Sian James: A source of 'Pride'

IN THE MOVIE "Pride," Jessica Gunning plays a young Sian James, the wife of a Welsh miner whose 1980s activism is awakened when her conservative coal mining town, striking against Margaret Thatcher, is unwelcoming to a group of London gays trying to help them.

Last month, Gunning and James were at the Toronto International Film Festival, where "Pride" received a thunderous ovation, to discuss the film and its issues.

Gunning, a well-known British TV actress (she was one of the stars of "Law & Order: UK"), said she was thrilled with the reception because the cast had no idea how well the film would play outside of the United Kingdom. She said that when she signed on to the film, she was surprised to learn how bad things were for British gays in the 1980s ("If people of the same sex showed public displays of affection on the street, they could be arrested.") and was amazed to learn of the alliance between the miners and their gay fundraisers.

"This is a true story that I didn't know anything about - hardly anybody does in the UK," she said.

James, on the other hand, knew all about it - she lived it - and it turned her from a homemaker into a politician.

"I was quite happy as a housewife," she said. "And then this happened and several friends told me, 'You can't stop.' "

Now James is a polished, issues-oriented, mile-a-minute speaker committed to her Swansea community and labor issues.

"I think we always had a very symbiotic relationship in Britain with the unions," she said about the film's pro-union message. "And what I find in my political life is that most people rush to join unions when there's a problem. When they see a problem on the horizon, they know the only one who's going to stand up for them is their trade union. At that time [the 1980s], our relationship with the union was all-encompassing. It was the union that fought for our rights, it was the union that helped form the Labor Party. It was the trade unions who fought and funded the cases when there were industrial accidents. So we had this cradle-to-the-grave relationship with the unions.

"On the day that the strike started at my husband's mine, he actually went to work and came back home. I was a bit surprised to see him, because they had voted to work. And I asked him, 'Why are you home?' and he said, 'Sian, there's a picket line. I will do anything for you, I love you dearly, but I'm not crossing a picket line.' And you know what? We understood that as a family. That was ingrained in us. And I think that's what's missing now."

James said that in Thatcher's London, Britain had become quite polarized because "she had said things like, 'There is no community, only the individual.' And Gordon Gecko was saying 'Greed is good.' There was a comedian in Britain called 'Loadsamoney.' So young people were seeing role models that weren't based on solidarity and working in the community. You could be selfish. You could make lots of money and not worry about other people."

With the gay activists who became the miners' allies, James said, "We were seeing a community that was under attack and we were under attack. And that which united us was stronger than that which divided us."

And mining, under attack for safety and environmental reasons? James said that, "If we had managed our coal reserves properly, we could have mined that coal much more safely. It is not infinite. It is a finite resource, but we could have planned for that. We could have had phased closures. We could have been bringing in other things. And we didn't. . . . Even now with fracking, we should have been looking for ways to better sustain energy supplies - and we haven't done it."

James added that the coal seam that runs through Wales is the same one being fracked in Pennsylvania, and that the Welsh, who took great pride in coal and their ability to mine it, also helped form Pennsylvania's mining communities.

As an example of that pride, she said, "My husband came home one day from the mine and put a lump of coal on the table and told the kids with a smile, 'Next stop, diamonds.' "

And as a diamond is how James sees "Pride."

"I truly believe that this story has taken 30 years to be told because it couldn't have been told before," she said.

"We'd been waiting for the right people."