you don’t need to run

The Rebel Dykes of London (2017)

“Before there were qu**r activists, before there were Riot Grrls, there were the Rebel Dykes of London. They were young, they were feminists, they were anarchists, they were punks. They met at Greenham Common women only nuclear protest camp. Then they lived together in squats in Peckham, Brixton and Hackney. They went to political demo’s every Saturday, they set up squatted creches and bookshops, feminist newspapers and magazines. They had bands like Poison Girls, Mouth Almighty, The Darlings and The Gymslips. They ran sex positive Lesbian S/M clubs and women’s nights at legendary The Bell. They were gender fluid, they were trans friendly. They worked in the sex industry, or in manual trades, or between the cracks. They lived their politics. They fought and won. They were the first generation of sex positive outlaw women, and nothing has been quite the same since.

This documentary film is being made because the history of the London Rebel Dykes of the 1980s is in danger of being forgotten. Rebel dykes created their own world, made their own rules, and refused to be ignored. So we can’t let history tidy them away.”