SERTUC Proud to Join Pride March in London and to March Behind the Historic ‘Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners’ Banner

More than 30,000 people from more than 250 groups took part in the Pride Parade in London on Saturday 27 June 2015. More than a million spectators cheered the Parade by, waving, whistling, chanting and often singing: “Solidarity forever. Solidarity forever. Solidarity forever. The union makes us strong.” This refrain features centrally in the recent film; ‘Pride’.

The SERTUC banner was carried the entire route from Baker Street past Trafalgar Square to Northumberland Avenue, lasting more than 4 hours, and great thanks are due to Alice Dupont, Assistant Secretary of the SERTUC Creative and Leisure Industries Committee, for carrying the banner for SERTUC.

SERTUC marched behind Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), and NUM banners. This year is the 30^th anniversary of the famous Pride march in London when it was led by large delegations of miners and banner from pits, after the return to work at the end of the Miner’s Strike 1984-85, and by LGSM.

SERTUC organised the design, commissioning and making of 100 campaign placards with core trade union messages and the SERTUC logo, which were distributed in the trade union section by LGSM.

There was the largest ever trade union presence at a Pride Parade in London, including:

National Union of Miners, including Kent NUM, UNISON, UNITE with a bus, GMB with a bus, CWU, NUT with a bus, NASUWT, ATL, FBU, RMT, ASLEF, CSP, PCS, Prospect, FDA, BECTU, Equity, RCM, UCU, RCN, USDAW and Trades Councils, including Cambridge Trades Council.

The spirit of the day was very positive and joyous, reminiscent of the ‘publicity caravan’ that rides in front of the Tour de France, but with a much more explicit expression of support for trade unionism. The ethos of trade unions was to the fore. The role that trade unions played in winning rights for lesbian and gay people at work and in society was clearly recognised and valued by very many spectators, as is the role yet to be played in winning greater equality for all. Paul Nowak, TUC Assistant General Secretary, spoke at the rally in Trafalgar Square.

The message of the day was “Only when we are all equal, can we all be free.”

It is only fair to report that pride in London 2015 was not without controversy. LGSM was invited to lead the Pride Parade in 2015 but trade unions were not permitted to march behind the LGSM banner, at the front of Parade. So, LGSM took a highly principled decision to decline to lead the Parade, and to lead the section in which trade unions were marching. After numerous objections LGBT UKIP was refused permission to join the Parade for ‘safety reasons’ but on the day approximately 10 UKIP supporters with a banner and placards did join the Parade. There is also tension between trade unions, the TUC and London Pride Board and its Community Interest Company, ‘LGBT+ Community’. Unions have been a supporter and organiser of Pride events for many years, making it a successful concept, and perhaps that role in very tough times is not sufficiently recognised. Trade unions and the TUC have done an immense amount. as a campaigning movement and advocate at work, to win change for LGBTQ people. Perhaps that role past and future, is not recognised and respected. And the TUC is a long-standing key sponsor of Pride, and was one of 8 core sponsors in 2015. Meanwhile, the London Pride event is large and expensive to stage, and attractive to commercial sponsors, whose aims and values might differ from ours.

Pride in Brighton will be held 1 August 2015. The TUC also actively promotes UK Black pride; www.ukblackpride.org, which was held in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in south London, 28 June 2015.