“When the first LGSM meeting took place on the eighth floor of a council flat in Bermondsey, none of the eleven people present could have known that this
new found alliance (between the miners and the lesbian and gay community) would have repercussions reaching into the very heart of what had previously been seen, by many in our community, as unreachable.”
-Mark Ashton
OUR MARCH event for 2019 is a free screening of the film Pride (2014). The film is inspired by the true story of a group of gay and lesbian activists, spearheaded
by communist Mark Ashton, to raise awareness of the 1984 Miners Strike in the UK and provide aid for families of the striking miners. An easy-going, heartwarming comedy the film, along with the historical record, depicts the
way that seemingly disconnected struggles can be brought together for the benefit of both – and in doing so show that their supposed separateness is an illusion.
The workers’ movement and socialist movement has a mixed history with LGBT+ liberation. Nonetheless many socialist thinkers back to early utopians such
as Charles Fourier (1772-1837) defended same-sex sexuality as part of the human experience of sexuality. Oscar Wilde – one of the most prominent gay figures of the 1800s wrote passionately for the socialist cause.
The timing coincides with the end of the Christchurch Pride (28th February – 10th March) and we hope it will be complementary to the festival. Check out
their planned events here.
Related reading:
John D’Emilio – “Capitalism and Gay Identity”, with an introduction by Rosemary Hennessy “The birth and short-lived life of gay Marxism: ‘Capitalism and gay identity’ in context”
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