17/07/2018
As Pride season continues all over the UK, the radical papers have been also covering and putting forward their different interpretations of what Pride means in the current era. Here's a few pieces we spotted.
The Marxist-Leninist paper The Weekly Worker, published by the Communist Party of Great Britain (not to be confused with the CPB, CPBML, CPGBML, RCP or RCG) publishes a long piece by activist Paul Demarty, in which the communist gay man looks at the new wave of "Lesbian Sex Wars" (as previous battles over sexuality have been called) and the fact that many companies are these days involved in what was formerly a demonstration. Incidentally, a kind of rebuttal of Paul's piece comes in the June edition of Gay Times, where it is argued that the involvement of capitalist companies is a usefull tool for social change. Also, it is worth noting that the depoliticisation of Pride is also a complaint of less radical figures, such as the human rights activist Peter Tatchell who also laments the change that has taken place in the zeitgeist of London Pride compared with the eighties and nineties.
Over at the Socialist (the paper formerly known as Militant), the SPEW (Socialist Party of England and Wales) published an open letter to another faction, the CPB and its daily paper Morning Star, which has, almost uniquely on the radical left, sided with lesbian separatists such as the "Get the L Out" coalition over the issue of transwomen and the Gender Recognition Act.
And finally, the other major paper on the radical left, the Socialist Worker, publishes a letter on solidarity needed by embattled LGBT people in Turkey.
Check out the links below for more reading! And if you read the left, community or underground press regularly, do email us with any interesting articles we can share!
https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/46889/LETTERS%3A+Turkeys+ban+on+Pride+...
https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/27616/10-07-2018/liberation-s...
https://www.weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1211/the-degaying-of-pride/
http://www.petertatchell.net/lgbt_rights/mayor-of-london-strangles-pride...