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Pride 2003

Fight The Bigots And Bullies

'OUT, PROUD and militant' is the Socialist Party Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Group message at this year's Pride. The first, in 1972, was a defiant celebration of LGBT life. Pride continued as a springboard for community action - not the dumbed-down big-business spectacle it is becoming.

Manny Thain

Although important gains have been made, so much more needs to be done. A recent Sigma Research survey found that 34% of gay men in Britain experienced homophobic verbal abuse over the last year. Nationally, 7% suffered homophobia-motivated assaults - 10% in South Yorkshire and 18.5% in parts of Wales.

Even 'pro-gay' legislation comes with strings attached. Take the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations to be introduced in December.

This is supposed to outlaw discrimination at work because of sexual orientation. But the Archbishops' Council wanted to retain the right to refuse to employ, and to sack, homosexuals.

Churches and other religious institutions employ tens of thousands, including care workers, teachers, secretaries and cleaners. Workers could be forced to 'prove' that they are heterosexual believers to keep their jobs. The government backed the church in parliament. We must campaign to close this discriminatory loophole which applies to any workplace claiming an ethos or belief. LGBT activists need to campaign in the trade unions. Mobilising the potential power of organised workers could ensure that everyone has full employment rights, free from discrimination.

This is not the only example of New Labour's right-wing, 'traditional' family-values agenda. The consultation document on partnership rights, which aims to legally recognise same-sex relationships, has some welcome proposals - on tenancy succession, next-of-kin recognition, pensions, etc.

But excluding heterosexual couples is divisive. New Labour believes that including them would undermine marriage - which it considers the best form of family. Heterosexual couples will remain second-class, as will lesbians and gays.

And the tabloid press will try to whip up prejudice with claims that we are getting 'special treatment' over heterosexuals! All couples - gay/straight, married/unmarried - should enjoy full and equal rights.

Socialist Party LGBT Group is also taking up homophobic bullying in education by linking up with International Socialist Resistance (ISR - a youth group which came to prominence organising school student strikes against the war in Iraq). We are highlighting the fact that bullying increases truancy, self-harm and suicide.

• Pride not profit!

• Workplace equality!

• Equal partnership rights!

• Fight homophobic bullying!

The Socialist Party believes that this class-ridden, profit-driven capitalist system fosters division and discrimination in all its forms. We're fighting for LGBT liberation and socialist change.

Join us at Pride. Find out more about our campaigns and meetings:

Contact Marc: 07947 797 254; Manny: 020 8988 8772

http://freeweb.telco4u.net/socialist-party-lgbt/

Public meeting

The fight for LGBT liberation and socialism

7pm Tuesday 29 July

Study room 1, Central YMCA

112 Great Russell Street

London WC1B

All welcome

Fighting homophobia

Take The Argument Into The Communities

COMBATTING ANTI-gay prejudice and discrimination and fighting for legal reform is a vital task for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Not least it will spare those lives that are being wrecked by convictions under unjust laws - 25,000 men have been convicted over the last 20 years under laws for which there is no heterosexual equivalent!

Marc Vallee, Socialist Party National LGBT Group Convenor

We have to fight such prejudice and show that it is not acceptable for the ugly head of homophobia to be raised in our day-to-day lives. Homophobia in the workplace, in the school, the college, at home and on the street has to be removed from our lives - but how can we achieve this?

Members of the Socialist Party LGBT Group have fought for legal reforms, from the fight for an equal age of consent to getting rid of Section 28. On its own, however, legal reform is insufficient. The Race Relations Act was passed in 1967, yet racial prejudice still exists today.

The Socialist Party believes that prejudice is an intrinsic part of the capitalist system. Capitalism's ideology is advanced to justify the privileged existence of an elite at the expense of the majority and thrives on the inequalities in society which it creates.

At times of economic and social crisis, sections of the capitalist establishment try to divert attention away from the way their system operates. By claiming society's "moral disintegration" or that "people from outside are eroding our traditional way of life", they seek to create a reactionary climate of opinion out of which to gain support.

Peter Tatchell and other members of gay rights group Outrage, who disrupted the Church of England's General Synod protesting at the Church's "withdrawing" the appointment of a gay bishop, help highlight this kind of reactionary opinion of the capitalist system.

Church of England bishops, who sit in the House of Lords, are probably one of the most reactionary sections of the establishment and have voted for anti-gay laws time and again, and should have their hypocrisy exposed.

New threats

NONETHELESS, more important to working-class LGBT people than whether or not the CofE promotes one of its own lower-ranking managers to bishop is the impending introduction of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations.

These new regulations would allow religious organisations (and other employers claiming to have a particular religious ethos or belief) to "exclude people" on the grounds of their sexual orientation from working for them.

How many hundreds of thousands of working-class people work for "religious organisations" in this country? This could mean the lesbian teacher or the gay cleaner in a 'religious' school or charity could find themselves out of a job for being gay!

A mass campaign of LGBT working-class people, linking up with all sections of the trade union movement, is needed to combat this kind of attack.

Taking the arguments for LGBT liberation into the trade unions and workplaces, into the schools, colleges and youth clubs, into the communities and voluntary organisations, we could rally support behind the call for genuine equality that could stop these types of attacks.

Capitalism is a system which promotes the interests of a super-rich elite at everyone else's expense. In contrast to the capitalist system - which has a vested interest in fostering division and prejudice - a socialist society, with democratic working-class control and management of industry and society's resources, would promote unity and co-operation. A socialist society would be run democratically by the majority, for the majority.

Under these conditions prejudice would begin to evaporate and personal relationships would be freed from the restrictions imposed by capitalism.

A strategy to achieve lasting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender liberation depends on linking the day-to-day battles against anti-gay and anti-transgender discrimination to the struggle to rebuild a mass movement for socialism and achieve a socialist society.

Pride Or Profit?

I HAVE been taking part in PRIDE for around 15 years. I am increasingly saddened to see the event become more and more depoliticised and profit-driven. This started with the separating off of the march from the festival, but continued to go full steam ahead when ticket charges where introduced.

Ruth Williams, Hackney SP Branch and SP LGBT Group

To ensure the event's financial viability and success, the organisers claimed the heavy commercialisation of PRIDE was necessary. But this has led to greater and greater losses by the organisers, and companies going bankrupt.

The naked commercialisation of the event is exemplified by the exorbitant ticket prices, the confiscation of any food and drink as you enter the festival, and the high prices charged to stall holders (resulting in the exclusion of many non-profit organisations).

All this has helped gradually attack the loyalty and community spirit that built up over the years for PRIDE and exclude many working-class lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. In 1997, the last free PRIDE festival in London, I remember my flat being full of friends who'd travelled to London especially. None of these friends are coming down this year.

Many LGBT people living outside London are being excluded, as they can't afford the extra burden of £25 for a ticket, on top of the fortune they'd have to pay in travel costs. The organisers are expecting 35,000 this year. Compare this with the 100,000 who attended the march in 1997 and the 300,000 who went to the festival.

In fact it's not just people from out of London who can't afford to go to the PRIDE festival. I don't know anyone in London who can afford to buy a ticket! One friend explained to me, "I don't need to pay £25 to prove I'm proud to be a lesbian!"

Ironically this year the march's theme is "Our History, Our Future!" Pride began as a demonstration in London in 1972, as a political statement of resistance and a campaign for gay rights. But it has become a major advertising opportunity for powerful multi-nationals such as Ford, Virgin, BT and Delta Airlines.

But despite this, many LGBT people realise the real importance of PRIDE and have been staying with it, and marching with their trade union and community banners, to help save PRIDE's political tradition, regardless of attempts by the organisers to turn it into a dumbed-down big-business spectacle.

The struggles waged by the LGBT community have achieved significant steps towards legal equality. Despite this, however, homophobic prejudice still persists. And any rights we gain are constantly under threat.

That's why we believe in continuing to campaign against prejudice and discrimination through militant struggle and a socialist alternative. And it's vital that PRIDE maintains its place as an annual demonstration for equality and focus for campaigning throughout the year for the LGBT community.