We can't ignore fascism

Anti-fascist campaigners in Nottingham and Harrow are preparing to counter two demonstrations by the racist thugs of the English Defence League (EDL). EDL members have been photographed giving Nazi salutes as they stoke race hatred across Britain. But everywhere they have attempted to gather, they have been met by protests. Unite Against Fascism (UAF) activists in Nottingham have already given out 10,000 leaflets calling for a show of unity to make sure the EDL thugs cannot march. Campaigners hope that the Love Music Hate Racism gigs in the city in recent weeks will have delivered the message to a new and wider audience. Meanwhile, in Harrow, the local UAF group is seeking to build on its successful protest against the EDL back in September, which brought thousands together to defend Harrow central mosque. They are preparing to defend their multi-racial community once again.

Over 100 people joined a Unite Against Fascism rally outside Southern Cemetery in Manchester in late November to protest against the desecration, for a third time, of Muslim gravestones. All of the 20 headstones toppled last week were in the Muslim section of the cemetery. Police are treating the desecration as a race hate crime. Local MP John Leech joined the vigil alongside Christians, Jews, Muslims, trade unionists and local residents. “This attack is not an act of mindless violence,” Val Stevens, deputy leader of Manchester City Council, told the rally, “Those that did it knew exactly what they were doing. And we all know that they are a tiny, tiny minority in this city.” Needless to say evidence has proven funding of this white-supremacist terrorism from the British National Party, who also fund the National Front; Griffin himself was a national organiser for the Nazi NF in the eighties and early nineties. Maybe we should be shouting louder to drown out the message of fear, intolerance and division - hope not hate, fascism, not democracy