TRANSGENDER WARRIOR LESLIE FEINBERG SPEAKS

Feinberg is a party hierarch in the Stalinist Workers World Party, better known as the driving organization force behind the idiots at ANSWER. Fighting against oppression is all fine and dandy in the realm of ideas, but the practical manifestation of bad politics (ie Stalinism) is bad activism.

This reminds me of an incident in the 1950s (?), when the CP USA ordered most of its queer members to resign from the party.
Some lesbians wept as they reluctantly signed letters of resignation.
They did so out of loyalty to their party.
.....
The party ditched them in hopes of avoiding homophobic smears from
right-wing McCarthyites.
Oddly enough, Sen. McCarthy himself had one or more queer allies. As an opportunist, he may have merely been queer-bashing for personal gain; rather than being deeply homophobic. [ Compare: Gay Edgar Hoover.]

Whatever the Senator's motives, he wrecked thousands of lives....

..........

What reminds you of which? Does my mentioning of the facts of Feinberg's political affiliation somehow equate with McCarthy wrecking people's lives? Or does the adherence of Feinberg and her gang of counter-revolutionaries somehow equate with destroying people's lives? Why is it that McCarthyism is so quickly invoked whenever anyone who is not a McCarthyite objects to Stalinism? That's rhetorical sleight of hand. Revolutionaries who object to Stalinism do so out of adherence to revolutionary principles, not out of loyalty to anyone who dislikes Stalinism.

"The party ditched them in hopes of avoiding homophobic smears from right-wing McCarthyites."

This is absolutely nonsense. The Communist Parties throughout the world have a long history of homophobia. And at the height of McCarthyist anti-communism, the hero of anti-Communists was Whittaker Chambers, a known homosexual. It was the left that used Chambers' sexuality to smear his name and to make him appear psychologically unstable.

Now, this is not to say that McCarthy, Nixon and the rest of them were "pro-Queer" but to say that the Party acted in this manner due to "McCarthyites" is not accurate. The Party acted in this way because they considered queers "deviants". FYI, Communists in Cuba think the same way.

I read "Stone Butch Blues" a few years ago and had no idea that its author was even a Communist. Perhaps Leslie Feinberg is now associated with some political party that some may disagree with but overall I think you have to judge Feinberg by her own writings and not by the beliefs of others in the antiwar group in which she works. Its hard to belive that people are red baiting and trying to tar and feather Feinberg with the homophobic beliefs of the CPUSA of early 1900s when Feinberg herself wrote about some of those issues in her book without advertising for any party.

I dont agree with everything ANSWER stands for but I wouldnt call it Stalinist even though the Workers World Party took some pretty bad stands on things 30-40 years ago (what exactly is a Stalinist anyways Ive heard of Maoists and Trots and the CPUSA broke with Stalin when he died so it seems more like name calling than descriptive). Unlike the RCP the WWP doest have pictures of Stalin on the walls of their offices and thier tendency to support nationalist leaders being attacked by the US could be interpreted as more of an effort to try to prevent wars than to really support those leaders.

Nobody has commented on what Leslie Feinberg actually said when she came to town. Did she talk about how great Stalin was or about transexual isssues or about the war in Iraq? Are people now only to be judged by the people with whom they associate and not on their own beliefs. Perhaps those attacking Feinberg are not John Birchers and even consider themselves left-wing but this whole guilt by association thing seems every bit as bad as right-wing red baiting. If you want to attack someone attack them for what they say and do not for a mere association with an antiwar group that may also hold problematic views on other issues.

Feinberg's site is:
http://www.transgenderwarrior.org/

Ive only read "Stone Butch Blues" so perhaps Im misguided and havent realized yet the secretive Stalinist messages in "Trans LIberation" ( http://www.transgenderwarrior.org/writings/books/pinkblue/ ) or "Transgender Warriors" ( http://www.transgenderwarrior.org/writings/books/tgw/ ).

I do notice that in the WWP's review of "Trangender Warriors" it says "Early on Feinberg discloses how she became a Marxist and the impact that the Marxist method of analysis has had on her own thinking. As a young person full of anger at the way the bosses exploited her and her co-workers, full of questions about society and politics, she became an avid reader of the Marxist classics." ( http://www.workers.org/ww/trans.html ) Maybe talking about reading Marx should make one a social outcast and maybe "Drag King Dreams" is really about wanting to look like Joe Stalin but I really doubt it.

Im guesing those attacking Leslie are the normal anarchofundamentalists who always seem to me more dogmatic than the craziest Maosists or Sparts. If you want to say bad things about someone whenever they come to town at least try to read their books.

Okay Question Mark, what the fuck? Feinberg is not some rank-and-file hanger-on who happens to read Marx. She is a party hierarch, part of the decision-making clique of the WWP. "Reading the Marxist classics" is not some inocuous activity if it includes reading and then acting upon the writings (as it does--just ask anyone in the WWP who's honest if you can find one) of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. All three were active (not passive, not accidental) counter-revolutionaries (if by "revolution" we understand the self-organized liberation of working people from the alienation and oppression of capitalism); all three extended the regime of wage labor and an exchange economy, all crushed independent (that is, outside Party control) organizations of workers. The only "guilt by association" I might agree to is the same you would probably support for anyone who calls themself a Christian: at the very least, s/he has a lot of explaining to do. If you label yourself a Marxist, you must have an explanation of the actions of others who use the same label (whether you agree with them using that label or not--and it's not nearly enough to say "well, X isn't really a Marxist, or Christian, or whatever). Marxists have proven themselves to be mass murderers of any and all people they declare to be their enemies (whether real or imagined). This isn't some kooky right-wing red baiting--it is remembering history. From the anarchists suppressed in April 1919 by Lenin and Trotsky, to the Makhnovists betrayed by their erstwhile allies Trotsky and Kun, to the Kronstadt sailors butchered by Trotsky and Zinoviev, to the Spanish revolutionaries murdered by the GPU in 1937-39, to the independent farmers in Cuba executed by Castro and Guevara... the list is endless. Anyone who includes any of these reprehensible counter-revolutionaries in their hall of heroes is likewise easy to consider to be a counter-revolutionary as well. Supporting Milosevic, Kim Il Sung, Castro may look to some as working for "peace" but to me it looks transparently creepy. Thanks for the opportunity to rant. The next time you object to calling a Stalinist a Stalinist, you might want to reconsider your own motives.

<<I dont agree with everything ANSWER stands for but I wouldnt call it Stalinist even though the Workers World Party took some pretty bad stands on things 30-40 years ago (what exactly is a Stalinist anyways Ive heard of Maoists and Trots and the CPUSA broke with Stalin when he died so it seems more like name calling than descriptive). Unlike the RCP the WWP doest have pictures of Stalin on the walls of their offices..>>

This is a pretty mechanical view of things. One needn't have a picture of Stalin on their wall to be a stalinist. Indeed, I'd say that the WWP fit the description better even than the RCP does. "Popular front" politics, which the WWP adheres to, are thoroughly stalinist but simultaneously they weigh against such un PR-savvy moves as hanging Uncle Joe on the proverbial mantel.