sympathetic to ANL
campaigns and more supportive of the racist & fascist BNP.
Such cases rarely make the news in the mainstream papers.
Police
ban anti-racist carnival
(S Worker, 29May04)
Unite Against Fascism
(UAF)
wanted
an anti-racist carnival to mobilise opposition to the BNP in
the run-up to the June 10 elections. Some 8000 young people
attended Unite’s carnival in Sunderland on 03 May and 3000
came to the Unite event last Sunday in North London.
But the
Manchester police bullied venue after venue to pull out of
the carnival just 6 days before it was due to go ahead. The
M police has already been exposed in the BBC documentary
‘Secret Policeman’ where officers openly boasted of their
racist views on black and Asian people, and support for the
BNP.
Said
Weyman Bennett, joint Sec of the UAF: ‘There was wide
support for the carnival from the council to church leaders.
We had a purpose built venue,
Castlefield Basin. But the police opposed this in the most
aggressive manner possible. They made us feel that the BNP
are respectable and we are not. So they approached the
council and said the event could not go ahead. They said
they had a dossier to show there would be trouble. The
council advised us to go for a fully licensed venue. SO we
went to the Manchester Evening News arena and they agreed.
But the police opposed it on the grounds there would be
trouble.
Police
pick on ANL, not BNP
(S Worker, 7 Dec 02)
A first year politics student at Salford Uni, Tony
Wentworth, has replaced Mark Collet as national youth
leader of the BNP. Collet was exposed as a Hitler admirer in
the Channel 4 program Young, Nazi & Proud. Wentworth
has publicly stated that ‘genocide is being committed
against the white Aryan race in
Britain
through intermarriage and immigration.’
ANL students organised a picket outside his lectures &
seminars. As a result, Gary Duke of Salford Uni ANL was
charged with a public order offence.
BBC
favours BNP to ANL?
(S Worker 14 Sept 02)
Radio 4 Today programme interviewed Mark Collett,
head of the BNP youth group for 5 minutes on Tues, 26 Aug
02. He said BNP was launching a leaflet campaign in Eltham,
the area where Stephen Lawrence was murdered. BNP plan to
hand out 100,000 leaflets nationally to school children. No
such free publicity was given to the ANL carnival held last
weekend in Manchester which brought 30,000 black & white
people together.
Carnivals
& Melas cancelled
(S Worker 24 Aug 02)
In
Birmingham,
the international Caribbean Carnival was cancelled when the
Council said it could not afford the #200,000 which it
provided last year.
Ealing
council (West London) cancelled the popular Meal festival
due to ‘traffic costs’.
In
Dudley
in the West Midlands, the police halted the local carnival
because, according to the Voice, 15,000 gun-toting
blacks were to turn up. (The African Caribbean pop of Dudley
is 3500.)
The
ANL carnival, Love Music – Hate Racism, was
blocked by
Burnley
council blocked it and had to be moved to
Manchester.
BNP
‘festival’
The ANL
broke through the 3-mile exclusion zone from the BNP
‘festival’ and gathered opposite the ‘festival’ entrance
jeering as each Nazi arrived. The BNP could not muster more
than 400 people on Saturday & Sunday (17 & 18 Aug 02),
according to an eye witness. Even the Sawley venue upset
local residents. Sawley is a tiny village made of one pub
and a scattering of stone cottages. The BNP booking of their
field meant that a regular car boot sale couldn’t go ahead
and a vintage car rally had to be re-routed.
Many
cars drove up to the entrance of the BNP event, only to turn
back after realising what it was. The BNP
leader, Nick Griffin, made an openly racist speech at this
year’s event, attacking asylum seekers and asking: “Who
is this Stephen Lawrence?”
The
police decision to have an exclusion zone for protestors
suggests protection for the BNP.
Shahid Malik, a member of Labour’s national executive
said: “The police and Home Office have the discretion to
ban this festival. But there is no will. It will have cost
half a million pounds to protect these Nazis.”
On the
other hand, the ANL ‘Love Music – Hate Racism’ festival
was banned from Burnley.
BNP
‘festival’
(Morning Star 19 August 2002)
The Nazi
BNP held its annual red, white & blue ‘festival’ in a field
near the village of Sawley, 10 miles from Burnley where the
BNP has 3 councillors. The towns of Burnley & Oldham are
still recovering from the race riots that erupted in the
summer of 2001 from the race hate whipped up by the BNP &
its supporters. The
festival was to be held at Diggle near Oldham but was
relocated after protests from the residents.
The
police did not allow the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) to protest
near the site but only 3 miles away. Said Julie Waterson: “It
was a breach of our democratic rights. It is an open BNP
nazi rally organised to gain support in the area.”
Noted
Councillor Mohamed Azam (Coordinator of the Coalition
Against Racism): “This festival should have been stopped
on the grounds that it would incite racial hatred.”
A
Lancashire police spokesperson said: ”We kept protestors
far away (because) we could not guarantee their safety
outside the festival or from traffic on the busy A59 trunk
road.”
The point here is why permit a racist group to hold their
’festival’ and disallow other groups?
‘Police
protect the Nazis’
(S/Worker, 18 Aug 01)
Police
in Mid Wales mounted a huge operation last weekend to
protect a gathering by a violent gang with a string of
criminal convictions. The gathering was called a ‘festival’
by the BNP. The police helped by:
-
Throwing up roadblocks to create a12-mile exclusion zone.
-
Drafting in units as far away as Merseyside.
-
Working with the Nazis to decide who was allowed to move
through the area or who not.
They did
this to stop locals and other Anti-Nazis protesting against
the BNP presence. They banned the Anti-Nazis from the area
under the 1986 Public Order Act, claiming their protest
would cause ‘serious disruption to the life of the
community.’
Yet
incredibly they allowed the Nazi event to go ahead and cause
immense disruption themselves by shutting down roads to give
the BNP thugs unimpeded access. This comes just 2 weeks
after Home Sec Blunkett accepted police demands to ban
the ANL carnival for Burnley on 1 Sept 01. The
authorities now seem to be treating anti-Nazis worse than
the BNP. Anti-Nazis did rally in Wales at the weekend. The
BNP festival flopped.
The
POLICE have repeatedly protected violent Nazi marches. (S/Worker,
14 July 01)
April
1976
The police forcibly people off the streets of Manningham to
clear the way for the NF.
April
1977
The police attacked black, white, Asian & Cypriot people in
Wood Green to allow the NF to march there.
August
1977
The police mobilised & harassed black people in Lewisham to
protect an NF demo. Thousands of black & white protestors
broke up the march.
April
1979
The police launched a ferocious attack on ani-Nazis in
Southall, arresting 700 people mainly Asians. 342 were
charged. The police killed socialist Blair Peach.
July
1981
The police allowed Nazi skinheads to hold a gig in the middle
of Southall. Thugs attacked an Asian woman in a shop.
People, black & white, fought back. The press wrote of
mindless rioting over the next 7 days. (The media barely
mentioned the killing of Parven Khan and her 3 children in a
racist firebombing in Walthamstow the day before the
Southall riot.)
Oct 1993
The police spent over #1 million protecting the BNP’s bunker
in Welling,
SE London,
from a 50,000 strong anti-Nazi march. The police injured
hundreds of demonstrators, including the chief steward as
she was trying to negotiate with them. Stephen Lawrence had
been murdered not far from Welling in April 1993. The police
arrested scores of anti-Nazis at Welling and charged many.
They have yet to convict anyone for Stephen’s murder.
7 April 1997
During the general election campaign, the police allowed 3
Nazi NF marches in Bermondsey,
South London. Over 500 black, white and Asian people rallied to oppose
one NF march. Hundreds of police ensured that 30 Nazis were
allowed to demonstrate.
14 April 1997
700 police surrounded hundreds of protestors, including
parliamentary candidate Kingsley Abrams to allow 37 Nazis to
march.
12 May
1997
Police protect the Nazis for the third time.
National Front march
(S Worker 12 May 2001)
The
police ensured that the Nazi National Front (NF) was able to
defy the Home Office ban on its march in Oldham on 7 May 01.
Greater Manchester division deployed 500 police on the
streets of Oldham, supposedly to stop the Nazis marching.
Yet the
police allowed about 40 members of the Nazi group Combat 18
to march in the town centre. Later the police allowed some
70 Nazis to rally, claiming they didn’t have enough officers
to prevent this. On the other hand, the police penned in
around 200 black and white anti-Nazis. Chief Superintendent
Eric Hewitt justified this saying: “More than 500 people
came into
Oldham
to cause trouble.”
Cath
from Oldham said: “It’s ridiculous. The Nazis are the
ones that need confining. “
Hundreds
of Asian youths had gathered at the entrance of their
estates to protect their communities. Twice during the day,
they marched to confront the Nazis. On both occasions the
police and community leaders convinced them to return to
their estates.
The
police seemed more interested in restraining the anti-Nazis
than stopping the NF and BNP spreading race hate.
The police protect fascists & harass ANL
(Searchlight May 2000)
To
chants of 'Stop immigration–Start repatriation', the
National Front marched through the streets of the Kent
seaside town of Margate in April 2000. The organiser was
Terry Blackham. As many as 150 racists, a mixture of fascist
activists and local people took part but the firm resistance
of anti-fascists prevented them from getting far.
Margate
is one of several seaside towns in the south that have
declined economically over the last 20 years. The locals
have vented their anger at the EU and property developers
who have priced much of the town’s accommodation out of
local reach. Into this demoralised situation have come
hundreds of refugees, fleeing ethnic & religious hatred,
mostly from the Balkan states. They have become the
scapegoats for all the area’s problems.
Kent
police had their own plan to deal with protestors. Earlier
that day, a coach transporting anti-fascists (Anti-Nazi
League) from London was stopped outside the town. All
passengers were carefully searched and details taken. Bags
and even diaries were inspected - this was allowed, an
officer said, under the new Criminal Justice Act. Poles to
support anti-fascist banners were confiscated while the
NF were allowed to keep theirs. Police even seized a
broom belonging to the coach driver.
Despite
the police’s violent tactics (which included driving vans at
demonstrators, the NF was eventually forced to end its march
prematurely. Left behind were victorious anti-fascists, if
somewhat battered by police intimidation. Nevertheless, the
degree of local support for the racists is a major concern.
It shows that
politicians and the press have succeeded in whipping up
racist hysteria against the refugees.