💾 Archived View for gemini.spam.works › mirrors › textfiles › politics › SPUNK › sp000393.txt captured on 2022-03-01 at 16:21:02.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Workers Solidarity No. 42
Irish Anarchist Paper
Net addition
Shout it out
Loud and Proud
ANARCHISTS believe that most people want to live in a
society better than the one we live in now.
The coming into effect last June of legislation which
decriminalised certain male homosexual acts was the
subject of much celebration in the gay community. The
Minister who introduced the legislation, Maire Geoghan
Quinn was awarded the Magnus Hirschfield award for her
contribution to the gay community by the National
Lesbian and Gay Federation. For many it was felt the
battle for equality had been won. This was certainly
the outlook in the national and international press.
Champagne flowed freely in the capital's gay pubs and
clubs.
The period since then has been virtually silent in the
gay political movement. The one exception was the Donna
McAnnellan affair. Donna was sacked from her employment
in a gym in Cork because she was a lesbian. She lost
her appeal in January to the Employment Appeals
Tribunal (EAT). Apart from a couple of half hearted
press statements from the NLGF, publicity Donna
organized herself and a very small demonstration,
activity was negligible.
Admittedly cases such as Donna's are now covered by a
provision in the Unfair Dismissals legislation which
place a sacking because of somebody's sexuality on the
same level as sacking because of sex, race or religion.
In effect dismissal in such situations is presumed to
be unfair but the maximum the employee can obtain is a
year's wages. The usual award made by the EAT is a lot
less than that. Re-instatement is very rare. Most young
gays, lesbians and bisexuals work in poorly paid jobs
like most young people in Ireland so even a year's
wages will not amount to very much.
What Donna faced is the reality for working class gay
people. Being gay in working class Ireland is not a lot
easier after the legislation than before. Employment
appeal legislation only works if you succeed in getting
a job and holding onto it for a year. A young "out" gay
person is unlikely to succeed in doing that in their
local community.
Gay social venues, at least in Dublin, tend to be
dearer than almost any other venue and they only exist
so long as the people running them are making enough
money. Hence rumours that the owner of "The George",
Dublin's only major gay bar, is about to sell for a
million pounds. Fifis, a gay club, has already been
sold for a large sum. The concept of the "Pink Pound"
is lauded in the gay press in Ireland and England.
Basically the idea behind this is that capitalists
should welcome gay people because they have more money
to spend on consumer items, expensive holidays, etc.,
because they don't have children. This idea is largely
irrelevant to working class gay people
Most young gay people keep their sexuality to
themselves for fear of being kicked out of home. They
know that support from the State in such situations is
minimal and inadequate. A large proportion of young
homeless men are on the street for this reason. In fact
one of the ironies of the Emmett Stagg affair recently
was that he is the Minister with responsibility for the
homeless. A large number of homeless become rentboys to
survive. He should have been hounded because of his
record in housing, not because of his sexuality.
The reality is that a lot more battles have to be
fought before gay liberation is won. Even the new
legislation is not irreversible. Equality legislation
gained in the 1970s is now being rolled back in the
United States.
The gay political movement did not always see its
interests as lying with the government of the day or as
being a single issue unrelated to other issues of
oppression. They saw the struggle as being linked in
with other oppressed groups. For example, Gays against
Imperialism was formed in 1981 and identified the
struggle for gay liberation with the struggles for
"national liberation" around H Block and Armagh prison.
Following the Charles Self Murder case in 1982 and the
subsequent harassment by Gardai of hundreds of gay men
the Gay Defense Committee was set up.
It was people like that who organised the 1,000 strong
demonstration in protest against the judgement in the
case of Declan Flynn who was murdered in a queer
bashing incident in Fairview Park in 1983. The gang who
admitted to killing him and assaulting other gay people
were given suspended sentences. This march attracted
the support of trade unions, civil rights and left wing
groups. At that time the issue of gay rights was taken
up within the unions, the result being an ICTU policy
document with detail as complete as pension rights for
surviving partners. These negotiation guidelines have
been incorporated into much of the civil service as
well as some private sector companies.
For the gay movement to see its interests as lying
completely with the government and the introduction of
progressive legislation is a mistake. The struggle for
real gay, lesbian and bisexual equality is far from
over. Tactically the real needs of the gay community
will not be met by relying on the government but the
issue is wider than this. Oppression because of sexual
identity is but one facet of state oppression.
Gays are not oppressed on of a whim but because of the
specific need of capitalism for the nuclear family. The
nuclear family, as the primary - and inexpensive -
provider and carer for the workforce, fulfilled in the
nineteenth century and still fulfills an important need
for capitalism. Alternative sexualitie represent a
threat to the family model because they provide an
alternative role model for people. Gays are going to be
in the front line of attack whenever capitalism wants
to reinforce "family values". The introduction of
Clause 28 in England is a good example of this. The
government made it illegal for public bodies to
"promote' gay sexuality (i.e. to present it as anything
other than a "perversion").
This oppression is one reason why the gay and lesbian
movement is of particular interest to Anarchists. It is
not that we believe that all gays and lesbians are
revolutionaries. It is because we believe that the
experience of fighting oppression can show people the
nature of the state and that it is possible to fight
it. It is through fighting that people learn it is
possible to win. One group winning a battle gives other
oppressed groups confidence. People gain confidence
through winning struggles.
NLGF feels quite confident with the coming to Dublin
this summer of the International Gay & Lesbian Youth
conference, and the sending of an Irish delegation to
the twenty fifth anniversary march in commemoration of
the New York Stonewall riots, which kicked off the
modern gay movement. It should take advantage of this
new found confidence to rethink about its politics.
Louise Tierney
Their Morals and Ours
The reasons why Emmet Stagg should resign
In February 1992, Emmet Stagg - a self-proclaimed
"socialist" closely identified with the left wing of
the Labour Party - resigned from Labour's Parliamentary
Party, claiming that Dick Spring was preparing to lead
the party into coalition and proclaiming that he would
"never vote for a right wing Taoiseach from Fianna Fail
or Fine Gael."
In January 1993 - less than eleven months later -
this opponent of coalition stood up at Labour's Special
Conference to second the motion that they enter a
"Partnership Government" with Fianna Fail and duly
trooped through the lobbies to vote for Albert Reynolds
as Taoiseach.
On formation of the government he was rewarded for
his change of heart by being appointed Junior Minister
with responsibility for Housing.