Anti-Fascist
27th November 2003, 16:15
Excerpts from http://www.2changetheworld.info/docs/part2...12-women-en.php (http://www.2changetheworld.info/docs/part2-12-women-en.php) and http://2changetheworld.info/docs/h-02-fulltext-en.php
We, as Maoist revolutionaries, want to liberate all of
human expression and social relations from the weight of
thousands of years of traditional (oppressive) morality and
institutions. So when it comes to matters of sexuality, we do not
approach things in the manner of a "bedroom police." We
recognize the great variety and complexity of human sexual
expression--including historically--and that the practice of human
sexuality is not a static or unchanging thing. We also know that
there is much that is not yet well understood--and there is
therefore much to learn still--about the many different
characteristics of human sexuality at both the individual and
broader social levels. And, while there has been important
experience in socialist society, which needs to be further summed
up, we also understand that it is not possible for anyone to fully
predict what forms sexual expression might take in socialist and
then in communist society (and what the social "meanings" and
significance of various practices might turn out to be in these new
social contexts).
But we do think there is a basis--and that we have a
responsibility--to try to sort out what kind of larger social impacts
and effects different social practices among the people may be
having, and to help distinguish what may be relatively socially
insignificant from what may actually be objectively harmful, or
objectively helpful, to the overall struggle to fundamentally
transform and thoroughly revolutionize society in line with the
objective interests of the revolutionary class in society, the
proletariat, and with the whole of humanity."
[from On the Position on Homosexuality in the New Draft
Programme]
While many sexual and other intimate relations can
obviously bring many positive benefits to the individuals involved
and to society overall, it is our view that since the emergence of
private property and of class distinctions, all sexual relations have
borne the stamp of the historical oppression of women, and
continue today to be shot through and through with this
fundamental feature of class society. They will all need to be
transformed in important ways, in order to fully achieve a radical
strategic breakthrough on this question.
This is what continues to make sex in the modern world such a
tricky proposition! It is not easy for individuals to form positive
intimate social and sexual bonds that go against the tide instead
of going along with, or even mirroring, aspects of the general
societal subjugation of women which characterizes bourgeois
society and all societies marked by exploitative and oppressive
relations. It is not easy for individuals to form bonds characterized
by mutual love, respect and genuine equality, when what prevails
in the society at large tends to promote and reinforce just the
opposite!
Like everything else worth striving for, this requires struggle, as
well as a wide-ranging vision of a radically better future; and
fundamentally it requires, once again, the radical up-ending and
revolutionizing of society as a whole, of all social relations.
[from On the Position on Homosexuality in the New Draft
Programme]
As for intimate relations, socialist society will promote
values of, and create the conditions for, personal, family, and
sexual relations based on mutual love, respect, and equality.
The revolutionary proletariat is staunchly opposed to the attacks
on homosexuality by reactionary forces such as religious
fundamentalists, and to all physical assaults on, discrimination
against, and government repression of homosexuals, which is so
widespread and vicious in the U.S. today. In the new society,
discrimination against homosexuals will be outlawed and
struggled against in every sphere of society, including personal
and family relations.
[Draft Programme, Part I]
Sexual and intimate relations between men and women in
bourgeois society are largely reflective of and dominated by the
ideology of male supremacy and "male right"; they exist within
and are influenced by the overall framework of social relations in
which the oppression of women is an integral and fundamental
part. All this is something that the proletariat will be mobilizing the
masses to radically transform in the process of uprooting the
oppression of women and all oppression and exploitation. In the
realm of intimate relations, socialist society will encourage people
to strive for standards that are consistent with and contribute to
uprooting the oppression of women.
[From the appendix "The Proletarian Revolution and the
Emancipation of Women."]
Under socialism people will not be stigmatized because they are
homosexuals or because of their sexual orientation. Discrimination
will not be tolerated, and the repression and violence against
homosexuals that has been so prevalent in capitalist society will
be firmly opposed and dealt with.
At the same time, it is important to grasp that same sex relations
do not escape and do not exist outside of the prevailing family
and sexual relations and the corresponding ideology of male
supremacy that oppress women in this society. In many ways the
outlook that characterizes male gay culture in bourgeois society is
not a departure from--and in fact there are elements in which it is
a concentration of--male right. Lesbianism is in many ways a
response to the oppression of women in class society, but in and
of itself it is not a fundamental solution to this oppression.
The outlook that one partner in an intimate relationship must be
devalued, dominated, abused, or owned is a reflection of the
oppression of women in society; and forms of male right, in both
heterosexual and homosexual relationships, will be targets of
criticism and transformation.
Socialism will create the conditions necessary for equality with
concern to homosexuals. Marxists are "staunchly opposed to the
attacks on homosexuality by reactionary forces such as religious
fundamentalists, and to all physical assaults on, discrimination
against, and government repression of homosexuals, which is so
widespread and vicious in the U.S. today." In a socialist society, all
activity which discriminates against homosexuals will be "outlawed
and struggled against in every sphere of society, including
personal and family relations."
We, as Maoist revolutionaries, want to liberate all of
human expression and social relations from the weight of
thousands of years of traditional (oppressive) morality and
institutions. So when it comes to matters of sexuality, we do not
approach things in the manner of a "bedroom police." We
recognize the great variety and complexity of human sexual
expression--including historically--and that the practice of human
sexuality is not a static or unchanging thing. We also know that
there is much that is not yet well understood--and there is
therefore much to learn still--about the many different
characteristics of human sexuality at both the individual and
broader social levels. And, while there has been important
experience in socialist society, which needs to be further summed
up, we also understand that it is not possible for anyone to fully
predict what forms sexual expression might take in socialist and
then in communist society (and what the social "meanings" and
significance of various practices might turn out to be in these new
social contexts).
But we do think there is a basis--and that we have a
responsibility--to try to sort out what kind of larger social impacts
and effects different social practices among the people may be
having, and to help distinguish what may be relatively socially
insignificant from what may actually be objectively harmful, or
objectively helpful, to the overall struggle to fundamentally
transform and thoroughly revolutionize society in line with the
objective interests of the revolutionary class in society, the
proletariat, and with the whole of humanity."
[from On the Position on Homosexuality in the New Draft
Programme]
While many sexual and other intimate relations can
obviously bring many positive benefits to the individuals involved
and to society overall, it is our view that since the emergence of
private property and of class distinctions, all sexual relations have
borne the stamp of the historical oppression of women, and
continue today to be shot through and through with this
fundamental feature of class society. They will all need to be
transformed in important ways, in order to fully achieve a radical
strategic breakthrough on this question.
This is what continues to make sex in the modern world such a
tricky proposition! It is not easy for individuals to form positive
intimate social and sexual bonds that go against the tide instead
of going along with, or even mirroring, aspects of the general
societal subjugation of women which characterizes bourgeois
society and all societies marked by exploitative and oppressive
relations. It is not easy for individuals to form bonds characterized
by mutual love, respect and genuine equality, when what prevails
in the society at large tends to promote and reinforce just the
opposite!
Like everything else worth striving for, this requires struggle, as
well as a wide-ranging vision of a radically better future; and
fundamentally it requires, once again, the radical up-ending and
revolutionizing of society as a whole, of all social relations.
[from On the Position on Homosexuality in the New Draft
Programme]
As for intimate relations, socialist society will promote
values of, and create the conditions for, personal, family, and
sexual relations based on mutual love, respect, and equality.
The revolutionary proletariat is staunchly opposed to the attacks
on homosexuality by reactionary forces such as religious
fundamentalists, and to all physical assaults on, discrimination
against, and government repression of homosexuals, which is so
widespread and vicious in the U.S. today. In the new society,
discrimination against homosexuals will be outlawed and
struggled against in every sphere of society, including personal
and family relations.
[Draft Programme, Part I]
Sexual and intimate relations between men and women in
bourgeois society are largely reflective of and dominated by the
ideology of male supremacy and "male right"; they exist within
and are influenced by the overall framework of social relations in
which the oppression of women is an integral and fundamental
part. All this is something that the proletariat will be mobilizing the
masses to radically transform in the process of uprooting the
oppression of women and all oppression and exploitation. In the
realm of intimate relations, socialist society will encourage people
to strive for standards that are consistent with and contribute to
uprooting the oppression of women.
[From the appendix "The Proletarian Revolution and the
Emancipation of Women."]
Under socialism people will not be stigmatized because they are
homosexuals or because of their sexual orientation. Discrimination
will not be tolerated, and the repression and violence against
homosexuals that has been so prevalent in capitalist society will
be firmly opposed and dealt with.
At the same time, it is important to grasp that same sex relations
do not escape and do not exist outside of the prevailing family
and sexual relations and the corresponding ideology of male
supremacy that oppress women in this society. In many ways the
outlook that characterizes male gay culture in bourgeois society is
not a departure from--and in fact there are elements in which it is
a concentration of--male right. Lesbianism is in many ways a
response to the oppression of women in class society, but in and
of itself it is not a fundamental solution to this oppression.
The outlook that one partner in an intimate relationship must be
devalued, dominated, abused, or owned is a reflection of the
oppression of women in society; and forms of male right, in both
heterosexual and homosexual relationships, will be targets of
criticism and transformation.
Socialism will create the conditions necessary for equality with
concern to homosexuals. Marxists are "staunchly opposed to the
attacks on homosexuality by reactionary forces such as religious
fundamentalists, and to all physical assaults on, discrimination
against, and government repression of homosexuals, which is so
widespread and vicious in the U.S. today." In a socialist society, all
activity which discriminates against homosexuals will be "outlawed
and struggled against in every sphere of society, including
personal and family relations."