Neoliberalismus ist mehr als die Privatisierung von Bahn, Strom und Post. Ebenso wenig kann er auf die Deregulierung von Arbeitsmärkten, die globale Handelsliberalisierung und die damit verbundene Dominanz des Finanzkapitals reduziert werden. Der Neoliberalismus ist auch und vielleicht sogar vorrangig eine fundamentale Restrukturierung der Art und Weise, wie Menschen sich reproduzieren müssen. Angesichts der heute weltweit sich mehrenden Proteste von Frauen, die zu Generalstreiks aufrufen (vgl. LuXemburg 2/2018), stellt sich für eine linke Politik die Frage, ob sich gegenwärtig nicht genau hier die wichtigsten antikapitalistischen Kämpfe formieren.

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To what extent does contemporary Nigerian feminism reflect Nigerian women’s realities?

I grew up in 1980s Lagos, in a chaotic but exciting city in a country which I love, but which struggles with a deeply ingrained male supremacist culture. Already as a child, I took notice and issue, that men had all the so-called “head” positions in our society; they were heads of state, heads of companies, heads of the army and heads of families. In school when we learnt about Nigerian history, we did not learn about notable people such as Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Margaret Ekpo, Charlotte Obasa, Oyinkan Abayomi or Queen Amina of Zazzau, or the many notable Nigerian women who played vital roles in shaping our nation.
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In leftist debate, queer identity politics and class politics tend to be dealt with separately. In real life, however, things are more complicated, as queer subjects always belong to social classes too. The precarious are neither all heterosexual, nor can they always be assigned to just one of two binary genders. Even in debates about connective class politics, queer perspectives are generally ignored. One problem in determining new class politics lies in the restrictedness of conceptualisations of (working) class subjects. Politics of representation – with their scope from aesthetic to political representation (Schaffer 2008, 83) – play an important part in this: Representation means depiction (Darstellung), conception (Vorstellung), and standing in for someone or something (Vertretung). These meanings are inextricably intertwined, inconceivable individually.
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Southerners On New Ground (SONG) is a regional Queer Liberation organization made up of people of color, immigrants, undocumented people, people with disabilities, working class and rural and small town, LGBTQ people in the South. We believe that we are bound together by a shared desire for ourselves, each other, and our communities to survive and thrive. We believe that Community Organizing is the best way for us to build collective power and transform the South. Out of this belief we are committed to building freedom movements rooted in southern traditions like community organizing, political education, storytelling, music, breaking bread, resistance, humor, performance, critical thinking, and celebration.
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Alex, you are actively involved with the platform »Keine Mehr« (Not One Less), whose aim is to bring the femicide debate to Germany. Why are you using the term femicide instead of talking about individual murders of women?

Femicide, or feminicide, is the killing of women and girls because of their gender. Every femicide involves the killing of a woman, but not every killing of a woman is a femicide. So it is not simply about differentiating between female and male victims.

Instead, the term is intended to make certain murders of women visible as a form of hate crime and to draw attention to the social context. On the one hand, this means understanding femicide as an extreme expression of unequal gender relations and a male desire to dominate. Numerous studies and reports have shown that the risk for women to be exposed to violence rises particularly when traditional gender arrangements are shifting – especially during and after a separation or divorce.
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‘Nevertheless one may say of it that it fiddles while Rome burns. It is excused by two facts: it does not know that it fiddles, and it does not know that Rome burns.’ (Leo Strauss)

In his contemplations on political science in Liberalism Ancient and Modern (1968), Leo Strauss described the condition of political science through scathing references to the Emperor Nero, supposed to have been playing a fiddle as Rome burned. This analogy metaphor is an accurate reflection of the progressive elites of the post-Brexit, post-Trump era; they maintain a business-as-usual attitude while the foundations of liberal democracy are challenged.
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In 1990, I watched the Polish film maker Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Blind Chance (1981/1987) without registering the paralyzing potential of a particular scene.

The protagonist, Witek, meets an old Communist by chance on a train. As a result of that meeting Witek decides to join the Communist Party. Later, again by sheer chance, he runs into an ex-partner, also his first love. A beautiful, tender and fierce sex scene follows. In the calm of the after, Witek, almost absentmindedly, whistles the Internationale. His partner murmurs something approvingly. And then Witek says ‘How would you like it if I sang this everyday?’ The young woman recoils. She knows he has joined ‘The Party’. She leaves the room and his life.
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A year before #MeToo erupted in the United States, women in Argentina were fighting against an epidemic of violence against women in which, on average, one woman was killed every thirty hours. At noon on October 19, 2016, thousands of women all over the country walked out of their jobs and stopped doing unpaid housework, as well as carrying out the emotional work required of political organizing. The strike was Argentinian women’s response to the growing number of femicides in the country, and specifically to the brutal murder of the young Lucía Pérez. But in their call to strike, they connected the many forms of violence that women experience in an economic system based on their oppression and exploitation:
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Der Wind weht scharf. Autoritarismus und Rechtsradikalismus gewinnen an Zustimmung. Aber auch der Feminismus ist zurück: Women’s marches, Frauenstreiks, #MeToo, »Ni Una Menos« und viele mehr. Ob in den USA, Polen, Spanien, Lateinamerika oder Deutschland – feministische Proteste bilden die einzige transnationale Bewegung, die einen sichtbaren Gegenpol zur Rechten und zum Neoliberalismus markiert; und den Aufbruch in eine bessere Zukunft verkörpert. Sie ist sozial heterogen, plural und thematisch vielfältig – als solche hat sie das Potenzial, ›das Ganze‹ des Herrschaftsknotens anzugehen – AM FRÖHLICHSTEN IM STURM!
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Zu den besten Traditionen unseres Kampfes als LGBTIQ* gehört es, dass wir uns immer wieder Vereinnahmung und Assimilierung widersetzen. Wir haben Dieins abgehalten, unser Leben auf Pride-Demos aufs Spiel gesetzt, wir waren bereit, Teil des Spektakels zu sein, und sogar willens, den gesammelten Hass auf uns zu ziehen – immer in der Hoffnung, dass uns dieser Einsatz der Emanzipation ein wenig näher bringt. Wir mussten mitansehen, wie sich eine Mainstream-LGBTIQ*-Bewegung herausgebildet und nach und nach von genau dieser Praxis verabschiedet hat. Viele von uns haben in den letzten Jahren eine Menge Zeit in Konferenzsälen und Hotelzimmern zugebracht, um diesem Mainstreaming der Bewegung etwas entgegenzusetzen. Das reicht aber nicht. Wir müssen stattdessen eigene Strategien entwickeln und neue Ressourcen erschließen, um eine Politik der Intersektionalität in wirklich alle gesellschaftlichen Bereiche und in alle Winkel des Landes zu tragen: in die Groß-, aber auch in die Kleinstädte, in die Schlafzimmer, ins Fernsehen, in die Vorstellungswelten der Menschen in diesem Land und auf dem ganzen Globus. Diese Strategien müssen all jene LGBTIQ*-Personen stärken, deren Interessen von der Mainstream-Bewegung nicht vertreten werden – und sie müssen gemeinsam mit bislang eher vernachlässigten Bündnispartnern entwickelt werden.
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