Following a call out by Queer Resistance, the newly formed group of queers from across the UK working to oppose the cuts, it was tremendous to see a turnout of around 3-400 queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people from around the UK for a Pink & Black Bloc at the March for the Alternative, called by the TUC, on Saturday 26th March.
As a result, there was a visible queer presence proud to be part of the fight against the cuts, with an array of banners, placards and pink umbrellas as well as vocal chanting, marching in solidarity alongside at least 500,000 other people, including local anti cuts groups, pensioners, students, public sector workers, unions and people from all walks of life.
The group met up in the morning at Soho Square with LGBTQ people from all over, including London, Brighton, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Cambridge.. Queer Youth Network joined as the group created a wonderful march through Soho, linking up with other LGBTQ groups at Cambridge Circus including Queers Against the Cuts, TUC LGBT and NUS LGBT. It then proceeded down Charing Cross on the way to the start of the March, with the colourful demonstration receiving waves from passers-by. Feedback through the day was tremendous, such as two pensioners commenting: “I like walking with those Queer Resistance people. It’s nice to walk with them” and some young people saying that the group was inspirational. With its own sound system and megaphone, the crowds were kept amused with witty repartee about the cuts as the very long March weaved through London.
Next steps for the resistance
There are a number of upcoming activities for Queer Resistance, which people from across the lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer communities as well as their friends and allies are invited to join and become a part of. They aim to give each other moral support and provide safety in numbers. Do wear pink and black, bring any queer banners, placards or signs that you have, or just turn up and join with them.
On Saturday 2nd April, Queer Resistance will be gathering for a picnic at 12 midday in Soho Square, London, to discuss activity to date and plan for future actions.
At 3pm on the same day representatives of Queer Resistance will be joining other anti cuts groups for the United Anti Cuts Assembly, an open mass meeting at UCL to reflect on the March for the Alternative and organise the next stage of the movement. More details available at http://anticuts.com/2011/03/29/united-anti-cuts-assembly-saturday-2nd-april/ / http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210282135649223.
Impact of cuts deepens
Following the financial crisis and the bank bailouts paid with public money, the ruling elite is using the current economic situation as justification to push through brutal cuts to public spending in education, housing, benefits and healthcare. These cuts will have a serious effect on a diverse range of important communities in the UK, not least LGBTQ people. Now is the time to resist these needless ideological cuts, push for the alternatives and fight for your community, your society and your values.
The rise of tuition fees will impact students who are not supported financially by their family and this means the effect will inevitably be felt by many LGBTQ students, as many have increased risk of being estranged from their families.
Other plans include severe cutbacks in NHS spending, meaning local authorities will have to abandon services they regard as ‘non-essential’. This will undoubtedly put sexual health and HIV services at risk at a local level – latest news indicates a 43% cut in funding for HIV services in London. Plans to devolve spending decisions to doctor-led consortia will also create a postcode lottery for health services, effectively leaving those who want to surgically transition unable to do so.
Cuts to education and community resources may mean a further lack of awareness about LGBTQ people in our society and potential rises in homophobic and transphobic attitudes. At the same time, an increase in unemployment and cuts in benefits is likely to lead to the scapegoating of already marginalised groups, including LGBTQ people, with resultant increases in homophobic and transphobic attacks. This is particularly worrying, given that the work of many charities working with victims of hate crimes and domestic abuse, like Galop and Broken Rainbow, are already suffering from the effects of underfunding.
The slashing of the benefits system and legal aid will compound problems for those who need help the most, including the disabled and those unable to work within the LGBTQ communities.
We also aims to challenge the common portrayal of the LGBTQ community as part of a wealthy and influential professional elite, when in reality many are often economically and socially disadvantaged members of UK society.
Whitechapel Anarchist Group 
“What do we want? Other people’s money. When do we want it? NOW!”
Hey, that’s my line!
That’s kind of rich, Pete – were you watching Deal or No Deal when we were bailing out the banks or what? A couple of smashed windows was just a symbolic response from the working class. We aim to take back the whole world, not just your loose change and if that means hanging rich bastards from the gates of the Bank of England then we’ll do it. Better batten down the hatches, Petie.
romanticanarchist –
No, I was arguing all along that bust banks ought to be allowed to go bust instead of the state using the violence of law to loot the working man on behalf of their bankster pals.
That’s the state, with its monopoly on violence against the people, your protest was defending the other day.
Make your minds up: do you want a weaker or a stronger state? Do you want the state to leave us alone (when bankers want our cash?) or loot us without mercy (when tax-parasites demand that we keep them in a job?)
The point is Pete – it IS our money, not somebody else’s. Property is theft, so we are not after a weaker state, nor are we ‘asking’ for the state to leave us alone. We intend to ABOLISH the state by force and we’ll replace it with a participatory democracy which meets everybody’s needs not just those of a few fat cats. When I say ‘we’ Pete, I don’t mean a self appointed professional elite, like one of the 57 varieties of Trotskyist you’ll find selling its wares down the precinct on a Saturday afternoon – I’m talking about the millions of families who work 80 hour weeks for fuck all money, the one’s who can’t afford to eat proper food or live in nearly acceptable housing because a small group of fat greedy aristos swallow everything up for themselves. When it’s direct democracy, people don’t sell themselves down the river. It’s going to take time and a lot of damn hard work, but revolutions HAPPEN – just take a look around you. One thing IS for certain though Pete, governments don’t abolish themselves – the working class resistance you saw on your TV screen last weekend was not in support of the state. It is just a spark of what’s going to come and If you’re an anarchist, it should have your unreserved support.
romanticanarchist –
“The point is Pete – it IS our money, not somebody else’s. Property is theft …”
How is it your money if property is theft? Your money is your property. If it’s theft it’s not your money.
Since it’s “our” money (which is correct, the state has no money of its own) why do you demand the state takes yet more of it?
Since you’re so concerned for people “with fuck all money, the one’s who can’t afford to eat proper food”, why are you arguing for the state to take even more of what they have?
Pretend to the contrary if you like, but that demonstration was in support of more state power, more state looting and more state debts loaded onto the working man.
“How is it your money if property is theft? Your money is your property. If it’s theft it’s not your money.”
Look up collectivism.
“(which is correct, the state has no money of its own)”
I lol’d, do you know what a fiat currency is?
Pete, I reject the notion of private ownership of capital and natural resources – it was secured by the rich through acts of violence against my class. Coinage was invented in order to rip off the workers, to help steal more of our labour and our production – it has no value in itself. Anarchists and libertarian socialists say that we should redistribute the wealth which has been stolen from us, not through taxation, but through destroying the state and by taking back what is ours through force. We say that we should reject the TUC and all other political institutions and instead build democratic, syndicalist unions through which workers will enjoy complete control of their workplaces and their communities. Resistance is what WE make it, not what the ruling class says it should be. We can’t afford to let people in power draw the lines for battle and we can’t afford to sit on the sidelines whilst our class gets fucked in the arse again and again. I don’t think that I can make it any clearer for you, Pete.
I don’t think he’s at all interested in anything being made clear for him. Nice try though.