Scintilla, No. 137, September 2023
by Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy
Marxist-Leninist youth
The fight against sexual discrimination and identity policies
Some young comrades asked us to express our position on the social phenomenon of sexual minorities.
We do so willingly, because this gives us the opportunity to clarify both the breadth of the proletarian revolutionary project and the fundamental difference that exists between our approach to the question and those based on bourgeois ideology.
As young (M-L) communists we are for doing away with any discrimination, prejudice and marginalization based on sexual orientation and behavior, gender identity; we are for the recognition of the rights and existence of people and relationships "non-conforming" to the dominant rules and codes.
This is particularly important in the workplace and office, as this represents an element of division, super-exploitation and control over the proletarian class.
Experience shows that homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, trans or "atypical" proletarians – who express different aspects and relationships in the sphere of sexual behavior and gender expression of human beings, which vary in different eras and societies – suffer from greater oppression and are discriminated against in the workplace and outside, in school, in society. They often receive lower wages, are relegated to lower skills, are offended, bullied, assaulted, etc.
These hateful, reactionary practices and policies, which are added to those that are racist, sexist, xenophobic, etc., are rooted in the capitalist system and its organization of labor, and worsen the material working conditions of thousands of proletarians, as well as making their health and daily existence more insecure.
The relationship between the labor movement and associations for the rights of sexual minorities has existed for some time in various countries, including ours (e.g., FIOM [Italian Federation of Metal Workers] participates in "pride").
The most conscious communists and workers know that they cannot allow the bourgeoisie to tell us who our enemies are, because the bourgeoisie itself is our class enemy. They therefore recognize the existence of different sexual orientations among proletarians who do not adhere to the standards of heterosexuality, but who should not be isolated or rejected, obscured or medicalized, much less should they become "fashions to imitate" to get "likes" on social media. At the same time, they also know the gains achieved in the period of socialism in this regard and fight to ensure the same rights and freedoms for all proletarians, without any distinction of sex, sexual orientation and gender, as well as ethnic origin, skin color, etc.
The struggle against discrimination and homo-lesbo-transphobia, for the protection of discriminated, marginalized and attacked sexual minorities, for class solidarity, against all oppression and violence based on false prejudices, lies and anti-scientific judgments, is also a barrier to the policies based on the slogan "god, homeland and family" spread by the most reactionary sectors of the ruling class.
This struggle – which is part of the more general struggle for a society without exploitation and social injustice – must be conducted on the basis of proletarian ideology, implementing the communist policy that aims to ensure working class hegemony over its allies in the struggle against capital. Therefore, they should not be conducted on the basis of a phantom "transgender ideology" and "identity" politics, which are typical of bourgeois and middle-petty bourgeois groups that adopt the method of divide and rule.
Identity politics, in particular, is based on group (self) identity, and constitutes a political approach in which people with a particular gender and sexual orientation develop activities based on the recognition/respect of these identities, form separate communities and exclusive and inter-class socio-political alliances, follow radicalizing political movements that share with them a particular identifying quality and demand sectoral benefits.
Such "post-modern" and subjectivist policies reject the concepts of class, class struggle and social revolution; they are supported and used by the ruling class to divide the proletariat into multiple groups and subgroups, to weaken it and distance it from its own class interests and final goals.
It is also known that spy agencies (e.g., CIA, FBI, etc.) use identity politics for covert operations aimed at undermining, discrediting and neutralizing the activity of revolutionary and leftist groups, as well as movements fighting for women's emancipation.
Although the issue of sexual discrimination is often covered in the media and has become one of the warhorses of the bourgeois left, to this day we are still far from overcoming it, precisely because of its total separation from the general question of the social and political development of society.
We must therefore fight against social exploitation and oppression, against racism, sexism, discrimination, etc., from our Marxist-Leninist point of view, expressing our class and democratic demands, leaving no room for bourgeois and petty bourgeois ideologies and policies that in one way or another justify and aim to perpetuate capitalism.
As one of our teachers effectively clarified:
“There is no middle course (for humanity has not created a "third" ideology, and, moreover, in a society torn class antagonisms there can never be a non-class or above-class ideology.
“Hence, to belittle the socialist ideology in any way, to turn away from it in the slightest degree means to strengthen bourgeois ideology." (Lenin, What Is To Be Done?, 1902)
Without struggle against social oppression, there can be no socialist revolution!
Without socialist revolution, there can be no abolition of social oppression!
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