Lbians and Gay Men Support the Mers
Contents:
- LBIANS & GAY MEN SUPPORT THE MERS
- WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
- LGBT HISTORY MONTH: 'FROM THE 1969 STONEWALL RTS TO LBIAN & GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS GROUP'
- PRI: A HEARTBREAKG BRISH COMEDY ABOUT THE TIME GAYS AND MERS WORKED TOGETHER
- THE UNLIKELY ALLIANCE OF GAYS, LBIANS AND MERS UNE AND FIGHT ‘PRI’
- A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY
- LGBT HISTORY MONTH: LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS, 1984-85
LBIANS & GAY MEN SUPPORT THE MERS
* lesbian and gay miners *
It won’t change overnight, but now a hundred and forty thoand mers know … about blacks and gays and nuclear disarmament and we will never be the same. The re-formed Lbians and Gay Men Support the Mers (LGSM) cid on 9 October 2015 that we would wd down as a current mpaigng force and foc on the task of keepg alive the legacy of our work 1984-85 and puttg together a digal historil archive of documents, photos, personal stori, vios, d rerdgs and all other wrten material nnected to the strike.
Their support for the strike prompted the Natnal Unn of Mers to mpaign for the rights of gay people and mand that sexual equaly be clud the program of the Labour Party. The real protagonists were surprised by the film’s mercial succs: 30 years later, a tearjerker about the class stggle beme an ternatnal blockbter, while tellg the te story of Lbians and Gays Support the Mers. “Milant”, the group to which I belonged at the time, nsired gay rights a bourgeois ncern and imaged that the workers would not be able to handle .
Ever sce then, I do not accept the ia that workers are particularly homophobic – even though sometim they say thgs more bluntly. We jt started llectg money om the pri march or gay pubs, and the most we were expectg was a thank you letter om the village we supported. They did live a seclud area and did not know much about lbians and gays – but we did not know much about them eher.
WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
To mark LGBT History Month the School will host speakers Profsor Marc Ste and Nila Field on 'From the 1969 Stonewall Rts to Lbian & Gays Support the Mers Group: A history of revolt, fiance and solidary'. * lesbian and gay miners *
We were still personal ntact wh the people Wal – but the memory of the 80s solidary movements, even left and gay circl, fad wh time. The funnit reactns me om the mastream gays: Bee the movie was so succsful, they had to pretend that they hadn’t spised all along.
Your story has also spired a new anizatn, Lbians and Gays Support the Migrants, which not only llects money for migrant projects but has also ma a name for self wh darg actns, cludg the blocka of an airplane on which refuge were beg ported. It still puzzl me that exploative pani n march pri paras and prent themselv as gay-iendly while treatg their workers, cludg their LGBT staff, atrocly. On the eveng of March 28, 2017, 15 activists cludg Lbians and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSM) cut a hole the fence surroundg London’s Standsted Airport.
" He acknowledg now that this is a le you n only e once a pch and explas that he went on to tell the story of mers the Dulais valley South Wal durg the 1984-5 strike – the longt Brish history – and a gay and lbian group om London that donated more money (£11, 000 by December 1984) to their e than any other fundraiser the UK, along wh a mib emblazoned wh the logo LGSM: Lbians and Gays Support the a when a gree of homophobia was the norm, LGSM drove a uple of mib om Hackney Communy Transport and a clapped-out VW mper van to a bleak mg town South Wal to prent their donatns, uncerta what sort of wele to expect. Three years later and the film, shot Banwen, Wal, and London, and directed by Tony-wng Matthew Warch (rponsible for Matilda the Mil, and soon to be artistic director of the Old Vic), is might assume a rom about strikg mers and 80s gays was unlikely to be big box-office, but the same was probably said of Billy Ellt.
LGBT HISTORY MONTH: 'FROM THE 1969 STONEWALL RTS TO LBIAN & GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS GROUP'
Pri, the wonrful new movie about a group of London-based lbian and gay activists who raised money for Welsh mers durg a major 1984-85 strike,... * lesbian and gay miners *
"In the homema LGSM documentary, we also glimpse a tall, handsome fellow wearg groovy leather troers, shakg a donatns bucket outsi Gay's the Word bookshop London's Marchmont Street – this is Jonathan Blake. Cliff, an olr mer ( the film, a killgly funny and affectg Bill Nighy) appears the documentary sayg: "The lbians and gays have been super duper. One hope is that the film might revive polil tert bee the activism of the left has been siled, the tra unns are weak, gay rights issu aren't there.
PRI: A HEARTBREAKG BRISH COMEDY ABOUT THE TIME GAYS AND MERS WORKED TOGETHER
'Pri' is an irristibly upliftg film. It’s both funny and sad, emotnally spirg, and based on an extraordary te story about people g together a show of class pri and gay pri to fight a mon enemy. * lesbian and gay miners *
But the nsens was: we have been monised by the prs, maybe we should meet the gay people bee they've also been monised. "Mike marvels at how tim have changed for homosexuals the metropolan first world: "It is unbelievable, we have ma such progrs. And when he has to make a speech a gay bar wh a clientele whose look is more S&M than M&S, you fear for him – how is all gog to pan out?
Twenty-seven gay people ( the film is a dozen) slept on his floor – the morng, his six-year-old dghter "uldn't put her foot down". We knew gay people existed – my dad worked wh a mer who was gay – but nobody openly talked about ; was nsired very personal.
The Stonewall Rts, also lled the Stonewall Uprisg, began the early hours of 28 June 1969 when New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay club loted Greenwich Village New York Cy. The London Lbians and Gays Support the Mers (LGSM) group was formed July 1984, four months to the year-long mers’ strike of 1984-5. Foundg members Mike Jackson and Mark Ashton had anised a bucket llectn to support the strikg mers on the June 1984 London Pri march and cid that more need to be done to raise awarens of the mers’ e the London lbian and gay muny.
THE UNLIKELY ALLIANCE OF GAYS, LBIANS AND MERS UNE AND FIGHT ‘PRI’
<strong>Alex von Tunzelmann:</strong> Gay mpaigners jo 80s Bra’s strikg mers this well-rearched film that still skips around thorny issu of socialism and a n- wh the Sun * lesbian and gay miners *
In the 1980s and 1990s he was the ordatg edor of "Gay Communy News" Boston and an active member of MASS ACT Out Boston, ACT UP Philalphia, and Philalphia Queer Actn.
Ste is the thor of "Cy of Sisterly and Brotherly Lov: Lbian and Gay Philalphia, 1945-1972" (Universy of Chigo Prs, 2000); Sexual Injtice: Supreme Court Decisns om Griswold to Roe (Universy of North Carola Prs, 2010); Rethkg the Gay and "Lbian Movement" (Routledge, 2012); and "The Stonewall Rts: A Documentary History" (NYU Prs, 2019). Mark Ashton, a gay man and member of the Young Communist League, said that “prevly I had this semi-antagonistic attu towards the anized labour movement, tra unns, macho het bully boys. ” Funds also me om Gay’s the Word bookshop, which was facg s own polil trouble at the time, cludg prosecutns for “cency.
A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY
This report is by Joseph Price, one of our first year unrgraduate stunts. 35 years ago, on the 29th June 1985, London’s gay pri para received some very unlikely supporters who saw their duty to show their support for a muny who had helped them survive durg tumultuo tim. The supporters were b loads… * lesbian and gay miners *
The mers and lbian and gay activists found they had much mon, cludg mistreatment by police, misreprentatn the media, and direct attacks om the nservative ernment. LGSM wrote that “if this strike isn’t won, we as Lbians and Gays have a lot to lose when the Tori and their henchmen e for .
LGSM and the Mark Ashton Tst led the TUC ntgent, supported by the Tregar Town Band, The South Wal Gay Men’s Chos, st and crew om the film Pri and our iends om the former mg muni of South Wal. It won’t change overnight, but now a hundred and forty thoand mers blacks and gays and nuclear disarmament and we will never be the same.
Pri, the wonrful new movie about a group of London-based lbian and gay activists who raised money for Welsh mers durg a major 1984-85 strike, is a love letter to solidary, a powerful force that we still talk about si the LGBTQ muny but rarely act upon. When Mark Ashton (played wh oodl of sexy charisma by Amerin Ben Schzer) notic that the police are spendg ls time harassg gays, part bee they’re by on the mers’ picket l, he spends the 1984 London gay pri march solicg donatns for the strikers and their fai. In most films, the gays’ arrival the valleys would be the big climax—homophobia would be overe by a movg piece of oratn, and the mers would lk arms wh guys who socialize clubs lled the Mhaft and sg songs as the creds roll.
LGBT HISTORY MONTH: LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS, 1984-85
A short history of the Lbian and Gay Mers' Support Group, who were set up durg the 1984-85 mers' strike and, as a rult, challenged prejudic held by many the labour movement. * lesbian and gay miners *
Y, there is an epic dis scene (the gays love to dance) which Domic Wt more than jtifi his paycheck, and, naturally, there’s a heartrendg sgalong (bee you know the Welsh do love to sg), but then thgs start to get real. Jt as the Great Atlantic Flt lks the “dark artery” of al that ns om South Wal to Pennsylvania, the mers and gays e to realize that they, too, are nnected, and they’re stronger if they foc on the mon stggle stead of lgerg on their differenc.
Doreen Massey and Hilary Waright mented at the time that ' many ci ethnic mori, gay and lbian muni, women's groups and "alternative" works of many kds form an important element'. This article foc on one support group the pal, Lbians and Gays Support the Mers (LGSM), which has received ltle historil analysis.
Iii The anizatn was formed after two gay men, Mark Ashton and Mike Jackson, llected donatns for the mers at the 1984 Lbian and Gay Pri march.