Based on the Socialist Party leaflet for Pride summer
In a world dominated by crisis, none of the gains the working class have won through struggle are safe, and that is true when it comes to LGBQ+ rights. Despite winning many legal rights, many LGBTQ+ people still do not all feel safe to live our lives fully and freely.
Governments seeking to act in the interests of big business attack trans+ people – a warning that no wins are permanent while society is dominated by a handful of billionaires. To maintain their position at the top of society, and to protect their profits, the capitalists demand attacks on working-class people’s living standards, and push divisions between different sections of society to try and prevent united action.
What we need is a campaign to unite the struggles of LGBTQ+ people with the wider working class, fighting for jobs, homes, and public services for all.
In the 6.5 million-strong trade unions, LGBTQ+ workers can join with others to campaign to enact the Trades Union Congress (TUC) resolution agreed last September for the trade unions to build a huge national Saturday demo against Labour’s austerity. That would show how we can cut across division.
Resist Reform
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has taken advantage of anger at Labour and the rest of the establishment parties that represent the interests of the elite. We need a new, mass workers’ party that stands for LGBTQ+ rights, as part of standing for the interests of our class, not the billionaires.
Reform councils have not gone unopposed. Union membership has shot up in areas where Reform won. When Reform councils took down Pride flags, workers covered their desks with rainbow flags in defiance.
When Reform-led Durham council cancelled its Durham Pride grant, the Durham Miners’ Association said: “Encourage the trade union movement to step up and do the right thing, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the LGBT+ community”. The event was put on with trade union donations, and was even bigger with more trade union banners than ever.
Defend trans rights
Under this Labour government, like its Tory predecessor, trans+ rights are not secure, while capitalists rely on scapegoating to maintain their rule.
But there is defiance. The number attending London Trans Pride 2025 doubled to a record 100,000.
The draft EHRC guidance will be tested in real life. Who decides how workplaces and public services are run?
Unions must engage in this struggle in the workplaces where it arises and nationally, fighting for resources, defending trans+ members, opposing discrimination, challenging homophobia and transphobia, and increasing awareness – uniting all workers against all the attacks from the capitalists.
End all oppression – for a socialist alternative
We must fight against any immediate attacks. That includes reclaiming Prides to be both celebrations of the hard-fought progress, and as protests showing we will fight.
To eliminate all oppression and prejudice, we must tackle their root cause – crisis-ridden capitalism. Capitalism is incapable of overcoming LGBTQ+phobia, just as it cannot end the racism, sexism, or other forms of oppression built into its foundations.
A socialist society would put wealth and resources, currently hoarded by a tiny few, into the hands of the vast majority, enabling us to democratically plan society. That could mean a home for all, a decent standard of living, and a world not torn apart by war and environmental disaster.
We could make the gains we have won permanent, and liberate ourselves from all forms of oppression.
