4/12 The crisis and intersecting identities, national and sexual : Peter Drucker

Summary

The simultaneous crises of capitalism, the labour movement and the socialist alternative
have produced a turn towards non-class, particularly national/ethnic and sexual identities.
The feminist concept of "intersectionality" can help us understand how these different identities
overlap, interact and clash, how their reactionary aspects can be combated,
and how different liberation struggles can dovetail with the struggle against capitalism.

Outline

Introduction

Introducing the reporter: his national, ethnic and sexual identities
Place of the report in the session: closely linked to earlier reports (crisis, working class, migration, women) and later reports (social movements) — and the missing report on religion! Central question: relationship between class-consciousness and other identities (Multiple) crises and people’s impulse to take refuge in (pre-existing) identities; forms of resistance and forms of reaction Central principles: self-organization and self-emancipation Motto of the report: citation from Lenin Difficulties of the report: enormous diversity of religious, ethnic and sexual identities Objective analysis and lived experience, collective and individual: for the discussion Three interlinked parts: intersectionality; nationalism/ethnicity; sexuality

Part 1.Intersectionality

Conceptual tool developed by feminists of colour Oppressions are not additive Brenner’s Marxist adaptation: capitalist restructuring and relative privilege Towards an inclusive, working-class, internationalist movement (of movements) Autonomy and unity: a dialectical relationship

Part 2. Nations and ethnicity

What’s at stake politically National liberation and socialist revolution in the 20th century: Yugoslavia, China, Cuba, Vietnam, Nicaragua Contemporary national struggles: Kashmir, Mindanao… … and workers’ movements fragmented by national conflict Nationalism and internationalism: a contradiction of capitalism Capitalist classes need national markets and a national state At the same time, capital needs to expand beyond national markets Limits of Marx and Engels’ understanding in the Communist Manifesto Rules of thumb for our positions on national conflicts Abstract internationalism is not enough Oppressor nations and oppressed nations The right of self-determination — even for ethnic groups that are not ‘nations’ Globalization, nationalism and crisis Partial and dependent integration of the periphery into globalized capitalism — and into its crisis Indigenous struggles: sovereignty and autonomy In Latin America: from the Comintern (Mariateguí) to Nicaragua and 1992 Chiapas: Mexican sovereignty and indigenous autonomy — and Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru? Armed globalization, ‘war on terror’ and the Arab world Nationalism, fundamentalism and Islamophobia Muslim immigrants in Europe — a national question at the heart of European working classes National identity, religion, gender and sexuality Abortion, homosexuality and Catholicism Imperialism: champion of women and LGBTs? Intersecting oppressions: the explosive issue of the Islamic headscarf Internationalism and identities: towards a new internationalist culture

Part 3. LGBT sexuality and identities

The rise of LGBT movements in imperialist countries Massive scale of mobilizations Recent right wing and Islamophobic tendencies (Netherlands, Denmark) LGBT liberation: a global struggle Universality of oppression Imperialism and homophobia Transgender and bisexuality (MSMs) LGBT people in the crisis The Arab world: a special case (similarities and differences in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia) Beyond gay and straight? Imperialism and repression: Egypt and Iraq Hybrid identities, combined struggles: Lebanon and Palestine LGBT immigrants Heteronormativity, homonormativity and tolerance What’s at stake: unity against an oppressive system in crisis

Conclusion

The workers’ party as a tribune of all the oppressed