No letter yet from Madonna!
The praise comes from the arrival of the new Socialist Outlook. This is an important step in getting to a wider audience the ideas of revolutionary marxism.
criticism, concerns the supplement and the attitude it took towards 'the family'.
The line of the article towards • the family was clearly expressed - 'as a form of social organisation the family and its' associated deology oppresses women roung peopl : and lesbians and gay men whether they live in a nuclear family arrangement or not! This sentence expresses a hostile - and incorrect - attitude to the family. The conclusion of this is that the destruction of the family is a step forward.
It is true that the family bourgeois society is one of the major weapons the ruling class.
But I disagree with the article's purely hostile view.
The real role of the family in working class lives is more contradictory. The contradiction is that it is not an innately oppres sive form of 'social organisation' but rather, a battleground be tween classes.
The dominant class in our society provides the 'dominant ideology of the family. This aims to use the family to oppress the Revolutionary to be THE THEORY + practice supple ment on lesbian and gay liberation in the first issue of Socialist Outlook was sturdy, thought-provoking and a serious analysis of an issue historically neglected by the left. However, despite its depth, I think that the overall analysis suffers from a fundamental flaw, which leads to immense contradictions.
The very first sentence asserts Our necessary starting-point is that all sexuality.... is socially and historically, not biologically, determined.' This is an incredibly sweeping statement which appears to be a direct and heavy-handed response to the muchreferred to 'liberal view' that homosexuality is the preserve of a fixed minority. I think that it is incorrect to counterpose to the fixed liberal view', an equally fixed assumption that every newbor child is like a blank sheet of paper, that biology plays no part whatsoever in the development of sexuality. The comparison with animals, which attempts to prove this theory, is very unconvincing, as it assumes a lot and proves nothing.
It is also fair to point out that the argument used against the so-called SO MADONNA is a feminist family as an ideological school, moulding children to fit into the system, maintaining its labour force and disciplining 'dissidents'. Many accept this role as the 'natural order of The things'; including, it appears, the authors of the supplement. But why? The family is a 'social organisation' and as such can be used by either class, in the same way as schools and the education system.
It's important to clear up this falsehood. The theory in ttp doesn't correspond with my ex periences of the family, nor, I am sure, with the experiences of many working class people. To many it can be the primary place of resistance to the onslaught of the capitalist state. I do not deny that to others it is the instigator of that oppressive onslaught, but if it is only a 'reactionary force, how do you explain its ability to play a progressive and defensive role for the working class?
Without my family I would not be a Trotskyist. Without my family I would not be able to survive in prison today, victimised for my beliefs, yet still confident in my politics and of mv continued resistance to capitalism.
Matt Lee Wandsworth Prison 'liberal' view - that it is contrary to the experence of many lesbians and gay men (coming out) - is an argument equally opposed to the 'blank sheet of paper' view, as one can only specu late as to how it is possible to discover one's sexuality if it has been socially determined in the opposite direction. This blanket view is even less able than the liberal view to explain why it is a minority who feel compelled to rebel against their social conditioning. Rather, I think that it is more realistic to adopt a more flexible approach (in the tradition of dialectics) and accept a compromise of the two extremes.
Even if sexuality is 90% socially determined and only 10% biologically determined, then that would explain the fact that there is literally no uniformity in human sexual behaviour and preferences.
The conclusion of this seriously flawed analysis is that the question of lesbian and gay liberation is not simply a question of democratic rights - but something more. But what? Could it be that being gay is itself a revolutionary act, in the same way as being a woman or being black?
Trevor Wongsam Manchester of women's liberation can be its SIXTEEN workers are on strike at a Hull factory owned by Parsons Brothers, a part of the Van Leer group, as a part of the national campaign for a shorter working week in engineering.
The majority of strikers are in the engineering workers union, the AEU, which is supporting them through a national levy.
The workers came out on indefinite strike on May 2 after months of negotiations and two ballots. Pickets have had important successes in tuming back deliveries. The management have resorted to a 'dirty tricks' campaign of lies in the local media, claiming that the action is unofficial and that negotiations are continuing.
AEU Steward Dave Gemmell told Socialist Outlook 'The present management has been in charge for two years and labour relations have reached an all-time low. members are adamant that they will not lose this dispute.' The price of official AEU backing has been an insistence on full compliance with all aspects of Tory anti-union laws. This will cause problems when the strike begins to bite, with machinery failing due to lack of maintenance. Efforts to build support for the action in other Hull factories owned by Van Leer need to be stepped up, building on the collections that have already been organised.
Spreading the action to the other plants would strengthen the union's position. Hull Trades Council has appealed for support for the strikers, who have a record of strong support for other workers' struggles.
Donations should be sent 1o: Parsons Strike Fund, 45 Strathmore Avenue, Beverley High Road, Hull.
SOCIALIST
MOVEMENT A.G.M. Saturday 1 June 11am to 5.30pm
shorter working week