Secret BNP meeting stopped by Anti-Fascists in Bath
(A) Sab x | 15.05.2007 10:55 | Anti-racism | Oxford
After having his talk at Bath University cancelled, it looked like Griffin would be giving the city a miss. However, a report on BBC 'points west' stated that he would be holding a secret meeting arranged by nazi Bath student Danny Lake.
Upon hearing that the meeting was still taking place at a secret location, we rang BNP national office who obligingly provided us with BNP youth organiser Danny Lake's mobile number.
We rang him, posing as a student who was pissed of that the uni talk had been cancelled, and he was happy enough to tell us the pub the BNP were meeting in before the speech.
We rang the pub, who seemed worried at the prospect of having Nazis in their bar.
We only had a short time to organise the demo, but got 20 anti-fascists outside the pub within 2 hours notice. The nazis turned up, looked confused and tried to reorganise a meeting place. Our spotters followed the ringleader into a nearby pub, which we entered, chanting and confronting the facists. Despite big talk, they seemed to be unwilling to enter into confrontation.
After being ejected from the pub by the cops, we had a demo outside. When the BNP left the pub (in much smaller numbers than they entered!), we were prevented from following, although a team of spotters managed to get around the police and follow them. They ended up having a tiny gathering in a park, well outnumbered by anti-fascists, who drowned out their speeches with chanting and anti-nazi punks played down a megaphone!
we heard later that Griffin was intending to record his speech and use it as propaganda, but could not do so because of the background noise!
All in all, a good day for anti-fascism - we managed to crash a secret meeting, doubling fash numbers, push them out of three venues, then reduced them to 10 skinheads standing in a park!
Nazis are not welcome in Bath - wherever they go, we will stop them!
NO PASARAN!
We rang him, posing as a student who was pissed of that the uni talk had been cancelled, and he was happy enough to tell us the pub the BNP were meeting in before the speech.
We rang the pub, who seemed worried at the prospect of having Nazis in their bar.
We only had a short time to organise the demo, but got 20 anti-fascists outside the pub within 2 hours notice. The nazis turned up, looked confused and tried to reorganise a meeting place. Our spotters followed the ringleader into a nearby pub, which we entered, chanting and confronting the facists. Despite big talk, they seemed to be unwilling to enter into confrontation.
After being ejected from the pub by the cops, we had a demo outside. When the BNP left the pub (in much smaller numbers than they entered!), we were prevented from following, although a team of spotters managed to get around the police and follow them. They ended up having a tiny gathering in a park, well outnumbered by anti-fascists, who drowned out their speeches with chanting and anti-nazi punks played down a megaphone!
we heard later that Griffin was intending to record his speech and use it as propaganda, but could not do so because of the background noise!
All in all, a good day for anti-fascism - we managed to crash a secret meeting, doubling fash numbers, push them out of three venues, then reduced them to 10 skinheads standing in a park!
Nazis are not welcome in Bath - wherever they go, we will stop them!
NO PASARAN!
(A) Sab x
Additions
my two cents...
16.05.2007 12:46
Well, been reading this thread with some interest, but not liking the flaming. how well we slag each other off is neither here nor there, whilst it may make some of us look clever and eloquent, and make us feel righteous, it serves little use. post theories on here, yeah, post news, and calls to action - all that makes sense. and solidarity and construction criticism, too...
i dunno
i was one of the ones on the demo, and i would modify some of the facts to fit with my observations. we only found out about the demo about 2/3 hours beforehand, and it did involve some creative thinking to get to find where the meeting was at, it wasn't public knowledge. local press broadcasted that the meeting would be going ahead within the city somewhere monday evening, but it was difficult to find more than that.
so, yeah, the demo wasn't huge because we didn't have much time to get a huge gathering together [the Trade Unions, i believe, were still holding their 'festival of diversity' at Bath Uni, which they had originally planned - i won't comment on that idea] , but managed to field 17, plus 1 or 2 that flittered in and out. some of the day was less than organised, but we found them, we effectively chased them from 2 pubs [revolution and litten tree], just by presence alone, we had the local media in on it, support from passersby, some death-threats from drunk BNP supporters, then followed them, with a little police obstruction, to the royal crescent, where about 10-12 or so of them, plus 5 Bath Uni politics students heard Griffin give his talk to a vieo camera instead of a town hall, with anti-fascist music roaring in the background - humiliating. the students from Bath uni were mostly self-proclaimed anti-BNP, but were in attendance to logically defeat them in discussion. we ourselves adopted more the belief that far better to kick them and their filth from our town, instead.
not amazing heroics, but did the job.
i dunno
i was one of the ones on the demo, and i would modify some of the facts to fit with my observations. we only found out about the demo about 2/3 hours beforehand, and it did involve some creative thinking to get to find where the meeting was at, it wasn't public knowledge. local press broadcasted that the meeting would be going ahead within the city somewhere monday evening, but it was difficult to find more than that.
so, yeah, the demo wasn't huge because we didn't have much time to get a huge gathering together [the Trade Unions, i believe, were still holding their 'festival of diversity' at Bath Uni, which they had originally planned - i won't comment on that idea] , but managed to field 17, plus 1 or 2 that flittered in and out. some of the day was less than organised, but we found them, we effectively chased them from 2 pubs [revolution and litten tree], just by presence alone, we had the local media in on it, support from passersby, some death-threats from drunk BNP supporters, then followed them, with a little police obstruction, to the royal crescent, where about 10-12 or so of them, plus 5 Bath Uni politics students heard Griffin give his talk to a vieo camera instead of a town hall, with anti-fascist music roaring in the background - humiliating. the students from Bath uni were mostly self-proclaimed anti-BNP, but were in attendance to logically defeat them in discussion. we ourselves adopted more the belief that far better to kick them and their filth from our town, instead.
not amazing heroics, but did the job.
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