The following are remarks at the memorial service for Comrade Bob McCubbin, held on March 21, 2026, at the People’s Forum in New York City. Bob McCubbin was a pioneering theorist of LGBTQIA+ liberation, author of the groundbreaking 1976 work “The Gay Question: A Marxist Appraisal,” and a tireless organizer who built branches of revolutionary organization with nothing but knowledge, passion, and commitment.
From the Stonewall era through his final days organizing at San Diego Pride 2025, Bob never wavered in his belief that queer liberation was inseparable from the fight against capitalism and imperialism.
Like Bob McCubbin, Lallan Schoenstein is a founding member of the Struggle for Socialism Party and Struggle-La Lucha magazine. She prepares the “Struggle for Socialism – La Lucha por el Socialismo” magazine for publication, is a labor union activist and retired child care worker. She’s also a graphic designer who has worked on many books, including those for the Million Worker March Movement.
Bob was a cherished friend and comrade for much of our lives.
For me, the best part occurred when I had the honor of helping him publish his book “The Social Evolution of Humanity: Marx and Engels were right!” Bob engaged me in discussions about every aspect of the content, never belittling my opinions. I learned so much. It deepened my understanding of human history and of our relations to each other.
First, I think of the last half of the title: “Marx and Engels were right.” That says a lot. It says that the capitalist ruling class must be overturned. That is the key to winning sexual liberation. Liberation can only be successfully accomplished in the struggle to build a communist society.
This leads to a second issue. Bob said in his book that he was thrilled to learn that there was a period of history where women had not been oppressed. I understood that in the broadest sense – that there was a period of history where all people did not suffer sexual oppression.
Here, Bob is talking about the work of Engels, Marx and of Dorothy Ballan, who wrote about their work. They reported that during the longest period of human history, people lived in early communal societies because they depended on each other for survival – for providing food and shelter.
It was the gradual development of agriculture, the amassing of private property and the formation of the patriarchy that ushered in a society structured in classes. The patriarchy doesn’t refer so much to individuals as to a class that used social institutions (laws, police, courts, control over the acquisition of knowledge, and the practice of sexual oppression) to secure and protect their property and to enforce their exploitation of everyone else.
Brutal strictures on the free expression of sexuality arose. Engels pointed out that rigid laws and binary traditions that developed to block sexual freedom showed the need to suppress earlier practices. Maintaining the unequal distribution of private property by the church and landlords required legally established parentage.
Today, society is rapidly outgrowing the class structure of capitalism. Those sectors that are trying to hold on to their privileged positions try to overturn the progress we are fighting for with increasing brutality.
In his book, Bob reviewed the recent studies of anthropologists and analysis of feminist writers.
Some of them refute Engels and Marxist findings. They might benefit from media recognition and plush jobs in education by defending the capitalist system.
In any case, Bob applauded those who add knowledge and a deeper understanding to our struggle to fight for sexual freedom and wonderful realization of our complex human identities.
Break tradition’s chains!
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