On 15th February 2024 same-sex marriage became legal in Greece. It’s the first time that an Orthodox country has enacted this sort of legislation. All of those who said that it could never happen here because people in orthodox countries wouldn’t accept it, have been proven spectacularly wrong.

Eventually same-sex marriage will come to Bulgaria, and other EU countries. Perhaps, they will try to obscure the question of ‘marriage’ by enacting some ruling on civil unions first, but in the end it will come. Whatever those who object to it say, it is, in the end, inevitable.

In the years to come, there will be lots of hot air spent protesting against same-sex marriage. The church, conservatives, and traditionalists will all protest about it being the end of civilisation as we know it, and the death of a ‘real’ Bulgaria. Yet come it will despite all of their bluster. It will be another excuse for nationalists to try to gather political support in the manner of their playing similar cards in the past, such as on the Istanbul convention, the Euro, and the Schengen Convention. In the end it will pass. Ten years later most of us will look back, and wonder what all the fuss was about.

So where does Konflikt stand on this today? First, we want to be clear that we are against discrimination, in all its forms. We are against discrimination against the LGBTQ+ people. We are against discrimination against women. We are against discrimination against gypsies. There are two reasons for this. First because we are against discrimination in itself. Secondly though because it divides the working class, and makes it easier for the bosses to keep workers in their place.

Today, to effectively fight against the constant attacks being made upon workers’ salaries and conditions, it’s necessary to unite as many workers as possible. It’s harder to do this when workers have been turned against minority groups within their midst. It’s not just that we believe that queer people shouldn’t be discriminated against. It’s also because we believe, to put it very crudely, that bullying the LGBTQ+ people keeps down wages, and that the bosses are laughing when workers fight amongst themselves.

This doesn’t mean that you will soon see members of Konflikt standing on street corners to collect signatures to hand to the government. No, you won’t. It’s not how we see political activity. We don’t see our task as one of collecting signatures to meekly hand to government.

For us politics is something different from the actions of political parties, or the circus that goes on in parliament. It’s about ordinary working people taking actions in their own interests. It’s not about something that is outside of people’s everyday lives. It’s not about something that others do for us. It’s about what we do for ourselves. We don’t see our role as one of playing a part in the political game. We won’t be campaigning for same-sex marriage in the same way as we won’t be campaigning against the flat tax. It’s not how we see what we do.

We believe in politics based on class struggle. Ultimately we believe that class struggle encompasses all social questions. Class struggle is not a simply economic struggle, it opens the door to all social problems.

One of the things that we think it is important to do though is to stand against any attempts to divide the working class, to try to point out what political games are being played, who is playing them, and why. This goes from the current anti immigrant hysteria to the future hysteria we will have over same-sex marriage when it comes to Bulgaria.