> But I have no patience for that kind of ranking of
> struggles that
> Turbulo and amadeus^2 are trafficking in. Yeah sure
> there will be
> some women, queers, and people of color who do The
> Man's dirty work.
> But that's not really relevant to real struggles
> against sexism,
> homophobia, and racism. And the class struggle
> doesn't trump
> everything else. That sort of argument is like
> saying "Shut up and
> wait for the revolution." Well, the revolution isn't
> imminent, and
> the discriminations are real and can be remedied in
> the here & now. A
> phrase like "special oppressions" sounds a little
> like "special
> rights" that bigots use to dismiss gay right. I say
> the hell with
> that.
The term "special oppressions" is obviously problematic. I was borrowing it from Turbulo as a shorthand from having to type "race, gender, sexuality, religion, creed," etc. every damn time. Obviously the discriminations are quite real, and fixes can be (and have been) applied to them successfully within the context of capitalist society. But the notion that they can be remedied in the context of capitalism is much more debatable. I doubt there can really be any "rapprochement of the races", or sexes, or anything like that so long as capitalism continues to hold on. The backslide of civil rights and integration, for example, can not be accounted for strictly in the language of racial politics. The comments on the Man's dirty work, as Doug puts it, were meant as an addendum to Joanna's, which pointed out the progressive nature of non-class struggles, which I agree with. Non-class struggles can be used in a practical-critical sense to advance the interests of the working class, and WILL, regardless of any opportunist's intentions. However, I think the pressures of capitalism which have led to some of the leaders of these movements doing the Man's dirty work, are markers of the limitations of these movements within the confines of capitalism. And, heck, we all know that the same problems have existed in the labor, communist, and even anarchist and syndicalist movements! Best, adx
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