Stop the racists in Harrow this Sunday

Anti-fascists from across London are set to come to Harrow this Sunday to defend the local mosque from racists for the second time this year.

A group called "Stop the Islamisation of Europe" - which brands all Muslims in Britain as "extremists" - is planning to march on Harrow Central Mosque on Sunday 13 December.

This group, together with the racist thugs of the English Defence League, tried to march on Harrow mosque on 11 September this year. But they were blocked by a magnificent turnout of 2,000 anti-fascists who defended the mosque and prevented the racists from getting near it.

Nevertheless there is no room for complacency. Despite being consistently outnumbered by anti-fascists, the EDL have been getting more aggressive at their anti-Muslim demonstrations.

Last Saturday in Nottingham they attempted to break through police lines and attack the UAF demo. UAF activists in Leicester and Hull received threatening phone calls from the EDL in the run-up to the Nottingham demo.

We need a similar show of solidarity this Sunday to show the racists that they are not wanted in multicultural Harrow. Assemble 12 noon, Sunday 13 December, on the pavement outside Harrow Civic Centre, opposite the mosque on Station Road (nearest tube: Harrow & Wealdstone).

What to do next....

YouGov pols taken after Griffins appearance on Question Time show one in five voters considering voting BNP in future! The fascist all-white party claimed that a record 3,000 people had registered to join its ranks in the biggest recruitment night in... its history.

AS A MATTER OF URGENCY - JOIN Unite Against Fascism (UAF): please send us your £10 joining fee using our secure online payment facility http://www.uaf.org.uk/ and recruit 5 friends to join UAF too.

As Albert Einstein (who fled Nazi Germany in 1933, after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and very quickly legalized discrimination and persecution of Jews). said - the world can become an evil place not because of those that are evil but because of those who do nothing

It is vital that the anti-fascist movement steps up in response to meet the challenges of the Nazi BNP and its racist fellow travellers in the English Defence League. Unite Against Fascism has shown that we can be a rallying point for anyone who wants to take a stand against the Nazis and racists.

That's why we're appealing for people to do two things:

• Join UAF today for £10 and help build the resistance needed to stop the BNP and EDL in their tracks.
• Forward this email and help recruit 5 others to join UAF too.

To join UAF today, or to make a one-off donation, use our secure online payment facility at www.tinyurl.com/UAFdonate. Put "membership" or "donation" in the message box as appropriate.

Alternatively you can make your contribution through a regular monthly standing order by downloading our form, completing it and returning it to us at UAF, PO Box 36871, London WC1X 9XT.

Nazi Nick on QT

Yesterday saw a fantastic response from anti-fascists around the country. Over a thousand protesters from many different backgrounds layed seige to the BBC in anger at the disgusting decision to legitimise racism by allowing Nick Griffin on to the flagship show. Around 25 UAF protesters even managed to push past police lines and make it into the BBC buildings.


Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, described it yesterday saying "The protest was superb. It showed the scale of opposition to the fascists and it was everything Griffin and the Nazi BNP hate".

"We have exposed the Nazis and the liberal arguments of the BBC. The BBC were going for ratings and the BNP were going for racism. But we have laid down the basis tonight for a mass anti-fascist movement that can take the fight forward."

While we should be under no illusions, with Griffin's appearance giving the fascist BNP a boost and confidence to racist thugs to come out on the streets, much as the EDL have done since the Euro elections, yesterday's superb protest shows the willingness of ordinary people to resist fascism and racism.

Yesterday shows that now more than ever we can build an anti-nazi movement that can smash the BNP and show Nazi Nick that the politics of hate and division are not welcome in our society.

www.uaf.org.uk

Shame on the BBC for inviting Nazi BNP leader Nick Griffin onto Question Time

The BBC has confirmed that it is inviting Nick Griffin, leader of the fascist British National Party and a man with a criminal conviction for denying Hitler's Holocaust, onto its flagship Question Time programme on Thursday 22 October in London.

Unite Against Fascism condemns the BBC for extending an invitation to a Nazi. We are calling a demonstration outside Question Time at the BBC's Wood Lane centre to show our opposition to Griffin and the shameful decision to grant him a platform.

We encourage all anti-fascists in the London area to come to the demonstration and to apply for tickets to the Question Time audience. We are also encouraging people around the country to organise protests on the day outside their local BBC offices.

Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of UAF, said: "The BNP is not a normal, democratic party. It is a Nazi party whose political agenda is to destroy democracy and wipe out ethnic minorities in Britain. By granting Griffin a primetime platform the BBC is in practice helping to legitimise the BNP and its politics of race hatred."

Sabby Dhalu, joint secretary of UAF, said: "We unequivocally oppose the BBC's decision to invite the fascist BNP onto Question Time. Giving fascists a prominent platform simply encourages their thugs on the streets to engage in racist, Islamophobic and homophobic violence."

John Denham is right to condemn the English Defence League as an anti-Muslim hate group

John Denham, the secretary of state for communities, is right to compare anti-Muslim hate groups such as the English Defence League (EDL) to the fascists that marched against Jews in the 1930s.

The EDL has proved by its actions that it is an organisation of racist thugs intent on whipping up bigotry and hatred against Muslims in Britain. Photographs and video footage of EDL supporters taken in Birmingham earlier this month clearly shows them making Nazi "seig heil" salutes and chanting disgusting racist slogans.

The latest EDL attempt at intimidating Muslims comes today (Sunday 13 September) when the organisation attempts to disrupt the annual Al Quds Day demonstration in London. The Greater London Authority has disgracefully capitulated to EDL threats and handed London's Trafalgar Square over to its thugs.

Unite Against Fascism condemns the EDL and its affiliated groups and calls people to show solidarity with Muslims in Britain currently under sustained attack from racists, bigots and fascists.

As Ken Livingstone, chair of Unite Against Fascism and former mayor of London, said last week in response to the EDL's aborted march on Harrow Central Mosque: "If anyone were to call a demonstration outside a synagogue or church, this would rightly provoke a national outcry.

"There should be exactly the same response from the government, politicians, all religious faiths and the media to the call for a demonstration outside a mosque. The only possible meaning of this event is a protest against Muslims and Islam – a religion followed by more than a billion people in the world.

"People should wake up to the fact the protests outside mosques are taking us back to the fascism of the 1930s when fascist thugs marched against Jews and their places of worship. These demonstration should be condemned and banned on the grounds of blatant religious discrimination and a threat to public order."

Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of UAF, added: "In the 1970s the National Front used to organise racist demonstrations against black people through 'anti-mugging' front groups. Today the EDL and other racist and fascist organisations use the issue of 'Islamic extremism' in exactly the same way.

"Nobody should be taken in by the EDL's pretence that these marches and rallies are not aimed at whipping up race hatred against Muslims and Asians. Their 'protests' are racist demos and we should not allow them to take place."

Article taken from ww.uaf.org.uk

Say no to the fascist BNP on Question Time

We are appalled by the BBC's decision to invite Nick Griffin, leader of the fascist British National Party, onto its flagship Question Time programme. Griffin is a noxious racist and neo-Nazi. He has a criminal conviction for incitement to racial hatred for publishing an antisemitic magazine that denied the Holocaust.

The BBC justifies its actions by claiming that the BNP should be treated just like any other party. But no other party has a "whites only" membership policy. No other party burns golliwogs at its "family festivals". No other party has a history of deep involvement in Nazi politics and supporters with a record of organising racist violence against minorities.

The BNP is not a democratic political party. It is a fascist organisation that should be shunned by wider civil society. As a publicly funded body, the BBC in particular has a duty to oppose racism. Black, Asian, Jewish and LGBT people pay the licence fee too. It is their rights to live free of hate that the BBC should be protecting, not those of BNP bigots.

Like all fascist organisations the BNP craves respectability and pretends to be democratic in order to further its real agenda of attacking democracy and spreading bigotry. By inviting Griffin onto Question Time the BBC is playing into the BNP's hands and thereby, however unintentionally, aiding the fascists.

We call on the BBC to stop rolling out the red carpet to racists and stop giving succour to the BNP by inviting its bigots on to our airwaves. The BBC should reverse its decision to invite Griffin onto Question Time – and start taking a robust stand against racism and fascism.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Sign this statement by sending an email marked "Question Time" to unite@ucu.org.uk
• Complain to the BBC by phoning 03700 100 222 or the BBC's online form
• Join the Facebook group protesting at the BBC decision
• Take the UAF petition round your workplace or community
• Make a donation to Unite Against Fascism