Harriett McCormick, Birmingham North Socialist Party
On Saturday 27 May Socialist Party members attended Birmingham Pride, with a campaign stall and LGBTQ+ focused leaflets. Despite being surrounded by corporate representatives and police officers, we received an overwhelmingly positive response. People recognised there needs to be a change.
‘Rainbow Capitalism’ has seeped into Pride events like a virus over the last couple of decades, after realising that the LGBTQ+ community was ripe for consumer exploitation. However, a good percentage of participants were receptive to our demands. From students to social workers and even members of banks’ parade floats showed support for socialism. We got 60 people signing our ‘Tories out’ petition, many wanted more information about joining the Socialist Party. We raised fighting fund and sold a number of copies of the Socialist, it was an extremely successful intervention.
We received shouts of encouragement and people literally running towards us to sign our petitions. People told us they are tired of Tory austerity and the ever-rising cost of living. LGBTQ+ people are disproportionately affected by poverty, unstable unemployment and housing, and healthcare restrictions. These factors seem to be taking a layer of LGBTQ+ people back to the radical origins of the movement. Speaking to people, they recognise the need for strike action and solidarity between oppressed minorities and the rest of the working class, and were receptive to our calls for a mass workers’ party.
