Transform and Identity politics

What does Transform think about ‘Identity politics’?

‘Identity politics’ is a loaded term. Both the Right and the Left can use the term identity politics to make a negative judgement. But what does it mean?

The term is generally taken to mean politics which recognises the specific discrimination that different groups are subjected to, which, in the UK is discrimination based on legally protected characteristics (disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation, age), and/or some other identity that may not be legally protected but may also be a source of discrimination (locality, caste, height, weight, lifestyle choice, family origin, legal status etc). 

Used by the Right, the term is used to dismiss the struggles of specific groups against their discrimination, to negate their experience and silence their voices, e.g.  ‘All Lives Matters’ replacing ‘Black Lives Matter’. 

Of course, even on the Left, people can be influenced by right wing ideas. So, on the Left and the Right the term ‘identity politics’ has been increasingly used simply as an anti-LGBT+ or specifically transphobic dogwhistle.

More commonly on the Left, the term ‘identity politics’ often shows up as an oppositional notion to the Marxist theory of materialism. Transform wants to challenge this idea. People experiencing oppression because of their identity experience this as a material reality. We support reframing our notion of identity politics and replacing it with the idea of ‘Intersectional socialism’, that is, a socialism that recognises intersecting and overlapping social identities that have at their source oppression by the ruling class, but which may also be potentially empowering  – if these social groups are supported to articulate their oppression and unite with others to combat it.

Problems associated with identity politics:

• Potentially inward looking
• Can be simplistic, reducing people simply to their demographic indicators
• Potentially fragments the working class into different competing groups and undermines a socialist understanding of how power works to discriminate against the working class as a whole
• The lived reality of victims is subjective and can lack objective analysis –  community groups or individuals in that group may be wrong in their judgement, but their opinions can have added weight if they are part of a group
• In an organisation, can serve to sideline different groups so they actually have less voice
• Sometimes one person from a group can mistakenly be taken to represent every member of that group
• Focussing on representation can lead to championing tokenism rather than a commitment to systemic change

Importance of recognising intersectionality:

• Deepens our understanding of oppression and how capitalism works to divide and rule the working class
• Recognises that social injustice is experienced by different people in different ways
• Is respectful of people and their experiences, meets people where they are, starts the conversation by listening first, acknowledges lived experience
• Supports Principle 4 of our constitution
• Helps ensures we are compliant with the Equality Act 2010 as a political party
• Seeks to remove any barriers to inclusion within our organisation and in society
• Can indicate that organisation’s inclusiveness and success in countering discrimination to ensure that we have the widest possible appeal to diverse members
• Widens the scope of the organisation to ensure we are responding to diverse issues
• Increases our political literacy
• Differentiates us from organisations like the WPGB, who are unashamedly ‘socially conservative’ and which seek create populist political capital by being overtly anti-LGBT, anti-feminist and reactionary other ways.

Therefore Transform strongly supports a ‘community caucus’ approach in our organisation and in our campaigning that recognises intersectionality.