@mariellefranco Thank you to ‘Brazilian women against fascism’ for organising 🖤
Lots of people gathered this evening in front of the Brazilian embassy in London to remember Marielle and Anderson and ask 'Who ordered the killing of Marielle?'
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A more organised thread with some thoughts on Zadie Smith, as someone whose spent a lot of time with her writing.
Zadie Smith has had consistently liberal (not leftist) politics, and has also consistently shown a belief in her own exceptionalism (as have critics at large)
She often wrote on British politics while living in New York: condemning Corbyn, bemoaning library closures while repeating the foundational myth of austerity that there was no money left, and speaking for young people when convenient, saying how angry we were about Brexit.
It was very frustrating to read as a young person involved in leftist movement in London at the time but fundamentally the problem was ZS was writing with authority about communities she out of touch with on politics she didn’t understand. All the while with the excuse that
To people seeing #LetWomenSwim - trans women have always been allowed at the ladies pond, and the ladies pond has always been safe. this is moral panic and a distraction; the liberation of trans + cis women will always be bound together.
Violence against women has devastated so many of us and defined our lives. Emotionally, it would be neater to have a bogeyman, like trans people. But - in terms of facts not feelings, the evidence shows that trans women are not a threat to the safety or rights of cis women.
I was on the board of trustees of a small women’s refuge for 6 years, and the chair of trustees for 2 years. The biggest threats to women safety were the hostile environment and austerity, both made it harder for women to leave and harder for the refuge to operate.
for me, the point of sharing & archiving it is, less to lionise them & more to understand that we are not the first to fight fascist governments. there is a long history of people who had a real chance of power - to the extent they were spied on, persecuted by murdered by govs
book twitter never engages in my communism tweets but this one is worth it i promise for the narrative alone xx
So, here's the story of Olga Benário and Luís Carlos Prestes. Luís was secretary general of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) for 50+ years, and, from what i can tell, the most high profile Brazilian communist of the 20th C. (I'll tell u about Olga in a bit!) 1/?
Born in 1898, Luíz studies engineering in Rio where he's becomes a leader in the 'tenentes' movement, a rebellion led by young army officials who believe in a popular revolution of the masses against the oligarchical ruling classes. In 1924, Luíz flees to the south of Brazil.
From 1925, for two years, 2 months, Luíz leads a group of 1500 soldiers, known as the 'Prestes Column' (pic), across Brazil. They travel over 25,000km on foot and horseback, protesting the gov & teaching rural ppl abt communism. Altho legendary, it fails to start a revolution
its mad how much (more?) i enjoy panels about politics than about literature, and how dull and absurd (and normal) acting like literature isn't about politics is. Like, when we talk about form or writing we are talking abt the politics of narration, language, intelligibility, >>
when we talk about 'getting published' we are talking abt what history is silenced and what histories is made accessible to the masses, what other worlds can be imagined collectively.
so boring how we pretend fiction writing is all about personal endevour and the writer's personal struggle / dream. (feel like everything from social media to confessional genres to capitalism encourages us to do that tho so like no one's fault for leaning into it)
"When so many cis women have broken free of men who defined & policed our existence & liberties based on constrictive gender norms, it’s understandable to feel defensive around conversations of gender. "
this article abt transphobia and dv is clear & kind, pls read & share
what's really beautiful about what @janeyjstarling and @La_Cowan are doing is hearing and acknowledging the fear and pain of cis women who are scared, while also holding them accountable for the harm they can cause
i want to expand on what i'm saying here, refering back to the article: trauma often makes us protective of ourselves, defensive; and that is so understandable. what it doesn't do is make it impossible for us to cause harm to other people, for example trans women >