Nottinghamshire Pride makes history

Nottinghamshire Pride photo Nottingham SP (Click to enlarge)

Nottingham Socialist Party

This year's Pride march in Nottingham on 30 July was a far cry from the corporate-sponsored 'respectability politics' of integration into the capitalist establishment. The march, some 5,000 strong, was led by Black Lives Matter and Notts QTIPOC (Queer, Trans and Intersex People of Colour), with the foremost banner dedicated to Marsha P Johnson, an African-American drag queen activist who was at the forefront of the Stonewall uprising against anti-LGBT police brutality in 1969.

Other banners celebrated transgender women as pioneers of Pride, and denounced the inhumane treatment of transgender prisoners and queer refugees. As the march arrived in Hockley, a minute's silence was observed for the victims of the Orlando LGBT massacre.

The atmosphere was electric as political slogans gave voice to anger that in previous years had been drowned out by the whistle-sellers' wares.

Socialist Party members marched and petitioned against NHS cuts that disproportionately affect marginalised groups, selling 15 copies of the Socialist.

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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.

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