Injecting Manchester Pride with Politics

Members of Manchester Communist Students joined thousands of people at Manchester Pride and participated in the ‘Pride is a Protest’ bloc and picnic. The ‘Pride is a Protest’ contingent brought together a diverse mixture of left and radical student organisations such as Education Not for Sale (ENS), Queer Youth Network (QYN), the Anarchist Federation (AF) and members of the NUS LGBT campaign. Last year this contingent was threatened with being censored as activists directed their energy against the pink pound and the corporate take over of the LGBT community and Pride events up and down the country. Corporate and governmental contingents again outnumbered charitable and political blocs. It was particular sickening to see a large contingent from the UK Borders Agency and Home Office who send hundreds of LGBT asylum seekers to repression and sometimes death in countries such as Iraq every year. There was a massive contingent from the NHS who received the biggest cheers throughout the route.

LGBTory

Liberal Democrats, the Labour Party and shockingly the Conservatives all had contingents, these Tories may have heard of section 28? After the march the Left and radical contingents gathered at University of Manchester’s North Campus for a family friendly picnic, speeches, music and political stalls. CS distributed leaflets explaining the Marxist approach to LGBT liberation. The text of the leaflet will be uploaded soon.

For a Photo report of the demonstration go to Infantile and Disorderly blog.