Today, I am feeling guilty at not having written something for the Carnival Of Socialism, this year hosted by Stroppyblog with the theme of Liberation and Socialism. It's a favourite topic of mine, and my excuse is that (a) I didn't understand what the Carnival was until about a week ago, and (b) in that week, I have been up to my proverbials in union stuff (note the paucity of my blog of late!)
By way of apology, I suppose I could list some of the many points I might have discussed had I got round to writing a contribution. I may have touched on:
- The contradiction betwen New Labour's significant increase in formal equality for LGBT people whilst it also encourages and gives confidence to homophobic movements.
- The need and potential for a revival in socialist feminism.
- Experiences of inequality and oppression in the workplace, the way that smart employers have taken on the 'equalities agenda' and used it to divide workers, and the failure of the unions to grasp this and tackle it.
- The creation of an equalities industry and an equalities bureaucracy, and the need for the left to have an alternative, grass-roots, class-based equalities strategy, rather than going along with the mainstream stuff. Socialist liberation campaigning should be much more than shouting unchallenging, mainstream slogans through a megaphone.
- The urgent need to fight the BNP, and the political poverty of established strategies for doing so.
- The continuing struggle of being a woman in a male-dominated workplace, a male-dominated industry, and a male-dominated union.
- What the Disability Discrimination Act has done for me - and what it hasn't.
Still, my comments box is open.