1986. Lesbians and Gays Support the Printworkers
Certainly one thing I am absolutely clear on is that the Murdoch media empire is not, nor ever has been, a friend of queer people (see, for example, my post on AIDS and the Press). So the exhortations to boycott his publications (and his other media enterprises) remain as valid today as they ever did.
Acknowledgements:
I’d like to thank former LGSP members Cath Booth, Martin Goodsell, and Dave Lewis for their input to this post. Particular thanks to Cath, who provided detailed information as well as the images used here.
I wasn’t involved with LGSM, being 18 at the time and not totally out, so when the print workers strike came about I saw a letter within the Labour Party about Lesbians and Gays Support the Printworkers (LGSP), so I went off to their weekly meeting at the London Lesbian and Gay Centre (opposite Farringdon station) and, like others, got involved in their campaign (around the summer of 1986) and not yet 20, would join their bucket collections outside Gay’s the Word on a Saturday afternoon and then in the evening would make my way to a guy called Roger and his flat close to Aldgate Gate where we’d meet and then make our way to Tower Hill tube for the Saturday night march down to Wapping. I was still a gentle shy flower at the time until one night when I let loose screaming “scabs” as the lorries would drive by us and some of the drivers giving the two-finger salute and for me being restrained.
I made some good friends during that time (Roger, Geoff, Stephen from Australia, Cate(?) spring to mind).
I still have a couple of the badges from the Wapping dispute and show in pride at my involvement.
When the strike ended, it all felt so suddenly and everything about LGSP just kind of ended and it was such an empty feeling. The film ‘Pride’ however helped me bring back those Saturday’s at GtW and Wapping with a feeling of I tried my best and made me realise my TU LGBT political involvement, which I’m personally proud of.