Queer Liberation. Women’s Liberation. Black Liberation. Laborist Liberation. The People desire equality and the end of the oppression against their communities – against the Human family. The only true difference among them = the identities that define the individuals and the movements and the uniting communities and the culture that they create and embody. And truly, to speak in truths but truths not absolute in truth, their fights are shared – shared as they partake of and borrow the strategies and words of wisdom from other communities. And yet, unique to any individual community as they mold the method to fit their cultural needs – their identity and process and goals and moment. These communities, they suffer oppression from the same source. Though differently, they suffer oppression at the disgruntled hands of the same hierarchical institution. It is the same man, the same amerikkka that these communities must together fight to dismantle. El mismo! And no one is free until all are free!
Early Women’s Liberation, both linked to and drawing from early Civil Rights Movement, experienced difficulties in recognizing difference and cultural context. Women’s Suffrage, led predominantly by straight middle-class white women, modeled itself after the movement for civil rights that occurred simultaneously. And yet, this push for voting rights for women excluded some women. Black women. From the Civil Rights Movement Women’s Suffrage borrowed from. From the Civil Rights Movement many suffragettes were involved in. The black women couldn’t participate in the suffrage campaigns. And they were torn, the black women, because they were black and part of the Civil Rights Movement and women and part of the Suffrage Movement and while the black men they were allied with in the Civil Rights Movement already won the right to vote, the white women they were allied with in Women’s Suffrage could not. It was gray – their identity was gray – and it impacted their participation in the struggle. And the struggle was the same struggle – two seemingly separate movements working simultaneously for seemingly separate causes using interestingly similar individuals and tactics.
And their stories continued into modern Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Liberation. The borrowed people continued. The shared interests and methods continued. The factions continued. The gray area continued. And Gay Liberation was added. Gay Liberation was added among Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Liberation, as well as the New Left expanding into issues involving gender, race, and sexuality, as well as Vietnam’s raging war, as well as the formation of Students for a Democratic Society. Many activists of the 60s and 70s were involved in multiple movements simultaneously. And many activists felt ostracized within these movements and communities. Problems with racism and heterosexism within Women’s Liberation, problems with gender equality in Civil Rights Movement and Gay Liberation, problems with gender equality and heterosexism in Civil Rights Movement – problems with recognizing difference and cultural context created ostracisms within these three movements and the communities of people who represented them. Even when many individuals were involved in multiple movements, multiple causes, multiple communities. Even when the goals and motivations crossed movements. Even when the same system oppressing one was oppressing the other. Factions. Divisions. Outsiders. Identity politics took hold.
Identity politics separated the lesbians from the gay men; their different experiences as men and women suggested different needs for action within Gay Liberation. Identity politics separated the lesbians from the straight women; their different experiences as heterosexual and homosexual suggested different needs for action within Women’s Liberation. Identity politics separated the black woman from the black man from the white woman; their different experiences as people of color and men and women and white suggested different needs for action in Civil Rights and Women’s Movement. And they all separated. Into separatist politics. And ignored the fact that the same system – El Mismo Institution – held them down, oppressed them, and prevented them from equal access to resources and the means of survival and happiness and freedom. And while many of them continued working together, many of them started working against each other – the rights of one as more superior than the rights of another.
Early Women’s Liberation, both linked to and drawing from early Civil Rights Movement, experienced difficulties in recognizing difference and cultural context. Women’s Suffrage, led predominantly by straight middle-class white women, modeled itself after the movement for civil rights that occurred simultaneously. And yet, this push for voting rights for women excluded some women. Black women. From the Civil Rights Movement Women’s Suffrage borrowed from. From the Civil Rights Movement many suffragettes were involved in. The black women couldn’t participate in the suffrage campaigns. And they were torn, the black women, because they were black and part of the Civil Rights Movement and women and part of the Suffrage Movement and while the black men they were allied with in the Civil Rights Movement already won the right to vote, the white women they were allied with in Women’s Suffrage could not. It was gray – their identity was gray – and it impacted their participation in the struggle. And the struggle was the same struggle – two seemingly separate movements working simultaneously for seemingly separate causes using interestingly similar individuals and tactics.
And their stories continued into modern Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Liberation. The borrowed people continued. The shared interests and methods continued. The factions continued. The gray area continued. And Gay Liberation was added. Gay Liberation was added among Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Liberation, as well as the New Left expanding into issues involving gender, race, and sexuality, as well as Vietnam’s raging war, as well as the formation of Students for a Democratic Society. Many activists of the 60s and 70s were involved in multiple movements simultaneously. And many activists felt ostracized within these movements and communities. Problems with racism and heterosexism within Women’s Liberation, problems with gender equality in Civil Rights Movement and Gay Liberation, problems with gender equality and heterosexism in Civil Rights Movement – problems with recognizing difference and cultural context created ostracisms within these three movements and the communities of people who represented them. Even when many individuals were involved in multiple movements, multiple causes, multiple communities. Even when the goals and motivations crossed movements. Even when the same system oppressing one was oppressing the other. Factions. Divisions. Outsiders. Identity politics took hold.
Identity politics separated the lesbians from the gay men; their different experiences as men and women suggested different needs for action within Gay Liberation. Identity politics separated the lesbians from the straight women; their different experiences as heterosexual and homosexual suggested different needs for action within Women’s Liberation. Identity politics separated the black woman from the black man from the white woman; their different experiences as people of color and men and women and white suggested different needs for action in Civil Rights and Women’s Movement. And they all separated. Into separatist politics. And ignored the fact that the same system – El Mismo Institution – held them down, oppressed them, and prevented them from equal access to resources and the means of survival and happiness and freedom. And while many of them continued working together, many of them started working against each other – the rights of one as more superior than the rights of another.
And all of this history ignores one group of people: Laborists. Labor Movements are left out of the revolutionary time periods of amerikkkan history.
So there are, in fact, limits to groups working together to eliminate oppression and create equality: they each have their own cultural contexts that interrupt the coalition’s work. But there are possibilities in working together: ultimate equality! Liberation! Freedom! Getting it all done faster and better and stronger! Sharing goals of equality as well as identity and culture formation makes these groups within the movements similar, but they differ on what grounds equality exists and how, exactly, their specific identity and culture should be formed. Black women will not form the same identity or culture as white women. Lesbians will not form the same identity or culture as straight women. Gay men will not form the same identity or culture as black lesbians. And while these differing people with differing identities and cultures and differing communities in similar but differing movements share common struggles such as legislative pushs, issues with political representation, set-backs, factions, fights for workplace equality, defamation, and violence against them, they experience these struggles uniquely. And they may happen in different time periods and different ways. And feminism experiences a backlash. And women have to fight for reproductive health rights. And black women have to fight differently for reproductive health rights. And interracial couples have to fight for marriage. And so do the queers. And black men and women and women of all races have to earn the right to vote. And the queers need equal access to insurance. And black men and women and women of all races have to fight for equal access to education. And black men and some black women have to deal with high incarceration rates. And black men and women and women of all races and queers have to experience violence of different kinds against them for different reasons but similar reasons because it’s all about power. Power over them by the same system – El Mismo Institution – that oppresses them for the same reason of having wanting maintaining power over them.
And it all boils down to Solidarity.
Angela Davis said it best: Intersectionality. Not everyone is one or the other. It cannot be man or woman, gay or straight, black or white, rich or poor. Because it can be middle-class black lesbian. Equality doesn’t exist unless all free. We must fight together. The system that oppresses women is the same system that oppresses people of color and the working-class and the queers. So that same one system – El Mismo Institution – must be dismantled and if it is, all will be free. If all oppressed by the same one system works together to dismantle it, it’ll be all the more effective – quicker better stronger.
Anarcha-Socialist Theory: fighting to eliminate capitalism and other political, social, and economic hierarchies to create a society without institutions where all people have equal access to knowledge and production, emphasizing trade unions and decentralized methods of direct democracy, finding any institutional form to be abusive. Radical Feminist Theory: believing that the cause of women’s oppression is within patriarchy and the cause of all oppression is in the mimicked hierarchical structures such as capitalism and amerikkkanism and globalism and colonialism and imperialism and jesusgodism which means society needs to be reorganized and not changed because change just rearranges the same crap in a different order. A Radical Feminist Anarcha-Socialist method in accomplishing equality – now that is how Gay Liberation, Women’s Liberation, Labor Movement, and Civil Rights Movement work together to eliminate oppression and to create equality; that is how we pull up the People; that is how all are equal because all are free.
So there are, in fact, limits to groups working together to eliminate oppression and create equality: they each have their own cultural contexts that interrupt the coalition’s work. But there are possibilities in working together: ultimate equality! Liberation! Freedom! Getting it all done faster and better and stronger! Sharing goals of equality as well as identity and culture formation makes these groups within the movements similar, but they differ on what grounds equality exists and how, exactly, their specific identity and culture should be formed. Black women will not form the same identity or culture as white women. Lesbians will not form the same identity or culture as straight women. Gay men will not form the same identity or culture as black lesbians. And while these differing people with differing identities and cultures and differing communities in similar but differing movements share common struggles such as legislative pushs, issues with political representation, set-backs, factions, fights for workplace equality, defamation, and violence against them, they experience these struggles uniquely. And they may happen in different time periods and different ways. And feminism experiences a backlash. And women have to fight for reproductive health rights. And black women have to fight differently for reproductive health rights. And interracial couples have to fight for marriage. And so do the queers. And black men and women and women of all races have to earn the right to vote. And the queers need equal access to insurance. And black men and women and women of all races have to fight for equal access to education. And black men and some black women have to deal with high incarceration rates. And black men and women and women of all races and queers have to experience violence of different kinds against them for different reasons but similar reasons because it’s all about power. Power over them by the same system – El Mismo Institution – that oppresses them for the same reason of having wanting maintaining power over them.
And it all boils down to Solidarity.
Angela Davis said it best: Intersectionality. Not everyone is one or the other. It cannot be man or woman, gay or straight, black or white, rich or poor. Because it can be middle-class black lesbian. Equality doesn’t exist unless all free. We must fight together. The system that oppresses women is the same system that oppresses people of color and the working-class and the queers. So that same one system – El Mismo Institution – must be dismantled and if it is, all will be free. If all oppressed by the same one system works together to dismantle it, it’ll be all the more effective – quicker better stronger.
Anarcha-Socialist Theory: fighting to eliminate capitalism and other political, social, and economic hierarchies to create a society without institutions where all people have equal access to knowledge and production, emphasizing trade unions and decentralized methods of direct democracy, finding any institutional form to be abusive. Radical Feminist Theory: believing that the cause of women’s oppression is within patriarchy and the cause of all oppression is in the mimicked hierarchical structures such as capitalism and amerikkkanism and globalism and colonialism and imperialism and jesusgodism which means society needs to be reorganized and not changed because change just rearranges the same crap in a different order. A Radical Feminist Anarcha-Socialist method in accomplishing equality – now that is how Gay Liberation, Women’s Liberation, Labor Movement, and Civil Rights Movement work together to eliminate oppression and to create equality; that is how we pull up the People; that is how all are equal because all are free.
