General Forum > Politics
"Queer Nation" Manifest from 1991
K6:
--- Quote from: Mogul on Thu, Apr 27, 2006, 11:25 ---
Alan Sears critics aim the very nature of Queer Nation Movement, namely the burgeoning new queer identity, whatever it might be. He regards entire identity/separatism thing merely as mishap tactics, whereas it was the centerpiece of the enterprise! As a true socialist, he falsely assumes that gays/lesbians are just another part of the oppressed working class, whereas in truth gays and lesbians permeate all classes of society and therefore their common interest is of a different nature.
--- End quote ---
Marxism as a political idea is dead.There is no longer any significant country with a marxist regime in power.In places like Cuba or North Korea,marxism survives only because it has found national hosts and causes on which to feed,thus being contaminated by the very idea of a world divided in different States it condemns and wants to see abolished.A quarter of a century ago,marxism would have posed us a problem as a significant rival political cause.Nowadays and in the future,we will be faced with mere successors of marxism in a similar political enterprise of world unification doomed to the same failure.Our headackes will come from such ideologies like islam,fundamentalist christianism,or secular and stateless economic systems like neo-liberalism,which all seek in a way or another the abolition of the nation-State.The aims and illusions of marxism are of no interest to us.Its tactical methods,however,may be of use and thus worth being studied.They should form part of the curriculum of political studies of any consequent gay separatist.If a gay secession leads to some results with vague ressemblences with socialism,like a demography under State control unlike organized heterosexual societies,it will be only incidental and not part of any strategic aim of ours.Some hethro socialists will fall for such an idea,while having no hethro constituency capable of implementing it.
K6
Mogul:
--- Quote from: Feral on Thu, Apr 27, 2006, 08:13 ---[..] Mr. Sears' critique is most interesting to me in that I find nearly every single point he makes to be fundamentally in error, but then he is a Socialist and I am not. I draw your attention to this article not so much to enter into a debate about Socialist politics, but to point out the absence of any sense of nationalist identity in any of it. Nationalism (or anything resembling it) does not enter into Mr. Sears' critique of the movement, nor is nationalism (or even any spirited defence of separatism) a feature of the letters in response to the article included on the web site. [..] While I cannot speak specifically to the situation in Toronto that Mr. Sears describes, as far as the collapse of Queer Nation in the US goes, it seems to me that Sears is gravely in error: Identity politics were most certainly the heart of Queer Nation, but it was organized around the most avant garde principles of Leftist thought available to them. [..] And herein lies Queer Nation's fatal flaw--they actually thought they could change the world with tools that can only transform themselves. The sudden collapse of Queer Nation in the face of these difficulties suggests that they never had any real interest in defining themselves.
--- End quote ---
Queer Nation was one spark of gay national movement - a spark which has unfortunately become extinct. So what? While setting a fire, many strikes on the ignition stone are required. As far as I can judge from the limited sources, that early "Queer Nationals" were indeed not "nationalists" in the literally meaning of the word (this is rightfully noted in this article by Paul Treanor [chapter 6.13]). It seems, the guys were not that far with their identity as a people - or the time was not come yet.
Alan Sears critics aim the very nature of Queer Nation Movement, namely the burgeoning new queer identity, whatever it might be. He regards entire identity/separatism thing merely as mishap tactics, whereas it was the centerpiece of the enterprise! As a true socialist, he falsely assumes that gays/lesbians are just another part of the oppressed working class, whereas in truth gays and lesbians permeate all classes of society and therefore their common interest is of a different nature.
In one point I must agree to him, though: it makes little sense to fight eachother while trying to establishing a tight definition of "who is queer", istead of stepping forward and living the community. It must be clear from beginning that there are no exact definitions of "who is queer" as there will be always individuals who still deviate a little bit but not enough to be excluded from the peer group. We must understand one thing: it is fully sufficient to establish a definition encompassing 95% of our people, and the remaining 5% will for sure not endanger the identity of the people.
The gay/lesbian national movement is probably not that much about the confrontation with straights - it's more about ourselves and the way we are determined to live as gays/lesbians. Not the aversion against the straights is decisive, but the cohesion withing our community. Some of us might be separatists, some might be integrationalists - but we all shall be united as a people.
"The problem was that Queer Nation lacked the political perspective to build on that anger and militancy."
I would say, the problem was indeed in the lack of political and cultural perspective - one cannot build one's identity solely on "anger and militancy". On contrary, an entire indifference to straights might yield more cultural output - if gays only have managed to care for their own business.
K6:
--- Quote from: Feral on Thu, Apr 27, 2006, 08:13 ---And herein lies Queer Nation's fatal flaw--they actually thought they could change the world with tools that can only transform themselves. The sudden collapse of Queer Nation in the face of these difficulties suggests that they never had any real interest in defining themselves.
--- End quote ---
Attempting to change the world or society without reference to sexual orientation would excede by far our strengt and potentialities.Russia did
so during its soviet era.And it lost in the process,along with its status as a world superpower,all the westward territorial conquests of the Russian nation since the times of tsar Peter the Great.Nazi Germany also had the pretention to shape and mold the world,and only ended up in uniting it in a deadly coalition against her.We should not try to change heterosexual societies,nor waste time with any proposal to the effect of remaining under hethro rule indefinitely.It`s for the heterosexuals themselves to change their own societies.If they do not approve of their own governments,they possess the power to overthrow them by going on strike biologically.As long as heterosexuals provide unconditionnally future citizens to regimes which thus are of their own and sole making,there is nothing that we gays could do about it,except perhaps outlining our absence of responsability in the continuation of the said regimes.
K6
Feral:
--- Quote from: Mogul on Thu, Apr 27, 2006, 06:46 ---It seems the guys were serious on their way...
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In this article from the Canadian magazine Socialist Worker, Alan Sears offered many observations about the demise of Queer Nation in Toronto, along with these observations on identity politics and separatism:
--- Quote --- At the heart of the problem was that Queer Nation was organized around identity politics.
The focus of this political perspective is on the assertion of identity - the ability of people who are discriminated against to define themselves. If others define "queers" as bad, our job is to redefine ourselves proudly and confidently. A good example was the Queer nation slogan, "We're here, we're queer and we're not going away."
Identity politics led to a tremendous focus inward on how we define ourselves, rather than on outward on changing the world. The meetings became attempts to develop a "perfect" anti-heterosexist, anti-sexist and anti-racist mind-set rather than organizing to fight actively against sexism, racism and anti-gay bigotry.
There is nothing about identity politics that necessarily leads to activism. Indeed, there is no basis within identity politics for distinguishing between the relative political impact of a man wearing a pink dress on the street, a women making an explicitly sexual lesbian video, or a mass demonstration in the streets. All involve the assertion of "queer" identities, and all are therefore seen as equally subversive.
Yet, Queer Nation Toronto did have an activist orientation. But identity politics is a very poor guide to action. It provides no standard for concentrating energies on activities which can be the crucial next step in building the organization and the cause. As a result, Queer nation tried to do everything.
Identity politics is also tinged with separatism. After all, if it is a question of getting "queers" to redefine ourselves, there is not much of a role for "straights." Even though Queer Nation did attempt to reach out and make alliances, it developed no basis for mobilizing straight people who support lesbian and gay liberation.
In short, identity politics dissipated the impressive activism of Queer Nation Toronto. Despite the efforts of many good activists, the organization could not overcome this deficiency.
Socialist politics offers a different approach to building the struggle for lesbian and gay liberation. The starting point is not identities, but the way capitalist society is organized into conflicting classes. This means struggles against oppression must focus on changing class society as a whole.
--- End quote ---
Mr. Sears' critique is most interesting to me in that I find nearly every single point he makes to be fundamentally in error, but then he is a Socialist and I am not. I draw your attention to this article not so much to enter into a debate about Socialist politics, but to point out the absence of any sense of nationalist identity in any of it. Nationalism (or anything resembling it) does not enter into Mr. Sears' critique of the movement, nor is nationalism (or even any spirited defence of separatism) a feature of the letters in response to the article included on the web site.
It was my perception in the early 90s that Queer Nation used the word "nation" as a rhetorical device, and that John Stine used the word 'nationals' much as posters to this site might use the phrase "gay republicans." Should someone actually use that phrase, it would be a mistake to assume they meant to align themselves with the Republican Party of the US.
While I cannot speak specifically to the situation in Toronto that Mr. Sears describes, as far as the collapse of Queer Nation in the US goes, it seems to me that Sears is gravely in error: Identity politics were most certainly the heart of Queer Nation, but it was organized around the most avant garde principles of Leftist thought available to them. Mr. Sears phrases it well when he says that "angry and effective demonstrations were followed by boring inward-looking meetings in which nothing was accomplished."
"Identity politics led to a tremendous focus inward on how we define ourselves, rather than on outward on changing the world. The meetings became attempts to develop a "perfect" anti-heterosexist, anti-sexist and anti-racist mind-set rather than organizing to fight actively against sexism, racism and anti-gay bigotry."
And herein lies Queer Nation's fatal flaw--they actually thought they could change the world with tools that can only transform themselves. The sudden collapse of Queer Nation in the face of these difficulties suggests that they never had any real interest in defining themselves.
Feral:
According to the Wayback Machine (a most ingenious web site), QRD's earliest update (it's creation) was in 1999. The document "State of the Queer Nation" was present from the beginning. It looks like it was uploaded long after the fact.
I shall look into it further.
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