The event was addressed by a range of speakers including:
John Campbell, Chair Sheffield UAF • Council Leader Paul Scriven • Paul Blomfield from the Labour Party • Cllr Jillian Creasey, Green Party • Regional NUT Secretary Ian Stevenson • Aisha 'Special K', Manager of Sheffield REC • Abdul Gooljar, Islamic Society of Britain • Cllr Mahroof Hussain from Rotherham • LGBT youth speaker • Sheffield University Students' Union and others.
John Campbell, Chair Sheffield UAF • Council Leader Paul Scriven • Paul Blomfield from the Labour Party • Cllr Jillian Creasey, Green Party • Regional NUT Secretary Ian Stevenson • Aisha 'Special K', Manager of Sheffield REC • Abdul Gooljar, Islamic Society of Britain • Cllr Mahroof Hussain from Rotherham • LGBT youth speaker • Sheffield University Students' Union and others.
The UAF leadership, namely one Weyman Bennett , has once again claimed that his organisation is the leading light in the tradition of militant anti-fascism in Britain today.
Just days after a UAF march led to some of the marchers succesfully chasing Griffin away from a press conference outside the Houses of Parliament, Bennett wasted no time in publicly declaring that the UAF stand firmly in the tradition that previously saw Moseley's Blackshirts smashed of the streets of London in the 1930's.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6488664.ece?Submitted=true
Bennett is an opportunist and an outright liar.
As a member of the Socialist Workers Party, who have a history of 'self declared leadership' of popular struggles this is hardly surprising.
While eggs may have been thrown last week, in itself hardly a 'militant' act of much pedigree but an act newsworthy enough to prompt a media frenzy, those involved were most likely not themselves members of the UAF, and the lack of media footage of Bennett himself getting 'stuck in' is noticeably absent as always.
The truth is that the SWP and all their political front groups have contributed far more to actually boosting BNP membership than they have to confronting it.
One of the leading groups in the 1980's physically confronting the BNP were Red Action, whose founding members were themselves originally from the SWP and their front group the Anti Nazi League.
These members were expelled for 'Squadism', or put simply, using violence and intimidation to break up meetings, marches and other gatherings of far right groups such as the National Front and the British Movement. The idea behind the tactic was to intimidate groups seen as fascist, without generating media publicity for the far right.
In short they were expelled for being part of the tradition of militant anti-fascism that Bennett is today claiming he and the UAF belong too.
Bennett is happy to co-operate with the state while declairing himself a militant. So much so that a UAF march in Leeds yesterday led by Bennett himself, was halted by the UAF on the request of the police, so that the first Orange Order parade in 40 years could go ahead on time in the same location.
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/06/432227.html?c=on#c225807
Now that's Bennett's 'militant anti-fascism' for you!
There have been a number of attempts to downplay the scale of the British National Party’s success in the Euro elections last week. One of the main arguments which has been put forward is that while the BNP won two Euro seats, it’s number of votes actually dropped, proving that people are not turning to the far-right.
There’s a possiblity here of reading the results for the narrative we hope find, rather than facing the true extent of the challenge for the Left and the shape of likely developments to come. It’s correct we need to avoid hysteria, but at the same time we need good analysis to form effective strategies. Despite the risk of engaging in amateur psephology, and the danger of getting some of our calculations wrong, we want to try to break down some of the figures to find out if BNP support is static or if the party is still on the march. So, let’s look at the two seats where the BNP won.
First, the North West. In 2004, the BNP won 134,958 votes (6.4%) out of 2,115,163 votes cast. This time around, the BNP attained 132,094 votes (8%) out of 1,651,825. So here we have a 1.6% increase in vote percentage but a slight drop in support of 2,864 votes between the two elections. However, this must be set against a decline in turnout of more than 21%! In this context, the BNP’s total number of votes dropped about 2%.
Second, Yorkshire and the Humber. In 2004, the BNP won 126,538 votes (8%) out of 1,573,201 votes cast. This time around, the BNP attained 120,139 votes (9.8%) out of 1,226,180. Here we have a similar picture. The BNP’s share of the vote is up 1.8% but its absolute number of votes is down by 6,399. But again the turnout fell by more than 22% while the BNP’s total number of votes fell by just over 5%.
http://theleftluggage.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/amateur-psephology-and-the-rise-of-the-far-right/
Just days after a UAF march led to some of the marchers succesfully chasing Griffin away from a press conference outside the Houses of Parliament, Bennett wasted no time in publicly declaring that the UAF stand firmly in the tradition that previously saw Moseley's Blackshirts smashed of the streets of London in the 1930's.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6488664.ece?Submitted=true Bennett is an opportunist and an outright liar.
As a member of the Socialist Workers Party, who have a history of 'self declared leadership' of popular struggles this is hardly surprising.
While eggs may have been thrown last week, in itself hardly a 'militant' act of much pedigree but an act newsworthy enough to prompt a media frenzy, those involved were most likely not themselves members of the UAF, and the lack of media footage of Bennett himself getting 'stuck in' is noticeably absent as always.
The truth is that the SWP and all their political front groups have contributed far more to actually boosting BNP membership than they have to confronting it.
One of the leading groups in the 1980's physically confronting the BNP were Red Action, whose founding members were themselves originally from the SWP and their front group the Anti Nazi League.
These members were expelled for 'Squadism', or put simply, using violence and intimidation to break up meetings, marches and other gatherings of far right groups such as the National Front and the British Movement. The idea behind the tactic was to intimidate groups seen as fascist, without generating media publicity for the far right.
In short they were expelled for being part of the tradition of militant anti-fascism that Bennett is today claiming he and the UAF belong too.
Bennett is happy to co-operate with the state while declairing himself a militant. So much so that a UAF march in Leeds yesterday led by Bennett himself, was halted by the UAF on the request of the police, so that the first Orange Order parade in 40 years could go ahead on time in the same location.
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/06/432227.html?c=on#c225807 Now that's Bennett's 'militant anti-fascism' for you!
There have been a number of attempts to downplay the scale of the British National Party’s success in the Euro elections last week. One of the main arguments which has been put forward is that while the BNP won two Euro seats, it’s number of votes actually dropped, proving that people are not turning to the far-right.
There’s a possiblity here of reading the results for the narrative we hope find, rather than facing the true extent of the challenge for the Left and the shape of likely developments to come. It’s correct we need to avoid hysteria, but at the same time we need good analysis to form effective strategies. Despite the risk of engaging in amateur psephology, and the danger of getting some of our calculations wrong, we want to try to break down some of the figures to find out if BNP support is static or if the party is still on the march. So, let’s look at the two seats where the BNP won.
First, the North West. In 2004, the BNP won 134,958 votes (6.4%) out of 2,115,163 votes cast. This time around, the BNP attained 132,094 votes (8%) out of 1,651,825. So here we have a 1.6% increase in vote percentage but a slight drop in support of 2,864 votes between the two elections. However, this must be set against a decline in turnout of more than 21%! In this context, the BNP’s total number of votes dropped about 2%.
Second, Yorkshire and the Humber. In 2004, the BNP won 126,538 votes (8%) out of 1,573,201 votes cast. This time around, the BNP attained 120,139 votes (9.8%) out of 1,226,180. Here we have a similar picture. The BNP’s share of the vote is up 1.8% but its absolute number of votes is down by 6,399. But again the turnout fell by more than 22% while the BNP’s total number of votes fell by just over 5%.
http://theleftluggage.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/amateur-psephology-and-the-rise-of-the-far-right/ 
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