HOME OFFICE BAN ON ANL CARNIVAL
From: anti_nazileague <anti_nazileague@hotmail.com>
To: UK Left Network <UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com>
Date: 02 August 2001 00:23
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] Fw: [ANL] Home Office ban on ANL Carnival
***CORRECTION: the Press Conference at the Home Office will be at 11 a.m. this Friday - 3 August.***
=================
An order has been obtained by Burnley Borough Council at the request of the Chief Constable of Lancashire Police banning the ANL Carnival in Burnley on 1 September 2001.
The Anti Nazi League are fighting this ban. The Carnival is being
organised to bring people together. Anti-racists are in the majority in Burnley, not the Nazis, and that is what we want to celebrate.
This ban has caused outrage in Burnley:
"I was in town last Saturday helping leaflet for the carnival and peoplewere stopping to say what a good idea, sign the petition and offering help.
The response was extremely positive." Councillor Alice Thornber
"The carnival in Towneley Park aims to unite local people, the
anti-racist majority who want no truck with groups such as the BNP and NF who want to exploit racial tension." Councillor Andrew Holder
"The carnival is important because people do not want Burnley to be known as a centre for racial hatred. The carnival is a perfect vehicle to show how the majority feel." Stuart Marsden Burnley ANL organiser
There will be a Press conference at the Home Office, 50 Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1 at 11 a.m. on Friday 3 August 2001 to protest to the Home Secretary David Blunkett. Get everyone to sign the petitions and rush your signed copies to us. Send faxes to 020 7924 0313 or email Burnley ANL at burnley@anl.org.uk .
We demand that the Carnival is allowed to go ahead!
=========================
ANTI-NAZI LEAGUE
PO Box 2566
London N4 1WJ
Tel: 020 7924 0333
Fax: 020 7924 0313
enquiries@anl.org.uk
http://www.anl.org.uk
=========================
======email:anl@anl.org.uk phone:020 79240333, fax:020 79240313, ANL PO
Box 2566 London N4 1WJ======
From: gary_ohalloran@yahoo.co.uk
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 12:38
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
For twenty years the ANL have been demanding of the state that it
censor, ban, and jail extremists on the far-right. The same strategy
has encouraged the lifting of the number of candidates from 50 to 100
in order to qualify for a broadcast in the general election. Prior to
the GLA elections, with ANL approval, Nick Raynsford raised the
threshold from I think 3.5% to 5% in the GLA elections in order to
keep the 'extremists out'. Had the LSA 'achieved'; that would of
course also kept them out. Now after a plethora of demands for bans,
proscriptions and jailings the ANL find that they are the target,
with a rally banned in Oldham and Carnival in Burnley and counter-
demos in Birmingham. All the ANL done in 20 years of 'fighting
Nazism' is to strengthen the moral authority of the state. To whom do
they now complain?
More than that it shows that even the authorities recognise that ANL
tactics work counter to the interests that they claim to represent.
The 'only' (as RA has long pointed out)beneficaries of ANL antics are
the BNP.
It is somehow fitting that Home Office functionaries see this but the
revolutionaries on the SWP Central Committee do not.
From: SMye5@aol.com
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 12:59
Subject: Re: [UK_Left_Network] ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
In a message dated 02/08/01 12:39:42 GMT Daylight Time,
gary_ohalloran@yahoo.co.uk writes:
> More than that it shows that even the authorities recognise that ANL
> tactics work counter to the interests that they claim to represent.
> The 'only' (as RA has long pointed out) beneficaries of ANL antics are
> the BNP.
> It is somehow fitting that Home Office functionaries see this but the
> revolutionaries on the SWP Central Committee do not.
>
O'Halloran is gloating - that somehow the Home Office is against the nazis
because it bans the ANL, who aid the nazis. ??
But will he fight against the ban? Will he support the Carnival going ahead
against the law?
Steve Myers
From: Lawrie Coombs <redlorry30s@hotmail.com>
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 16:10
Subject: Re: [UK_Left_Network] ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
what on earth are you trying to say...that the Home office will "NOT" use
legislation against the left, designed to curtail fascists?
Actually the Home Office and the state are against the BNP and thier
activities, fascism at this stage is not something that aids British
capital, the BNP, unrest in northern towns is not something they
want...however their rationale for being against the fascists is (we would
hope) very different from ours, in that we are against racism and fascism
because it weakens the strenght and cohesion of the working class, the state
are opposed to fascist parties in britain because it weakens "national
unity" etc.
Lawrie Coombs
From: barney_otoole@yahoo.co.uk
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 17:43
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] Re: ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
Steve,
I don't see any "gloating" in the statement that you refer to. I
believe that you are a former member of AFA yourself. Did you support
or oppose calls for state bans on fascists while you were in AFA? if
my memory serves me correctly, I can recall no significant grouping
within AFA that was ever in favour of state bans, unless you yourself
represented both a silent and invisible minority?
The left, the ANL/SWP in partcular, have played into the hands of the
state with their calls for legislation against fascist parties and
for the state to ban fascist gatherings. What is often used against
them today will be used against the left tomorow.
Gary O'Halloran is therefore right tom point out that the ANL are now
effectively reaping what they themselves have sown. That's not
gloating. It's a very rational appraisal of the facts, in my opinion.
You asked if AFA would be opposed to a state ban on the anti-nazi
carnival. Knowing AFA to be a politically consistent organisation I
belive your question to be an erroneous one. It is pretty obvious to
me that AFA would be opposed to the use of state legislation against
either the right or the left.
Whether or not that automatically translates into AFA supporting an
illegal carnival is another matter altogether.
I believe that AFA are opposed in the first instance to the 'ANL
Roadshow' which has, judging by recent events in our northern towns,
been shown to be counter productive in terms even of its own stated
objectives.
Cheers,
S.
From: gary_ohalloran@yahoo.co.uk
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 18:49
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] Re: ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
--- In UK_Left_Network@y..., SMye5@a... wrote:
> O'Halloran is gloating - that somehow the Home Office is against
the nazis
> because it bans the ANL, who aid the nazis. ??
>
> But will he fight against the ban? Will he support the Carnival
going ahead
> against the law?
>
> Steve Myers
Mr Myers: You seem seriously confused. Are you for instance
seriously suggesting that the ANL 'will go ahead against the law'?
The ANL is not *against* the law. It regards 'the law' as it's ally.
It's entire strategy revolves around the *enforcement* of the law.
And where the law is deemed inadequate for the *strengthning* of the
law. The ANL is for instance on the record for demanding the sacking
of employees for holding political opinions. It wants certain
organisations banned. It has called for certain political activists
to be jailed. It has a high regard for Searchlight's Gerry Gable, who
in turn describes the deputy head of the Anti-Terrorist Squad as 'a
colleague'. Ideally it would like the authorities to be able to
decide what kind of books are read, and who should be allowed to read
them. It worries constantly about the implications of free speech.
Last year for instance, the ANL even put a picket on a discussion
about the Holocaust by Jewish academics - in front of an
overwhelmingly Jewish audience. It has succesfully argued for the
electoral threshold to be raised to keep out the lunatic fringe. It
has organised pickets of the BBC. It helped cause, and celebrated in
a weasly way of course, the bombing of the Oldham Chronicle. I could
go on. Ultimately, the ANL is pro-state. It is thoroughly
conservative. It is not so much anti-Nazi as anti-extremist: more
McCarthyite than Trotskyite.
The predicament it finds itself in now, is entirely of it's own
creation. For the moment at least it looks as if its use value to the
establishment is being called into question - by the establishment.
You seem to suggest that it is the duty of anti-fascism to rescue it.
In reality, it is not an organisation any self-respecting anti-
fascist would want to be seen with in public.
From: andrew.g.cutting@btinternet.com
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 20:05
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] Re: ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
-- In UK_Left_Network@y..., "Lawrie Coombs" <redlorry30s@h...> wrote:
>
>
> what on earth are you trying to say...that the Home office
will "NOT" use …..
> Lawrie Coombs
Its one of the CPGB's axioms that the New World Order (in the
days when they used to talk about imperialism) is really about
law and order and national unity. (I can't put a finger on it how,
but I think this belief underlies the support for right wing
'national liberation movements' like CIRA and KLA.)
Official anti-racism is not about unity but about division. The
state is not in any sense about national unity these days. Indeed
the pattern with respect to the far right is to adapt to it. This
is already starting in Britain with the media trying to demonise
the BNP for being connected in some conspiratorial way with the
'violent fascists' NF, C18 etc. Put in plain English, the BNP is OK
as far as its politics goes - it is only their connections which
make them dubious.
Andrew
PS 'BNP unrest'? Nice ambiguity. Unrest caused by or exploited by
the BNP?
NAZI RALLY A WASH-OUT!
From: anti_nazileague
To: UK Left Network
Date: 12 August 2001 16:40
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] Fw: [ANL] Nazi rally a wash-out!
> 11 August 2001 Mid Wales
> Nazi rally a wash-out!
> Victory for Anti-Nazi protest
>
> Mid Wales raged against the BNP on Saturday and delivered a massive blow to
> the Nazis.
>
> BNP Fuhrer Nick Griffin had promised that over one thousand people would
> attend the so-called "Red White and Blue festival", held on an adjoining
> field to his farm. On Saturday afternoon, a meagre one hundred Nazis
> huddled in the rain while the rally's start was delayed by three hours.
>
> The rally was only able to take place due to the heavy policing of Anti-Nazi
> protestors. The ANL-planned demo in Llanerfyl was banned and a ten mile
> exclusion zone imposed. Anti-Nazis were allowed to gather fifteen miles
> away in Welshpool which was also encircled by a twelve mile exclusion zone
> subject to police roadblocks and searches.
>
> Over one hundred and fifty people turned up and staged a four hour
> demonstration against the BNP rally. The Welsh Shadow Minister for Equality,
> Plaid Cymru's member for Llanelli Helen Mary Jones, was joined by Labour
> Party councillors, trade unionists and the local Red Choir.
>
> Local people had made banners saying "No Nazis in Wales" and someone had
> made a huge pair of knickers, with "Pants to the BNP" printed on them.
>
> Some ANL members managed to defy the ban, evading the massive police
> blockades to join local people who turned out against the BNP in the tiny
> village of Llanerfyl. Around twenty people gathered to voice their protest
> at the scene where Nick Griffin was working with the police blockade to vet
> those entering the eleven mile road which leads to his farm. Earlier ANL
> members decorated the verges of the A458 (the main road to Llanerfyl) with
> placards saying "Red White and Blue Festival cancelled due to foot and
> mouth". These created the sight of boneheads jumping out of their cars and
> ripping them up - which took some time! Even earlier, protestors had
> managed to daub slogans on the A458 which read "BNP=Hitler" and "NAZI SCUM".
>
> The BNP failed to deliver their promised one thousand and will be devastated
> at being forced to hold a Nazi rally that was heavily policed and only
> attracted their existing hard-core members.
>
> The event was intended to transform the BNP into a "respectable" political
> organisation hosting a "family" weekend. Only a pathetic 150 had turned up
> on Saturday, and by Sunday, there were only 300 in a field in torrential
> rain. Their mood was hardly buoyant and it is rumoured that leading BNPer
> Tony "Bomber" Lecomber wanted to go home on Saturday afternoon.
>
> Many local people joined the ANL and vowed to keep up the fight for as long
> as Nick Griffin resides in Mid Wales.
> The protest against the rally worked. It exposed the true nature of the BNP
> as Nazis rather than a genuine political party. It sent a strong and
> defiant message to the Nazis that the ANL is going to make sure that they do
> not build on their election successes in the North West - or anywhere else.
> The link below is Griffins speech to the 500 strong BNP rally and, quite
> frankly, his is probably a somewhat more honest assesment of the ANL
> "victory" than the ANL's:
> http://www.bnp.to/rwb2001.ram (requires RealPlayer)
From: Dave Parks
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [UK_Left_Network] Re: [ANL] Nazi rally a wash-out!
Date: 14 August 2001 02:18
Interesting. Well actually very, very boring. I thought Griffin was supposed
to be some orator. I kept awake up to 15 minutes into this. Apparently the
BNP are going to fill the political vacuum on the White council estates.
Amusingly he says that Red Action and Anti-fascist Action aren't going to do
it. The ANL and the SWP don't even figure in his rhetoric about addressing
the white working class. Indeed - telling, the BNP leadership see AFA, not
the ANL, as the real threat.
cheers
Dave Parks
>
From: Dave Parks
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 14 August 2001 02:50
Subject: Re: [UK_Left_Network] Re: [ANL] Nazi rally a wash-out!
> Well, I managed to sit and listen to the bitter end, but then I've been to
> SWP meetings.
I managed to get to the end without passing out - very tricky though.
<... SNIP ...>
> He said that because of any lack of serious opposition, politically or
> physically, the BNP now can and will hold open public events, something
>that it has eschewed since the mid-nineties.
yes I noticed that. No more use of redirection points for future BNP events.
Speaks volumes about the "massive blow" delivered by the ANL.
> All in all it was a very confident assesment of BNP perspectives, especially
> on the issue of next years council elections and the BNP's prospects as the
> only serious "anti-establishment" force. And unfortunatly, on this, they
> probably has reason to be so.
Sadly you could be right. I see no reason to be confident about the
anti-fascist opposition or of the Left succesfully winning over the same
target constituency. Perhaps we need a complete disaster to shake us all
up - for it is surely coming.
cheers
Dave Parks
From: gary_ohalloran@yahoo.co.uk
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 14 August 2001 12:31
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] ANL all washed up!
--- In UK_Left_Network@y..., "James Tait" wrote:
>
> What he claimed was basically that RA and AFA can't stop the BNP anymore,
> and not only that but that they aren't willing to take on the BNP anymore,
> that they have left the field wide open and that only the "Anti- Normal
> League" ever turn out against them. And as he pointed out, the ANL/SWP
> tactics do alot more harm to the reputation of the Left than they do to the
> BNP.
>
> He said that because of any lack of serious opposition, politically or
> physically, the BNP now can and will hold open public events, something that
> it has eschewed since the mid-nineties.
>
> All in all it was a very confident assesment of BNP perspectives,
>especially
> on the issue of next years council elections and the BNP's prospects as the
> only serious "anti-establishment" force. And unfortunatly, on this, they
> probably has reason to be so.
>
> J.
A week ago the ANL held a rally in London to re-affirm its commitment
to the 'no-platform' tactic. Principally the ANL were complaining
about the increased BNP profile with the national media. At the same
time the ANL was in overdrive to draw attention to an internal BNP
event in Welshpool, which as a result of the publicty generated
entirely by the self-proclaimed 'no-platformers' "the BNP was
inudated with media requests to attend [the RWB festival}and felt
able to turn down many of them, including the Sunday Telegraph and
the Daily Mail". (Observer August 12)For twenty years the work of the
ANL has hardly dinted the work of the far-right. For twenty years the
favoured strategy has been unproductive. After this years fiasco's in
Bermondsey, Oldham Burnley Bradford the ANL strategy is now
objectively - counter-productive: anti/anti-fascism.
G
From: anti_nazileague <anti_nazileague@hotmail.com>
To: UK Left Network <UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com>
Date: 02 August 2001 00:23
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] Fw: [ANL] Home Office ban on ANL Carnival
***CORRECTION: the Press Conference at the Home Office will be at 11 a.m. this Friday - 3 August.***
=================
An order has been obtained by Burnley Borough Council at the request of the Chief Constable of Lancashire Police banning the ANL Carnival in Burnley on 1 September 2001.
The Anti Nazi League are fighting this ban. The Carnival is being
organised to bring people together. Anti-racists are in the majority in Burnley, not the Nazis, and that is what we want to celebrate.
This ban has caused outrage in Burnley:
"I was in town last Saturday helping leaflet for the carnival and peoplewere stopping to say what a good idea, sign the petition and offering help.
The response was extremely positive." Councillor Alice Thornber
"The carnival in Towneley Park aims to unite local people, the
anti-racist majority who want no truck with groups such as the BNP and NF who want to exploit racial tension." Councillor Andrew Holder
"The carnival is important because people do not want Burnley to be known as a centre for racial hatred. The carnival is a perfect vehicle to show how the majority feel." Stuart Marsden Burnley ANL organiser
There will be a Press conference at the Home Office, 50 Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1 at 11 a.m. on Friday 3 August 2001 to protest to the Home Secretary David Blunkett. Get everyone to sign the petitions and rush your signed copies to us. Send faxes to 020 7924 0313 or email Burnley ANL at burnley@anl.org.uk .
We demand that the Carnival is allowed to go ahead!
=========================
ANTI-NAZI LEAGUE
PO Box 2566
London N4 1WJ
Tel: 020 7924 0333
Fax: 020 7924 0313
enquiries@anl.org.uk
http://www.anl.org.uk
=========================
======email:anl@anl.org.uk phone:020 79240333, fax:020 79240313, ANL PO
Box 2566 London N4 1WJ======
From: gary_ohalloran@yahoo.co.uk
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 12:38
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
For twenty years the ANL have been demanding of the state that it
censor, ban, and jail extremists on the far-right. The same strategy
has encouraged the lifting of the number of candidates from 50 to 100
in order to qualify for a broadcast in the general election. Prior to
the GLA elections, with ANL approval, Nick Raynsford raised the
threshold from I think 3.5% to 5% in the GLA elections in order to
keep the 'extremists out'. Had the LSA 'achieved'; that would of
course also kept them out. Now after a plethora of demands for bans,
proscriptions and jailings the ANL find that they are the target,
with a rally banned in Oldham and Carnival in Burnley and counter-
demos in Birmingham. All the ANL done in 20 years of 'fighting
Nazism' is to strengthen the moral authority of the state. To whom do
they now complain?
More than that it shows that even the authorities recognise that ANL
tactics work counter to the interests that they claim to represent.
The 'only' (as RA has long pointed out)beneficaries of ANL antics are
the BNP.
It is somehow fitting that Home Office functionaries see this but the
revolutionaries on the SWP Central Committee do not.
From: SMye5@aol.com
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 12:59
Subject: Re: [UK_Left_Network] ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
In a message dated 02/08/01 12:39:42 GMT Daylight Time,
gary_ohalloran@yahoo.co.uk writes:
> More than that it shows that even the authorities recognise that ANL
> tactics work counter to the interests that they claim to represent.
> The 'only' (as RA has long pointed out) beneficaries of ANL antics are
> the BNP.
> It is somehow fitting that Home Office functionaries see this but the
> revolutionaries on the SWP Central Committee do not.
>
O'Halloran is gloating - that somehow the Home Office is against the nazis
because it bans the ANL, who aid the nazis. ??
But will he fight against the ban? Will he support the Carnival going ahead
against the law?
Steve Myers
From: Lawrie Coombs <redlorry30s@hotmail.com>
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 16:10
Subject: Re: [UK_Left_Network] ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
what on earth are you trying to say...that the Home office will "NOT" use
legislation against the left, designed to curtail fascists?
Actually the Home Office and the state are against the BNP and thier
activities, fascism at this stage is not something that aids British
capital, the BNP, unrest in northern towns is not something they
want...however their rationale for being against the fascists is (we would
hope) very different from ours, in that we are against racism and fascism
because it weakens the strenght and cohesion of the working class, the state
are opposed to fascist parties in britain because it weakens "national
unity" etc.
Lawrie Coombs
From: barney_otoole@yahoo.co.uk
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 17:43
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] Re: ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
Steve,
I don't see any "gloating" in the statement that you refer to. I
believe that you are a former member of AFA yourself. Did you support
or oppose calls for state bans on fascists while you were in AFA? if
my memory serves me correctly, I can recall no significant grouping
within AFA that was ever in favour of state bans, unless you yourself
represented both a silent and invisible minority?
The left, the ANL/SWP in partcular, have played into the hands of the
state with their calls for legislation against fascist parties and
for the state to ban fascist gatherings. What is often used against
them today will be used against the left tomorow.
Gary O'Halloran is therefore right tom point out that the ANL are now
effectively reaping what they themselves have sown. That's not
gloating. It's a very rational appraisal of the facts, in my opinion.
You asked if AFA would be opposed to a state ban on the anti-nazi
carnival. Knowing AFA to be a politically consistent organisation I
belive your question to be an erroneous one. It is pretty obvious to
me that AFA would be opposed to the use of state legislation against
either the right or the left.
Whether or not that automatically translates into AFA supporting an
illegal carnival is another matter altogether.
I believe that AFA are opposed in the first instance to the 'ANL
Roadshow' which has, judging by recent events in our northern towns,
been shown to be counter productive in terms even of its own stated
objectives.
Cheers,
S.
From: gary_ohalloran@yahoo.co.uk
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 18:49
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] Re: ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
--- In UK_Left_Network@y..., SMye5@a... wrote:
> O'Halloran is gloating - that somehow the Home Office is against
the nazis
> because it bans the ANL, who aid the nazis. ??
>
> But will he fight against the ban? Will he support the Carnival
going ahead
> against the law?
>
> Steve Myers
Mr Myers: You seem seriously confused. Are you for instance
seriously suggesting that the ANL 'will go ahead against the law'?
The ANL is not *against* the law. It regards 'the law' as it's ally.
It's entire strategy revolves around the *enforcement* of the law.
And where the law is deemed inadequate for the *strengthning* of the
law. The ANL is for instance on the record for demanding the sacking
of employees for holding political opinions. It wants certain
organisations banned. It has called for certain political activists
to be jailed. It has a high regard for Searchlight's Gerry Gable, who
in turn describes the deputy head of the Anti-Terrorist Squad as 'a
colleague'. Ideally it would like the authorities to be able to
decide what kind of books are read, and who should be allowed to read
them. It worries constantly about the implications of free speech.
Last year for instance, the ANL even put a picket on a discussion
about the Holocaust by Jewish academics - in front of an
overwhelmingly Jewish audience. It has succesfully argued for the
electoral threshold to be raised to keep out the lunatic fringe. It
has organised pickets of the BBC. It helped cause, and celebrated in
a weasly way of course, the bombing of the Oldham Chronicle. I could
go on. Ultimately, the ANL is pro-state. It is thoroughly
conservative. It is not so much anti-Nazi as anti-extremist: more
McCarthyite than Trotskyite.
The predicament it finds itself in now, is entirely of it's own
creation. For the moment at least it looks as if its use value to the
establishment is being called into question - by the establishment.
You seem to suggest that it is the duty of anti-fascism to rescue it.
In reality, it is not an organisation any self-respecting anti-
fascist would want to be seen with in public.
From: andrew.g.cutting@btinternet.com
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 02 August 2001 20:05
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] Re: ANL banned: hoist on their own petard
-- In UK_Left_Network@y..., "Lawrie Coombs" <redlorry30s@h...> wrote:
>
>
> what on earth are you trying to say...that the Home office
will "NOT" use …..
> Lawrie Coombs
Its one of the CPGB's axioms that the New World Order (in the
days when they used to talk about imperialism) is really about
law and order and national unity. (I can't put a finger on it how,
but I think this belief underlies the support for right wing
'national liberation movements' like CIRA and KLA.)
Official anti-racism is not about unity but about division. The
state is not in any sense about national unity these days. Indeed
the pattern with respect to the far right is to adapt to it. This
is already starting in Britain with the media trying to demonise
the BNP for being connected in some conspiratorial way with the
'violent fascists' NF, C18 etc. Put in plain English, the BNP is OK
as far as its politics goes - it is only their connections which
make them dubious.
Andrew
PS 'BNP unrest'? Nice ambiguity. Unrest caused by or exploited by
the BNP?
NAZI RALLY A WASH-OUT!
From: anti_nazileague
To: UK Left Network
Date: 12 August 2001 16:40
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] Fw: [ANL] Nazi rally a wash-out!
> 11 August 2001 Mid Wales
> Nazi rally a wash-out!
> Victory for Anti-Nazi protest
>
> Mid Wales raged against the BNP on Saturday and delivered a massive blow to
> the Nazis.
>
> BNP Fuhrer Nick Griffin had promised that over one thousand people would
> attend the so-called "Red White and Blue festival", held on an adjoining
> field to his farm. On Saturday afternoon, a meagre one hundred Nazis
> huddled in the rain while the rally's start was delayed by three hours.
>
> The rally was only able to take place due to the heavy policing of Anti-Nazi
> protestors. The ANL-planned demo in Llanerfyl was banned and a ten mile
> exclusion zone imposed. Anti-Nazis were allowed to gather fifteen miles
> away in Welshpool which was also encircled by a twelve mile exclusion zone
> subject to police roadblocks and searches.
>
> Over one hundred and fifty people turned up and staged a four hour
> demonstration against the BNP rally. The Welsh Shadow Minister for Equality,
> Plaid Cymru's member for Llanelli Helen Mary Jones, was joined by Labour
> Party councillors, trade unionists and the local Red Choir.
>
> Local people had made banners saying "No Nazis in Wales" and someone had
> made a huge pair of knickers, with "Pants to the BNP" printed on them.
>
> Some ANL members managed to defy the ban, evading the massive police
> blockades to join local people who turned out against the BNP in the tiny
> village of Llanerfyl. Around twenty people gathered to voice their protest
> at the scene where Nick Griffin was working with the police blockade to vet
> those entering the eleven mile road which leads to his farm. Earlier ANL
> members decorated the verges of the A458 (the main road to Llanerfyl) with
> placards saying "Red White and Blue Festival cancelled due to foot and
> mouth". These created the sight of boneheads jumping out of their cars and
> ripping them up - which took some time! Even earlier, protestors had
> managed to daub slogans on the A458 which read "BNP=Hitler" and "NAZI SCUM".
>
> The BNP failed to deliver their promised one thousand and will be devastated
> at being forced to hold a Nazi rally that was heavily policed and only
> attracted their existing hard-core members.
>
> The event was intended to transform the BNP into a "respectable" political
> organisation hosting a "family" weekend. Only a pathetic 150 had turned up
> on Saturday, and by Sunday, there were only 300 in a field in torrential
> rain. Their mood was hardly buoyant and it is rumoured that leading BNPer
> Tony "Bomber" Lecomber wanted to go home on Saturday afternoon.
>
> Many local people joined the ANL and vowed to keep up the fight for as long
> as Nick Griffin resides in Mid Wales.
> The protest against the rally worked. It exposed the true nature of the BNP
> as Nazis rather than a genuine political party. It sent a strong and
> defiant message to the Nazis that the ANL is going to make sure that they do
> not build on their election successes in the North West - or anywhere else.
> The link below is Griffins speech to the 500 strong BNP rally and, quite
> frankly, his is probably a somewhat more honest assesment of the ANL
> "victory" than the ANL's:
> http://www.bnp.to/rwb2001.ram (requires RealPlayer)
From: Dave Parks
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [UK_Left_Network] Re: [ANL] Nazi rally a wash-out!
Date: 14 August 2001 02:18
Interesting. Well actually very, very boring. I thought Griffin was supposed
to be some orator. I kept awake up to 15 minutes into this. Apparently the
BNP are going to fill the political vacuum on the White council estates.
Amusingly he says that Red Action and Anti-fascist Action aren't going to do
it. The ANL and the SWP don't even figure in his rhetoric about addressing
the white working class. Indeed - telling, the BNP leadership see AFA, not
the ANL, as the real threat.
cheers
Dave Parks
>
From: Dave Parks
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 14 August 2001 02:50
Subject: Re: [UK_Left_Network] Re: [ANL] Nazi rally a wash-out!
> Well, I managed to sit and listen to the bitter end, but then I've been to
> SWP meetings.
I managed to get to the end without passing out - very tricky though.
<... SNIP ...>
> He said that because of any lack of serious opposition, politically or
> physically, the BNP now can and will hold open public events, something
>that it has eschewed since the mid-nineties.
yes I noticed that. No more use of redirection points for future BNP events.
Speaks volumes about the "massive blow" delivered by the ANL.
> All in all it was a very confident assesment of BNP perspectives, especially
> on the issue of next years council elections and the BNP's prospects as the
> only serious "anti-establishment" force. And unfortunatly, on this, they
> probably has reason to be so.
Sadly you could be right. I see no reason to be confident about the
anti-fascist opposition or of the Left succesfully winning over the same
target constituency. Perhaps we need a complete disaster to shake us all
up - for it is surely coming.
cheers
Dave Parks
From: gary_ohalloran@yahoo.co.uk
To: UK_Left_Network@yahoogroups.com
Date: 14 August 2001 12:31
Subject: [UK_Left_Network] ANL all washed up!
--- In UK_Left_Network@y..., "James Tait" wrote:
>
> What he claimed was basically that RA and AFA can't stop the BNP anymore,
> and not only that but that they aren't willing to take on the BNP anymore,
> that they have left the field wide open and that only the "Anti- Normal
> League" ever turn out against them. And as he pointed out, the ANL/SWP
> tactics do alot more harm to the reputation of the Left than they do to the
> BNP.
>
> He said that because of any lack of serious opposition, politically or
> physically, the BNP now can and will hold open public events, something that
> it has eschewed since the mid-nineties.
>
> All in all it was a very confident assesment of BNP perspectives,
>especially
> on the issue of next years council elections and the BNP's prospects as the
> only serious "anti-establishment" force. And unfortunatly, on this, they
> probably has reason to be so.
>
> J.
A week ago the ANL held a rally in London to re-affirm its commitment
to the 'no-platform' tactic. Principally the ANL were complaining
about the increased BNP profile with the national media. At the same
time the ANL was in overdrive to draw attention to an internal BNP
event in Welshpool, which as a result of the publicty generated
entirely by the self-proclaimed 'no-platformers' "the BNP was
inudated with media requests to attend [the RWB festival}and felt
able to turn down many of them, including the Sunday Telegraph and
the Daily Mail". (Observer August 12)For twenty years the work of the
ANL has hardly dinted the work of the far-right. For twenty years the
favoured strategy has been unproductive. After this years fiasco's in
Bermondsey, Oldham Burnley Bradford the ANL strategy is now
objectively - counter-productive: anti/anti-fascism.
G
