En Passant

Queer socialist activist, writer, and soon to be public school teacher in Boston, MA, Keegan O’Brien, responds in Jacobin to those on the left who dismiss the US Supreme Court’s historic ruling on June 26 making gay marriage the law of the land in all fifty states as at best insignificant, and at worst a step backwards. In explaining why they’re wrong he says in part:

‘When calls for radical change take the place of figuring out how to dynamically relate to people other than committed leftists, activists have created an echo chamber that only inhibits movement building. Demands to abolish marriage or smash the state may generate support from other radicals, but they remain empty slogans without the popular forces required to bring about social transformation…

‘Long-term, patient organizing may not be the revolution. But it’s the only way to get us there.’

Let’s keep the pressure up on Australian politicians to force them to vote for same-sex marriage today. How about mass rallies across Australia to celebrate the success in Ireland and to call on the Australian Parliament to amend the Marriage Act so that, in the words of the Irish amendment to the Constitution, ‘marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex’?

The fight for marriage equality will have to continue until same sex couples have the same marriage and other rights as straight Australians. Having gay marriage in the ACT will contribute to that but true marriage equality can only be won by a massive struggle from below to force Gillard Labor to legislate for it . Continue the fight for equal marriage.

Equal love now; not in the mists of time but now. Over to you Shane Rattenbury, the one remaining Greens’ member of the ACT Legislative Assembly.

We chanted on the rally that we want marriage equality now. Not the second class citizenship that is civil unions but full marriage equality. Speaker after speaker argued for it. Over to you to deliver, ACT Greens, not in some distant future but this week.

The challenge for us now will be in prosecuting the argument that now is not the time to give up, that we will have to continue to fight for same-sex marriage. That is what got us to where we are. That is the only thing that will get us equality in the future.

It is no accident that the Stonewall riot happened in 1969 and millions around the world stood up for sexual liberation in the ensuing years. The world was in turmoil as millions confronted war, racism, sexism and exploitation. There was enthusiasm for revolutionary change among millions. That is the political atmosphere we have to recreate. So the fight for sexual liberation cannot be separate from the struggle to rebuild a revolutionary movement to overthrow capitalism.

A free vote would give the Labor Party a cowardly back-door excuse to not take a principled stand on a common-sense issue of civil and human rights. It represents a concession to the bigots in the party determined to maintain discrimination.

A Labor conscience vote on gay marriage is not the answer. It is a capitulation to the Right, to bigotry and inequality and a defeat for the movement. Bind all Labor politicians to support equal love. Most importantly keep the pressure on and the struggle alive – on the streets and in the workplace.

As part of the magnificent tradition of fighting back against oppression the gay and lesbian movement in Australia has organised equal love demonstrations to pressure the Gillard Labor government to recognise same sex marriage. Join us in those demonstrations.

If our nominal rights allow any sign of opposition to the ALP to emerge they are thrown out the door.