A Year of Pride: Revisiting the Activism Inspired by LGSM’s Support for the Onllwyn Miners

Abstract

In 2015, the year following Pride’s distribution, UK and international fans were able to participate in events inspired by the film which supported activist causes. This article is a reminiscence of events I participated in with Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), and an examination of the extent to which they relate to the events in Pride. Events discussed which were directly inspired by Pride include a restaging of a photo of LGSM in Hyde Park at the 1985 London Pride, a fundraising party similar to the Pits and Perverts benefit ball where Bronwen Lewis performed ‘Bread and Roses’, and LGSM and the miners leading the 2015 London Pride march. The events which related to moments in Pride became symbolic of the politics expressed within the film, but linked to contemporary issues. I will reflect on how LGSM brought the politics of their miners’ strike activism into the events discussed, encouraging a younger generation, many of whom were not born when the miners’ strike happened, to become involved in the activism that emerged out of Pride. Finally, I will end the piece by reflecting on LGSM’s decision to wind down on activities not directly related to the miners’ strike or its politics to support newly established groups supporting various causes, including migrant rights and struggling industrial workers. LGSM marked this with a farewell party, which was particularly moving, as the date coincided with the final day of work in Britain’s last coal mine, making LGSM and Pride’s messages of political unity all the more potent.