A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #347 - Antipatriarchy, The place of UCL in the trans movement (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

During the second congress of the Libertarian Communist Union in 2023, 
we voted for a political orientation motion called "For a trans 
counter-offensive", available on our website. Here is the second part in 
a shortened and reworked version for the newspaper, which details our 
positions. ---- The trans activist movement is crossed by ideological 
and strategic differences. We distinguish in particular two major 
analysis grids: queer models and materialist models. It is important to 
position ourselves as a revolutionary organization and to specify what 
materialism we claim exactly.

For a non-dogmatic materialist analysis
Taking trans experiences into account has led to a divide within 
materialist feminism. Part of the movement now called TERF (for "radical 
feminists excluding trans people") attempted to justify transphobic 
positions using a materialist analysis. We affirm that this movement has 
essentialized its analysis and has therefore come into contradiction 
with basic principles of materialism.

He advocates a biological and non-social origin of the oppression of 
women, and insists on the insurmountable nature of "primary 
socialization", that is to say behaviors instilled in young childhood. 
On the contrary, the current analysis of the Libertarian Communist Union 
is to consider two sex classes, "men" and "women", to which each 
individual is assigned by a social mechanism, imposed by society. This 
assignment does not take place just once at birth but throughout life, 
with each social interaction. Sex classes allow the exploitation of the 
class of women by that of men, and patriarchal society imposes their 
binary and rigidity to do so.

Trans people are oppressed specifically by the patriarchy because they 
contravene these principles. The very process of class mobility - 
becoming gender class defectors - is an affront to the binary of the 
system. Transphobia is the oppression punishing these slights. Trans 
women in particular see their social position degrade from the first 
steps of transition and are subject to transmisogyny through the 
intersection of misogyny and transphobia. Trans men are subject to 
logics of infantilization.

Trans struggles are therefore an integral part of anti-patriarchal 
struggles, and trans women are an integral part of feminist struggles. 
We reject essentializing positions. We analyze that the place of each 
individual in the patriarchal system of oppression does not depend on 
their biology or their past socialization, but on their present social 
position. We respect and support trans people in their transition by 
considering them their desired gender. Our struggle aims to abolish this 
system and its sex classes.

A part of the trans movement, which also often claims to be materialist, 
advocates that transidentity is a mental condition for which medical 
transition is the remedy. This trend, called transmedicalism, generally 
advocates for maintaining the psychiatrization of transition pathways: 
it is more strategic than ideological, the idea being to present 
transidentity in a way that would make it more acceptable to the 
patriarchal system.

If we are sensitive to the fears and individual strategies of trans 
people to obtain access to care, we reject transmedicalism as a 
political strategy. We judge in fact that it cannot protect us either 
from the reactionary backlash or from patriarchy as a whole, which it 
does not allow us to combat. Depsychiatrization is for us a central 
demand of trans struggles.

For peaceful unitary work
The majority of the trans movement adopts analytical frameworks from 
queer theories. We have points of agreement but also political 
disagreements with them, which need to be clarified to allow common 
work. Trans organizations place a large part of their energy on the 
urgent and vital needs of trans people through mutual aid and support, 
as well as moral support and the creation of spaces for sociability. 
This is a titanic task, which it is up to us to salute and support. This 
entirely logical priority placed on the immediate needs of the trans 
community can justify an emphasis on individualities. As a political 
organization, the Libertarian Communist Union is not intended to replace 
the mutual aid spaces that it must support from the outside.

Our goal is to push society to evolve towards the acceptance and 
integration of trans people until the elimination of the patriarchal 
system of oppression. In this field of action, we consider that 
individualizing logics are detrimental: we need to create a collective 
based on shared experiences. This involves bringing to life broad and 
democratic counter-powers. This position is not antithetical to the 
recognition of the diversity of transition pathways. It is not our role 
to judge the "legitimacy" of this or that identity. Our analysis is 
based on the material conditions of existence: we fight for all people 
whose material conditions are affected by transphobia.

Another common source of tension between queer and materialist 
strategies is the use of vocabulary. Queer models suggest that everyone 
chooses the labels that correspond to them (in terms of identity and 
sexual orientation) with a view to "destabilizing" gender and personal 
emancipation. At UCL, our analysis grid and the vocabulary we use are 
different. Without calling into question the principle of 
self-determination, we start from the transition as a social fact, then 
we study the logic of oppression that this generates. Our vocabulary 
therefore designates the people structurally affected by these oppressions.

We have highlighted here our approach and our disagreements in order to 
clarify our position, not to draw a line with other political 
orientations, but on the contrary to allow common work with them in full 
knowledge of the facts. More than ever, we need to be united.

UCL Anti-Patriarchy Commission

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lors-du-second-congres-de-l-Union-communiste
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en