BNP to march in Liverpool

sorry pal, you're rhetoric doesn't match your methods.

"We aim to mobilise as many people as possible in a peaceful manner, which will prevent the BNP from organising in the city of Liverpool"

How so? Run them out of town with incessant chanting? Placard waving?

"Merseyside Police showed their willingness to defend the ranks of the BNP by attacking the large counter demonstration. We will not stand for this again".

How will you stop it? Moral indignation? The very people you invite down to get a kicking from the police are the very people you are demanding should act peacefully?

I honestly wouldn't trust you shower with a bible meeting.

There will on the other hand be militant anti-fascists out and about on the streets in liverpool, not using as many words.

this is not an entire call out, i'm sure there will be more militant stuff to come- it is just slow off the mark so I tried to get the ball rolling by posting this initial acknowledgement of the day. Maybe I have missed another call out that has gone around?

Not everyone can be militant anyway, there is nothing wrong with a range of tactics, so there is no need for hard ass 'militants' to feel threatened and get defensive here.

This is what official 'antifascism' is reduced then.

Calling on the Chief Constable of Merseyside Police (ffs!) to ban a BNP rally or going to confront them with placards and shouting.

Get ready to wave your placards students and scream 'Nazi scum off our streets' for hours on end. That'll show the BNP. Nothing more scares the far right like loads of placards.

I’m not an anti-fash campaigner (obviously I’m anti-fash like any decent person) so this is a genuine question. Isn’t there a middle ground between standing with placards and shouting on one side and beating fash up on the other? Isn’t it possible for example to surround the fash so they can’t be seen and they can’t give out any leaflets, etc?

14 march everybody to the streets .....NO PASARAN .......................ANTI FASCIST BRIGADE

"There will on the other hand be militant anti-fascists out and about on the streets in liverpool, not using as many words."

Very glad to hear it but there's room for people who are unable to be 'more militant' to stand with placards if they want, and 'militant; anti-fascists should be capable of recognising that not everyone is willing or able to go around kicking nazi heads in. I know a couple of anti-fascists who are well into their seventies and feel it's their duty to go and oppose scum like the BNP whenever they can. Is it your place to sneer at them?

Well it depends if they think that asking the police nicely to ban BNP marches, no doubt followed by bans on other 'political' marches, is a good tactic.

If they do then i'll sneer at them and say at their they should know better.

The 14th of March is a Saturday. Such a march on a busy shopping day in Church Street is calculated to cause distress and alarm to the ordinary people of Liverpool. Not only does the day chosen inconvenience shoppers but it coincides with a Liverpool Manchester United match - thereby maximising disruption and promoting violence in the city centre. This kind of creation of public disorder is exactly the kind of antisocial behaviour expected of convicted criminals. It can serve no other purpose but to promote conflict which no serious political party would dream of doing. The police are urged to contact organisers on 07946 366 883 and ensure that these are not the intentions of the BNP.

As the BNP in Liverpool is based in Garston, it makes more sense for the Police to examine if any demonstration could take place there. There are excellent rail connections to the BNP headquarters - members can simply get off at Cressington Railway station and walk up to Box Number 9, L19 2RN along a main road. It would allow the BNP to show deference to their superiors by cooperating with the Police.

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The major problem is the language used and what it is trying to express. Add to this how people are expected to behave and the organisation behind this escapade and you have a situation that will put those attending in serious difficulty.

Fiirst let's examine the language being used. It suggests quite assertive, indeed militant, action: WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS AGAIN, WE WILL STOP THEM ORGANISING, DRIVE THE BNP OFF THE STREETS, promoting its own sense of bravado and physical activity. Yet immediately takes away any method of achieving its objectives, by demanding those attending remain peaceful. It is never explained how mobilising as many people as possible in a peaceful manner will actually stop the bnp organising in the city of Liverpool?

The rhetoric used is simply a tool, emotional manipulation of the worse kind - rousing the troops [or canon fodder] while stopping them taking anything into their own hands. Indeed a cynic might say for the organisers this event it is simply an exercise in self-promotion.

I applaud and encourage people wishing to create a large visible presence and see it as an important and vital part of fighting fascism and I take nothing away from people who choose to engage their politics that way. The problem is when the rhetoric of the anti-fascist champions [their words] actually hinders and risks people's safety deceiving people into expecting more than it can deliver.

The point of the final sentence of my original post is to reinforce that those who have the capacity to actually stop the bnp don't need to brag or inflate their own sense of purpose, hence anti-fascism is not a war of words but just getting on with the job.

I'm sure the survivors of the 43 Group would salute that.

I see what you are saying and I agree that some groups hijack causes and think they have the right to tell people what they can and can’t do. However I’m interested is there a ‘middle of the road’ anti-fash group that doesn’t just stand with banners in police pens or on the other hand physically fight the fash. For example, blockading protests, subverting BNP events perhaps, for example, joining a BNP protest with a banner reading ‘We are the BNP. A bunch of Nazi morons!’ and so on.

i definitely think there is a need for a militant, publicly accessible, anti-fascist group.

Militant anti-fascists in my mind are those who don't rely on the state or its institutions to justify their politics or activities (nothing to do with levels of violence or being 'hard ass' as some of our comrades seem to assume).

Antifa fulfils a large portion of the criteria necessary to effectively oppose fascism, it does not, as yet, have the means to organise mass-base, public, accessible, anti-fascist activity. This may come with time, and given the bnp's continued electoral legitimacy, maybe the sooner the better.

If you're talking about strategies then we shouldn't rule anything out, we should however be wary of those seeking to make political capital out of the bnp's rise by using peoples genuine anger to promote their own particular political tendencies.

From the Liverpool Echo ...

"POLICE have postponed an Everton home game because the BNP will be campaigning in Liverpool.

The Blues were due to take on Stoke City at Goodison Park in a Premier League clash at 3pm on Saturday, March 14.

But the BNP are due in town leafleting the city centre in the run-up to the European elections in June.

Merseyside police do not have enough officers to cover both events, so they asked the Premier League to put back the match 24 hours. It will now kick off at 3pm on Sunday, March 15.

Blues fans reacted with fury to the move, having being told about the change only last week.

Merseyside police were informed about the BNP plan in mid January.

The BNP march is expected to attract anti-racism campaigners, and the police said they have to have a sizeable presence to keep the peace.

There were also private concerns in the force about away fans mixing with the march because Stoke has nine BNP councillors."

Rest of article is on Echo website.

Strange kind of move really.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7904361.stm

BNP have said they are postponing the event because 'they dont want to inconvience everton and stoke fans'.

Could be them bluffing, even if it's not I don't think it'll be long before they re-arranged it. So we should all stay sharp

Just wanted to comment on some of the discussions on this thread. It was me who wrote some of the blurb for that facebook group. Apologies if it gave a confused message, the group has been added to by different people from a student group called liverpool students against racism and fascism. The stuff about petitioning the police has been removed after discussion, as a group we do not support calling on the state to mediate the struggle against fascism.

The group isnt dominated by any political tendency and was set up after xmas by people from different liverpool uni's who wanted to make sure we don't see a repeat of the balls up on Nov 29th. We're not trying to create 'political capital' for anyone, just people who wanted to create an open, democratic forum and promote student self-organisation of anti-fascist activity, rather than having a student group that works on dictats passed down from either UAF or Hope Not Hate head offices.

cheers

James

Is it because they are finding their vile politics disgust even those whose intentions at football matches are to cause trouble? Or is it because Football fans are less stupid than they think? Football fans are less likely to take up some political position without serious relevance than the leaders of the BNP supposed.

Treating football as "The National Game" and therefore the property of "nationalists" does nothing but reduce supporters to the sheep who can be sacrificed for the greater good of "nationalist" politics. Having a football game cancelled, moved and rescheduled must make the BNP feel important.

Yet fundamentally, it is a distraction from why the march was cancelled. The People of Liverpool do not want fascist thugs in their city. Had there been a BNP March, they would have been deliberately intruding into a community that is revolted by them. They would have been endangering their political soldiers had they ventured onto the streets without police protection.

The march was cancelled because the BNP need the police to protect them. No other political organisation needs police protection quite as much as these terrified little men. The simple fact that they can not hold a march without police as a protection measure surely indicates they are not welcome.

The only reason to choose a saturday afternoon would be to inconveniece Football Fans and demonstrate the "power" of the BNP. Football, being a vital part of Liverpool culture, is being attacked by the BNP because they want power and Football is one of the many cultural institutions they need to dismantle and reconstruct.

Militant and Physical Antifascism has a place. But there are activities that beating the crap out of fascists really does not address. The BNP are antisocal vermin who manipulate perceptions. Perceptions such as the current notion that they are wooing Labour voters. They are not, they target exactly the demographic they have always targeted: working class tories. Too ashamed of being working class. Too ashamed of being Tories. Too ashamed of being vermin. The BNP hates Football because it represents everything that they despise: the potential for social mobility; the mixing of people with different backgrounds; free movement around the country; meeting other people.

The BNP hate football and are intent upon infiltrating it to use it as a political foil. To stir up their antisocial alarm and distress. The BNP hate football and any other cultural activity that enriches our lives. Physical confrontation is a situation they are happy with providing they can ensure the police are present to protect them. Yet, any hint that they will not be protected (Mister Kevin Watmough is testament to this idea) and they fall to pieces.

So it is a good idea to demand the police are involved in BNP marches. But not protecting them from legitimate political opposition. The police are public servants and should be instructed to address the antisocial and criminal behaviour of the BNP in organising such marches. The BNP are an antisocial organisation that can be defeated by communities. That will not be achieved by a few happy souls terrifying those already scared working class tory criminals and giving them scars to play the victim with. It will also be achieved by forcing them to actually say what they are doing.

The 14th of March will be the sixty-sixth anniversary of the "Liquidation" of the Krakow Ghetto. Given the revitalised Polish Contingent of the Community in Liverpool, any demonstration by fascists would be calculated to be inflammatory. But then, the BNP would cry ignorance of this. Because they want to be ignorant.

BNP spokesperson said yeaterday they are calling demo off as they do not want to be blamed for the re arrangement of the everton stoke match.
guess they are trying really hard to win over voters in the city.

just hope everyone continues to see through them

The BNP has a secret "Love Fascism Hate Football" campaign.