For all that its good that people are concerned about the threat from the BNP, you have to question whether the ANL's strategy is the best way to go about things. Getting a load of people to turn up in one area, march through it and then go home will not solve the problem, if anything it will alienate the local community and turn them further towards the BNP.

The BNP understand the importance of community work. By going into predominantly working class areas fucked over by the Labour government and typically by Labour councils they deal with the isues which concern local people and offer them an alternative to a political system which has abandoned them.

By contrast the Left tends to deal with the issues it is concerned about and seems to believe that all the problems of the world can be dealt with by marches (the more militant element who favour DA are in this regard little better). Further the Left seems to have abandoned the working class, once its key constituency, leaving a vacuum which the Far Right are rushing to fill.

None of the solutions to these problems is easy and I'm as bad at following these guidelines as anyone, but do we really believe that the current approach is working? Can we afford to wait to be sure that it isn't?

Disillusioned kid forgets to mention that the Socialist Alliance (which includes ANL activists) got a councillor elected at the last elections in Preston, just down the road from Burnley, by doing precisely the sort of work in the local community that he talks about. If it can be done in Preston it can be done in Burnley. But it requires exactly the sort of united effort mentioned by Greenwood--not carping and bitching about the ANL.

The Anti-Nazi League does not just bus people in and then leave an area. Many, possibly a majority, of those marching were from the local communities where the BNP councillors have been elected.

The ANL has worked closely with people in the local communities, working in united anti-racism campaigns such as Broxbourne Against Racism (founded after the protest against the first council meeting in Rosedale Ward) and the Black Country Unity Campaign.

I know that those in Broxbourne are extremely grateful to the ANL for helping to organise the demonstration, and if anything more support from London and the surrounding areas would have helped boost them in their campaign against the fascists. Cambridge alone managed to mobilise 15 people down to the protest, more of that would have been incredible. Where were all the anti-racist groups? Where were the activists? It can be very lonely and disheartening to be an anti-fascist campaigner when your local community has just returned a Nazi to represent them, but we have to give those in Burnley, Halifax, Dudley, Stoke, Broxbourne and Wombourne (South Staffs) as much support as possible.

The key will be to organise effectively, making sure all the anti-racist groups locally are working together, and to make sure that union support becomes concrete - many branches are affiliated to the ANL, we need to engage more with the unions.

Part of 'disillusioned kid's analysis of the BNP vote is wrong. He refers to alienated Labour voters, but if you look at the voting patterns, while some Labour voters may have switched to BNP, mostly the trend is Labour voters (and activists, for that matter) staying at home while Tory voters switch to the BNP. Broxbourne is Tory through and through. Lib Dems needn't be complacent, some of their party's statements in local areas can be pandering to racism, and their supporters can also switch to the BNP.

People think that it is deprivation that causes people to vote BNP. But if you compare the BNP vote to the level of deprivation (from the government statistics) then you find little correlation between the two - and what correlation there is points towards it being the middle affluency wards who turn towards the BNP, not those facing the most deprivation. The wards in Burnley such as Cliviger where the BNP has councillors are not inner-city, they are relatively affluent. This fits with the traditional support of the fascists being the petit bourgeosie, such as small shopkeepers, lower management, the self-employed. By way of illustration, Ramon Jones, BNP councillor in Broxbourne is a 70-year-old taxi driver.

This said, it may be the case that councils in local areas where the BNP have gained votes have become complacent or corrupt. Local people need to put pressure on local councillors, especially Labour party who should really know better, to avoid jumping on the racist asylum band-wagon. For example, there is an especially disgusting example in the gutter press today of a Labour council saying that a Lib Dem councillor in Manchester should never have been elected - he was anti-war and from Pakistan, and needs an interpreter for some of the council meetings. They are attempting to whip up feeling against him because he is an asylum seeker, yet he is allowed to stand as a member of the Commonwealth, and almost half of his constituents speak Urdu, which he is fluent in.

Remember that the BNP do not ever really offer the local community hope, they lie, cheat and use violence - witness the death threats and intimidation by members of Oldham Combat 18 to Shahid Malik of Labour NEC after the Burnley demo, for which four of them have been arrested. One of those arrested stood as an NF candidate in Oldham this year, and has been involved in Burnley BNP as well. Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, has called for an 'all-white Britain': when they claim to not be racists or fascists, we have to expose this as a blatant lie!

Some positive reposnses, this is a good thing. Nonetheless I'd like to make some points.

Firstly on the issue of the SA councillor in Preston, this is all well and good, but his support seems to have come predominantly from the Muslim community. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but it is not these people who would be voting for the BNP anyway. If we are serious about defeating (or more realistically, in the short term, slowing down the growth of) the BNP and the Far Right more generally, then the people we need to get on our side are potential recruits to and voters for these groups.

There may well be a move to attempt to emulate the success achieved in Preston elsewhere in the country by specifically tagetting the "Muslim vote" (the talk about a Peace and Justice Coalition being set up to contend elections in Birmingham, hint strongly at this possibility). In my opinion this is a mistake. If the Left is targetting the "Muslim community" (no less class divided than the "white community") then who will be dealing with the concerns of the white working class? The answer I fear, may be the BNP.

We also should not be misled by this success. The SA in many areas was far less succesful and has only a single councillor. AS far as I am aware, their is only one other socialist councillor in the country (a Socialist Party member in Coventry). By contrast the BNP have sixteen.

Also, I never suggested that those who voted for the BNP were disillusioned Labour voters, merely that many of them would live under Labour councils.

Just to clarify my last point:

Unless I am mistaken (please correct me if so) there is evidence to suggest that the BNP actually brings out voters who previously would not have voted. This is, I would argue, because they represent an alternative to the consensus of the three main parties. The Left could also fill this role (in my opinion it offers a much better alternative), but to do this it must deal with the issues that concern real people, not least crime, something we have traditionally been very poor on (the 'it won't happen after the revolution' argument doesn't deal with the very real fear of crime many people live under).

Let's try and look at the positive aspect to the resistible rise of the BNP.
Union Jack and Cross of St George flag sellers (some of whom may be of the Muslim persuassion) are making money whenever the the BNP take to stomping t'clogs on t'cobbles in t'Burnley tha knows.
Back in the sixties Jewish salesmen in the southern US states make money out of selling white sheets, large wooden crosses and matches to KKK when they were gadding about.
In the seventies black leather glove a black beret sellers made a fortune out of the Black Power movement while they were giving it the one-fisted salute.
In the nineties sellers of bow ties, dinner jackets and shades made a fortune out of the Louis Farrakhan lads when they wanted to take themselves too seriously in public displays of well-dressed scowling.
The point is extremists come and go and always will, so don't get mad, get rich, sell the buggers their fashion accessories.
This is how I learned to stop worrying and love the bigoted.
Dr Strangelove.

Rally could face policing costs

The organisers of Dudley's anti-British National Party rally could be forced to pay thousands of pounds if police decide to charge for manning the event.

Around 120 protesters marched around Dudley town centre on Saturday against the far-right party despite warnings from the police that the event was unsafe.

More than 500 people had been expected to take part to voice their opposition to Dudley BNP councillor Simon Darby and the party's Sandwell councillors, John Salvage and David Watkins.

Senior police chiefs warned the Black Country Unity Campaign Association they were unhappy with their security arrangements in the run up to the event and could face a bill for policing operations on the day.

There was no BNP presence at the march and no arrests made.

According to police, the association did not take out any public liability insurance and did not apply for any road closure orders.

Now the Dudley North Chief Superintendent Dennis Hodson is considering whether to charge the association for the eight officers who attended the march and 32 officers on standby.

Police Inspector Dave Fedrick said: "Public safety is not a core responsibility for us and we advised the organisers that the event was not safe.

"They did not give us any notification about the march until the end of May.

"They did not apply for any road closure orders which could have lead to serious problems with traffic weaving in and out of the marchers on a busy Saturday afternoon.

"And there was no public liability insurance, which could have been disastrous if anyone had been injured.

"Our officers were pulled away from three hours of core responsibility and the chief superintendent now has to decide whether that time must be paid for.

"The association was foolish to go ahead with the march and foolish not to listen to our advice."

No one was available for comment from the Black Country Unity Campaign Association

Dr Strangelove, (comment of 03/07/03)
Your equinimity and equilibrium and capitalist perspective are simply a cop-out.
You're a bystander, a spectator, a voyuer of society, you're on the hard shoulder of life's motorway watching the traffic whiz by.
You're undoubtadly very clever, witty and sophisticated...but so have been most people throughout history who have sat idly by and allowed attrocities to happen under their averted gaze.
Get off the fence and get involved man.
It's too late for observers, we need competitors.
'SPUDZ' McGRAW

1. I was led to believe that the _working class_ were not necessarily those voting BNP... the more affluent normally Tory voters are opting for them as well. I do wish most of all that we could have a socialist discussion without bringing too much class into it.

2. I felt the May demo was quite effective. Seeing the councillors getting egged was satisfying. Even if it does not have immense political impact it makes all our sympathisers feel less impotent due to the normally weak demos, which I gather happend this month.

3. Crime..... Drug crime is the system's own problem, by prohibiting drugs they put the distribution in the hands of criminals, quality down,price up... More gang crime, more theft, more police hours, more hospital time. Nasty kids.... I dont like em, who would and I have to put up with them but they have shit all else to do, you cant even kick a ball round on the streets without people phoning the police. Get these two out of the picture and there'd be a lot less fear of physical crime.

4. Nastowhatever if you think anyone is very intimidated by white Nazi party nationals or whatever irrelevant splinter I've never heard of that you are, think again. Most people with half a brain laugh at you as soon as your backs are turned, I expect it took a massive team effort to even write a pamphlet, so good on you!

5. Mr Express..... the point of that being?

6. Disillusioned........... yeh the marching is over the top and it just gets ignored by the media. There has to be some police batoning or smashing of MaccyDos windows before they take notice. The problem with our ideas is that they come in a raft whereas the BNP idea is simple look at them, theyve got whats yours, well get it back, is much easier to understand.

7. Lib Dem councillor, I do not tow the Left Reaction line on this, the guy does not hold a British passport.... I see this as outside of immigration/asylum/language issues. I find it quite undemocratic that a person who does not hold a British passport can be in the British government. Just like ol' G.W.B