The Te Story of “Pri”: Lbians and Gays Support the Mers Were Communists - Left Voice

Contents:

• LBIANS & GAY MEN SUPPORT THE MERS
• WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
• LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS
• LGBT HISTORY MONTH: LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS, 1984-85
• LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS (LGSM)
• A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS
• MERS STRIKE: WHEN THE GAY MUNY STOOD UP FOR THE MERSPRI, A MOVIE ABOUT THE UNLIKELY MERS' STRIKE LK UP BETWEEN LONDON BASED GAYS AND LBIANS IS DUE TO BE ON OUR CEMA SCREENS LATER THIS YEARWALONLEBOOKMARKSHARENEWSBYROB TURNER06:00, 21 MAR 2014UPDATED12:48, 22 JUL 2015BOOKMARKMEMBERS OF THE LBIANS’ AND GAY MEN’S MERS’ SUPPORT GROUPKEEP UP TO DATE WH THE LATT STORI WH OUR WALONLE NEWSLETTERMORE NEWSLETTERS SUBSCRIBEINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.MORE NEWSLETTERSWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!WE HAVE MORE NEWSLETTERSSHOW ME SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE&TIM;GROUP 28 KEEP UP TO DATE WH THE LATT STORI WH OUR WALONLE NEWSLETTERINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.SIGN UPNO THANKS, CLOSEWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE &TIM;GROUP 28THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!

LBIANS & GAY MEN SUPPORT THE MERS

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.

WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI

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. 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.

LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS

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.

LGBT HISTORY MONTH: LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS, 1984-85

" 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. "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. "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?

LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS (LGSM)

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.

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. 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 . 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. It was only when ‘Radil Rerds’ was published this year did I realise that the first openly gay mpaigng for homosexual law reform took place wh a mg muny Atherton, Lanshire 1964.

A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY

My workg class inty had been obscured and threatened by a lbian and gay sub-culture that had no unified workg-class muny or voice. I was thirteen years old when the Sexual Offenc Act went through parliament 1967, there were no lbian and gay swchboards, teenage groups or any other support anisatns around. It’s hardly surprisg that I grew up isolated as a gay teenager, nfed as a rult of ternalisg all the homophobic msag around me the world and unable to see any posive imag of lbians and gay men.

I’d helped start up North Staffs Gay Swchboard 77 which was predomantly a workg class anisatn but LGSM was the first large lbian and gay anisatn that I’d been volved where the majory of ras were workg-class.

'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY

The stggle for socialism, cludg lbian and gay liberatn, the more personal aspects of workg-class life and culture were all rolled to one. Mark lled that gural meetg together by placg a listg ‘Capal Gay’ (a ee, weekly newspaper circulatg London around the lbian and gay muny). Three weeks earlier a few of had llected £200 om people on the Lbian and Gay Pri March and at a rally afterwards where a strikg mer on the platform had received a standg ovatn.

Lbians and gays throughout Bra were workg wh the labour and tras unn movement support of the mers but would this be regnised?

Others argued that they had never knowgly met lbians and gays and that they should e the opportuny to get to know more about . It’s a natural nsequence of the experience of opprsn that you tend to be guard, cynil and have low expectatns of people who you know have not had much to do wh - our se- lbians and gays before.

LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS

We met David aga that eveng and took him along to his first lbian and gay pub where we’d ma arrangements to prent him wh our first cheque for £500. He briefly talked about the strike to date, the problems that they were up agast and said:“I have been asked by the people of the Dulais Valley to extend the hand of iendship and solidary to the lbian and gay ras and iends London. Individual lbians and gays had been bravely pneerg for regnn and support wh the labour movement for years hherto wh limed succs.

MERS STRIKE: WHEN THE GAY MUNY STOOD UP FOR THE MERSPRI, A MOVIE ABOUT THE UNLIKELY MERS' STRIKE LK UP BETWEEN LONDON BASED GAYS AND LBIANS IS DUE TO BE ON OUR CEMA SCREENS LATER THIS YEARWALONLEBOOKMARKSHARENEWSBYROB TURNER06:00, 21 MAR 2014UPDATED12:48, 22 JUL 2015BOOKMARKMEMBERS OF THE LBIANS’ AND GAY MEN’S MERS’ SUPPORT GROUPKEEP UP TO DATE WH THE LATT STORI WH OUR WALONLE NEWSLETTERMORE NEWSLETTERS SUBSCRIBEINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.MORE NEWSLETTERSWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!WE HAVE MORE NEWSLETTERSSHOW ME SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE&TIM;GROUP 28 KEEP UP TO DATE WH THE LATT STORI WH OUR WALONLE NEWSLETTERINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.SIGN UPNO THANKS, CLOSEWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE &TIM;GROUP 28THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!

Wendy Calr om LAPC said “It’s part of the stggle agast this ernment and this society that’s anti-gay, anti-lbian and anti-workg class - fact anyone who wants to be an dividual. The pivot of our mpaigng was llectg self bee here we were up-ont lbian and gay pubs and clubs shakg llectg buckets shoutg ‘SUPPORT THE MINERS, DIG DEEP FOR THE MINERS, THEIR STRUGGLE IS OURS! It was a fact that many ras LGSM did do a lot of support work for and wh the lbian and gay muny, volunteers workg on ‘Swchboard, hog agenci, employment and legal rights.

Bis llectg we mpaigned wh the lbian and gay muny by keepg up some lively rrponnce the letters lumns ‘Capal Gay’, we leafleted, wrote articl for our newspapers and magaz.