BNP Follow

CAMPAIGNERS HANDED out about 600,000 leaflets against the British National Party (BNP) during the Unite Against Fascism day of action last weekend. "It was a tremendous step in getting the message out that we are going to stop the BNP making headway in the elections on 10 June," says Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism (UAF). Everywhere we heard reports of people joining Unite in significant numbers and many more delighted to see the campaign taking off. It is a springboard to mass leafleting on 1 May, when we are aiming to hand out not hundreds of thousands, but millions of leaflets. We are going to build on last weekend to get even more people involved."

SUPPORT IS growing for the Unite Against Fascism coalition in its campaign against the British National Party in the run-up to the 10 June elections. The latest of the launch meetings in local areas saw over 130 people attend in Wakefield Town Hall, including representatives from trade unions and Muslim organisations.

IN TWO key areas of the north west of England meetings of the Unite Against Fascism coalition gathered anti-Nazi campaigners together last week. In Oldham, former British National Party councillor Maureen Stowe urged people at a rally to stamp out the BNP in the elections in June.

THE LAUNCH of Unite Against Fascism in the north west of England made front page news in Manchester last week. The Manchester Evening News, the leading newspaper in Britain's third biggest city, gave headline coverage of Unite's press conference. It was held in Manchester Town Hall on Friday.

COMMUNITY leaders, trade unionists and faith groups joined forces at a Unite Against Fascism conference in Sheffield last Saturday to discuss how to counter the threat of the Nazi BNP in the city. They heard from an array of speakers, including world champion boxing coach Brendan Ingle, himself an immigrant from Ireland.

AROUND 100 people lobbied a Calderdale (Halifax) council meeting on Wednesday of last week in noisy protest at the threat of closure of a popular local school, Mixenden Community Primary. Councillors callously voted for closure-all Labour and Tory councillors. Just one Lib Dem and three Nazi BNP councillors voted against.

"I COULD never understand why all those people were calling the BNP fascists. Well I do now," says Maureen Stowe. She has broken all links with the British National Party and is now backing the fight against the fascists.

LONDON'S ASTORIA club rocked last week with 2,000 people determined to beat the British National Party. The event was the London launch of the new Unite Against Fascism coalition. It is campaigning against the British National Party, which is targeting the elections on 10 June. Both the audience and those on stage marked this out as no ordinary political meeting.

THERE WAS a huge turnout for the launch meeting of Pendle United Against Fascism on Wednesday of last week. Nearly 100 people crowded into Nelson Library to hear speakers from across the political and religious spectrum condemn the threat from the far-right BNP. The meeting was called by Pendle Trades Council.

'THE PHONES are buzzing, and there's tremendous enthusiasm from the top to the bottom of the movement. Some 21 union general secretaries are backing the campaign. The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, is writing to trade unionists urging them to get involved.

ACROSS THE country socialists have been at the centre of building the Stop the War Coalition. This has reached parts no other movement has ever reached, and mobilised numbers the like of which we have never seen before. But it is not just over the war. Already Respect: The Unity Coalition is building up into a serious challenge to New Labour in the 10 June European and Greater London elections. Unite Against Fascism has brought together people in opposition to the BNP on a welcome and unprecedented scale.

A BUZZ went around the meeting room as 450 people crammed into Manchester town hall for an anti-racist rally on Thursday of last week.