The Antifascists have had to be more active recently because three far-right parties, the National Front, the BNP and the English Democrats are standing candidates in the Liverpool mayoral election. There was going to be a debate for all the candidates at Liverpool University students union on 19th April, but the Guild of Students cancelled it. They decided that having neo-nazi parties and their supporters on the premises was not in keeping with their equal access policy. This holds that the students union must be a safe space for all, regardless of gender, sexuality and ethnic origin. "Equal access" is a concept that the neo-nazis would have had a little difficulty understanding, to say the least.

The antifascists held a rally outside the students union on the same day to celebrate that the fascists had been denied a platform. Some of the fascists heard about the rally and decided to head up the hill and attack it. No particular rhyme or reason for it, except that fascists believe in freedom of assembly for themselves but not for anybody who disagrees with them. There is more about this incident on  http://libcom.org/blog/ and  http://truth-reason-liberty.blogspot.co.uk

The local paper has done some research into the far right candidates and has found that the BNP candidate, Mike Whitby, lives in North Wales and can only stand for election in Liverpool because he has been renting a pigeon shed for 12 months. The National Front candidate Peter Tierney is a convicted criminal. He was successfully prosecuted for hitting a journalist over the head with a camera tripod. So one party is cynically manipulating election law and the other can't muster a better candidate than a thug. Somehow I don't see that working wonders for their chances of electoral success.