Thankyou & Good Night: Griffin loses
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Elections 2014: The
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Analysis of the Results
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'United We Stand' Unite Against Fascism Wales Newsletter email: secretary@uafwales.com
web: uaf.org.uk
Summer 2014 tel: 07704 356894
After the elections:
Stand up to UKIP racism U
KIP was formally launched in 1993. To join it you needed to agree to the following statement: “It is a non-sectarian, non-racist party with no prejudices against foreigners or lawful minorities of any kind. It does not recognise the legitimacy of the European Parliament and will send representatives only to the British Parliament in Westminster.” After Farage took control in 1999 this pledge was dropped. Why would a political party, late in the 20th Century, drop a commitment to anti-racism and a pledge to oppose prejudice? Because it had been hijacked by racists. Farage and the NF Prior to the 1997 General Election nazi National Front (NF) members were not allowed to join UKIP. On Farage's watch they were welcomed. His election agent in the 2005 election was Martin Neale, formally NF organiser in Hammersmith. And, as for “not recognising the legitimacy of the European Parliament”? Farage and his mates are wallowing in it.. He boasted to European journalists that he'd already claimed £2 million in expenses from Brussels. Man of the people? He is not, as the press tries to present him, a “man of the people” just because he knows which way up to hold a pint of beer. He is, and always has been, entrenched in the British political elite. Public school. Oxford University. A career as a stock-broker. Long-term member of the Tory Party, which he left because he thought the Tories too left wing. The day after the Euro elections of 2014 Ed Milliband was quoted in the press claiming that Farage was not a racist. He must have been talking about a different Nigel Farage of his acquaintance. Alan Sked, the original founder of UKIP, recalls discussing the type of candidates UKIP needed to stand in the 1997 General Election. Farage was in favour of standing hard-line NF members. Sked disagreed, and quotes Farage's counter-argument: “There's no need to
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Nigel Farage: leader of UKIP
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supported by:
Islamic Society for Wales
2 unite against fascism wales continued from front page worry about the nigger vote. The nig-nogs will never vote for us.” In the Euro elections UKIP came either first or second in every Council area in Wales. They are not going to evaporate. They could well also concentrate the fragmented fascist groups in Wales, give them a safe haven and provide them with a ready audience. Tax-rises under UKIP Many voters don't realise that UKIP stands for a flatrate income tax for all tax-payers of 31%. A massive tax hike for workers and a huge bonus for the rich if it was implemented. Farage's own wealth, according to a Daily Mail enquiry, is in an off-shore account, to avoid paying British taxes. UKIP believes in smashing workers' rights, such as maternity leave,. It believes in stemming immigration from the EU, yet Farage's' wife is an immigrant from the EU (she's German). Farage himself is descended from immigrants. Is Farage a common name in your cycling club or your trade union? UKIP & austerity In Wales the principal officers of UKIP are all white men. Apart from two, all are small businessmen . They are not 'Ordinary Joes'. Crucially for Wales, where the public sector employs so many, UKIP wants public sector workers sacked.
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public sector jobs are taking money out of the economy...I hope hundreds, thousands of jobs will be lost...You will never understand UKIP until you understand this point.
Former investment-banker and UKIP economic spokesperson Geoffrey Bloom
Lastly, on the NHS. Farage was disappointed that Osborne's budget in 2013 didn't use “shock and awe cuts” in the public sector. Yet this is the creature who claims that shortfalls in the NHS, and in social housing, are created by immigrants. Please sign and circulate the statement issued by SUTU. Julian Goss
After the elections Fascists booted out Unite Against Fascism is celebrating the news that Nick Griffin and the British National Party (BNP) lost their only European Parliamentary seat. This defeat shows that the majority of people in the North West rejected the BNP's message of hate. We do not believe that the defeat of the BNP was primarily down to people shifting their vote to UKIP. The BNP saw its first major electoral setbacks in 2010, well before we saw the electoral rise of UKIP. The fascist BNP was defeated by countless numbers of anti-racist and anti-fascist activists delivering hundreds of thousands of leaflets door to door exposing the BNP and their message of hate.
Both the BNP and Britain First (a fascist organisation that split from the BNP) stood candidates in Wales and over 14,000 people voted for them. Although this is well down on the 43,000 Down and out: Nazi Nick seat as an MEP thanks t votes they got last time we cannot be complacent. campaigning by UAF and Meanwhile the Nazi British Movement is targeting young people in the South Wales valleys and drawing them towards racism and fascism. UAF will switched from BNP, altho continue to be vigilant and to mount protests above, this was not the m against Nazi organisations wherever they try to of the BNP. organise in Wales. UKIP and the move to the right The shock results for UKIP in both the local elections in England and in the European Parliament elections, where they came 2nd in Wales, with 28% of the vote, mark a dangerous shift to the right in British politics. UAF does not believe that UKIP is a fascist party, but it is a racist party and one that has to be challenged. UAF Wales supports the setting up of the Stand Up to UKIP campaign and urges all members to set up or get involved with local groups campaigning against UKIP's racist and anti-working class agenda. The turn out for the Euro elections was low - only 32% in Wales. UKIP's vote only represents 8-9% of the electorate as a whole, so we shouldn't blow things out of proportion, but we do need to tackle their racist agenda head-on if we are to ensure that they don't win seats at the general election. Who voted for UKIP? A poll just after the elections showed that just over half of UKIP voters had voted Tory in 2010, while nearly a fifth had voted Lib Dem. Around 15% had voted Labour in 2010. Of course some voters also
Of course, many people s elections as a chance to c return their allegiance to t general election 2015. Bu expose UKIP for their rac policies (flat rate income maternity pay, scrapping to mention a few) to ensu electoral increase.
The response of the ma The fall-out from UKIP's s destabilisation of the main search for an effective res parties have rushed to cla on immigration - a definite
A new wave of Islamoph Anti-racists should be ver level of islamophobia bein Tories and the press ove horse' affair in Birmingham and their friends in Fleet S on how racist they can be community demonised as
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k Griffin lost his to years of d others
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see local and European cast a protest vote and will the main parties in the ut we need to work hard to cist and anti-working class tax of 30%, scrapping sick leave and holiday pay ure we begin to halt their
groups to use racism and islamophobia to rebuild hate campaigns. That's why UAF is important. Join UAF and get involved in your local group. Stand Up to UKIP UKIP will be trying to win its first MP in parliament. We must stop them! There will be a demonstration in Doncaster outside UKIP's party conference in September. For details visit www.standuptoukip.org.uk Build 21 March 2015 UN anti-racism day demonstration Following the success of #M22 2014, next year's UN anti-racism demonstration, scheduled only 7 weeks before the general election needs to send a strong anti-racist demonstration to the political parties.
'extremism' being conflated with terrorism. There is no evidence of any plot to take-over schools, yet schools with a high proportion of Muslim pupils in other areas of the country are now coming under scrutiny. As MP Diane Abbot pointed out at UAF national conference on 14th June, if it's a good thing for white middle-class parents in London to take an interest in their children's schools by becoming school governors, why is it a bad thing for working-class Muslim parents to do so? Disgraceful coverage, such as the front page of the Spectator magazine, is adding to the portrayal of Muslims as outsiders.
UAF Wales totally condemns the demonization of our Muslim brothers and sisters and recognises the dangers of allowing myths about the nature of Islam ainstream parties and the behaviour of Muslim pupils, teachers, success has been the parents and school governors to go unchallenged. nstream parties as they We recognise that the attack on the Muslim sponse. All three main community in Birmingham is racism, pure and aim that they will be harder simple, and we will not allow these lies to go e shift rightwards. unchallenged.
hobia ry concerned about the ng whipped up by the r the so-called 'Trojan m's schools. As the Tories Street try to out-do UKIP e, we are seeing a whole s 'extremist', with
The build-up to the General Election - what can you do? Join UAF Wales and get involved in your local UAF group UKIP topping the polls and the government attack on schools in Birmingham could embolden fascist
Organise a local public meeting and contact UAF Wales secretary@uafwales.com Organise in your workplace, trade union and community to come to next year's demonstration. No to a racist general election campaign! Unfortunately in response to UKIP topping the poll in the Euro elections, many politicians are arguing that we need to restrict immigration and some have suggested withdrawing child benefit from migrant workers. Therefore it is likely that political parties will be out-bidding one another in attacks on immigrants in the general election campaign. Do not let your MP get away with this! Write to your MP and complain his/her party's position on immigration. For details of campaigns visit www.standuptoracism.org.uk. Campaign against racism in the media Are you tired of negative media coverage of immigrants and Muslims? Do you think Nigel Farage and UKIP receive too much media coverage? If the answer is yes - complain! Get details of how to complain from media websites. Kris Hedges The full launch statement and all initial signatories are available on the Stand Up To UKIP website. You can add your name to the statement here: http://www.petitions24.com/standuptoukip
Over 400 people stand up to UKIP, racism and fascism: a report from the UAF Conference
Over 400 people attended the After the Euro elections:
stand up to UKIP, racism and fascism conference. The timely conference responded to the high vote received by fascists and far right parties across Europe, in particular Le Pen’s Front National in France and UKIP topping the polls. A packed conference hall heard a broad range of speakers argue that far right and fascist organisations should not be conceded to with anti-immigration rhetoric & policies and Islamophobia. Claude Moraes MEP noted that we have a ‘complex and tough battle ahead’. Of 700 MEPs elected only 7 are black MEPs but 79 come from fascist or far right parties. In France the fascist Front National topped the polls, Jobbik the Hungarian Nazi party came second and Germany elected its first Nazi MEP. Marine Le Pen has established a fascist group in the Euro parliament with representatives from 8 countries while the Tory party has welcomed MEPs from the far-right Danish People’s Party and True Finns into its Euro group. The FN now has 24 of the 74 French MEPs which adds to its 11 mayors and 5,000 councillors across France. Nathalie Levallois, from Partie de Gauche, explained that Marine Le Pen’s tactic is to make the FN respectable, aiming for government and to rule France. She thought the true nature of FN would be exposed by actions of local mayors and councillors. Habib Gniengue, from the French students’ union, reported that recent student anti-fascist demonstrations challenged the notion that the FN is ‘ordinary’. Every racist policy or statement of Le Pen needs to be challenged and the urgent task in France is to organise a consistent anti-racist/ anti-fascist campaign. Petros Constantinou from KEERFA, the Greek anti-fascist campaign, said that Golden Dawn secured 9.4% of the vote but is a fascist party in crisis with its leader and 6 MPs in prison though GD has financial support from elements of big business. There has been significant anti-fascist activity - a
general strike against the fascists, a 50,000 demonstration on 22 March, intense activity from trade unions to keep fascists out of schools, hospitals and shipyards and on farms where Bangladeshi workers were shot at by bosses. Anti–austerity parties in Greece received 34% of Euro votes and also made advances in Spain and Ireland. But Petros argued that as well as a social alternative to the crisis, a united anti-fascist movement is needed to defeat the Nazis. The defeat of Nick Griffin was welcomed. Tony Kearns, Deputy General Secretary of the CWU, recognised that racism had been consistently challenged by UAF in the North West and that the EDL has been defeated by UAF mobilisations on the streets. Writer Owen Jones described the rise of UKIP is as ’a great threat to an accepting and divergent society.’ Fascist and racist parties in Europe are pushing mainstream parties further to the right on racism. The ‘Trojan Horse’ situation in Birmingham expressed ‘real hatred’ that ‘will affect the community for the rest of their lives’ and Talha Ahmad of the Muslim Council of Britain emphasised the ‘need to challenge that kind of bigotry’. Racism needs to be challenged on every occasion to stop UKIP making it acceptable again. In the coming period we need to continue to challenge fascists on the streets and at the same time develop a political analysis and strategy that recognises that mainstream governments are being pushed to the right on racism. We must continue to build on the successes of UAF and work with anti- fascists across Europe. Maggie Simpson Owen Jones' speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9xTGKdo4nQ Claude Moraes MEP speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvzpU7ZqLFg Jean Lambert MEP speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-XaE8Arsqg
Join UAF Wales! ‘The threat from the BNP and fascist groups in Wales is real and immediate.They bring division to our communities and all thinking, compassionate people should oppose them. Now is the time to mobilise on an all-Wales basis, to meet the threat from these racist, fascist thugs as it arises.’ Peter Hain MP Name/organisation ................................................................................Email.................................................................. Address ............................................................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................................................................ Phone ................................................................................................Union ...................................................................... UAF Wales annual membership fees are: Individuals: £5 and £2 for concessions Organisations: Local £20, Wales unfunded £40, Wales funded £100 Return to: UAF Wales, 271 Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff CF51JB
Honorary President: Peter Hain M.P Chair: Ali Ahmed Vice-Chair: Maggie Simpson Treasurer: Amarjite Singh Secretary: Julian Goss Liaison: Kristina Hedges