Final Week of Activism Against the Nazis!

Saturday May 1st.

Mass leafletting Gosport High Street.
11.45-1.30.
Portsmouth contingent assemble 11.30 at Portsmouth Ferry side.

The Hard
Leafletting 2.00 p.m.


Southsea
Mass leafletting /Street Meeting.
Commercial road
2.00-3.30

LOVE MUSIC HATE RACISM

It's not just about opposing the Nazis.We need to celebrate multiculturalism and offer a positive alternative.

In the evening there will be a Love Music Hate Racism gig at The blue Lagoon.
Hilsea Lido
London Road.

Bemis
Al Robertson and the Wheels of Fire
Headzoom
Discovery
Students Unwaged:£2
Waged :£4

This has been sponsored by NAS/UWT

Event Organiser:Ben French
Headzoom_events@hotmail.co.uk

There are still some tickets left but they are going fast.
So book ASAP !




Sunday 2nd

Stop the Nazis taking control of Barking!

Mass leafletting of Barking ,where Nick Griffin is standing.There is a genuine risk of the BNP taking control of the council as well.
This would give the Nazis a real boost nationally.
We have transport going up.
We have cars going up from 9.00am.

If you want to get involved contact :portsmouthuaf@gmail.com

Telephone Simon Magorian: 07528839223

There will be other leafletting throughout the week and possibly we will be at the May Fair at St.Mary's church.
Please get in touch!

Barry Bennett and his Nazi leanings ,the story continues...

Portsmouth News published a helpful piece this week by Sion Donovan ,which will assist the electors of Gosport make an informed choice about whether to vote for the Nazi Barry Bennett.Most of the stuff in it will be familiar to readers of this blog.

Strangely some more digging was recently done by the people from Searchlight magazine.

"Bennett was, until recently, a regular user of the American-based nazi Stormfront website, despite being half Jewish, “from ancestry not religion” he is keen to stress. “I believe in National Socialism, WW2 style, it was best, no other power had anything like it,” ‘he wrote. “The ideology was fantastic. The culture, nothing like it. If it was here now, I’d defect to Germany.”

Perhaps the BNP should be renamed The Luftwaffe Solidarity Campaign .

What's not to love.

Southsea Against the Nazis.

Assemble Mountbatten Fountain.

1.30 P.M.

17th April

Commercial Road Southsea.

Street meeting and leafletting.

Geoffrey Crompton is the proposed Nazi candidate for Portsmouth south.He might sound like a character out of a P G Wodehouse novel but he's representing a hate filled Nazi organisation.We need to get the word out and make it clear to the Nazi BNP that public spaces in our city are Anti -Nazi zones.

Last saturday we had a magnificent afternoon of leafletting against Barry Bennett the BNP candidate in Gosport.Between 35-40 people were involved in the afternoons action and we had a magnificent response.

The BNP seem to be loath to get out on the stump thus far.Unfortunately this is unlikely to last.It is therefore imperative we create a political culture that is as hostile to their propaganda as possible.

Please get out and support us in keeping Portsmouth Nazi Free!

Further details.

Simon Magorian

07528839223

Don't Vote Nazi!

GOSPORT AGAINST THE NAZIS

Now the election is finally upon us we are about to embark on a series of street meetings and leafleting events.

The BNP has stated that it will be standing candidates in Portsmouth South (Geoffrey Crompton) and Gosport (Barry Bennett).
To kick off our campaign we will be holding a street meeting /leafleting session in Gosport.
The Portsmouth contingent will be meeting by the ferry terminal at the hard at 11.30 am.
10th April.
Please spread the word and bring yourselves, friends and workmates to this event. If you have any Union/community banners, placards etc please bring them along.

Please contact local political parties ,faith groups and community organisations you think might be supportive.
Jon Neil and Gareth Edwards have produced an excellent leaflet for us to distribute.

The idea is we will start the event at about midday and carry on for a couple of hours .The nature of the event will be dependent on how many people turn up.
If it’s a big turnout we will hold a street meeting if it’s smaller we’ll just leaflet –depending on what people want to do on the day.

If anybody has any stuff left over from the rally please bring it along. I am missing a huge pile of stickers, if you have them please bring them.
I hope to see you there!
Best wishes
Simon Magorian
Convenor
Portsmouth UAF
simonmagorian@gmail.com
07528839223

Final Programme For UAF Multicultural Festival.

One Dudley Many Cultures” Celebration rejects the hatred and division of the EDL


Saturday 3 April, 11am Stafford Street, Dudley Enter Dudley via Wellington Rd leading to Southalls Lane. Drop-off point is Cross St, DY1 1RN Please note change of location. The event will not be assembling in Market Place as previously advertised.

Bands, DJs and musicians organised by Love Music Hate Racism will be performing, along with the following speakers:

David Walker, Bishop of Dudley
Cllr Pete Lowe, Lye and Wollescote
Steve Sparrow, Interfaith Forum
Khushid Ahmed, Dudley Muslim Association Chair
Steve Beardsmore, UNISON
Mohammed Rashid, Dudley Muslim Forum
Jim Warner, Dudley Trades Council
Paul Singh, former REC representative and community activist
Steve Bell, Communication Workers Union
Kanja Sesay, NUS Black Students Campaign
Sheera Johal, Indian Workers Association
Sabby Dhalu, Unite Against Fascism
Love Music Hate Racism representative

Unite Against Fascism, together with other local community groups in Dudley, will be taking part in an event to celebrate Dudley's multi-faith, multi-racial and multicultural society this Saturday.


This is a peaceful event which brings together anti-fascists, interfaith communities, local politicians and young people celebrating the diversity of British society. It has targeted the Muslim community and Mosques in order to whip up hatred, division and violence where it has been allowed to march.


In Bolton a man was stabbed in a pub by an attacker wearing an EDL jacket in the evening following their demonstration two weeks ago. In Stoke violence and disorder ensued after their demonstration; the local Asian community and Police were attacked.


EDL supporters have paraded their violence on youtube. The EDL are made up of football hooligan groups and fascists who have been caught on camera giving Nazi salutes following their demonstrations.
Clare Short MP for Ladywell Birmingham said:

“We must all stand firmly together against those who want to spread hatred and division. Hate and prejudice is always ugly and wrong. And it never solves any of the problems that need attention.
In Germany, similar groups to the English Defence League started off spreading hatred against Jews. And then their hatred spread to disabled people, trade unionists, communists, gay people and gypsies. All were sent to concentration camps and millions were systematically eliminated. And the politics of hatred also spread to war, which engulfed the world, killed 25 million people, and left massive destruction across Europe and beyond. Today similar forces are working to spread hatred against Muslims. They are trying to incite hatred, division and war. We must stand together against this evil. There are many problems in Britain and the world. Together we can work to solve them. Divided we all will suffer”

Celebrate Multiculturalism!No to the EDL in Dudley!

STOP THE RACIST EDL THUGS!

DEMONSTRATION SATURDAY 3rd APRIL

The English defence League (EDL) - a group of racist thugs and
football hooligans with links to the Nazi BNP - will be marching on
Dudley on Saturday 3 April to whip up race hatred against Muslims.
These thugs spread fear and terror when they rampaged through Luton
and Stoke recently. They smashed cars, attacked shops and assaulted
Asians. When some locals tried to stop them they were called 'race
traitors' and attacked.
Don't believe the EDL's lies when it claims to be a 'peaceful' group
opposed to 'Muslim extremism'. They are nothing of the sort. The EDL
are a group of violent bigots that want to intimidate and attack all
ethnic minorities. During their recent march in Bolton they chanted
anti-Asian and anti-Semitic slogans.

They should not be allowed to march in Dudley. Join with Unite Against
Fascism to celebrate our multicultural society. Lets show the EDL they
are not welcome.

This is going to be an important peaceful multicultural event.

Defence of freedom of religion is a central plank of any democratic society.

It is imperative that we put a marker down on the third of April in Dudley.


Coach leaves
Fratton Bridge 7.00am
Cosham 7.15am
Southampton Cenotaph 7.45
Tickets are £15 waged (minimum donation) and £10 concessions (minimum
donation)
Prepared to negotiate for Under 18s.
To reserve a place please call Jake 07854982366 or Simon 07528839223

Portsmouth Rallies against the Nazis!

We Serve Notice on the Nazis!

Nobody who was building for this weeks Unite Against Fascism Rally could have anticipated the success it finally became.
At 7.10.only a handful had arrived and people were getting tense.People were worried about the press attacking the UAf over the protest against the EDL in Bolton.Would this drive people away?Over the three previous days the UAF organising committee had been putting out frantic last minute emails and phoning people up.Hopefully there would be over 50 people attending the event.

By 7.20 the meeting room was full and people had been roped in to hurriedly move more chairs in.Five minutes later Gareth Edwards, Portsmouth Uaf chair pointed out that people were still coming up the stairs and we were about to be in flagrant breach of the fire regulations.
We hurriedly got permission to use the main room-The Yehudi Menhuin room-the largest space in the guildhall library.Quickly stalls were set up,and people settled down.A group from PCS,fresh from the picket lines came in and put there placards down the front to join the Unison and Nas/uwt banners.

At 7.40 the rally started.As we looked around every chair was taken .There were people of all ages, black and white, gay and straight and representatives of all the main parties.Every seat was taken along the sides, it was standing room only and people were crowded all the way along the walls and around our stalls selling t-shirts and badges.There were also representatives in the room from the local student body,GMB,NUT,UNITE,UCU and CWU amongst others.

There were in excess of 150 people there when we gave up counting.

It was packed.

Portsmouth Uafs convenor Simon Magorian opened the meeting by reminding people how we had defeated the Nazis in the seventies with the Anti-Nazi League.They had attempted to march through Portsmouth unopposed and were stopped."They wanted to march to the war memorial but we stopped them.They ended up having to make their speech outside a municipal lavatory.Thats not what you sign up to the Nazis for .It's so you can strut through the streets like the master race .We humiliated them and they never really recovered from it.We stoppped them once we can do it again."
It was excellent to see both of Portsmouths MPs on the platform,both of them committed anti-racists.
Mike Hancock the Liberal Democrat MP for Portsmouth South was the first speaker.He recently helped to organise a major civic reception for Portsmouths large Bangladeshi community for the huge contribution they have made to the city.Speaking about the BNP,
"its manifesto is about dividing communities.We stand together against them.We love our city-it's all about our diverse community.
"we will stand up for that,and for each other in the face of these bullies.We will include clear messages in on our communication that we oppose these Fascists."
Sarah McCarthy-Fry Labour MP for Portsmouth North nailed it,
"They pretend not to be racists,but very quickly their concern about crime turns to blaming it on Asylum sseekers." She also reiterated her lifelong stance of never sharing a platform with Fascists.

Sion Reynolds spoke on behalf of Nas/Uwt about the importance of keeping the Fascists out of our classrooms and how the BNPs politics of hatred ond division were antithetical to all the values and traditions of the teaching profession.He also worryingly reminded us that the last time the nazis stood in Portsmouth North schools were broken into and daubed with swastikas.

Weyman Bennett was the last to speak and in an uncompromising and occasionally humorous speech pointed out the inherent violence of the BNP and how unity can stop them and that Anti-Fascists are the overwhelming majority.
"The BNP is a Fascist Party attempting to win respectability,but we've already won an important battle.
"It's policies are racist but they fear to admit it in public.That's because people don't want to be associated with racism.Together we can build on that."
He also pointed out that The English Defence League were the BNPs foot soldiers and where they have marched unopposed violence and criminal damage had been targetted towards the Muslim Community,and the crucial importance of mobilising against them.

Following the invited speakers Gareth Edwards addressed the meeting on behalf of the UAF committee.
"We have a massive task ahead of us.We have to get leaflets through 40,000 doors.We don't have any Billionaire backers or Press magnates stumping up cash, we have to rely on donations from local trade unions and people like you.We need an army of volunteers to get the message through peoples doors to counter the Nazi lies of the BNP.Please sign up to help us smash the Nazis.Please give us your support and please give genorously!"
Clipboards were passed around and dozens signed up for the campaign,whilst a collecting bag went around at the same time for donations,which was quickly filled.

There was a wide ranging discussion from the floor ,interestingly not one single person raised criticism of Uaf for opposing the EDL on the streets.
It seems that the attempted witch hunt against UAF by the police and sections of the media- in Portsmouth at least- has fallen on deaf ears.

At the end of the meeting all the representatives of the three main parties pledged to put anti-Nazi and Anti-BNP statements on their campaign materials.

Closing the meeting Simon Magorian thanked all the speakers,pointing out the huge symbolic effect of having both the local MPS on the platform.He also asked people to sign the Portsmouth Unity Statement against the BNP.
"This is the largest Anti Nazi meeting in many years,I was at the launch meeting of Portsmouth Anti-Nazi League in 1977 and this is much bigger.Actually this is the biggest Anti Fascist meeting in Portsmouth ever!We have pushed the Nazis back before by uniting against them and we can do it again.We are now declaring Portsmouth a Nazi Free Zone!"

This was a massive boost to the Anti-Fascist movement in portsmouth.
Petitions were filled declarations signed and T shirts and badges bought.All well and good, but this time committments were made and the main Parties made public declarations to oppose the Nazis. For the first time in over 20 years the Nazis are contesting parliamentary seats in Portsmouth.

The phoney war is over.


We will keep Portsmouth Nazi Free!

Portsmouth Rally Against the Nazis

Guildhall Library March 25th
7.30 PM
Hosted by Portsmouth Unite Against Fascism
Principal Sponsor National Association of Schoolmasters /Union of women Teachers.

Speakers:
Sarah McCarthy Fry.MP Portsnouth North
Mike Hancock. MP portsmouth South
Martin Smith.National spokesperson Love Music Hate Racism.
Jerry Bartlett Deputy general secretary National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of women Teachers.

The British National Party is hoping to make a breakthrough at the next election ,they hope that the generalised cynicism with established politics will make for a more conducive environment for their Fascist-lite politics.

Nick Griffin once said that people Voted BNP because they saw ,"what they percieved to be a strong disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan "rights for whites" with well directed boots and fists.When the crunch comes,power is the product of force and will and not of rational debate."
The recent attack on Dominic Kennedy of The Times by official BNP stewards at a press conference shows that beneath the veneer of faux respectability
they are still the same Nazi thugs and are outside our tradition of pluralist democracy.

We are hoping people will use the rally as a focus for opposing the BNP and that people will take away copies of the unity charter to sign and circulate amongst their communities.

We are urging trade unions and community groups to sponsor the rally and to bring their banners/emblems to the meeting.

This is the first major Anti-Fascist rally in portsmouth for years.
Please join with us and help to build it.

If you want to help please contact:Simon Magorian at simonmagorian@gmail.com
Tel:07528839223

Meet the new Nazi. Just like the old Nazi.

"What's good enough for Hitler's good enough for me"

Introducing Barry Bennett.The Nazi BNPs chosen candidate for Portsmouth.
His candidature was announced with much fanfare by Andrew Brons on the BNP website.Brons along with Nick Griffin is one of the two Euro MPs that the BNP have. Those of you with long memories will remember his conviction for a breach of the peace and using insulting language.The offending language in this instance was shouting during a street meeting "White Power" and "Death to the Jews".
Then again of course ,he was co-editor with Richard Vernall of the National Front journal New Nation.Vernall was notorious as the author a work of Holocaust denial called Did six million really die?
Which was the bible of Nazi Holocaust deniers for many years,it has now been usurped by the insane ramblings of David Irving.
But enough of his colleagues.Let Mr Bennett speak for himself.
When The Guardian did an expose of the Nazi views of prominent members of the BNP last year Bennett was a prominent example.
According to The Guardian he posted an article on a white supremacist website the bizarre comment,
"David Beckham is not white he's a black man."
He was just getting warmed up,he continued,"Beckham is an insult to Britishness and i'm glad he's not here".
He further added,
"I know perfectly respectable half-jews in the BNP...even Hitler had honorary Aryans who were of jewish descent...so whatever's good enough for Hitler's good enough for me.
God Rest his soul."

God rest his soul!

The electors of portsmouth will have no truck with Mr Bennett and his Nazi friends and will resoundingly reject him at the ballot box.
.

BNP standing in portsmouth.

The British National party have announced they are standing for elections in Portsmouth. Therefore it is imperative that all anti fascists are campaigning to prevent them from establishing a base in our town.in the1970s they tried establishing a presence in the city.They were fought back by a militant campaign led by the Ant-Nazi-League.

The British National party is probably the most successful fascist organisation in Britain since the British union of Fascists in the 1930s. Them campaigning in Portsmouth means racist leaflets going through doors and racist graffiti are In our community. Everywhere they campaign racist attacks go up we must not tolerate this. It means we must build an effective campaign against the BNP in Portsmouth. We will be leafleting against their poison and division . We will hold meetings and be doing outreach work with trade unions and voluntary groups to prevent them from establishing a base in Portsmouth.

They will not simply disappear,the old bromide still rings true all that is necessary for evil to prevail is that good men and women do nothing

Unite against Fascism in Portsmouth will be running a co-ordinated campaign and leafleting and holding public meetings to expose the BNP for the Nazis that they are.

A public meeting will be held with local MPs and two National speakers to draw people together. We will be initiating a new campaign and a new unity statement. Further details will be published on this blog and released to the press in the next few days.

EDL London March

All out to stop the EDL in London

Assemble 11am, Friday 5 March
Houses of Parliament, London

Londoners will be gathering at 11am outside the Houses of Parliament on Friday to protest against the racist English Defence League. The EDL is a group of violent hooligans with links to the fascist British National Party. It wants to march through London to intimidate and harass Muslims and other ethnic minorities.

It is many years since a fascist or racist organisation has openly tried to march in London. That is why it is vital to get as large a turnout of anti-fascists as possible tomorrow to tell the EDL's thugs that their brand of race hate is not wanted here. If they do not meet any opposition, they may go on the rampage against Asians and others, as they did in Stoke-on-Trent in January.

Peter Hain MP, veteran anti-racist and founder of the Anti Nazi League, said today: "The English Defence League, together with their allies the BNP, represent a racist and fascist threat – not just to Muslims but to our Black, Asian and Jewish citizens too. I hope there will be a big mobilisation to oppose their march on Parliament." He is one of several MPs, trade unionists and campaigners to have signed an open letter against the EDL (click here to read).

Tell everyone you know to try and get to the Houses of Parliament for 11am. We will be gathering outside the main entrance to the Parliament buildings. Further decisions wil be made on the day, depending on what the EDL tries to do. If you can't get there for 11am, please come along later if you can. We should be there for a few hours at the very least. Updates on the day will appear on the UAF Twitter feed – go to twitter.com/uaf or check the box on this website.

Anybody wanting to come from Portsmouth we should be getting the 9.20 train from Portsmouth and Southsea.
Tel:07528839223

Love Music Hate Racism at The Edge of the Wedge.

Last Nights gig was an enormous success with many people signed up and £115 pounds raised.
Many people signed up for the campaign against the BNP in the forthcoming elections.
Thanks:
Particuar thanks for Gareth Edwards for his tireless efforts in organising the gig.
Richie Moran for compereing the event.
All the staff for their hardwork.
The bands and the djs for the great music.
The people of Portsmouth for supportiing a great Anti-Fascist cultural event.

UAF CONFERENCE

Over 600 attend UAF national conference

Thanks to everyone who came to Unite Against Fascism national conference. It was a great success with over 600 attendees gathering to discuss how to take forward the campaign against the British National Party at the local and general elections this year.

Workshop sessions covered topics such as stopping the English Defence League, tackling racism and Islamophobia, and building anti-fascist campaigns in the workplace. The Love Music Hate Racism session unveiled plans for a series of anti-racist music festivals to take place across the country later this year.

Speakers at the conference included Margaret Hodge MP, Ken Livingstone, Dawn Butler MP, as well as Sabby Dhalu and Weyman Bennett from Unite Against Fascism. They stressed the importance of campaigning against the BNP in Barking, Stoke and other areas targeted by the fascists, while also mobilising to stop the threat of the English Defence League and other racist hooligan groups.

Margaret Hodge is MP for Barking, where BNP leader Nick Griffin is running for parliament. She told the conference: "The BNP is a vicious and evil party. They are bringing fear into the borough. The battle is on in Barking & Dagenham – but this is also a once in a lifetime opportunity to take them on and show that there is no place for the BNP in this country."

Ken Livingstone said: "We need to recognise there has been a surge in racism as result of the BNP electoral breakthrough last June. The EDL demonstration in Stoke last month was a fascist riot. We cannot let mainstream parties pander to prejudice and use dogwhistle politics. Don't give an inch to Islamophobia or racism."

Weyman Bennett said: "We face a fight on two fronts – against the Nazi BNP at the ballot box and against the EDL's racist thugs on our streets. We need to get everyone who opposes the racists and fascists to come to Bolton on 20 March to stop the EDL, and to Barking and Stoke in coming weeks to stop the BNP at the elections."




Local reportbacks:

notes on Fighting Racism and Fascism in the Media workshop:

Unfortunately both speakers, Michael Rosen and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown were unable to attend. Chair, David crouch of the Financial Times and NUJ member became the speaker.

the session was aimed at people working in the media.
Issues: Historical racist press; loss of workers power in the Thatcher years; failure of media to be critical of BNP; especially the BBC whose bosses claim they should simply report and not comment in the interests of impartiality; strict editorial control and workers being told what they must write or include/exclude.

conclusion: workers to unite and refuse to report biased articles. encourage fellow workers to do the same as they may gain confidence if supported.

A new group has formed called Expose. They will be leafletting White City stadium tube (opposite entrance to BBC) on Wednesday and volunteers were gathered for that. There will be an official launch on Tueday 23rd February 7.00 pm at the Amnesty Centre in London. A facebook group has been created:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=265717011709

Frances Pilling.

Report on workshop on "Bringing Anti-Fascism into the workplace"

This had speakers from the NAS/UWT, NUT, Unite, and the TUC training organisation.
The NASUWT speaker talked about what they have done to proscribe BNP membersfrom working for the NAS, and developing a campaign to ban teachers from being members of the BNP. The NUT spoke about how the new Political fund is being used to fund campaigning against the BNP in Barking and other key places. A key idea from several speakers and the audience was that we need well organised workplaces, which fight for better pay and conditions, but which will also keep fascists out of the workplace. It will then be easier to argue for support for other anti fascist activities.


Penny Foskett NUT