Swansea Pride
Rhys Castley, Swansea and West Wales Socialist Party
The Socialist Party marched with hundreds of people for Pride. The crowd ranged from lifelong campaigners, to young people attending their first Pride, to trade unionists standing in solidarity with LGBTQ+ people.
Those in attendance were angry about attacks on LGBTQ+ people from the media, the Labour government, and political parties like Reform, who openly wish to strip protections and rights away from minority groups. Big corporations, who are seeing record profits off the backs of the working class, were marching alongside those very working-class people in a false show of solidarity.
Socialist Party members distributed a new leaflet, pushing for the need to organise against attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, and the need for socialism to stop capitalist scapegoating of minorities. The people we spoke to were rightfully angry and frustrated that the Labour government keeps attacking LGBTQ+ people and our right to live as we wish.
People were also scared of the growth of Reform UK in the recent English council and Welsh Senedd elections. Reform pose a clear threat to LGBTQ+, especially transgender, people.
Reform has pledged to eradicate “woke and transgender ideology” from schools, and restore “traditional values”, which in practice means attacking and punishing anyone they believe they can scapegoat for capitalism’s failings.
We pushed the point that LGBTQ+ rights are never secure under capitalism, and our message that Pride is political.
Cheltenham – hundreds protest again
Billy Jones, Gloucestershire Socialist Party
Hundreds joined the Pride march. There is still a lot of anger over last year’s Supreme Court ruling being used to attack transgender peoples’ right to self-identify. After that was announced, a spontaneous protest in Cheltenham drew hundreds of people.
Gloucestershire Socialist Party set up a campaign stall at Pride, and spoke to attendees. While the event was not explicitly political, passers-by were definitely open to our message.
Under capitalism, policies that benefit the working class may be occasionally dished out by the government. In the 2010s, establishment political parties tried to portray themselves as pro-LGBT.
But what is given can be quickly taken away. In search of a scapegoat to blame the current crisis of capitalism on, LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender people, have been thrown under the bus by the ruling capitalist class.
The reality is that the capitalists themselves are to blame for the crisis that we’re in. As workers, we cannot let the divide-and-rule tactics of those in power distract us.
We need to organise collectively to effectively combat the system. Only a socialist society will provide the necessary services and security that LGBTQ+ people need.
Socialist ideas to cut across Reform
Billy also describes other recent Socialist Party campaigning in Cheltenham.
Behind Cheltenham’s shiny veneer of wealthy horse-racing enthusiasts, there are many working-class areas that have been ripped apart by decades of austerity – and our socialist programme can have an impact.
When we hold Socialist Party campaign stalls in the local square, almost all passers-by stop for a chat. One time a group of kids on bikes rolled up and asked us what socialism is. We often hear that no political parties ever visit the area.
One woman I spoke to opened by saying she was a Restore Britain supporter, a recent far-right split from Reform UK. Still, we kept talking.
When I raised our policies of no cuts to council services, she was in full agreement. She also revealed she had campaigned as part of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), which I told her the Socialist Party has supported.
When we present a material programme for change, working-class people can be won over from reactionary right-wing rhetoric.
