What’s wrong with the left?

Peter Tatchell says sections of the left have abandoned universal
human rights and solidarity with the victims of oppression

London – Solidarity newspaper, 5 February 2005

Has the left lost the plot? On a number of key issues, sections of the
left seem to have abandoned the principles of universal human rights
and social justice.

For many years I have done solidarity work with Zimbabweans struggling
for democracy, socialism and human rights. They have not had much
support from the mainstream left.

Why Zimbabwe? I have a copy of ZANU’s 1970s political programme: it’s
goals were a socialist democracy with a free press and worker’s
rights. That is why I supported Mugabe and ZANU in their liberation
struggle. It is also why I now oppose the present tyranny. Mugabe has
abandoned the left values he once stood for.

Comparing Zimbabwe today and South Africa under apartheid, the police
state methods are not dissimilar. There was a huge global movement to
isolate apartheid. But, despite 20 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe, there
is no organised left solidarity campaign with Zimbabwean
oppositionists. At the weekly protest outside the Zimbabwean High
Commission, I’ve never seen any organised left groups. Why not?

If you make a roll-call of deaths and destruction, the sad fact is
Mugabe has killed more black Africans than apartheid ever did. In the
1980s alone in Matabeleland – just one region of Zimbabwe – 20,000
black Africans were massacred because they were deemed supporters of
Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU. These people were not insurgents, they were
civilians. Where were the left-wing protests? Where was the campaign
for sanctions against Mugabe?

Under ZANU-PF’s tyranny, rape is now used as a political weapon -
against both men and women. A journalist who surveyed Zimbabwean
political refugees in South Africa found that two-thirds of the men
had been raped by Mugabe’s henchmen. A Zimbabwean opposition member of
Parliament was among those raped. Even in apartheid’s worst days I
can’t remember rape being used on such a massive scale against
political detainees.

In the last three years there have been frequent suppression of
strikes and arrests of trade union leaders - some of whom have been
beaten and tortured. Where is the left solidarity movement with
Zimbabwean workers?

Sadly much of the left no longer appears to believe in the principles
of international socialist solidarity. Even those who do, haven’t done
much about it when it comes to the abuses in Zimbabwe.

And worse, it has become fashionable for some left-wingers to say that
those of us who are trying to build solidarity with progressive
movements in developing countries are racists and neo-colonialists.
I’ve been attacked so many times by black and left activists (mostly
members of the SWP). They cannot accept that Mugabe, once a liberation
hero, has now turned into the opposite, a tyrant; that he has followed
the political trajectory of a one-time socialist like Stalin. Mugabe
started out a good guy, with good ideals, but he has become corrupted
by power. A leader’s good actions in the past cannot exonerate them
from criticism when they betray the very values for which they
originally fought.

We are witnessing a real crisis on the left. There is so much moral
equivocation, compromise and uncertainty about what used to be very
clear left values. We used to say: we stand in solidarity with the
oppressed; it doesn’t matter what race they are, or the race of the
perpetrator. All oppression must be resisted.

Now moral and cultural relativism is gaining ground on the left. We
are told every community is different - with different values,
different histories and therefore different ways of dealing with
issues. It is true you can’t impose a blue print. But there are
universal socialist values. When people in developing countries are
fighting abuses like female genital mutilation, it is clear where we
should stand. We wouldn’t tolerate such barbarism here, so we
shouldn’t tolerate it there. Southall Black Sisters and Women Against
Fundamentalism have long campaigned against honour killings, domestic
violence and genital mutilation in the UK. Quite right too. So why
shouldn’t we show solidarity with women in other countries who are
resisting the patriarchal practices of excising young girls clitorises
and sewing up their vaginas?

When human rights violations are perpetrated by people who happen to
be non-white, much of the left runs a mile. They are fearful of being
accused of racism and neo-colonialism. Does that help oppressed
people? Of course not! Their oppressors rejoice.

Mugabe must be thrilled that the international left has not campaigned
to isolate him. He can point the finger and say, it is only the
western colonialists who oppose them.

Why did so many of the left stand back and do nothing during the
terrible genocides in Congo and Rwanda? These African killing fields
were far worse than any tortures in Abu Ghraib prison, horrific and
unjust though they were. Nearly a million people killed in Rwanda, and
two to three million massacred in the Congo. Where was the left
campaign to halt these genocides? That indifference is the real
racism. We wouldn’t tolerate this slaughter happening in Wales or
Sussex, why do we tolerate it in Latin America, Asia, Africa or the
Middle East?

Whole sections of the left have wavered in their support for Iraqi
democrats and trade unionists. Instead of showing solidarity with the
Iraqi left, they throw support behind the “resistance”. None of us
want to see Iraq occupied by Britain or the United States.

We want to see an independent, democratic and preferably a socialist
Iraq, but we won’t get that if the resistance wins. The unholy
alliance of ex-Ba’thists, Islamic fundamentalists and al-Qaida
militants will, if they win, impose a regime ten thousand times worse
than the occupation. Iraq would end up a bloody totalitarian state,
akin to the Iranian regime, which has massacred 100,000 democrats and
leftists since 1979. Is that what the SWP, Respect and the Stop The
War Coalition want? If not, perhaps they should be more circumspect in
their unqualified support for the Iraqi resistance.

Iran is a brutal theocratic regime. Only last year a 16 year old girl
was executed for so-called crimes against chastity. Where is the left
solidarity campaign with Iranian democrats and socialists who are
struggling to overthrow this clerical fascist regime?

Iranian exiles living in Britain are trying to build solidarity with
the underground opposition inside Iran. They get precious little
support from the left.

OutRge!s latest campaign is “Stop Murder Music” — the violently
homophobic songs released by eight Jamaican reggae stars, which
explicitly advocate the shooting, burning and drowning of lesbian and
gay people. We have been pursuing this campaign for ten years, ever
since Buju Banton’s song Boom Bye Bye In A Batty Boy Head (“Shoot the
queer in the head”) was a big hit.

It is the view of human rights groups inside Jamaica that these “kill
gays” songs help perpetuate a climate of homophobic hatred and
violence. According to Jamaican gay rights groups, in the weeks and
months following the release of a queer-bashing track, there is a
noticeable increase in homophobic attacks and even murders. It was in
response to an appeal from — I stress, black — Jamaican gay activists
that OutRage! launched a campaign to challenge these eight singers and
to demand an end to murder music.

This is a very understandable and reasonable request. No one should be
subject to threats to kill them. But just look at the invective and
bile we have received, from sections of the black community and some
of the left (mainly supporters of the SWP).

They say we are trying to impose western values on the people of
Jamaica. No! We’re asking the Jamaican government to honour the human
rights agreements they have signed.

We are acting in solidarity with Jamaican lesbians and gays and other
human rights groups like Jamaicans for Justice, Families Against State
Terrorism and the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights. We’re
heeding their call; unlike our critics who sit back and do fuck all,
and then still have the gall to claim they are anti-racists. The
reverse is true — they don’t give a damn about the murder of black gay
Jamaicans. They are the real racists.

From the start we tried to get J-Flag (the Jamaican lesbian and gay
rights group) to lead the campaign. Such is the climate of fear and
intimidation, they were fearful of retribution. J-Flag dare not
publicise its office address because homophobic mobs would burn the
place down and kill everyone. The left offers no solidarity. OutRage!
continues the campaign, almost alone.

That is now changing. Initially, even in the UK we couldn’t find any
black lesbians and gays willing to stick their neck out and be part of
this campaign. The last time they got involved, against Buju Banton in
the early 1990s, prominent black gays were subjected to months of
terrorisation, including death threats, hate mail and attacks in the
street. Late last year, however, the Black Gay Men’s Advisory Group
joined the campaign and is now playing a leading role.

The black newspapers (New Nation and The Voice) have given little
coverage to black spokespeople from the Stop Murder Music coalition.
They misrepresent the campaign, condemning it as a “war on reggae”, an
“attempt to destroy black music”, and “an attack on the whole
African-Caribbean community”. We had to go pressure The Voice to get
corrections and to secure coverage for black lesbian and gay people.
Even to this day, J-Flag have been quoted only twice in six months in
the black press.

This is an appalling marginalisation of people on the front line of
the struggle for queer rights in Jamaica. What does this say about the
state of the black media and the black community in this country?
Prominent black leaders have declined to speak out publicly against
murder music — Bill Morris, Trevor Philips and umpteen others. These
are people who, if they condemned the incitement to murder lyrics,
could have helped challenged homophobia and given a much-needed morale
boost to black gays and lesbians.

Black queers feel intimidated and isolated. They are not helped by the
silence and indifference of mainstream black politicians, trade
unionists and human rights campaigners like the 1990 Trust. On its
website (Blink) are six major articles misrepresenting the Stop Murder
Music campaign. It ignores the persecution of gays in Jamaica, and
does nothing to support Jamaican gays seeking asylum in the UK.

Fanny Ann Eddy, one of Africa’s most prominent lesbian campaigners,
was murdered last year in Sierra Leone. Blink never reported her
savage slaying. Yet it routinely covers the assassination of other
black activists. Why the double standards? When the Jamaican gay
rights leader Brian Williamson was stabbed to death last June, Blink
at first ignored his death. Later, its supporters backed the specious
claim of the Jamaican police that his killing was “a robbery gone
wrong”.

Something is seriously adrift when black activists, who fight
admirable campaigns against racism, cannot show solidarity with
murdered black gays and lesbians.

The left is little better. Moral confusion abounds. What happened to
the idea of an international movement for human liberation?
Left-wingers used to stand in solidarity with all oppressed people
everywhere. Our concern was to fight the perpetrators of injustice,
without regard to their race, gender, religion or sexuality. Universal
human rights used to be one of the left’s battle cries. I hope that
real soon it will be our battle cry again.

For more info about Peter Tatchell’s human rights campaigns see:
www.petertatchell.net and www.outrage.org.uk

ENDS