This sounds like a good idea.

Those nice people at Love Music Hate Racism have got together with the NME, the NUT, the NUS, and loads of musicians to produce a double-CD.

The first disc is attached to this week's NME and the second disc can be downloaded for free.

Anyone who downloads the second disc can also download artwork for the CD itself (same link as above) and they can also get a sleeve for it free. Sort of.

The sleeves can be ordered in bulk by Student Unions to give away to members, or anyone else (schools, trade unions, etc.) can order some for a donation to cover the admin and postage costs. All the details are here, along with posters and leaflets which can be downloaded and printed.

If any unions, schools or other organisations in the Wealden area intend to get some of these CD sleeves to distribute in schools, colleges, youth clubs or elsewhere let us know - we can give it a mention here, and if we are able to get any ourselves it will help us if we know of places which are already covered.

Why is this happening? This is what LMHR say about it:

The CD idea came about following the fascist British National Party (BNP) attempts to recruit school students with their racist poison and amid reports from Channel 4 among others of a significant rise in racist attacks and abuse inside schools. The CD has huge potential in taking the LMHR message to a huge audience, getting many new people involved in the campaign to stop the fascist BNP from dividing our communities and schools ahead of next year's local council and London Assembly elections - but only with YOUR help.

How about making a donation to LMHR on our behalf to cover the cost of some CD sleeves for us to give away?  Or how about just making a donation to us to cover the costs of this sort of activity?  Or how about joining us at the same time?

At the very least, think about getting the NME this week.  Artists on the CDs include The Enemy, Lethal Bizzle, The View, Hard-Fi, MIA, Bloc Party, Carbon/Silicon, Babyshambles, The Charlatans, Dirty Pretty Things, Manu Chao, Biffy Clyro, New Young Pony Club, Billy Bragg, Maximo Park, and Nine Black Alps. I am listening to the downloaded second CD now and its pretty darn good.

#1 of an occasional series.

From Stop The BNP (with thanks to Bob Piper for bringing this to a wider audience - welcome back Bob!)

BNP councillor to be removed for non-attendance

The British National Party is about to lose yet another councillor, Searchlight can exclusively reveal.

James Lloyd, BNP councillor for Princes End ward on Sandwell council, has not attended a meeting in six months, which means that he will be removed from office. We hope the council will not delay in writing to Lloyd to inform him of the situation. The usual procedure would be to give him seven days to prove that he has in fact attended a meeting. If he cannot, and Searchlight, which monitors BNP attendance and performance, believes that is the case, then he will lose his seat.

Not a single meeting in six months…  so much for representing the people.  It is almost a dictionary definition of "wasted vote". 

Lloyd has been a major embarrassment to the BNP in the Black Country. He stood on a platform of insisting that parents be held responsible for the bad behaviour of their children. However, his two sons have regularly been in trouble with the law. One was named and shamed by the police as one of the worst young offenders in the area.

Is the BNP motto "Do as I say, not as I do"?  A typical trait of totalitarian regimes throughout history.

Earlier this year Searchlight revealed that police had objected to the renewal of Lloyd's pub licence after a series of violent incidents at his premises. They including a shooting incident in which Lloyd himself was the target. The BNP councillor had repeatedly refused to cooperate with the police.

A relevant quote from the BNP literature in the recent Holbrook West by-election "Anti-social behaviour - zero tolerance. BNP councillors will ensure the Police increase their patrols to stop anti-social behaviour and drug-related crime. Let's make the criminals live in fear - not law-abiding citizens"

They did not take the time to explain how running the sort of pub most citizens, law-abiding or otherwise, would live in fear of helps in the fight against either crime or fear of crime.  Was the repeated refusal to co-operate with the Police their roundabout way of ensuring the Police increase their patrols?

"Say anything to get elected. Do nothing after getting elected"  That would be a better headline in the leaflets.

And then there were two …

Last week Simon Smith, a councillor in neighbouring Great Bridge ward, formally acknowledged that he is no longer part of the BNP group on the council. Smith, who was the BNP group leader until he resigned from the party two months ago, had been elected in 2006 with the highest BNP vote in the country.

This leaves the BNP with only two councillors in the borough and 47 in the country, down from 50 immediately after the May elections.

Three down, forty-seven to go! 

The results in Thursday's by-election were:

(A Lib Dem gain from Conservative)

There is a report on the election at the Lancaster UAF website. 

Wealden UAF are disappointed whenever the BNP get any votes, let alone more than 10%, but there is a feeling that it could have been a lot worse.  The BNP traditionally get a high vote the first time they stand in an area, and the low turnouts in most district council by-elections. 

Combine those factors with the fact that there has been no organised anti-fascist activity in the area previously while the BNP have been working in Horsham for a year or two and the fact that their candidate lived in the area and was presentable and they will have been hoping for and expecting a better result.

Without our efforts to encourage a higher turnout there might have been fewer votes for the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, giving the BNP a higher proportion of the vote.

There is a link in the sidebar to a poem called The Hangman by Maurice Ogden.

It is quite a long poem, but well worth a read.  it is a greatly extended version of the famous quote by Pastor Martin Niemöller:

In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . .
And by that time there was no one left to speak up

In today's G2 section of the Guardian there is a very effective article by Billy Bragg, in which he recalls how the original Rock Against Racism movement inspired him and how the current Love Music Hate Racism concept can do the same for potential future Billy Braggs.

A few selective quotes:

"Back in the late 70s, I was working in an office, a place of casual racism and homophobia. I never spoke out against it because I felt I was in a minority and didn't want the grief. On the streets, the National Front were marching through immigrant neighbourhoods, stirring up trouble and trying to divide communities."

This is the thing to remember for everyone out there: you are not alone.  As Billy Bragg found out.

"When I arrived at the rally, in east London, I was amazed to see 100,000 young people just like me - one for every vote the National Front had won in the council elections the year before. I came away with a strong sense that this was where my generation was going to make its stand. Just as youth in the 50s had marched against the bomb and the longhairs of the 60s had opposed the Vietnam war, we were going to define ourselves in opposition to discrimination in all its forms."

And the happy ending:

Well, it was the music of the Clash that got me to the Rock Against Racism carnival. However, it wasn't the songs they played that day, or the speeches that were made from the stage that changed my world. It was being in that audience. I went to work the next day determined to speak up against the racists, confident in the knowledge that I was not alone.

Just by existing we are giving reassurance to those who are not racist or homophobic and giving them the confidence of knowing that they are not alone, and are not even in a minority. When Wealden UAF organise an LMHR concert at some time in the future everyone who attends will be making a difference.  You do not have to be performing, organising or making speeches. Just be being in the audience you can make an impact and may be unwittingly inspiring somebody.

(Photo by neil365 distributed under a Creative Commons license)

This morning a group of activists from the Wealden UAF delivered leaflets in the Holbrook West area of Horsham where there is a by-election this week.

Obviously there is not much personal contact when delivering leaflets, but the few people we spoke to were very supportive.  Some even asked for extra leaflets which they could use to encourage their own local organisations to affiliate with the UAF. 

While out, members encountered a small group of BNP supporters canvassing door-to-door.  They are taking this election seriously, trying to take advantage of the traditional low turnouts in by-elections in order to inflate their own position, demonstrating the importance of everyone else taking the election just as seriously.

This is why the Wealden UAF message to voters is simply

"Vote.  Do not stay at home, but use your vote against the BNP and for any other party which is not a front for a fascist organisation."

From Friday's West Sussex County Times:

Anti-BNP initiative

Anti-British National Party campaigners staged a protest in Horsham's Carfax on Saturday.The rally was led by Ray Chapman, Labour candidate for the Holbrook West by-election, and Horsham Labour parliamentary candidate Andrew Skudder.The initiative was backed by local anti-BNP group Wealden Unite against Fascism who campaign against BNP activity in West Sussex.
Mr Chapman said the protest was well received by Horsham residents.
He said he was particularly proud to stand against the BNP in Holbrook, where he has been resident for over 20 years.
"I'm very concerned to see the increased activity by the BNP in Horsham." he added.

While there is, apparently, no such thing as bad publicity there are a few points to note here:

1. It was not a protest
2. It was not a rally
   We were just talking to voters, reminding them of the importance of voting in elections, and letting them take leaflets from us.
3. Andrew Skudder is not the parliamentary candidate for Horsham Labour.
   Until an election is called there are no candidates; only prospective parliamentary candidates, and even that is subject to endorsement by Labour's NEC.
4. The event was not backed by Wealden UAF
   It was organised by us, albeit at the request of Ray Chapman and his colleagues in Horsham LP because they were unable to join in with the UAF's by-election activity on Oct 6th.
5. Wealden UAF does not just campaign against BNP activity in West Sussex
   It only covers the Northern part of West Sussex and, in the absence of any other groups, it also covers parts of Kent, East Sussex and Surrey

The article is unfortunate, in that it gives the false impression that the Wealden UAF is supporting the Labour party.  While many members are indeed Labour members we do support that party, there are members of of other parties and some who belong to no party at all.

The Wealden UAF is scrupulously careful to not promote any one party over the others, regardless of any personal loyalties of individual members.

Following the previous week's sighting of two BNP members trying to drum up support in Horsham, last weekend the Wealden Unite Against Fascism campaign were out in rather larger numbers.

The UAF members spoke to many people in the Carfax and the reception was very positive for the first event organised by the new Wealden UAF.  The BNP thrive when there is no organised opposition and they know it too, if the reaction so far is anything to go by.

Next week there is a by-election in the Holbrook West ward of Horsham and the UAF is asking everybody there to not stay at home, but to get out and use their vote to support any party which supports the UAF's aims to oppose Fascism in all its forms.