Sherry Wolf outlines socialist-based sexual liberation strategies in Denton
When veteran activist Sherry Wolf spoke at Denton’s MLK Center on Feb. 3, she outlined strategies by which the oppressed and exploited can unite to achieve sexual liberation for all.
"Sexual liberation is inconceivable without liberation from the material constraints to our lives," Wolf told EDGE the day after her Denton lecture.
Those strategies literally took a page from Wolf’s book "Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics and Theory of LGBT Liberation." Wolf, who appeared as a representative of the International Socialist Organization, served as an organizer for the National Equality March and is the associate editor for the International Socialist Review.
The perpetual quest for material possessions, earning a living, and paying to raise children who become the next generation of exploited workers is, Wolf asserts, what keeps the vast majority of the population from demanding the social and sexual liberties that are every human’s birthright. Wolf added the burdens of child rearing are ideally be a shared public responsibility; a collective societal effort. She also denies such a sea change in American culture would amount to a socialist shift.
"Western European counties, from France to Sweden, for decades have had advanced social welfare programs; but none of these are socialist societies," Wolf said.
She further discussed her feelings on whether a society in which financial obligations of the nuclear family did not burden workers would trickle-down to LGBT rights.
"We have power by virtue of the fact that we work for a living; so we can work to shut down the means of profit," Wolf said. "The fight for reforms like marriage equality and DADT [Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell] are always going to be a component part of radicalizing people to fight for larger things like solidarity with immigrants. It’s not a question of do you fight for reforms or revolution. It’s that you fight for reform as a means for people to become radicalized to fight for the bigger picture."
David Sindt is a member of Queer LiberAction, which hosted the event alongside the ISO’s North Texas branch. He acknowledged some of the view points expressed during the lecture.
"Helping some factory struggle isn’t going to effect some meaningful change in terms of our sexual repression; but we should be trying to reach out to these people and say it’s in our interest to help each other out," Sindt said.
He also noted both organizations share a common goal: equality.
"Anything we can do to make society better is in our interests; and we should be pursuing that so things can be better in real, meaningful ways," Sindt said.
The North Texas branch of the ISO, of which Sindt is a member, participates in events designed to advance workers rights. These include walking the picket lines in 2009 during a strike at the Bell Helicopter factory in Fort Worth.
"It would be awesome if Queer LiberAction could get to that point where we’re out walking the picket lines with our working class brothers and sisters," Sindt said.
