A STORY of life-changing activism, comradeship and defiance could have been lost forever, filed away in archives.

Instead, thanks to the award-winning film Pride, a book of the same name and the continued political commitment of its founders, the amazing tale of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) has reached millions across the world.

LGSM sprung into life in London in July 1984, four months into the year-long miners’ strike of 1984-85, as brainchild of Mark Ashton, a Young Communist League (YCL) member and later general secretary, who grew up in Portrush, Northern Ireland.

Ashton, one of the central characters portrayed in the film, died from the symptoms of HIV in early 1987, aged only 26.

In May 2017, LGSM unveiled a blue plaque to Mark’s life and legacy above Gay’s The Word bookshop in London’s Bloomsbury. Friends and comrades gathered at the unveiling included miners’ leader Dai Donovan, former MP Sian James, LGSM secretary Mike Jackson, members Dave Lewis and Gethin Roberts, and many involved in the strike, whose stories feature in the film.

Lewis, one of the LGSM “originals,” recalls: “The group started in 1984 with 11 people, and steadily grew to an active membership of more than 60. LGSM’s purpose was to raise money for the south Wales miners’ families, and to take the strikers’ case into the London lesbian and gay community.

“Between July 1984 and March 1985, LGSM raised more than £22,000 from bucket collections and benefit events. Eleven other LGSM groups sprang up, including those in Manchester, Edinburgh, Leicester and Southampton.

“The south Wales mining communities joined LGSM at the head of the 1985 London [Lesbian and Gay] Pride march, with their banners. The NUM delegation to the 1985 Labour Party conference supported a motion calling for greater equality for lesbians and gay men.

“Then, the dust settled and the LGSM story was pretty much forgotten by all but those directly involved.”

Jackson was approached several times, over nearly 30 years, by writers and others keen to tell the story. He was resigned to the fact that nothing came of these ventures, when screenwriter Stephen Beresford called. This time, the project took off.

In September 2014, the Pride film hit cinemas, bringing the story to a whole new generation.

It’s a touching comedy, deftly telling the story of this seemingly unlikely alliance between a small group of lesbians and gay men in London and the mining communities of the Neath, Dulais and Swansea valleys. It’s nostalgic, funny, occasionally heart-breaking and often inspiring. It’s also a hugely important piece of political history, which resonates down the decades.

LGSM originals reformed the group in October 2014, responding to the huge interest in their story. That meant an extensive, often exhausting, round of screenings, and many other national Pride events, as well as the Tolpuddle Festival and Durham Miners’ Gala.

International attention followed, as LGSM’s Roberts (played in the film by Andrew Scott) says, the story won hearts and inspired activism worldwide.

“I’ve spoken at more than 100 screenings —  in Ankara and Istanbul, Mexico City, Beijing and Moscow, in Malmo, Warsaw, Milan and many other places — and the reception for the film is always amazing.

“It really resonates with people and often inspires them to offer practical solidarity, whether it’s Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants in London, UK, or in London, Ontario — as well as in Wales, Brighton and Brussels.

“There are similar groups in Palermo, Copenhagen and Mexico City, and in Norway there is a group called Lesbians and Gays Support the Dockers. It’s truly inspiring that people are continuing LGSM’s legacy.”

A pivotal point came in June 2015, at the Pride in London event, when the organising committee initially invited the group to lead the march, as they had done 30 years before. Controversially, organisers reneged on this decision. As it was, the LGSM banner led a bloc of 4,000 people, carrying NUM, trade union and students’ banners, some distance from the front.

Jackson says: “They clearly wanted to capitalise on our ‘fame’ due to the film, but were very unhappy to see that we’d become a magnet for hundreds of activists. We were not there as a set of luvvies. ‘Solidarity’ is our byword, and we preferred to march with people whose values we shared, not with bankers and tax-dodgers.”

The group’s legacy can also be seen in their commitment to the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC). Members work in London to keep up the pressure on the government for a full, independent public inquiry into the vicious police attack on miners and their supporters at Orgreave in June 1984.

This year, at Cuba’s “Conga,” the nation’s Pride event, Jackson rode in an open-top limousine alongside Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban former president Raul Castro — he wore his Orgreave T-shirt.

The book Pride: The Unlikely Story of the Unsung Heroes of the Miners’ Strike was launched in August 2017. Written by Tim Tate, it captures the accounts of those who supported one another in the worst of times.

As Tate says: “The book tells the story of one of the more unlikely alliances of the 1984-1985 miners’ strike, in the middle of the most turbulent period of post-war Britain, and in what was the most bitterly fought industrial dispute for a generation.

“A group of young and idealistic gay men and women made common cause with a very traditional community in the south Wales coalfield and helped to keep them alive, as Mrs Thatcher’s government sought to starve mining families into submission.”

Lewis says, in the book’s concluding pages: “If anyone reading this still believes that the British state is liberal, plural, benign or paternal, please look and see just how that state machine was treating the striking miners in 1984.

“And then take our story with you into future battles — because you need to know what you’re up against in order to stand a chance of victory.”

LGSM have become a regular fixture at the Durham Gala since 2015 and are here again this year, marching with banners, and with a T-shirts and merchandise stall.

These days, the banner comes out for special occasions, including Tolpuddle, and the May Day march in London. As Mike Jackson puts it: “Well, we’re not a re-enactment society! We were all activists back in 1984, and we still are.”

Lewis agrees: “LGSM members will carry on taking the fight to the Tories and the rich elite in any way we can, in a range of campaigns, trade unions, political parties and other movements.”

Visit lgsm.org

Lynne Walsh is a journalist and campaigner who worked with LGSM on the Pride project.