FOR AN INTERSECTIONAL MOVEMENT

An excerpt translated by me from “Pour un Antipatriarcat Intersectionnel” by Anna, Beryl and Sarah of the Union Communiste Libertaire – appeared in Alternative Libertaire, Jan 2020.

“Coming out of 1970s black feminism, intersectionality is a conceptual tool revealing the plurality of discriminations of class, sex and “race.” It seeks to make visible the multiple forms of domination, discrimination or stratification that a society can force an individual to submit to. There is recognition that the historical dominations of sex, class and “race” intersect in a manner more or less powerfully for individuals at the intersection of these forms of domination... If intersectionality permits us to make visible the phenomena of domination, this does not take into consideration all oppressions at all times, but to evaluate how certain oppressions influence the ability for one to control their existence. Angela Davis points out that this is not a simple addition of oppressions, but generates specific forms of oppression... BUT IN NO CASE MUST ONE DENY THE OPPRESSION EXPERIENCED BY AN INDIVIDUAL AND EVEN LESS MAKE A HIERARCHY OUT OF THEM. (My emphasis)

A MATERIALIST APPROACH...

We must use intersectionality through the prism of materialism. We must not forget the preponderant weight of class and therefore capitalism in these modes of domination. This enables us to not brandish in a simplistic manner a theory of privilege without reference to class. Our discourse is not to stick individuals with a label that assigns them their privileges and oppressions without taking into account whether it corresponds to their reality or not. [The notion of class] ... is too often absent in the application of intersectionality. Social class so often determines the choice of education and social development...

The same time we will not support the claims of certain religions or identities, nor like certain feminists aid those who are oppressors. * We struggle against all forms of domination, we will not struggle along side oppressors nor be complaisant toward nationalisms, ethnic identities and religions who oppress women and LGBTL people...

AND LIBERTARIAN...

Our libertarian input brings an anti-statist critique of the intersectional dominations. The State, because it is patriarchal, racist and capitalist, is the origin of intersectional domination. The State decides the laws, education, freedom of movement, access to work, medical care, housing, the right of contraception, abortion and a politics that is nativist, ethnocentric and heterocentric... “

MY COMMENT – I am sure if intersectionality had been approached in this manner here in North America, it would have caused far less conflict and misunderstanding. But then French radicals are less indoctrinated with liberalism and more rooted in the general working population. A lack of understanding of class, liberal guilt masquerading as radicalism and a culture steeped in puritanism has contributed to the extreme and divisive identity politics of some of the US left.

(*) Probable reference to two tendencies within liberal and ML feminism. One tendency, denounced by anarchists refuses to confront misogyny and homophobia within Islamism out of a fear of “Islamophobia”. There are those feminists who fear men transgendering to women. It has been claimed that some have allied with right-wing elements in common opposition to the trans-gendered.