Anti BNP Video Banned for Being Too 'controversial'

The brand new single from the 18-year-old award winning political rapper/lyricist Sabotage that has been banned from mainstream radio for being “too controversial”. Still just 18 years old, he has firmly established his name on the underground scene as one of the best up and coming reality based and conscious lyricists.

The fact that challenging racism is seen as controversial is a sign of the times and a reflection of the fact that the in the UK today the politics of racism has now become normalised. It begs the question that when a party can legitimately promote racism as part of the democratic discourse anti racist’s become deemed anti democratic. This perversity cannot stand unchallenged, racism has no place in progressive democracy.

British rapper Sabotage has created a You Tube sensation with his “ Letter to the BNP “video. In response to the many supportive comments he issued this statement:

“Thanks a lot for everyone’s support, I really appreciate it! Despite it being banned from radio for being “too controversial” and because it “may potentially upset listeners” it has got almost 10,000 views in 5 days on You Tube.”

It is important that we support the rights of artists to freely express themselves in challenging racism in politics.

OBV

Antiracists and far-right battle in Moscow

A simmering confrontation between far-right youths and ant-racist activists has erupted into Moscow's streets after the fatal shooting of an anti-racist activist known as the Bonebreaker

The violence stems from deep animus between two aggressive camps with starkly different visions of Russia's future - neo-Nazi skinheads who rank in the tens of thousands and militant anti-racist groups that call themselves Antifa, short for anti-fascist.

Former punk rocker Ivan Khutorskoi, 26, provided security for meetings of antifascists. He also was known for organizing underground bare-knuckle boxing matches among them, and taking part in violent attacks on ultranationalists. Khutorskoi was gunned down in his apartment building on the city's outskirts Monday night. A day later, dozens of masked men pelted the headquarters of the pro-Kremlin youth group Young Russia with stones, trash and steel rods, Young Russia's leader said.

Kremlin critics say Russia's leadership created Young Russia and similar youth organizations to keep its political opponents in check and provide support, and sometimes muscle, on the streets. Anti-racist groups claim they have close ties with the ultranationalists they call fascists or Nazis.

Nobody was hurt in the attack late Tuesday on the office of Young Russia. But its message, delivered first with projectiles and then over the Internet, seemed clear.

"If no one but us tries to stop Nazis and those who provide cover for them, we will act by all means necessary," blogger Anarcho Punk wrote Wednesday. Other anti-racist bloggers said the attack was retaliation for what they claimed were the group's links to Russian neo-Nazis. They "dedicated" the assault to their leader, Khutorskoi, an outsized figure and a role model among antifascists, who say he had survived three previous assassination attempts. He was shot twice in the back of the head near the door to his apartment on Moscow's eastern outskirts, police said.
Khutorskoi sometimes provided security at press conferences of Stanislav Markelov, a human rights lawyer hated by ultranationalists but not at the one last January after which Markelov and a journalist were fatally shot on the street.

Antifa groups have been rapidly adding to their ranks in Russia in recent years, said Galina Kozhevnikova, the director of Sova, a respected independent hate-crime watchdog monitoring group. She said their ideology attracts leftist-minded youth and people concerned about persistent hate crimes and xenophobia in today's Russia.

"The army of ultranationalists is definitely bigger, as the movement is much older," Kozhevnikova said.

Pro-Kremlin youth groups like Young Russia are also a significant force. Experts believe their emergence was a Kremlin response to the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, where youth groups played a key role in street protests that ushered a pro-Western presidential candidate to power. Young Russia is known for street rallies and pranks against anti-Kremlin politicians. The group has also been involved in attacks on anti-government protesters and opposition youth activists.

Young Russia's leader, Maxim Mishchenko, said about 80 masked men attacked the office in central Moscow. A 22-year old attacker was seized by Young Russia activists and handed over to police, he said.

Anti-fascist bloggers claimed Mishchenko, a Russian parliament member with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, has close ties with Russky Obraz, a radical ultranationalist group that antiracists claim was behind Khutorskoi's killing. Mishchenko denied the allegations, calling them "an absolute lie."

A spokesman for Russky Obraz, Yevgeny Valayev, told The Associated Press that the group had "no Kremlin-appointed supervisors" but had cooperated with Mishchenko on several initiatives, including an extreme nationalist march in Moscow early this month.

Guardian

Anger in Bridgwater

Trade unionists and anti-racists in Bridgwater, a town with a proud history of radicalism, are angered by the news a BNP candidate is standing for election in their town.

For the first time in the town's history, the BNP has put up a candidate for the Somerset County Council elections. The candidate is Roger Bennett, who earns his living managing time-share apartments to English people in Spain!

Bridgwater Trades Union Council has organised a meeting tonight (Wednesday, May 13th) to launch a campaign against the BNP. They are meeting at 7.30pm, at the Unity Club, 7 Dampiet Street. Please come along if you can.

Hope not hate

Cambridge gets £1m for Jewish-Muslim centre

A Jewish philanthropist who was on the panel of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry has donated £1 million to a new centre for the study of Muslim-Jewish relations.

Richard Stone, a former GP and son of Lord Stone of Hendon, has given £1 million to the Woolf Institute, a body with close links to Cambridge University that specialises in the study of Jewish-Christian relations. The money, from his family’s Stone Ashdown Trust, is intended to mark the antiracist activities of Dr Stone over the past 30 years.

It will be used as an endowment to fund the work of the new Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations, which will teach a Cambridge University course with the aim of overcoming prejudice and hostility between the two religions. Students will begin by researching the areas the two faiths have in common, such as monotheism, close family ties and diaspora communities.

Dr Stone told The Times he believed there had been a “serious lack” of academic study in this subject.

Once the centre in Cambridge is established, studies will develop into more controversial areas, including issues around Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The donation will be announced today by the Woolf Institute’s director Edward Kessler. Dr Kessler told The Times: “As far as I know, there is no centre that is examining the encounter between Muslims and Jews. We are really pioneering the way. I would like to see the work feed into the work of people who need to use inter-faith relations — the police, prison officers, teachers.”

Times Online

Town vents its fury at BNP councillor

Hundreds of protesters lined the streets of Corsham tonight to vent their anger at recently elected BNP councillor Michael Simpkins as he arrived for a town council meeting. Men, women and children travelled from across the south west to take part in the anti-facist rally outide Corsham Town Hall.

Residents were outraged when Coun Simpkins managed to gain a seat on the town council - after standing unopposed in last month's elections.

More than 300 ant-facist campaigners packed the streets waving banners and balloons and blowing whistles. In a small pen on the opposite side of the road about 25 BNP supporters gathered in support of Coun Simpkins. A dozen police officers were also on patrol to keep the factions apart. Local businesses stepped in to offer free food, drink and white roses to the protesters.

Coun Simpkins arrived for the meeting just after 7pm to a rapturous applause from his group of supporters and a deafening roar of "out facist, out" from those opposed to his political views. They brandished placards reading "Stop the facist BNP", "No facists here" and "Neo facist no". Among the groups protesting were Respect, the Bristol branch of the National Union of Teachers and Defend The Asylum Seekers Campaign.

Helen Kaye, one of the protest organisers, who lives in Corsham, vowed to introduce a host of multicultural events to show the town is a tolerant place. She said: "I was absolutely horrified when I realised Corsham had a BNP councillor. He slipped in througn the back door and we must warn other towns before it is too late."

Corsham builder Andrew King, 21, turned up in support of Coun Simpkins. He said: "I voted BNP because I am fed up with immigrants coming over here and taking our jobs. I'm glad there's finally someone here to represent us."

Coun Simpkins, in his speech to his supporters, said: "Anyone who actually knows me will tell you, you couldn't find a more non-racist person than me. The BNP forced the elections in Corsham - that is democracy."

He added: "Being tolerant also means sometimes having to tolerate intolerance."

The event passed off without any arrests.

Gazette and Herald

BNP electoral rise halted by head-on anti-fascist campaigning

Trade union leaders, celebrities and community leaders respond to results

Anti-fascist campaigners today welcomed the failure of the BNP to win significantly more council seats, but warned against any complacency. They called on all anti-racists and democrats who oppose fascism to unite in a renewed effort to drive the BNP back. Despite standing more than double the number of candidates and anticipating a massive breakthrough, results so far show the BNP has only gained one net seat - from 49 to 50 seats.

The BNP lost eight of its nine council seats up for re-election - three in Burnley, and one in Calderdale, Stoke on Trent, Bradford, South Holland and Broxbourne. It gained three new seats in both Leicestershire and Stoke on Trent and one in Staffordshire, Bradford and Broxtowe.

In key BNP target areas such as Thurrock in Essex, Wakefield in Yorkshire and Dudley and Sandwell in the West Midlands amongst others, the BNP was blocked from winning seats. This was in large part due to campaigns that challenged head-on the BNP's racist lies about multiculturalism, immigrants, asylum seekers and Muslims and encouraged a vote instead for legitimate political parties.

The climate of heightened racism has allowed the BNP to win votes in a wider geographical area than ever before. Alarmingly, in Wales, the BNP polled high votes in some regions as a result of a particularly vicious campaign including a party political broadcast whipping up racism against migrants and refugees.

The BNP are anticipated to be defeated in Scotland. There was a cross-party campaign that was supported by trade unionists and community groups, to defend multiculturalism and challenge their targeting of asylum seekers and migrants.

Campaigners warned against complacency. The BNP will seek to advance onto the national political stage in the next couple of years. They will target the London assembly in 2008 and the 2009 European Parliamentary elections.

Ken Livingstone, Chair of Unite Against Fascism said:
The BNP is a criminal fascist organisation. The fact that they failed to make significant gains in these local elections shows that challenging their racism head on in concerted campaigning including all sections of society can make a difference. We must double our efforts to stop them being elected into the London Assembly next May. Challenging their racist lies and the political climate that has legitimised the BNP is essential to achieving this.

Brendan Barber , TUC General Secretary said:
"It looks like the BNP has failed to make the breakthrough that was feared and this is down in part to all the hard work undertaken by trade union members and anti-far right campaigners over the past few months. But one BNP councillor is a BNP councillor too many. We must continue to campaign against parties of the far right who seek to spread fear and intimidation and disrupt our many diverse communities across the UK ."

Richard Archer, Lead Singer of Hard-Fi said:
"The BNP have once again tried to use misinformation and distortion in an attempt to deceive the British public. Hard-Fi wish to state our continued opposition to the BNP and continued support for Love Music Hate Racism and the fight against racism and fascism."

Glyn Ford MEP said:
We have won this battle against the fascist BNP. The war against the poison of the BNP will to continue.

Dr. Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said:
The BNP is a racist, fascist organisation, which openly tries to whip up dangerous hostility towards Muslims for electoral gain. The MCB is proud to have worked with a diverse range of organisations in order to mobilise Muslim and non-Muslim voters across the country to vote against the BNP's policies of hatred and division. We pledge to redouble our efforts with Unite Against Fascism, and all fellow British people who value democracy, to ensure that fascism is defeated.

Grahame Smith, General Secretary of the Scottish TUC said:
"The people of Scotland have given a clear message today that they reject racism and fascism. The BNP and their vile politics of hatred, lies and misinformation, has not been allowed to infect Scottish politics".

Felicity Williams, Wales TUC General Secretary said:
"The Welsh electorate have sent a clear message to fascist groups and have resoundingly voted to keep the BNP out of national politics in Wales. It is a victory for democracy over extremists who peddle fear and suspicion and demonstrates that there is no place for them in Wales. The Wales TUC has been working with Assembly candidates across Wales to ensure that campaigning is free of any racial or religious prejudice, inviting them to commit to the development of Wales as a thriving, multi-faith, multi-cultural and multi-racial society.

Weyman Bennett, Joint National Secretary Unite Against Fascism said:
The BNP was halted by the thousands of anti fascist activist, trade unionists, and faith groups who fought against the lies of the Nazis. We cannot be complacent or rest on our laurels of victory. The fascist BNP stood on such a large geographical area to establish themselves in preparation for the euro elections. We now need a huge national campaign backed by local activity to make sure we continue to prevent the fascists from making a breakthrough.

Denis Fernando, Joint National Secretary of Unite Against Fascism said:
'This result shows that when the BNP is strongly opposed in a united broad campaign, it can be stopped. It has failed to make the breakthrough it craved in these elections, but along the way it has whipped up racism and division. It is no surprise that its largest vote in Wales was in Wrexham, where it ran a campaign attacking refugees and migrants, off the back of the riots of 2003 when asylum seekers were assaulted and racists were convicted for violence. The BNP's electoral failure this May must be used by all those who oppose fascism as a springboard to drive the fascist party back in the 2008 elections."

UAF

The BNP fields record number of candidates in long-term drive for Europe

The British National Party is putting forward a record 879 candidates in the forthcoming elections. This is more than double last year’s figure and higher than anything achieved by the National Front in its heyday in the 1970s.

However, it must be stressed that this is an organisational triumph for the BNP rather than a reflection that its membership or support has more than doubled in the past 12 months.

There are 744 BNP candidates in the borough and district council elections in England and seven in Scotland, another 76 standing for town and parish councils, 32 in the elections to the Scottish Parliament and 20 in the Welsh Assembly elections. This is a massive increase over the 363 candidates the BNP fielded in 2006, which itself was a big rise compared to the 221 in 2004. When Labour came to power in 1997 the BNP could only manage 53 council candidates.

The bulk of BNP candidates are in its traditional working-class heartlands of West Yorkshire, East Lancashire, the West Midlands and Essex. There are 207 candidates in total in the Yorkshire and Humber region, 118 in the North West and 127 in the West Midlands. There are complete BNP slates in Birmingham (40), Leeds (33), Sunderland (25) and Harrogate and Thurrock (both 16).

Other large concentrations of BNP candidates include Kirklees (22), Barnsley (18), Bradford (17) Coventry and Sedgefield (both 16), Sandwell (15) and Gateshead and Newcastle (both 13).

The North West has seen the biggest increase in the party’s traditional strongholds with a rise of 65 to 118 candidates (including one for a parish council). Burnley has 10 candidates, followed closely by Liverpool with nine, up from one in 2006, Wigan and Tameside, both with eight and Blackpool with seven.

The BNP is also standing in a number of areas that it has not previously contested, particularly in the East Midlands where there are 101 candidates in total. They include 14 for Charnwood Borough Council, 12 in Lincoln and 10 for Broxtowe Borough Council. However, despite the BNP euphoria over its candidate list, there are a number of key local authorities where the party’s failure to find enough candidates has reduced its chances of election. These include some of the most "at risk" areas where the BNP has achieved its highest votes in recent years. Despite boasting that it would field a full slate in Bradford there are only 17 candidates out of a possible 30, just one more than last year. There are only two more BNP candidates in Stoke-on-Trent this year compared to last, which is a great relief as there is hardly a ward where the party would not come close to winning. In Sandwell, the BNP only managed to find an extra six candidates over last year, again in an area where the party boasted it would achieve a full slate.

In 2006, the BNP averaged 33% in the wards it contested in Sandwell, 30% in Stoke-on-Trent and 26% in Bradford.

Despite an overall increase in candidates in the North West, the party has declined in two of its four strongest areas. In Oldham, where the BNP first emerged as a major force after the 2001 riots, it has only four candidates, one of whom is also standing for a parish council seat. The BNP has two candidates fewer in Blackburn (five compared to seven last year), which given the potential in the town will be a major disappointment for the party.

BNP strategy

This election marks a significant change of electoral strategy for the BNP. In previous years it has focussed on maximising its average vote so it could portray itself as a rising force in British politics. This has resulted in fighting wards where the party believed it would achieve its highest results.

This year, it has concentrated on putting forward as many candidates as possible. Given the wider political picture, most will be guaranteed a decent vote. In its key local authority areas the BNP will once again be looking for average votes of between 25% and 35%, with private predictions of 50-60 new councillors.

However, the real purpose of fielding so many council candidates has more to do with the next European elections in 2009, which are fought under proportional representation. Given the continuing decline of the UK Independence Party, the BNP will believe it can win European representation in most regions of England. With several MEPs the BNP would be transformed overnight, both financially and politically. Fielding 879 candidates now gives a large number of voters, including everyone in Wales and Scotland, a chance to support the BNP and over the next few years become firm BNP voters.

So what are the BNP’s chances of success this year? At the start of the year Searchlight identified 93 wards which we believed were at risk to some extent. Just over a third of them were deemed high risk. While some are now no longer considered to present such a threat, new concerns have emerged in other wards. The BNP itself has predicted that it will double its councillor base in May, which if one includes parish and town councillors is certainly achievable.

Although most people will judge the success or failure of the election campaign by the number of council victories the BNP achieves, the share of its vote over all the wards it contests is a far more significant marker in the long run. Last year the BNP won 33 council seats, 12 of which were in Barking & Dagenham. While most commentators saw this as a political breakthrough, the BNP still held only a tiny fraction of council seats in the country.

Much more important was the party’s 19.2% average vote.

There are still people in the political parties who try to dismiss the BNP as a fringe force with only isolated pockets of support. With over 14 million people being given the chance to vote for the BNP in these elections, this “fringe force” concept will be severely tested.

Searchlight is confident that the BNP will not make huge council breakthroughs but this will only be achieved if every anti-fascist and anti-racist activist puts that extra bit of activity in before 3 May. It is no good moaning about BNP success after the event if we have not done all in our power to prevent it happening.

Town hall politics

In another change in strategy, the BNP has put forward 76 candidates in town and parish council elections across the country, the bulk in the East Midlands and West Yorkshire.

Getting candidates elected to these councils is not too difficult as the mainstream political parties do not contest most of them and many are hardly contested at all. Indeed, the BNP has ten new town and parish councillors already after standing unopposed.

While town and parish councils have little real power, gaining seats on them is advantageous for the BNP. It increases the party’s number of councillors (as the BNP con-veniently fails to distinguish these from its councillors at borough/district/city level) and gives the BNP a credible base to challenge for borough/district/city elections in the future. It is this striving for greater respectability and normal-isation that is the real drive behind the BNP’s tactics.

In the West Yorkshire towns of Morley (part of Leeds) and Mirfield (part of Kirklees), the BNP is looking to take control of the town councils. The party has 12 and nine candidates respectively and can be assured of some success. Many of their opponents are unorganised “independents” who do not have the base to run coordinated campaigns. However, there may be a backlash from voters who are not used to having political parties so involved in a generally non-party environment.

Searchlight had feared strong BNP contests for control of Padiham Town Council (Burnley) and Keighley Town Council (Bradford) but these failed to materialise.

The BNP is likely to see many of its town and parish candidates elected in May but it is time the media began to view them separately from district and borough councillors. Several months ago Searchlight warned that the BNP was switching its focus to town and parish councils. Political parties and anti-fascists generally have neglected to get involved in these councils. Let us just hope that we are not punished for our oversight in towns such as Morley and Mirfield.

Searchlight

Maryport's Rock Against Racism

Last Sunday, April 1st, Maryport Against Racism organised it's first ever public event, Rock Against Racism and it was a great success.

A Sunday night is not the best night to hold a rock concert, as the club owners pointed out, but we still managed to attract an audience of about 100 people mainly local people. Even better was that while we expected the audience to be mainly young people it was people of all ages who turned up.

The purpose of the concert was to raise awareness about racism in general and racist political parties, the obvious one being the BNP, in particular which are once again organising and winning support. Judging by the amount of people who gave us their contact details to get more involved we were very successful in this.

The other important part of the night was that people enjoyed themselves and with a cheap bar and some excellent bands it’s safe to say most people had a good time.

The bands playing were punk rockers (in a teenage sort of way) Band Substance, Six String Revolution with acoustic protest songs, some classic rock with AWOL, Shore who sounded a lot like Oasis, more class rock from Ionian and finally Speeding Bee who were more like stand up comedians than a band.

I had a slot to do a short speech on racism and the arguments racists use in between AWOL and Shore which was well-received, even if I say so myself. I would post up a transcript of this but I ad-libbed most of it on the night.

Despite our various worries beforehand, that no-one would turn up on a Sunday night or that some of threats from people on the internet would actually be carried out for once, all the planning ensured that the event happened without a hitch.

Since this was our first public event we were all extremely happy with the result. We have reached a wider audience, mobilised more people in the run up to the local elections and gained a fair bit of publicity for ourselves. We would suggest that any local groups similar to ours tried out similar events because we put across a powerful anti-racist message, accompanied by a great soundtrack and fun while we did it.

(Thanks for the report, Duncan) :-)

Maryport Against Racism

GMB activists join campaign to defeat BNP in forthcoming local elections in Sandwell

Election campaign against BNP in Sandwell part of a co-coordinated push nationally to defeat racism and fascism on our streets and council chambers as Hope not Hate Big Red Bus prepares to visit Manchester, Keighley, Bradford, Dewsbury, Leeds, the set of Emmerdale Farm, Newcastle, Sunderland and Glasgow.

Well over 200 people from three political parties, ten trade unions, MP's, including John Cruddas MP for Dagenham who is standing in the Deputy leadership contest, local councillors, and many others helped deliver over 45,000 tabloid newspapers to the local community in Sandwell yesterday 1st April 2007, along with leaflets promoting Hope over the politics of division and hatred of the BNP.

Over 40 GMB members took part in this activity, some for the first time. These members also helped deliver en mass thousands of Searchlight newspapers in the afternoon with Billy Bragg to every local household next to the BNP former stronghold The Lagoon pub in the Princess End, which until recently was run by Jamie Lloyd the local BNP councillor.

The event was part of the Hope not Hate tour that is currently touring the country in the big red bus celebrating modern Britain. This features entertainment by the local all nations steel band and the legendary folk singer and committed anti racist Billy Bragg. Hope not Hate Big Red Bus now prepares to visit Manchester, Keighley, Bradford & Dewsbury, Leeds & the set of Emmerdale Farm, Newcastle & Sunderland and Glasgow (see notes to editors for dates).

Mick Rix, GMB National Officer said: "GMB was proud and privileged to have helped and be a part of organising a hugely successful anti fascist - anti racist day of action, in Sandwell. Our members were accompanied by the Hope Not Hate big red bus, 45,000 tabloid newspapers were delivered in record time, by 2pm. A free show by the All Nations Steel Band was put on for the shoppers in the Market and at ASDA in West Bromwich, where again over three thousand newspapers, leaflets, balloons and badges were given out.

Leaflets were delivered to households near the BNP former stronghold, The Lagoon pub, which until recently was run by Jamie Lloyd the local BNP councilor. This was recently closed down on the advice of the police after many violent attacks took place there. Apparently Mr. Lloyd who was running the pub at the time refused to hand over CCTV evidence of these attacks in which it is alleged there was a shooting and in a separate

incident a machete attack. In their submission to the councils licensing committee the police concluded: "That Lloyd had little or no concern for the safety of his customers in general". Which raises further questions over the BNP claims to be a party of law and order.

The Lloyd family is no stranger to violence, Lloyd's sons have been continually in trouble with the police, and one is currently in prison serving a three year term. "

GMB

Hope not Hate update: Day eight

This weekend was always going to be some of our important days of the campaign. Across the country activists were distributing anti-BNP literature. From Bradford to Luton, Burnley to Lincoln, hundreds of people were out.

Arguably the two biggest challenges we face in the forthcoming elections are in Sandwell and Stoke-on-Trent, where the BNP averaged 33% and 30% of the votes in the seats they contested in 2006. It was because of days of actions in these two areas that the Hope not Hate bus has taken a less than direct route from London to Scotland. Having travelled up to Sheffield and then across to Manchester and Liverpool we then headed back south to the West Midlands.

It almost got worse. The Dancing on Ice stars were supposed to join the bus in Birmingham but for reasons beyond our control this was not possible. An alternative date was given for the Saturday. So, as we left Birmingham on the Friday night we thought the plan was to go to Stoke-on-Trent and then head back south to Birmingham and then Sandwell before continuing the journey north. This plan was certainly testing the patience of our normally relaxed and accommodating driver. Fortunately another cancellation from the Dancing on Ice stars meant we reverted to our orginial plan which was to spend a day in Stoke-on-Trent.

A changeover of Mirror photographer and Ros having a day off meant that it was a slightly depleted team that headed off that morning. Our first stop was to Stoke City's Britannia Stadium where we met former Stoke player Terry Conway and Irish author Don Mullin. The pair had been drawn together by the legendary Gordon Banks. Terry was part of the 1972 FA Cup winning team alongside Banks, while Don is just written a biography of the man he describes as his hero.

Back onto the A50 we headed into Coalville, a former mining area which has fallen on hard times in recent years. We were later to learn that the area once had the nickname of the 'United Nations' due to the workers who moved into the area to work down the pits from across Britain and Eastern Europe. Anyway, today we were attending a Hope not Hate anti-racist fun day organised by the local Kids Zone project. Over 200 children and young people attended at some stage during the day. They were treated to a host of great activities, from a DJ school to a rodeo, face painting to a steel band.

A couple of miles away more serious activity was taking place. Almost 100 people came out for the Stoke-on-Trent day of action organised by local anti-BNP group NorSCARF and Searchlight. Over 10,000 copies of the Searchlight newspaper were distributed during the day, with most of the work concentrating on the BNP heartland in Stoke South. The day was rounded off by a performance a steel band and Billy Bragg, who had generously given his weekend to the campaign.

Stoke-on-Trent has been a major BNP target for several years and campaigning against them has taken its toll on many activitists during that period. However, the success of today has given new and seasoned campaigners a renewed lease of energy which they are determined to make the most of over the next few weeks.

The Watson household in West Bromwich East provided the evening's entertainment, which given the excesses of much of the tour was a welcome respite.

Hope not Hate