Statement from Oldham ANL
Monday 28 May 2001
Nazis to blame for Oldham riots

In the past few weeks the media and police have
been hyping up racial tensions in Oldham. When the
BBC claimed the existence of so-called "No Go"
areas for whites, they opened the door to the Nazis.
Since then we have seen the Nazi National Front,
British National Party and Combat 18 come into
Oldham to leaflet, march, attack local people and
stand in the General Election.

The rioting in Oldham at the weekend was caused by
Nazis continually coming into our area to cause
violence and whip up race hatred.

The Oldham Chronicle and the police have been
central to the animosity directed at the Asian
community, wrongly accusing Asians of the majority
of racist attacks and reporting the brutal attack on
Walter Chamberlain as a racist attack, even though
Mr Chamberlain's family denied the attack was
racially motivated.

The NF, who say they stand for "Rights for
Whites", were led into Oldham by Simon
Northfield, who was convicted for attacking a
white woman pensioner in January.

Black and white unite
In the face of this, the local communities have to
unite and make Oldham a "No Go" area for the Nazis.
The Nazis are now feeling confident to go into areas
like Glodwick to terrorise and attack Asian people in
their homes. They know that the police will turn on
the local Asian youth when they try to defend
themselves.

The role of the police
Following Nazi leafleting, a handful of racists attacked
kids from Breeze Hill School. When called to defend
the school kids, the police proceeded to attack
them. A few weeks before, police let racist football
"fans" and Nazis rampage through Asian areas,
smashing windows and shouting racist abuse. It is
clear that since the Macpherson Report exposed the
police as institutionally racist, nothing has changed.

Even after the Home Secretary had banned the Nazis
from marching in Oldham, the police stood by and
allowed forty members of Combat 18 (a violent Nazi
organisation that counts murderers in its ranks) to
march into the town centre on Saturday 5th May.
The police were well aware that the Nazis were
gathering in local pubs but did nothing. That is why
the NF organiser claims that "the NF will not stop
going to Oldham."

It is clear that only the united efforts of the local
community - black and white - can keep the Nazis
out of Oldham.

Don't Vote BNP
The Nazis who have been terrorising people in their
own homes and rampaging through our streets now
want you to vote for them in the General Election.
Racist violence is exactly what Nick Griffin, Mike
Treacy and Roger Woods stand for. Griffin, who is
leader of the BNP, has convictions for inciting racial
hatred. He has no interest in uniting the community,
in fact he says he wants to see "separation of the
two communities ... on the model adopted in
Belfast ... to ease the tensions and avoid further
bloodshed".

The BNP don't want to see racism resolved: they
want apartheid as a prelude to a Nazi genocide.

Let's not forget the BNP's most infamous member,
David Copeland, who was jailed for life last year for
the London nailbombs that killed three people. He
boasted, "My aim was political. It was to cause a
racial war in this country. There'd be a backlash from
ethnic communities, then all the white people would
go out and vote BNP."

Nazis cannot solve Oldham's problems - they are the
cause of them!