More intimidation tactics by Peter Tierney and Merseyside BNP

Sorry but I don't think sticking leaflets through peoples doors telling people the BNP are scum is a very good idea any more. People aren't stupid you know. They don't need patronizing and lectures.

Have you canvassed the area to find out what are the issues people are struggling with in the area? If you haven't you better start because you can guarantee the BNP have.

People want their problems addressed and will turn to the BNP no matter how much you slag them off if they are the only ones interested in whats going on in the area.

We need desperately to get away from this type of stuff and start real community organising work.

I agree 100% that the only real way to combat fascism is community organising at a grassroots level. However, in order for that to happen, there need to be people in the area willing to organise themselves, as parachuted-in outsiders will be ineffective.

That's why Liverpool Antifascists have been trying to make contact with antifascists in the Halewood area, encouraging them to set up their own organisation.

That's why our website states that "Education and presenting workable solutions to the problems faced by communities are absolutely vital to the struggle. These may be outside the current remit of Liverpool Antifascists, but we will wholeheartedly support these tactics and, while we may not be able to initiate such activities, we strongly encourage our members to involve themselves in this sort of grass-roots work."

That's why our leaflet isn't moralising, or spouting the "BNP are Nazis" rhetoric of Hope not Hate. It's a political argument, stating exactly why the BNP's claims to represent the working class are false, and why we need to be united and organised, when the BNP would have us divided along racial, religious, and other secctarian lines.

At the same time, however, it must also be noted that Antifascism is an end in and of itself. I'm not just a member of Liverpool Antifascists, and I will involve myself in activities other than antifascism, but there does need to be an organisation dedicated specifically to that cause.

The leaflet you have been distributing is excellent, the only shame is that by your own admission you only managed to distribute 500 of them...I hope next time there's more of you so you can get more of them distributed!

There needs to be MUCH more of this type of activity, and I'm surprised that the likes of the UAF/SWP aren't organising similar initiatives locally through their networks as this type of action is far more effective than a monthly confrontation on the streets.

Obviously fighting fascism requires a diversity of tactics, but the impression I've had lately is that education and enagagement in working class areas has been neglected so respect to Liverpool Antifascists for setting an example that should inspire other groups and indivuduals to follow.

In solidarity,

While I support the sentiments there is something here very much missing. Going into working-class estates and 'telling' people about the BNP is somewhat dim, and an approach that the UAF/SWP keep doing. It alienates! People know who the BNP are, they in the main do not need 'educating'.

If you are not going to address the issues like social housing, unemployment, County Council level corruption, schools, gentrification, immigration (the taboo subject) etc then you are on a hiding to nothing and the BNP will continue to be an electable option for a community that 'allegedly' sees itself as 'missed out'.

There is a place for 'No Platform' and leafleting but we need to go one step further now, as 'old school anti-fascism' just isn't working. We've all been at this years and years and if our practices were successful Griffin wouldn't be on TV every other day!

Not dissing the efforts by any means.

against fascism &to promote direct democracy campaigns, for more democracy at every level,with referendums able to be called for anytime by the people. Candidates from every party can be made to sign pledges to this by voters, the only parties that usually back out are ones into dictatorship.
An update on the Swiss version where all parties have to work together in a coalition which has worked pretty well for 150yrs despite their banks would be to choose candidates by allotment to stop corruption as done successfully in ancient Athens.
A simple campaign to support is  http://campaignfordemocracy.org.uk/directdemocracy/
 http://campaignfordemocracy.org.uk/directdemocracy/specialinterestsandlobbying/

This kind of leafleting maybe does need to be done seperately though antifascist leaflets should encourage direct democracy, real democracy& it shouldnt just be mainly anarchists or left social democrats doing it. People do need reminding who the BNP are & that they are still nazi wherever they stand, its suprising how first time younger voters dont know.

Oh please do grow up. People who are in a position to leaflet door to door should do that. People who have the time and resources to organise community representation should do that! The 2 are not mutually exclusive, not everyone is in a position to do both, and I hope the people who criticise the leafletters are DEFINITELY practicing what they preach? Personally I'd like congratulate and thank EVERYONE who contributes to the overall effort

Of course the ideal response to the rise in sympathy for Fascist politics really IS for grass-roots community organisations to find long-term solutions to the problems that working people face. So, all Liverpool Anti-Fascists have to do is wave their magic wand, sprinkle a little star-dust, click their heels, say "proletarian revolution" 3 times and all society's problems will be magically solved...

In the mean-time however, while those who criticise Anti-Fascist leafletting are evidently busy NOT creating the community organisations they dream of, if the BNP are using door-to-door leafletting to gain support, then using door-to-door leafletting to counteract BNP efforts is good. Leafletting isn't perfect, but nothing is. It won't solve everything, but nothing will. A leaflet that works well in one area won't always work well elsewhere, and a blurb that works well for one reader will not necessarily work for their next-door neighbour. No leaflets at all is even worse. There will always be better ways of addressing any complex problem, but there will always be worse ways too - and bitching about people whose efforts should be celebrated and encouraged is one very bad way!

The BNP came to our area to shove leaflets through hundreds of letter-boxes. We responded by confronting them in the street, getting the local paper to rubbish their arguments, and getting UAF cards and Hope not Hate leaflets and delivering them to the same streets. I'm CERTAIN the leaflets we distributed could be criticised too, but even the worst leaflets we distributed were far better than the crap the BNP put out.

The leaflet Liverpool Anti-Fascists put out does not repeat the "BNP are nasty Nazis" line (which, for all its faults, still discourages over 90% of voters from supporting the BNP). Instead their leaflet shows in real, practical terms how the BNP do not support working people, without resorting to the patronising "workerist" clichés that help maintain the on-going isolation, failure and all-round irrelevance of the radical left. By way of a practical suggestion, another tactic is to draw attention to BNP policy on abolishing income tax - a policy which would effectively abolish redistribution of wealth in the UK, destroying a cornerstone of the Welfare State and shifting a huge burden of taxation away from high-income earners onto the poor, making the BNP popular with aristos and industrialists, while crippling public services like the NHS.

As to whether people need "educating" about the BNP, yes any talk of "education" does risk coming over as patronising, but so does lecturing people about the need for grass-roots community organisations! The BNP constantly engage potential supporters who have no interest in or knowledge of politics (left or right-wing, radical or moderate) and no knowledge of the BNP's historic and on-going links with Nazism, so these people DO need to be given info that helps them get better informed. Of course that does entail an element of risk but the ONLY way to never risk patronising people is to never to communicate with them.

I don't get it. The idea that Liverpool Anti-Fascists should canvass potential BNP supporters to find out what their grievances are sounds superficially appealing, but unless the Anti-Fascists who go door-to-door are willing and able to a/ go back time and time and time again, and b/ actual deliver real practical solutions to those problems, then how is this tactic not going to backfire?