Workers' Liberty

"The rallying point of the gay liberation movement ... the bar riot that ushered in the gay rights movement" ... "Stonewall is the emblematic event in lesbian and gay history ... Stonewall has become synonymous over the years with gay resistance to oppression."

This article, by Janine Booth, was included in the Workers' Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999.

This abridged version of an article published in Workers' Liberty, December 1997, was included in the Workers' Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999.

By Janine Booth

In 1987, the anti-gay law Section 28 made its first appearance in Parliament. It was to mark a turning point in the lesbian, gay and bisexual movement. The delicious irony of Section 28 is that a law which sought to ban the promotion of homosexuality actually prompted the biggest promotion of homosexuality that Britain had ever seen. As a consequence of the mass mobilisation against the Section, attendance at Pride hit a new record in 1988: numbers taking part in the march and festival are of a different order post-Section than pre-Section.

By Janine Booth, from the Workers' Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999.

"a class with radical chains ... which can only redeem itself by a total redemption of humanity"
"The emancipation of the working class is also the emancipation of all human beings without distinction of race or sex."

... or sexuality, as Marx might have said if the nineteenth century had been more aware of the issue.

By Janine Booth, from the Workers' Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999.

By Janine Booth, from the Workers' Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999.

What causes homophobia? Why are lesbian, gay and bisexual people oppressed?

Attempt to find answers to these questions, and many gay rights campaigners will chide you for venturing into territory that is 'too political'. For them, homophobia is simply a fact, probably arising from heterosexuals' ignorance or inherent prejudice, and any deeper analysis is unnecessary headbanging.

By Janine Booth, from the Workers' Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999. British laws against homophobia have strengthened in the five years since this was written, but the main argument still stands.

By Janine Booth, from the Workers' Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999.

On 30 April 1999, a nail-bomb killed three people and injured dozens more. It exploded in the Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, the heart of gay Soho.

The work of one maniac, now safely behind bars? Even if David Copeland (as we go to press, the man charged with the bombings) is the bomber, and even if he acted alone, an outbreak of racist and anti-gay terrorism has deeper roots, and wider implications, than one man's twisted psychology. After all, various extreme right-wing groups claimed that they planted the bombs - in other words, even if they didn't, they wish that they had.

By Janine Booth, from the Workers' Liberty pamphlet, Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999.