This roundtable brings together different voices in the articulation of queer Marxism in a discussion of its past, present and future.
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Queer Marxism emerged in the early 21st century, built upon a century of Marxist attempts to grapple with issues of sex and sexuality and as a corrective to the (sometimes valid) concerns of lesbian, gay and sexual politics activists that Marxists saw sexuality as a peripheral concern or space to impose class politics as the primary form of radicalism. It came, in the work of writers such as Rosemary Hennessy, Kevin Floyd, Christopher Chitty and some of the participants of this panel, to occupy a space of constructive synergies between queer and sex-positive thinking and Marxism. It has encouraged a more open, critical, inclusive and synergistic approach by Marxists to issues of sex and sexuality and the intimate and personal, as well as developing a persuasive understanding of the importance of the commodification of sexual lives and the need to engage with sex and sexuality at the political and public arenas.
This roundtable will explore key contemporary issues in the politics of sexuality and the power and effectiveness of queer Marxism as a key site of criticality. It will combine critical reflections on theoretical affinities and dissonances in Marxism and queer theory and politics, and how queer marxism can be the basis for a renewed politics of resistance, struggle and communist hegemony
Key Questions:
1. what are some of the key advances in queer marxism in the recent past?
2. What are some of the conditions that have led to this recent burgeoning of queer marxism?
3. What are some of the areas of queer marxism where more work is required?
4. What is innovative, insightful and critically constructive about queer marxism?
The panel are:
Holly Lewis is the author of The Politics of Everybody: Feminism, Queer Theory, and Marxism at the Intersection as well as a founding member of the Spectre editorial board. They are also Associate Professor of Philosophy at Texas State University where they teach philosophy of economics and philosophy of technology in addition to feminist philosophy and queer theory. They currently live in rural Texas.
Peter Drucker is a long-time queer and left-wing activist and writer, a Fellow of the Amsterdam-based International Institute for Research and Education, and the author of Warped: Gay Normality and Queer Anti-Capitalism (HM Books, 2015). A Castilian edition of Warped is forthcoming soon, with a new introduction on recent developments focusing on the current gender wars, racialised sexualities and queer geopolitics.'
Alan Sears is a queer socialist activist who has written about queer marxism, radical organizing and worker mobilization. He is currently working on a project using the lens of queer Marxism to explore Marxist theories of alienation.
Paul Reynolds is an editor of the Journal Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory. He is co-series editor of the University of Bristol/Policy press Book Series 'Sex and Intimacy in Later Life' and has written on sexual ethics and politics and Marxist theory and politics. He is current writing for publications on resexualising older people's lives, critical sexual literacy and Marxist theories of alienation, real abstraction, the commodity form and their characterisations of capitalist societies.
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