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…
Contents:
- LBIANS & GAY MEN SUPPORT THE MERS
- WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
- MERS' STRIKE: VALLEY MUNY AND GAY ACTIVISTS' ENDURG IENDSHIPS
- A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY
- GAY AND LBIAN SUPPORT FOR THE BRISH MERS' STRIKE
- LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS
- LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS (LGSM)
LBIANS & GAY MEN SUPPORT THE MERS
Lbians and Gay Men Support the Mers * lesbians and gays support the 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. " 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. It is really illogil to say, 'I'm gay and I'm to fendg the gay muny but I don't re about anythg else…'. "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.
WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
* lesbians and gays support the miners *
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. But the nsens was: we have been monised by the prs, maybe we should meet the gay people bee they've also been monised.
" It was not long before Welsh mers warmed to their e: "They started wearg gay badg on their lapels. "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?
MERS' STRIKE: VALLEY MUNY AND GAY ACTIVISTS' ENDURG IENDSHIPS
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 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. Money was raised primarily om llectns at gay pubs and clubs and on the pavement outsi Gay’s The Word bookshop.
The alliance between LGSM and the South Wal strikg mers and their fai was an important factor turng the ti the tra unn movement favour of equaly measur for lbians and gay men. At the October 1984 Labour Party Conference, the Natnal Unn of Meworkers sent the followg msage of solidary to the Labour Campaign for Lbian and Gay Rights:.
A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY
The NUM and the mg muni of South Wal joed LGSM at the head of the June 1985 London Pri march and the NUM went on to support the ll for lbian and gay equaly at the 1985 Labour Party Conference and Tras Unn Congrs. LGSM fold June 1985, shortly after the end of the strike March 1985, but reformed as Lbians and Gays Support the Mers Aga (LGSMA) when a huge round of p closur were announced 1992. As historil geographer Diarmaid Kelliher wr, the mers had a surprisg group of alli: urban gay and lbian anizers.
The group took off after a strikg mer spoke to gay activists followg the 1984 Lbian and Gay Pri March London. 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.
GAY AND LBIAN SUPPORT FOR THE BRISH MERS' STRIKE
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 . After Thatcher cshed the strike, she began phg laws prohibg the “promotn” of homosexualy, known as Sectn 28.
In 1984, a group of gay and lbian activists Bra formed a group to llect money for strikg mers. 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.
LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS
My support for the mers actually had very ltle to do wh me beg gay, but wh my social background.
“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.
LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS (LGSM)
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. Shortly after, the Conservative ernment passed Sectn 28, which banned “promotg homosexualy” schools. 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.