Across Europe and beyond, we are witnessing a dangerous escalation of attacks on LGBTI+1.
Repressive laws and reactionary campaigns in the UK, Hungary, Georgia, and many other countries are not isolated setbacks. They are part of a global backlash, cynically framed as a defence of “tradition,” “family values,” or “public order,” but in reality designed to entrench oppression,
suppress dissent, and stabilise a system in crisis.
Even where formal rights exist, LGBTI+ continue to face daily harassment, bullying in schools, hate crimes, and alarmingly high levels of violence. Trans and intersex people are particularly affected. In the face of rising fascism and anti-LGBTI+ rhetoric, and targeted attacks against Pride events in Hungary, Germany, and Turkey, we must stand united in our struggle for LGBTI+ liberation.As socialists, we fight for an end to the exploitation and oppression of all people. To do so, we must analyse the roots of the many different forms of oppression. Our answer as LGBTI+ lies in the common class struggle and the fight for women’s revolution, to dismantle the capitalist-patriarchal system and achieve a gender-liberated world!
LGBTI+ Liberation Is a Class Question To understand why LGBTI+ oppression persists, we must understand the society we live in. Human history, since the first oppression of human by human, has been shaped by class society: the division into oppressors and oppressed. Capitalism is the current form of this system, and it relies not only on economic exploitation but also on ideological and social oppression. Under capitalism, a rigid binary gender order plays a crucial role. Through the division of labour and the institution of the family, this binary is constantly reproduced. It serves the ruling class by organising unpaid reproductive labour, disciplining bodies and desires, and enforcing profitable “normality.” The institution of the family did not emerge by accident. It is the smallest economic unit of capitalist society and established itself historically to secure male domination. It fused with the rise of capitalism, and adapted perfectly to its needs: guaranteeing private property inheritance,
enforcing the gendered division of labour, and providing free reproductive work like caring,
cleaning, raising the next generation – for free! This labour daily regenerates the working class as a whole: it restores the labour power that male and female workers sell to capital, while at the same time producing new generations of workers who will keep the system supplied with fresh labour power in the long term. Private property and the capitalist state therefore have a vital interest in enforcing compulsory heterosexuality and the rigid gender binary – because without them, the family as an apparatus of free reproductive labour and biological reproduction of the working class would collapse. This is why the system disciplines, marginalises, and attacks us – because LGBTI+ lives and desires fundamentally contradict this logic, LGBTI+ do not fit into this system – and are therefore targeted.
LGBTI+ oppression is rooted in heterosexism. It is not primarily economic exploitation, but a
political and ideological one – part of the capitalist superstructure. This does not make it less
important. On the contrary: heterosexism functions to divide the working class, to pit workers against one another based on gender identity or sexuality, and to prevent a united struggle against capitalism itself.
This is why LGBTI+ must be understood as part of the working class and as an integral force within the proletarian revolution. Hostility towards LGBTI+ exists precisely to block this perspective and to weaken the struggle for socialism.
LGBTI+ Against Fascism. As LGBTI+, we are increasingly attacked due to narratives stemming from the rise of fascist ideas around the world. It is important to say: Fascism is not an accident. It emerges when other forms of capitalist rule can no longer secure the interests of the ruling class. It is the most brutal and openly terrorist form of capitalist domination 2.To mobilise mass support, fascism constructs artificial enemies. Today, migrants and LGBTI+ are among its primary targets. Fascist propaganda presents them as threats to “women,” the “nation,” or “European values,” deliberately aiming to divide women from migrants, women from LGBTI+, and workers from one another. Furthermore, in times of capitalism’s existential crisis, the nuclear family becomes even more vital to securing capitalist interests – in fascist Turkey, the “aile ve nüfus yılı” (Year of the Family) was announced, heavily attacking LGBTI+3. And wherever LGBTI+ comrades
join the antifascist struggle, capitalist state repression hits them hardest – Maja T.’s persecution is one of the clearest examples today. We salute all LGBTI+ comrades imprisoned or persecuted for their struggle – or simply for existing outside the heterosexist norm. The goal is clear: prevent solidarity, prevent unity, and prevent resistance against capitalism. Antifascist struggle therefore means uniting the working class as a whole and exposing fascism’s true class interests. There can be no serious antifascism without the defence and liberation of LGBTI+!
Imperialism and the Instrumentalisation of LGBTI+
At the same time, LGBTI+ liberation is shamelessly instrumentalised by imperialist powers. NATO states claim to wage wars or support regimes in the name of “LGBTI+ rights,” all while our siblings are massacred by the very weapons these powers produce and export: to the fascist Turkish state bombing Kurdistan, to the Zionist Israeli military devastating Gaza, and into the wars in Sudan, where the weapons that haunt them also set out from Europe 4! All, while our trans siblings are denied the right to flee war zones, Pride marches are violently repressed by NATO allies, and LGBTI+ participating in anti-imperialist struggles face severe repression. This hypocrisy shows that LGBTI+ liberation cannot be granted from above. Promises of reforms are used to pacify resistance and silence criticism of imperialism. Our liberation cannot come from those who profit from war, exploitation, and repression. Our liberation must be won through our own struggle! From Kurdistan to Palestine, from Sudan to Congo, our siblings deserve to live!
Women and LGBTI+ United Against Patriarchy. The LGBTI+ movement is not separate from the women’s liberation struggle. It is another expression of the oppressed pole of the gender contradiction and one of its closest allies. Patriarchal domination, male supremacy, and heterosexism are inseparable – and so must be the struggles against them.
In the case of LGBTI+ oppression, the root of all causes is patriarchy, beginning with the sexist division of labour and the emergence of social gender. The women’s revolution tackles this foundation: the possession of private property and the very roots of the first division between oppressor and oppressed based on gender. Together, women and LGBTI+ challenge the gendered division of labour and the entire system of socially enforced gender.
While the women’s revolution is the first condition for gender liberation, LGBTI+ struggles are in no way subordinate to it. Rather, they are a central site of the shared field of struggle, fought together as allied forces. LGBTI+ liberation is both a measure and a condition of gender liberation.As LGBTI+, we play a crucial role in questioning compulsory heterosexuality and the gender binary itself. Our existence has an explosive ideological force, since it exposes how deeply gender and sexuality are embedded in every social and economic structure, starting with the family. And thus is able to break the chains that the patriarchal system imposes on us. As LGBTI+ we experience again and again, how institutions present themselves as insurmountable walls. From this experience grows the understanding that these walls must be torn down entirely.
However, this explosive force must be organised. Individual rejection of gender norms, detached from collective struggle, easily turns into apolitical individualism. A cultural movement that questions the gender binary can only become truly transformative if it rejects idealism and subjectivism, and instead links itself to a revolutionary programme and revolutionary action.
Why Socialism?
LGBTI+ individuals, who constitute the most oppressed pole of the gender contradiction, are the segment that benefits most from the resolution of the gender contradiction and the destruction of sexist and gendered society, and are subjected to its most brutal oppression, violence, and coercion. But neither the working class nor women – nor LGBTI+ – can fully realise their demands without abolishing class society, patriarchal domination, and private property, which form their shared material basis. The same revolution must be a class revolution and a women’s revolution – and it must consciously include LGBTI+ liberation. Only socialism can resolve the contradictions that capitalism imposes on us.
“The future belongs to the oppressed, who – with their capacity to imagine their
tomorrow in colour – are the nightmare of the bourgeoisie; armed with colourful flags
and the dream of an LGBTI+ socialism.”- Okan Altunöz, LGBTI+ Are Everywhere, Etha, 2 July 2022 Organise Now In revolutionary power, women and LGBTI+ must have their own means of power and positions within decision-making structures. The strength of the LGBTI+ movement lies not primarily in numbers, but in its ideological force: its ability to expose contradictions that capitalist society desperately tries to hide. Again and again, LGBTI+ have shown their transformative role in mass movements and uprisings. By questioning the very foundations of gender and sexuality, they can become a driving force in dismantling the patriarchal order. As LGBTI+, we must organise and fight collectively against the heterosexist system. Our liberation goes hand in hand with the liberation of women and the entire working class. And the time to organise is now. The ongoing murder of our trans siblings around the world5, alongside escalating attacks on LGBTI+ communities across Europe remind us that we were never truly safe – and will not be, as long as this system exists. LGBTI+ identity is not a private matter. It is a political question. In a system where violence against LGBTI+ occurs on all levels, organising takes on great importance. Capitalism isolates LGBTI+. Yet when they come together, they gain the power to protect themselves against attacks from anti-LGBTI+ forces and the state, and to act offensively against them. LGBTI+ have the right to self-defence, which means responding to violent attacks accordingly. Organising and mobilising around LGBTI+ issues is therefore an urgent priority.
Marsha P. Johnson, Mark Ashton, Ka Daisy, Ivana Hoffmann, and Okan Altunöz understood that LGBTI+ belong in the resistance. Let us take our place in the revolution today. We will continue to demand – and fight for – justice for Ella, Malte, and all victims of LGBTI+ hatred.
Long live LGBTI+ liberation.
Long live the liberation of the working class.
Long live socialism
The Fight for a Gender-Liberated World
—
by
