Catalogue Number
NMLH.2025.24
Object Name
t-shirt
Title
'LGBT+ Socialists support the rail workers. Victory to the RMT'
Place
Liverpool, Merseyside, Manchester, UK
People
RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers), ASLEF (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen), Mick Lynch, LGSM (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners)
Events
2022-2024 UK Railway Strikes
Description
A white t-shirt with a black and white head and shoulders image of RMT union leader Mick Lynch smiling beneath white on black and pink on black text which says 'Victory to the RMT. LGBT+ Socialists support the rail workers'. The text and the image of Lynch are superimposed over a photo of LGBT+ Socialists members from the Liverpool branch protesting at a picket line.
This t-shirt was produced in 2023 by LGBT+ Socialists, a grassroots queer socialist campaign group based in Merseyside. The design is a play on the 1984 LGSM 'Pits and Perverts' t-shirt which raised money for strikers during the 1984-85 Miners' Strike, and like LGSM, LGBT+ Socialists used the t-shirt to raise money to contribute to funds for striking RMT workers during the 2022-2024 rail strikes. The strike began in June 2022 over pay, job security and network safety as the rail networks had frozen pay levels, planned to cut thousands of jobs and introduce driver-only trains with no conductor, which RMT Union leader Mick Lynch explained would impact passenger and staff safety. Over fifty thousand rail workers went on strike, the largest railway strike since the 1980s. The Conservative government refused to negotiate with the RMT, and the strike continued until negotiations were opened by the Labour government following the July 2024 election. The strike officially ended in November 2024.
The t-shirt was bought by PHM collections assistant Jaime Starr, who recalls:
"During the strike I wore this on days when rail workers had engaged in work stoppage, as a sign of solidarity. This felt particularly important on bus commutes where people were grumbling about being inconvenienced by strike action. Strikes are supposed to be inconvenient - that's what makes the bosses give in. When I wore it while commuting by train on non-strike days, I got a lot of smiles and the odd thumbs ups from workers at the stations and on trains, which made me feel it was worthwhile to keep wearing it, as the media and government narratives around the strikers actions were so relentlessly negative that I felt it was a small way to demonstrate they had solidarity from at least some of their passengers. As a queer and trans socialist from the global majority, it also mattered a lot to me that the t-shirt was produced by a POC led LGBT+ organisation. This t-shirt pays homage to the LGSM solidarity campaign from the 1984-85 Miners' Strike, and like the LGSM members, I feel my socialist politics are impacted by seeing my communities treated unfairly by the press and government. Wearing this shirt felt like carrying the legacy of LGSM and queer solidarity with me when I visited pickets."
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