34 Pride, I was there! Readers can hardly have missed hearing about this film, and many of you have probably seen it by now. There are plans now to make it into a musical and the whole thing looks like turning into another feel-good Billy Elliott. But this is a far more directly political film. It tells the experience of those actually fighting the attacks of Thatcher, rather than just happening alongside them. Seeing it was a very odd experience having been a participant in the events shown. I should say that I didn't get involved until sometime in the autumn of 1984 when I moved to London. I went to some of the meetings and can remember impassioned debates with Mark Ashton (there was far more debate within Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) than was shown in the film), I can remember collecting money (by the time I was there, established, although I tended not to go in for the later night collections at clubs because I was working and living with my parents). I also went on two trips to Dulais, once in a van sponsored cycle, with Mike Jackson and others. ...but this is far too much of my experiences and not enough of Atmosphere For a change, the movie did convey much of the atmosphere - the remote valley and the increasingly desperate miners, the thrill and perception of danger of collecting money late at night LESBIANS & GAYS SUPPORT THE MINERS · 0900 in dark streets outside pubs, long journeys in a rusty van... the passion, all of that really happened. It's also hard now to remember just how much of a challenge it was being 'out'. Pride marches were policed to the mines; tascist attacks on pubs and clubs were common (I can remember a narrow escape from one such attack in Islington); 'queer-bashing' was a regular occurrence and we had to contend with parents who thought we would grow out of it'. However, many of the events and characters were invented for the film; for example, the coming-out bakery student Joe and the violent confrontations between the police and the miners, (the mines in that part of Wales were so scab-free that they remained un picketed to the extent that we were actually shown round a mine by a striker). However, the episodes were clearly based on the very real role of the police against the strikers in other places, and some of it may have happened before I was involved. Some of the relationships between the LGSM members were also, I Passion Jonathan, Mike, Mark and Gethin (whom I already knew) were real characters. Mark Ashton didn't look much like the actor that played him, but what was well shown was his incredible passion. I was often on the opposite side of debates with him, I came from Trotskyism and the Fourth International and he was in the Communist Party. But he had a severely practical attitude in with the passion. He made things happen (I could
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Reviews never do that, he got people to do stuff and that was the main thing. There were things that could have been shown - the broken throttle cable on one of the van journeys and how fragile the van was (actually I don't think it was as luridly painted as shown). I can remember it being driven by Tobie Glenny (I think he's in the Green Party in Colchester these days). But the important thing was that I was there and I can tell you that most of what was shown was true. The welcome given by the miners, the generous response to the collections (l must say that I had forgotten just how much was raised), the van bought for the miners from the collection, which looked just right to me, the miners' band on the 1985 LG pride march; all of that was well shown. Legacy The legacy of LGSM still echoes over the years. In particular the change to the Labour Party constitution and the founding of the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights, all the major unions have LG sections, all significant sections of the left now support LGBTQ issues. Without that link between the LGBTQ community and the unions which grew out of LGSM, 1 am sure that today there would not be civil partnerships and the (limited) legal protection that we have now. And I have a feeling that the ripples in the international effect. Would Canada and various states of the USA, and other countries Hooked The first showing in the Duke of York in Brighton was depressingly poorly attended, but at the end there was applause - those that were there were clearly hooked. If you haven't been yet, do go and see this film. It's essential viewing for socialists. Meanwhile, it's great that some of us have met up again in Left Unity and on Facebook. Here's to Mike, Ray, Gethin, Reggie, the women both in LGSM and in the valleys, all the others who were involved, and in particular to Mark Ashton, who may have been a pain but without him none of it would have happened. The Indian Ideology' The Indian Ideology by Perry Anderson, Verso, 2013, Reviewed by Pritam Sinngh penetrating reflection on the making of modern India. As Marxist scholar of the stature of