North West

Unite Against Fascism Statement on the events in Leigh on Friday 13th March

Last Friday evening, UAF supporters from across the North West organised a protest with local anti-fascists near to the supposed venue of the British National Party’s latest “Battle for Britain” meeting in Leigh, Greater Manchester. As the evening went on the UAF protest numbered 70-plus, including Trade Unionists, students and local people.

The landlord of the proposed venue had in fact cancelled the BNP’s booking, following protests from a range of local people, including bar staff at a nearby pub. Despite the cancellation of the venue, members of the Nazi BNP still arrived with their ‘Battle for Britain’ Land Rover and trailer AND PHYSICALLY ATTACKED THE DEMO. This is now part a of complaint that Unite Against Fascism (UAF) has made to the greater Manchester police . Local people were clearly furious at having the Nazi propaganda-trailer on their street. As well as protesting, several demonstrators took the time to distribute UAF’s ‘Use Your Vote On June 4th’ material to members of the public.

Despite these attempts by the Nazi thugs to intimidate anti-fascists, the protestors succeeded in driving the BNP away. The Nazis were clearly humiliated after their planned big “Battle for Britain” Roadshow ended in a shambles. This follows on the success of anti-fascists stopping the BNP road show in other parts of Britain such as South Gloucester.

The counter-protest on Friday was called by Unite Against Fascism because it is important to show that the BNP are not merely another right-wing political party but are in fact a Nazi Party. This was graphically underlined when Nazi thugs attacked anti-fascists with steel bars and broken anti-fascist placards. Fascism is a movement of violence and as such it tries always to create violence. On Friday, Nazi thugs brought violence onto the streets of Leigh, attacking local people and anti-fascists who objected to their presence.

Our response to the violence of fascism is based on mass action rather than small individual confrontations. We know that the BNP’s racism and fascism is opposed by the vast majority of people and we need to mobilise them against the BNP so that they won’t be able to bring violence to the streets again. That means that mobilising greater numbers of people to actively oppose the Nazis becomes ever more important. UAF emphasises the central importance of mass collective protests to block the BNP whenever they try and take to the streets or hold public meetings. WE seek to build a movement involving everyone against fascism –be they trade unionists, the young and old, community activists and faith groups.

In the run up to the European Elections on June 4th we must continue to build such a movement.


Counter-protest to the latest 'Battle for Britain' Roadshow date

On Thursday 26th March the BNP are holding another 'Battle of Britain' roadshow. will will let you know where it is as soon as we have the info