The Power of Love was soaring the radio waves. Marty McFly and Doc Brown were being shown on cinema screens across the country. Margaret Thatcher was in her sixth year as prime minister – and the miners’ strike was coming to an end.
Thursday marks the 35th anniversary of the end of the miners’ strike. For Mike Jackson, co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), “solidarity” is as important as ever.
Jackson founded LGSM in 1984 with Mark Ashton, in solidarity with miners striking against Thatcher’s government. The group was set up in Ashton’s Elephant & Castle flat but as it grew, it needed new spaces to meet and Islington became a focal point.
Jackson, 65, says: “It reached a point where we couldn’t all fit in [to Ashton’s flat] so we started meeting in different places – one of which was The Fallen Angel.”
The Fallen Angel, a former gay pub on Graham Street, is now a block of flats. But it proved an important rallying space for LGSM.
“Islington was important for us,” Jackson says, “but not alone.”
He adds: “A lot of the inner London boroughs in the Eighties were resisting attacks from Thatcher’s government. Islington and Camden were very important, as was the Greater London Council. They were promoting LGBT rights when we didn’t have LGBT rights… and of course the Thatcher government hated that.”
Homelessness is a big problem in LGBT community
Thirty five years on, Wilson says: “The consciousness of the LGBT community is incomparable, with lots of legal rights, such as the right to get married, which is fantastic. But we’ve got to always be vigilant.”
Wilson would like to see more concrete policy proposals to add to the rhetoric on equal rights.
He says: “All parties pay lip service to [LGBT issues] now and that shows the power of the LGBT vote. What we need to see is action. Homelessness is a big problem in the LGBT community amongst others.”
He also believes trade unions have a role to play in 21st century politics, despite their decline.
Continuing activism after 35 years passed
Jackson says: “It still is the largest voluntary organisation in the country, with nearly 7 million members and we have to rebuild that. A large part of that is getting the unfair trade union laws rescinded.”
Now in his sixties, Jackson continues to give talks about his experience in activism. He has seen an upsurge of interest in his group since the release of Pride, a film about LGSM released in 2014.
“I do a lot of speaking engagements because of the movie about the labour and trade union movement and I also sometimes speak at schools. To me, speaking at schools is amazing: I couldn’t have imagined that 35 years ago.”
