Hillary Billary No! No! No!
Sometimes I want to see what is happening out in the glbt mainstream so I log on to the Bilerico Project at www.bilerico.com. My gal Mattilda posts over there sometimes and I love to read what Marti Abernathy and Alex Blaze has to say. A few days back I was roaming about and came upon an article written by Steve Ralls called The Very First Diva In Chief. My thoughts on reading the article were, “Oh, my god, are gay men really that shallow? My mind was put to rest when one commentator to this post said that Mr. Ralls posting was tongue in cheek. After reading that I began to calm down. I am so happy that gay men have moved beyond all that superficiality, and they aren’t as bubbled headed as “We need a Diva” crap. (still I’ll keep my fingers crossed) But oh dear, Hillary as a diva? Get real. So now I feel free to share a few facts that I have culled from my buddies on the left and state out loud and Queer, “I DO NOT SUPPORT HILLARY FOR ANYTHING!” I felt when her husband first ran for president that he could not be trusted (my g&l friends put me in the dog house over my speaking out against him) and I feel that Hillary is very much the same type of apple. Can all who still love Billy say DOMA and DADT? I like what Teresa Gutierrez who was a candidate for vice president on the Workers World Party ticket said about Hillary, “She is an opportunist politician who is always willing to make concession to the right in hope this will get her the financial and organizational support needed to win capitalist elections.” Some g & l people are just about wetting their pants while pointing to her support to eliminate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, well swell Hillary, what do you need us for, cannon fodder? Planning more wars? Of course the l & g boys and girls should be able to kill and be killed just as freely as straights. Thanks Hil, that really is a favor, but I don’t expect that any of the people who are clamoring for the end to DADT will be the ones to pick up the gun and defend the Capitalist system, even though it bestows its benefits on them. (Hup! two! three! four! HRC ? ) That same old, same old, the rich and white sending the young, poor and working class off to war. No thanks Ms. Boom, Boom. (boom , boom is for the bombs she voted to drop) But now she is trying to dance to a back-a-way, back-a-way, back-a-way from the war. But even her anti war stand is half assed. Still trying to please the conservatives, Hillary has voted consistently for the Iraq war, Israel’s occupation of Palestine and for future actions against Iran. Clinton will continue to posture against the war with a few show votes in Congress. Make no mistake about it she is part of the con game. She has not signed on to the American Freedom Agenda’s Pledge to end the use of Military commissions, to prosecute war crimes, restore habeas corpus, end torture of captives, end domestic wiretapping without a warrant and end presidential signing statements. It seems for this Clinton, much like the last, principle means nothing, decisions are made on the basis of political calculation and opportunism. To make my dislike grow even more intense this Bubba in a shirt voted for more police state measures on the border by voting for the 700 mile border wall. She sure has a tricky job, while serving the corporate agenda she must maintain her cover as a politician of the people. While she speaks of “ending the war” she also advocates keeping troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future, deploying U.S. forces to protect the Kurdish region, engage in and target operations against al-Qaeda. Hardly a person who has heard the message of the people, “Bring the Troops Home Now!”. Now all of you know my stand on g & l marriage. I have no use for it. But for Mrs. Straight to tell my friends who want to marry that she is against it and that civil unions are good enough for them, then I will say, Mrs. Clinton, “go take a crap in your hat!” We know what is good for us and we will define it and then tell you. Get it? She claims she doesn’t believe in a Federal Marriage Amendment because “it would be a step backwards” but thinks it is quite okay for states to enact laws against marriage. Don’t you just love it? This Miss run-to-the-middle. No this Queer will work to get the Workers World Party or some other Socialist party on the ballot. This Queer will encourage everyone to vote for them. We may not vote for the winner but we will vote our principles. To anyone who wishes to argue that I will be throwing away my vote or giving the election to the other evil twin I’ll just say this, quoting from the Freedom Socialist newspaper– Argument: “Voting for an alternative party just splits the liberal and progressive vote.” Answer: Voting for the Democrats throws away the progressive vote! Until we develop an anti-capitalist alternative, nothing will change.”
To read Steve Ralls article:
4 comments
Fighting for an alternative is a fine thing - WWP ain’t an alternative though. They’ve got their own brand of lesser-evilism. Instead of the Dems, their lesser evil is various tyrannical states like N. Korea or Iran. If that’s WWP’s vision of socialism, then they have a seriously warped view of what a participatory democratic cooperative society oughta look like.
Oh, they’re claiming to be anti-imperialist? Well hell, gotta get behind’em. Nevermind that supporting these small-time autocrats will leave us with zero credibility with most reasonable people, and rightly so. Probably less so with LGBT folks who know how their sisters and brothers are treated under the various “socialist” states. And hey, you can only blame the capitalist press for so much ya know.
My alternative? How about we start playing by some entirely new rules. Let’s draw on the countless traditions that demand leadership that follows, process that is accountable, and an economy that is actually controlled by producers and consumers (which my boys Marx and Bakunin say socialism is all about). If that’s not what we’re all fighting for, then clearly we’re not all on the same page.
Have these traditions fallen short? Sure, but they’ve been known to unleash a liberatory surge to the core of capitalist society. Our goal should be to adapt these principles to our daily realities.
The WWP’s of the world, on the other hand, aspire only to be the apparatus that dismantles such revolutionary instances, in the service of the state. States don’t enhance popular struggle, they restrain them. Talk to any Venezuelan anti-capitalist or indigenous activist for confirmation on that. States are shams. Their purpuse is to corral whatever revolutionary movement may exist and channel it for a bureacracy’s own purposes of consolidating power!
Matt, as allies of the queer community maybe it isn’t for us to lecture queer activists about what will or will not give them credibility in their own community (much less “with reasonable people”).
Also, just as a point of historical accuracy, Workers World Party has actively supported the queer community and LGBT struggles since before the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969. At that time most of the left (including most anarchist organizations, to the extent that they existed at all) outside of the queer community ranged from openly anti-gay to quietly closeted. WWP not only wrote in praise of the Stonewall warriors but mobilized its own members to go out in the street in support. The WWP youth group Youth Against War and Fascism organized a Lesbian and Gay Caucus shortly after Stonewall, and around that time WWP published Diary of a Transexual, a pamphlet by Leslie Feinberg, and The Gay Question: A Marxist Analysis by Bob McCubbin.
I can also say this much from personal experience. When I attended my first major demonstration as a student in 1979 (a national anti-draft/anti-war demonstration) — a decade AFTER Stonewall — WWP was the ONLY participating organization to be openly pro-gay. At that time it was still one of the few left organizations outside of the LGBT community to have an open, active LGBT caucus.
Well, I only take such liberties (lecturing, I dunno, maybe) because I’ve had the folks who run the blog tell me they want me to contribute whatever I want, and we’re all friends. If I step outa line, I’m confident they’ll let me know.
And I’m glad WWP is so good on queer issues. Thats great, and I think they’ve made some great contributions to radical trans/queer dialogue. But mixing really good politics with really bad politics usually just makes for a really bad word/thought association, at best!
And, just for the record, Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers (the Lower East Side anarchist “chapter” of SDS) was about the only lefty outfit to actually SHOW UP and PARTICIPATE in the second night of the uprising. Tit for tat.
ALL——
Please take all liberties within this blog. This blog is modeled after the *Speak OUT* cart and the ideas of the first Bushnell demo. Who Speaks, We all Speak! Coming from me, Richard, I will say I enjoy all sorts of dialogue especially from people I love and respect on all of the left. That is how I learn, yes learn even at 60. And two of my favorite people to learn with are Matt and Peter.
Just found in my file a copy of The gay Question: a Marxist Analysis. At the 1972 conference of WWP Sam Marcy who was the chairperson of WWP put forth this idea in the last paragraph of his report. “The Socialist revolution is a permanent revolution, one of continuous change. Along with many changes that need to be made in soclialist countries, the gay question is surely one of them. In the meantime, we ought to concentrate on preparing our own revolution, in which the struggle for the liberation of all oppressed people, including gay people, is an indispensible condition for victory.”
Coming from the generation that was young and watch and heard about what was happening down south to people when they tried to vote,and just live freely certainly makes the act of voting and people’s rights something that I take very seriously. When I hear that a Socialist party wishes to run candidates and needs help to get on the ballot I certianly will come out to help if and when I am able. We need alternative parties on the ballots. Do all of them reflect all of my wishes, or beliefs? No. But it is a start. And when my friends who are Anarchists ask for help if I am able and can I will support them. It’s like the line of that old Shaker hymn, “In turning, turning, we come out right.” Onward and Forward. Up, Up and Away. Back from vacation and ready to go.
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