Just found a discussion of the strike to defend Ian Davies in Tower Hamlets 1976, who was sacked after being prosecuted on a "gross indecency" charge. Is there much historical record of this? As an important example of direct workers' struggle against homophobia it deserves a place in the libcom library/Working Class History, imo. Here's a scan of an issue of Gay News from 1976 discussing the strike: https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bishopsgate/GN-Pride-Report-1976.pdf?mtime=20220623112430
Still can't find anything…
Still can't find anything relevant on libcom, but here's an old Socialist Worker that mentions the strike on page 14: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/sw-gb/1976/492-4-sep-1976.pdf
Thanks so much for flagging…
Thanks so much for flagging this up! Do you mind if we give you a credit?
We found out some more info and have written up a little story for WCH. Still trying to find the exact location where this happened for our map, but got some good contacts so hopefully will be able to do this relatively soon:
https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/13671/gay-social-worker-reinstated
Thanks! You're welcome to…
Thanks! You're welcome to credit. If you can find a copy of the book Champions of Equality by Peter Purton, that has a more detailed account of the strike (about 2 or 3 pages long), I was hoping to get round to transcribing it for here at some point but it may take me a while.
Cool! There is an extract…
Cool! There is an extract of a speech he made with more information here as well: https://labourhub.org.uk/2024/02/21/lgbt-rights-past-victories-future-challenges/