East London anti-fascists unite

Submitted by Matthew on 5 March, 2010 - 8:03 Author: Dave Malbon, Secretary, Barking, Dagenham & Havering Together

Trade unionists have come together under the umbrella of Havering and Barking and Dagenham Trades Councils to form Barking, Dagenham and Havering Together, a new campaign to combat the rise of the BNP in boroughs.

There’ll be more of a focus on Havering, because there’s already a lot of established anti-fascist campaigning in Barking. We don’t have that campaigning infrastructure in Havering; the BNP feel confident enough to hold press conferences and general meetings in the borough. They’ve got a good chance in the three wards in which they’re standing in Havering.

The BNP has grown in east London because there’s a perception that the main parties aren’t doing much about issues such as housing or education. That’s what the BNP will be going for; they’ll find local issues and exploit them. The recession’s been very good for the BNP — people have genuine concerns and they’re casting around for someone to blame.

Trade unions can be central to anti-fascist campaigning because we have access to potentially enormous amounts of people. We can speak to our members and give out information about what the BNP represents. Trade unions stand for unity, whereas the BNP stand for division. A lot of the unions involved in our campaign are public sector unions, and there’s a recognition that a BNP council would mean worse conditions for public sector workers. There’d be problems with recruitments and retention of public sector workers with a BNP council; anti-fascism is about protecting workers’ rights.

The message we’re trying to send is that issues like housing and education aren’t the property of the BNP. They’re traditional trade-union, working-class issues. People are right to be angry about those things but we’ve got to counter the BNP’s lies about them. The anti-fascist movement should conduct positive campaigning around those issues to undermine the BNP’s racist lies.

We’ll be having leafleting days, and beyond that we’re looking to get unions involved in the campaign and distribute publicity and information. But beyond that, we want them to organise workplace meetings and mobilise their members.

There’s a debate in the campaign around what we should say about how people should vote; it’s a contentious issue. Some unions can’t come out in favor of one particular party as there are legal and constitutional restrictions. As TUs we have to concentrate on the issues and making sure people don’t vote for the BNP. We can’t say much more beyond that.

BDHT will be organising regular leafleting activities. Please contact 07973421463 with any queries.

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