I know so many trans women who want to abolish capitalism. Some of these radicals are ready to fight for our rights as part of a marginalized community and as members of an exploited class. But far too many of us don’t believe we can win that fight. At first, it seems like a battle that is already lost. It almost feels like there will never be a revolution, but that’s exactly what every ruling class has said about every revolution.
It’s easy to understand why so many of us have this pessimistic attitude. Our enemy is the richest empire in the history of the world. There are millions of dollars spent on producing and circulating transphobic propaganda. The ruling class will try to sabotage labor movements any way they can. If they think they can divide the working class by promoting transphobia or racism, they will. But this doesn’t mean we give up. It means the opposite. It means we have all the more reason to organize and believe in one another.
There were more gentiles in Tsarist Russia than there were Jews. But the communist revolution turned a society that was committing atrocities against Jews into the society that ended the Holocaust. The Bolsheviks who led the Red Army to victory were not an elite Tsar-funded think tank; they originated as just a small group of like-minded individuals. That average bunch of nerds transformed a feudal economy into a space-faring superpower in a few short decades.
In his book, ‘On The Juche Idea,’ Kim Jong-il describes the work of the vanguard as turning the fringe into mainstream and turning the mainstream into fringe. We have set before us the task of turning transphobia into a fringe idea and simultaneously, we have the task of turning trans rights into the mainstream.
We have more in common with the average person we meet and talk to than we do with the rich. Working-class folks fear cops stopping us on the road, and we all worry about healthcare. Even when we have healthcare, it can disappear if we become unemployed. The ultra-wealthy don’t care about these things. There are no cops setting up speed traps for airplanes. Even if their fancy insurance plan is declined, they can afford to pay full price for medical emergencies.
In the 1960s, Fred Hampton formed the Rainbow Coalition, a radical alliance between the Young Lords, the Young Patriots Organization, and Hampton’s own chapter of the Black Panther Party. The Young Lords were a natural fit, being radical and dealing with racial oppression like the Panthers. But the Young Patriot Organization was an all-white group that waved the Confederate flag. All it took was Hampton reaching out and finding common ground. Working together against the police was mutually beneficial to all parties. So when one group went to protest, and the police inevitably showed up in response, the other two groups would already be there ready to lend support.
Don’t give in to a defeatist mindset. We need people like you working with us, not against us. This disbelief in our ability to fight back is exactly what transphobes and the oligarchs want. We can change things for the better. Think how much work previous generations of trans women and radical activists have done. Marsha P. Johnson fought so hard to give us trans women a better life. We owe it to them to do what we can to make things better for the next generation. Don’t ever believe a small group of like-minded people can’t change the world; after all, it’s the only thing that ever has.