Through our work, we have built very good relationships between a number of trade unions and socialist organisations. It has also earned praise nationally from UCU General Secretary Dr. Jo Grady, the RMT for our solidarity action campaigning and fundraising work for strike funds during periods of strike action. Our national and localised campaigns also earned the support of MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Dawn Butler, Nadia Whittome, Kate Osborne and more.

 

Originally called the Labour Party LGBT+ Network, LGBT+ Socialists’ founding aims were to bring together and build an active campaigning nationwide network of socialist LGBT+ members of the Labour movement. This also involved providing a coordination platform for those members to organise and promote events, socials, policy forums, share speakers and give members a safe space community, while also building strong links with the wider LGBT+ community, activist groups, and with the labour movement.
 
As a socialist organisation we recognise that taking a strong stand against Homophobia, Transphobia, Disablism, Sexism, Racism, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and all other forms of bigotry and oppression is not an optional extra in the class struggle but in fact a core part of it. The labour movemet should be leading anti-racist and anti-fascist campaigning within our communities and mobilising on the streets where necessary. We must without qualifications or caveats stand in solidarity with all marginalized groups, for there can be no Pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.

 

We also believe in community self-organisation, this means being an organisation that actively participates in the struggle rather than viewing politics as just a series of parliamentary manoeuvres and internal elections, or waiting until the next election to bring about change. Issues of equality are visible every single day and are inherently a class issue; we must treat them accordingly, standing against divisions and give everyone a voice.

We take active steps to reach out to, and organise alongside other under-represented communities, standing in solidarity with each other’s ongoing struggles and supporting the pushes for self-organised liberation structures within the movement for our many minority demographics.

We also actively support workers and the struggles of working-class communities, and recognise the importance of grassroots organising towards building and transforming the labour movement, such as supporting the campaigns to repeal all anti-union laws. We as organisation have also made a point of visibly showing solidarity to workers in dispute and regularly stand together in solidarity on the picket lines. Our issues are intertwined; we are a collective work force and must always stand staunchly together.

3 years later, we have a steadily growing membership and our work has accelerated. This has included setting up both nationwide and localised LGBT+ Officers/members forums, organised campaign days for LGBT+ identifying candidates, and worked with community groups, charities and MPs to share events and speakers for educational and social events. We have also in areas where there has been little active organisation or established policy forums for LGBT+ representatives - held socials and events for LGBT+ members to meet one another to help build contacts and etwork in their local areas to help get activity started.

In February 2020 we helped launch the ‘United We Stand – Solidarity Network’ to start bringing together the UKs many minority and under-represented demographics as one large collective to work collaboratively. To help each other build self-organised liberation structures, to collaborate on communal art projects to educate our communities of one another’s cultures, to promote acceptance, to stand in solidarity with each other in one another’s struggles and also combat not only the rise of hate/division but the apathy that facilitates it.

 

Later that year we were also proud to begin co-organising with Momentum, The World Transformed and Labour Campaign for Trans Rights to co-create a trans-led political education programme to tackle transphobia in the workplace and within left and trade union organisations. Together we also organised online events with speakers from the PLP and prominent LGBT+ activists.

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In 2021, alongside over 100 local BLM and XR groups from around the United Kingdom, we co-founded the Kill The Bill coalition to collectively campaign against what we see as authoriterian and opressive bills such as what would become the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, and the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.

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Later that year we also worked with activists to launch a Reclaim Pride organisation in Liverpool, to tackle the corporatisation, unethical sponsorships and police pinkwashing of pride events. This has also involved organising Liverpool’s first Reclaim Pride March as an alternative to LCR Pride, and working together with local activist groups  to oppose the Labour run Liverpool city council as they planned to host an arms fair and also platform a notorious hate preacher in council owned venues.

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