Jules Joanne Gleeson (editor) - Transgender Marxism

Transgender Marxism

A terrific collection of essays I couldnt put it down.

Kathi Weeks, author of The Problem with Work

Is there a transgender Marxism? This pioneering collection shows that the answer is there are many inspired by psychoanalysis, union organising, queer communities, Black struggles and more. Material realities matter, tremendously, in trans lives; and trans experiences can change our thinking about both capitalism and liberation.

Raewyn Connell, author of Gender: In World Perspective

What lives and thinks on through the staggering failures of contemporary trans visibility and rights-based claims? This stunning collection answers in the collective form of a transgender Marxism. We find ourselves remade, hungrier and braver, in this book. Trans becomes in these pages the vibrant event of a historical materialism from below, intimate and urgent.

Jules-Gill Peterson, Associate Professor of English and Gender, Sexuality, and Womens Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Histories of the Transgender Child

Refusing to cast trans subjects as either figural others or exemplary proletarians, this timely and powerful collection of essays carves out a space for accounts of self-knowledge to ask how gender nonconformity can survive in a capitalist context. With stunning sophistication and insights, Transgender Marxism challenges capitalisms social foundations in gendered patterns of property, work, and entitlement to develop new forms of sociality beyond the family and its dyadic sexual division.

Petrus Liu, Associate Professor of Humanities at Yale-NUS College and author of Queer Marxism in Two Chinas

Edited by

Jules Joanne Gleeson and Elle ORourke

Afterword by Jordy Rosenberg

First published 2021 by Pluto Press

345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA

www.plutobooks.com

Copyright Jules Joanne Gleeson and Elle ORourke 2021

The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.

Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England

Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America

Jules Joanne Gleeson and Elle ORourke

Noah Zazanis

Michelle OBrien

Rosa Lee

Jules Joanne Gleeson

Nat Raha

Virginia Guitzel

Kate Doyle Griffiths

Farah Thompson

JN Hoad

Zoe Belinsky

The Conspiratorial Association for the Advancement of Cultural Degeneracy

Nathaniel Dickson

Xandra Metcalfe

Anja Heisler Weiser Flower

Jordy Rosenberg

First of all, wed like to thank our contributors, and everyone who supported them in writing up their perspectives for this collection. You fulfilled all our hopes.

Producing a theoretical work from a stigmatised position (often reduced to a pathology by outsiders) will always be a trial. But equally, as editors weve found this process joyful. Were grateful for the generational work of solidarity and collaboration, that have allowed trans people both to survive our social conditions, and understand them. And for the freely shared goodwill and concrete support we found from transgender communists (and admirers) at every turn, while putting this all together. Thank you, thank you.

Kate Doyle Griffiths first suggested a collection of this kind, back in 2018. Completing it would not have been possible without the active support of Pluto Press, who greeted it with nothing but enthusiasm, and in particular from our primary editor David Shulman. Without Davids consistent belief in this project, right from the beginning, this book would never have seen print.

Wed both like to thank all the members of Leftovers communist discussion group. Among many other topics, they provided a procession of insights on the interplay of Capital and gender, with chat ranging freely from the rigorous to the absurd.

Historical Materialism Conference (London and New York City) for providing a venue for many of these essays and ideas to receive a first airing, via our Leftovers Live sessions. Especially Paul Reynolds and Holly Lewis on the HM Sexuality and Political Economy stream, for arranging events including our plenary session in 2019, and book preview in 2020. MAMA (Zagreb), Salvage Quarterly, Death Panel podcast, Solidarity College, RS21, Plan C, the Centres for Global Political Economy and Sexual Dissidence at Sussex University, Hypocrite Reader, and New Socialist also provided invaluable platforms during harsh times.

Thanks to everyone at Homintern, Pinko Magazine, Invert Journal, and Lumpen. You revived some gnarled hobgoblins.

We would also like to extend our gratitude to our community readers, who read through draft chapters during the books first round of copy editing. Each of them provided invaluable commentary and corrections, helping this collection take the best shape possible. Thanks to: Tom Lynch, Nathan Tankus, josie sparrow, Rowan Davis, Douglas Williams, Cara E. Hurtle, KJ Vincent, Rhys Jones, Mai G, Sylvia McCheyne, Kay Gabriel, Amelia Horgan, Greg Afinogenov, Maria, Ben Miller, Mel Mikhail, Michael Davin, David Hartery, Natalie TS, Matt Cull, Jo Zubrow, Purnima Tulsyan, Nina Taaffe, Charlie Powell, Amy DeAth and Maya Andrea Gonzalez. And especially: Emrys Travis, who read every single draft with an infectious enthusiasm, and Jack Dragu for their invaluable assistance with Xandra Metcalfes chapter.

To those passing through those twinned flames of stigmatisation and proletarianisation for the first time as they read this: we wish you the best, we know how you ache, and hope this collection will be of use to you.

* * *

Elle would like to thank her family, Jasbir, Laura, Ada, Eleanor, Ben, Toby, Caela, Phoebe, Natalie and Amber. Her friends at New Socialist, for their comradeship, solidarity and support, particularly Tom and josie. Everyone at QueerCare - for their assiduous commitment to uniting theory and practice. Greg Afinogenov, Owen Hatherley and Tim MacGabhann all offered generous assistance and kindness over this past year in ways that were greatly appreciated. Thank you, lads. Kyle Geraghty has been a consistent friend, particularly in encouraging her to pursue her academic interests, even when her health made that difficult. As has Griffin McCarthy Bur. Angela Mitropoulos intellectual influence on the final text will be unmistakable. Thanks also to Erin & Sean, Tyler, Mo, Jools, Hassan E.T, Gavin M, Max A, Chuckie K, Nella Lou, Simon, Todd, Sean, Anna, Cate, Khan, Kyle, Matthijs, Tom P, Mairead, Aurora, Karen, Lauren G, Elka, Julie, Alex, Clancy, David, Esyld, Ronan, James C, James L, Cormac, Eugene, Frank, Louis, Crostir, Chris L, Ash, Nicola and Lilith. Legends all. The old Manchester Socialist Reading Group, John, Andrew and Ed, where many of her current interests and ideas were first cultivated. Friendships and conversations sparked on social media over many years, too innumerable to list but all deeply cherished. The Earthen Cat Tree, they know why. And, finally, Nelly, for everything. This book is for her.