BNP considers festival site move

The British National Party has said next year's Red White and Blue Festival (RWB) could be moved from Derbyshire. The party said it was concerned about the disruption caused to local people and the licensing restrictions imposed by the council.

Last weekend 19 people were arrested during anti-BNP protests near Denby in a policing operation estimated to have cost £500,000.

A BNP spokesman said no decision had been made on any alternative sites. The event faced restrictions on music, alcohol sales and the number of caravans it could host.

Protest vow

The centre of Denby, where most of the protests took place, was heavily policed and some residents needed an escort to leave the town.

Deputy leader of the BNP Simon Darby said: "There is a school of thought that says we have had RWB in Wales, in the Midlands, in the North, in the East Midlands and we have never had it, for instance, in Scotland, the South West or the South. So I think there will be a lot of competition, there are several sites which want us."

Protesters said they would follow the festival no matter where it went and added they hoped councils would carefully consider any application from organisers.

BBC

Stop the Red, White and Blue Festival 2008

For too many years the BNP have enjoyed their annual Red, White and Blue festival without major opposition. They have usually kept the location secret for as long as possible but nevertheless have often brought numbers in their hundreds for a weekend of morale boosting, party-building and scarcely concealed, well-documented Nazi and fascist celebration.

This year we already know where the RWB festival is to be. Immediately after their festival in 2007, they announced it will be in the same location in Denby, which borders Nottingham and Derby and is only a few miles from the M1. This part of the East Midlands has been one of their prime areas of recent growth as well as having been a long established area of fascist activity and the birth place of the violent Combat 18.

Despite the still developing split in the BNP, they are insistent that their festival will go ahead. If it does then it will allow them to regroup, reorganise, fix and expand after the damage to them by their recent political in-fighting.

East Midland Anti-Fascists reorganise

Over the last year anti-fascists in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire have been working together to harass the BNP. Primarily this has been facilitated by the Nottinghamshire Stop the BNP campaign but it has also been supported by Derby UAF as well as a multitude of trade union organisations. All of these campaigns are determined to stop the RWB festival being a successful recruitment event for the BNP.

Already 150 people were mobilised in October, 2007 and physically blockaded and stopped a local BNP rally being held and addressed by Nick Griffin. In addition leaflets and stalls have been held in towns and villages where the BNP have been known to be particularly active.

Nottingham conference call for national mobilisation

A local anti BNP conference was called in Nottingham on Jan 19th and attended by 100 people. The conference was sponsored by many trade unions in the region including the FBU, UCU, UNISON and NUT.

Delegates called for a mass protest against the BNP festival; demanded that councils block permission for the event and asked trade unionists as far as possible to refuse to do any work that might help facilitate the BNP event; and for thousands of people including trade unionists and anti-fascists throughout the country to join us in filling the surrounding area in mass protest.

The BNP festival is still going ahead. We call on all local and national anti-racist campaigns and bodies opposed to the BNP to support the call of the Nottingham conference.

Please raise support for this mobilisation within your organisation. Contact us by emailing nobnpfestival@riseup.net. Watch for news on the plans for this mobilisation at http://nobnpfestival.wordpress.com

The leaflet (above) can be downloaded by clicking here.

Move to fight Amber Valley BNP festival

Battle lines are already being drawn over plans to hold the British National Party's annual Red, White and Blue festival in Amber Valley again this summer.

Party member and former Heanor councillor Alan Warner hosted the event on his land near Denby last summer and despite major complaints from nearby residents says he plans to do so again this year.

Mr Warner said: "The application for a liquor and entertainment licence has already gone in and we're waiting for the outcome of that. We wanted to get it banged in early because there will be more things going on here this year and more people. We've got another 14 acres to use this year thanks to a neighbour of mine opening up his fields. He was put off last year but everything went off all right so he says he's not going to be dictated to by the protesters and we can use his land. There was no trouble last time according to the police. They came onto the site four times a day and were quite happy."

Mr Warner promises the festival will be bigger and better than last year with a big wheel, dodgems, children's rides and even a massive blimp bearing the BNP logo hovering overhead.

A website has been set up to call for more organised opposition than last year when a lone protester with a placard saying "no to racism" picketed the site.

A spokesman for the nobnpfestival website said: "The BNP is a far right nationalist party. Its politics are divisive and designed to stir up hysteria around immigration. The RWB festival is intended to draw new recruits into the party and consolidate these disgraceful politics. In 2007, Amber Valley Council granted the organisers entertainment licenses in spite of widespread local protest. Anti-fascists did not mobilise in time to help stop the festival. We are determined that will not happen this year."

The site's organisers say they intend to draw together thousands of people who oppose the BNP and protest against the festival.

Mr Warner said: "If we're going to have thousands here protesting then let them come. This is a family festival and there'll be no trouble from us. I don't know where they're all going to park because they can't park on the road - we have on site parking for BNP members."

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