Report on Griffin court case demo

Once again, the BNP failed to drum up support for their glorious leader, Nick Griffin, as he went to court on four charges of incitement to racial hatred. Even after weeks of begging and pleading with his members to turn up en masse, preferably in their suits, to protest his innocence, less than a hundred arrived and most of those looked like ageing boot-boys, even the contingent from the BNP-front 'Christian Council of Britain'.

As usual, the response from UAF and other anti-fascist groups was great, around seven or eight hundred people turning up as the (very wet) day progressed, all enthusiastic and ready to boo his lordship as he went into the court. Five of us went up from Lancaster, half a dozen from Barrow and a bunch of great anti-fascists from Ulverston. Even the police were on their best behaviour, dishing out warnings all over the place and frowning at everyone - even passers-by - but not generally getting too heavy.

There were only a couple of small dramas: one came when a bunch of nazi heavies tried to get into the crowd of anti-fascists for reasons of their own and were hussled out pretty speedily. The police piled in and shoved them off down the road. While the heavies were being shoved, one of their mob continued to take pictures of the anti-fascists, no doubt for inclusion on Redwatch at some point. I got a couple of pictures of this guy and when he realised I was taking pictures of him, he started walking towards me - presumably in an attempt to be intimidating - so I stopped and asked if he was one of the nazis. Of course, he assumed I was one of theirs because he grinned and said yes. So much for Nick Griffin's claim that the BNP's nazi past is behind them.

One of our Lancaster contingent saw Roy Goodwin, of Blackpool BNP, going into the court, so shouted, 'Keep the BNP out of Blackpool.' Goodwin's response was to make an obscene gesture and shout, 'Traitor', back at him. Nice guy. And this is the man the BNP wanted to have in Parliament?

The only other drama was at the rally in front of Leeds wonderful art gallery. The speakers were speaking and the crowd was listening when a couple of nazi dimwits decided to walk up the middle of the road waving flags of the cross of St George. Dear oh dear. When told to push off by the police, they went pretty speedily but really, is this all the so-called master race can offer? Provocation, intimidation, stupidity and abuse?

It's great fun going to a demo - especially an important one like this. Not only do you get to shout at nazis (which is always fun), you also get to meet some excellent people and make a hell of a lot of useful contacts. Demonstrations are worth going on for a lot of reasons and the cause, of course, is paramount, but there's a kind of comradeship that shows itself up wonderfully in adversity.

When a couple of nazis tried to worm their way on to our side of the demo, the person who spotted them and shouted out was immediately joined by a dozen other protestors for safety and support; a guy I'd never met before warned me at one point that a nazi cameraman was trying to take a picture of me and joined me in shooing him away; I watched as a crowd of protestors (and protectors) instantly clustered around as the police began to harass a young lad who had shouted some (mild) abuse at a nazi.

Then we spoke to the happy bunch of people who had started off at 4.30am in order to arrive on time - they weren't pissed off that they'd had to get up when I'm normally going to bed; they were pleased that they'd made the effort, done what they felt they should and were meeting a lot more friendly allies. These are the kind of things that make you feel the world's not entirely full of crap and that there are plenty of people out there who are worth working for and with. If you can make it to the next anti-fascist demo, I'll introduce you to them. :-)

Oh, and a tiny footnote. At one point, the BNP broke into as much as they know of Jerusalem. That's a revolutionary song - I wonder why they sing it?