Gay Liberation in Canada:
A Socialist Perspective
The Significance of the New Radicalization
The tenth pan-Canadian convention of the LSA/LSO took place in April
1973 in Toronto, after a ten-month pre-convention discussion. Written
membership contributions filled 58 English-language discussion
bulletins, totaling 1,665 pages. Another edition of the discussion
bulletin was published in French.
Several contributions raised criticisms and proposals on the LSA/LSO’s
position on gay liberation. However, the major political differences
developed on other questions: Canadian nationalism, the national
struggle in Quebec, the New Democratic Party, the women’s liberation
movement. Three different tendencies developed on these questions, and
presented their viewpoints to the convention. Two of these tendencies
later split to form the Revolutionary Marxist Group, a sympathizing
organization of the Fourth International, and the Socialist League.
The gay liberation movement was taken up in two of the general
documents adopted by the 1973 convention.
The Political Resolution adopted by the convention (IDB, Vol. 9, No.
31) further developed the LSA/LSO’s position on gay liberation. The
organizational report (IDB Vol.1, No. 4) briefly discussed the LSA/LSO’s
participation in the gay movement.
The following are the relevant passages of these two documents.
The New Radicalization: New developments in the Class Struggle
(excerpts from the 1973 Political Resolution)
We are today in the first stages of a deep going process of
radicalization, in which ever-wider layers of the population are
beginning to question the assumptions, norms and shibboleths of this
society, to search for alternative values and courses of action, and to
move into action against their oppression and exploitation. (p. 21)
Growing out of the contradictions of capitalist society, other layers
of the population are mobilizing in their own names, around their own
demands, in struggles that challenge some of the most cherished
institutions, myths, and beliefs of this society. One of the most
significant is the women’s liberation movement — the second wave of
feminism in this century. (p. 29)
Sexism is rooted in capitalism; the fight against it is an integral
part of the anticapitalist struggle. Our ability to intervene in the
feminist movement, to learn from it and give it leadership through the
development and application of a program of transitional and democratic
demands that can lead the movement forward, is an important test of our
own movement. Already our movement’s intervention in the feminist
movement has won it respect and support from militants. (p. 31)
An indication of the depth of the current radicalization is the
mobilization of homosexuals against their oppression. Gay liberation
strikes at some of the deepest taboos of capitalist society, challenging
this society’s view of homosexuality as an illness or perversion. "Gay
pride" announces that homosexuality is a significant and legitimate
component of human sexuality.
Gay people constitute a large and significant oppressed minority in
this society — many studies estimate that at least 10 percent of the
population is homosexual. Gays are rebelling against laws and societal
prejudices that are designed to compel them to hide their existence,
their sexuality. The revolutionary socialists of the LSA/LSO completely
and unconditionally support full civil liberties and human rights for
gay people. (pp. 32-33)
Each radicalization differs from previous radicalizations. This one
is unique for the depth and breadth of the struggles of layers which
constitute the leading edge of the process — a process which has only
begun, and has yet to draw in the main contingents of the industrial
working class. This is one of the strongest features of this
radicalization. For the deeper, the more extensive the mobilization of
these layers, under their own leaderships, with their own demands, the
deeper and more powerful will be the struggle of the class as a whole.
Revolutionaries have every interest in propelling forward all these
struggles, extending their mobilization, deepening their independent
organization, and their critique of capitalist society. (p. 37)
Policy on Intervention in Gay Liberation
(from the Organizational Report)
While some initial contributions on gay liberation were presented in
the Discussion Bulletin by comrades in Toronto and Vancouver, the course
of the discussion did not lead to an adequate discussion of the
important questions involved. The incoming Central Committee will have
to consider organizing a discussion on this issue. The Political
Committee recommends that in the interim, our work in the gay liberation
area proceed in the same form, and be governed by the same norms, as in
other areas. Where gay liberation is a viable work area, branches should
assign comrades to this work, and if several comrades are assigned they
should operate as a regular fraction with a fraction coordinator, and
report regularly to the branch executive and the branch itself as do all
other work areas.
This work will, in our opinion, facilitate deepening the experience
of the party in the period before the discussion is renewed. (p. 20)
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