On June 5, the Black Alliance for Peace hosted a powerful panel discussion on the topic of “Defending Our America: Building Resistance to Imperialism and Militarism.” The event was held at the Harriet Tubman Social Center for Social Justice in Los Angeles. 

The gathering started with a poster and banner making session in preparation for the mobilization against the Ninth Summit of the Americas. A special film screening of a documentary on SouthCom (the U.S. Military Command in Central America and the Caribbean) opened the forum, which was followed by a powerful panel that addressed the expansion of U.S. military bases worldwide, working class struggles, connecting our struggles, and building international solidarity specifically with Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and other nations occupied by SouthCom. 

Carlos Sirah of the Black Alliance for Peace chaired the discussion and Dr. Jemima Pierre, Black Alliance for Peace’s Haiti and Africa Coordinator, introduced the panelists.

In closing, John Parker, Coordinator of the Harriet Tubman Center and on the ballot for U.S. Senate on the California Peace and Freedom Party ticket, emphasized that the purpose for running in the primary election is to raise awareness, to address issues that are not talked about by the Democratic or Republican parties, and to give the people an alternative. The increasing numbers of people who choose socialist candidates shows our movement is moving forward and people are developing an understanding of socialism.

Videos of the program may be viewed on Black Alliance for Peace Facebook at tinyurl.com/2p8c4dha 

No compromise! No defeat!

On its first of 3 days, the Peoples Summit for Democracy in Los Angeles opened by surpassing expectations in numbers attending and unity. The significant organizational challenges of the event being held at the LA Trade Tech College went smoothly thanks to a committed group of mostly young volunteers who organized everything from the 9 panels that were presented to a large tented area set up to accommodate many of the over 250 organizations that represented social justice groups, veterans, students, community-based artisans, unions, women’s rights, Latin American solidarity groups and many more.

Organizers reported that of the 1000 people who had registered over 750 showed up on the first day. In the opening plenary entitled, “Democracy for Who” it was obvious that this was a serious crowd who had come to learn and connect with others. The urgency connected to the decline of the US in the eyes of the world and its inability to meet even the most basic of needs of the majority of people was obvious. Manolo De Los Santos, a key organizer of the Peoples Summit, reminded the crowd that, “this cannot be a one-time event. We have to keep in mind that we must forge unity with all those who are oppressed, exploited and victimized by this system whose time is up.”

Cuba who, like Venezuela and Nicaragua was not invited to Biden’s Summit of exclusion was brought up time and again as an example of a collective society that, despite the over 60 years of blockade and a mountain of sanctions that are now Biden’s responsibility, continues to stand up to empire unified and never wavering dignity. In most panels, the dignity of Cuba was intertwined in the discussion regardless of the topic.

In the panel entitled, Let Cuba Live: Young Voices against the Blockade, moderated by Cheryl LaBash, co chair of the National Network on Cuba, 3 young women who had recently returned from Cuba explained not only how heartwarming their experience was but how much they learned. There was a separation of belief from everything that they had been told from the official US narrative against Cuba their entire lives and the rich experience of cooperation in sharing and commitment for the common good that they witnessed on the island. The forming of this critical view will now extend to everything else they have been told about the so-called greatest democracy ever.

Danaka Katovich, national co-director of Code Pink expressed the sentiment of the panel by pointing out, “The US never consults with me about my rights as a woman, I can’t even vote on it, where in Cuba women are involved on every level. The whole point of the US blockade against Cuba is based on cruelty so the US has no right to lecture us about human rights and democracy.”

Perhaps the area where the most discussion and organizing was taking place was on the informational tables outside where people were signing up and getting into lively conversations about activism and strategies. On our Resumen Latinoamericano table, people were signing up eagerly as one woman said, “I just need to get information from new sources.”

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English

The most dangerous poison is racism. This toxin filled Payton Gendron’s bloodstream as the gunman went to Buffalo, New York, to kill Black people.

The latest version of this poison is the claim that white people are being “replaced.” Tucker Carlson tells his Fox News audience that they’re being pushed aside by immigrants as well as by all Black, Brown and Asian people.

This lie was emphasized by the murderer Gendron in his 180-page “manifesto.”

It wasn’t immigrants that closed nine of the ten GM plants in Flint, Michigan, destroying more than 70,000 union jobs between 1980 and 2006. Capitalism committed this mega job theft.

Because of the United Auto Workers union, Flint used to have the highest average wages in the United States. Now because of plant closings, 60% of Flint’s children live below the miserably low official poverty level.

To save money, children in the Black-majority city were deliberately lead-poisoned. Heavily polluted water from the Flint river was substituted for the clean drinking water that had come from the Great Lakes.

That’s a real replacement that Tucker Carlson won’t talk about.

It isn’t Black or Latinx people who are responsible for the inflation-adjusted wages of over-the-road truck drivers falling 55% between 1980 and 2021. It was government deregulation and union-busting attacks against the Teamsters union that committed this crime.

The last 50 years has been one long holiday for the rich. Real average wages rose just 3% between 1979 and 2018. Meanwhile productivity has zoomed. While there are 735 billionaires in the U.S., 40% of people can’t afford $400 for an emergency expense. 

It wasn’t Muslims who forced 60 million people in the U.S. to use food banks and pantries in 2020. Transgender people aren’t responsible for folks being forced to buy food at dollar stores because they can’t afford to shop at supermarkets.

Shoplifters didn’t make meat prices skyrocket by as much as 20% in the last year. It was the greedy meat monopolies that committed the crime.

Even the White House admits that “four large meat-packing companies control 85% of the beef market. In poultry, the top four processing firms control 54% of the market. And in pork, the top four processing firms control about 70% of the market.”

Who’s hurt most?

Poor and working people in the United States are suffering. Capitalism destroyed nearly 7 million manufacturing jobs ― many of which were union jobs ― between 1979 and 2019.

White workers were hurt by this job destruction. Black people were devastated.

White families in the Midwest saw their median income drop by 7.1% between 1978 and 1982. That’s a great recession.

But Black families in the region saw their median income fall by five times as much. Their 35.8% income drop amounted to a great depression.

Conditions were so bad that the Black median family income in the Midwest dropped below that of the South. (Census Bureau, historical income figures-families) A “reverse migration” began southwards.

This was a real great replacement. The banksters and billionaires were determined to get rid of their dependence on Black labor in heavy industry.

Back in 1968, a quarter of all auto workers and steel workers in the U.S. were Black. That was double the Black percentage of the population. (“Organized Labor and the Black Worker, 1619-1981” by Philip S. Foner.) 

Among them were thousands of Black workers employed at Bethlehem Steel’s Lackawanna works located just outside Buffalo. Almost all of these jobs were destroyed. Buffalo’s Black Community never recovered from the loss.

Using a bankruptcy to make a profit of $300 million, Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross robbed Bethlehem Steel retirees of their medical benefits.

White workers were a majority of those cut off.

Tucker Carlson, who takes home $35 million per year, won’t mention this robbery. 

Capitalism continually replaces workers through automation. The number of railroad workers fell from 1.5 million in 1947 to just 145,000 today. 

Black workers are often the first victims of automation. In New York City alone, installing automatic elevators following World War II threw 20,000 workers out of a job.

Throughout the United States, operating elevators was considered a “menial occupation” and was generally reserved for Black men. A. Phillip Randolph attempted to organize them in New York during the early 1920s.

The 1934 organizing drive of building workers in New York City was sparked by African American elevator operator Thomas Young being fired for not saying “down, please.” The two-million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was born in this struggle. (“Local 32B-32J: Sixty Years of Progress”)

The biggest replacements of all time

Telling poor people that they’re being replaced by other poor people is old and stale. In the 1790s, Federalists in Philadelphia blamed Irish immigrants for their election losses. (“Philadelphia ― The Federalist City,” by Richard G. Miller)

Catholics were accused of wanting to replace a Protestant majority. In the 1920s, bigots claimed that immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe were replacing “old American stock.”

Italians, Poles, Hungarians and other immigrants were blamed for being union supporters in the strike wave that followed World War I. A special target of the 1924 immigration act were Jewish people. Africans and Asians were entirely excluded.

The Tucker Carlsons of the 1930s weren’t usually attacking Islam. They were instead fighting to keep Jewish refugees out of the United States. Anne Frank died in a Nazi concentration camp because her family was denied a visa to come to the United States.

Never forget that land belonging to Indigenous nations was stolen by one massacre after another, started by the Pilgrims. That’s a real replacement.

Joe Biden needs to replace Leonard Peltier’s jail cell with freedom. The American Indian Movement leader has spent 45 years in jail.

The African Holocaust is a centuries-long replacement that along with the Indigenous Holocaust jump-started the capitalist world market. Wall Street became the financial center of the United States because it was the banking house of the slave masters.

Capitalism is cooking the earth. We need to replace it with socialism.

The first step towards a revolution is to replace the lies of Tucker Carlson and every other racist with working class truth.

El Partido de Socialismo Unido/ Socialist Unity Party y el periódico Struggle-La Lucha saludan a la comunidad lesbiana, gay, bisexual, transgénero, queer y de dos espíritus en el marco del 53º aniversario de la heroica Rebelión de Stonewall. El espíritu de lucha exhibido en Stonewall se necesita hoy más que nunca.

En primer lugar, ofrecemos nuestra solidaridad a la comunidad negra de Buffalo, Nueva York, donde un supremacista blanco masacró a 10 personas afroamericanas el 14 de mayo. Y extendemos nuestra mano a la comunidad latinx de Uvalde, Texas, donde el dolor del trágico tiroteo en la escuela el 24 de mayo se ve agravado por el intento del gobernador Greg Abbott de explotarlo para su cruzada contra los inmigrantes.

A medida que ingresamos al Mes del Orgullo Gay de 2022, Estados Unidos se sume en un “pánico trans”. Al igual que los “pánicos homosexuales” que se han producido antes, este es un intento de dividir a trabajadores y oprimidos en un momento en que el sistema capitalista está en crisis.

La campaña anti-trans está impulsada por los ricos y poderosos, que están desesperados por mantenernos divididos utilizando a los más vulnerables como chivos expiatorios, convenciendo a quienes carecen de conciencia de clase de que las personas transgénero, no binarias y de género no conforme son la raíz de sus problemas – no el sistema de ganancias que nos explota a todos.

Entre ellos se encuentran oligarcas “ilustrados” y empresas como Elon Musk y Netflix, Jeff Bezos y Starbucks. Temen al movimiento de trabajadores para sindicalizarse y las comunidades que exigen responsabilidades a sus imperios. Las personas queer juegan un papel importante en estas luchas.

Pánico trans = más violencia

Las legislaturas estatales por todo el país han adoptado más de 300 proyectos de ley anti-LGBTQ2S en lo que va del año, la mayoría de ellos dirigidos a personas trans y especialmente a niños y jóvenes trans.

La autonomía corporal, en el corazón de la capacidad de las personas trans para vivir bajo este sistema, está en juego, ya que los tribunales y las legislaturas buscan hacer retroceder el reloj para reforzar las normas capitalistas patriarcales que tratan los cuerpos de las mujeres, los niños, las personas de color y las personas LGBTQ2S como propiedad de los hombres cis blancos y ricos.

Cuando el gobernador de Texas Abbott no logró que se aprobara una ley para criminalizar la atención de afirmación de género para niños trans, emitió una orden ejecutiva para abrir investigaciones penales contra padres, proveedores de atención médica, maestros y cualquier otra persona que apoyara a los jóvenes trans. La gobernadora de Alabama, Kay Ivey, firmó una ley para exponer a la fuerza y ​​retirar el proceso de transición a niños trans.

En Florida, la ley “No digas gay” defendida por el gobernador Rick DeSantis prohíbe la discusión sobre la existencia LGBTQ2S en las aulas estatales. Otros estados han prohibido a los jóvenes trans participar en deportes o usar los baños escolares. Los maestros pueden verse obligados a informar a los padres y madres sobre los estudiantes trans o se les permite cambiarles el género al llamarles.

Esto ha llevado a un aumento de las amenazas y la violencia  contra las personas trans en los EUA, desde el transporte público hasta las redes sociales. En 2021, al menos 57 personas transgénero o no conformes con el género fueron asesinadas a tiros o asesinadas por otros medios violentos, y 2022 ya está en camino de superar esa horrible cifra. La gran mayoría de las víctimas de violencia mortal son mujeres trans de color.

Las medidas que atacan la atención de afirmación de género contradicen directamente las recomendaciones de los expertos médicos. Un estudio reciente de la Universidad de Washington encontró que los jóvenes trans que recibieron tratamiento de afirmación de género experimentaron en promedio una disminución del 60 % en el riesgo de depresión y una disminución del 73 % en los pensamientos suicidas. El acceso a la atención de afirmación de género salva la vida de los jóvenes trans.

En medio de esta crisis, la Corte Suprema lanzó otra bomba: el plan de la mayoría para anular la histórica decisión Roe V. Wade que protege el derecho al aborto, y hacerlo de una manera que abra la puerta a ataques similares contra la anticoncepción, el matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo, la protección de las llamadas leyes de sodomía y otros derechos ganados a través de décadas de ardua lucha.

¿Por qué ahora? Los políticos de ultraderecha y detrás de ellos, muchos de los bancos y corporaciones más grandes, están utilizando el ataque a los derechos trans y reproductivos para impulsar el crecimiento de un movimiento neofascista. Su objetivo es proteger la propiedad privada y las ganancias destruyendo los derechos de todos los trabajadores. Están dispuestos a sacrificar la vida de niños trans, migrantes y refugiados, personas embarazadas o cualquiera que sea un objetivo conveniente.

La única forma en que los movimientos fascistas han sido derrotados es mediante la unión y la lucha del pueblo. No es suficiente confiar en las elecciones o esperar que los políticos amigos nos salven. No lo harán. El Partido Demócrata está atado por un millón de hilos a la misma clase capitalista que exige estas medidas antipopulares. Joe Biden y Nancy Pelosi seguirán diciendo cosas inofensivas junto a las vías del tren sin hacer nada para detener el tren que se desboca.

Pelea como Sylvia Rivera y Marsha P. Johnson

¿Cómo podemos contraatacar? Hay muchos ejemplos recientes de unidad y lucha, especialmente por parte de estudiantes y jóvenes.

En toda América del Norte, desde Salt Lake City, Utah, hasta Des Moines, Iowa, hasta Terranova y Labrador, los estudiantes se han manifestado en gran número para protestar contra las leyes y las medidas represivas dirigidas a las personas trans.

Necesitamos urgentemente una protesta nacional masiva como la Marcha en Washington de 1987 por los derechos de lesbianas y gays, celebrada en medio de la crisis del SIDA cuando la administración Reagan estaba atacando a los hombres homosexuales, o la Marcha en Washington de 1993 por la igualdad de derechos y la liberación de lesbianas, gays y bisexuales de más de un millón de personas.

Pero simplemente salir en grandes cantidades no es suficiente. Debemos aprender del ejemplo de la ocupación del Capitolio del Estado de Wisconsin en 2011 por parte del movimiento sindical y sus aliados en las comunidades. Esta ocupación para resistir la legislación antisindical energizó a los trabajadores de costa a costa, muchos de los cuales viajaron a Madison o recaudaron dinero para apoyar a los manifestantes.

Si bien la ocupación no ganó en el corto plazo, sentó las bases para la ola de huelgas de docentes que se extendió por el país en 2018-2019 y el aumento de la organización de hoy en Amazon, Starbucks y otros gigantes antisindicales.

¡Imagínese el poder de las personas LGBTQ2S y sus aliados de la lucha por los derechos reproductivos, el movimiento Vidas Negras Importan, los inmigrantes y los trabajadores, ocupando el capitolio en Texas, Florida u otro estado que ataca las vidas trans!

También debemos reconocer que las guerras y sanciones reaccionarias de EUA en todo el mundo alimentan los ataques anti-LGBTQ2S en casa.

Cada bomba que el Congreso envía a Ucrania, Israel y Arabia Saudita para las guerras de poder de EUA estalla aquí, como dijo el Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. durante la Guerra de Vietnam. Cuanto más se desvían hacia la expansión del imperio estadounidense en el exterior los recursos desesperadamente necesitados aquí, más nos convierte el sistema en chivos expiatorios para garantizar que los trabajadores permanezcan divididos e impotentes.

Nuestra comunidad no puede luchar eficazmente contra la ofensiva anti-trans y anti-personas en casa mientras apoya la agresión estadounidense en el exterior. Cuando las personas que luchan contra la dominación estadounidense en todo el mundo ganan, nuestros movimientos por los derechos se fortalecen. Cuando extendemos nuestra solidaridad a quienes resisten al imperialismo estadounidense, abrimos la oportunidad de una mayor comprensión y participación de las personas LGBTQ2S en todas partes.

Abracemos el legado de ACT UP, Queer Nation y aquellos que lucharon militantemente contra el “pánico gay” de la década de 1980. Inculquemos nuestro movimiento con el espíritu de unidad que impulsó la Rebelión de Stonewall, un levantamiento liderado por los jóvenes más oprimidos negros y marrones, de clase trabajadora, revolucionarios trans y queer.

¡Resistamos la estrategia de pánico trans del capitalismo! ¡Luchemos por el socialismo, un sistema que prioriza las necesidades de las personas!

Urgent! Support Baltimore City Library Workers this Wednesday!
Sign up for the Baltimore City Poor Peoples Campaign March & Caravan to D.C. &
Welfare Rights Union National Conference.

Support Baltimore City Library Workers!

Workers need union power!

Wednesday, June 8, 5:45 pm sharp in front of the downtown Pratt Library

400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

The Peoples Power Assembly is asking everyone to come out to support the workers at the Baltimore City libraries who are petitioning for a union.

They will be going to the Pratt board meeting this Wednesday to demand union recognition. Your support is very important. We will meet outside at 5:45 pm sharp.

For more info go to https://www.prattworkersunited.org/

Poor People’s Campaign Caravan & March from Baltimore

Don’t forget to sign up so that we can make sure there is enough food and housing for everyone who will be traveling with us to Washington D.C.

We gather at 10 am, Friday, June 17th for a rally & launch at City Hall, 100 Holliday Street, Baltimore, MD 21202. Please join us for this rally regardless of whether you can join the full caravan.

Here is a video of the press conference & rally on May 12, the anniversary of the start of the original Poor People’s Campaign.

https://youtu.be/kaVy0kTZK5g

———————————————————————

Welfare Rights National Conference in Baltimore from June 15 to 16

@ St. Vincent de Paul Church 120 North Front Street, Baltimore 21202

Wed. 11 am to 8 pm & Thurs 10 am to 8 pm

Statement by the Revolutionary Government

Havana, June 6th, 2022.- The US Government, abusing its privilege of being the host country, decided at a very early stage to exclude Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the 9th Summit of the Americas to be held in the city of Los Angeles this month of June.  It has refused to attend to the just claims of many governments to change that discriminatory and unacceptable stand.

There is no single reason that justifies the anti-democratic and arbitrary exclusion of any country of the hemisphere from this continental meeting, as warned by the Latin American and Caribbean nations at the 6th Summit held in Cartagena de Indias in 2012.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez announced last May 25 that he would not attend the meeting.  This was Cuba’s final decision if all countries of the hemisphere were not convened on an equal footing.

Arrogance, fear of inconvenient truths being voiced, determination to prevent the meeting from discussing the most pressing and complex issues in the hemisphere, and the contradictions of its own feeble and polarized political system are behind the US government’s decision to once again resort to exclusion in order to hold a meeting with no concrete contributions yet beneficial for imperialism’s image.

It is a well-known fact that the US Government has engaged in intensive high-level efforts with governments of the region seeking to reverse the intention of many of not attending the meeting unless all countries are invited. Such efforts included immoral pressure, blackmail, threats and dirty deceptive maneuvers.  These are all common practices that reflect imperialism’s traditional disdain for our countries and deserve the strongest rejection.

Cuba appreciates and respects the honorable, brave and legitimate stand of many governments in defense of the full and equal participation of all countries.

The leadership of Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador deserves special recognition. We highlight the clear stand of CARICOM member countries from the outset against such exclusions, as well as the firm stance of Bolivian president Luis Arce Catacora and of the president of Honduras Xiomara Castro. The position of Argentine as chairman of CELAC expresses the majority view of the region against a selective Summit, as expressed, both publicly and in private, by many governments of South and Central America.

Such genuine and spontaneous solidarity in reaction to this US discriminatory action against countries of the region reflects the sentiment of the peoples of Our America. The United States underestimated the support Cuba enjoys in the region, when it attempted to impose its unilateral and universally rejected hostile policy towards Cuba as a consensus regional position, however, the debate on the invitation process proved them wrong.

The 21st ALBA Summit held in Havana last May 27, showed the unequivocal repudiation of exclusions and discriminatory and selective treatment.

Such exclusions confirm that the United States conceived and uses this high-level dialogue mechanism as an instrument to further its hegemonic system in the hemisphere, just like the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) and other bodies established in the 20th century to curb independence, limit the sovereignty of nations in the region and thwart Latin American and Caribbean unity and integration aspirations.

They are part of the efforts to implement the Monroe Doctrine and promote exclusion as a dividing strategy for clear political, electoral and domination purposes.

One cannot speak of “The Americas” without including all the countries of the hemisphere.  Our region demands cooperation, not exclusion; solidarity, not meanness; respect, not arrogance; sovereignty and self-determination, not subordination.

It is known that the documents to be adopted at Los Angeles are completely divorced from the real problems facing the region and that beyond the effort to grant the OAS supranational prerogatives to decide upon the legitimacy of electoral processes and to compel Latin American and Caribbean governments to impose repressive, discriminatory and excluding actions against migrants, these documents are useless and vague.

We know that, like in the past, the voice of Latin America and the Caribbean will resound during those days in Los Angeles with the admirable and principled absence of relevant leaders who enjoy political and moral authority and the recognition of their people and the world.

We are also fully confident that the leaders of the region, who choose to attend, will argue with dignity that the United States cannot treat our peoples as they used to in the 20th century.

Cuba supports the genuine efforts to promote integration throughout the hemisphere based on civilized coexistence, peace, respect for diversity and solidarity. Cuba has a widely acknowledged record of unreserved support and contribution to all legitimate proposals for actual and concrete solutions to the most pressing problems faced by our peoples. The reality we are presented with today is far from such aspirations.

(Cubaminrex)

Thousands of people gathered in the multinational immigrant neighborhood of Jackson Heights in Queens, New York, for the 25th Queens Pride Parade June 5. For the past two years the event was held virtually because of the pandemic. 

Significantly, coming during the nationwide “trans panic” aimed at dividing the working class, solidarity with trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people was very visible at the march. This included a contingent carrying a massive Trans Pride flag. Parade organizers also handed out small trans flags along with rainbow flags to the crowd. 

Supporters of the Socialist Unity Party and Struggle-La Lucha marched with the NY-NJ Cuba Si Coalition contingent. The response from those lining the streets was overwhelmingly positive, with many chanting “Viva Cuba!” or running up to take photos with the coalition’s banner. 

Activists distributed leaflets for the monthly Cuba solidarity caravan calling for the end of the U.S. blockade. On June 25, New York’s caravan will be held in Jackson Heights for the first time. For info visit US-CubaNormalization.org. 

Following is a special announcement from the co-editor of Struggle-La Lucha, formerly known as Greg Butterfield.

Happy Pride Month! I have some personal news to share with Struggle-La Lucha readers.

I’m proud to say that I am coming out as a trans woman. My name is Melinda. My pronouns are she/her/hers.

There’s a particular quote from revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin that has always appealed to me. According to Romanian poet Valeriu Marcu, he said this during a conversation at a cafe in Zurich, Switzerland, shortly before the Russian Revolution began. 

Perhaps it’s apocryphal or embellished, but it has the flavor of something Lenin might have said: “I don’t know how radical you are, or how radical I am. I am certainly not radical enough. One can never be radical enough; that is, one must always try to be as radical as reality itself.”

I have always tried to hold myself to that standard politically. But personally it was another matter. Until last year, I hid the “radical reality” of who I am even from myself. But now I’m finally ready to share it with the world.

Several things converged last year that forced me to seriously reckon with my gender after a lifetime of denial. That denial was rooted in an abused adolescent’s attempt to survive in a time and place where there were no words for what I was, and no chance of being accepted. I did such a thorough job of burying the real me that by the time I went to New York in my late teens and was befriended by trans revolutionary Leslie Feinberg, I had no clue that I was trans myself.

What I realized in 2021, after several months of intense introspection and learning, was that I needed to acknowledge my truth – first to myself, and then to the world.

A trans sister and comrade recently told me, “You picked a hell of a time to come out.” It’s true. The situation for trans, non-binary and gender-nonconforming people in the U.S. today is grim and increasingly dangerous. But for me, the hardest part has been resisting the urge to shout it from the rooftops during this awful “trans panic” and ongoing legislative attack on trans kids and youth.  

I hope that by speaking about this, it might help others like me to see that they are not too old to embrace their own “radical reality,” whatever that may be. More than ever, the world and especially the youth who are under attack need us to raise our voices and organize, organize, organize.

It’s always been my conviction that the best way to grow solidarity is to show solidarity, and I believe that is true for LGBTQ2S people in the U.S. Our existence has been exploited by U.S. imperialism as a bludgeon against other countries, while the rulers here fight tooth and nail to deny us every hard-won right. 

The truth is, our struggles need each other. We are all part of the same historic, diverse, multifaceted global struggle of the working class against capitalism and imperialism. I’m committed to doing whatever I can to help unite our class in the fight to elevate us all.

I’m very proud to be part of the Socialist Unity Party and Struggle-La Lucha, a communist organization and publication in the tradition of Sam Marcy, Dorothy Ballan and Leslie Feinberg, which has always been in the vanguard of trans liberation and LGBTQ2S solidarity. 

My name, pronouns and appearance may change, but my commitment to the revolutionary victory of the workers and oppressed will not.

Thank you for reading. 

Solidarity forever,
Melinda Butterfield

Recognizing the existence in Cuba of multiple family structures that break with the traditional model is among the most significant elements of the new Families Code being drafted

Recognizing the existence in Cuba of multiple family structures that break with the traditional model is among the most significant elements of the new Families Code, being drafted.

Accepting the plurality evident in Cuban society when it comes to this fundamental unit, allows for the inclusion and protection of families that break from the most traditional and conservative models, providing them rights and opportunities.

It also gives our law a profoundly inclusive character and opens the doors to the elimination of backward prejudices that no longer have a place in a just society like Cuba’s.

The truth is, as renowned experts in diverse family matters have stated, that this is a code honoring the bonds of affection and love, on which families are truly built.

THE FIRST STEPS…

The broad popular consultation before the referendum that approved the current Constitution was undoubtedly the first sign of the need for a Families Code more in line with the changes and growing diversity of Cuban families environment over time.

The controversies generated in the debate of articles such as the marriage between two people, instead of a man and a woman, showed there was a wide sector of the population struggling to have those unions recognized, another that knew little or nothing about it, and a third that still harbors backward ideas on that matter.

Finally, article 81 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba provides that “the State recognizes and protects the family, no matter how it is organized, as the basic cell in society and it creates the conditions to guarantee that its purposes may be achieved as a whole. Families may be constituted legally or by common law, based on love and the equality of rights, obligation and opportunities for its members.”

If we read this article carefully we can see some concepts that are now reflected in the bill of the new Families Code.

It can be said then that the bill embraces a principle of respect to plurality and lead us towards a more comprehensive vision of what we see as the fundamental unit of society.

THE EYES OF LOVE

People say everything is possible when we look at it with the eyes of love. Therefore, during these months, with the support of experts and from within the homes and the communities, a broad popular consultation has been conducted, during which the draft code was widely accepted as the codes of affection.

Deconstructing patterns deeply rooted in the collective mentality is not an easy task, but the first step is to begin with respect and acceptance.
We must be aware that this is not at all about proving that the traditional family does not exist anymore. This structure is common, and will remain, without a doubt. The purpose is to understand there are other family structures, which also deserve protection.

A family can also be a single mother, or father, who raises their children alone. A family can be one in which the spouses are of the same sex. Or one composed only of grandparents and grandchildren because the parents are out of the picture. Ultimately, it is the space where affective ties are strong enough to allow for the construction of a unit in which all members have the same rights and opportunities.

As the Act states, “Different family structures, based on a relationship of affection, are created among relatives, whatever the nature of the relationship, and between spouses or in common-law unions.”

“The members of the families are bound to perform family and societial duties on the basis of love, affection, consideration, solidarity, fraternity, co-participation, protection, responsibility and mutual respect.”

In other words, a family is not successful based on its structure or the number of members.

A family is a social structure that recognizes itself as such and takes on the duties and responsibilities it entails.

THE “OTHER” FAMILIES

Given the real possibility (from the legal standpoint) of being recognized and supported in terms of rights, several families that do not
fit the traditional structure have opened the doors to their lives, which usually remain close because they are usually the target of accusing looks who judge them because of their ignorance rather than truly discriminatory feelings.

It is not strange that people reject what they do not know or want to keep their eyes shut when facing something they consider taboo.
Nonetheless, both in popular consultation meetings, the mainstream media and social networks, new platforms have been opened to disseminate testimony to this reality, demonstrating that love and true feelings are capable of shattering barriers and that, many times, dreams and expectations are no different from those of traditional families.

Families in which there is only one parent, the spouses are of the same sex, or grandparents are in charge of raising the children, to present just a few examples, in no way produce a bad upbringing, or internal conflicts of greater complexity or dysfunctionality.

If we let prejudice and established patterns condition our thinking, we will lose the wonderful opportunity to understand the world and therefore, to be a better part of it.

WE DO NOT CHOOSE OUR FAMILIES, OR DO WE?

Many times, people say that we do not choose our family. It is what it is. If you like it or not, well, there is no choice.

Although it is not possible to change blood relation objectively speaking, this is a very relative statement when it comes to the subjective aspect of it.

Truth is that, beyond the family environment a person grows up in, everyone has the right to form their own family, with their own particularities. A family in which a human being can feel truly fulfilled and happy.

As varied as the family structures that surround us, or more, are the ideas that people have as to what they call a family.

Precisely, the first family right provided in the bill of the new Families Code is the opportunity to build one. Of course, the principles on which a family should be built are clearly stated in the new bill and they all have a central idea, dignity is the supreme value when it comes to the relationships within the family.

Hence, if the family we want, the one we dream about, the one that meets our expectations as human beings, is indeed chosen and built, there is no doubt it will always be our shelter and support.

ALL FAMILIES, ALL MODELS

The bill of the new Families Code, if approved, will be an instrument of profound scope that will be among the most advanced currently in force in our continent. And this says a lot about the path the Cuban society has taken.

Under the principle that love is the first condition a family needs to exist, the new Families Code has the merit of broadening the concepts of inclusion we have known so far, of putting a name to what we could not practically name one day, of moving forward toward the naturalization of family structures whose status in matter of rights have remained uncertain for years.

This document, of which any Cuban who has read it can speak at length, is a major qualitative leap towards one of the primary targets of our social system: to fight all types of discrimination.

This code is a mirror that truthfully reflects the families that exist in Cuba today.

Source: Granma

Stop U.S. economic and political war against Cuba!

Saturday, June 25, 1:00 p.m.

Diversity Plaza, 73rd/74th streets and 37th Road (one block north of Roosevelt Ave.)
Jackson Heights, Queens, New York

25 June monthly End the Embargo rally-caravan in NYC