Comments on: Be Nicer, Please

By: Terryfitzpatrick

Terryfitzpatrick — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 11:01:57 +0000

I have only just come across this site and recognize the youthful vitality that I had as a young anti fascist thirty five years ago. I am sceptical of just how useful the kind of protests that we have seen in Leeds were. Because UAF is controled by the SWP it hasn’t moved on from the tactics of the late seventies and early eighties, waving placards and shouting. What the protests might also have done is to have given Griffin and Collett grounds for appeal in that they have given out leaflets urging the jury to convict, somebody needs to put their brain in gear. I am campaigning for a memorial to my friend Blair Peach who was killed by the police at Southall in west London twenty six years ago april coming. A met policeman smashed his skull in when they launched an attack on us while they were protecting a National Front march that we were trying to stop. He is now almost forgotten by the anti fascist movement and I am looking for support for a plaque in a library in East London where he taught handicapped children. I have just returned from investigating people trafficking from Africa into Europe and my first article can be viewed on www searchlightmagazine.com. Put Blairs name into search engine, there are a number of articles about that very violent time. Please publish my email addresswhich is hosted in Spain and is secure. Terry Fitzpatrick

By: Dan Aberdeen

Dan Aberdeen — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 14:34:35 +0000

Hey Lou
it may not be relevant, but I broke hand playing rugby on wednesday. Love the site. I would have been there – but I was shivering in aberdeen pretending to do student things. Boo suck to the BNP!!!

By: louisa

louisa — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 13:20:47 +0000

Badmat:

1) I’m not an expert at guessing numbers so perhaps the thousand is wrong – but there were more people (I think) at the protest than at the rally: we were really quite squished together at the top end. It is hard to get a perspective on that sort of thing when you’re in the middle of it though.
2) As I mention above, I suspect I’m overly harsh towards the SWP because of my previous involvement with them (about 7/8 years ago) and I tend to use the acronym as shorthand for everything I don’t like about the militant left (which is wrong but, bah, they scarred me pretty bad). Perhaps the people I knew weren’t representative of the rest of the party – I *did* go to a week long conference though so I met quite a lot of people and I’m not just judging the whole party on a dozen people from the local branch. I think my point still stands though – even if the speakers were from the party itself – canvassing while the speakers were doing their thing just seems rude to me. It seems rude to the speakers and distracts the audience from what they’re saying. But as I said, maybe I’m just overly sensitive.

Thanks for your comment :)

By: badmat

badmat — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 12:27:58 +0000

I had to be in work at 9 so couldn’t make the morning event: did hear the student march as it went past Leeds Met and very impressive it sounded. I did make the lunchtime rally and that was very impressive as well. Two points:
1) not really convinced by the figure of a 1000 (or more) people there: certainly nowhere near that at the rally.
2)and despite their over-exaggeration gene the SWP ought be defended just a bit, yes they might be annoying, but they played a central role in organising and building the event. It would have been smaller and probbly less dynamic without them. Some of the best speakers at the rally were from the SWP (even if they don’t like to say so nowadays): Yunus Baksh at the end was a star!

By: Snowball

Snowball — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 00:49:23 +0000

It sounds a great demo – I couldn’t make it as I was at work unfortunately but have been on previous ones.

There is another report of it, which estimates almost 1,000 anti-fascists protesting, here: http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=7724
and another bloggers comments here: http://www.introoksbyism.blogspot.com

By: John Leach » Blog » Leeds Unite Against Fascism Protest

John Leach » Blog » Leeds Unite Against Fascism Protest — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 23:17:09 +0000

[...] People came together in Leeds on Wednesday to Unite Against Fascism. We protested outside Leeds Crown Court where Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, was up on charges of inciting racial hatred (well, the preliminary hearing). Louisa has written a much more in-depth commentary of the day, go read it. But in summary, it was a very positive day and we outnumbered the BNP supporters almost ten to one. [...]