The Gaza Left and the Gender Left – Can groups with different values work together against Britain’s far right? [Gift Article]
Posted by altacan
The Gaza Left and the Gender Left – Can groups with different values work together against Britain’s far right? [Gift Article]
Posted by altacan
7 Comments
> The trouble here is that the British left—the part beyond the Democrats and Labour—has two shibboleths that potential leaders are required to utter. The first is that Israel is committing a genocide. The second is that “trans women are women.” But the groups that hold these two positions do not neatly overlap.
And here’s the crux of the issue with trying to organize a left wing political movement in the UK it seems.
God, I knew which transphobic loser wrote this before I clicked on the link.
What? T&T? Terf and Terrorist?
> Since October 2023, opposition to the war in Gaza has brought young, social-justice-minded progressives together with British Muslims, who are more socially conservative than the general population and have traditionally leaned toward voting Labour.
Gbh anyone who was protesting “since October 2023” is, in actuality, racist.
*”the groups that hold these two positions do not neatly overlap.*”
They overlap some. Also, idk that you can actually characterize these movements by cross-checking shiboleths or political positions. These will be different in two years.
The British left was the anti-EU side… considering it a neoliberal plot. It was only when UKIP/Brexit happened that lefties accepted the eu. Positions are transient. Top priorities are even more transient.
Imo most trans people are not hard left. A lot of recent years’ politics were driven by trans teenagers and a hard left that saw them as a revolutionary cause. But… they’re grown up now.
The trans political movement can find a home in liberal politics too. This path leads to winning actual political achievements, so I do think trans politics will gradually go lib and lefties will move on to a new avante garde.
What this article is actually observing is more of the old Monty Python “people’s liberation front for Judea.” Ironic, since one of the players is plfp.
In any case, “The left hates the left” cliche is what’s going on here.
The bigger question (as aways with UK labour) is can left-labour cooperate with liberal-labour? How does that play out in the UK’s volatile new multi-party paradigm?
Great article. Shame no one will talk about the content, only weird comments about the author (who is probably one of the best journalists alive, anyone calling her a terf has never read anything beyond a twitter post).
Anyway, yeah. This has all been unfolding. So stupid.
I’m not sure those two groups can be reconciled. Economic leftism (which is really the only thing that binds both socially conservative Muslims and socially progressive non-Muslims) plays second fiddle for both groups to their key cause.
I know this sounds stupid, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Muslims end up voting for Reform in the next couple of years. It happened with Hispanics in the US, didn’t they vote harder for Trump in ’24 than ’16 or ’20? I wouldn’t be surprised if the same happened here with Muslims.
Anyway, the British left. Uniquely fucked.
!ping LGBT
New Helen Lewis piece dropped