A story of Solidary: Mers and the Gay Communy – HISTORY AT NORTHAMPTON

Contents:

• WHEN MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS UNED: THE REAL STORY OF THE FILM PRI
• COAL MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS PARTNER IN 'PRI'
• LIAM MAYCLEM "PRI" INTERVIEW, ON UNLIKELY ALLIANCE OF GAYS, MERS
• A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY
• THE UNLIKELY ALLIANCE OF GAYS, LBIANS AND MERS UNE AND FIGHT ‘PRI’
• GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

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

" 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.

COAL MERS AND GAY ACTIVISTS PARTNER IN 'PRI'

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.

"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. In a when vast homophobia was expected and accepted, Lbians and Gays Support the Mers (LGSM) drove a uple of mib and a mper van om London to Dulais, a small mg town South Wal, to prent their donatns an attempt to aid the mers’ efforts.

LIAM MAYCLEM "PRI" INTERVIEW, ON UNLIKELY ALLIANCE OF GAYS, MERS

Roots of OpprsnFirstly, is perhaps important to refer to the ways which mers and homosexuals were opprsed Bra at the time. ’ An LGSM member scribed how ‘a lot of mg muni have found out what police harassment is for the first time, which gay people have known about for years’. Sian Jam scribed feelg that ‘we were next le after lbians and gays…you nnot sympathise wh an opprsed group until you’ve actually been a member of one’ Unlikely UnnIn the face of such adversy, ordator Mark Ashton enpsulated the aim of LGSM; ‘It is illogil to say: ‘I’m gay and I’m to fendg the gay muny but I don’t re about anythg else.

Tensns were high when the mg muny received news of the impendg arrival, yet the experienc were generally posive for both magaze Cy Lims scribed how LGSM members visg Dulais were weled to the mers’ hom for the weekend; whole fai discsed gay rights and sexualy ‘over the tea-table’. Such apprehensn was mutual; a rrponnt of Capal Gay claimed that the mg muni ‘enpsulate all the sexist, patriarchal and anti-gay views which threaten ’.

The ntug viss mataed feelgs of solidary and laid the ground work for the appearance of Blaenant Lodge, a group of approximately 80 mers and sympathisers om South Wal who marched wh LGSM at Gay Pri London July 1985.

A STORY OF SOLIDARY: MERS AND THE GAY COMMUNY

’ The words of the NUM’s note, sent to the ge meetg of gays and lbians at the 1984 Labour Conference, sum up the sentiments om the other si: ‘Support civil stggle is yours. ’The prentatn of a rolutn to the Brish Labour Party Annual Conference that year which mted the Labour Party to gay rights was ma.

THE UNLIKELY ALLIANCE OF GAYS, LBIANS AND MERS UNE AND FIGHT ‘PRI’

The growg acceptance of gay issu the Labour movement would play a role the passg of progrsive legislatn by followg Labour ernments on the age of nsent, civil partnerships, and the repeal of Sectn 28 November the time that the group was wound up July 1986, LGSM had gathered approximately 22, 000 pounds for the mg muny at Dulais, llected through street llectns, jumble sal and events such as the ‘Ps and Perverts’ gig, named after a rogatory slogan ed by The Sun Importance of SolidaryNotns of muny over class were rerced by an opn piece wrten by LGSM for Cy Lims.

They claimed that; ‘Our support for the strike aris not purely om the fact that we are gay, but bee we are members of the same class’. That’s not necsarily lbians and gay men – that’s workg class people’ Gay Liberatn Foundatn marched wh the Tra Unn Council agast Edward Heath 1971. Bis referrg to the NUM’s ntributn to Labour’s cln of gay rights their manifto 1985, Blake noted the signifince of the movement, and specifilly the film Pri, ‘ spirg youth folk’.

This feelg seemed to take effect South Wal as early as the summer of 1985, when stunts om Universy College Cardiff held the cy’s first Gay Pri march. ’From the outset of the mpaign, Ashton and Jackson emphasised the need for mori to rea om hidg, and enuraged gay people and mers to embrace their label.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

Durg the meetg wh Donovan October 1984, Jackson said ‘We ll ourselv LGSM to emphasise our label - I hope this n enurage people plac like Dulais to say ‘I’m gay and I’m proud’.

Whilst gay activists had worn badg for other mpaigns, like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Troops Out and Rock Agast Racism, this time the gture was reciproted. A pamphlet published by the Labour Campaign for homosexual rights 2006 noted support for the mers ‘cludg hundreds of lbians and gay men workg through support groups’ and add; ‘the already epeng unn backg for lbian and gay equaly has been rerced by the experience of the mers’ strike. Apart om anythg else, did so much to brg together disparate groups Brish society, jtified when a mers’ brass band was chosen to lead a Gay Pri march.

Diarmaid Kelliher; ‘Solidary and Sexualy: Lbians and Gays Support the Mers, 1984-85’, History Workshop, (2014), Townsend, ‘Thatcher ‘no surrenr’ msage on mers. 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.

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 .

Gay activists work to help mers durg their lengthy strike of the Natnal Unn of Meworkers the summer of productn, box office & pany Vios56More like thisReview There is nothg not wonrful about this you don't lgh, don't shed a tear, or don't want to get up and cheer at the end, then you weren't payg attentn durg this movie. Coal mers and gay activists — two groups that, 1980s England at least, you might have figured would steer clear of each other — partner surprisgly effectively the real-life story that's affectnately fictnalized Pri.