There are many, many more of us than you...

Hmm, been a long time since I blogged, hasn't it...

Yesterday I was in Dagenham demonstrating against the Fascist BNP. They have 13 councillors in Barking and Dagenham, and clearly think they can use them as a base to build and spread their message of hate, since they decided to have a bit of a rally. This was clearly a big deal for them, they publicised it pretty widely, and clearly felt they could pull off something impressive and imposing to gee up their members and intimidate their opponents.

Anyway, they failed. Miserably. There's a proper report here, but I'm just going to point out a few things I thought were important.

The UAF counter demo was at least four or five times as big as the Nazi's rather pathetic get together. It was genuinely multi-ethnic. There were women in hijabs leading chanting on megaphones. There were about a dozen trade union banners. Local students came out in good numbers, and the principal of Barking and Dagenham college spoke on the platform of the rally.

The BNP themselves were surprisingly subdued. To be fair we didn't give them much chance to hear themselves think, but even so they hardly looked like the master race marching towards political victory. About 70, all white, mostly male and middle aged, surrounded by a ring of police and 5 or 6 thugs in 'BNP Steward' jackets. Whichever fuehrer was addressing them clearly wasn't that impressive, since only about 20 of them seemed to clap him. Most of them seemed bored, which makes me think that the proportion of those present who can seriously be considered fascist cadre is no more than half. They didn't have any placards, literature, or even any obvious purpose.

All in all a good day. There are many, many more of us than them (as the chant went), and we proved it.