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WWP’s support for early gay liberation
Party-wide education campaign in 1972
Lavender & red, part 81
By
Leslie Feinberg
Published Dec 10, 2006 9:29 PM
In the months after Workers World Party’s August 1972
conference at which founder Sam Marcy motivated the historic
importance of supporting the gay liberation struggle,
“Comrades hammered out some important goals for our
work,” writes Bob McCubbin.
McCubbin—who had founded the Gay Caucus of WWP’s
youth group Youth Against War & Fascism (YAWF) a year
earlier—stresses that, “First and foremost, we wanted
to show our support for the gay liberation movement in every way
we could.”
New York City: Way back in 1972, Workers World's youth
group, Youth Against War & Fascism (YAWF), had already
been part of the struggle in the streets for gay liberation.
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He recalls, “If we step back for a minute and consider all
the struggles in which Workers World Party and its youth group
were involved at this time—building anti-imperialist
opposition to the U.S. war against Vietnam in the streets;
supporting and defending the Black Panther Party and other
revolutionary organizations of oppressed peoples in the U.S.;
exposing the prison-industrial complex, publicizing the cases of
the many political prisoners, and defending the political
organizing going on in the prisons through the Prisoners’
Solidarity Committee; actively aiding anti-war and anti-racist
organizing within the U.S. military, most importantly, by
providing strong organizational and political support for the
American Servicemen’s Union; supporting workers’
struggles and union organizing and establishing the Center for
United Labor Action; providing active leadership, encouragement
and ideological support to the growing women’s movement;
and educating those we could reach on the many other struggles
erupting throughout the world, including our principled defense
of Cuba, the Soviet Union and People’s China—the
ability of the party to take up the issue of lesbian and gay
liberation in the sustained, serious and fully committed way it
was done is truly remarkable.”
YAWF organized its own contingent in the 1972 Pride march in New
York City, and party members of all sexualities, genders and
sexes have marched together under the YAWF/WWP banners every year
since.
Nowadays, McCubbin states, many glad-handing capitalist
politicians, religious groups and businesses—large and
small—want to be seen at the huge yearly Pride marches.
“But back then it was largely the politically conscious
members of the LGBT communities, mostly the youth, who made up
the ranks of these grassroots marches.”
Being principled wasn’t easy
In the decades since, the LGBT struggle has gained strength and
wrested many victories, attracting broader support. But at that
time WWP’s stand in the movement was unique among the left
parties and was not based on any short-term organizational or
political advantages. It took principles to be a communist in the
gay liberation movement and simultaneously to be for gay
liberation in the radical and communist movement—including
the self-described “New Left.”
When McCubbin left San Francisco to work in the WWP national
office in Manhattan in 1971, he explains, “The gay movement
in New York had a very different character from the movement that
I left in San Francisco. It was easy for me as an openly
communist activist to participate fully in the San Francisco
movement. The whole climate, at least among the youth, was very
open, very radical, and there was no single dominant
organization.”
He explains that as the movement developed, party activists in
some cities were caught between the anti-communism of more
politically moderate and conservative lesbian and gay groups and
the anti-gay prejudices that many other left organizations had
not yet examined.
As a result, McCubbin states, as the gay liberation movement
grew, “All left organizations were viewed, to one extent or
another, with suspicion or open hostility. We were very much at
pains to always act in a principled and supportive way, and with
our very limited human and material resources, we couldn’t
always do much more than simply show support for the lesbian and
gay struggles with our physical presence at protests.”
However, he emphasizes, “There was a group that was much
easier for us to relate to when I first arrived in New York: the
Third World Gay Liberation Front, composed of revolutionary
Cuban, Argentinean, Puerto Rican and Mexican trans people,
lesbians and gay men. Unfortunately, they were only in active
existence for a short period.”
McCubbin stressed that WWP’s 1972 national conference
“marked the beginning of a party-wide effort to educate
ourselves and our class on this issue. As Marxists we know that
it is the struggle that is the great educator, and the new
movement of lesbians and gays and transgender people was
providing lessons in abundance about the situation of people
historically oppressed because of their sexual orientation and
their gender variance. But it is important to note that at this
time the main focus of the gay liberation movement was on sexual,
not gender, expression. Although trans people were involved in
the movement, and often stood out as the most dedicated and
militant, the issue of gender variation was often, unfortunately,
sidelined and/or misunderstood.”
As the struggle was educating and raising consciousness, Workers
World Party was on the eve of making a historic contribution to
gay liberation.
Next: 1972: Marxism is as Marxism does—WWP begins
analysis of lesbian/gay oppression.
E-mail: [email protected]
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Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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