Peckham Community Pride 20/2/16 – report with photos and video
Report, photos and video by Steve Eason Peckham Community Pride, a political, non-commercial march through SE15 from Peckham Library down Rye Lane, protested the anti-immigration raids and the intimidating “go home vans” that have targeted Peckham. Community pride was called by the civil rights group Movement For Justice and Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSMigrants). […]
LBGT organisations close in the face of Tory cuts despite claims of support
Organisations supporting LBGT people are currently closing down at a rapid rate. Colin Wilson discusses why this is happening despite the British ruling class claiming to support LGBT people. The number of LGBT youth groups in the North West has halved since 2010, reports the Guardian recently in an article headlined “Services for LGBT young people […]
A homosexual Christmas in 1905 Berlin
Colin Wilson rediscovers a forgotten chapter of LGBT history in this account of a “uranian” Christmas, written by a leading campaigner over a hundred years ago. Magnus Hirschfeld was a doctor and a leader of the German LGBT movement from the 1890s to the 1930s.The text translated here is an excerpt from one of his earliest books, […]
Black Dissidents interview: “Real power comes from collective fights for liberation”
Black Dissidents were formed earlier this year and since then have been involved in fights against oppression from migration struggles to resisting evictions. Tomorrow they’ll be taking part in the UFFC Annual Remembrance Procession, 1pm, Trafalgar Square, London. Jaz Blackwell-Pal caught up with Shanice McBean from Black Dissidents to discuss the politics of the group, […]
Migration FAQ: why now?
Nick Evans answers some common questions around the migration crisis Why now? More people around the world were forcibly displaced in 2014 than ever before in recorded history. Of those 59.5 million people, 19.5 million were classed by the UN as refugees. The overwhelming majority of those refugees were hosted in developing regions, but unprecedented numbers have […]
Cops raid gay escort website: time to stop criminalising sex work
Colin Wilson condemns the US authorities’ raid this week on the New York-based website rentboy.com. On Tuesday, the New York Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security raided the offices of rentboy.com, taking away computers as evidence and arresting the site’s Chief Exec and six others on prostitution charges. The defendants face up to five years […]
Discrimination in selection?
Professional statistician Nancy Carpenter and Unite activist Ian Allinson explain how to check for discrimination in situations like redundancy selection. It’s common for employers to select employees for various purposes, including recruitment, redundancy, appraisals, pay rises, bonuses and promotions. It’s common for people to say such actions should be subject to “equality impact assessments” to […]
London Pride 2015: a snapshot of struggles past, present and to come
The Pride march in London was a snapshot of the strides LGBT politics have made over the years, writes Colin Wilson. And despite the huge corporate presence, it showed signs of a growing left. Photographs by Steve Eason. I went on my first Pride march in 1980. A few thousand people took part. I was 19, […]
London Pride: a chance to challenge the neoliberal LGBT agenda
London Pride is taking place this Saturday and in the run up has been hitting the headlines. Colin Wilson argues that the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners’ contingent on this year’s march provides a crucial opportunity for radical voices to be heard. As soon as the Pride Committee published the order in which groups […]
rs21 magazine summer 2015 launches at People’s Assembly demonstration on Saturday
Issue 4 of rs21 magazine will be out on Saturday, and available to buy from stalls and individuals at the People’s Assembly demonstration against Austerity in Central London. The election of a majority Tory government in May was not the result that most of us expected when the UK went to the polls. It will […]
“Are you like wearing mascara?”
As part of rs21’s ongoing series on trans liberation, Sølvi, a teaching assistant in a London secondary school, tries to grapple with what it means to be non-binary when working in education.
Leslie Feinberg: ‘Remember me as a revolutionary communist’
Remembering Leslie Feinberg – an ‘anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist’.
Dear Love of Comrades: The politics of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners
The film Pride tells the story of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. It’s an extraordinary and inspiring achievement for a mainstream movie. For almost a year in 1984-5, over 100,000 miners were on all-out strike. The strike was the major political issue of the day, and Thatcher’s final defeat of the miners one of […]
The Politics of Pride
As the LGBT movement takes to the streets at London Pride today, Colin Wilson reflects on the challenges facing the movement for liberation today. The official guide for Pride London is a remarkably political document. Perhaps, with the Head of Political Broadcasting at Number Ten chairing the Pride committee, that should come as no big surprise. It’s not […]
‘No to Pinkwashing’ at Pride
Members of No to Pinkwashing – No to Israeli Apartheid will be joining the LGBT Pride march in London this Saturday. Colin Wilson explains the background of the campaign. “Pinkwashing” is a cynical Israeli PR strategy, which relies on the claim that Israel has a good record on LGBT issues to divert attention from the […]
Baltic Pride – not parliament – has the potential for LGBT liberation in Estonia
Civil partnerships for LGBT couples could be recognised in Estonian law from July. But William Cleary argues that the Baltic Pride festival, which will be held in Estonia’s capital in June, will be more significant for LGBT liberation. Estonian legislators are preparing a civil partnerships bill for the parliament, the Riigikogu. The bill is in […]
Fighting homophobia: “the best day of my teaching career”
An NUT rep in Manchester explains how he organised a day that celebrated diversity, and tackled homophobia, in his school with truly astounding results. Stonewall completed two reports in 2007 and 2012 about the level of homophobia within schools. The reports give ample evidence that homophobia is an acute problem within both primary and secondary […]
Fighting oppression is at the heart of socialism
The fight against oppression needs to be fully integrated into the fight against capitalism and for socialism.
Hypocrisy, homophobia and the neoliberal ruling class
As the Sochi Olympics began, many politicians and multinationals have statements supporting LGBT rights and condemning Russia’s homophobic government, but there are doubts about these new friends of equality.
No to Pinkwashing reports on today’s protest
No to Pinkwashing campaigns against the Israeli PR tactic of using claims about their record on LGBT issues to present Israel as a defender of human rights. They held a protest in central London today: We had called the protest after Gay Star News invited the Israeli Tourist Board to their Beach Party, an LGBT […]