Lesbians and gay men are subjected to brutal oppression in capitalist society. Despite some countries having legalised homosexual acts between consenting “adults” in private, oppression, discrimination and legal harassment continue to exist on a massive scale. So much so that millions feel obliged to conceal their sexuality or to repress it. The submerged misery of these millions is incalculable. Against all who voluntarily or involuntarily reveal their sexuality, a massive barrage of repression is unleashed. Read more...

The development of capitalism in Britain and Western Europe was accompanied, as we have seen, by an emerging morality that categorised homosexuals as deviants. Homosexuality was no longer merely an instance of individual depravity. It was a way of life for a whole number of people, especially men, and had to be treated as a threat to society. The development of the systematic social and political oppression of homosexuals did lead to the development of organised resistance. In a number of European countries movements and campaigns for homosexual rights emerged. Read more...

The rebirth of a radical lesbian and gay movement can be dated to the summer of 1969. A routine police raid on a gay bar in New York led to the Stonewall riots. Inspired by the huge street demonstrations of the mass campaign in the USA against the Vietnam War, by the street battles of students in France and Germany and sick of the incessant police harassment they suffered, gays fought back with a vengeance. Read more...

The systematic oppression of lesbians and gay men under capitalism is not accidental. Capitalism utilises the family as a social unit for the reproduction, physical maintenance and early education of labour power. As such, it portrays the family – a monogamous, heterosexual, child producing and rearing unit – as both natural (it has “always” existed) and as normal (anybody not conforming to this set up is “abnormal”). To reinforce the family as an institution capitalism has developed a set of sexual and moral codes which are stultifying for all, but are especially oppressive for women, children, lesbians and gay men. Read more...

Zionism, as a colonial settler movement during the first part of the 20th century, had to be strategically allied to one imperialist power or another. Not only did these powers provide the funds for settlement but more importantly they controlled the Middle East. British imperialism was hegemonic there from 1918 until 1947-53 when it was supplanted by the USA. Read more...

Introduction Read more...

What role can the South African working class play in the fight against the Apartheid state? By Sue Thomas Read more...

Stuart King argues that the ANC cannot provide a real revolutionary leadership to the oppressed Black population of South Africa Read more...

Dave Stockton looks at the National question in South Africa Read more...

For the past six months in Sri Lanka political attention has been fixed on the fate of discussions between the various Tamil guerrilla groups and the United National Party (UNP) government. Also involved in these talks was Rajin Ghandi’s government in India. Neither the ‘ceasefire’ that accompanied the discussions, nor the discussions themselves were a success from the Tamils’ point of view. Read more...

Ranged against Jayawardene are the organisations of the Tamils, many of which have taken up the armed struggle. How should revolutionaries assess the role of the guerrilla organisations in the present struggle? What has the last twelve months revealed about their petit bourgeois nationalism? Read more...

July’s carnage on the streets of the capital Colombo was neither a new nor an unexpected event. Attacks on the 2.8 million minority Tamil population have been regularly aided and abetted by Sri Lanka’s 30,000 strong police force and army 98% of whom are drawn from the 11 million strong Sinhalese majority population. Read more...