Hope not Hate update: Day nine

This was the big one. A staggering 221 people delivered over 45,000 newspapers in the BNP's strongest area outside Barking & Dagenham. It was a truly inspiring day and an excellent start to the election campaign.

The Sandwell anti-BNP day of action might have been scheduled for Sunday 1 April but the work for this event had begun much earlier in the week. Over the last few days teams of activists had been bagging up the 50,000 newspapers into street walks, preparing food and information sheets. When we arrived at the African-Caribbean Resource Centre in West Bromwich we were greeted by the fruits of this work. Ten tables had been laid out, each containing newspapers for a specific ward. Everyone was signed in and a minibus ferried people across the borough.

It was a model of organisation.

The Mirror's Hope not Hate bus arrived at the centre at 10.15, a quarter of an hour before the day was advertised to start. However, by now, 61 people had already arrived and were off out leafleting. The All Nations Steel band, from the Albion estate in West Bromwich, set up in the hall and created a great atmosphere as more people poured in.

The bus moved off to the Great Bridge market where the steel band and Billy Bragg performed to shoppers while other people distributed newspapers. Several shoppers remarked that they had already received the newspaper through the door that morning. It was good to know that people were at least registering our material.

We knew the BNP would not be happy with our newspaper. While all our other editions carried a positive front page the people in Sandwell decided to have a more aggressive approach. 'Gangland Sandwell – what is the BNP councillor hiding' was the frontpage headline. The story went on to explain how the leader of the BNP council group, Jamie Lloyd, had his pub closed after a series of violent incidents, including a shooting and a machete attack, yet he refused to cooperate with the police, even withholding vital CCTV footage. What was more strange was that Lloyd had been the target of these attacks.

As the band played in the market the BNP began to arrive. First two women, then a 4x4 full of blokes. They sneered and stared, paraded their dogs and glared, but there was simply nothing they could do.

Back at the centre food was being served. Unfortunately the vegetarian chilli had been forgotten, which caused a bit of consternation amongst the vegetarians who were offered a plate of salad. However, Gurinder, a long-time friend of Searchlight, came to the rescue, ringing around the local Sikh temples and restaurants and soon pan loads of vegetable curry appeared.

Over 100 people went out for a second leafleting session and soon we were able to dismantle the tables. It was a great feeling seeing the huge piles of stuffed plastic bags disappear. To round off the day the Steel Band performed again and then Billy Bragg, who had been out leafleting twice, did a turn. The audience was fired up and dozens of people offered their help for the forthcoming campaign.

It is days like these that make all the hard work worthwhile.

Hope not Hate