Anarchic update news all over the world - 17.01.2018

Today's Topics:

   
1.  Poland, WORKERS' INITIATIVE: We iron, cook,      work and make an
      abortion (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Czech, afed: Eastern border of Europe -- The chicanes of
      refugees from the east [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  black rose fed: SOLIDARITY WITH THE POPULAR PROTESTS IN
      IRAN! (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Greece, Assembly of anarchists for social and class
      emancipation - January 12, 2018: Strike against the restriction
      of the right to strike (ca, gr) [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Greece, Libertarian Initiative of Thessaloniki: Turks and
      Kurds persecuted fighters are not alone. (gr) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Britain, surrey and hampshire anarchist federation:
      Transphobia is a class issue, Anarchist Federation.
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1





"Measure has changed" - a demonstration against the restriction of access to abortion 
(Warsaw, 13/01/2018) ---- Speech by Katarzyna Rakowska at the "Miarka sie przebrala" 
demonstration against the restriction of access to abortion (Warsaw, 13/01/2018). ---- We 
do abortions. We iron, cook, give birth to children, raise children, commute to work for 
hours, work. Politicians! Hypocrites! Abortion is a part of our life. ---- By taking away 
our right to a safe, universal, cheap abortion, you are forcing us to take credits, 
forcing us to borrow, forcing us to take vacations in order to go to a foreign clinic 
instead of taking a rest. You are forcing us to look for dangerous, unknown means on the 
Internet. Disgrace! ---- You are depriving us of the right to basic medical services, as 
you take away from us the right to other public services. You privatize nurseries and 
kindergartens, privatize water, privatize electricity, privatize transport and take away 
the right to medical service.

Almost four years ago in Ilawa, in a factory processing turkey meat, a woman gave birth to 
a baby change, in the bathroom. She threw the child out of the fence and returned to the 
production line. Media lynching took place on it. And none of you asked, what contract she 
had, how much she worked, whether she was entitled to maternity benefit, or had any help. 
A few years ago, a colleague from the trade union told me that she had miscarried in the 
bathroom and returned to work on the tape at the candy factory. This is our life, and you 
have it in your ass.

You force us to work and leave us alone. But we are not alone. In the Workers' Initiative 
and in dozens of women's collectives, we support each other, we collect money, exchange 
information, we are together.

Local and parliamentary elections are going. You need us, we are not you. Fuck you!

We work, we cook, we clean up, we give birth to children, we have abortions. We organize 
ourselves, we take care of ourselves, we do not leave any woman alone. Solidarity with our 
weapons!

http://ozzip.pl/teksty/publicystyka/spoleczenstwo/item/2332-prasujemy-gotujemy-pracujemy-robimy-aborcje

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Message: 2





The European Union has been criticizing the anarchist movement since time immemorial. 
Beyond its very nature, its border protection policy, notably from the establishment of 
Frontex border and coastguard guards, is notoriously violating the Geneva Convention and 
international law and overseeing the inconvenience of inconvenient poor from third world 
countries. Direct actions in detention centers and direct solidarity support for people 
fleeing war, persecution, hunger or drought are all over the anti-authoritarian platform 
of No Borders. ---- The same subject was taken up by the chauvinist part of the 
conservative right (otherwise very liberal in the economic sphere), which literally 
negates the problem. With the help of Russian trolls and American Conservative 
think-tanks, this miserable political direction has succeeded in unleashing the 
disinformation war and escaping the shovel of history from the bucket. Hate-based 
ideology, in addition to the mass media, was also surprisingly taken up in liberal 
democratic parties such as the CSSD and the ODS, as well as in the KSCM. It is based on 
the legend of the invading Islamist army that wants to submit to Europe, or at least the 
shards of social states that can be found here. The parallel product is the Renaissance 
rigid version of nationalism. This propaganda lies on all fronts. On the Eastern front, 
restless and neglected, it is completely dry.

Speech is about the obsessed Caucasians, mingled between the Proamanian and Pro-Russian 
conservatism wheels of the mill. The humanitarian crisis, which is of little interest, was 
hit by Belarusian Brest. People who are trying to cross the walls of the fortress come 
mostly from Chechnya, but there are also people from Kyrgyzstan, Dagestan and Ingushetia. 
Although the Chechen War has long been a past, it is far from being a safe region. The 
lion's share of the critical security situation is played by the bad boy Vladimir Putin, 
the Islamic klerofasist Ramzan Achmatovich Kadyrov, who has been driving Chechnya for more 
than ten years.

Kadyrov's criminal career is long as toilet paper. To counter Chechen gossip with Putin 
behind his back can only a person rejoiced with his death. His opponents talk about the 
list of people to remove the three hundred names. Kadyrov's tenants are probably operating 
around the world. For example, Umar Israilov was executed in Vienna. Movladi Baisarov said 
that "Kadyrov acts as a medieval tyrant. If anyone says the truth about what's going on, 
it's about signing his own death sentence. Ramzan is a law in itself. He can do whatever 
he thinks. She can grab any woman and do with her what she wants. (...) Ramzan acts 
absolutely impotently. I know of many executed at his command, and I know exactly where 
they are buried. "Soon he was killed by Kadyrov gorillas two kilometers from the Kremlin.

Other witnesses report on the systematic discharge of sexual minorities and the existence 
of concentration camps. Last year there was a news that a further mass elimination of 
sexual minorities was scheduled for May 26, 2017, the day of the start of Ramadan. Kadyrov 
is also an agile internet crusher. He has three million fans on Instagram, only 760 
thousand on Facebook. He is the most coveted Russian bloger. The situation in Ingushetia, 
Dagestan and Kyrgyzstan is the same in pale blue. The Caucasus region is still struggling 
with the legacy of war conflicts, fanatical salatifism and no less fanatical rulers of 
medieval editing.

The people imprisoned at Brest Central Station due to opportunistic political decisions 
are predominantly Kadyrov's opponents and their families, victims of torture, people 
fleeing bloodshed, persecuted women, opponents who refused to enter Donbas or Syria, and 
especially children whose ortel was spoken in date of birth. Their numbers are still 
growing. In 2013, 40,000 Chechens applied for asylum in Europe. Until the unleashing of 
the anti-hysteria hysteria was not a problem with their acceptance. Kaczyn's conservative 
government, however, stopped accepting the Caucasians, saying that the region had not been 
battering long ago. The German liberals, who at the same time refused to accept the 
Caucasians, despite Angela Merkel's indefinite rebuke criticism, for a very friendly 
attitude towards the refugees, would despair. In 2015, Polish border guards returned to 
Belarus 53,000 Caucasians,

Several hundred of them still live in Brest station today. Zofia Brom, an anarchist 
publisher, Freedom Press, says: "Every day, dozens of people take a train to Poland in the 
hope of being granted refugee status. Very few people succeed. The rest returns to Brest 
to try their luck the following day. Some have already had eight attempts. "A ticket to 
Poland will cost one family at around 50 euros. Many Caucasians complain about the 
indiscriminate practices of Polish border guards who treat them as terrorists. Those who 
have the money are bruised by Brest property owners and end up at the station where they 
are waiting for unbuffered halls without lighting, a toll charged and tapped water. 
Sleeping can only be sessed and it is also true for children.

The reception of refugees from non-liberal countries has been widely used by the 
propaganda tool of the West, but fogging is cheaper. The Iron Curtain now stands between 
Brest and Terespole.

Source: https://freedomnews.org.uk/fortress-europe-a-view-from-its-eastern-border/

https://www.afed.cz/text/6776/vychodni-hranice-pevnosti-evropa

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Message: 3






We are reposting this statement on the recent/ongoing protests in Iran written by our 
comrades from the Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists. #IranProtests #ClassStruggle ---- 
We, the Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists, support the popular protests in Iran and 
call on progressives in the region and throughout the world to stand in solidarity with 
them as well. We believe it is an absolute necessity to build regional and global 
solidarity with anti-authoritarian struggles for democracy, social justice and equality, 
and to oppose patriarchy, racism, sectarian or homophobic discrimination and prejudice. We 
hope that the current protests in Iran will force the Iranian regime to withdraw its 
military and financial support for the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria,  and 
to end its reactionary interventions in the region.  We also hope that the efforts by some 
elements to inject anti-Arab chauvinism into the movement will be rejected in order to 
reach out to grassroots struggles across the region.

Solidarity with the popular protests in Iran!
Statement from Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists
January 11, 2018

Since December 28, 2017, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been shaken by a wave of social 
protests unprecedented since the 2009 Green Movement.   The protests first erupted in 
Mashhad, a  holy city and Iran's second largest city near the northeastern border. 
Protesters opposed the rise in prices of basic goods and increasing poverty, chanted 
"death to Rouhani",  "death to the dictator[Ayatollah Khamenei]" and called for an end to 
Iran's military intervention in Syria and Lebanon.    Protests quickly  spread to more 
than 100 cities and villages throughout Iran, including the capital city of Tehran.

So far, at least 22 individuals have been killed (3 in detention) and the violent security 
forces have arrested more than 3700 persons including 1000 in the southern city of Ahvaz, 
and many women who have been actively involved in the protests. Iran's  authoritarian 
regime has also blocked access to Telegram and Instagram instant messaging, which are 
heavily used, and has limited access to the internet by creating interferences. At least 
100 student activists, especially leftists and progressives, have been arrested and some 
have been released.   Security forces have surrounded and in some cases invaded university 
campuses. Other students and labor activists are being hunted and kidnapped from their 
homes and dorms. Those captured may well face torture.

The Iranian regime, similar to other authoritarian regimes of the region, has accused the 
protesters of being part of an international conspiracy led by the USA, Saudi Arabia and 
Israel.

The protests are rooted in socio-economic problems, notably poverty, unemployment, and 
political repression, lack of democratic freedoms such as freedom of speech and assembly. 
Furthermore, discrimination against women and national and religious minorities is 
intensifying opposition in an ethnically diverse population that has an 87% literacy rate 
and is connected to the world through the internet.    40% of the population lives under 
the relative poverty line and 90% of Iran's workers are contract workers without any 
rights and benefits.  The minimum wage of $230 per month, which is one fifth  of what is 
needed to support a family of four, is not even enforced.  Many Subsidies for basic food 
items and essential services were abolished between 2010 and 2014, during the presidencies 
of Mahmoud Ahamadinejad and  Hassan Rouhani. At the same time the prices of basic 
foodstuffs are exploding.   The share of  healthcare  in the budget has been slashed. 
Energy prices are going up.  All this, combined with rising general inflation (12% 
according to the regime and 40% in fact) is a new blow to the purchasing power of workers 
and the poorest segments of society.

At the same time, billions of dollars in the budget are  going to institutions/foundations 
related to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). These non-accountable and 
tax-exempt foundations are among the largest holding companies in the Middle East.   These 
foundations or "parastatal institutions" are in fact run by the state and led by the 
dignitaries of the regime and the leadership of the IRGC,  Iran's de facto military.  They 
hold more than 80% of the Iranian economy.   Furthermore,  In 2103, the Supreme Leader, 
Ayatollah Khamenei, controlled about 95 billion dollars through the Setad ("Setad ejraiye 
hazrate emam" or "Seat for the execution of the orders of the Imam"). It has shares in 
virtually every sector of the country's economy, from finance to oil, real estate and 
telecommunications.

Large portions of the profits which the state/IRGC extract from the Iranian/Middle Eastern 
labor force are  spent on direct and indirect military intervention and ideological 
propaganda in the region as well as funding security/police/basij forces inside the country.

The latests protests have actually been preceded by over a year of almost daily actions 
and strikes by workers against non-payment of wages and terrible working conditions, 
protests and strikes  by impoverished retirees, teachers, nurses as well as those who have 
lost their meager savings in bankrupt banks and financial institutions.   Many political 
prisoners, including Reza Shahabi, a labor leader, have been on hunger strike off and on 
for several years.

Two statement by independent labor organizations have declared their support for the most 
recent popular protests.   These statements have been issued by the Tehran Bus Workers 
Union and the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Workers Union,  as well as Five other  independent 
labor organizations (Free union of Iranian workers, Association of Electrical and Metal 
Workers of Kermanshah, Association of Painters of Alborz Province, Labor Defenders' 
Center,  Committee for the Pursuit of the Establishment of Labor Organizations).  We 
support their views which are summed up in the following passage:

"We, together with the toiling masses of Iran, shout something that should be clear: Our 
demands for an end to poverty and misery should be realized; all oppression and prisons 
should end; all political prisoners should be freed and predators of social wealth and 
those responsible for oppression should be prosecuted and tried, no matter what position 
they hold; the wealth stolen from people by financial institutions should be given back; 
the minimum wage of workers and employees of both public and private sectors be increased 
fivefold and the massive income of government authorities be slashed; the right of workers 
to form independent trade unions and civil organization and their unconditional freedom of 
speech and press and freedom of political parties is to be guaranteed and the demands of 
millions of Iranian masses be realized."

Most protesters have raised slogans against all factions of the authoritarian regime, 
whether the so-called "reformists" or the  hardliners, while calling for democracy, social 
justice and equality symbolized by the slogan "Bread, Work and Freedom."  Although the 
wave of street protests has receded after two weeks under the pressure of state 
repression, the struggle has now turned toward labor strikes and other industrial actions. 
   Many women's rights activists, teachers, families of political prisoners, various 
well-known intellectuals and artists are also publicly defending the protests.   Families 
of political prisoners have been protesting outside the Evin prison in Tehran and other 
prisons to demand their release.

Similar to the uprisings and popular protests in the region of  Middle East and North 
Africa since 2010-2011, these protests are a response to both economic impoverishment and 
political and social repression.  They have the added feature of opposing the military 
interventions of the Iranian regime in other countries of the region, especially Syria, 
symbolized by the slogan "Leave Syria Alone, Pay Attention to Us".

The Islamic Republic of Iran cannot be reformed.   Since 1979 when the Iranian revolution 
quickly transformed into a counter-revolution, Iranian youth, women and workers have been 
subjected  to a capitalist, reactionary and theocratic regime that represses, tortures and 
physically and systematically eliminates its opponents.

This is why we, the Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists, support the popular protests in 
Iran and call on progressives in the region and throughout the world to stand in 
solidarity with them as well. We believe it is an absolute necessity to build regional and 
global solidarity with anti-authoritarian struggles for democracy, social justice and 
equality, and to oppose patriarchy, racism, sectarian or homophobic discrimination and 
prejudice.  We hope that the current protests in Iran will force the Iranian regime to 
withdraw its military and financial support for the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad in 
Syria,  and to end its reactionary interventions in the region.   We also hope that the 
efforts by some elements to inject anti-Arab chauvinism into the movement will be rejected 
in order to reach out to grassroots struggles across the region.

We oppose all foreign imperialist interventions and demand an end  to the sanctions 
against Iran, which affect firstly and mostly the popular classes of the country.

We demand the release of all protesters, trade-unionists and other political prisoners.

Solidarity with the popular protests in Iran for democracy, social justice, and secularism!

Solidarity with our comrades!

No to Capitalism.  No to  Patriarchy!  No to Racism!  No to Sectarianism!  Yes to the 
unity of the popular classes!

Our destinies and our emancipation are linked!

http://blackrosefed.org/solidarity-popular-protests-iran/

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Message: 4





Follow the relative text of the Assembly of anarchists for social and class emancipation. 
---- Seven years after the entry of the State into a state of financial control, the 
government coalition continues to coordinate the offensive of the State and the employers 
against the great majority of society. ---- The Syriza party, after trying to absorb the 
recent mobilizations and take away the meaning, is now increasingly sharpening the 
repression of social and class struggles, self-organized and horizontal, which constitute 
a barrier against the onslaught of the State and Capital, promoting the processes of state 
and capitalist restructuring. ---- The real estate auctions together with the proposed law 
presented in the Parliament on  December 21, 2017 , which allows the persecution of those 
who fight against them, the introduction of the electronic ticket in the means of mass 
transport and the restructuring of the means of transport, which contribute to the 
continuation of the commodification and impose control and exclusion, the miserable 
conditions in the concentration camps (internment centers), being the most illustrative 
examples the dungeons of Petru Rali and Moria street, and the exemplary and cruel 
punishment of those who fight, the repression of the manifestations of high school and 
university students who demand the satisfaction of their fundamental needs, the The 
re-structuring of the Teaching, as well as the offensive against the structures of social 
and class struggle, and their criminalization, constitute parts of the planning of the 
offensive of the State and Capital, and are testimonies of its broad character.

One of the fronts of this offensive is the labor sector. Beginning with the vote of 32 
working Sundays in tourist areas, from May to October, and continuing with the opening of 
business eight Sundays a year nationwide, we reach the abolition of Sunday as a holiday. 
This abolition, along with flexible working hours (for example, white nights, Black 
Friday), the arbitrariness of the employers, the criminalization of union organization and 
action (an illustrative example are the persecutions of several members of the Waiters 
Union and Cooks, accused of "blackmail" and "endangering the political regime") and the 
abolition of collective agreements, intensify the exploitation of workers. On the other 
hand, the liberalization of dismissals, the arrests of workers and strikers (a recent 
example are the arrests of workers outside the Market In supermarket in Ioannina), the 
increase in the number of murders of workers and workers in the dungeons of exploitation 
(according to official data, in 2015there were 5,930 occupational accidents, of which 67 
were fatal, in 2016 there were 6,515 occupational accidents, of which 72 were fatal, and 
already in the first quarter of 2017 there was an increase in accidents at work of 15%), 
as well as the constant blackmail of the dismissal, have created a limit survival 
conditions, and subject workers to a flexible and disciplined work model.

Being in the same direction the government coalition, continuing to form the conditions 
within which the state and capitalist cruelty offensive against the plebeian strata of 
society is expressed, today is trying to modify the clauses of the law on the calling of a 
strike. On Friday , January 12, 2018 , the Parliament presents itself in which the 
necessary clauses (required) for the third evaluation are included. Will be voted on with 
brief processes on Monday , January 15, 2018. Among others, a new offensive against the 
right to strike is being unleashed, since strict limitations are placed on its calling. 
Until today for the calling of a strike, the first general assembly required a third of 
the votes of the members of the union that had paid their subscription, and a fifth of 
them in the third assembly. From now on, 50% of them will be required, and the right to 
call a strike will be eliminated.

In addition, the clauses on "work accidents" will be modified, at the moment when the 
murders and repression of the workers are increasing for the profit and capitalist and 
state development, so it is not their fault the boss. In fact, the legal aspect of "work 
accidents" is abolished.

Against the constant degradation of our lives, the asphyxiating conditions of social 
exclusion, submission and indigence, imposed by the State and Capital, it is necessary to 
overcome the discontent, the inertia and the fatality.

Natives, immigrants, secondary and university students, workers and the unemployed, we 
must fight in a self-organized way, without mediators and hierarchies, against state and 
capitalist berberism, organize the social and class counterattack from below, reinforce 
the struggle for revolution social, the only realistic perspective of the exploited and 
the oppressed all over the world.

Organization at the base, social and class emancipation. Fight for social revolution, 
anarchy and libertarian communism.

Concentration on the day of the strike, Friday , January 12, 2018 , at 12: 00h, in the 
Propylaea of the old University of Athens.

Assembly of anarchists for social and class emancipation

http://verba-volant.info/es/12-de-enero-de-2018-huelga-contra-la-restriccion-del-derecho-de-huelga/

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Message: 5





On 28/11, a few days before Erdogan's visit to Athens, counter-terrorism invaded three 
houses, without any prosecution order, by arresting 9 political refugees from Turkey and 
Kurdistan. After being beaten both during the arrest, detention in GADA, and in the 
courts, they were imprisoned and dispersed in 8 different prisons across the country, not 
at all by chance, since apart from isolation, they themselves do not speak Greek and 
access and communication with a lawyer becomes difficult in this way because of economic 
parameters and distance itself. ---- By the time they were arrested, in the Mass Media. a 
storm of reactionary delusions that spoke of "foreign terrorists" - publishing their 
photographs online - "national danger", "case of lawlessness" and Erdogan's "murderous 
hit" scenario, orchestrated by the leaders of the deep state and performed in public 
speech by channels and newspapers such as "The Vima". Similarly, terrorist propaganda was 
created in the Turkish regime. The 9 fighters refuse accusations, while their homes have 
not found anything to incriminate them. The approach of the repressive business built on 
their backs is reflected in the so-called "terrorist evidence" found by counter-terrorism: 
a desk clock, pocket knives and batteries,

After their arrest, two of the arrested were informed that a Turkish warrant is pending in 
Turkey. Both of them had been tortured in the past in Turkish prisons and injured in the 
operation of the Turkish state "Return to Life" (this repressive operation in prisons, in 
2000, had an appalling account of 28 murdered prisoners, while 6 women were burned live). 
In that operation, one of the two Turkish fighters who have been released has lost sight 
of him. The Greek state does not hesitate to throw the two fighters into the mouth of the 
wolf, to offer them as a gift to Erdogan and his death- in order to pursue a substitute 
logic for his refusal to attribute to the Turkish state the officers who participated in 
the failed coup against Erdogan on 15/7/2016, which he holds in Greece as diplomatic paper 
for his foreign policy. The same was done on 30/12/2017, when the "left" Greek Government 
filed an application for the annulment of the Second Board of Appeal's decision to grant 
asylum to one of the 8 Turkish soldiers.

SYRIZA. continues the tradition of abductions, imprisonments, persecutions and editions of 
Turkish and Kurdish fighters, as he did with "diligence" and the government of New 
Democracy. on Samara, proving that the Greek state has continued. It has continued to 
barbarity and to exterminate the bottom, to reproduce as far as possible the political 
freedom, economic exploitation and generalized injustice. At the time when the capitalist 
crisis is exacerbated, as are the geopolitical conflicts for the accumulation of wealth, 
nationalist rhetoric is primed by the bourgeoisie and the state apparatus to break the 
class clashes of proletarians and internationalist solidarity. The state and capital, but 
also all their associated supportive and functional mechanisms,

We have to realize that the oppressed and the hard of this world do not have to divide 
anything between us. Our common enemy is state and capital, not people who are in the same 
social and class as ours. In the subdued conflict between the Greek state and the Turkish, 
the Greek bourgeoisie with the Turkish, the Greek nationalism with the Turkish, the only 
losers of the case are the proletarians of the two countries. In order not to become 
disposable pawns in the sovereign designs, it is imperative to advance and create ties of 
international solidarity with those who are on the same side of the camp camp.

That is why our solidarity with the 9 Turkish and Kurdish militants is unparalleled, as is 
our support for hunger strikers Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, who have now exceeded 300 
days of hunger strike, claiming their re-election, lifting legislative acts and the 
termination of the emergency regime in Turkey. The dominant narrative calls terrorists 
those who struggle against the tyranny of the state and capital. For us the decoding of 
the above message has to do with the side of the class camp in which everyone is. And we 
are in the opposite camp. In the camp of the oppressed and the exploited, those who live 
by their work, the unemployed, the poor and the unloved.

The struggle for universal emancipation is social, class and international. In this 
struggle we will not let any part of our class become a bore to the teeth of the state and 
of capital. Our solidarity challenges the monopoly of violence by the state and auxiliary 
mechanisms, erect dikes against the attacks of the state and capital and weaves 
relationships of class and social link between the from below, which will trigger the 
overthrow of the state and of capitalism with a view to a direct transition to the 
indefinite and equitable universal human coexistence of anarchy.

NO PUBLICATION OF THE 2 TURKISH COMPETITORS

DIRECT AVOIDANCE OF 9 TURKISH AND CURRENT COMPETITORS

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AGAINST THE HEARING OF THE STATE AND CAPITAL

Solidarity Fund for Prisoners and Persecuted Fighters of Thessaloniki

Eleftherial Initiative of Thessaloniki

Solidarity (s)

https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2018/01/11

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Message: 6






[Content warning: In addition to transphobia in the abstract, this piece discusses 
harassment, violence and abuse. Some sources linked to for reference purposes feature 
transphobic abuse and slurs.] ---- Transphobia is a class issue. By this I mean that in a 
class society that is also deeply transphobic, it is impossible to talk about transphobia 
in a meaningful way without also talking about class. Trans people are more likely, all 
other things being equal, than our cis peers to fall into the most exploited and oppressed 
sections of the working class and the extent to which transphobia will negatively affect 
any given trans person's life will be mediated by their economic class. This article is 
not intended to be a comprehensive analysis of every aspect of this issue, but to 
contribute to an ongoing conversation around it and illustrate a class struggle 
perspective on transgender issues.

By transphobia I mean two related phenomena:

Overt, intentional hostility to or disregard towards the wellbeing of trans people and;
Social structures and systems which put trans people at a relative disadvantage to cis 
people within society.
These two types of transphobia are not strictly distinct and one often creates or 
reinforces the other.

Often when discussing transphobia popular discourse focuses on overt, interpersonal 
hostility and street level violent hate crime. While these are indeed real and very 
serious issues, this focus on the interpersonal and the overt often leads to a failure to 
recognise the measurable economic effects of transphobia on trans lives. This constitutes 
a form of hidden, endemic, systematic violence against working class trans people.

A 2015 EU report found that trans people in the EU were more likely than their cis peers 
to be in the bottom 25% of earners and that around a third of trans people reported 
experiencing workplace discrimination in the year leading up to the survey and a similar 
proportion had experienced discrimination while looking for housing. Unsurprisingly, given 
high levels of workplace discrimination and general social stigma, trans people are 
disproportionately more likely to experience unemployment. Emma Rundall carried out a 
survey of trans people as part of her 2010 PhD thesis and found that 14% of respondents 
were unemployed, around two and a half times the then national unemployment rate (pp 139 
of thesis), this is consistent with a general trend in the literature for higher rates of 
unemployment amongst trans people.

Housing discrimination and high rates of family rejection and abuse also lead to higher 
rates of homelessness for LGBTQ people as a whole and particularly LGBTQ youth. A 2015 
report by the Albert Kennedy Trust found that LGBTQ youth were "grossly over-represented 
within youth homeless populations", stating that one in four young homeless people were 
LGBTQ, the report also found that a majority of young LGBTQ homeless people reported 
rejection or abuse at home as a major factor in their homelessness, with an overwhelming 
majority of housing providers failing to recognise the unique and specific needs of this 
marginalised community for housing support. Specific figures for trans people alone in the 
UK are difficult to find, however in Canada, a culturally similar developed nation, the 
research and community organisation Trans Pulse carried out a study of health outcomes in 
123 trans people aged 16-24, with a view to measuring the effect of parental support. All 
respondents reporting "strongly supportive" parents reported being adequately housed, 
however, almost half of the two thirds of respondents who did not have strongly supportive 
parents were "inadequately housed" (homeless or in a precarious housing situation), around 
one third of the total sample.

(Albert Kennedy Trust, 2015)

As well as the economic effects of transphobia itself, we can also consider the 
intersections of transphobia and class, i.e. the ways in which class and transphobia 
interact and magnify each others' effects; the greater financial resilience of the middle 
and boss classes, the ability of wealthier trans people to buy their way out of some forms 
of transphobia, the classed nature of the bureaucracies that trans people are often forced 
to navigate and the elevation of privileged voices within the broader trans community as 
the authentic voices of all trans people.

A core component of transphobia at present is medical gatekeeping, the process by which 
trans people are forced to jump through semi-arbitrary hoops in order to access certain 
kinds of trans specific healthcare. In Sex Educations: Gendering and Regendering Women 
Lisa Milbank discusses real life experience (RLE), a period of time in which trans people 
are expected to present "full time" as their gender in order to access certain kinds of 
healthcare, as a form of socially enforced "breaking" in which trans women are subjected 
to "an experience of public freakhood, composed of constant stares, transphobic harassment 
and potentially violence, without access to much of the (intensely double-edged) training 
given to cissexual women on how to survive this", while Milbank focuses on the experience 
of transsexual women in particular, this also applies to some extent to the experience of 
other trans people. One's ability to pass as cis (to be read by most people as a cis 
person of one's appropriate gender) will heavily influence the extent to which RLE is a 
dangerous and potentially traumatic experience. Since passing as cis takes the form, in 
part, of being able to perform conventional cis norms, which are themselves heavily 
classed (and racialised), a trans person's ability to do so will be mediated by their 
class status. I.e. the wealthier a person is, the more likely they are to be able to 
afford to take additional, elective steps (extensive hair removal, specialised clothing to 
hide or accentuate particular gendered body traits, etc.) to increase their chance of 
passing as cis. In this way, middle class and boss class trans people are more easily able 
to navigate gatekeeping in order to access healthcare and sidestep the harmful effects of 
RLE in a transphobic society. Similarly, since transphobia often takes the form of 
institutional and economic discrimination and/or family and community rejection, an 
individual trans person's financial security becomes their ability to cope with isolation 
financially and to remove themselves from harmful situations (e.g. a neighbourhood in 
which they are frequently harassed or a family home in which they are rejected or abused) 
is key to their ability to survive and thrive in a transphobic society. While all trans 
people experience and are harmed by transphobia, the extent of that harm will inevitably 
be strongly classed.

To live as a trans person in today's society is to frequently find ourselves bumping 
against the various bureaucracies that serve as its basis, from things as theoretically 
simple as changing one's legal name to navigating the complaints procedures of government 
departments or companies in order to secure some kind of accountability for another 
instance of transphobia. While this is, in theory, something anybody can learn to do, 
these bureaucratic institutions are complex and exclusionary by design and often function 
to favour middle class people. In this way, yet again working class trans people suffer an 
additional burden from transphobia.

So given that trans people are disproportionately more likely to live in poverty and 
transphobia's worst effects are experienced most by working class people, why is this not 
a part of the media discourse on trans people? Why are some of the most prominent media 
trans voices wealthy, right wing figures like Caitlyn Jenner? Part of this is precisely 
because transphobia is strongly classed; as discussed above the wealthiest people will 
find it easiest to "pass" and meet the standards of conformity to cis-heteronormative 
standards expected of professional voices in the media. Equally it is the case that middle 
class and rich trans people are simply more likely to have the necessary connections to be 
a major media presence. Where it includes trans voices at all, mainstream discourse on 
trans issues is dominated by an unrepresentative minority of wealthy, white, middle class, 
trans women. It would be remiss of me not to note an obvious irony here since, while I am 
far from wealthy and never have been, as a white postgrad student I am myself far from 
representative of the majority of trans people and, in my defence, I do not claim to be.

A common means of dismissing trans people's attempts to raise issues that affect us or 
criticise institutions or public figures that have harmed us as a group is to dismiss us 
as privileged. Trans people are a bunch of middle class kids or a load of wealthy 
university students who are just looking for something to complain about. For example, 
after the well-established journalist Suzanne Moore went on a bizarre, transphobic tirade 
on Twitter in response to criticism over the wording in one of her articles, fellow career 
journalist Julie Burchill wrote a piece, initially published in the Observer but 
eventually withdrawn and then republished by Spiked, which while largely consisting of a 
series of transphobic slurs also perfectly illustrated this ideological tendency. After 
claiming that she and other transphobic journalists are "part of the tiny minority of 
women of working-class origin to make it in what used to be called Fleet Street", Burchill 
goes on to depict trans people as academics with "big swinging PhDs", attempting to 
silence working class cis women by arguing about "semantics" (the semantics in this case 
being Moore's use of "Brazilian transsexuals", a group plagued by particularly high levels 
of poverty and violence, as a throwaway pejorative). While trans academics certainly 
exist, we are far from the majority of trans people or even trans activists, nor are we 
necessarily as highly privileged as Burchill would like to suggest. By engaging in this 
erasure of working class trans people, transphobes are able to both trivialise the 
serious, material effects of transphobia as discussed above and rhetorically exclude trans 
people from the working class.

In her excellent 2008 essay ‘Liberal Multiculturalism is the Hegemony - Its an Empirical 
Fact' - A response to Slavoj Žižek, Sara Ahmed points out that racism is often projected 
onto the white working class, with liberal prohibitions on overt bigotry serving merely as 
a means to locate bigotry in some marginalised other. We see a similar process with 
transphobia, bigotry against trans people is positioned as definitively working class, and 
thus the existence of working class trans people can be ignored as impossible by 
definition. A well paid Observer journalist can mock trans people en masse as middle class 
kids, obsessed with identity politics, because everybody knows that real working class 
people are white, cishet and hostile to anybody who is not white or cishet. The reality, 
of course, is that this image of an "ordinary" working class as the default is a fantasy, 
the working class is a weird, wonderful and diverse class and only a politics that 
recognises the many and varied ways in which we experience exploitation and oppression can 
allow us to build a movement to end oppression, end exploitation and ultimately abolish 
class itself.

Originally from Anarchasteminist

https://anarchasteminist.wordpress.com/2017/12/17/transphobia-is-a-class-issue/

https://surreyandhampshireanarchistfederation.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/transphobia-is-a-class-issue/

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