Abstract
The present article contrasts the intersectionality framework, prevalent in the U.S. today, with that of Marxism-Leninism, all within their historical context. Several points of commonality are noted and included: the occurrence of overlapping forms of oppression; intersecting oppressions must be viewed in their totality and interconnection; fighting oppression requires working class unity; and oppressive attitudes among working class individuals must be eradicated. However, intersectionality and Marxism-Leninism are neither fundamentally compatible nor reconcilable. These irreconcilable differences between intersectionality and Marxism-Leninism include an idealist versus materialist philosophical orientation; focus on lived individual experiences of oppression versus a U.S. class analysis; exclusively targeting racist/sexist/heterosexist individual belief systems versus targeting capitalism (or the principal contradiction of labor vs. capital); targeting perceived beneficiaries of oppression and privilege versus building working class unity; and reforming capitalism versus fighting for socialism. The article concludes with a call for intersectionalists and Marxist-Leninists to learn from each other's conceptual framework in order to work productively together to build an antiracist/sexist/heterosexist, socialist society.