Summer School

[ALB]

Here is the Oxford Dictionary definition of "intersectionality";

Quote:

The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

And here, revealingly, is the example they give of its use:

Quote:

‘through an awareness of intersectionality, we can better acknowledge and ground the differences among us’

Yes, exactly, but what we socialists want is to bring out the common class interest workers have irrespective of their "race" or gender.It seems to have begun as a split within the radical feminist movement between "blacks" and "whites" with the black feminists guilt-tripping the white ones on the grounds that they were more discriminated against. Not a debate of any interest or relevance to us.Anyway, how would it work in practice to improve things for the "disadvantaged"? Presumably everybody would have to be given a score for being discriminated against, with those with the highest being given priority for top and cushy jobs and those with the lowest (presumably, white, male, non-gay, protestant, university graduates) getting an equal share of the shitty jobs and being unemployed. It's bonkers and a recipe for setting worker against worker. It's not going to happen under capitalism as employers will always be interested in employing those best qualified for the job whatever the historical or social reasons for this. And of course in socialism it will be meaningless since, with the implementation of the principle from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs", nobody will be discriminated against.Nothing against debating the idea so that it can be shot down in flames as anti-working-class and anti-socialist.

[alanjjohnstone]

With all due respect, ALB, i'm not really interested in the Oxford Dictionary says but what Paddy and Lorna have to tell us.I'm willing to wait to hear what they have to say before i agree or disagree. Their intro is a deliberate teaser and his posting a purposefully provocative. Paddy's usual style, i would tentatively suggest.I'm reluctant to pre-judge their talk ….surely we should wait until its over and decide if they addressed our concerns and satisfied our apparent discomfort with the concept. …Maybe we will go away with a little bit more to think about…

[Bijou Drains]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

With all due respect, ALB, i'm not really interested in the Oxford Dictionary says but what Paddy and Lorna have to tell us.I'm willing to wait to hear what they have to say before i agree or disagree. Their intro is a deliberate teaser and his posting a purposefully provocative. Paddy's usual style, i would tentatively suggest.I'm reluctant to pre-judge their talk ….surely we should wait until its over and decide if they addressed our concerns and satisfied our apparent discomfort with the concept. …Maybe we will go away with a little bit more to think about…

However in the post Paddy made on Spintcom he said"First, let's be clear folks, intersectionality doesn't mean what you think it means, as you would know if you bothered to look it up".I think that's a pretty diffcult circle for you to square, Alan, ALB looks it up and then it doesn't mean what it says when you look, it up! You might not be interested in the dictionary definition, but it appears from his comments that Paddy is!It's pretty arrogant to assume that those  that disagree with you don't understand the subject!As for meaningful debate, referring to the posters on this site as "gobshites" really helps create a spirit of debate.Incidentally I more or less agree with Adam, the concept of intersectionality and ideas such as layers of disadvantage, multiple disadvantage, etc. only apply in an economic system based on the concept of competition for advantage.No competition, no market, no clasees, no money – no disadvantage, is Paddy seriously trying to say that intersectionality would be an issue in a non class based society?.Attempts to try and overcome disadvantage in a system set up to create disadvantage are futile and divisive, we may as well have a discussion about juggling mince or nailing jelly to the ceiling, they're more likely to be successful than trying to overcome disadvantage in a class based society.

[Mike Foster]

As part of this year's 'Gender And Power' Summer School there will be an exhibition on the SPGB's views on feminism over the years, a bookstall, and an exclusive publication!  As well as the talks on the pay gap issue and intersectionality already confirmed, other sessions are being planned, and there should be more announcements soon. The event is being held over the long weekend 3rd – 5th August at Fircroft College in Birmingham. For more details, and to make a booking, visit http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summerschool2018 Mike 

[alanjjohnstone]

Some useful background reading for the School on intersectionality from Weekly Workerhttps://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1206/intersectionality-is-a-dead-end/

[ALB]

I take it you have alerted Comrade Shannon to this too so that he can take into account this criticism of "intersectionality" and its implications (the thin end of a slippery slope away from class politics).I liked the conclusion:

Mike Mcnair wrote:

A workers’ class movement which aims for class political independence from the capitalists can offer the approach of the 1880 Programme of the Parti Ouvrier that “The emancipation of the productive class is that of all human beings without distinction of sex or race.” The policy of the broad front and intersectionality, by sacrificing the politics of class to those of gender, race and all the others, fails in its own aims.

The clause he quotes from the programme of the French Parti Ouvrier (drawn up in Marx's presence) is of course almost word for word the same as part of Clause 4 of our declaration of principles (and no doubt from where we got it):

Quote:

That as in the order of social evolution the working class is the last class to achieve its freedom, the emancipation of the working class will involve the emancipation of all mankind, without distinction of race or sex.

 

[Anonymous]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

Some useful background reading for the School on intersectionality from Weekly Worker

More from Mike Macnair on the subject:

Quote:

This is why some of us have been arguing that identity politics is not an alternative to class politics, but a form of it: it’s the politics of an upper class that has no problem with seeing people left behind, as long as they haven’t been left behind because of their race or sex.

    https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1208/race-and-class/

[Mike Foster]

 I'm happy to announce another session at this year's Summer School:  Film showing: Did Gender Egalitarianism Make Us Human? by Camilla Power (Senior lecturer in Anthropology at the University of East London)Introduced by Carla Dee and Richard Field, with discussion afterwards  Other sessions will be publicised very soon…For more details, and to make a booking, visit http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summerschool2018  

[Mike Foster]

 Here are details of another session at this year's Summer School: Sex And Power The sex industry makes up a significant, if partly-hidden, sector of the economy. Prostitution and pornography represent extremes of exploitation, lucrative to those with the power and damaging to those pushed into selling themselves. In this talk, Mike Foster will examine the differing impacts which the sex industry has on both women and men, and what this tells us about capitalism as a whole. The remaining session will be announced very soon…For more details, and to make a booking, visit http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/summerschool2018 

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