Thursday 11/12: ISO organizing meeting

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The next meeting of the Barnard/Columbia Branch of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) will be on Thursday, November 12th in 628 KENT HALL (end of the hall) at 7:30pm.

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Part I will be a strategy discussion about next steps for ongoing LGBT organizing on campus. Last month, there was the National Equality March (NEM) in Washington of 200,000 people demanding equal rights for LGBT people. But last week Maine passed it’s own Proposition 8 (called Question 1) taking away the right of same-sex couples to get married. Since Maine, 300 people mobilized twice in NYC and hundreds more mobilized in cities across the country demanding equality. Organizers of the NEM are calling on activists to seize the momentum and build grassroots LGBT rights organizations to affiliate with a new national organization called Equality Across America (EAA). We want to discuss as a branch the potential for starting a group like this on campus.

Here are some good background articles to prepare for this discussion: 1. “We’ve Just Begun to Fight” by Sherry Wolf (Author of Sexuality and Socialism, and National Organizer for NEM)

2. “What Does Maine Tell Us” by Sherry Wolf

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Part II will be a discussion about stragegy and tactics for building a stronger branch of the ISO. The Columbia/Barnard branch helped to bring over 100 students from Barnard and Columbia to the NEM. We hosted the Regional Conference of the ISO called “Crisis and Resistance” attended by over 700 people with speakers such as Malalai Joya. Just think of what we could do with a bigger campus chapter ! We are not only building for the struggles today, we are also trying to build the kind of organization that can fight long-term for a radically different society–one where human needs determine how things are run, not profit.

Join us for these discussions, get involved, and ask questions!

Afterward, join us for pizza & beer at V&T’s (110th and amsterdam). This is a great way to continue talking politics, learning more about the ISO and socialism.

Sponsored by the Barnard/Columbia branch of the International Socialist Organization (ISO)
Socialistworker.org | NYCsocialist.org
isreview.org | Haymarketbooks.org

Thursday, 11/5: Join the ISO in supporting Palestinian rights at Columbia!

This Thursday, 11/5 at 6:30pm, join the ISO and other supporters of Palestine…

At an important debate on campus discussing the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

Last semester, after Israel’s invasion and siege of Gaza, the ISO and other Palestine solidarity activists joined together to start a movement on campus to pressure Columbia University to divest from companies who profit off Israel’s ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement began a few years ago with a call from Palestinian civil society groups to place international pressure on the state of Israel. The aim is to challenge the apartheid conditions Israel has imposed on Palestinians both inside Israel’s borders and in the occupied territories. The campaign seeks to use the same successful tactics of international solidarity that helped to bring an end to apartheid in South Africa.

The ISO has always stood for the right of Palestinians demand equal rights, to resist the Israeli occupation, and to return to the homes from which they have been expelled since the 1948 formation of Israel. Israel is the largest recipient of US government military aid in the world. Challenging the US government and US corportations’ complicity in the destruction of Palestinian lives is an important part of challenging other US occupations in the region, from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This Thursday Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti will debate Columbia Law professor George Fletcher over the following question:

Is Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel counterproductive to the pursuit of a just peace in the Middle East?

Instead of our regular ISO meeting in Kent Hall, we’ll be going to this meeting to support Omar Barghouti and the BDS campaign! Come along!

Omar Barghouti

When: Thursday, November 5th at 6:30 PM

Where:  Meet other ISO members and allies in front of Altschul Auditorium, Room 417 in the  SIPA/International Affairs Building, Columbia University (enter on Amsterdam between 116th and 117th st)

RSVP to the event on Facebook here.

The event will be moderated by GRITtv host Laura Flanders (grittv.org), and is sponsored by the Middle East Institute, and hosted by the Arab Students Association at SIPA

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Articles to read for more information on the BDS campaign:

1) “A New Movement Against Israel’s Apartheid” by Eric Ruder

Gives some background on how the BDS movement came about in response to the invasion of GAZA. Also introduces some of the basic arguments in defense of BDS.

2) “The other apartheid state” by Ronnie Kasrils

Ronnie Kasrils is a Jewish South African leader of the African National Congress. Here, he compares the ‘Jewish-only’ state of Israel to the apartheid regime in South Africa.

3) “A Slander on our Movement” by Lichi D’Amelio

Challenges the incorrect charge that supporters of BDS supporters are being “anti-Semitic.”

4) “Israeli’s and Palestinians: Conflict & Resolution” by Moshe Machover

Longer article by an Israeli Socialist/anti-Zionist that goes through more of the history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Saturday: DEFEND ABORTION RIGHTS!

{Tomorrow the last day of the right-wingers “40 Days for Life” demonstrations at Dr. Emily’s. Over the past few weekends, they have been outnumbering us early in the morning. Let’s make sure we send them home knowing that this is a pro-choice city!}

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The Barnard/Columbia branch of the ISO is mobilizing to join the New York Coalition for Abortion Clinic Defense (NYCACD) at Dr. Emily’s Women’s Health Center to support women’s rights!

We are asking students and allies to mobilize Saturday, October 31st at the gates (116th and Broadway), 7am.

For More info, contact Edna: 305-457-6332

Dr. Emily’s clinic in the South Bronx has been the target of anti-abortion protesters. These protesters offer free sonograms (administered by unqualified people outside the medical field) and anti-abortion pamphlets and display plastic fetuses in order to try to convince women seeking abortions to change their minds. Worse, the protesters have started a 40-day vigil (see www.40daysforlife.com). Since June the NYCACD, in collaboration with the staff of the clinic, has launched a weekly clinic defense, effectively preventing these anti-choice protesters from intimidating and harassing people seeking services there.

“40 days for life” has launched a massive 40-day “prayer and fasting” vigil outside the clinic starting SEPTEMBER 23. It ends tomorrow, October31st. Two years ago, with a similar campaign, they thronged the sidewalk and were able to physically block staff and clients from entering the clinic. This year, we have confronted the bigots every Saturday. At the start, we outnumbered the bigots. But their numbers continue to grow, and we have not been able to sustain ours week to week. Our goal is to OUT-NUMBER THEM tomorrow; to provide safe escort for staff and patients into the clinic, and to let the anti-choice bigots know THEY CANNOT GET AWAY WITH THIS. If they had their way, not only would abortion be illegal, so would homosexuality and non-procreative sex.

We are inviting pro-choice and pro-abortion individuals and organizations to join in.

IT IS TIME WE STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE WOMEN WANTING TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHT TO CHOOSE AND TO CONTROL THEIR BODIES!

Saturday, October 31st

8 am to Noon

Dr. Emily’s Women’s Health Center

560 Southern Blvd

Bronx, New York

Thursday: “Where We Stand” discussion at Columbia

WHERE WE STAND: POLITICS OF THE ISO DISCUSSION

Have questions about socialism? How about the Russian Revolution? Maybe about Lenin? Have questions about the ISO? What are our politics? Why do have a newspaper? Thinking of joining?

The International Socialist Organization (ISO) is a membership-based organization with local branches across the country.

Our members are involved in helping to build a number of struggles: the movement to stop the war on Iraq and Afghanistan; fights against racism, police brutality, and anti-immigrant scapegoating; the struggle for women’s rights, like the right to choose abortion; opposing anti-LGBT bigotry; and standing up for workers’ rights. We are committed to rebuilding a left in this country to organize against this system of war, racism, and poverty. But our members are also involved in the fight for a radical transformation of the whole system, the fight for socialism.

If you are interested in learning more about the politics of the ISO to figure out if you agree and would like to join, please join us for this informal discussion. You can download the packet of articles here. We will base our discussion on this packet.

Thursday, October 29th, 730-9:15pm
Columbia University
628 Kent Hall

After the meeting…

Join us for Pizza & Beer at V&T’s (110th and amsterdam)! This is a great way to continue talking politics, learning more about the ISO and socialism.

Sponsored by the Barnard/Columbia branch of the International Socialist Organization (ISO)
Socialistworker.org | NYCsocialist.org

New additions to this weekend’s Northeast Socialist Conference at Columbia!

New Addition to the Northeast Socialist Conference Program:

Sherry Wolf is the author of “Sexuality and Socialism: The History, Politics and Theory of LGBT Liberation”, published by Haymarket Books.  She was also one of the main organizers of the National Equality March, which just organized 200,000 people on October 11th to demand full equality for LGBT people.  She will be speaking twice at the Northeast Socialist Conference taking place this weekend at Columbia University.

She will join the Saturday evening panel, Crisis and Resistance: The Shape of Struggle in a New Era, along with Jeremy Scahill (author of Blackwater), Ajamu Sankofa (Private Health Insurance Must Go Coalition), Josetta Harris (NY Coalition for Abortion Clinic Defense) and Mike Filippou (leader of strike at Stella D’oro).  She will also be giving a workshop on Equality Now: Next Steps for the LGBT Liberation Movement on Sunday.

For more information about the conference, go to www.northeastsocialistconference.net
or call (646) 452-8662 or email nyciso@gmail.com.

To see videos of Sherry speak, follow the links below:
Speaking with Cleve Jones at Busboys and Poets the day before the National Equality March
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/GayPlace/Blogs?oid=oid%3A893634

Cleve Jones, Sherry Wolf and the Cast of Hair at the National Equality March
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Vtp2mNKU0&fmt=18

To read Socialist Worker coverage as well as an article by Sherry Wolf on the National Equality March, go to:
http://socialistworker.org/2009/10/20/impatience-is-a-virtue
http://socialistworker.org/2009/10/16/just-begun-to-fight
http://socialistworker.org/2009/10/12/we-demand-full-equalit

Copies of Sherry’s book will be available at the conference.

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2009 Northeast Socialist Conference
Crisis and Resistance: Building a Socialist Alternative

Join Anthony Arnove, Paul D’Amato, Sam Farber, Laura Flanders, Arun Gupta, Robert Gangi, Lawrence Hayes, Marvin Holland, Brian Jones, Malalai Joya, Miguel Luna, Alan Maass, Fred Magdoff, Mahmood Mamdani, Scott McLemee, Paul LeBlanc, Jeffrey Perry, John Riddell, Jen Roesch, Heather Rogers, Jeremy Scahill, Helen Scott, Ahmed Shawki, Liliana Segura, Ashley Smith, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Dave Zirin and dozens more speakers and hundreds more participants…

October 23-25, 2009
New York City, Columbia UniversityFor full location, schedule and registration information: www.northeastsocialistconference.net

Capitalism isn’t working.  Socialism is the alternative: a world based on human need rather than profit and controlled by the vast majority rather than a tiny rich minority.  But to win this world, we need struggle and action by our side.  Every year hundreds of activists and socialists gather at the Northeast Socialist Conference to debate and discuss the struggles before us as well as an analysis of the urgent problems we face and a vision for a different future.  With the free-market consensus in tatters and an open debate beginning about how best to organize our society, these discussions are more vital than ever.  

Discussions will include reports and strategizing from today’s front-line battles.  There will also be workshops on the history of radical labor and socialist movements; alternatives to capitalism; US imperialism and solidarity movements around the world.

 With nearly 50 workshops to choose from, these are just some of the topics that will be featured:

* The New Movement for LGBT Equality * Sports and Sexuality: Fighting for a Level Playing Field * The Global Food Crisis * Where is the Economy Headed? * Guantanamo at Home * Resistance and Solidarity: Eyewitness from Gaza * Poor People’s Movements * A People’s Guide to the Healthcare Debate * What Would Socialism Look Like? * Social Unionism: Putting the Movement Back in the Labor Movement * Hubert Harrison: Voice of Harlem Radicalism * What Would a Sustainable Society Look Like? * Occupation Rebranded: US Imperialism in the Obama Era * Reform and Revolution * Malcolm X * What a Sustainable Society Could Look Like * Racism, Sentencing and the Prison System  * The Assault on Abortion Rights * Another Brick in the Wall: Education under Capitalism vs Socialism * The Russian Revolution and Its Significance Today * Media as Weapon: Speaking Truth to Power * Report-Back from Honduras * Student Struggle and the Fight for Socialism * The Communist Women’s Movement in the Comintern Era * The History of the ISO, and dozens more…

For a full list of speakers and workshops, and to register, see our website at:  www.northeastsocialistconference.net

Special Friday Conference Plenary: A Woman Among Warlords: Eyewitness to EmpireFeaturing Malalai Joya, a female Member of the Afghan Parliament and courageous voice against women’s oppression and US occupation.

Malalai Joya rose to fame in December 2003 when, as an elected delegate to the Constitutional Loya Jirga, she spoke out publicly against the domination of warlords. Since then she has survived four assassination attempts, and travels in Afghanistan under a burqa and with armed guards. Her newly published book, A Woman Among Warlords, has been widely praised; Noam Chomsky has written that it “leaves us with hope that the tormented people of Afghanistan can take their fate into their own hands if they are released from the grip of foreign powers”.

There will be a book signing following the event.

Friday October 23, 8pm

Columbia University – International Affairs Building – Altschul Auditorium (417) – entrance at 117th Street and Amsterdam

Special Saturday Conference Plenary: The Shape of Struggle in a New Era

FEATURING:
Mike Filippou, Striker and Union Leader at Stella D’oro Factory in the Bronx
Josetta Harris, NY Coalition for Abortion Clinic Defense
Ajamu Sankofa, Private Health Insurance Must Go Coalition
Jeremy Scahill, Independent journalist and author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army
Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor, Steering Committee of the National Equality March and member of the International Socialist Organization

Saturday, October 24th at 8PM
Columbia University – International Affairs Building – Altschul Auditorium (417) – entrance at 117th Street and Amsterdam

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For more info, contact columbia.iso@gmail.com or 646-452-8662

Invite your friends, rsvp and get updates at our facebook page.

Registration: $20 weekend; $15 low-income/student; $10 single day

Registration online, through a local ISO branch or at the conference.

This Weekend at Columbia: The Northeast Socialist Conference!

Crisis and Resistance: Building a Socialist Alternative

Join Anthony Arnove, Paul D’Amato, Sam Farber, Laura Flanders, Arun Gupta, Frances Fox-Piven, Robert Gangi, Lawrence Hayes, Marvin Holland, Brian Jones, Malalai Joya, Miguel Luna, Alan Maass, Fred Magdoff, Mahmood Mamdani, Manning Marable, Scott McLemee, Paul LeBlanc, Jeffrey Perry, John Riddell, Jen Roesch, Heather Rogers, Jeremy Scahill, Helen Scott, Ahmed Shawki, Liliana Segura, Ashley Smith, Dave Zirin and dozens more speakers and hundreds more participants at…

Crisis and Resistance: Building a Socialist Alternative

Northeast Socialist Conference

October 23-25, 2009

New York City, Columbia University

For full location, schedule and registration information: www.northeastsocialistconference.net

200,000 people marched two weeks ago in Washington DC for LGBT equality!

Capitalism isn’t working.  Socialism is the alternative: a world based on human need rather than profit and controlled by the vast majority rather than a tiny rich minority.  But to win this world, we need struggle and action by our side.  Every year hundreds of activists and socialists gather at the Northeast Socialist Conference to debate and discuss the struggles before us as well as an analysis of the urgent problems we face and a vision for a different future.  With the free-market consensus in tatters and an open debate beginning about how best to organize our society, these discussions are more vital than ever.  

Discussions will include reports and strategizing from today’s front-line battles.  There will also be workshops on the history of radical labor and socialist movements; alternatives to capitalism; US imperialism and solidarity movements around the world.

With nearly 50 workshops to choose from, these are just some of the topics that will be featured:

* The New Movement for LGBT Equality * Sports and Sexuality: Fighting for a Level Playing Field * The Global Food Crisis * Where is the Economy Headed? * Guantanamo at Home * Resistance and Solidarity: Eyewitness from Gaza * Poor People’s Movements * A People’s Guide to the Healthcare Debate * What Would Socialism Look Like? * Social Unionism: Putting the Movement Back in the Labor Movement * Hubert Harrison: Voice of Harlem Radicalism * What Would a Sustainable Society Look Like? * Occupation Rebranded: US Imperialism in the Obama Era * Reform and Revolution * Malcolm X * What a Sustainable Society Could Look Like * Racism, Sentencing and the Prison System  * The Assault on Abortion Rights * Another Brick in the Wall: Education under Capitalism vs Socialism * The Russian Revolution and Its Significance Today * Media as Weapon: Speaking Truth to Power * Report-Back from Honduras * Student Struggle and the Fight for Socialism * The Communist Women’s Movement in the Comintern Era * The History of the ISO, and dozens more…

For a full list of speakers and workshops, and to register, see our website at:  www.northeastsocialistconference.net

For more info, contact columbia.iso@gmail.com or 646-452-8662

Invite your friends, rsvp and get updates at our facebook page. 

Registration: $20 weekend; $15 low-income/student; $10 single day

Registration online, through a local ISO branch or at the conference

Full schedule:

Special Friday Plenary: A Woman Among Warlords: Eyewitness to Empire

Featuring Malalai Joya, a female Member of the Afghan Parliament and courageous voice against women’s oppression and US occupation.

Malalai Joya rose to fame in December 2003 when, as an elected delegate to the Constitutional Loya Jirga, she spoke out publicly against the domination of warlords. Since then she has survived four assassination attempts, and travels in Afghanistan under a burqa and with armed guards. Her newly published book, A Woman Among Warlords, has been widely praised; Noam Chomsky has written that it “leaves us with hope that the tormented people of Afghanistan can take their fate into their own hands if they are released from the grip of foreign powers”.

There will be a book signing following the event.

Friday October 23, 8pm
Columbia University – International Affairs Building – Altschul Auditorium (417) – entrance at 117th Street and Amsterdam

Saturday, October 24th

9am:  Registration at Columbia University, Lerner Hall – 115th & Broadway (1 to 116th Street) – registration will be available all weekend in Lerner

10:00am:  Morning Plenary:  Capitalism Isn’t Working – The Case for Socialism with Alan Maass, editor of Socialist Worker and socialistworker.org

Noon – 1:30pm:  Workshop Session 1

1:30 – 2:30pm:  Lunch

2:30 – 4pm:  Workshop Session 2

4:30 – 6pm:  Workshop Session 3

6-8pm:  Dinner

6:15 – 7:30pm:  Special Dinner Session – Introduction to the ISO

8pm:  Evening Plenary:  Crisis and Resistance – Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater and Ahmed Shawki, editor of the International Socialist Review and a panel of social justice and radical activists

10pm:  Party

Sunday, October 25th

10 – 11:30am:  Workshop Session 4

11:30 – 1pm:  Lunch

1 – 2:30pm:  Workshop Session 5

3 – 4:30pm:  Workshop Session 6

Thursday 10/8: How Can We Achieve Women’s Liberation?

How Can We Achieve Women’s Liberation?

The women’s liberation movement of the 1970’s made great strides forward for women’s rights. The movement fought for free access to legal abortion, challenged sexism, and developed a revolutionary analysis of where oppression comes from – and how it can be overcome.

Today, we continue the fight to defend abortion rights at Dr. Emily’s clinic in the South Bronx every Saturday morning. Restrictions have been placed on a woman’s right to choose, women continue to be objectified in the media, and women still make seventy-five cents to ever dollar a man makes.

Clearly, we still need a struggle against all forms of women’s oppression. And socialists also argue that these struggles need to be linked to the fight for a fundamentally different society altogether. Join us for a discussion of where women’s oppression comes from, and what socialists think it will take to win women’s full liberation.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8th, 7:30pm
628 KENT HALL (end of the hall)

Sponsored by the Barnard/Columbia branch of the International Socialist Organization (ISO)

Socialistworker.org | NYCsocialist.org

This Sunday, 10/11: Come to the National LGBT Equality March

Want to go to the National Equality March in Washington, DC this Sunday, October 11th?!

Still need to get on a bus from Columbia?

The National Equality march will be the first national grassroots march for LGBT rights since 1993. There are going to be around 40 buses of activists going to the march just from New York City!

This weekend’s march has one simple demand:
Equal protection for all LGBT people in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states. Free and equal people do not bargain for or prioritize our rights. Full equality necessarily includes all members of the LGBT community and encompasses, but is not limited to:

• The right to work our jobs and go to school free of harassment and discrimination.
• The right to safety in our daily lives, and protection from hate crimes.
• The right to equitable healthcare, and the right to donate blood.
• The right to equitable immigration policies.
• The right to marry.
• The right to serve in the military openly.

BUS INFORMATION:

If you still need transportation to the march, there will be a bus departing from 116th and Broadway on Sunday morning at 6am and returning Sunday night after the march. The cost is $35 and you can buy your tickets here:

http://nycgomarch.eventbrite.com/
(Register for the Columbia University/Upper West Side bus)
Please note that tickets need to be purchased by wednesday 10/7 to confirm a spot on the bus.

If you’d like to go to DC for the march, but absolutely cannot afford to pay the $35 cost, please email mattswagler@gmail.com immediately!

For more information on the march, check out:
nationalequalitymarch.org
nemstudents.org

Saturday 10/3: Defend Abortion Rights!

Again, the Barnard/Columbia branch of the ISO is mobilizing to join the New York Coalition for Abortion Clinic Defense (NYCACD) at Dr. Emily’s Women’s Health Center to support women’s rights!

Last week, we totally outnumbered the Christian Fundamentalist bigots. But last year they were able to mobilize over 200 at Dr. Emily’s. We want to make sure we are not caught off guard this week. That’s why we are asking students and allies to mobilize Saturday, Oct 3rd.

Dr. Emily’s clinic in the South Bronx has been the target of anti-abortion protesters. These protesters offer free sonograms (administered by unqualified people outside the medical field) and anti-abortion pamphlets and display plastic fetuses in order to try to convince women seeking abortions to change their minds. Worse, the protesters have started a 40-day vigil (see www.40daysforlife.com). Since June the NYCACD, in collaboration with the staff of the clinic, has launched a weekly clinic defense, effectively preventing these anti-choice protesters from intimidating and harassing people seeking services there.

“40 days for life” has launched a massive 40-day “prayer and fasting” vigil outside the clinic starting SEPTEMBER 23. Two years ago, with a similar campaign, they thronged the sidewalk and were able to physically block staff and clients from entering the clinic. This year, our goal is to OUT-NUMBER THEM; to provide safe escort for staff and patients into the clinic, and to let the anti-choice bigots know THEY CANNOT GET AWAY WITH THIS. If they had their way, not only would abortion be illegal, so would homosexuality and non-procreative sex.

We are inviting pro-choice and pro-abortion individuals and organizations to join in. The Clinic Defense Coalition is asking people to RSVP via: nycacd@gmail.com.

IT IS TIME WE STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE WOMEN WANTING TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHT TO CHOOSE AND TO CONTROL THEIR BODIES!

Saturday, Oct 3rd (and Every Saturday thru October 31)

8 am to Noon
Dr. Emily’s Women’s Health Center
560 Southern Blvd
Bronx, New York

Thurs 10/1: Sexuality & Socialism!

Meet-up with the Barnard/Columbia branch of the ISO at the gates (116th and Broadway) at 6pm this Thursday to talk politics and travel together to Sherry Wolf’s National Speaking Tour: Sexuality and Socialism!

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Haymarket Books Presents

A National Speaking Tour with Author & Activist

Sherry Wolf

Sexuality and Socialism: The Struggle for LGBT Liberation

Thursday, Oct. 1  7:00 PM
LGBT Community Center
208 W. 13th St.
Take the A,C,E,1,2,3,F or V train to 14th Street

Come to a Public Forum to discuss the history, politics and theory of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender oppression and how we can fight to end it.
And find out how you can get involved in mobilizing for the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. on October 11, 2009

Get the facts! Read the book! Go to the march!

For march details, go to www.equalityacrossamerica.org

Sherry Wolf is author of Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics & Theory of LGBT Liberation. Wolf is associate editor of the International Socialist Review, and member of the National Equality March Steering Committee. She has written for publications includingMRZine, CounterPunch, DissidentVoice, and New Politics, and speaks across the country on the struggle for LGBT liberation.

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Praise for Sexuality and Socialism:
“No other work that comes to my mind explains the history of sexuality and sexual repression in the United States as comprehensively and compellingly.”

—Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch
“‘What humans have constructed they can tear down.’ This is the powerful insight of this rare book that is at once politically important, theoretically and historically sophisticated, and clearly written. Sexuality and Socialism is enlivened in its engagement with a number of controversies, including those over the alleged biological determination of homosexuality, the myth of Black homophobia, and the consequences of postmodernist theories for the politics of gay liberation. Above all else, Wolf puts forward a cogent defense of the Marxist tradition—long and wrongly reviled as homophobic in itself—as a way to explain how LGBT oppression arose and what we can do to put it to bed.”

—Dana Cloud, University of Texas at Austin
Sherry Wolf is also available for interviews. To request an interview or review copy of the book, please contact Sarah Macaraeg atsarah@haymarketbooks.org, 773-583-7884 (office), or 312-315-8476 (cell).
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About Sexuality and Socialism:

The movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights has greatly expanded sexual freedom, but many challenges confront the struggle for equality. Sexuality and Socialism offers an accessible analysis of many of the most challenging questions for those concerned with full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Inside are essays on the roots of LGBT oppression, the construction of sexual and gender identities, the history of the gay movement, and how to unite the oppressed and exploited to win sexual liberation for all. Sherry Wolf analyzes different theories about oppression—including those of Marxism, postmodernism, identity politics, and queer theory—and challenges myths about genes, gender, and sexuality.

What would sexual liberation mean? We can, perhaps, agree on what must disappear—institutional and legal discrimination against LGBT people, fixed gender roles and sexual identities, legal constraints on consensual sex, and social repression of sexual experimentation, etc. While many of us dream of a world in which we are free to do as we choose with our bodies and sex lives, living under capitalism, where sex is bought and sold, bodies objectified, and relationships constrained by material forces out of our control, it seems that even our fantasies must be limited somewhat by the world in which we live.

- from Sexuality and Socialism