KitNotes

OK people, we’re back. Enough moping (I’ve got a new job, huzzah!) and back to real life. And I’m kicking off with something positive and affirmative.

I’ve been thinking about the nature of oppression quite a bit recently. And yes, it’s because my own oppression as a disabled person has been rammed home to me in quite spectacular fashion. Betcha didn’t know that, did you? Yes, Kit is disabled. I’m hard of hearing, so now you know. I’m quite significantly hard of hearing, so while I might look like I’m just like every other white bloke, not only do you have my own oppression as a worker, but also as a disabled person, too, just adding to it.

But I don’t want to go on too much about disability right now (though I’m pritty sure that I will do at some point in the very near future) and concentrate on feminism and socialism. I was doin’ the rounds of various blogs, and noticed a couple of things. I noticed that Dave Osler has made the step up to Movable Type (urgh, he should use WordPress but ANYTHING is better than Blogger) at www.davidosler.com. Go check it out. (Dave, if you’re reading this, the article will be with you at the end of the week, I promise.)

I was also browsing some of the feminist blogs, and I noticed the report back on Witchy Woo’s blog about the Reclaim The Night march which happened in London at the same time as the No Sweat social. Of course, being a bloke, I couldn’t have gone on the march, but what my comrades neglected to tell me was that the rally afterwards was open to men, otherwise I would have been there. Mind you, I was a bit drunk by that point, and also feeling very very stroppy about the world and my own personal situation, so it was probably best if I didn’t go along.

Another thing I noticed was Laurelin’s letter to men of the Left. And, being fired up again and not moping about any more, I felt I had to reply, because it seems, no-one else has.

And I think that in and of itself seems to validate a lot of what Laurelin has to say. Because we don’t talk about feminism and women’s liberation on the Left any more, it seems to have been swept under the carpet and labelled as something for women’s caucuses to deal with. Which, to be quite frank (when am I ever not, eh?) is utter bollocks, not to mention quite reactionary. Socialists - no matter how degenerate they may be - would never, ever, leave issues of anti-racism or fighting facism to black or Jewish people. No way! Socialists believe that the struggle against racism is a struggle of all workers against the system, and that racism is a tool of the ruling class to divide workers and make us hate each other rather than them.

It’s the same with women’s liberation. I don’t think that there are many activists out there at all who would seriously argue that women’s liberation can be fought for by women alone, because I think that most of us accept that men are conditioned, by capitalist society, to buy this bollocks. I know for myself; when I was a younger lad (admittidly not that long ago) I used to buy Front magazine. For a while, when I was 13, 14 (before I discovered socialism) I used to read Front all the time, it was my bible, and to be quite honest, it made me very little different from any other lad that age.

Not to say that’s somewhat natural or right or whatever. Of course it isn’t, but if we are to change the world, then we have to see where we’re at now. I don’t think I need to tell you that everywhere we go, we are bombarded with sexist imagery, and it isn’t just in lad mags, either. It’s a wholescale assault on women everywhere we go - on billboards, walking down the street, no matter where you go, those images are everywhere.

So how do we fight it? I think, from reading over Laurelin’s blog, we have different perspectives. I think that’s fine, because unlike a lot of men (and some women too, I have to say) on the Left, I don’t think I can wait until the revolution comes for women to be liberated. I know, myself, that I can’t wait until the revolution for me to be allieviated of my own oppresion as a disabled person. So I’m not going to expect women to wait, either. As I’ve grown up and become a proper part of the society in which we live, my self-awareness of my disability has grown, and continues to grow. It feels quite weird for me to define myself as a disabled person, but I am.

And you know what pisses me off? Is that the Left never, ever seems to talk about disability. Like a lot of things, it’s just brushed under the carpet. Mainstream disability activists seems to be quite content with See Hear and signed repeats being on at 2am (i.e. when most ordinary people are IN BED - what do the BBC think, that disabled people just come out of the woodwork at night like vampires or something?) and induction loops being at one in every twenty odd booths at the train station (and keeping that booth open for hearing people too) and BSL - despite being an offical language STILL not being taught in Schools.

But still, very little is ever said about these issues by the Left. At least, when feminism gets lip service, it’s something. Disabled people’s issues get brushed under the carpet.

Sorry, that wasn’t a personal attack, but know what it’s like. And that’s why, as a revolutionary socialist, I fight on all fronts, against all oppression. I self define as a socialist feminist because I believe we need to work as hard as we can to fight for the liberation of women, not in the far off future, but in the here and now, where it counts.

Personally speaking, as a disabled person (it still feels weird for me to say that) I think the only way in which the disabled people are going to make advances in our fight against oppression is when we get non-disabled people on board with our fight and by joining with us. Because when we all fight together, we can win. Without such basic solidarity, it’s going to be very hard to get anywhere. We can preach to the converted all we like, but unless we can get more people involved in our fight, I don’t think we can get anywhere fast. I think, in the past six years I’ve spent in the socialist movement, that’s the one lesson which I think is paramount.

Which brings me onto my main gripe. Because I keep getting told by all sorts of feminists that I can’t be a feminist because I’m a man.

The way I see it is this; feminism is about women’s liberation. I am for women’s liberation, therefore I am a feminist. I believe the best way to achive women’s liberation is by fighting for socialism and being a part of the socialist movement, so I am a socialist feminist. I can’t be “pro-feminist” because feminism is women’s liberation. But I am called a “pro-feminist” because some people don’t want me to be a part of the movement for women’s liberation.

Which frustrates me no end, because, despite not being perfect and slipping from time to time (yes, sometimes I have made sexist comments, but haven’t we all said things which we regret?) I am a feminist, a socialist feminist. But I feel excluded in many ways from the fight for women’s liberation in ways that I haven’t experienced elsewhere, in many other movements of which I am a part. I’ve never been ejected from a picket line because I’m not a striker on that strike. I’ve never been ejected from an anti-racist meeting because I’m white. But I have been excluded from countless meetings, events, etc. in the women’s liberation movement.

And it’s by encouraging men to be a part of the fight for women’s liberation which will force them to change their ideas and take a real responsibility for changing their own ideas, implanted into their brains by the capitalist society in which they live, and taking a part in the fight against women’s oppression. Just as Laurelin’s place is firmly saved for her in the fight against disability discrimination.

I think we owe it to each other.