As people who have been raised as men or who identify as men , we want to create spaces at the US Social Forum in which to take a stand against the violence of male supremacy that scars our communities and shapes our world. As men divided by the inequalities born of racism, class exploitation and other systems of oppression, we share the privilege that comes with a male identity in a society organized in part by male supremacy. Thus, we share the responsibility to challenge the violence that maintains this privilege. As men on the Left, we are further accountable for the ways in which we push our movement not only to address male supremacy as a part of intersecting systems of oppression, but also to confront heterosexism and transphobia within the movement. The self-determination of oppressed communities for which the Left strives, is also the self-determination of oppressed people to live their gender and sexual lives with autonomy, dignity and mutual respect.
Sexual violence is one of the most potent tools of the oppressor in denying this self-determination. Child sexual abuse is early training in domination and disempowerment for as many as 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 6 boys, a training based on notions of sexual entitlement, control and objectification that lie at the heart of male supremacy. Sexual violence against children and adults has long been used to subjugate colonized and oppressed peoples and as a weapon of war in struggles between elites over the control of resources. Such violence is inherent within the institutions that seek to control the lives of those most threatening to the social order, ranging from the child welfare system, law enforcement and the apparatus of ‘homeland security’, to the penal system and the military.
Yet the gender and sexual politics of the US Left often continues to be subordinated to its class and race analyses. When issues of male supremacy, in their intersections with racism and class exploitation, are raised it is usually by those most targeted by its violence, namely queer women of color. It is time for those of us who have been raised as men or who identify as men to speak out against this violence that scars our families, our communities and our movement.

We propose to organize a four-hour workshop on the personal-political dimensions of sexual violence in relation to male supremacy and their implications for movement strategy and practice, especially with regard to men in the movement. The workshop title is "Stepping Up to Stop the Violence: Men Taking Action on Male Supremacy".
Outcomes:
1. Understanding of violence (interpersonal to institutional) in relation to ideology, structures and practices of male supremacy and other systems of oppression
2. Exploration of collective responses to this violence that work for personal and political change
3. Identification of men’s relationships to the violence of male supremacy and their roles and accountabilities within such collective responses
4. Clarification of the Left’s neglect of the violence of male supremacy, especially in terms of gender/sexual oppression, and of the responsibilities of men within the movement to ensure that it addresses such violence in its work.

Audience: Men, organizations working on state/institutional violence, organizations working on interpersonal violence, organizations working on social/economic justice

Content:
∑ Intimate + institutional violence, in framework of male supremacy/intersecting oppressions
∑ Personal and political responses
∑ Men’s roles and accountabilities
∑ Internal and external challenges for the Left

Process:
u Use the concept of “rape culture” to illustrate the relationship between violence and ideology, structures and practices of male supremacy and other systems of oppression
u Show and discuss digital story introducing CSA in relation to systems of oppression
u Introduce G5 Systems of Oppression framework
u Locate men within the intersecting oppressions framework and explore what this means in terms of men’s accountabilities for violence and male supremacy
u Identify the work that is needed with and from men to translate these accountabilities in to action that stops the violence and challenges male supremacy
u Explore the implications of this work for the Left in terms of internal process and external strategy

Language: English
Handouts: English (and we are working on Spanish)