Gay March
Socialist Press1980 1980-07-02Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 4 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 4
Last year's Gay Pride march in London was memorable for its large size. This year's, at only a third of the size will not be.
What it will be memorable for is its rapid conversion from a good humoured amble into an angry and militant demonstration against police repression.
When the march arrived at Parliament Square one participant was arrested by the police (whose conduct had been offensive and provocative from the beginning) for carrying an offensive weapon -a hatpin!
When other marchers protested it this atrocity, they too were arrested.
•At the end of the march a now angry crowd refused to disperse and were beseiged by hundreds of police in Malet St.
Eventually the police were forced to concede that the march re-form and go to Bow St where the demonstration continued until those arrested were released.
These events not only show up a new example of the provocative and repressive behaviour of the police-visible on virtually all demonstrations; they also demonstrate the readiness of hundreds of gay people to give militant resistance to the oppression which they suffer in numerous respects from bigotry and the repressive forces of the state.
• For this reason the 1980 Gay Pride March can mark an important turning point in the struggle for gay liberation.
A campaign to defend the victims of such repression now becomes an urgent necessity in the gay and workers' movements.
LIAISON
COMMITTEE DISCUSSION BULLETIN No. 2 Articles on Nicaragua, Parity Commission, and TILC Declaration Price 40p plus 15p p&p from WSL, BM Box 5277, London WCIV 6XX