How to stop the BNP?

The weekend before last, I attended a demonstration against the BNP's "Red White and Blue" Festival. The BNP held an event in Codnor, Derbyshire, last year, with minimal opposition but various reports of fighting and Nazi-style antics, and held a similar event this year.

The demo was organised by Nottinghamshire Stop the BNP. They brought together a wide coalition of local activists, trade unionists, some Labour Party members, and socialist groups (primarily the Socialist Party and Workers' Liberty). At the demo, the organisers were at pains to ensure that a wide range of participants had a chance to speak - unfortunately, some of them had rather too long.

Unfortunately, Unite Against Fascism (UAF) decided to organise a last-minute protest entirely separately. The police invoked the Public Order Act, claiming that the protests brought a serious risk of public disturbance, and this had the fortunate side-effect of ensuring that UAF were compelled to join the main demonstration. They have a report on their website, which tries strongly to give the impression that they organised the whole thing.

There's a reason why the local group organised the demo, rather than UAF. Until the Notts group laid the plans, there wasn't going to be any demo. Some local residents were set against the BNP event, and asked Notts Stop the BNP to put a protest together. They asked the local group because it is consistently involved in local campaigns, and calls for a positive alternative to the BNP - for decent jobs and housing. Unfortunately, UAF doesn't - it says that the BNP are Nazis and that people should vote for someone else. It's not too awful as far as it goes, but it's not hard to see why it has had little impact.

The demo was severely limited by the police restrictions, and amounted to a show of popular opposition to the festival. It didn't attempt to directly stop the event or confront BNP activists. Should it have done? Separately from the demo, the small Antifa group of anarchists attempted to invade the site and threw some stones, to little effect. If there had been more, would this have been worthwhile? The Notts Stop the BNP group doesn't reject the idea, and did prevent a BNP meeting in Kimberley.

Fair enough, but what is needed is a strong movement for decent jobs, housing, and much more besides, showing a positive counterpoint to the BNP's attacks on people from minority groups. The Notts Stop the BNP still needs to go further - many local residents didn't previously know about the demo, and a couple were hostile - but it should be an inspiration for opponents of the BNP across the country.