- Demo at BNP festival. Pics & report., Guido, UK Indymedia, August 19, 2008
Yeah so the protest at the BNP’s Red, White & Blue Festival has done come and gone. Somewhere between 4-700 attended the protest; the BNP claims 4,000 attended the event itself (although others estimate several thousand less). Hundreds of police sought order via use of the Public Order Act, placing (further) legal restrictions on the numbers and movements of protesters. In the end, 33 protesters were arrested, and the Festival appears to have run relatively smoothly. Minor incidents included a nutty BNP supporter named Tommy Williams claiming a non-existent bomb was thrown; the constitutional changes Nick Griffin demanded easily getting through (and as a result further strengthening his position); and patriotic Brits eating pig. On the other hand/side, the SWP front Unite Against Fascism was able to command media attention — although not for its role in hijacking the protest or disrupting the plans of local anti-fascists. BBC: “Earlier some 700 demonstrators from Unite Against Fascism, the TUC and Unison took part in a march from the nearby village of Codnor.” Most likely, the group’s manipulations will be quickly forgotten and smothered under calls for unity.
Police arrest 33 in rally protests
Derbyshire Times
August 18, 2008
Police made 33 arrests on Saturday following protests against the BNP’s Red, White and Blue event at Denby. The majority of the arrests were made after two incidents which were not connected with the main protest and march through Codnor. The first incident was on Breach Road, Denby, at about 11am, when a group of about 40 protesters tried to barricade the road to stop access. When police arrived stones were thrown at the officers who made six arrests for violent disorder. The rest of the protesters dispersed over the fields and at about 12 noon confronted police on Kensington Avenue at Heanor where further disorder occurred. Twenty arrests were made for offences including violent disorder and breach of bail.
“Never again” call from residents living near BNP festival site
Derby Evening Telegraph
August 18, 2008
VILLAGERS are pleading with the BNP not to hold its festival near their homes again, after violent left-wing protests outside the site. About 40 activists clashed with riot police near the Red, White and Blue festival, in Denby, resulting in 33 arrests and an officer being injured. Four hundred anti-BNP protesters also turned out for a generally peaceful march and rally in Codnor. And people living near the site, in Codnor-Denby Lane, said they were kept awake by noise and flashing lights from inside the festival and drunks were making Nazi-style salutes outside their homes. Now residents, Amber Valley MP Judy Mallaber and the area’s county councillor, Eric Lancashire, are calling for the BNP not to return next year to ensure the violence does not happen again. John Lumsden, 65, of Codnor-Denby Lane, said: “The fighting only goes to show what an unsuitable place this is.” Ms Mallaber said: “I am opposed to the BNP being here and I condemn the people who created the disorder outside. It is extremely distressing for people living nearby.” But BNP member Alan Warner, who hosted the festival on his fields, said it would be back “bigger and better” next year and said all the trouble had been caused by left-wing protesters.
Left-wing activists clash with riot police at anti-BNP protest
Derby Evening Telegraph
August 18, 2008
MASKED anti-BNP activists fought hand-to-hand with riot officers and pelted them with stones as the party held its controversial Red, White and Blue festival this weekend. The violence happened on Saturday when protesters tried to barricade a road leading to the festival. Police armed with batons moved in to quell the demonstrators, making 27 arrests. Meanwhile, a 400-strong anti-BNP march passed off mostly without incident, apart from a scuffle when protesters wanted to go further than a pre-agreed police cordon. Shops closed, traffic was disrupted and residents said they felt like prisoners in their own homes during the protests. Now, they are pleading for the BNP not to return so the violence does not happen again…
See also : Family fun @ the BNP’s Scumfest (August 13, 2008) | Unite Against Fascism is a weird mob (August 1, 2008)
- …even the COVERT TEAM arn’t perfect.
Here is the phone number and e-mail for RWB host Alan Warner:
01773 748129
07810 383595
[email protected]
Address for sending Xmas cards or any other festive greeting:
“The Bungalow”
Codnor-Denby Lane
Ripley
Derbyshire
DE5 8PT
ENGLAND
One of the arrestees was a friend of mine, who I stayed with some of the time I was in London. 🙁
I was at the RWB festival and no-one from the BNP festival caused a problem. None of the people there left the site at night as someone said earlier so I presume it was a loony lefty protester and NOT a BNP reveller that were “making Nazi-style salutes” outside people’s homes.
A great time was had at the festival. It was a typical English affair with fun fair, food halls selling British fayre, children’s creche with puppet show, trampoline, dog show etc etc and NOT the ‘scumfest’ that someone else described.
We are normal people with a love for our country, it’s people and traditions. We have a right to hold our festival and will continue to do so.
I too was at the RWB,I arrived with my son several hours after the protest.We were not put off by these idiots.We both had a great time,my only regret was that we couldn’t get there on the friday.
As for your attempt to intimidate Mr Warner with nasty phone calls and such like,you are wasting your time and effort.He is a typical Brit who doesn’t back down to threats.
I’m just glad the protester’s never made it onto the site,the women and children would of ripped them apart.
We will most certainly be back next year,hope to see you there Chantelle.
These idiots are being used by the communist unions.UAF is organised by criminals and get[s] Government Grants & Lottery funds to finance them. TAXPAYER[‘]S Money.A lot of them are idiotic students again on grants.Cameron is still a member of UAF from his student days.BNP have done absolutely nothing towards the ruination of this Country.Liebour have done Everything to wreck the Country.Communist Labour party supported by Communist Unions with block votes & Finance.Using a bunch of communist idiots (UAF) to do their dirty work.Ripping down the UNION JACK FLAG.These low li[f]es are the Fascists.
G’day Sam,
I’m not sure who you mean by ‘idiots’, but I’ll presume you refer to all those who protest against the BNP’s Festival.
To the best of my knowledge, the main organiser of the protest is not UAF (‘Unite Against Fascism’), but rather another mob, based in Nottinghamshire: “Stop the Red, White and Blue campaign is a politically independent network of anti-fascists, dedicated to ideological opposition to, and direct action against[,] the BNP’s Red, White and Blue festival”.
UAF, on the other hand, is a national network of anti-fascist and anti-racist activists, formed in 2003, and initially comprising members of the ‘Anti-Nazi League’ [defunct], the ‘National Assembly Against Racism’ and some TUs (T&G, Unite and Unison). ‘Red’ Ken Livingstone is its Chairman, and Wayman Bennett (Secretary) its most famous face.
On February 21 of this year, UAF held a conference. According to UAF, approximately 550 people attended, and it was addressed by a range of worthies: Frances O’Grady (Deputy Secretary TUC), Peter Hain MP, Dr. Abdul Bari (MCB) and Edie Friedman (JCORE).
In short, UAF is an organisation dominated by the Socialist Workers’ Party (of which Bennett is representative), Labour ‘lefts’ (Livingstone, Jasper, and so on), but which includes within it various other individuals and (largely subordinate) groups.
At least, that’s how UAF appears to me.
So:
There are no ‘communist’ unions in the UK;
UAF is not organised by ‘criminals’, but — by and large — members of the ‘left’;
The SWP is indeed ‘communist’, but espouses ‘communism’ of a certain variety (the iSt or Cliffite interpretation of Trotskyism), one with numerous rivals on the ‘left’ (almost none of which are as large or as well-established);
The UAF actually represents an attempt to form a kind of ‘Popular Front’ of ‘anti-fascists’ — the point being that, contrary to your assertions, this results in a watered-down ‘left-wing’ politics;
It depends upon the support of more ‘mainstream’ constituencies and elements of the English political establishment (in particular Labour and Labour-dominated unions);
It is precisely on this count that it is vulnerable.
Finally:
Opposition to ‘fascism’ is not ‘fascist’;
To the extent that UAF either is or appears to be aligned with Labour and similar establishment concerns, the BNP is rightly able to capitalise upon its renegade status — it is Labour which, on the whole, has presided over the implementation of a series of economic and political ‘reforms’ which have resulted in a serious decline in the ‘standard of living’ of very large numbers of working-class people.
Norwich North by-election results:
Chloe Smith (C) 13,591 (39.54%, 6.29%)
Chris Ostrowski (Lab) 6,243 (18.16%, -26.70%)
April Pond (LD) 4,803 (13.97%, -2.22%)
Glenn Tingle (UKIP) 4,068 (11.83%, 9.45%)
Rupert Read (Green) 3,350 (9.74%, 7.08%)
Craig Murray (Honest) 953 (2.77%)
Robert West (BNP) 941 (2.74%)
Bill Holden (Ind) 166 (0.48%, -0.17%)
Howling Laud (Loony) 144 (0.42%)
Anne Fryatt (NOTA) 59 (0.17%)
Thomas Burridge (Libertarian) 36 (0.10%)
Peter Baggs (Ind) 23 (0.07%)
C maj 7,348 (21.37%)
16.49% swing Lab to C
Electorate 75,124; Turnout 34,377 (45.76%, -15.33%)
2005:
Lab maj 5,459 (11.61%) – Turnout 47,033 (61.09%)
Gibson (Lab) 21,097 (44.86%);
Tumbridge (C) 15,638 (33.25%);
Whitmore (LD) 7,616 (16.19%);
Holmes (Green) 1,252 (2.66%);
Youles (UKIP) 1,122 (2.39%);
Holden (Ind) 308 (0.65%)
*Less than half the eligible number of voters bothered to show up.
*Craig Murray comments:
…While Tory candidate Chloe Smith won the seat with 39 per cent of the vote, we got less than three per cent. After so much work many of my supporters were in tears, although the only time I cried was when old Tom Watson missed that putt on the 18th to lose the Open. A sense of perspective is important.
Now let us apply that perspective to the result. The Conservatives may feel they won a famous victory, but the hard truth is that they got 2,000 votes less than they did in the 2005 General Election.
New Labour’s collapse verged on the incredible – they lost 70 per cent of those who voted for them the last time, while the Lib Dems lost a third.
The hard facts are that the combined vote of the three main parties fell from 42,000 to 23,000. That is the astonishing fact about Norwich North that no political commentator seems to have noticed. Anybody who believes the party politicians are out of the woods could not be more wrong.
And while my own efforts to contribute to the process were pretty rubbish, that decline in public support is what the more acute analysts should be thinking over next week.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1202235/CRAIG-MURRAY-I-worst-election-candidate-history–result-losers.html
Reverend Robert West is awesome. A former Tory councillor suspended by the party, he joined the BNP in 2006:
With the help of the BNP, the weirdo ‘Reverend’ established the ‘Christian Council of Britain’: “a patriotic Christian organisation that is not ‘politically-correct’ and that will stand up for what is right and for Britain’s heritage”. Established Christian churches appear not to want to have a bar of the BNP (Does any church claim ‘Rev’ Robert West?, Jonathan Bartley, Ekklesia, June 23, 2009), so it makes sense that it should establish one of its own. (The same applies to the BNP’s union, Solidarity.) In 2009, West was the BNP’s lead candidate for East Midlands: the party gained 106,319 votes or 8.7%, an increase of 2.1% on the previous election.
Contrary to the BNP’s lies, the BNP has been active ITA for decades. In addition to the Reverend, one if its more special members is a second-hand car dealer named Steve Ames.
See also : Centre for Social Cohesion reveals BNP’s online fascist network, Centre for Social Cohesion [PDF].
The only people who cause the trouble for villagers are the Leftwing ragbags who hate to see British people having the nerve to enjoy a British weekend of fun.
These anti-British morons are a plague on the democratic freedom which, at the moment, we enjoy.
They are the true enemies of freedom, they are everything that free thinking people hate.
They need to get a life, get a job and get into the real world. Why don’t they use their one brain cell and start to fight for the rights of British people instead of using it to support and demonstrate for every Tom, Dick and Ali who are already living a life they could never hope to achieve in whatever part of the world they come from.
I will be attending the RWB festival with my hubby (first time) just to spend time with like minded people who are my people.
3/10 – I could actually comprehend this even if it is a load of hackneyed old bollocks with severe cognitive dissonance in evidence.
I am writing from aussie land, keep up the good work BNP, you are supported by white people all over the world, you have the she[e]r bulls [!] to state what is on the minds of most white men and women in the street. The fascist left have a lined [sic] them selfs [sic] with the islamists, 5 headed poli lab, liber [sic], conver [sic], murdock [sic] media, BBC, and the Black negro ebonyists [!] that want to breed the whites out of existance [sic], CONSIGN THE WHOLE STINKING LOT OF THEM TO THE TRASH CAN OF HISTORY, were [sic] they belong[.]
IN ORDER FOR THE BNP TO RULE IT IS,IMPORTANT TO GO ABOVE THE BULLSHIT OF YOUR ENEMYS,ALLOW INTO YOUR Party black genetic engineered hybids,commit your self to the idea deversity of conformity,white race veiw,40 eye colours 50 hair colours,black with 50 50% ism present in there genes,THIS WILL COMPLETELY SCREW YOUR ENEMYS,BECAUSE IT GOES OUTSIDE THERE VEIWS,EQUITY IS GREATER THAN EQUALITY