Pride in Toulouse. Anti-capitalist pole against pinkwashing, an achievement for the future
Photo credit: Permanent Revolution
An anti-capitalist pole and against pinkwashing in Pride
In Toulouse, the Pride Toulouse association is in charge of organizing the annual Pride March, in conjunction with the town hall. Each year, brings together dozens of floats bearing the image of local authorities, large local employers or institutional LGBTI+ bars and associations sent for a commercial and festive parade in the city center. This event, which comes to close the month of pride, is sponsored by the town hall of Jean Luc Moudenc, support of Macron known to have disrupted alongside the Manif Pour Tous, by the government and the region, as well as by companies like Airbus and the SNCF. This year, even the police held a tank shared with the SNCF as “public services” via the FLAG association “Interior and Justice LGBT+”.
This is an important device of pinkwashing, by which these various capitalist actors instrumentalize the historic struggle for the rights of LGBTI + in order to restore their image by showing a progressive face. A most hypocritical operation on the part of those who exploit us, oppress us and suppress our struggles. A protester is indignant at the microphone of Permanent Revolution : “ There is a tank for the region, a tank for the town hall of Toulouse: it is out of the question that they soil our pride. […] The cops don’t give a damn here, I don’t know why they had the audacity to come here. They kill, mutilate, assassinate and torture in particular the minorities who are present today and it is shameful that the organization of the pride [Pride Toulouse] never mind. »
Within the feminist inter-organization of the city, at the initiative of Du Pain and Des Roses, eight organizations have decided to form an anti-capitalist pole and against pinkwashing within this institutional march in order to denounce and make visible to eyes of the thousands of people who participate in the event the hypocrisy of the town hall and companies. This initiative was held the day after the radical Pride which brought together several hundred people in the city center, on the initiative of various militant groups.
In a unitary call for the pride march to form this pole, the signatories underlined the importance of fighting for LGBTI+ rights in the context of a major offensive against the right to dispose of one’s body in the United States and after a most reactionary electoral period in France. For this, we cannot rely on the town hall or the police who, behind their rainbow varnish of the month of June, are closing the health services intended for the most precarious such as the CeGIDD and the PASS of the site of the Lagrave hospital, which Moudenc sold to the promoter Kauffman and Broad to turn it into a luxury real estate park.
“I wanted to denounce the pinkwashing in the pride. There are tanks from the region, from the town hall: it is out of the question that they dirty our pride. It is shameful that the organization lets the police participate. It does not there is no other way than to campaign for our rights.” pic.twitter.com/RocUPbdKYk
— Bread And Roses (@Pain_Et_Roses) July 2, 2022
To wrest effective rights for LGBTI +, our allies are the strikers of health and Chronodrive!
On the contrary, in the fight for the full and complete rights of LGBTI+ people against the State and its institutions, our allies are in the strikes that demand resources in health services or at school, as well as wage increases. to deal with inflation in many businesses. Indeed, LGBTI+ people are among the first to be impacted by the austerity policies of the government and the bosses in times of economic crisis, whether as users of public services who are suffering from budget cuts, or as workers. and workers in the most precarious sectors in which they did not have stable employment.
As such, the ban on abortion in more than half of the United States is a historic attack against women, but also trans men and non-binary people around the world. In France, if this right exists, the breakage of the hospital creates significant access difficulties for the most precarious people. Lucie, worker at the Toulouse University Hospital and union activist at Solidaires, says: “The birth service at the Paule de Viguier hospital is planned to accommodate 3,000 deliveries, today we are at 5,200 with the same equipment and almost the same staff. The strikers denounce that abortions are therefore the last to be served”.
Specific care cannot be needed by LGBTI+ people, especially transgender people, in this type of situation is therefore systematically overlooked and/or relegated to the background. Lucie continues about the lack of resources in the emergency room: “ The emergency department is the gateway to the hospital. For all that is discrimination and gender violence that are identified on these services there, it goes by the wayside when you have 25 patients and patients that you have to take care of. »
“The birth service of the Paule de Viguier hospital is planned to accommodate 3,000 deliveries, today we are at 5,200 with the same equipment and almost the same staff. The strikers denounce that abortions are therefore the last to be served.” Lucie, Solidarity 31 pic.twitter.com/r9grAdAcvE
— Bread And Roses (@Pain_Et_Roses) July 2, 2022
At school, in addition to the lack of resources which makes it very difficult to provide specific support for young LGBTI+ people, the Blanquer circular put in place under the last five-year period prevents staff from taking into account the transition of pupils without the agreement of their parents. , which exposes transgender people to additional suffering at decisive moments in their journey, which is denounced by Noah, a high school student activist at the Fist Raised-Revolution Permanente, but also Séverine, a unionized teacher at the CGT. On the issue of gender-based violence at school, Séverine continues: ” the institution displays in a very hypocritical way protocols to deal with violence, but the truth is that there is no training, whether at the level of management, rectorships or colleagues, so generally the law of silence prevails, or the victims speak and there is no consideration of the problem »
“It is very important to deal with the issue of gender-based violence and transphobia in our establishments as a union. The Blanquer circular prevents taking into account the desire of students to define their gender without parental consent.” Séverine, CGT Education pic.twitter.com/yA6tFKP901
— Bread And Roses (@Pain_Et_Roses) July 2, 2022
In the radical pole of Pride, activists from Du Pain and Des Roses also highlighted the ongoing strike at Chronodrive, where precarious youth are raising their heads to demand salary increases from the family. Mulliez who enriches himself on his back to the detriment of his working and living conditions. After a first experience of a feminist strike against the dismissal of Rozenn last year, the employees of Chronodrive are now waging an exemplary struggle against precariousness, contrary to the feeling of resignation that the government wanted to impose on young people, by particularly since confinement, of which the suicides of young LGBTI+ people like Fouad, Dinah and more recently a trans high school student, have been the most violent expression. ” We’re here to support the Chronodrive strikers […] They show us the way forward: it goes from below, not through the institutions! We have to fight, organize ourselves, and that is how we will be able to have access to the best living conditions. “, explains Noah, activist with the Raised Fist – Permanent Revolution. While young LGBTI + are, like all oppressed groups, on the front line of precarious jobs, the Chronodrive strike is an important point of support for building a collective struggle for a general increase in wages and for dignity. of everyone!
Support for the strikers of #Chronodrive from the anti-capitalist pole and against the pinkwashing of #Pride2022 In Toulouse ! pic.twitter.com/HbwZU6EPOi
— Bread And Roses (@Pain_Et_Roses) July 2, 2022
A fulcrum to build a feminist front against the attacks to come
For all these reasons, the unitary policy carried out by several political collectives and unions political and trade union organizations, collectives and associations of the LGBTI+ community around a combative slogan shows that the construction of a common response is possible in the face of reactionary attacks. which only seeks to divide the oppressed and the exploited to make them accept their condition.
With a view to unifying the demands of the world of work, in particular those of the health and education sectors, and those for LGBTI+ rights, the participation of trade unionists from the FSU, Solidaires and CGT Education in Pride alongside feminist and queer collectives such as Bagarre, the Collectif Trans Toulousain and Du Pain et Des Roses is an asset for the next fights. As one protester pointed out: “ [Avec le cortège radical] we should be in front and we should be there for our rights because there is so much left to acquire and we are far from it […] There is no other way than to militate to acquire all these rights. »
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