ANL News Archive

2001

29 November 2001

Burnley Borough Council by-election results

22 November 2001

Burnley Borough Council by-election results

Burnley Borough Council
http://www.burnley.gov.uk/council/councillors.htm

Although the Labour Party took the seat from the Independents the vote in Rosehill was extremely close. The previous Independent candidate in Rosehill had denounced the BNP as "a single issue fascist organisation".

In Trinity and Lowerhouse the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives did not stand a candidate. On the day of the election the Liberal Democrats called for their supporters to vote Labour in an attempt to stop the BNP winning a seat.

Burnley is the 46th most deprived local authority in the country and has desperate housing needs. There are 5,000 empty homes in Burnley. Out of the estimated £150 million needed for housing renewal, only £3million has materialised. Recently there were 452 job losses at Michelin.

In these circumstances the BNP can grow. They have been scapegoating Muslims in Burnley.  Following the BBC Panorama expose of the BNP their candidate James Cowell said he had stopped canvassing for them. He denounced the BNP leadership for its extremist views. In spite of this he still won 19% of the vote.

We enter the new year facing the very real possibility that the BNP could win council seats in May 2002.

We must renew our efforts to prevent the BNP from making that step into mainstream politics.

The BNP are intending to stand candidates in these areas in May 2002:
North East, Bradford, Dewsbury, Leeds, Burnley, Oldham, Bolton, Pendle, Stafford, Sandwell, Dudley, Coventry, Leicester, Stoke, West London, Lewisham, Bexley, Barking and Dagenham, East London, Plymouth, Peterborough, Bermondsey, Wandsworth

* Reaffiliate to the ANL in 2002 and get involved in your local area.

* Make sure your union branch is affiliated.

* Get an ANL speaker into your school or workplace.

* Let us know if you are willing to help with the Don't Vote Nazi Campaign in any of these areas.

* Send donations to the £100,000 appeal. Make cheques payable to the ANL.

* Download the new ANL collection sheet.

8 November 2001 Burnley

Burnley and Pendle against the Nazis

Burnley and Pendle ANL held a press conference on 8th November to launch a joint statement against the BNP presence in Burnley.

The BNP are standing candidates in Trinity and Lowerhouse elections on Thursday 22 November and another candidate in the Rosehill election on 29 November.  They also intend to stand in the local elections in May 2002.

Everyone at the press conference signed a statement to say that the BNP were not wanted in Burnley and that they supported the "Don't Vote Nazi" campaign.

The following comments were also made:

Thea Hurst, Refugee from Nazi Germany: "I was born in Germany and spent just 13 years there and I suffered under
the Nazis because I am Jewish.  I feel very strongly that any kind of Nazi, Fascist or racist party should be kept out of Burnley today.  The Nazis started as a small party in Germany and grew into a force that could terrorise Europe. If we allow that to happen here with the present climate where asylum seekers already have no rights the Nazis could grow and that would be very dangerous."

Peter Pike, Area Dean of Burnley: "I am proud to be here.  I have personally been involved in resisting the BNP in Burnley when they had a presence here in the General Election.  All the faith communities celebrate the uniqueness and integrity of all human beings.  We are working hard in Burnley, Muslims and Christians at dialogue and all the world faiths in our town are very friendly.  I would like to highlight the positive steps in communitiy relations here in Burnley and say that I am very confident that we can resist the BNP.  I was very moved to hear the experiences of Thea and cannot stress enought that there is no room for complacency."

Peter Jones, Secretary of Burnley College Natfhe, and NEC member: "I am a representative from one of the teaching unions and as educators I  feel we have a responsibility to get a clear message across that the BNP are Nazis and we must fight against them at all levels."

Peter Kenyon, Labour Group Secretary for Burnley Borough Council: "I am very pleased to have been invited to this press conference.  As an elected representative I am convinced we cannot accommodate to racism.  It has to be confronted and exposed.  The BNP are an avowedly racist party. They are gaining support in Burnley with people who claim they are not racist.  If they are not then they should not vote for the BNP because if you do in the coming election you will be voting for a racist party.  There is a worrying increase in racist incidents in schools which is connected to the rise of the BNP in Burnley.  We want a successful community in Burnley. The BNP have the politics of division and are not working for the people of Burnley but for their own ends."

Dino Maamria, Ethnic Minority Officer for Burnley FC: "I am pleased to be here today and would like to thank the organisers.  I am here as a representative of Burnley Football Club.  We are against the BNP and racism in football and in our town.  Last year I was appointed the ethnic minority officer to get more black involvement in the club and on the stands.  I am working with the future generations.  I go into schools to push football and to say to black children you are part of Burnley and you are part of Burnley Football Club.  It has been a great opportunity for me to represent Burnley Football Club in the campaign to kick racism out of football."

Roger Frost, Leader of Burnley Council Liberal Democrats: "I am pleased to be associated with the Anti Nazi League particularly in Burnley.  We should all work hard to make sure that the BNP's aims don't come to fruition.  Please vote for anyone but the BNP this time and in the elections next May."

Resident of Rosehill: "It sickens me that the BNP are trying to appear as a legitimate party.  They incite racial hatred and this is against the law."

20 October 2001 Oldham

Anti-racists to build coalition against the Nazis

Over one hundred people gathered in Werneth Park at a press conference called by the ANL to protest at the banning of the Oldham United Against Racism Respect Festival.

Messages of support were read out from trade unions and individuals including Mark Hendrick MP; Unison Dudley Group of Hospitals; Nottinghamshire County UNISON; Paul Ingram, Green Group Representative and Deputy Leader, Oxford City Council; Midlands IT Branch PCS; GMB Regional Secretary for Lancashire; West Midlands FBU Executive member; Greater Manchester Black and Jewish Forum; Ipswich NUT; and from people across Britain, France and Spain.

There is overwhelming anger at the actions of Oldham Council and the police who are continuing to ban the anti-racist majority from organising collectively in Oldham.

Anti-racists resolved to continue the fight against the Nazi BNP and NF in Oldham, beginning with a coalition launch meeting on 14 November.

22 September 2001, Maida Vale, London

Local communities demand shutdown of Fiore's Nazi "Charity" Shop

Forty ANL activists, anti-fascists and local residents protested outside the Shirland Road Nazi "Charity" Shop on Saturday.  The picket got off to a great start when we discovered that the owners had chosen not to open the shop for the day.

The main object of the day was to make local people aware of the fact that the "Trust of St Michael the Archangel" charity shop is actually a front for the Italian fascist Roberto Fiore, leader of the neo-Nazi Forza Nuovo and "International Third Position" (ITP).  Veteran racist Edgar Griffin, father of BNP leader Nick Griffin and erstwhile member of Iain Duncan Smith's Conservative Party leadership campaign team, is the charity's accountant.

Many locals were shocked that money spent there was not going to charity at all, and some joined the protest.  Other local residents said that they would be contacting their  councillors to protest about the shop, and the event received coverage in the local Kilburn Times.  Other shops owned by Fiore have already been shut down by Brent Council, but the Shirland Road shop benefits from being in Westminster Borough.  As one protestor observed on the picket, "If people round here didn't know what that place was before  - THEY DO NOW!"

In 1985 Roberto Fiore was convicted in absentia of membership of the neo-Nazi Armed Revolutionary Nuclei (NAR) - widely regarded as responsible for the Bologna railway station bombing in 1980 in which 85 people died.  This fascist outrage was at the time the worst terrorist attack in postwar Europe, though this did not dissuade MI6 from granting protection to Fiore and his associates, who have been living in London with impunity ever since.  The anti-fascist magazine Searchlight has tracked this Nazi's exile in Britain since the early 80s, though he only came to the attention of the mass media again when the charitable status of his shops - one line of this millionaire's many business ventures - came under investigation by the Charity Commission.  Despite finding a political link between the "charities" and ITP, the Charity Commission has unfrozen their accounts, so that Fiore and associates have been free to resume their fundraising.  ITP has attracted the attention of the Spanish authorities with their purchase of the abandoned village of Los Pedriches which they intend to use to train young people how "to stop acting like black youth", while another use to which Fiore's organisations' money has been put became clear last December when Andreas Insabato - a member of Forza Nuovo and associate of Fiore - blew himself up while planting a bomb at the offices of the newspaper Il Manifesto in Rome.

Local tenants and residents in Maida Vale need to know what money spent at the "St Michael's Charity Shop", 113 Shirland Road, Maida Vale W9 might be funding - and the ANL will make sure they do, until the shop is closed down for good!

West London ANL

15 September 2001

Derisory turnout for NF in Sunderland

The Nazi National Front were humiliated in Sunderland for the second time in a month on Saturday.  Having already had a rally foiled by 200 Anti-Nazi protesters in August, they abandoned any attempt to march last weekend.

Again Anti-Nazi protesters turned out in Sunderland city centre but this time only half a dozen dejected looking Nazis skulked by.  The response from shoppers to the ANL was excellent, with crowds round the stall to sign a petition stating that the Nazis were not welcome in Sunderland, and hundreds of Anti-Nazi leaflets given out.

The rally was addressed by John Bryant, a NATFHE National Executive member from Northumbria University, who read a message of support from Mackney, the leader of the lecturers' union.  A spokeswoman from Sunderland Fans Against Racism urged the need to stop the Nazis whenever they try to march or rally.  The Anti-Nazi League and the Green Party's General Election candidate also spoke at the rally, which was well-received by local people.

Sunderland ANL

1-2 September 2001

Anti-Nazi weekend of action

Anti-Nazis across the country held a mass-leafleting of estates and constituencies where the Nazi British National Party are hoping to gain votes and possible council seats in May 2002.

The ANL delivered over 150,000 leaflets in Burnley, Oldham, Dewsbury, Eccleshill in Bradford, Barking, Dagenham, and Hayes.

The leaflets urged people not to vote for the BNP, listing ten things about the BNP that the Nazis won't tell voters.

Anti-Nazis from all over the country came to give local people their support in Burnley and Oldham - where the BNP got their best General Election results.  Oldham ANL was assisted by over 200 Anti-Nazis from Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, London and the Home Counties.  In Burnley coaches came from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Yorkshire, the North East, and London.

Elsewhere, trade unionists and Anti-Nazis leafleted estates in Barking and Dagenham (where the BNP saved a deposit at the General Election), Bradford (the estate where the BNP held a meeting of 100 people the night before the riots in Bradford was leafleted), Dewsbury,  and Hayes, west London.

The 1st of September should have seen a massive carnival in Burnley against the Nazis, bringing together thousands of young black and white people.  The Home Secretary would not allow the carnival to go ahead and banned Anti-Nazis from Burnley on that day.  Despite this over 150 trade unionists, councillors, students, football fans and others leafleted the estates in Burnley.

The day was a great success.  Local people thought it was brilliant that people were making a stand and joined the 'Don't Vote Nazi' campaign.

Now anti-racists up and down the country are booking coaches and sending delegations to the Oldham Respect Festival called by Oldham United Against Racism and North West Region TUC.  The festival will be held on 20th October, Werneth Park, Oldham.  Download resources.

27 August 2001 London

Great crowd at Notting Hill Carnival

Members of West London ANL enjoyed a great day's campaigning at the Notting Hill Carnival, proving that serious politics can be seriously good fun.

Around 5,000 stickers and thousands of leaflets were distributed, hundreds of signatures collected, and £300 raised for funds. The carnival atmosphere was fantastic with revellers queueing to take our stickers and literature.

In the six hours that the stall and collection took place, the amount of support that the ANL was shown by both the local residents and those visiting for the carnival proves that the ANL can only grow from strength to strength. It was both interesting and encouraging to be asked by people all over the UK and from overseas asking what activities the ANL was engaged in within their local areas - a great opportunity to hand out leaflets for next week's weekend of action and the Oldham carnival.

It was brilliant to see so many people wearing ANL stickers and badges at the carnival, as if we had sponsored the event!

West London ANL

25 August 2001 Leeds

NF thugs out in force in Pudsey

Over one hundred Anti-Nazis protested against the Nazi National Front and Combat 18 in Pudsey today.

Local people were disgusted that the Nazis, headed by the NF's Yorkshire organiser Tony White had attempted to stir up race hatred in the small town. The NF was joined by leading West Midlands C18 thug, Kevin Watmough.

Around 20 hard core Nazis stood with police protection and hurled racist abuse at local black people, shouting "Holohoax" and "Sieg Heil" - shocking local people who were simply out shopping.

The Nazis were joined by about 20 local boys who were being encouraged by Tony White to hurl racist abuse at the passers by.

Anti Nazi League protestors, by contrast, included local councillors, trade unionists, and pensioners as well as school kids.

A coach has now been organised from Leeds to take people from Pudsey and Leeds to the Anti-Nazi activities in Burnley and Oldham.

18 August 2001 Sunderland

NF not welcome in the North East!

A 200-strong ANL rally of trade unionists and anti-fascists was warmly received in Sunderland town centre today.

Those present included the local Trades Council, Sunderland City UNISON, Newcastle City UNISON, and Sunderland NATFHE.  Speakers included the president of Sunderland University Students Union, a NATFHE NEC member, a Newcastle City councillor, and Tyne & Wear Anti-Fascist Association.

On the first day of the football season, there were queues of Sunderland AFC fans at the ANL stall to sign the petition saying that the NF were not wanted in Sunderland.  Sunderland North MP Bill Etherington told the crowd that

"we have to send a message to the powers that be - that they should change their attitude to demonstrations like today's.  This is not a far left demonstration or an extreme demonstration. The NF and BNP are rightwing extremists - they are fascists!  Anti-Nazi demonstrations represent the decent majority of people."

Despite a police ban, the Nazi National Front were threatening to hold a rally on a field opposite the police station in the city centre at 2 p.m.  At 1.45 p.m. the ANL blockaded the space where the NF were allowed to have their demonstration.  A ragbag of about 20 Nazis turned up to find the Anti-Nazis already in their space.  The ANL stayed there until 3.15 p.m.  Curiously, there was no sign of NF leader Terry Blackham and his promised travelling circus from Birmingham.  Anti-Nazis then found out this was because all thirty of them had been arrested as they entered Sunderland to defy the ban!  The Anti-Nazis then went back into the town centre for a victory rally.

The NF had gone to Sunderland to start violence against refugees only two weeks after the murder of Firsat Yildiz in Glasgow.  Outrageously police had told asylum seekers that they had to remain prisoners in their own homes on Saturday.  They also told the Bangladeshi community and ethnic minority groups not to join the ANL demonstration in their own town - but today's events showed that the only people who are not welcome in Sunderland are the Nazis!

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 Führer 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.

7 August 2001 London

No platform for Nazis!

Following a further appearance of BNP leader Nick Griffin on the BBC, one hundred and seventy people crammed a media workers' meeting in central London on the issue of "No platform for the Nazis".  Speakers included John Foster, General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Nick Cohen of The Observer, Michael Rosen, writer and broadcaster, and Searchlight, the anti-fascist magazine.

16 July 2001

Glasgow - Nazis not welcome!

BNP Führer Nick Griffin has tried to target Scotland.  The Nazi BNP threatened to leaflet white estates in Glasgow on Sunday morning.  Over 100 Anti-Nazis were immediately out and distributed over 3,000 leaflets.  The three members of the BNP who turned up were arrested after complaints from local tenants.

Stoke-on-Trent warns BNP

Riots were sparked in Stoke after rumours that the BNP were going to march through the area.  The police said "There was a rumour that got people agitated and excited that the BNP were going to stage some kind of march."

People turned out on the streets to defend their communities.

In the General Election the Nazi BNP candidate was Steven Batkin who gained 1358 votes (3.8 per cent) in the constituency of Stoke-on-Trent South.  In May the police had to investigate a leaflet that the BNP had used to target schools trying to whip up race hatred.  Michael Coleman, secretary of Stoke BNP said of the leaflet:  "It is strong and strident and unrepentant.  I think it is racist.  I certainly am a racist and I don't apologise for that.  We are trying to get five per cent of the vote at the election and we think it is possible because of the uproar in Oldham and the issues of asylum seekers"

9 July 2001

Anti Nazi League statement on the Bradford riot and the media

The debate in the media over who is to 'blame' for the Bradford riots is lacking any analysis of the role of Nazi organisations.

The far right are attempting to organise race riots in cities in the North West, to capitalise on the electoral success of the British National Party in the general election. We have already witnessed racist gangs rampaging through Oldham and Burnley, attacking Asians and petrol bombing shops and restaurants.

The riot in Bradford was caused by a leading member of Combat 18 throwing the first punch, while hurling racist abuse at a group of Asians. Combat 18 contains the most violent of Britain's Nazis as members.

The Anti Nazi League had organised a rally in response to threats by the National Front to march. Our rally was peaceful, attended by over 2,000 people - black, white and Asian, children, the young and the elderly. MPs, councillors, trade unionists and anti-racists were united in defending our multicultural and multiracial society which the Nazis are out to destroy.

BNP leader Nick Griffin, who has convictions for race hatred and Holocaust denial, addressed a meeting of 150 people in Bradford on Friday evening.

When assessing the violence, we must examine the role of the police in allowing leading Nazis to openly walk the streets of Bradford on Saturday, taunting anti-racists and creating tension. The Nazis made a mockery of the government ban to stop them marching when the police refused to act against them.

In the wake of the Macpherson Report and the conviction of BNP nailbomber David Copeland, it would appear that the police have learnt nothing.

Julie Waterson
National Organiser, Anti Nazi League

Bradford 7 July 2001

Nazis rampage through Bradford

2,000 on Anti-Nazi protest

Nazis were allowed to roam the streets of Bradford today, inciting violence and creating a riot.

Just like in Oldham and Burnley in recent months, Nazis attacked anti-racists and Asians in an attempt to create a race riot.

Over 2,000 people gathered at the ANL protest rally in the city centre, determined to stop the Nazi thugs.  Police refused to monitor and arrest known Nazis who were openly organising on the streets - though the National Front leadership were conspicuous by their absence.  Despite weeks of incitement and racist threats on their website, Terry Blackham, Norman Tomkinson and Simon Northfield were nowhere to be seen at their own demo!  The police then attacked Anti-Nazis who fought back to defend multiculturalism and a multiracial society in Bradford.  In an act of capitulation to a threat from a bunch of Nazi thugs, the Council had earlier cancelled the Bradford Festival.

On Friday evening, BNP Führer Nick Griffin addressed a BNP meeting of 150 in Bradford.  Last week 100 people attended a BNP meeting in Oldham.  The Nazis are trying to organise a summer of race hatred, hoping to further polarise racist tensions and build on their electoral successes in the General Election.  Today's events in Bradford and the 500-strong ANL rally in Burnley have demonstrated that there is serious opposition to the Nazis' attempt to build Nazi organisations.

The cause of the violence in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley lies solely with the Nazis and police inaction against them.

The ANL is organising a summer of racial harmony - of black and white unity.  Join us in organising against the Nazis' race hatred and racist violence.  Build the Burnley and Oldham carnivals!

Burnley 28 June 2001

500 defy police ban in Burnley

A magnificent ANL meeting, attended by 500 people, was the response to police attempts to ban it.  The meeting was attended by Shahid Malik, who received five stitches after being attacked by riot police. He is an NEC member of the Labour Party and CRE Commissioner. He was joined by his father, the Deputy Mayor, with three County Councillors and many local
councillors. They were joined by trade unionists, anti-racist campaigners and hundreds of people determined to roll back the gains made by the British Nazi Party and stop the racist violence in the town.

Black, Asian and white crammed into a room, provided by the local Mosque at the last minute. Police were in force outside the meeting, in a show of intimidation. Mounted police were joined by vans with dogs and vans of police.

In a show of defiance, every part of the local community showed up and cheered as platform speakers launched a summer of anti-Nazi activity, culminating in a mass demonstration and carnival in early September.

Mohammed Arrif, a taxi driver, spoke of his horror at the police response to the attack on his fellow worker. he told the audience that he has lived in Burnley for 35 years and never felt the need to be political, but the events of the last week have made him stand up and be counted. He told of the taxi driver lying in a pool of blood, unconscious, having been battered by a hammer over the head and face. It took the police 45 minutes to respond to the call! He welcomed the white faces in the audience, saying that when a white ANL member visited the hospital with flowers and a card he was overcome with emotion.

Every Asian speaker talked of unity with the white community, of breaking down the divisions and challenging the myths. Every white speaker was positive about achieving unity and building a vibrant anti-Nazi movement.

The police tried to ban our meeting by the back door and we defied them.

Now, they have a legal ban for a month to stop any similar meetings taking place!

The Anti-Nazi League will continue to organise in Burnley, organising the anti-racist majority into a force for change.

Oldham 16 June 2001

NF leaders arrested in Oldham

Over 50 Anti-Nazi League supporters succeeded in stopping the Nazi National Front from marching or holding a rally in Oldham Town Centre last Saturday.  Hundreds of shoppers took Anti-Nazi League leaflets and stickers and several signed up as new members of the ANL.  The Nazi National Front failed to show up at the Civic Centre, where they had planned to hold a rally.  Instead, ANL supporters rallied as passing drivers honked their horns in support.  Trade union delegations on the day included train drivers in the RMT with their banner.  It was later announced that 14 NF supporters had been arrested in an estate on the outskirts of Oldham, and they were held by police over the weekend.  Their total mobilisation numbered less than 20 people, none of whom were from the North West, let alone from Oldham.

On Thursday June 28th, three NF leaders will appear at Oldham Magistrates Court for a hearing after pleading not guilty to public order offences.  The NF have announced that they intend to picket the Court to protest at their treatment by the police.  The Anti-Nazi League calls on as many supporters as possible to be outside the Magistrates Court at 9.00 a.m. for a counter-protest against the presence of the Nazi National Front in Oldham.

Oldham, Sunday 10 June 2001

Nazi National Front fail to show in Oldham

Following the electoral success of the BNP in Oldham, the Nazi National Front threatened to hold a demonstration there last Sunday.  Unsurprisingly the Nazi vote has given a hard core of racists in Oldham the confidence to carry out attacks on Asians.

The day after the election a gang scrawled racist graffiti on Asian graves in the Green Acres cemetery.  The desecration of these graves is the direct result of the policies of the BNP.

The NF had boasted on their website that they should stand candidates in Oldham at the next local elections.  Like the BNP, the NF believe that they can win council seats in Oldham.  However the NF did not even turn up to their own demonstration!  The few local Nazis who did arrive scurried away when they saw the Anti-Nazi presence.  Two Nazis were arrested and charged with carrying offensive weapons.

General Election 2001

Report and results

Statement from Oldham ANL
Monday 28 May 2001

Nazis to blame for Oldham riots

In the past few weeks the media and police have been hyping up racial tensions in Oldham.  When the BBC claimed the existence of so-called "No Go" areas for whites, they opened the door to the Nazis.  Since then we have seen the Nazi National Front, British National Party and Combat 18 come into Oldham to leaflet, march, attack local people and stand in the General Election.

The rioting in Oldham at the weekend was caused by Nazis continually coming into our area to cause violence and whip up race hatred.

The Oldham Chronicle and the police have been central to the animosity directed at the Asian community, wrongly accusing Asians of the majority of racist attacks and reporting the brutal attack on Walter Chamberlain as a racist attack, even though Mr Chamberlain's family denied the attack was racially motivated.

The NF, who say they stand for "Rights for Whites", were led into Oldham by Simon Northfield, who was convicted for attacking a white woman pensioner in January.

Black and white unite

In the face of this, the local communities have to unite and make Oldham a "No Go" area for the Nazis. The Nazis are now feeling confident to go into areas like Glodwick to terrorise and attack Asian people in their homes.  They know that the police will turn on the local Asian youth when they try to defend themselves.

The role of the police

Following Nazi leafleting, a handful of racists attacked kids from Breeze Hill School.  When called to defend the school kids, the police proceeded to attack them.  A few weeks before, police let racist football "fans" and Nazis rampage through Asian areas, smashing windows and shouting racist abuse.  It is clear that since the Macpherson Report exposed the police as institutionally racist, nothing has changed.

Even after the Home Secretary had banned the Nazis from marching in Oldham, the police stood by and allowed forty members of Combat 18 (a violent Nazi organisation that counts murderers in its ranks) to march into the town centre on Saturday 5th May.  The police were well aware that the Nazis were gathering in local pubs but did nothing.  That is why the NF organiser claims that "the NF will not stop going to Oldham."

It is clear that only the united efforts of the local community - black and white - can keep the Nazis out of Oldham.

Don't Vote BNP

The Nazis who have been terrorising people in their own homes and rampaging through our streets now want you to vote for them in the General Election.  Racist violence is exactly what Nick Griffin, Mike Treacy and Roger Woods stand for.  Griffin, who is leader of the BNP, has convictions for inciting racial hatred.  He has no interest in uniting the community, in fact he says he wants to see "separation of the two communities ... on the model adopted in Belfast ... to ease the tensions and avoid further bloodshed".

The BNP don't want to see racism resolved: they want apartheid as a prelude to a Nazi genocide.

Let's not forget the BNP's most infamous member, David Copeland, who was jailed for life last year for the London nailbombs that killed three people.  He boasted, "My aim was political.  It was to cause a racial war in this country.  There'd be a backlash from ethnic communities, then all the white people would go out and vote BNP."

Nazis cannot solve Oldham's problems - they are the cause of them!

10 May 2001 Oxford

Victory: Oxford Union cancels Irving meeting

At an emergency meeting last night over 80 per cent of the Oxford Union voted that they didn't want the Nazi David Irving at the Debating Society - so the President was forced to cancel the meeting.  There has been huge outside pressure to get the meeting cancelled over the last few weeks, and it is now apparent that the members of Oxford Union did not want this Nazi there either.  This is a massive victory for anti-fascists as it would have given credibility to a Holocaust denier who is already discredited in the eyes of the world.

5 May 2001 Oldham

Nazis defy march ban in Oldham

The police allowed Nazis to spread racist hatred in Oldham today.

Earlier in the week, the Home Secretary had imposed a ban on the National Front marching in Oldham, and over 500 Greater Manchester police were drafted into the town - supposedly to enforce it.  In spite of this, around seventy members of Combat 18, stray hooligans and assorted racist scum, were allowed to gather in local pubs with the obvious intention of marching into the town.  Horrified locals watched as around 40 thugs managed to march into the local shopping precinct.  The police merely followed them at a distance.  When challenged that this Nazi march was unlawful, they claimed they did not have enough officers to arrest them!

About 200 anti-Nazis and anti-racists gathered at the Civic Centre.  A further four to five hundred local Asian youth had come out onto the streets to defend their neighbourhoods, mindful of last Saturday when the police allowed hooligans and Nazis to march into housing areas, smashing windows and shouting racist abuse after the Oldham Athletic-Stoke City match.  The Anti-Nazi League attempted to get into the town centre to stop the Nazi march, but were driven back by mounted police, who had somehow found the manpower to stop the Anti-Nazis, if not the Nazis.  The police eventually surrounded the Nazis and held them at the edge of the main shopping precinct.  Meanwhile the National Front, which had called the original race hate march, were still on their way up the motorway in two minibuses.

The ANL returned to the Civic Centre where the National Front had boasted they would assemble at 3.30 p.m. When the NF finally arrived and tried to make their assembly point at the Civic Centre, the ANL evaded police penning tactics and rushed down the road to stop them.

Having been assured the day would be "business as usual", local people were amazed that the police swamping of the area had still failed to prevent disruption to the life of the town centre.  The day was, however, a failure for the National Front: they arrived late, were held at a roundabout at the edge of the town, and did not achieve their objective of marching into Oldham.  They were upstaged on their own "day of action" by Combat 18, who marched Nazis through Oldham with the aid of the police.  Outrageously, BBC radio gave NF leader Terry Blackham repeated airtime throughout the day to allege that "thirty years of immigration" was the cause of Oldham's problems, while neglecting to mention his and the other Nazis' violent criminal pasts, or the role of the far-right generally in the incitement of racist attacks.

Greater Manchester police have shown today that even with the full weight of a state ban and a massive public order operation, they do not have the will to stop inflammatory Nazi activity or racist attacks - which is why anti-Nazis must continue to oppose the Nazis on the streets, wherever they try to organise!

21 April 2001, Narborough, Leics

Narborough under siege

Having been banned from Leicester after huge local opposition, the Nazi National Front were allowed to march in the nearby village of Narborough. This was a humiliating defeat for the NF as they had sworn they would march in Leicester city. Terrified of opposition, they were unable to state exactly where they would march until 9 a.m. the same day.

Despite the short notice over a hundred anti-Nazis assembled in Narborough, where local residents were furious that police had brought the Nazis to their village and disrupted their normal life for the day. For two and a half hours the village was besieged by a massive police operation. Local residents were prevented from freely going about their business while police escorted three minibuses and a couple of carloads of human scum into the village to parade a pantomime of racial hatred.

Leicester anti-fascists had earlier disrupted the Nazis' redirection point in Hinckley, throwing them into disarray. However, compliments of Leicester Constabulary who provided the protection of a helicopter, fortified vans, six horses and a dozen snarling dogs, the National Front were herded through the village on a ten minute circular route. Anti-Nazis and disgusted local residents were held back by hundreds of police who were determined to force the march through. The police then drove them out of the village to a nearby industrial estate where they were allowed to wave their single St George's Day flag outside a police station.

Residents of Narborough have launched a petition demanding to know why the NF were dumped on them with no prior consultation, when it had already been made clear they were not wanted in Leicester city.

14 April 2001, Bermondsey, South London

NF fail in Bermondsey, again

Following three vicious racist attacks in Bermondsey the National Front were again given permission to hold a demonstration by the Metropolitan Police on Saturday 14 April.

In the week running up to the demonstration the ANL leafleted the area.  There was an overwhelmingly good response from supporters at the Millwall FC match, who were horrified that the NF Nazis were attempting to march in Bermondsey again.

Over 7,000 leaflets opposing the NF were handed out at stalls in the Blue and on local estates.

On Saturday around 35 NF members managed to march.  The local community did not want the NF and were furious at the disruption another march caused.

The NF have threatened to appear on Saturday 12 May.  Bermondsey will be ready to oppose them!

7 April 2001 Bermondsey, South London

Bermondsey unites against the NF

Around a thousand anti-racists and trade unionists from all over Southwark and Lambeth rallied outside South Bermondsey station to oppose a Nazi National Front march today.

The rally was addressed by local MP Simon Hughes and Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Greater London Authority.  Local church leaders condemned the fact the Anti-Nazis were being penned in by the police while the NF were being given protection to roam the streets spreading their racist poison.

Anti-Nazis occupied the road junction outside the station, preventing the NF leaving the main exit.  A pathetic dozen Nazis marched in single file down a side passageway from the station where the police allowed them to join up with about fifty other thugs who had assembled in a pub. The same thugs had already racially abused black passers-by: when two black men walked past a chorus of monkey noises were made while the police did nothing.  So much for the Met's much-trumpeted zero tolerance of hate crimes.

As usual the police took great pains to video and record the details of the Anti-Nazi protestors, while the vile racist abuse and Sieg Heils of the Nazis went unchallenged.  Led by notorious thug Terry Blackham, the NF marchers included Youth Organiser Simon Northfield, fresh from a conviction for attacking a woman pensioner in Croydon.

Anti-Nazis then chased the National Front march, but were again blocked and held back by lines of hundreds of police.  The police escorted the National Front to Bermondsey tube station and out of the area.   Many of the Anti-Nazis then marched to Bermondsey tube for a rally.

The Anti-Nazi demonstration was supported by the Fire Brigades' Union London Region, Southwark UNISON; Southwark Socialist Alliance; Lambeth Socialist Alliance; Searchlight Magazine; National Union of Refugee Organisations; Rimin Welfare Association, Movement for Justice, Sierra Sisters, local Labour Party members, anarchists, the Socialist Party, and local RMT, MSF and NUT members.

The NF have stated they wish to whip up racial hatred in Bermondsey.  The Anti-Nazi League will expose them for the Nazi thugs they are and unite local opposition wherever they attempt to organise!

31 March 2001 Oldham

Victorious Rally against the National Front

A major demonstration of unity against racism and fascism took place today in Oldham.

In the face of the declared intention of the Nazi National Front to march in Oldham, 800 - 1000 rallied in the centre of Oldham. Members of every community in Oldham attended as well as anti racists from across the North West.

Trade unions demonstrating their support included the National Union of Teachers (NUT), the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), UNISON, the local government and hospital workers union, the college lecturers union (NATFHE).

The rally was organised by Oldham United Against Racism together with the Anti Nazi League, the National Assembly against Racism, and other anti racist organisations, including the Manchester Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers which had postponed its scheduled march from today to next Saturday 7th April.

Representatives from Bangladeshi, Pakistani, West Indian and white communities spoke. So did local MP Phil Woollas, local MEP Arlene McCarthy, the leading anti fascist campaigner and MEP, Glyn Ford.

Speakers focused on: the success in building black and white unity to oppose the Nazis the need actively to fight racism and racist organisations wherever and whenever they appear underlined by Richard Knowles, leader of Oldham Council, who emphasised the council's policy of refusing to allow any racist organisation a platform in Oldham, the importance of continuing to fight racism including institutional racism as demonstrated by the refusal of the police to allow the anti racists to march through the centre of Oldham.

After the rally the Anti Nazi League organised leafleting and petitioning in Oldham town centre.  The National Front stayed out of sight and anti racists are able today to celebrate an important victory.

17 March 2001 Aberdeen

Aberdeen Says No to the Nazis

Aberdeen successfully demonstrated its opposition to the National Front on Saturday March 17th. The NF website advertised a planned "Day of Action" in the City and local anti-racists and anti-fascists had organised a counter-activity in the city centre.

Around 150 people participated over the course of the day, leafleting and petitioning in opposition to the planned activities of the Nazi National Front. Hundreds of signatures were collected and over 4,000 leaflets distributed. Speakers from the Scottish National Party, the Scottish Socialist Party, Anti Nazi League and Aberdeen University Jewish Students Society highlighted the city's mood of opposition to any form of racism or intolerance within the city. The event drew considerable support from passers-by and was warmly received by everyone.

The anti-fascist activity in the city centre meant that the Nazis didn't dare show their faces, although we later learned that they had put up some posters in the Sheddocksley area, on the outskirts of Aberdeen. The posters were promptly removed, many taken down by local people on the estate. The scale of the Nazi activity clearly exposes the weakness of the NF in Scotland, since the "Day of Action" was meant to be a Scotland-wide mobilisation and all they managed was to put up twenty shoddy A4 posters!

Saturday 3 March 2001 Nottingham

Anti-Nazis battered by police

Nazis flee through prison under police protection

Over six hundred Anti-nazis demonstrated against the Nazi National Front in Nottingham today.

A pathetic turnout of fifteen Nazis gathered outside Nottingham prison, protected by hundreds of police with horses, dog units and a helicopter.

For over two hours the police used excessive violence to protect the National Front - batoning and battering Anti-nazis as they tried to stop the Nazis.  On Saturday night two Anti-nazis were still in hospital after sustaining head injuries from the police.   The Anti-Nazi demonstration was a magnificent protest againt the far right, who received no local support.  Anti-nazis blocked the two exits forcing the police to escort the Nazis out through the very prison they were demonstrating against!

The ANL demonstration was supported by Nottingham Racial Equality Council, South Notts TUC, Nottingham & Notts Refugee Forum, Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre, TGWU East Midlands Region, GMB Midland and East Coast Region, Nottingham City NUT, Nottinghamshire NUT, CWU, FBU, GPMU, PCS, Nottingham City UNISON, Notts County UNISON, Ashfield UNISON, NATFHE Clifton Branch, TGWU Midlands region, RMT East Midlands, RMT South Yorkshire, AEEU East Midlands, AEEU East Anglia, and twenty Labour councillors, including Sir Dennis Pettit leader of Notts County Council.

Protestors left the demonstration more determined than ever to keep up the campaign to make Nottingham a Nazi-free zone.

Video footage of demo
(RealPlayer required: 28-56K modem; cable or better)

*Fifteen Anti-nazis were arrested and many injured during the police brutality.   Watch this space for further details of the Nottingham Defence Campaign that will be set up:  you can pledge support now by emailing Nottingham@anl.org.uk.

3 February 2001 Vienna, London, Margate

One year of resistance

In response to calls from Austrian anti-racist groups for international solidarity on the anniversary of the inclusion of the Freedom Party in government, the Anti-Nazi League held a mass-petitioning of the public outside the offices of Austrian Airlines in central London.  The petitions were very well received, with people  - including many tourists from Austria and Germany - queueing to sign in protest at the normalisation of racism within the Austrian government and Joerg Haider's continued influence on it.  At the same time the ANL held an emergency counter-demonstration against one of Britain's own neo-Nazi organisations, the National Front.  The NF were attempting to march in the economically depressed Kent seaside town of Margate, where they have been trying to scapegoat asylum seekers living there for the last year.  The NF has very little public support in Britain, and we intend to keep it that way by opposing them wherever they try to organise: Austrian anti-fascists agreed this is the best form our international solidarity in the fight against racism and fascism could take!
Österreich: 3. Februar 2001: weltweiter Aktionstag gegen FPÖ

Defending Margate against the Nazi National Front

On Saturday the Nazis had their smallest demonstration in Margate so far, while the ranks of the ANL were swelled with local kids for the day.  Because of the actions of Kent Police however, the NF were able to march and assemble outside the Nayland Rock Hotel.  The police held back the Anti-Nazis and allowed the NF to chant "Kosovans out" at the windows of the hotel where refugees are housed, before the Nazis scuttled back to the station.

On Saturday 10 February there will be an ANL stall in Margate High Street at 2 p.m.

27 January 2001 nationwide events

Holocaust Memorial Day

The ANL held events across the country to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day - and to urge continued vigilance against Britain's neo-Nazi BNP and NF.  Stalls were held in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Croydon, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leicester, Manchester, Melton Mowbray, North London, and Redbridge, while ANL members attended official HMD events elsewhere.

Melton Mowbray

The local community of Melton Mowbray, Leics, were disgusted and horrified when seven National Front thugs tried to make a stand against the first official Holocaust Memorial Day in the town centre.  These Hitler-admirers thought they would win some local support.  Around fifty Anti-Nazis rallied against the NF and gave out Holocast Memorial stickers.  Before long almost everyone in the small town was wearing one.   The Nazis attempted to leaflet passers-by, but were met with local anger.   People refused to take their leaflets.  Outrageously the police allowed the Nazis a space in the market between two Asian stallholders.  The stallholders wore ANL stickers and could not believe the NF were being allowed to peddle their race hatred right beside them.  The NF gave up after less than an hour and were given a police escort out of town.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh ANL attended local council events, and held a picket at the house of the Lithuanian Nazi war criminal Antanas Gecas.  On Holocaust Memorial Day it is outrageous that this man has never been brought to trial.  The ANL read out a message of support from the Jewish Revival Charitable Mission (Republic of Belarus), one of the organisations fighting to have Gecas extradited and tried for mass murder.

Manchester

For National Holocaust Remembrance Day in Manchester the Black and Jewish Forum and the City Council organised a week of educational and cultural events to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten.  Many schools ran special lessons. At the final rally a clear message of tolerance and celebration of diversity was made by the Council’s deputy leader Martin Pagel to over 200 people who packed the town hall.  All of those who died in the Nazis death camps including the disabled, gays and lesbians, Roma people, prisoners of war and others were remembered by a string of speakers. The testimony of holocaust survivors moved us all to tears.  Most people wore ANL stickers including Martin Pagel (Dep Leader Manchester City Council) and Vince Young and Susie Bolchover from the Manchester Black and Jewish Forum who were central in organising the events.

Redbridge

Redbridge ANL were joined by Redbridge REC.  They displayed a banner from the town hall for Holocaust Memorial Day and got over 200 signatures for an open statement against the BNP, whose leading member Tony 'bomber' Lecomber, resides in a council flat in the area.

Camden