Beyond F*ck You 2: workplace organising against oppressive language and behaviour

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A sequel to a previous article, a Twin Cities IWW member writes about how he’s dealt with homophobic remarks and sentiments at work. This originally appeared in YOU BETTER WORK: queer, trans, feminist workers stories #1

I knew it would be hard going into it. Friends who already worked in the distribution center I was about to start work at had warned me about the specific difficulties I would have as a queer person in an environment where the work culture was dominated by a hypermasculine, sexist and homophobic atmosphere. I listened intently, and did my best to prepare myself. “It’s ok,” I thought, “this will certainly not be the first time I’ve dealt with this. I have a thick skin. I know how to stand up for myself. I’m can deal with this. I’m prepared.”

Quite frankly, I was wrong. To say that it was a hostile environment for me would be a massive understatement. The workplace, like many, is almost completely gender-segregated, with my work area and all those like it being entirely staffed by men. Homophobic comments, slurs, and “jokes” were traded between my co-workers on the regular. I struggled daily to try and deal with the anger, frustration, and depression that I felt clocking out after having heard “faggot,” “fag,” “pansy,” “no homo,” and other shit like it thrown around more often than I had experienced since middle school. Like then, I found myself acting quiet and withdrawn in those first few weeks as I struggled not to let my anger get the best of me.

If it had been less all-encompassing, less of the status quo of the job, I probably would’ve known how to handle it. Instead, I felt lost, trying to figure out how to address something that seemed so deeply rooted it was unmovable.

I quickly found that this environment was fairly deliberately set up and encouraged by our bosses. Unlike FW de Bord, who

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Statement from Bristol Solidarity Federation regarding ‘norwich SF’ facebook page.

Please share widely, especially if you are an anarchist and/or revolutionary unionist.

Taken from facebook: Solidarity Federation – Bristol 19th October

We were shocked and angered to see the bitterly transphobic messages appearing on Norwich Solfed’s facebook page this week. Our last contact with Norwich SF was at a federal conference a year ago, where the Norwich delegate informed us they were now the only member of Norwich Solfed. Norwich’s facebook page hadn’t been active for several months, so we assumed that the group had disbanded. We were aware of some bad blood between the current member and ex-members of Norwich SF. We don’t honestly know who is running their facebook page at the moment; whether it’s a troll, a former member with an axe to grind or a lingering bigot who simply hasn’t understood the organisation which they are part of. We plan on looking into this and we sincerely hope that whoever posted that message is nothing to do with the Solidarity Federation.

We can say in no uncertain terms that the views expressed on the Norwich SF page are abhorrent to us and not remotely representative of the views of the Solidarity Federation. We feel ashamed to share a name with anyone who thinks and talks in those terms.

We’re not going to go into the specifics of what happened at the London Bookfair. But to be clear, our objections to the Trans-Exclusionary ‘Radical Feminism’ espoused there and elsewhere are as follows:

• Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary folks are non-binary. All of them are valid. Statements like ‘woman=adult human female’ aren’t ‘expressions of facts’, they are gross over-simplifications of complex issues that are designed to bait people and stoke transphobia. Don’t pretend you can’t see that.
• Self ID is the only true measure of a person’s gender. As anarchists, we believe that the State should have no role in defining a person’s gender.
• The claim that trans folks in women-only spaces pose a threat to the women in them has zero evidence to support it. There is a considerable amount of evidence that trans folk of any gender are at a huge risk of violence and denying them access to safe spaces, as the TERFs are campaigning for, would be massively harmful. The TERF’s claims that they are protecting women-only spaces are disingenuous and don’t stand up to scrutiny. Digging out a few token examples of trans women who are predators is a poor justification for demonising an entire social group.
• Transphobia is a real, material force for oppression. It needs to be stamped out. Claiming that transphobia is ‘very far from being of vital importance to most people’ just shows that whoever wrote that post doesn’t know any trans people. An injury to one is an injury to all. Think about what that means.
• TERFs are far-right bigots in a left-wing skin. Their tactics and rhetoric are no different to the tactics of Tommy Robinson and the rest of the alt-right, co-opting feminism and using the fear of sexual violence to persecute an already marginalised group. We can do better than buying their shit.

If anyone is unfamiliar with these issues and wants to know more, we can recommend the following organisations:

• Sister not Cister UK
• Sisters Uncut
• Action for Trans Health
• And if you can, we highly recommend checking out the excellent ‘Why we Fight the TERF War’ workshops which are running up and down the UK.
• You can also contact Solfed’s LGBT+ co-ordinator.

Finally, we want to apologise on behalf of the whole Federation for what Norwich have done. We really hope that no-one exposed to their toxicity has been negatively affected by what was said.

Our Federal conference is next month and we will be raising this issue then. In the mean time, we would welcome contact from anyone involved in Norwich SF who can shed some light on what has happened.

We will investigate what’s happened and deal with it. SF will never be a safe hiding place for bigots.