Saturday 31 August 2019

Reading Trades Union Council at Pride

On 31 August 2019, Reading Pride marched through the town and took up residency on Kings Meadow. As is customary, trade unionists assembled, lining up alongside political and social marquees and stalls, from the NHS to the Reading & District Labour Party.

Rob Sterling (GMB), Nikki Dancey (GMB) and Kevin
Brandstatter (GMB) in the RTUC gazebo
Reading Trades Union Council parked its gazebo alongside that of its affiliated trade union, the GMB, and members of the RMT, Unite, the Musicians' Union, Unison, NEU and other trade unions promoted their campaigns and fraternised with members, prospective members and other sympathisers.
Cllr Rachel Eden (GMB), Matt Rodda MP (Labour, Reading
East) and Paul Sony (GMB) at the GMB gazebo

RTUC distributed literature on the minimum wage, transport policy and workplace equality and held conversations to promote the power of collective strength in defending minorities and other groups and individuals striving for equality.

RTUC would like to acknowledge the fine work done by Plan C Reading, Abingdon Queer Action and other groups which led a protest against the presence of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, the Ministry of Defence and the Conservative Party at Reading Pride, despite their support for arms trading with regimes which persist in criminalising homosexuality. Plan C Reading wrote up the protest as follows: