Still nothing on the socials surprisingly, there was definitely a comrade taking photos of other speeches and things so maybe they're just busy (there's a Cuba fundraiser picnic today) but y'know I would've thought they'd want to get stuff out immediately after showing up.
Anyway, imagine I look like that while saying all of this. Like last time I didn't stick 100% to the script in my word order and phrasing, especially with those two guys giving me some actual reaction to work with (and the way my mouth was actively drying as I spoke), but it's probably 90% accurate. Italics are largely for my benefit, I say it in my head as I write and italicise where I want to make sure the emphasis in a line goes to keep the rhythm and flow of the words.
When we look at the endless barrage of hate, violence and marginalisation we're currently facing, it's easy to wonder why - why us, why so much of it, why now? It can be daunting to face, but the first step in fighting it is to understand it, and we can do that if we recognise it as part of the same reactionary movement seen across the West that has produced the rise in violent racism from both state and private actors, the popularising of unabashed misogyny, the renewed assaults on Latin American socialist projects, the futile bombardment of Iran, and of course the genocide in Palestine.
All of these are ultimately manifestations of the forces of capitalism lashing out, trying to shore up its position and cling on to power by force as its contradictions grow and cause its hegemony to crumble.
The social structure of sex and gender, what makes a "man" and a "woman" and the delineation between them, are at the root of the systems of patriarchy and the family, they provide the mechanisms of inheritance and the means by which class relations and the division of labour can be extended into the personal sphere and taught by example to the next generation - they are crucial building-blocks in the system of property ownership which lies at the very heart of capitalism. As capitalism finds itself in crisis, therefore, it stands to reason that it will level particular violence against those of us whose very existence demonstrates that social structure to be a paper tiger!
Of course capitalist society is going to wield a mix of misogynist condescension and total erasure against those of us who prove that patriarchy's walled garden of manhood isn't some innate boon bestowed at birth but a construct which is manufactured, malleable and eminently attainable!
And of course capitalist society is going to level all the vitriol and violence it can muster against those of us who actively reject a place in that walled garden, take up our positions as members of a class we were once expected to oppress, betray the very power structures we were once expected to uphold, and in doing so reveal just how hollow that coercively-assigned system of power really is!
This is why they hate us so much, this is why they want to stop us transitioning and take away our bathroom access and everything else - because when we exist, openly and proudly, we are showing them the glaring cracks in the foundations of their hegemony, so taking away our medical access and barring us from public life lets them paper over those cracks and keep a tight grip on society a little longer.
But of course, it's not enough just to exist, to maybe pick some legal fights and try to pressure Parliament to make things a little easier for us, because they will keep coming at us as capitalism continues to decline - and it will, because it is an unsustainable system built on contradictions it cannot resolve. A lot of us like to say there is no "trans agenda" beyond surviving and living our lives, but frankly I think there should be, there has to be if we want anything more than survival and a temporary reprieve from sickening headlines. The solution, the only path to true liberation, is the same path that will see an end to every instance of capitalist violence, an end to all oppression, and it is to organise and fight capitalism, head-on, to build a revolutionary socialist society in its place.
Cuba managed it, and despite all their hardships and sixty years of imperialist violence, their support for trans people is among the most progressive in the world. If they can do it, so can we!
turnnoffyourmind
germansingergirl
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