Tonight saw the anti-fascist organisations in Sussex complete a hat-trick, when the BNP cancelled their Christmas party in Crawley and hastily re-arranged the party in Berkshire instead.  This followed events in Hastings and Brighton & Hove this week where BNP meetings were cancelled after demonstrations.

Their plan had been for BNP members to meet in a car park in Crawley to get directions to the secret venue for their party, but these plans were thwarted in two ways.  Firstly the secret venue was made aware that the booking they had was for the BNP using a false name and cancelled the booking.  Secondly, local anti-fascist campaigners gathered in the car park for the benefit of those partygoers who had not got the message about the change of plans.

Having shown that this corner of Sussex does not want to be associated with the BNP, the protesters heard some short speeches from local MP, Laura Moffatt, national LMHR organiser, Lee Bellingham, and representatives from Wealden UAF, the national UAF, National Union of Students and the trade unions.

Wealden UAF would like to thank the NUS, trade unions, LMHR, UAF and all the other organisations and individuals who turned out to show their support tonight.

Stop the Fascist BNP's South-East Xmas jolly

THIS SATURDAY 13th DECEMBER
GATHER 6pm, B&Q CAR PARK, London Road, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 6WD

PEACE AND GOODWILL TO ALL IN THE FESTIVE SEASON – BRING CANDLES, BANNERS, WHISTLES AND FESTIVE SONGS

Anti-fascists in Sussex have already stopped two BNP meetings/socials going ahead in our area this week – they had to cancel their Hastings meeting on Monday after the venue pulled following pressure from local LMHR supporters, the local MP and local councillors. Then on Wednesday a magnificent 300 people turned out to occupy the planned redirection point for the relaunch of a Brighton & Hove BNP branch – the BNP have postponed this meeting.  Join us on Saturday to make a hat-trick of triumphs for everyone opposed to racism and fascism in Sussex.

Called by Unite Against Fascism and Love Music Hate Racism, supported by National Union of Students, PCS London& SE Region, Medway Trades Council, Merton Trades Council, NASUWT, Kingston/Sussex/Kent Uni's NUS; Brighton/Hastings/Portsmouth/East Kent/Surrey LMHR groups; Kent/Brighton/Wealden/West Sussex Coast UAF groups; Worthing Against Racism, Kent UNISON, Sussex Univ UNISON

WWW.UAF.ORG.UK  0207 833 4916

WWW.LOVEMUSICHATERACISM.COM  020 7801 2781 // 07838 156

Crawley News story

Thanks to somebody getting hold of the BNP's membership list and posting it on the Internet, we now know something about the probably levels of their membership. Posting lists of individuals' personal details on the web is of dubious morality and legality so we are not linking to it, nor reproducing any of the personal information here, but we will do a bit of statistical analysis.  (Anybody who really wants to see the list could probably find it easily enough without our help anyway.  They may even find the spreadsheet version that we used for this analysis)

It looks like the list produced is fairly accurate and quite up-to-date.  Certainly everybody who we know of appears on the list, although it appears from comments elsewhere that the list also contains non-members - those who have left the party, those who never joined but made donations, children of party members who may not even know they are on the list, etc.  The point is that this list probably represents the maximum membership and real figures could well be lower.

In the RH10 and RH11 postcode areas there are 53 names.  Three of them live in places like Crawley Down and Copthorne so there are 50 'members' in Crawley itself.   Of those 50, 14 are tagged as activists.

The spread of members is as follows:

So, Furnace Green supplies 22% of the BNP's membership in Crawley.  Looking in a bit more detail we see that 8 of those names come from just two households -so there are only five houses containing BNP members in Furnace Green.

Looking further afield we can see that just four families represent nearly a third of the BNP membership in town (32%= 16 people).  Apart from Furnace Green no neighbourhood contains more than half a dozen members, and there is not a single member in the whole of Maidenbower.

That is the good news: the British National Party do not actually have the level of support they would like us to think that they have.  Through a combination of fanaticism and hard work by a few of those members,  imported literature in large amounts, and possibly help from neighbouring towns they do try, and largely succeed in making it look as if they have more support than they actually do.

And that is the bad news.  They may have fewer members than any of the three main parties in the town, but those few are extremely efficient, extremely committed, extremely effectiv…  and just extreme really.

The rest of us can take some comfort in the confirmation that BNP membership is a lot lower than they would want us to think, but we must not let that be an excuse for complacency: what they lack in numbers they make up for with effort.

Some similar analysis of other parts of the Wealden area to follow.

The results for wards in Reigate & Banstead and Crawley where the BNP were standing are as follows:

That is 15% in 5 wards and between 7.2% and 11.5% in the other 5. 

Note: the BNP vote and percentage for Merstham has been corrected. The perils of copy & paste and coding tables by hand in HTML had caused the West Green numbers to be repeated there.

Some reminders for the next couple of weeks:

1.
Its local elections on May 1st.  Its important to vote anyway, but if you are in one of the 10 wards in Reigate & Banstead or Crawley with a BNP candidate it is especially important to go out and vote for any other candidate.  Every voter who stays at home makes the BNP proportion of the vote look higher!

2.
Love Music Hate Racism are holding their free carnival in Victoria Park, London on Sunday, April 27th. Full details at www.lovemusichateracism.com.  It should be a great day out and its only a short train ride from the Wealden area.

3.
If you can't get to the carnival you can still show your support by texting LMHR to 84424 which will donate £3 to help meet the costs of holding the carnival.

4.
Its never a bad time to join us and help to keep fascist parties out of the Wealden area.

In case anyone needs reminding, the full line-up on Sunday is:

• The Good The Bad The Queen
• Jerry Dammers & RAR Allstars
• Drew McConnell (Babyshambles) + friends feat v/special guests
• Hard-Fi
• Akala
• Roll Deep presents… inc Wiley, Tinchy Stryder, Jammer
• Jay Sean
• Get Cape Wear Cape Fly
• Poly Styrene (X-ray Specs)
• Bashy
• Natty
• The View
• Patrick Wolf
• Paddingtons
• The Thirst
• The Tribunes
• Rugrats
• Statik
• Target
• Nihal
• Don Letts
• Ace n Vis
• Dennis Bovell's  London Lovers'
• Rock Crew
• London Community Gospel Choir
• Mistajam + PA's tbc
• Aruba Red (PA)
• Tommy Def v King Bats
• Target & Karnage
• Dubstep slot with Skream & Benga
• Old skool jungle with DJ Hype & Daddy Earl
• DJ Nihal
• Heartless Crew
• Adelaide McKenzie
• Hoodstars
• Ny
• Snakeyman / No.Lay / Lil Rascals / Stylo G
• Mecca 2 Medina
• Nathan 'Flutebox' Lee

Despite most politically-active people having their own election campaigns to worry about and heavy rain and hail, the Wealden UAF were out in force today talking to voters and handing out leaflets at shopping parades in Ifield, Bewbush and West Green and delivering leaflets through doors in Gossops Green and Ifield West.

The message is getting across.  Several new faces were seen, as those who are not normally involved in politics and do not support any specific party turned up to help increase the anti-BNP vote. Our aim is to be able to have a presence in all 10 wards where the BNP are standing in this area simultaneously, and that is looking increasingly feasible.

In the Crawley area, where we were today, there is a chronic problem with low turnouts at election time - a situation that the BNP always thrive on.  They seek out places with a low turnout where their small hardcore vote, plus the few extra votes they get at first as novelty candidates can look like a high proportion.  As we have seen elsewhere in the country, they can succeed where voter apathy lets them and we are asking for nothing more than that the overwhelming majority who reject the BNP actually vote to register that rejection.

Such tactics have worked in the past.  Consistent campaigning has seen the BNP vote fall in Southgate. So much so that this year the BNP are not bothering to contest the election in Southgate despite two of their candidates living there!  They are now relying on attracting votes in areas where they will be seen as a novelty like Pound Hill South and Bewbush or in Tilgate where they stood for the first time last year.  A good effort to increase the turnout in those areas will let them see they are not wanted there either.

There are many thousands of people who are absolutely opposed to the BNP but do not have the voting habit, and our aim is to persuade them to use their vote.

See the links above for how to get involved in one of the fastest-growing campaigns in the area.

Wealden UAF will be active in Crawley and Reigate & Banstead boroughs during the 2008 elections.

If, like us, you are concerned about the increasing activity of the BNP in our area there are many ways you can help out:

• Deliver some leaflets (contact us for more details)
• Come along with us when we go out talking to voters (contact us for more details)
• Join the UAF and use your skills to help us.
• Make a donation and help to cover the cost of our leaflet
• VOTE!  We don't care if you vote for a Liberal Democrat, Conservative, Labour, Independent, Green or Monster Raving Loony candidate but if you disagree with BNP's policies make sure you use your vote and don't stay at home. It is not too late to get a postal vote if you need one - contact your town hall for details.

The nominations are now in for the May 2008 local elections, and in Crawley the BNP will be standing in six wards:

• Tilgate
• West Green
• Pound Hill South
• Ifield
• Gossops Green
• Bewbush

There will be some UAF activity in those wards before the election, delivering leaflets urging electors to use their vote against the BNP.  Anyone who would like to help out can contact us via the contact page.

(Full list of nominations is here) 

There will be a general meeting of the Wealden UAF on October 3rd.  This meeting is open to all members, but non-members are welcome to come along and join on the night. (Membership is a reasonable £5, or £2 for unwaged plus any discretionary donations)

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the way forward for the organisation in the longer term, and a proposal to do some awareness-raising leafletting in Horsham and Redhil.  Since then the BNP have announced a candidate in October's by-election in Horsham.

There will also be an opportunity to elect a new member to the executive committee as there is a vacancy.

7:30pm Wednesday October 3rd
St John's Church Hall
Town Centre
Crawley

St John's is right next to County Mall, Crawley bus station and Crawley railway station.

The Wealden UAF joined the Crawley Campaign Against Racism to man a stall at the Crawley Mela on July 28th/29th at the Hawth.

The CCAR is an organisation with a long and distinguished history, which has affiliated to the UAF, and which the Wealden UAF actively encourages Crawley-based members to join. Members from both organisations were at the Mela to explain their aims and welcome anyone who wanted to sign up as a new member.

Thank you to the many people who visited our stall at the Crawley Mela. The photographs in the Crawley Observer on August 1st showed how many visitors and participants at the Mela were wearing Unite/UAF badges and stickers.

If anybody has their own photographs of the UAF stall or of people wearing the badges and would be happy for us to use those photographs on this site or in printed material please let us know. We will, of course give full attribution for any photos used if requested.

(Thanks to CCAR for the photo above)