10 Theses on Identity Politics
Some thoughts, in the form of theses, that require extrapolation. Those of us at the centres of global capitalism who define ourselves as "marxist" and "historical materialist" are, to greater and lesser degrees, at this historical juncture of theory. This is not necessarily a good thing…
1) By basing a definition of oppression on sites of identity wrenched from a materialist basis, there emerges a concept of oppression that lacks any revolutionary praxis. There can be no solidarity in a theory that divides along multiple moments of identity and elevates these molecularities above the molar basis that actually divides a given mode of production into ruling and ruled classes. While it may be unfashionable in certain academic circles to make this claim, the only basis of revolutionary unity is still the basis of social class since a given mode of production, as well as the momentum of history, is determined, in the last instance, by class struggle.
2) While it is correct to reject the class essentialism of a crude marxism that in itself produces its own form of identity politics (where the proletariat is automatically and erroneously overcoded according to a white, male, hetero, able-bodied, and cis-gendered identity), it is incorrect to substitute a post-modern politics of difference––which concretely means identity politics––in its place. To argue that the proletariat's composition is defined by these sites of oppression is not the same as clinging to a politics that speaks only of these sites, wrenched from the material basis of social class and treated in an abstract and intersecting manner, rather than the material fact of class division. Class might be determined by these moments of oppression, but it also and simultaneously determines these moments of oppression. Again: in the final instance we have to recognize social/economic class as the basis of revolutionary struggle.
3) The theory of intersectionality, a term flouted about by those committed to an identitarian approach, is ultimately banal. While it is indeed a fact that class, race, sex, gender, nationality, etc. intersect, recognizing this fact is about as useful as recognizing that the clouds are grey when it is close to raining. No theory of intersectionality proposed by proponents of post-modern and identitarian approaches has done anything more significant than inform us of the obvious fact that oppression intersects and overlaps; they generally fail to explain why and how they overlap, and more importantly they fail to provide a praxis of revolutionary unity. Here the statements of intersectionality mean only the recognition of disparate trajectories that happen to intersect, just because they do, rather than provide a precise epistemology of intersection.
4) Revolutionary communists have known, for a long time, that disparate oppressions intersect in the moment of class which is the final instance rather than a separate identitarian trajectory. By pretending that social class is something that is only a moment of intersection, rather than the material basis that makes sense of intersection, identity politics cannot challenge capitalism in a scientific manner. Instead, all it can do is offer moralizations.
5) Those who champion the enshrined practices of identity politics––anti-oppression training, "safe spaces", rarified theories of privilege, abstract movementism––are generally petty-bourgeois academics. The irony is that while many of these people possess a significant level of intellectual privilege (and note that the post-modern theories behind this politics are currently accessible mainly to students and intellectuals) they do not grasp the privilege generated by their social class as the primary moment of privilege, or even recognize that they are economically privileged, when they speak of privilege, oppression, intersectionality, etc. Hence the failure to produce a material analysis of oppression: under capitalism those who possess the most "privilege" are those who possess the most economic autonomy, i.e. the bourgeosie, and those who possess the intellectual autonomy to flourish in the spaces opened by identity politics also possess, in some very significant ways and regardless of their specific identities (oppressed or otherwise), the very privilege they imagine they lack. None of this is to say that these practices were not at one point of time necessary, or at least the logical result of the class essentialism of a crude marxism, but just that they can be nothing more than a petty-bourgeois activism that produces neo-reformism.
6) Although there have been numerous marxist attempts to reject identity politics without falling back into class essentialism, most have ended up reifying the content of identity politics. (Hence the recent bad faith appropriation of proletarian feminism where the same identitarian notion of "privilege" is presupposed and revolutionary theorists such as Anuradha Gandhy are poached by bourgeois feminists who replace exploitation with an idealist concept of oppression.) Generally speaking, in our attempt to supersede a class essentialism while learning from the politics of identity, some of us tend to err more on the side of the latter in an attempt to overcome the problems of the former. This error makes sense in light of the history of crude marxism and yet is still an error… for if we claim we are marxists, then we need to offer something more and beyond the simplest and idealist rejections of a marxism that belongs in the dustbin of history.
7) The legacy of identity politics has produced a problematic language idealism where we focus more on correct words and phrases rather than the material basis of oppression… And even in the moment where we imagine we are indeed combatting real world oppression we are, in fact, simply engaging with the level of appearance. We often fail to recognize that those who lack the privileged education to understand the correct terminology and turns of phrase are not necessarily those who are chauvinist, just as we fail to recognize that those who possess the education to hide their chauvinism with the correct language are indeed the enemy. This language idealism becomes nothing but a self-righteous exercise when it refuses to contemplate a praxis of mass pedagogy based on actually changing the material circumstances and instead focuses on anti-oppression training, atomized concepts of privilege, and how to speak correctly. It becomes utterly rarified and intentionally ignorant when it demands that we waste our time examining every word and turn of phrase at the expense of changing the material circumstances upon which this language is dependent. Moralism abounds.
8) Now there are innumerable marxists who appeal to identity politics in order to justify their lack of praxis. It is no accident that those who are the least active in attempting to engage with the proletarian and declass are also those who most rigidly abide by the dictates of identity politics––indeed, the theoretical constellation of identity politics often provides the inactive marxist with an excuse to remain inactive. One must not engage with the masses if they say the wrong words; one must not engage with concrete reality if it cannot be transformed so easily into a safe space.
9) We need to ask why the praxis mobilized by identity politics matters only to radicals at the centres of global capitalism. Why is this set politics seen as petty-bourgeois by revolutionary movements at the global peripheries––movements that are tired of those intellectuals who, in the moment of theorizing about the subaltern's ability to speak for itself, attempt to decide the manner in which this subaltern can speak in order to be understood as subaltern? When we ask these questions we may be forced to recognize that identity politics is connected to a radical petty-bourgeois strain of what might be called the labour aristocracy––or at the very least a group of privileged migrant ex-patriates––and that its theorization of privilege is also an attempt to obscure its own especial privilege.
10) The fact that identity politics, and its theoretical basis in post-modern theory, is predominant only at the centres of capitalism is no accident. This is not to say that the insights produced by this ultimately petty-bourgeois practice have not been useful and significant (indeed some crude marxisms it sought to correct were also petty-bourgeois) only that these insights are limited precisely by their petty-bourgeois idealism and inability to examine the material basis of reality––that is, social class. Social class is precisely that which can be obscured at the privileged centres of imperialism.
Lemme guess....you're a white straight dude, right?
tpaine posted:Moralism abounds.
Chaos Reigns
We often fail to recognize that those who lack the privileged education to understand the correct terminology and turns of phrase are not necessarily those who are chauvinist, just as we fail to recognize that those who possess the education to hide their chauvinism with the correct language are indeed the enemy. This language idealism becomes nothing but a self-righteous exercise...
While it is correct to reject the class essentialism of a crude marxism that in itself produces its own form of identity politics (where the proletariat is automatically and erroneously overcoded according to a white, male, hetero, able-bodied, and cis-gendered identity)
lol nobody knows wtf able-bodied or cis-gendered mean, and that he's unable to escape at all from the language of identity politics means this is all just posturing.
Lessons posted:also isn't JMP some sort of academic? why is he going on about people being petit-bourgeois
he has a phd in philosophy but i think he's just an adjunct/term lecturer right now.
i tried to clarify the above article with him but he sort of went off on me so i said i agreed with his basic point and left it alone.
http://www.colorado.edu/Sociology/gimenez/work/cgr.html
mccaine also wrote an article about identity politics recently, which was good and way clearer than JMP's but also kinda muddled and with a ton of unnecessary hedging
Lessons posted:i think this is the article JMP wanted to write but didn't study/care enough to actually do it
http://www.colorado.edu/Sociology/gimenez/work/cgr.html
he wrote his phd dissertation as a critique of anticolonial theory so i'm pretty sure he understands the debate (probably) but i think he did a bad job translating it into this article because he doesn't really explain why class anchors revolution except to say that other oppressions can't do it.
getfiscal posted:Lessons posted:i think this is the article JMP wanted to write but didn't study/care enough to actually do it
http://www.colorado.edu/Sociology/gimenez/work/cgr.htmlhe wrote his phd dissertation as a critique of anticolonial theory so i'm pretty sure he understands the debate (probably) but i think he did a bad job translating it into this article because he doesn't really explain why class anchors revolution except to say that other oppressions can't do it.
okay sure. i think part of the problem too is that everyone apparently feels compelled to address the theoretical basis of intersectionality/pluralism/etc. and leftist talk of privilege at the same time. when really they aren't the same thing and are clearly distinct in some important ways, so that ends up confusing the issue.
discipline posted:Lessons posted:mccaine also wrote an article about identity politics recently, which was good and way clearer than JMP's but also kinda muddled and with a ton of unnecessary hedging
he's going to write a shorter, more concise version for MY BLOG
cool
Lessons posted:okay sure. i think part of the problem too is that everyone apparently feels compelled to address the theoretical basis of intersectionality/pluralism/etc. and leftist talk of privilege at the same time. when really they aren't the same thing and are clearly distinct in some important ways, so that ends up confusing the issue.
i'll have to think about that.
getfiscal posted:Lessons posted:i think this is the article JMP wanted to write but didn't study/care enough to actually do it
http://www.colorado.edu/Sociology/gimenez/work/cgr.htmlhe wrote his phd dissertation as a critique of anticolonial theory so i'm pretty sure he understands the debate (probably) but i think he did a bad job translating it into this article because he doesn't really explain why class anchors revolution except to say that other oppressions can't do it.
i dunno how hard it is to get a phd or what kind of ideological blinders philosophers get about anyone who isn't like the one dude they chose to research for 2 years, but his writings on philosophy are garbage. so i dunno
discipline posted:haha looks like someone got some weird messages from vivek chibber's new book
so the tubmlrs are literally just naming themselves after Elder Scrolls characters now. great
discipline posted:Lessons posted:
mccaine also wrote an article about identity politics recently, which was good and way clearer than JMP's but also kinda muddled and with a ton of unnecessary hedging
he's going to write a shorter, more concise version for MY BLOG
Good because I didn't understand it.
okay guys so there is no protest today because half the demonstrators were too depressed to go outside and another quarter decided that marching is ableist and fat-shaming