Superyacht News
I post occasionally about the world of superyachts and the very rich people that own them.
I note that after a Supreme Court verdict before Easter the author J K Rowling was pictured toasting the outcome on her superyacht, named Samsara.
She acquired it in 2023 and its valued at $150m (possibly a bit less thanks to Trump). Its run by a crew of 26.
In respect of the Supreme Court ruling I am a long term supporter of trans rights. The ruling was of course celebrated by the hard and far right who prefer personal and sexual relations to be returned to the 1950s, before the legislation in the 1960s and after recognised there might be more to things than the nuclear family.
The TUC and most unions support trans rights and there was wide union support for the large central London protest on the Supreme Court ruling on 19th April.
There are some on the left who take a different view and of course they are not coming from the same place as Truss, Farage & Co (although I wish they’d make it clearer).
However there is the matter of class. J K Rowling was behind those who brought the case to the Supreme Court. I don’t think that someone who celebrates the outcome on a superyacht has the interests of ordinary women and men as a priority. As Marx noted material being determines consciousness.
I am a woman of the left that takes a different view and we never tire of making it clear. But for some reason no one can hear us. The women who began For Women Scotland are of the left. JK Rowling is of the left and is of course now very wealthy but was not always. She is also a significant philanthropist. Women of the left have zero desire to return to the morality of the 50’s but some us of believe in the material reality of our sex class and that our historic oppression derives from that material reality. We are sympathetic to the feelings of some people who do not share our material reality but believe that in some instances it does matter. And we are totally exhausted at being told we are on the wrong side because Trump agrees with us (note: he doesn’t because we don’t want to persecute trans people). It is a really lazy argument generally made by people who do not want to engage with the substance of the analysis
Its not just Trump. In fact in the UK the entire hard & far right are in support of the Court. I accept there is a left position which also supports it (clearly not one I agree with) and its based on class politics (which I do agree with) hence the focus on J K Rowling and the yacht. As a socialist I note that millionaires are not on the same side.
Anyway I’ve approved the comment but as you’ll have noted what I was trying to prompt was for the left defenders of the Court’s verdict to explain clearly how they differ from the right. In fact I could do this but its not really on to start ‘explaining’ the position of those you don’t agree with