Queer liberation through socialist revolution!

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SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 2014 3 Tens of thousands marched, and millions partied, as World Pride Week uplifted and animated Toronto in late June. To mark the occasion, the following statement was widely distributed by Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste.

Warmest solidarity greetings from So­ cialist Action/Ligue pour l’Action sociali­ ste for World Pride 2014. While we justi­ fiably celebrate the growth of queer lib­ eration internationally, and its victories and gains, let’s remember that there are vast areas of our world where things are actually getting worse, notably in some African countries and now-capitalist Russia.

Queer members of SA/LAS participated in the planning committee for the Feb. 6 rally and march in Toronto against the Putin regime’s anti-gay law. Our speaker at the rally noted that the early Soviet Re­ public was the first state in the world to decriminalize homosexuality and abor­ tion. Sadly these gains were reversed in the 1930s with the consolidation in power of the privileged, self-serving party-state bureaucracy headed by Jo­ seph Stalin and his murderous security apparatus—of which Vladimir Putin is a direct descendant.

While acknowledging its repressive past on queer issues, it is no accident that today, among “less developed” coun­ tries, revolutionary Cuba leads the way.

(Right) August 2013 Toronto protest against anti-gay law in Russia.

In Canada and Quebec, we have made significant gains through decades of struggle, but there is far to go.

Look at Ontario. Last year the furor over Blue Jays baseball player Yu­ nel Escobar’s anti-gay slur demonstrated an in­ creased awareness of ho­ mophobia. This increased awareness has several sources. At its heart is the determined struggle by queer rights activists and their allies resulting in victories on two fronts. The passage of “Toby’s Law” mandated inclusion in the Human Rights Code of gender identity and gender expression. The Accepting Schools Act addressed the issue of anti-gay bullying in the schools, particularly in Catholic schools.

However, a federal law regarding trans­ gender rights remains stalled in the unelected Senate. And reactionary Catholic school boards continue to delay and ob­ struct the formation of Gay-Straight Alli­ ances (GSA’s). As with all human rights “protections,” enforcement is key. We call on all human rights supporters to de­ mand dissolution of Catholic schools into a single, secular school system. Not only would this advance the interests of LGBT students and other minorities. It would save up to $1 billion a year that could be better spent in classrooms.

The scandalous rise of homelessness is another issue that particularly affects queer communities and other minori­ ties. We demand that Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal provincial government, and mu­ nicipal governments, provide safe spaces for all the homeless, especially street kids, among whom queer youth are heav­ ily over-represented. Lives are at stake.

The health system is another issue. The government’s priority is ever more cuts and privatization (including the no­ torious P3’s) while the system remains largely unresponsive to the needs of LGBT people and other minorities. We have to stop this.

While our struggle on these issues and many other fronts continues, we also need to look at what kind of society we want, and what we actually have.

Queer rights will never be safely en­ sconced in the capitalist system. “Divide and rule” remains the practice of the tiny, obscenely rich minority who call the shots in the economy and the state. The massive income inequality gap continues to grow, and won’t be reversed until we take mass action.

Bay Street governments have done nothing, and will do nothing, to address this, despite uttering hypocritical “antipoverty” mantras. The present provin­ cial government does not even support a liveable minimum wage. It has offered only miniscule increases in the abys­ mally low “welfare” rates, while pre­ tending to prepare people for jobs that don’t exist.

In a socialist society housing, food, edu­ cation (at all levels!) and health care will be human rights, as they are today in Cuba, despite the U.S. blockade and very limited resources. Public ownership and workers’ democratic control of the com­ manding heights of the economy are es­ sential for production to be for human needs, not for private profit. We invite you to join us in this fight. Contact SA/ LAS at www.socialistaction.ca. n

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Tony Savino / Socialist Action Tony Savino / Socialist Action The two-month study found that “in addition to sus­ picions of corruption, the amount paid to the schools is clearly inadequate, the payments don’t arrive on time, and the professors are underpaid. Also, most of the schools visited by journalists had not received the promised manuals and school supplies, items crucial for assuring a minimally acceptable standard of edu­ cation.”

Moreover, the report discovered that government figures given for the total number of students attend­ ing classes as well as the amount the government said it spent on schools was contradictory (see www.Haiti­ grassrootswatch.org).

Bill Clinton’s sordid role in Haiti Protestors also chanted “Clinton, where’s the mon­ ey?” The reference was to Clinton’s role as co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), which coordinated international pledges of $11 billion in governmental and private donations over a period of five years. Clinton, who is also the UN special envoy to Haiti and Obama’s key advisor on Haiti, aggres­ sively promoted a development model relying on the socially corrosive tourism industry and neo-liberal sweatshops.

The theme of the aid was to “Build Back Better,” which has come to mean very limited and haphaz­