It's quite illogical to say ‘I’m gay and I’m into defending the gay community but I don’t care about anything else.’ It’s important that if you're defending communities, you’re defending all communities and not just one.
Mark Ashton
Colin Clews, author of the blog Gay in the 80s, has launched a detailed study of the people, issues and events that made the 1980s such a significant decade in queer history.
Combining the author’s personal experience, observations and research, the 267-page eBook looks at events in the UK, USA and Australia. HIV/AIDS is a recurrent theme and the author covers this from a number of aspects including his own experience as an AIDS counsellor and educator; representation of AIDS in the media and a comparison of government responses to the emerging crisis.
On Saturday 18 June 2016, LGSM were collectively presented with the freedom of the town of Ripollet, a municipality of Catalonia near Barcelona. The award was made by the Mayor, Sñr JM Osuna Lopez, at an event organised by the town to highlight the on-going fight for LGBTI+ equality.
On 18th June 2016, it will be 32 years since the police brutally attacked picketing miners at the Orgreave Coking plant in South Yorkshire during the 1984/5 Miners’ Strike. The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) are calling on supporters to join them in a march and rally for truth and justice on Saturday 18th June at 5pm at The Old Bridge, Orgreave Lane, Sheffield S13 9NE. Supporters are encouraged to commemorate the day when 95 miners were arrested and wrongfully charged and many others were violently assaulted and wounded by a police force charging on horseback and wielding truncheons.
Marking the 31st anniversary of the end of the 1984/85 British Miners’ strike, award winning choreographer Gary Clarke presents COAL, a fantastic dance theatre show which takes a nostalgic look at the realities of life at the coal face. COAL explores the darker underbelly of the mining industry unearthing the true nature and body wrecking demands of the mining industry.
A new book, Pit Props: Music, International Solidarity and the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike, edited by Granville Williams, has been released by the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom (CPBF). Contributions from multiple writers, broadcasters and trade union activists explore the support that the NUM and striking miners received from musicians, artists and trade unionists across the globe in 1984-1985.