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The biggest anti-racist event in the north of England for two decades struck a major blow against the Nazi British National Party at the weekend. Some 30,000 people joined the day-long Anti Nazi League "Love Music-Hate Racism" carnival in Manchester on Sunday.

"DEMOCRACIES, RATHER than dictatorships, are taking the lead in curbing civil liberties." That is the conclusion of a human rights report recently published by Amnesty International. It highlights the US and Britain's attacks on civil rights in the wake of 11 September.

THE ISRAELI novelist David Grossman has described the "depth of internal poison that our huge use of violence causes us". That poison is now sapping the confidence of Jewish communities outside Israel, resulting in mainstream British Jewish leaders speaking out with unprecedented vigour.

THE ANNUAL Burston school strike rally was held in Diss in Norfolk last Sunday. It celebrates Britain's longest school strike, which took place in 1914. Between 400 and 500 people attended the event. It was a bigger and younger audience than in previous years.

PEIMAN BAHMANI, a 29 year old Iranian refugee, was stabbed to death on Wednesday of last week. It happened on the street where he lived in Sunderland. Peiman Bahmani arrived in Britain around two years ago after fleeing from persecution in Iran. Under New Labour's refugee dispersal scheme he was forced to live in the run-down area of Hendon in Sunderland.

A GHANAIAN man has died after being arrested by police and taken to Stoke Newington police station in Hackney, east London. Kwame Wirdue was a 23 year old student in Britain. Police picked him up at a Sainsbury's in Dalston on Friday of last week.

Home secretary David Blunkett was dealt a blow in court last week in his campaign against a refugee family. When Blunkett threw the Ahmadis out of Britain he claimed they could settle in Germany instead.

BRITISH ENERGY, the privatised nuclear giant, needs to come up with around £450 million to avoid collapse. The company doesn't have the money. A secret plan, codenamed Project Blue, has been drawn up by government officials. It involves taking British Energy back into public ownership, costing a minimum of £500 million.

HOW BIG a threat are the Nazis in Europe today? Many liberal establishment commentators dismiss groups like the British National Party as nasty but marginal thugs who have no chance of ever getting near power. This position has become much harder to sustain, especially since Nazi Jean-Marie Le Pen beat prime minister Lionel Jospin into third place in the first round of the French presidential elections on 21 April.

OVER 2,000 firefighters and their supporters converged on Belfast from around Northern Ireland and Britain as the firefighters' campaign for decent pay hotted up last weekend. This latest Fire Brigades Union (FBU) demonstration had the same confident and vibrant spirit shown on previous demonstrations on the streets of London, Glasgow and other cities.

THE STOP the War Coalition is holding rallies across Britain in the build-up to the 28 September demonstration. Here are just some of them. For more details of what's happening in your area phone 07951 235 915.

THE BRITISH state, at best, has always had a two-faced attitude towards multiculturalism. On the one hand it likes to trumpet the supposed "tolerance" at the heart of British culture.