Date: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 11:31:26 -0500
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu>
Subject: Re: M-FEM: Queer Kids and the...Libertarianism/Individualism


Carrol wrote:
>Just a footone here on the first sentence below; the part between dashes
>is a crucial distinction: "work--or business--".
>
>Whatever the various forms of feminism might have to say on the
>topic, it would seem to me that for marxists the distinction
>between "work" (labor) and "business" is more important than
>the concrete labor involved. The workers' movement should welcome,
>even seek, the support of petty producers, and even of the
>occasional capitalist (e.g., Frederick Engels), but certainly
>we are far less concerned with either group than we are with
>those who must sell their labor power to a capitalist in order
>to survive.

I agree, but with one qualification. One of the standard capitalist ploys
to curtail workers' rights is to define them as "non-workers"--for
instance, as "independent contractors," "freelancers." etc. So I think for
us to support sex workers' movements means that a part of the struggles is
likely to lie in helping them to define themselves as workers, unless they
are clearly businessmen or -women.

Yoshie