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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Disarm Authority; Arm Your Desires - Editorial﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿Disarm Authority;

﻿<br﻿>﻿ Arm Your Desires

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﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, June - July 1998﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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People all over the world, from the students of Indonesia who overthrew Suharto to the United Auto Workers at General Motors of Flint, Michigan who have halted that company's operations throughout North America, are doing the former. But, how about the latter? Indeed, both are components of resistance.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Perhaps someone should have passed on these pearls of wisdom to this year's organizers of the Toronto Queer Pride March, or "MegaPride March" rather, seeing as they are doing neither. "MegaPride" which is a play on the Mega City, or the amalgamation of Toronto with surrounding cities, was implemented despite the fact that the vast majority of voters in a referendum on the proposal were against it. It seems that the neo-liberal agenda of downloading and cutting social programs, especially health care, has a place in Pride Day according to its Toronto organizers. They met with conservative Mayor Mel Lastman, and agreed to his demand that there be no nudity in this year's march. Apparently this was a problem last year. Now, this editorial is not going to focus on the merits of nudity, nor upon its integral place in the history of socialism from below, like the socialist nudist colony, founded by Adolf Koch, in Germany during the 1920s that had 30 000 members....

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Instead of seeing these random acts of nudity as individual cases, the Mayor of Toronto put the responsibility on the organizers. On the other hand, when a naked person streaks across the field at a sporting event, the owners of the stadium or the association for that sport are not held accountable. After the organizers obliged Mel, he saw the parade fit for his conservative self to march in. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Rather than grovelling for "legitimacy", these marches need grass roots organization so that they don't have to follow mandates passed down to them by sycophants. Pride Day, if it really is about celebrating the vast spectrum of human sexuality, instead of the anti-democratic Mega City, has to be done on terms set by queer people. No matter how these marches are tailored to suit the needs of those in power, a homophobic society will always find Pride Marches to be freakish, regardless of nudity. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Furthermore, just because we apparently live in a consumer culture, buying a mug with a rainbow slapped on it will not change the fact that most teenagers who commit suicide are queer, and that a queer couple can not hold hands in most public spaces without apprehension. An annual parade that emulates the Santa Claus Parade in both its content and appeal, along with gay ghettos or shopping and entertainment districts are not enough. There is no one homogenous queer culture; class, race, and sex shape differing experiences, so culture should not be the focal point of these events.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

In the struggle to control our bodies, in both the workplace and in the bedroom, it is not enough to just get out on the street, although that is the hardest step; we need to confront the sources of power which rule this society. We have a world to win, and nothing to lose but our clothes.

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