Solidarity is an Action: Film & Discussion

*Please note: this free event will be broadcast via Zoom, please forgive us in the event of any resulting audio/video quality issues 

Continuing our Labor Film series, we'll watch a drama-comedy based on a true story from the summer of 1984 – Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike. Noticing that the LGBTQ community in London faced similar oppression and shared some of the same enemies as striking Welsh miners—Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the police and the press, A group of gay and lesbian activists led by Mark Ashton founded a movement they called Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) and began to raise money to support the families of the strikers. However they encounter a problem, the Union is embarrassed to receive their support. The activists are not deterred and decide to go directly to the miners themselves. They identify a mining village in deepest Wales and set off in a mini-bus to make their donation in person. And so begins the extraordinary story of two seemingly alien communities who form a surprising and ultimately triumphant partnership. 

This event is hosted in collaboration with Out In The Open and will be introduced by Eva Westheimer, the Programs and Volunteer Coordinator of Out in the Open. Eva has a background in social justice organizing, with deep connections within environmental and climate justice work in addition to her work supporting our rural LGBTQ community. For a number of years Westheimer worked and organized in central Appalachia supporting communities impacted by fossil fuel resource extraction. The connections between labor movements and LGBTQ communities is long and deep. Eva will share some personal experience of these connections and facilitate space after the film for folks to connect in conversation with each other.