only put a reactionary theocratic elite in power, but was the opposite of a “big advance for the gay rights struggle.”]

4.     ↑ [The march drew about 50,000 people. The NAMBLA contingent was fifty men and boys strong, and right behind it came the NOW contingent.]

5.     ↑ [More than thirty years later, in his memoir on the SWP, party leader Barry Sheppard, who wrote the “Memorandum” for the Political Committee, revealed that he had originally planned to include a formulation whereby no “organized national party participation” in the gay movement would be projected, but involvement would be left up to local branches to decide. He was told by longtime leader Farrell Dobbs that even that would be going too far: “He said that the opposition in the party to having anything to do with the movement was based ‘purely and simply on prejudice.’ But, he said, if we stuck with the position I had outlined, it would split the party, and we therefore had to reject any reallocation of our forces to the movement by the branches. In other words, we had to capitulate to prejudice” (The Socialist Workers Party 1960–1988, vol. 1, The Sixties: A Political Memoir [Chippendale, Australia: Resistance Books, 2005], 322). The party membership was never informed about this at the time.]

 

Autism: It's About Wiring, not Ability

A post on Quora by educator John Harland sums up well why many people are confused about what autism is:


Why is there so much confusion about what is and is not autism?


One reason is that many people see autism only in terms of those who have serious problems coping socially and in other ways. They may even argue that intelligent people are not actually autistic because they are not seriously disabled.

Psychiatric “diagnosis” of autism is largely based on impairment, so it ignores a lot of intelligent people who have learned to mask their autism in many circumstances.

However neural imaging has given us a picture of autism that is independent of impediment or disability. It is a distinct brain wiring centred on reduced synaptic pruning. That means that autistic minds are less restricted to habitual patterns of thinking and acting.

That may sound contradictory because autistic people do many things in highly repetitive ways. However those are commonly the things that seem unimportant or boring and they do those the same every time so that they can focus on what they find interesting.

The reduced synaptic pruning means that autistic thinking is more complex. That can be a big help when you have the brain power to drive it but it can be a major impediment if you don’t.

The population of people who have serious problems coping with their autism is fairly well known, The population of people for whom autism is a help to their thinking is much less understood and many recognise it in themselves only after decades of recognising they think differently to most people but not having a name for how they think.

That population of hidden autism may be several times that of disabling autism but the data is not yet clear on that. Not least, it depends on whether you use brain scanning or psychiatric diagnosis as the criterion by which you recognise autism.

Cultic Studies Conference Coming Up

The International Cultic Studies Association is holding a virtual conference jointly with Canadian partner organizations July 1-3.

Don't Believe Everything You Think

This academic paper tries to pathologize healthy self-doubt and, in particular, the role anticipation of and respect for others' skepticism helps us activate it in ourselves. But only if you're female.

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/713146

The argument ultimately rests on the claim that society is biased against believing women. But this is factually incorrect, particularly with regard to claims of abuse. There's abundant evidence that women are more, not less, likely than men who make such claims.

Thanks to Robin Hanson for bringing this absurdity to my attention.

Karl vs. Bret

Marxism is a subject which a great many people think they understand far better than they actually do. This is largely because opponents have psychological blocks to understanding it and are motivated to misinterpret it.

Watching evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein's new interview with Jordan Peterson the other day -- and particularly the part in which they purport to be discussing Marxism -- gave me occasion to bring together a number of points which I've made in comments under other videos. 

 

Weinstein refers to "attempts to create a Marxist Utopia," and this only demonstrates that he hasn't actually acquainted himself with basic Marxist texts. If he had, he'd know that Marxism rejects the idea of using the State to try and instantiate a Utopia, holding instead that that endpoint will come about only at the same stage of history when the State no longer exists -- an entire historical period after the overthrow of capitalism by a proletarian revolution. And "equality of outcome," another phrase he uses in this context, isn't even an objective of Marxism. The same text that places Utopia at the end, not the beginning of a post-revolutionary period -- Critique of the Gotha Programme -- describes that Utopia as having "inscribed on its banner the watchword: 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his need!'" Since, as this statement implicitly recognizes, people don't have equal abilities or needs, this clearly does not mean equal outcomes.

He says we want a system in which people are "economically rewarded for doing a good thing" -- that is, performing socially useful labor. But this is exactly how Marx defines "bourgeois right" as it would operate in the first stage of socialist society, with people being compensated according to their labor (with the obvious exceptions that we see even in civilized capitalist countries, i.e., children, the elderly, and invalids).

The kernel of truth in what he's saying about unequal outcomes is that we want people to be motivated to be more rather than less productive, which is absolutely true. Where he errs is in assuming that this has to take the form of differences in economic wealth or even in income, and it's rather ironic that he makes this error, given his academic background. As a Darwinian, he ought to understand that what matters ultimately is only the higher status that results in more and better reproductive opportunities. Society can be arranged so that this status is independent of economic wealth. In particular, common ownership of productive wealth would greatly facilitate the transparency that would allow people to see directly how big a contribution someone has made, instead of having to infer it from conspicuous consumption which, aside from its purported motivational function, represents by definition a non-optimal allocation of resources as it means to some extent the prioritizing of (relative) luxuries over necessities.

And when Peterson talks about "forcing equality," he sounds as if he's describing the dystopia in Ayn Rand's Anthem. As the editor who rejected her manuscript observed, "The author does not understand socialism."

Protest Creatively, for Safety's Sake

Are outdoor in-person protests safe? There's been a lot of back and forth about this.

I went to a couple last summer, based on the organizers' call for participants to wear masks and practice physical distancing. Both times, most did wear masks, but when the rally transitioned to a march down a street, people were squeezed too closely together, willy-nilly. The problem was not apparently that they didn't understand the importance of distancing; they just had no way of spontaneously coordinating to accomplish this.

As a result, I stopped taking part in such in-person events, but I took every opportunity to point out that an alternative is possible. That alternative is for people to actually plan ahead of time exactly how they will stay far enough apart. I have seen stories about events where this was done successfully.

One way of doing so is to use a service like signup.com, which is how Planned Parenthood of Southeast Pennsylvania ensures that enough, but only enough, people volunteer to be patient escorts and escort coordinators. Volunteers go to the website, sign in, and are presented with a specified number of slots for each day, hour, and location. Once the full complement is filled for a given time and place, no more people can sign up for it. This ensures that patients aren't intimidated or inconvenienced by an excessive number of volunteers as they go into the clinic. The same technology could be used to arrange for, say, three and no more than three people to stand and hold up signs at each corner of each intersection along a major thoroughfare, ensuring that lots of motorists will get the message -- and not merely for a moment, but over an extended interval of time -- while demonstrators stay a safe distance apart.

Some may point to the fact that no significant spikes in COVID-19 cases followed last summer's protests. This is true, and it reflects that fact that this pathogen spreads more easily in enclosed spaces. Unfortunately, there are now new, more contagious strains, and even if these aren't easily transmitted within outdoor crowds, such events still create conditions that could hasten the evolution of new strains that would be. We can't afford to risk that.

Against Moral Totalism

Keywords: spanking, spankers, bias, prejudice, stereotypes

I watched this video by Jillian Keenan the other day. In case you might misunderstand the title, it's not about safe technique but, rather, keeping oneself safe from bad actors in the spanking fetish community:

Spanko Safety -- YouTube

For the most part it's a great video, but I have to disagree on one point, where she calls it a "red flag" if someone defends the spanking of children. She doesn't elaborate on why, but I would presume it's because they "don't believe in consent."

This is an example of a kind of totalistic thinking: either you have my morality, or you have no morality, because no other kind is possible. Or, to put it another way, it reflects an inability to comprehend that different people organize their moral thought in accordance with different categories.

For instance, someone who calls herself pro-life may think her position is adequately explained by the statement, "Killing is wrong," and therefore assume that anyone calling himself pro-choice must think that killing isn't wrong. She might consequently conclude that she can't trust him to babysit her children, because he "doesn't care" if they're killed.

Her error would be that she's failing to comprehend that the pro-choicer puts born children and unborn fetuses in separate moral categories -- in fact, his position is explicitly based on this distinction -- and so he most certainly isn't going to defend killing born children, since that would be at odds with the ideological basis of his pro-choice position.

In like manner, when Keenan views people who defend the spanking of children as untrustworthy play partners, she's failing to recognize that for them, an essential ideological premise is that children and adults are morally distinct categories, with different rights and responsibilities. The very distinction on which their position rests, therefore, militates strongly against their disregarding consent when it comes to adult play partners, since to do so would mean negating the ideological premise on which their position rests.

Capitalism in a Nutshell

Or in this case a dumpster. A workers' government would put human needs first: food for the hungry, housing for the homeless, vaccines for all. But to get a workers' government, we first of all need a workers' party. Right now we just have two capitalist (major) parties. Let's hope it isn't long before some sizeable segment of the labor movement kicks the "blue" habit and joins with groups like the People's Party and the Greens to run workers' candidates in politically amenable districts.

Krystal Ball: Police Guard Dumpster Of Food, Protecting Profits Over People https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz7Z4Ye0p2E

Mea Culpa: The Election Plot That Wasn't

In the spirit of the Pro Truth Pledge, I want to correct something I shared without comment earlier on social media.

I introduced a video from The Jimmy Dore Show with the words, “TIME Magazine exposes a plot to control the 2020 election,” which was a slightly abbreviated version of the title Jimmy Dore gave it. In it he talked about an article describing how an alliance of various individuals and organizations had collaborated behind the scenes to combat misinformation about the election over the months leading up to it, in particular baseless claims about election fraud, in order to head off the possibility of violence and chaos on or after Election Day.

This alliance included tech industry giants like Facebook as well as political activists. Most of the emphasis in the article was on liberal groups like the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, but it mentioned that Republicans, including strong supporters of Donald Trump, were also involved. So were the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

But not all of those details were mentioned by Jimmy in the video. He only showed a few highlighted passages from the article, and made no mention of the involvement of Trump supporters, nor the fact that the focus of the effort was specifically on combatting misinformation about vote fraud so as to prevent civil unrest. The effect was to create the impression that this was a plot to bring down Trump, as confirmed by many of the comments by Trump supporters under the video on its YouTube page, who saw this as confirming what they’d already believed.

Now, I’m inclined to give Jimmy the benefit of a doubt here. It’s quite possible that he didn’t actually read the article himself, and was simply passing on what someone else had shared with him, trusting that they were representing the contents of the article accurately. Unfortunately I likewise trusted his representation, and thereby unwittingly participated in the spread of misinformation. I apologize for having done so, and I’ll share this on the same platforms where I previously shared the video.

This experience is a reminder of the necessity of verifying any information that may serve a political agenda before passing it on, even when it comes from those I don’t expect to be intentionally dishonest.

Student to University of Tennessee: "Leave Me Alone"

LAWSUIT: The University of Tennessee tried to expel a grad student for a tweet about Cardi B and other social media posts. Now she’s fighting back. (thefire.org)



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To help FIRE fight free speech cases like this, donate here: https://www.thefire.org/donate/

Rosa Luxemburg on "Premature" Revolution

“[I]t is impossible to imagine that a transformation as formidable as the passage from capitalist society to socialist society can be realized in one happy act. To consider that as possible is, again, to lend color to conceptions that are clearly Blanquist. The socialist transformation supposes a long and stubborn struggle, in the course of which it is quite probable the proletariat will be repulsed more than once so that for the first time, from the viewpoint of the final outcome of the struggle, it will have necessarily come to power ‘too early.’

“In the second place, it will be impossible to avoid the ‘premature’ conquest of State power by the proletariat precisely because these ‘premature’ attacks of the proletariat constitute a factor and indeed a very important factor, creating the political conditions of the final victory. In the course of the political crisis accompanying its seizure of power, in the course of the long and stubborn struggles, the proletariat will acquire the degree of political maturity permitting it to obtain in time a definitive victory of the revolution.”

-- Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution, 1900, seventeen years before the Russian Revolution of 1917

Schooling Metro on Autism

 Today's Philly edition of Metro features an article titled "Students with Autism grapple with challenges of virtual learning." Below is my letter responding to it.

Your article refers to "children who have autism or other intellectual disabilities." This is inaccurate because autism is not an intellectual disability.

Autism sometimes co-occurs with an intellectual disability, or with sensory processing issues that can interfere with learning (see for instance Types of Intellectual Disabilities: List and Examples | HealthyPlace). But autism itself is not an intellectual disability; in fact, some forms of autism tend to be associated with higher than average intelligence.

Autism is officially characterized as a developmental disorder but, like many other #ActuallyAutistic people, I consider this a biased description. If it's true that autistics often have difficulty reading the emotions of neurotypical (non-autistic) people, it's equally true that neurotypicals often fail to read the emotions of autistics. So it's more objective to describe autism as a neurological difference rather than as a disorder or disability.

Blue Bubbled on NPR

BLUE BUBBLED: On Weekend Edition Saturday, Emily Feng calls the lab leak hypothesis "unscientific," even though, as Nicholson Baker points out, there is no more evidence for the currently prevailing "zoonotic" hypothesis about the origin of SARS-CoV-2.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/coronavirus-lab-escape-theory.html

At 17:52 in this podcast, biologists Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying discuss some of the reasons for suspecting a lab leak origin, which they've addressed in more depth previously:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lGlrjmIalJY

The WESat segment:

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/23/959884124/life-in-wuhan-one-year-after-the-covid-19-outbreak-began

Proof of Election Fraud!

Investigators have found that the Democratic National Committee lied about their involvement in the Iowa caucus debacle. Read the Intercept article here:

Investigator: DNC “Directly Involved” in Iowa Caucus App Development (theintercept.com)

Watch this interview with author Jordan Chariton:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKB0H_SFoAg%20https://theintercept.com/2020/12/23/dnc-iowa-caucus-app-shadow/

The Insurrecto Cult

In his latest Dark Horse Podcast, Bret Weinstein interviews investigative journalist Jeremy Lee Quinn about the role of insurrectionary anarchists in co-opting the Black Lives Matter movement for their own purposes, and the history behind this. My comments on this movement, and especially its cultic features, are below.

Chris Hedges is even more unambiguously a radical than Bret, being an unabashed socialist. Anarchists could consider him a "reformist" only on the basis of the ultraleft notion that revolutionism means trying to tear things down before you've got something better set up to replace them with. This is what's always differentiated them from the position of Marx, for whom the prerequisite of a socialist transformation was the working class constituting itself as a historical subject, i.e., organizing itself to govern society.

When Bret says none of those involved has a vision of how they're going to create something better, he's only describing those self-identified Marxists who have chosen to align with this movement. Those with a better understanding of Marxism have known for a long time what to do: first organize working people on the political and industrial fields to build power in the workplace and society at large, so that the next time the existing order faces a crisis of legitimacy, structures that can replace it -- structures of workers' democracy -- are ready to take over. This is the situation of dual power in which revolution becomes possible. That some people calling themselves Marxists today don't understand this is just an example of the perennial tendency of youth to be in a rush to change things and want to think it can be done in a hurry, lacking the patience for long-term organizing. Indeed, I remember how, when I was in high school in the late '70s, I seriously thought there might be a revolution within the next five years. I don't think that now, yet because I have more patience, I think that my actions now serve better to make a (hopefully peaceful) revolution possible within my lifetime.

I'm also struck by the many cult-like aspects of this movement. They focus on recruiting youth from high school and even younger because they want to exploit youth's typical excess of eager idealism over critical thinking, often compounded with a need to find something to identify with outside of their families. My own excessive short-term optimism at that age was encouraged by a socialist group that I only later realized had strong cultic characteristics. Fortunately, thanks perhaps to my autism (only identified last year), I was constitutionally incapable of not thinking for myself and got effectively kicked out when they realized this. And, thanks to my parents' still identifying as socialists even though they hadn't been members for decades, this expulsion didn't cause any existential crisis for me. I knew I could remain radical while taking my time finding another group worthy of my membership.

To the above, I might add the use of language loading to effect milieu control. Among themselves, insurrectos use the term reformism, which might sound positive to the average person, to denigrate and reject any approach to social change that to any degree involves working "within the system" rather than attempting its violent overthrow. In this way, realistic, non-destructive efforts to make things better are summarily rejected as "supporting the system." (Note: although Leninists also use this term pejoratively, they mean something different by it. A campaign isn't automatically considered "reformist" merely because it's conducted peacefully or because it advocates for change within the framework of the existing system. This word is reserved specifically for approaches that reject independent working-class activity in favor of subordinating the class movement to demands supported by elements of the ruling class, and to organizations or coalitions dominated by those elements.)

By "milieu control" is meant "the control of information and communication both within the environment and, ultimately, within the individual," which can be accomplished by language loading among other means.

Pressure Is Building to Force a Vote for Medicare for All. All In -- Sign the Petition!

Sign to tell House progressives: this is the time to use your leverage to win health care for all!

I just signed a @theactionnet petition: House Progressives: #ForceTheVote on Medicare for All Now. Sign here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/force-the-vote

Socialism for Beginners

This video I discovered the other day, along with the channel it's on, offers a good jargon-free introduction to what socialism is and isn't.

A Future Beyond Capitalism? Socialism Explained. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hactcmhVS1w

Quote of the Day

I now try to avoid using the English idiom "I just don't understand how..." to express indignation.  If I genuinely don't understand how, then my model is being surprised by the facts, and I should discard it and find a better model. -- Eliezer Yudkowsky, "Think Like Reality"

Discussion with Diana Davison: The Lighthouse Project and Due Process Issues

Diana Davison, founder of The Lighthouse Project in Canada, is working on a handbook for the falsely accused. Listen to her on this latest podcast from Honey Badger Radio, then visit her website and make a donation!

Discussion with Diana Davison: The lighthouse project and due process issues | HBR Talk 162 – Honey Badger Brigade

Free Rebekah Jones!

Rebekah Jones has been arrested in Florida for exposing profit-driven, homicidal government policies relating to COVID-19.

Stop government attack on COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones! - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

I've sent the following message to Gov. Ron DeSantis and the assistant to Judge Joshua Hawkes:

Stop the assault on science and free speech! Free Rebekah Jones, drop all the charges, and return all her technology and data! No witch-hunt for whistleblowers!

Don't Be a Slave to a Meme

I just watched this video by Arielle Scarcella about the harm being done by confusion about what transgender means. I've copied my comment on it below the link.

Trevor Moran Transgender : Fans Push Him To "Be Trans"                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juWcalDWveQ

The meaning of words matters, but it matters because people agree on that meaning. Since this video came out, we see _transgender_ being overtly defined as any kind of deviation from gender norms. But the point is not how any particular term is defined -- which is in principle arbitrary -- but that the necessary distinctions are being made. You can define _trans_ the way Arielle does here, or you can define it in the broader way; what matters is that you also have a term like gender dysphoria so that that vital distinction can be made.

This point about the arbitrariness of labels also applies on the level of the individual. There's no reason to feel any need to "define" yourself with a label in the first place -- "the map is not the territory." Just be yourself, as long as you aren't hurting others. The only label you need is your name! (And you can change that too.) When words start being our masters instead of our servants, that's pathology.

Respondents Sought for Study on Male Victims of Coercive Control

 

Boys' and Men's Issues: The Magazine

In a video released on International Men's Day (November 19), Chris Votey has announced that he and Catherine McLain will be publishing a magazine dedicated to boys' and men's issues. To keep it true to its mission, it will be an entirely volunteer effort supported by readers and donors; only advertising by people affiliated with the men's movement will be accepted. The first issue is planned to be published next summer.

Here's the website: boysmenissues.com

Happy International Men's Day!

A message from the Canadian Association for Equality:

On International Men's Day, Support Canada's Most Effective Champion for Boys, Men & Fathers.

And Have Your Donation Doubled Today!

Today is November 19th, International Men's Day, an opportunity to celebrate the progress you've helped us achieve at the Canadian Association for Equality and the Canadian Centres for Men and Families, and to take stock of the monumental work that remains to be done for boys and men.




Yes, I will mark this occasion by renewing my support for boys and men, and please double my donation so we can open the new Family Shelter in time for the Holidays!



Despite it being a challenging year, here's what we accomplished in 2020:

We received intervenor status in the Supreme Court case of R v Langan, and argued before Canada's highest court that male gender stereotypes can lead to wrongful convictions.

Our Suicide Prevention Billboards attracted public and media attention in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa.

The first Family Shelter for Men and Children is on track to open for the Holidays following our purchase of a beautiful home in Toronto.

We completed our first government funded research project, "Studying Male Homelessness as a Consequence of Domestic Violence."

On December 10th we'll host MOMENTUM 2020, the Canadian National Men's Issues Conference.

Erasing Family, a CAFE-produced documentary, was released to critical acclaim, and we hosted premiere screenings at 15 Canadian venues.

But there's so much more to do for men and boys. Here's the Plan for 2021:

As a result of COVID, our charity is facing serious financial hardship. Please help keep Canada's champions for boys and men strong and sustainable.

Yes, I'll contribute now so we enter 2021 with the resources we need to continue fighting for boys, men and fathers - and thank you for matching my contributions dollar for dollar!





Thank you for your leadership in joining with us on behalf of men and boys!


Justin Trottier
Executive Director
Canadian Association for Equality

Caitlin Johnstone: Unelected Officials Override The President To Continue Wars (But Only Kooks Believe In The Deep State)

Unelected Officials Override The President To Continue Wars (But Only Kooks Believe In The Deep State)

Outgoing US envoy to Syria James Jeffrey stated in a recent interview with Defense One that US officials have been “playing shell games” about the number of troops in the region to deceive the Trump administration into thinking there has been a military withdrawal. Here are some excerpts:

“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” Jeffrey said in an interview. The actual number of troops in northeast Syria is “a lot more than” the two hundred troops Trump agreed to leave there in 2019.

…

“What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal,” Jeffrey said. “When the situation in northeast Syria had been fairly stable after we defeated ISIS, [Trump] was inclined to pull out. In each case, we then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded both times. That’s the story.”

…

Officially, Trump last year agreed to keep about 200 U.S. troops stationed in northeast Syria to “secure” oil fields held by the United States’ Kurdish allies in the fight against ISIS. It is generally accepted that the actual number is now higher than that — anonymous officials put the number at about 900 today — but the precise figure is classified and remains unknown even, it appears, to members of Trump’s administration keen to end the so-called “forever wars.”

Some mass media propagandists find it hilarious that the US war machine used deceit to thwart the president’s attempts to withdraw from its illegal occupation of Syria:

https://twitter.com/LizSly/status/1327137565288378370

This would not be the first time that Jeffrey, a foreign policy insider with the past three presidential administrations, has admitted to deceiving the public about what’s happening in Syria. Earlier this year he admitted at a Hudson Institute video event (these Beltway insiders always get extra honest in the company of fellow think tank denizens) that, contrary to the official public narrative of the US military being in Syria to fight terrorism, it’s actually there to create “a quagmire for the Russians”.

This would also not be the first time we’ve heard reports of the US war machine hiding the facts from the elected commander-in-chief of the most powerful military force ever assembled. Last year The New York Times cited anonymous US officials in a report on cyber intrusion operations against the Russian government that the US military had deliberately kept Trump in the dark about.

“Two administration officials said they believed Mr. Trump had not been briefed in any detail about the steps to place ‘implants’ — software code that can be used for surveillance or attack — inside the Russian grid,” NYT reports. “Pentagon and intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction — and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials.”

America's special envoy to Syria publicly admits that the continued illegal US military occupation of parts of the country isn't about fighting ISIS or other terrorists, as Washington claims. Instead the US aims to "make it a quagmire for the Russians."

https://twitter.com/jm_szuba/status/1260256224890826752?s=21 …

Jared Szuba@JM_Szuba

Asked why the American public should tolerate US involvement in Syria, Special Envoy James Jeffrey points out the small US footprint in the fight against ISIS. "This isn't Afghanistan. This isn't Vietnam. This isn't a quagmire. My job is to make it a quagmire for the Russians."

 

Mainstream liberal US discourse has accomplished an amazing feat of Orwellian doublethink with regard to the notion that unelected power structures are running things without the consent of the nation’s official elected government. On the one hand there’s been a nonstop deluge of Daily Beast articles since Trump’s election saying anyone who dares to suggest the existence of a “deep state” in America is a conspiracy kook, but on the other hand there’s also been constant praise for the insider “adults in the room” who ensure from within the administration that Trump doesn’t demolish America’s precious norms while in office.

This cognitive two-step became even more reified after comments from the likes of Iraq war architect Bill Kristol tweeting that he’d “prefer the deep state to the Trump state”, and the famous anonymous New York Times op-ed authored by a “senior official in the Trump administration” (now known to have been former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security Miles Taylor) saying administration officials are working together against Trump to “thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations”.

The understanding of a deep state in America has become even more obfuscated by the other side of America’s fake partisan divide, with Trump supporters now using that term to essentially mean “anyone who doesn’t like Donald Trump”. That erroneous understanding has now become so prevalently associated with the term “deep state” that it has lost all use in meaningful discourse and is better off being avoided altogether if you want to point at something real.

In reality the term deep state is meant to refer not to anyone who opposes Trump, nor to a secret cabal of baby-eating Satanists, but simply to the tendency among government agencies and plutocrats to form loose alliances with each other and collaborate toward common agendas. It’s a term used for political analysis to describe large-scale power agendas that are largely playing out right out in the open, hidden in plain sight.

It doesn’t take a ton of investigative reporting and WikiLeaks drops to understand that there’s been a collective of operatives mostly running the Trump administration while the actual elected president yells at the talking heads on Fox News and tweets. It’s also not hard to brush away the insubstantial narrative fluff and see that US policies have remained more or less unbroken regardless of which elected officials have been in office, and it doesn’t take a Nostradamus to predict that that will continue to be the case after Trump is replaced by the next empty husk in the White House.

The US government simply is not what Americans were taught it is in school, and it is not what they tell you it is in the news. It’s a mostly unelected power establishment which operates in the interests of imperialist expansionism and oligarchic control, with the official elected government operating sort of like the unplugged video game controller you hand your kid brother to keep him from whining for a chance to play.

All this fuss over who really won the election is missing the point. People are bickering over which oligarchic puppet should be sworn in on January 20th when all the evidence we’ve been given shows that nobody gets to become president if they inconvenience real power in any way, and if they do inconvenience real power they are simply ignored.

That is the direction we should all be looking. Not at who’s president, but why things stay the same no matter who’s president.

Autistic People Pathologized for Being More Moral

Autistic People Care Too Much, Research Says

https://neuroclastic.com/2020/11/07/autistic-people-care-too-much-research-says/ via @NeuroClastic

President Three-Year-Old Is Out, and President Demented Is In. Hurrah!

Diana Davison: Myths About Human Sexuality and Consent

In this video, Diana Davison discusses the question of what are true rape myths vs. what are rape-culture myths. "Our laws should not demand that human beings conduct themselves in ways not natural to human beings."

https://falseaccusations.ca/myths-about-human-sexuality-and-consent/

Please support the fight against false accusations with a donation to the Lighthouse Project!

Green Party of Philadelphia Statement on the Walter Wallace Shooting

Statement of the Green Party of Philadelphia concerning the police shooting of Walter Wallace, Jr. on October 26, 2020

We the Green Party of Philadelphia wish to express our deepest, warmest condolences to the family and friends of Walter Wallace Jr., another young Black man mercilessly gunned down by officers of the Philadelphia Police Department.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Philadelphia PD’s over reliance on lethal force and we unapologetically support the constitutionally protected right of protesters to rise up against yet another police murder. Despite the fervent efforts of Walter Wallace Jr.’s mother to calm her son, the whole world witnessed how Wallace Jr. was shot and killed in front of his mother, as she begged them not to shoot.

We are saddened to read that the police used such deadly force even though they had been to his home twice earlier that day, as he had a history of mental health challenges, which they should have been aware of. Additionally, we note that people facing a mental health challenge are 16 times more likely to be shot and killed in such a confrontation with police. Indeed, one of the questions among others is why police continue to be sent to contend with mental health situations.

Thus, in light of this history of deadly violence, not only do we demand a quick, yet thorough, and transparent investigation of this tragedy; but we also call yet again, along with so many others, for community control of the police. Community control over the police is a principle of democratic self-determination to end abusive practices. The community should have a direct say about who has the right to detain, arrest and use force. The community should have access to a process to help set policy, budgets, decisive action for misconduct, etc. The primary institution for this community control is an elected Civilian Police Control Board with subpoena power. We are proud to state we are the only party in this election year to call for community control of the police.

We call on communities to organize themselves to identify those mental health professionals who can be called in times of crisis, as opposed to the police. Additionally, we call on city leaders to make more of a priority, the fair and proper funding of resources in various communities, i.e., mental health services; substance abuse treatment programs; affordable housing; job training for living wage, union jobs; affordable, accessible child care; recreation and educational activities for youth, etc. Thisis where taxpayer revenues need to be going, and not for more—and bad—policing.

What happened Monday is just one more tragedy too many.

Sincerely,

The Green Party of Philadelphia

215-843-4256

gpop@gpop.org

Warner Brothers Is Being Fantastically Beastly to Johnny Depp

It's reported today that Warner Brothers has fired Johnny Depp from his role in the Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts. They are doing so because of Amber Heard's claims that he physically abused her during their relationship, in spite of a lack of physical evidence for these claims and despite evidence not only that she has faked evidence of abuse, but also that she was actually the aggressor in their relationship.

I have written WB today to let them know I won't be watching the movie unless they rehire Depp.

https://falseaccusations.ca/heres-the-audio-where-amber-heard-mocks-johnny-depp/

"Law Enforcement Is for the Braveheart, Not the Craven"

This video was shared by Olivia Faison, Green Party candidate for PA auditor general. Her comments follow. I would note that there's no reason to think the cop who shows how to do it right was able to do so because of her sex.

https://www.facebook.com/1682635196/videos/10215209751352091/?t=40

Law Enforcement Is a Job for the Brave, Not the Craven 

There is no doubt that the job of a police officer has potential life-threatening risks and dangers.  Unfortunately, part of their job is knowing that at any time, you could lose your life.  But the last I heard, this was a choice that people made freely, and that is to become LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers)/aka: cops.  No one asked, nor forced them to choose such a dangerous line of work.

Nonetheless, law enforcement is a choice that many courageous individuals happily make in order to serve the general public.  

Lately, police behavior has made it painfully obvious, and visibly clear, that they are afraid of some of the folks whom they are sworn to protect and serve.  In fact, when dealing with a disturbance that leads to the killing or death of black boys and men, these officers are always citing the fear of the threat of losing their own lives.  This seems to be the only reason necessary to justify the killing or murdering of mostly unarmed black men.  Sadly, it appears that they feel safe and secure, only after they have eliminated the source of their fright.

Not so with a female police officer in Arizona.  It’s funny how just about one month ago,  a lone female police officer was able to back away from a deranged man, who was not only brandishing a knife, but was aggressively approaching her with threats, taunts, curses, and screaming for her to shoot him and shouting how he was going to kill her.  Only when he ran towards her, shouting he was going to kill her, and rapidly closing the gap between them, did the female officer fire her gun one time to bring down her aggressor.  The entire incident was captured on video attached.  

One Facebook reader expressed that this guy was …“More disrespectful than Walter Wallace, more vulgar than Walter Wallace, more threatening than Walter Wallace, but this police officer, by herself, keeps her cool, lets off 1 shot and takes him down. Not 14 shots, not 5, but 1. She assessed the situation properly and took proper action. Heck she might have been too patient. Why couldn't the cops who shot Walter Wallace show contrition like this? Was it really necessary to shoot one person that many times? 2 cops, 14 shots, dead and gone vs 1 cop, 1 shot, down but alive. Makes no sense”. 

Supposedly trained in the many socially difficult encounters with the public, highly trained on firearms, martial arts and physical combat skills, the use of deadly force, armed to the teeth, and fortified with support and back-up units, and still, the craven law enforcement officers will panic, and will shoot to kill! Unbelievable!  

Clearly, people who quaver and react so violently in the presence of black skin, should not choose a career that fills them with such obvious fear and terror when they encounter one.  For clearly, the brandishing of a knife does not discombobulate all police officers, especially the lone female police officer in the video. The same cannot be said for the 2, 3, or however many police officers involved in the Philly shooting, or the many other police shootings of Blacks across the country.  It has become patently clear, and far too easy, for many of these men to hide their fears behind their badges, and then to rely on this status as a license to kill, and a power to take a precious life, that they have no right to take.    

Perhaps we should be utilizing many more female police officers with methods like the intrepid and intelligent LEO, who decided in a split second, that even though her own life was being threatened, she did not have the right to just take, and end someone else’s life, simply because she wore the badge that would have allowed her to justify that act.  She did not take the cowboy way out of “shooting first, and asking questions later”, (after someone lay dead).  

Bravo to her!  Police work in the 21st century is clearly a job for the intelligent Braveheart, not for the foolhardy craven! 

Quote of the Day: Wrong Questions

 "Mystery exists in the mind, not in reality....  Unanswerable questions do not mark places where magic enters the universe.  They mark places where your mind runs skew to reality." -- Eliezer Yudkowsky, "Wrong Questions"

This Despicable DA Would Rather Coerce a False Confession Than Admit a Wrongful Conviction

This information was shared by the Innocence Project.

Help free Ron after 30-year wrongful incarceration

https://www.mightycause.com/story/Ronjacobsen

Krystal and Saagar: Maddow, Lincoln Project Caught Being "Useful Idiots" For Iranian Propaganda Scheme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6kDF-9UOiw

This reminds me of a rumor I heard once in junior high. I was told that on the last day of school, the scary Lex Street Gang was going to "come around and beat everybody up." I'd like to think I didn't need my high IQ to realize how ridiculous this was. I knew Lex Street wasn't in my neighborhood or anywhere close to it. So why would they single my school out to beat everybody up? For that matter, even if they did, how could they realistically beat up everyone at the school? And if they weren't singling my school out, it was even more ridiculous to think they could beat up everyone at every school in the city with its millions of inhabitants. So I paid no heed to the rumor, which needless to say didn't come true.

The suggestion that a group of modest size like the Proud Boys could realistically threaten every Democratic voter in the country should elicit the same kind of skepticism.

Mark A. Davis, Mental Health Advocate, Dies at 64

I've been participating in the Pink and Blues for the past few years, and will miss him.

https://epgn.com/2020/10/20/mark-a-davis-mental-health-advocate-dies-at-64/

Labor Notes: Unions Are Beginning to Talk About Staving Off a Possible Coup

https://labornotes.org/2020/10/unions-are-beginning-talk-about-staving-possible-coup

In addition to preparing for a possible general strike, let's hope unions are advising members of the advantages of voting in person for staving off even an attempt at a coup, as discussed here among other places: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a34124703/vote-in-person-trump-attacks-vote-by-mail/ If it's already apparent by the end of Election Day who's won, legal interference with the vote will be preempted. And, despite what the Esquire article says, the health risk isn't great for most people, as it's no different from spending a few minutes in a supermarket.

Upcoming Event: Root Roundtable

"Root Roundtable: A Talkback with RQ featured artist Nicole Michaud and an Ask-the-Editor Virtual Social Hour," Thursday, October 22, 2020, 8:00 PM-9:30 PM

I expect this will be just as stimulating as the magazine's content.

https://www.rootquarterly.com/new-events/2020/10/22/rq-update-and-talkback-with-nicole-michaud

Support the Election Fraud Protection Act!

The ends-justify-means attitude is all too common in electoral politics. An example: during the '88 campaign, a coworker told me how he witnessed a man filling out a voter registration form at a table set up by Democrats, in the course of which he mentioned that he thought he would be voting for Bush (that would be G.H.W.). After he'd left, the guy manning the table tore up his application.

Stop Ballot Harvesting Before it Threatens the 2020 Election | Opinion https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/stop-ballot-harvesting-before-it-threatens-the-2020-election-opinion/ar-BB19HXzr

Moralizers as Projectors

It's particularly ironic that these campaigners will describe BDSM as "culty" when it's they who deny submissives' agency and in effect invalidate their experience -- an example of Doctrine Over Person, part of Robert Lifton's eight-point description of ideological totalism. 

https://reprobatepress.com/2019/11/25/exploiting-the-dead/

"Pray for the ERA"

The requisite number of states have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, which would prohibit sex discrimination by government such as batterer intervention programs based on the anti-male "Duluth model." And its advocates have a strong case for finding the supposed 1982 ratification deadline illegal and unenforceable. SCOTUS may take up the question shortly.

"Please note that this is a non-denominational event, all faiths and belief systems are welcome – we use the word “pray” [precari-Latin] as it was originally defined: to ask earnestly; address a solemn request; or to wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome or situation." Of course the time isn't really 5pm PST/8pm EST; it's 5pm PDT/8pm EDT. Daylight Saving Time doesn't end until November 1.