Some 100 activists turned out for UAF's second day of action in Barking on Saturday against Nick Griffin and the Nazi BNP. UAF ran a stall in central Barking and had a brilliant response from local people, with around 100 of them signing up to get involved.
Barking MP Margaret Hodge joined trade unionists and campaigners from the borough and across London. Our next day of action is on Sunday 21 February. For more information contact Barking & Dagenham UAF on bardagunite@gmail.com
The English Defence League has cancelled plans for its racist thugs to descend on the town of Bolton on Saturday 6 March.
Reading between the lines of the garbled and paranoid statement released by the EDL leadership, it is clear that the organisation knew its crew of hooligans and Nazis would go on the rampage and attack a Hindu festival due to be held in Bolton that day.
The behaviour of the EDL at Luton in May last year and Stoke last month shows that when their thugs go on the attack, they threaten anyone and everyone who stands in their way - Muslim or non-Muslim, black, white or Asian. That is why it is so important for all of us to unite and show solidarity with Muslims under attack from racists.
UAF supporters in Bolton will be out campaigning against the EDL and BNP on Saturday 6 March. They will also be holding an event that day to celebrate and defend Bolton's multicultural and multiracial society - details to come. There is no room for complacency - the EDL is still threatening to attack Dudley on 4 April and Bolton later this year.
Victory for anti-fascists as Durham University calls off plans for ‘debate’ with BNP Nazis
Anti-fascist campaigners have welcomed the decision by University of Durham to cancel plans by the student debating society to invite a pair of Nazis in to speak against multiculturalism.
The debating club had hoped to give a platform to leading BNP members Andrew Brons and Chris Beverley on Friday of next week. Brons has a criminal conviction for calling a mixed race policeman an "inferior being".
He used to lead gangs of thugs round Leeds in the 1980s chanting "death to the Jews". Beverley was recently interviewed on BBC radio where he refused to condemn Hitler and instead compared the Nazi dictator to Alexander the Great.
The society's decision to extend an invite to the BNP was condemned by National Union of Students national officers and the Unite Against Fascism campaign. North East UAF and Student UAF supporters were planning to demonstrate against the BNP outside the venue had the debate gone ahead.
Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, said: "This is a victory for the people who were prepared to mobilise, organise and demonstrate against the Nazi BNP. It shows that when the anti-fascist majority gets active, the BNP can be defeated. The BNP is desperate to build a student wing and to start organising on campus - but we are not prepared to let that happen.
"We welcome the decision by the university to take the welfare of its ethnic minority students seriously. The BNP is dedicated is the elimination of all ethnic minorities from this country. You cannot have a 'reasonable debate' with such people. The physical presence of black, Asian and Jewish people in this country is not negotiable."
NUS black students officer Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy and NUS LGBT officers Daf Adley and Lucy Brookes said: "We welcome the cancellation of the debate featuring BNP members at the University of Durham. As officers that represent groups most at risk from fascism, we reserve the right to act in the best interest of our students. Where the BNP are active, racist and homophobic attacks increase - and young people are often the victims.
"It's not 'sensationalist' to state the real threat that the BNP pose. Neither is it 'threatening' to say that wherever the BNP rear their fascist heads, we will be there protesting in our hundreds and thousands. Freedom of speech comes with a responsibility. If you preach hatred towards black, Jewish, Muslim and LGBT people you have no place on our campuses."
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He used to lead gangs of thugs round Leeds in the 1980s chanting "death to the Jews". Beverley was recently