workingclasshistory:On this day, 11 February 1987, Mark Ashton, Irish communist and co-founder of Le
workingclasshistory:On this day, 11 February 1987, Mark Ashton, Irish communist and co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, died aged just 26. LGSM raised huge amounts of money for Welsh miners during the great strike of 1984-5, and both brought the ideas of the workers’ movement to the gay community and brought the idea of gay and sexual liberation to the workers’ movement. Ashton died of complications related to AIDS, at a time when the UK government had failed to take action to combat HIV.His friend, LGSM co-founder Mike Jackson, stated at a memorial event: “To this day, Mark’s loss remains deeply felt by so many family members and friends… Driven, principled and charismatic, Mark would have achieved so much more if he had not died so young.”The group, and Mark, were immortalised in the fantastic 2014 film, Pride. Learn more about LGSM and Mark, in our podcast episodes 27-29 with participants. Find them on every major podcast app or on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/2019/06/10/e23-25-lesbians-gays-support-the-miners/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1649724218546055/?type=3 -- source link