On the 16th of August, a rally for ‘women’s rights’ was held in Melbourne, organised by various TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) & right wing conservative groups. A counterprotest led to the rally turning violent, with several injuries and arrests made.

The term ‘TERF’ has been extended in common language to mean anti-trans ideology in general, but it represents a specific ideological current which is distinct from religious conservatives who are merely Trans-exclusionary and aren’t radical feminists in the slightest. Radical feminism is largely a remnant of earlier culture wars in the late 20^th century that’s mostly faded away and been replaced with other sexual & gender minority issues as the primary battleground, and which it has always been in conflict – with biological ‘womanhood’ being the basis for its political analysis, it is incompatible with ideas of self-expression & personal identity determining gender.

Ideologies need some niche to fill and a reason to exist. In the 21^st century, the niche that ‘Radical Feminism’ or TERFism fills is a faction of the right wing side of the culture war that is more open to women – compared to the explicitly patriarchal conservative religious right. Increasingly it has also served the purpose of supporting Imperialism, specifically Zionist fascism.

It would be unfair to state that radical feminism was a purely reactionary development. While the focus on biological sex as the core contradiction in society led to a sympathy for more ‘progressive’ western countries in imperialist war against ‘backwards’ peripheral subjugated nations – with Andrea Dworkin, one of the most famous Radical Feminist ideologues, being a supporter of Israel – it also offered a principled critique of the rampant individualism and focus on self-determination above all else that was dominating the progressive left during the sexual revolution. To her credit, Dworkin was a critic of the (now thoroughly rejected) acceptance of pedophilia amongst the gay rights movement in the 70s-90s and radical feminists had (and in some cases, still have) legitimate critiques of the degradation of women by pornography and capitalist consumerism justified in the name of ‘individual choice’.

Despite having some insight, any ideology that ignores the class struggle & anti-imperialism in favour of other issues, no matter how legitimate their concerns might be, is doomed to ultimately become a tool for imperialism and capitalist hegemony. TERFs have let their conflict with left-wing gender/sexuality causes overcome them to the extent that they have abandoned any progressive potential they could have had and have outright allied with the right wing.

These ‘pro-women & pro-children’ activists narrowly focus on trivial culture war issues like the bathroom debate & whether or not transgender children should be allowed to participate in their preferred genders’ sports teams at school. Even if the arguments of TERFs were correct, the amount of actual women and girls negatively affected by these ‘problems’ is absolutely marginal and attempts by delusional ‘transvestigators’ to find secret trans infiltrators have led to harassment of the same biologically born women that the TERF movement claims to support in the first place.

One of the most well known TERF activists, Kellie-Jay Keen (who was not present at the rally on the 16th but has connections to the organisers and has led similar events in the past), is perfectly willing to co-operate with fascist zionist cult leaders like Brian Tamaki of the prosperity gospel ‘Destiny Church’, who has organised rallies in support of Israel in New Zealand. The rally was additionally boosted by the right wing Family First Party, which has also run defence for Israeli genocide and called for the prohibition of Muslim immigration into Australia. TERFs, by rejecting anti-imperialism and class analysis in favour of identity politics, have chosen obsession over children’s genitals as their core issue and as a result have made coalitions with genocidal fascists who are actively assisting the murder of hundreds of thousands of women & children.