Around 200 people from all over the North West, including as far away as the Lake District, gathered in an isolated car park in Burnley to demonstrate against the Nazi BNP who won 7 Burnley council seats in the local elections in May.
The turnout was, to be honest, disappointing, and the route of the march, apparently imposed on us by the police, was laughable: an extremely brief tour of some of Burnley's more obscure back streets, completely avoiding the town centre. I think we must have been visible to all of a dozen Burnley residents.
We must do much better than this in future if we are to prevent the BNP from consolidating their position in Burnley. One of the speakers who was a national organiser from the Anti Nazi League mentioned the possibility of setting up a coalition along the lines of the Stop the War Coalition, which would include the ANL along with other anti-racist groups to maximise the fight against the far right. I am sure that there are many people who would be sympathetic to the cause of fighting the growth of the BNP, but they don't seem to be turning out. Where is everyone?
We must do much better than this in future if we are to prevent the BNP from consolidating their position in Burnley. One of the speakers who was a national organiser from the Anti Nazi League mentioned the possibility of setting up a coalition along the lines of the Stop the War Coalition, which would include the ANL along with other anti-racist groups to maximise the fight against the far right. I am sure that there are many people who would be sympathetic to the cause of fighting the growth of the BNP, but they don't seem to be turning out. Where is everyone?
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