The Cold War is over but many people are unaware of just how fiercely it was fought, particularly as a war of ideas in trade unions, on university campuses and in the media. One of the more interesting episodes was the attempt by the Soviets to trigger revolution in the late nineteen sixties. At the heart of this attempt was the movement known as "Liberation Politics".
Many women say they agree with "women's lib" rather than agreeing with the "women's movement", many gays admit to supporting "gay liberation" rather than "gay rights" but what does the term "liberation" mean when attached to gay, women, palestinian etc.?
The earliest usage of the term "women's liberation" is in 1966 in an article by Juliet Mitchell in the "New Left Review" which was openly Marxist-Leninist. Soon afterwards numerous university socialist societies "budded off" womens liberation groups. The term "gay liberation" came from the "Gay Liberation Front" which was set up after the Stonewall Riots in New York in 1969. The main activists in the Gay Liberation movement were left wingers and the GLF even voted funds to support Castro in Cuba. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was founded in 1967 and declared itself to be a Marxist-Leninist organisation in 1969. The Black Liberation Army was the successor to the Black Panthers (founded 1966), both these organisations were Marxist Leninist revolutionary fronts.
So between 1966 and 1969 numerous "liberation" movements were set up. These liberation fronts exploited and infiltrated existing organisations such as the women's movement, gay rights organisations and organisations for the advancement of coloured people etc. to gain support. It is no coincidence that the original full names for many of these liberation movements was "popular front for" or "liberation front", a strange terminology that originated with Comintern, the organisation employed by the Soviet Union to expand its empire across the world (the Comintern was succeeded by direct KGB control).
What is intriguing about these "liberation" movements is that they allowed extreme left wingers who were acting as agents for the Soviets to infiltrate existing movements. There can be no doubt that the synergy that resulted from the control of these movements by the left enhanced their effectiveness with Women's Liberation members attending Gay Liberation activities and vice versa. Centrist members of women's and gay movements attended both activities without realizing that the Liberation Fronts had a common origin and subversive agenda.
Of course, it is ironic that the communist empire that was sponsoring these activities did not respect gay or women's rights and would have shot all of these activists if the global revolution had succeeded. The objective of the Soviets in the period 1966-1970 was to polarize Western societies, setting black against white, women against men, gays against the rest etc., to lay the groundwork for a full blown revolution. Fortunately they failed. Even with these new organisations the communists could only produce a damp squib of a revolution in 1968. After 1968 the gradual acceptance of the agendas of Women's Rights and Gay Rights in the West meant that the net result of the Liberation Fronts was to make the West even less like a Soviet tyranny than it had been before.
Overall, some of the achievements of the "liberation" movements have been positive, for instance, the mobilisation of the whole left towards support for Women's Movements must have accelerated the move to equality that has occurred over the past 40 years. However, some of the leading lights of these Liberation Movements were treacherous people who were hoping for revolution and tyranny rather than true "liberation" and should be viewed with deep suspicion because they had the hearts of traitors. Had they been successful in their desire for tyranny they would, of course, have all been shot.
In conclusion, few of you reading this actually support "Women's Liberation" or "Gay Liberation" although large numbers may support "Women's Rights" or "Gay Rights".
POLITICAL THOUGHTS click here to see the whole POLITICAL THOUGHTS magazine!
Women: The Longest Revolution
Juliet Mitchell, NLR I/40, November-December 1966, pp. 11-37
Many women say they agree with "women's lib" rather than agreeing with the "women's movement", many gays admit to supporting "gay liberation" rather than "gay rights" but what does the term "liberation" mean when attached to gay, women, palestinian etc.?
So between 1966 and 1969 numerous "liberation" movements were set up. These liberation fronts exploited and infiltrated existing organisations such as the women's movement, gay rights organisations and organisations for the advancement of coloured people etc. to gain support. It is no coincidence that the original full names for many of these liberation movements was "popular front for" or "liberation front", a strange terminology that originated with Comintern, the organisation employed by the Soviet Union to expand its empire across the world (the Comintern was succeeded by direct KGB control).
What is intriguing about these "liberation" movements is that they allowed extreme left wingers who were acting as agents for the Soviets to infiltrate existing movements. There can be no doubt that the synergy that resulted from the control of these movements by the left enhanced their effectiveness with Women's Liberation members attending Gay Liberation activities and vice versa. Centrist members of women's and gay movements attended both activities without realizing that the Liberation Fronts had a common origin and subversive agenda.
Of course, it is ironic that the communist empire that was sponsoring these activities did not respect gay or women's rights and would have shot all of these activists if the global revolution had succeeded. The objective of the Soviets in the period 1966-1970 was to polarize Western societies, setting black against white, women against men, gays against the rest etc., to lay the groundwork for a full blown revolution. Fortunately they failed. Even with these new organisations the communists could only produce a damp squib of a revolution in 1968. After 1968 the gradual acceptance of the agendas of Women's Rights and Gay Rights in the West meant that the net result of the Liberation Fronts was to make the West even less like a Soviet tyranny than it had been before.
Overall, some of the achievements of the "liberation" movements have been positive, for instance, the mobilisation of the whole left towards support for Women's Movements must have accelerated the move to equality that has occurred over the past 40 years. However, some of the leading lights of these Liberation Movements were treacherous people who were hoping for revolution and tyranny rather than true "liberation" and should be viewed with deep suspicion because they had the hearts of traitors. Had they been successful in their desire for tyranny they would, of course, have all been shot.
In conclusion, few of you reading this actually support "Women's Liberation" or "Gay Liberation" although large numbers may support "Women's Rights" or "Gay Rights".
POLITICAL THOUGHTS click here to see the whole POLITICAL THOUGHTS magazine!
Women: The Longest Revolution
Juliet Mitchell, NLR I/40, November-December 1966, pp. 11-37
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