Friday 7 July 2023

Pride 2023 leaflet

The leaflet that Socialist Party members will be distributing at Bristol Pride 2023 is below. There is also an open letter we have written to the organisers in response to their decision to ban political parties from the parade. 

Bristol Socialist Party Public Meeting

How can LGBTQ+ liberation be won?

7.30pm Tuesday 11th July

Quaker House, 300 Gloucester Road, BS7 8PD

Contact Tom on 07986 951527





The Socialist Party have written the following open letter to the organisers of Bristol Pride to challenge their decision not to allow any political parties to join the Pride march as organisations.

 

The Socialist Party defends our right to participate in Pride.

 

We have a record of fighting for LGBTQ+ rights. We fight for the right to self-identify of trans and non-binary people – but also the funding of the public services and resources needed to live all our lives fully. We also have a record of challenging those who attack trans rights under the false premise of defending women’s rights, exposing their divisive ideas as nothing but a dead end to those who genuinely want to improve women’s services.

 

Our Pride leaflet slogan is ‘Build a mass movement for LGBTQ+ liberation! Tories Out! Fight for socialism.’ We raise political ideas on Prides across the country that can be discussed and debated in the building of the movement for LGBTQ+ rights.

 

The fight for LGBTQ+ rights is political. The film Pride portrays how our movement combines solidarity, struggle and politics. LGBTQ+ activists and striking miners found common cause in the fight against Thatcher’s attacks. The miners’ union was able to influence Labour policy and put gay rights on the agenda. Today there is no chance of Starmer’s Labour Party playing that role for us. He doesn’t support the strikes and can’t be trusted on LGBTQ+ rights. But our movement still needs a political fight. We need a new workers’ party. To be effective it must have LGBTQ+ liberation and socialism on its banner.

 

Pro-capitalist parties have always deployed divisive politics. In a desperate attempt to maintain some kind of a base of support, the Tories have tried to whip up discrimination, and divide and rule, as a means to distract from their utter ineptitude. We face a cost-of-living crisis and a Tory government that has no answers to the problems faced by the 99%. They can only be relied on to attack our rights.

They want to make the working class and young people pay for the crisis of their capitalist system. They pose a threat to the rights of trans people and all LGBTQ+ people, as well as to the public services and living standards that everyone needs.

 

Their lies need to be answered – but Starmer doesn’t do that. Instead they need to be answered with socialist politics in the interests of all of us. Even if they are not present on Pride, ideas to answer them are necessary because they have access to the mass media to spread their hate and division.

 

The Socialist Party fights for the unity of the working class against discrimination of all kinds. We fight to unite workers and young people in campaigns to fight for housing, jobs and the NHS which are threatened by the pro-big business parties. We stand for a socialist society, based on collective ownership and not on profit for a tiny minority. We believe that this is the only way in which the oppression and exploitation of LGBTQ+ people can be ended for good.

 

Bristol Pride says that Pride is a protest, we agree. Our leaflet says: “We need pride events that fight back, organised democratically by campaigners and trade unions, not rainbow-washing corporations.”

 

We would also question what the democratic process of Bristol Pride is by which this decision has been made? The Socialist Party has consistently participated in Pride marches and our presence has always been welcomed by others there. The socialist movement have been more consistent fighters for the rights of LGBTQ+ people than the businesses which have become the most prominent organisations at the event. 

 

The best way to take up the divisive ideas of the Tories and Labour – is to do just that – take them up! Why not host a public debate on how the fight for LGBTQ+ rights can be won?

 

We will be at Pride spreading the message of socialism and solidarity this Saturday, as we do every day - on the streets, in the workplaces, in the trade unions, in the communities and on campus. 

 

Saturday 6 June 2020

Black Lives Matter leaflet

Online Public Meeting
U.S. SOCIALIST SPEAKS ON BLACK LIVES MATTER
Thurs June 11th, 7.30pm
For Zoom details contact Tom on 07986 951 527 or tomobaldwin@gmail.com
FB event: tinyurl.com/SP-BLM




Wednesday 15 August 2018

Blog no longer in use

This Bristol Socialist Party blog is no longer updated with new content and details of meetings may be out of date. 

You can keep in up with what we're doing via our facebook page: www.facebook.com/BristolSP

You can also see the Socialist Party's national website:
and check out any of the other links on the links page.

You can also contact us via 07986 951527 or tomobaldwin@gmail.com

Monday 10 July 2017

Fighting for LGBT+ Liberation

Socialist Party members at Bristol Pride

Bristol Socialist Party Public Meeting
Is Equality Possible Under Socialism?
7.30pm, Tues 11th July, 
Malcolm X Centre (smaller building), BS2 8YH
We will be looking at how discrimination affects different groups of people and how it can be fought. The introduction will focus on gender and, in particular, the struggles that trans men and women face in today's society. The discussion is open for any points, questions or contributions that people wish to raise. 
Call Tom on 07986 951527 if you have any trouble finding us or getting in. 

The following article was carried in the centre pages of this week's The Socialist newspaper:

Lessons from the Russian revolution for LGBT+ struggle today

Michael Johnson, from the Socialist Party's LGBT group, examines the lessons of the Russian revolution for the struggle for LGBT+ rights today.


The Russian Revolution is not typically held up as a significant event in the advancement of the struggle for LGBT+ rights. In fact, it's often seen as the opposite, given the terrible oppression that LGBT+ people faced under Stalinism.

The 1934 Stalinist slogan 'Destroy the homosexual - fascism will disappear' casts quite a shadow on LGBT+ rights in the USSR. But in this centenary year of the Russian revolution, it's important to look at the genuine and significant progress that was made in the early years after 1917.

Prior to the revolution, bans on homosexuality in Russia could be traced back to the 17th century and were particularly barbaric.

Gay men and women were put to death, women explicitly by burning. By the 18th century the government had banned gay men from the armed forces and in the 19th century sexual acts between men had been criminalised.

These laws were by no means unique to Russia. In the UK, male homosexuality was punishable by death by hanging until 1861 and remained criminalised until 1967.

Decriminalised

Only a handful of countries worldwide had decriminalised homosexuality prior to 1917, starting with France in 1791 in the wake of the French revolution (though it must be noted that in 1960 France introduced indecent exposure laws targeting homosexuality that remained for 20 years).

Even today, around 80 countries have laws explicitly against homosexuality or which are used to target LGBT+ people - a number of which include the death penalty. In 28 states in the US it is still legal to fire someone for their sexuality.

Immediately prior to the 1917 revolution, the law in Russia had been applied on a very selective basis, with friends of the imperial family benefiting from a selective tolerance.

But institutions like the Eastern Orthodox Church pushed the idea that homosexuality was a sign of corruption, decadence and immorality. While gay rights movements began to develop in other countries such as Germany, this propaganda meant very little was able to develop in Russia beyond fictional representations.

At around this time, under familial and societal pressure, Georgy Chicherin - a flamboyant and openly gay man, already a committed Marxist who used an inherited fortune to support the 1905 Russian revolution and anti-war campaigning - undertook gay 'conversion therapies'.

It's unclear which therapies he attempted - at the time they ranged from psycho-analysis, to hypnotherapy, to surgical procedures and castration. Unsurprisingly, this was unsuccessful and Chicherin later described himself as self-accepting of his homosexuality.

Georgy Chicherin

Chicherin was jailed in Britain for his anti-war activities but his release was secured by Trotsky after the 1917 revolution. He went on to work closely with both Trotsky and Lenin, eventually becoming the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

This appointment was in 1918 - it would have been unthinkable in any other country at that time, even where there were more active LGBT+ rights movements. It would take until the latter part of the 20th century for other countries to have out politicians in similar positions.

Given this background, it was enormously significant that when the Soviet Criminal Code was established in 1922, male homosexuality was not included as a criminal act (female homosexuality and 'crossdressing' had never been explicitly outlawed but were met with heavy repression). This was not, as some historians argue, an inadvertent omission or oversight.

The Soviet minister of health proudly spoke in Germany of the abolition of the Tsarist laws against homosexuality, stating: "No unhappy consequences of any kind whatsoever have resulted from the elimination of the offending [law], nor has the wish that the penalty in question be reintroduced been raised in any quarter."

Dr Grigorii Batkis, director of the Moscow Institute of Soviet Hygiene, echoed this, saying: "Soviet legislation bases itself on the following principle: it declares the absolute non-inference of the state and society into sexual matters, as long as nobody is injured, and no one's interests are encroached upon."

In 1926 it became legal to change your sex on passports and intersex and transgender people received access to medical care without state demonisation. The advances for women in the early days of the Bolshevik government secured lesbian and bisexual women with unprecedented freedoms.

100 years on and millions are marching in the wish that the US president could be close to being that progressive! These steps undoubtedly energised the fight for LGBT+ rights around the world at the same time as the revolution was breathing new life into the revolutionary struggle internationally.

Social attitudes

But the negative social attitudes fostered during the repressive Tsarist regime could not disappear overnight, especially within a geographical area as large as the Soviet Union.

This perhaps explains accounts such as the (only recorded) raid on a party of crossdressers and gay men gathered for a marriage ceremony. This was justified by a single Justice Commissariat lawyer, despite the decriminalisation, as he felt public displays of 'homosexual tastes' may endanger 'suggestible personalities'.

However, so far research has not shown any criminal charges due to crossdressing or public displays of homosexual affection during this early period.

Lesbian and bisexual women, who had received praise for their contributions to the soviet military and police during the civil war, are reported to have received admiration as "energetic" participants in the revolutionary landscape. 'Masculinised' women were seen as politically conscious and valued citizens in Russia while in other countries similar fashions were met with increasing scrutiny as a sign of 'female emancipation.'

There is also some evidence for the beginning of a change, albeit slow, in social attitudes, facilitated by the government. The novel 'Wings' by Mikhail Kuzmin about same-sex love was republished in 1923 by a publishing house owned by the Soviet government.

Especially within the medical community, there seemed to be a push away from the Tsarist regime's religious, moralistic view of homosexuality. Instead the understanding was that homosexuals had biological 'deformities' and, far from their sexual attraction being a conscious, sinful choice, it was instead something that could not be helped.

This was generally coupled to an attempt to find a 'cure' for these desires, but did lead some to conclude that homosexuality's 'inevitability' meant it might be a legitimate part of the 'human sexual spectrum.'

However, to a large extent, questions of sexuality were seen as issues that would resolve themselves once the economic and social foundations of the Soviet state had been laid.

There was no real official position of the Bolsheviks. Unfortunately this undoubtedly left the political and social progress LGBT+ people had made following the revolution at greater risk.

Homosexuality was re-criminalised by the Stalinist government in 1934. This was at a time when the regime was pushing the importance of the Soviet 'nuclear family'.

Male homosexuality in particular was focussed on as a symbol of 'bourgeois individualism,' based on the idea that revolutionaries should put aside their own desires for the sake of the continued revolution.

At the same time, the government banned abortion, calling for an increase in the birth rate. The Stalin government, reforming its links with the Orthodox Church, conflated homosexuality with rape and paedophilia.

Georgy Chicherin, who had passed away following illness in 1930, became a victim of the Stalinist purges at this time. Most references to him were removed.

This was probably because of both his sexuality and his politics. Either way, the result is unfortunately of a leading Bolshevik and out and accepting gay man largely lost to history.

The increase of repression led to around 1,000 trials of gay men for sodomy every year under the Stalinist regime (with punishments of five years hard labour). The new laws seem to have been enforced beyond even the scale that they were under Tsarism.

The complicated record around LGBT+ rights following the Russian revolution is often treated as a simple one by capitalist historians: the revolution, in and of itself, led to repression for LGBT+ people.

Liberation

This view serves to diminish the real lessons we can learn. The decriminalisation of sodomy was an indisputable step forward, giving a glimpse of the possibility for all kinds of liberation in a socialist society.

The subsequent reversal of these advances and the repression under Stalin show the importance of fighting for more than reforms which can be rolled back at any time. Instead we must fight explicitly for all advances towards liberation, along with organising to change society fundamentally.

To truly end racism, sexism and the oppression of LGBT+ people, we must continue to fight for socialism.


Friday 9 June 2017

Tories in Tatters - Fight for Socialist Policies!



Initial statement from the Socialist Party:

'Theresa Dismay', 'Gamble backfired'. These are the headlines today in the scurrilous Sun and Daily Mail, right-wing rags that have spent the whole election campaign raining down vicious attacks on Corbyn in the vain hope of a Tory landslide.

On the day the general election was called the Socialist Party declared: "If Corbyn fights on a clear socialist programme - for a Brexit in the interests of the working and middle-class - he could win the general election." At the time that was met with derision by many, including, unfortunately, the right wing of the Labour Party who thought a general election would give them the opportunity to unseat Corbyn.

In just five weeks, Jeremy Corbyn's election campaign has proved them all wrong. It has transformed the political situation in Britain. In the face of overwhelming opposition from the capitalist establishment and media, and unfortunately sabotaged by the right of his own party, Jeremy Corbyn has put his anti-austerity programme to the people of Britain. 

Hundreds of thousands of people, including the membership of the Socialist Party, have campaigned for his programme on the streets of Britain. The result has been the biggest increase in vote share for any party since Attlee's Labour in 1945. Turnout among young people increased from 43% in 2015 to 72% as they streamed out to support Corbyn.

In Bristol, Labour now hold all 4 seats having won Bristol North West back from the Conservatives. The Tory lead was also cut in neighbouring constituencies such as Kingswood and Filton & Bradley Stoke. 

The Tories have come out of the election in tatters. Now we need to build a movement to force them out of power. The 8 June was the beginning not the end. It was the beginning of a movement to get the Tories out and to create a socialist society that provides free education, decent housing and a well-paid job for all.

Fuller article to follow. 

If you want to find out more come to our public meeting in Bristol:

What Next After the Election?
Tuesday 13th June, 7.30pm
YHA (Grain House), 14 Narrow Quay, BS1 4QA
Speaker: Sarah Sachs-Eldridge, Socialist Party National Organiser

Click here for details of Socialist Party meetings elsewhere in the country. 

If you agree, click here to join the Socialist Party!

Come to the Bristol March for Our Future - May Must Go!
12 noon, Sat June 10th, College Green, Bristol

Wednesday 31 May 2017

Socialist Party Public Election Meetings in Bristol

Bristol Socialist Party has two public meeting coming up, either side of the election. 


How Can the Tories Be Beaten?
Tuesday 6th June, 7.30pm
YHA (Grain House), 14 Narrow Quay, BS1 4QA


The election on June 8th provides an opportunity to kick out the hated Tory government. For the first time a generation there is a real difference between the two potential Prime Ministers. Jeremy Corbyn's pro-worker manifesto has seen Labour close the gap, yet he faces not just a hostile press but also Blairite saboteurs within his own party. 

Former Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition parliamentary candidate Tom Baldwin will be introducing a discussion on what might happen in the election and what will be needed afterwards. How can the Tories be defeated and how can Corbyn's policies be realised?


What Next After the Election?
Tuesday 13th June, 7.30pm
YHA (Grain House), 14 Narrow Quay, BS1 4QA

Socialist Party National Organiser Sarah Sachs-Eldridge will be coming to Bristol to speak about what the next steps are for socialists following what will be a watershed election in British politics. 

We will also be launching the new book by Peter Taaffe - From Militant to the Socialist Party - which tracks the history of our party from 1995-2007 and contains lots of relevant lessons about the rise of the right of the Labour Party and how they can be fought.

Wednesday 24 May 2017

Manchester Bombing - Unite Against Terror, War and Racism


Socialist Party statement on the Manchester bombing - by Judy Beishon, Socialist Party executive committee

Young people out enjoying themselves were instead faced with one of the worst kinds of horror imaginable on 22 May when a bomb was exploded in the foyer of the 21,000-capacity Manchester Arena. Twenty two people were killed and at least 59 injured by this blast at the end of a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.

This atrocity, which the Socialist Party completely condemns, has echoes of the Bataclan concert attack in Paris in November 2015. In both, ordinary people from all walks of life were indiscriminately slaughtered, especially the young.

Early reports suggested the perpetrator was a suicide bomber who died at the scene. It is the worst terrorist attack in Britain since 52 people were killed in the July 2005 London bombings.

Manchester people reacted quickly to aid those fleeing the scene, tweeting offers of beds and lifts home, and taxi drivers gave free rides. Their response of solidarity and help - together with that of the emergency and hospital workers - has nothing in common with the hypocritical reaction of Tory government ministers who profess sympathy and sorrow while they stand four-square behind policies that lay down the breeding ground for such atrocities.

Terrorist attacks in European cities are becoming more frequent. In Britain, coming this time outside London, people throughout the country will now feel less safe. The reasons behind the attacks often appear to be multi-faceted and no two incidences are exactly the same. But a running feature has been links or ideological sympathy with the likes of Isis and anger at western imperialist interventions in the Middle East.

So as well as opposing reactionary organisations like Isis which support and perpetrate barbaric acts on ordinary people, it's essential to oppose imperialist wars and call for the immediate withdrawal of British military forces from the Middle East. We must also build unity of working people against scapegoating, racism and division, and argue for socialist ideas as the only alternative to this present system that can't and won't end poverty, war and terrorism.

Tories' inability to counter terrorism

Following the Manchester atrocity Theresa May will no doubt try to double and treble her 'strong and stable' posturing in order to appear as a firm 'anti-terrorist' law enforcer and boost her election prospects. However, there have been a number of rounds of so-called anti-terror legislation over the last two decades, and none of it is preventing new attacks such as March's killings in Westminster or this latest terrible event in Manchester - as the Socialist Party has repeatedly warned would be the case.

At the same time the Tories' unrelenting austerity drive is making people more vulnerable when attacks occur. After the Westminster attack we drew attention to the way in which cuts to the emergency services, hospitals and transport staff will inevitably reduce the speed of assistance for those needing urgent help.

It has been reported that eight hospitals in Greater Manchester have treated casualties of the bombing, while at the same time it's the case that some of these hospitals are facing cuts in which the loss of 24-hour emergency cover is being considered. The Manchester Arena attack, taking place in the late evening, exposes the potentially disastrous nature of such cuts, which the Tories want to push ahead with.

During the general election campaign so far the Tories' determination to continue with callous austerity measures has been clear and they met a major backlash to their plans to further penalise people who depend on social care. Now, following the Manchester attack, their self-portrayal as the defenders of ordinary working people needs to be further exposed and rejected in all its guises.

Popularity of anti-war policies

The 2004 Madrid train bombings in Spain, in which 191 people died, took place during a general election campaign and the ruling Popular Party tried to use the atrocities to boost their election prospects. Their strategy backfired; mass anger was directed at them after they tried to blame Basque nationalists for the attacks. Rather, it became clear that the perpetrators were acting in sympathy with Al-Qaida, and the mood of revulsion towards the government and its pro-Iraq war position led to the Spanish Socialist Party winning that election.

While it was a particular blunder by the Popular Party that helped to fuel that outcome, in Britain's present general election campaign Jeremy Corbyn's anti-war stance can gain even more resonance and have a strong impact. Corbyn has long been a consistent opponent of intervention by Britain and other western capitalist powers in the Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria wars. These have caused mass devastation and loss of life and have created the conditions for a horrific level of terrorist violence in those countries and beyond.


We in the Socialist Party have also strongly opposed those wars and have consistently warned that it would be ordinary working people in the Middle East and worldwide who will pay the price of them, both financially and as a result of the escalating instability they have caused. 

At the same time we condemn (as does Corbyn) the ideology and abhorrent methods of right-wing reactionary organisations like Isis and Al-Qaida that seek to build a highly repressive semi-feudal and capitalist caliphate, with no workers' democracy or basic rights.


It is the task of the working class in Iraq and Syria, through building trade unions, democratically-run non-sectarian defence bodies, etc, to lead a struggle against the likes of Isis, assisted by solidarity from workers internationally. The imperialist powers, on their part, are intervening for their own prestige and influence and in the interests of their top corporations.

This includes British imperialism, whether represented by the Tories or the Blairites before them. It was a fitting coincidence that the Guardian's 'morning briefing' following the Manchester Arena attack, after beginning on the bombing, immediately followed it with a second section on the "unprecedented support for the fossil fuel industry" in the Tory election manifesto. Oil industry bosses have promised over £390,000 to May's campaign as a result, it explained.

The general election on 8 June provides a much-needed opportunity to kick the Tories out and take forward the struggle in the labour movement against the Blairites by bringing Jeremy Corbyn in as prime minister. This would be a very important step on the road towards ending the austerity, poverty and war inherent in capitalism, that underlies division, racism and terrorism.