When mers and gay activists uned: the real story of the film Pri | Pri | The Guardian

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: PRI A LEGACY
• LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS
• LGBT HISTORY MONTH: LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS, 1984-85
• LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS
• HERO OF 2014: MIKE JACKSON OF LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS

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.

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 .

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

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: PRI A LEGACY

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. 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.

LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS

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: LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS, 1984-85

"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?

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".

LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS

We knew gay people existed – my dad worked wh a mer who was gay – but nobody openly talked about ; was nsired very personal.

HERO OF 2014: MIKE JACKSON OF LBIANS AND GAYS SUPPORT THE MERS

Instead, thanks to the award-wng film Pri, a book of the same name and the ntued polil mment of s founrs, the amazg tale of Lbians and Gays Support the Mers (LGSM) has reached lns across the world. LGSM’s purpose was to raise money for the south Wal mers’ fai, and to take the strikers’ se to the London lbian and gay muny. It’s a touchg edy, ftly tellg the story of this seemgly unlikely alliance between a small group of lbians and gay men London and the mg muni of the Neath, Dulais and Swansea valleys.

“It really ronat wh people and often spir them to offer practil solidary, whether ’s Lbians and Gays Support the Migrants London, UK, or London, Ontar — as well as Wal, Brighton and Bssels. “There are siar groups Palermo, Copenhagen and Mexi Cy, and Norway there is a group lled Lbians and Gays Support the Dockers.

“A group of young and ialistic gay men and women ma mon e wh a very tradnal muny the south Wal alfield and helped to keep them alive, as Mrs Thatcher’s ernment sought to starve mg fai to submissn.