Communism101

I would add the text Transgender subjugation or Transgender liberation?, from British maoist group Red Voice Media, that delves into the dialectics behind gender and sex, adding a third position to the debate (a marxist one that isn't neither postmodern like Butler or reactionary like P. Morgan).

I make their words mine when refering to British transphobia

Britain and Transphobia. (For the purposes of this essay, Britain refers to the state that currently exists and does not denote that nations which reside within this state are actually a part of one British nation.)

Britain is one of the main poles of anti-transgender ideologies and attacks across the globe, garnering itself the reputation of being an island full of transphobia. However, although this is seemingly common knowledge in some communities, little investigation is done into why this is the case and why it is so rampant.

Britain was one of the first places in the world to develop capitalism, and thus was one of the first to see the proletarianization of women. As such, and as with the destruction of the feudal patriarchal family, there was a rise in popular women’s movements who agitated and, later on, fought for the rights which the bourgeois revolution had not granted them such as the right to vote and equal rights with men – in short, bourgeois rights. These demands and protests were just at the time, as progressing past remaining feudal customs was historically progressive. However, the demands of these first liberal feminists who later went on to become the slightly more radical suffragette movement could not escape their bourgeois and petty-bourgeois views and did not recognise socialism as the only way for women’s emancipation.

In addition to this, we also have Britain’s status as one of the first imperialist powers to emerge alongside its long colonialist history with the British Empire being formed in the 16th century. Due to this, any ideology and movement back home which could be useful to justifying and continuing the plunder and looting of its colonial empire was absorbed by the bourgeoisie. Thus, alongside the patriarchal ideology and the bourgeois family, the demands and beliefs of the liberal feminist movement was consolidated and solidified in the ruling classes’ apparatus. This explains the origins and the constant support for so-called ‘sex-based rights’ groups which have existed for over a hundred years and now are being directed by the bourgeoisie against transgender people. This targeting directly reflects the attitude towards sexual minorities in the late 20th century where first they were hounded, targeted, and oppressed by the ruling classes, until it became beneficial to co-opt these movements, many of which were led by petty-bourgeois and post-modernist groups and leaders. As such, the blame partly falls down to communists not seizing upon this contradiction in order to agitate towards revolution, and the same fate will befall us if we do not learn the lessons of the past.