Linking queer activism to socialism

May 30, 2001
Issue 

BY SEAN WALSH

MELBOURNE — One feature of the new anti-corporate movement has been revived activism amongst queer groups, in particular amongst students, which has sought to link the discrimination and vilification faced by gays and lesbians to the functioning of global capitalism.

One of these groups is QUEER, Queers United to Eradicate Economic Rationalism, which, according to one of its activists Darren Kane, was formed in the lead-up to the S11 protests against the World Economic Forum by "queer students with an anti-corporate consciousness".

"Because there are so many ways in which capitalism oppresses gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders, QUEER works as actively as possible within the anti-corporate movement", said Kane, who is also one of two queer officers for the Melbourne University Student Union.

QUEER describes itself as an "autonomous organisation", which Kane believes is "important as a strategy and not necessary as a principle".

"An organisation like QUEER can prioritise drawing gays and lesbians into the anti-corporate movement", he explained. "While the movement obviously supports queer issues, the best insurance that issues of homophobia will be addressed is if queers themselves are demanding the issues are given enough priority. Homophobia within the movement needs to be challenged and people need to be held accountable."

Kane believes that the oppression of gays and lesbians is directly related to capitalism, explaining that "Queer activists have just as much of an interest in abolishing corporate tyranny as anyone else. QUEER recognises that the capitalist system privileges heterosexuality because it is the reproductive foundation for the basic social unit of capitalism: the nuclear family."

He also argues that the queer community "is now being increasingly co-opted by corporations who profit from the promotion of a 'queer lifestyle'. The capitalist system therefore only values queers in terms of the pink dollars we spend."

Similarly, he is critical of the major parties' stance on gay and lesbian rights. "The legal reforms offered by major political parties don't carry much weight when they are about winning votes. Even when reforms are won they still advantage some queers more than others. Reforms offer only limited liberation for those queers who already enjoy particular privileges that the majority of queers do not."

As a result of this analysis, Kane said, "QUEER recognises that the only way we will achieve our liberation is through linking our struggle with other social movements in the fight for socialism."

Kane was one of the feature speakers at the Melbourne launch of the Socialist Alliance in April.

He explained his support for the alliance, saying "All of the demands on the platform of the alliance relate to queers in some way because gays and lesbians are not only oppressed because of their sexuality they are oppressed in many other ways, for example, as workers or as women."

"If the Socialist Alliance can bring a socialist agenda into the capitalist arena of electoral politics it can challenge the politics of the nuclear family and compulsory heterosexuality. The Socialist Alliance can expose capitalist parties' attempts at trying to win queer votes. The alliance should address gays and lesbians directly and show how socialism has the potential to offer a system that does not rely on oppression."

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