In light of the fact that some people have reported that people are being class reductionist on this site, I would like to say that class reductionism is reactionary and has nothing to do with Marxism or Anarchism.
The class vs identity debate is incredibly silly, and I hate that it keeps coming up amongst people. The fact is that there is no class vs idpol conflict. Heres why:
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Communism is incompatible with any coercive or oppressive system, for it is defined as the absence of those things.
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If we want to achieve communism and defeat oppressive systems we need working-class solidarity
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The working class includes BIPOC, Women, Disabled people and LGBT people
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Working class solidarity means having solidarity with all of these people and uniting our struggles together.
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All of the major successful revolutionary movements understood this.
What happened to the class reductionists? Did they achieve anything? Did they get any advancements for the working class they claimed to represent? They did not, because in being reactionaries they cut off important allies, limited the scope of their struggles, and would sooner side with the bourgeoisie than with other oppressed groups.
So to conclude, intersectionality and trans liberation are good and necessary, and anyone who still believes in class reductionist ideas can fuck off. You are a nothing more than a crypto Strasserite and will wreck the movement if not dealt with properly.
What is a class reductionist argument?
Genuinely asking.
People here have responded to me with at least quasi-class reductionist arguments when I suggest that people can be motivated by racism. For example, I might say that white suburbanites fight tooth and nail against expanding public transit because they don’t want minorities walking around “their” neighborhood. A class reductionist might say no that’s not the reason they don’t want more public transport there are very real, materialist explanations for why they feel that way. Intersectionality is good and argues it can be both.
“we need to stop focusing on the stuggles of [insert oppressed identity here] and get back to ye olde class only politics.”
then you have a problem. because the foundation has to include everyone’s basic struggles or it’s a shitty porous, un-cured concrete that will shatter the moment it meets resistance.
You have to care about all of it or none of it is worth shit all. You can’t build a foundation of solidarity over only white-cishet problems and expect it to support the struggles of minorities.
generally the gist is ‘idpol distracts from class which is the one true axis of oppression’
Even if they were correct in this observation it would be a revisionist line. There are many contradictions which are important to our struggles, one being primary does not eliminate the others.
with all of that said, the struggle does ultimately begin with class (but certainly does not end there, to be clear).
This is part of the purpose behind a cultural revolution, as theorized by Lenin and Mao and attempted in China. You can also see aspects of this with 90s and 00s Cuban government and activists’ role in LGBT rights