The Executive Committee of the Young Communist League has released the following statement on the struggle for transgender rights.
The YCL unequivocally opposes transphobia and discrimination in all its forms. Communists must always be found alongside the marginalised, the discriminated against, the oppressed and the exploited. It is our duty to fight for all sections of our class. Today the transgender community are undoubtedly one of the most persecuted sections of Britain’s society.
The YCL has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the entire LGBT+ community. Our, now legendary, former General Secretary Mark Ashton and the struggles of the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners group are but one chapter in this story.
This is a living legacy. In our ranks today we are proud to be an organisation led and strengthened by comrades from the LGBT+ community across Britain and at every level. The YCL wouldn’t and couldn’t exist without our dedication to LGBT+ rights.
Under the capitalist system, discrimination and prejudice are tools of the ruling class to divide and distract working people. Capitalism and the issues of oppression and discrimination are inseparable, since oppression and discrimination against women, people of colour, and other people are intrinsically linked to capitalism’s drive towards exploitation and the history of capitalist development such as colonialism.
Prejudicial ideologies have been invented to justify this increased exploitation and oppression. There have often been attempts to base these prejudicial beliefs on so-called historical facts or scientific theories that, in reality, are nonsense.
The first port of call for Communists must be the analysis of what is really going on in society and how in those conditions we can fight for the interests of working people. Democratic and social rights are an essential part of those interests. In contrast to the largely hypothetical and abstracted “human rights” under the capitalist system, such as “the right to vote” for a representative of the ruling class every 5 years, Communists fight for real democratic and social rights for all people.
Although people are different, we share fundamental common interests and needs. Communists fight for the liberation of all people from a cruel system of exploitation and oppression, and we fight for the creation of a humane system, Socialism, in which all people will work in common, be able to enjoy the fruits of their labour and develop rich lives.
Transphobia is another facet of the capitalist system’s network of oppression and exploitation. There is no contradiction between the fight for transgender rights, the fight for women’s liberation, and the fight for democratic and social rights for all. Opposition to transphobia and campaigning for LGBT+ rights goes hand in hand with the struggle for real human liberation, against capitalism and for Socialism.
The YCL is clear in our condemnation of the rife transphobia which exists in our society today. We have, do, and always will express our unrelenting solidarity with those facing discrimination. We pay tribute to those killed as a result of transphobia.
The YCL is definite in our demands for the rights and needs of the transgender community, including:
- An end to discrimination and transphobia in all its forms including increased legal protections and enforcement.
- Increased protection against violence and harassment for members of the transgender community.
- Proactive steps to promote the full involvement in public and political life.
- Increased community and medical support and funding for members of the transgender community.
- For the labour and student movements to campaign more vigorously to defend and advance transgender rights.
Transphobia and the attacks inflicted on the transgender community are a sad indictment on our society.
Working people must unite along common interests and take the fight to the capitalist system and the roots of poisonous forms of oppression and discrimination. Those things that apparently divide us, in fact unite us as the targets of exploitation, oppression and discrimination, and our different experiences and points of view enrich the development of class struggle.
We must take up this struggle and rid our society of transphobia and discrimination against trans people, different forms of oppression and eventually overthrow the capitalist system. We are determined that as the Young Communist League, we will play a leading role in this multifaceted struggle.
No to discrimination!
Yes to transgender rights!
Executive Committee
Young Communist League
25 January 2020
London, Britain
