Buy today's Daily Mirror!
Searchlight today announced that the Daily Mirror is supporting the HOPE not Hate campaign. Today's edition carries an 8pp supplement celebrating modern diverse Britain and opposing the politics of hate.
On Saturday a HOPE not Hate bus, organised by Searchlight and the Daily Mirror, will begin a 14-day journey across the country. It will start in Dagenham on Saturday morning and end in Glasgow on Friday 6 April. Along the route we shall be joined by national celebrities and visit local community groups at the forefront of offering a positive alternative to the BNP. Click here to see the route map.
The campaign is being backed by X-Factor winner Leona Lewis, boxer Amir Khan and The Apprentice's Alan Sugar.
Jon Cruddas, MP for Dagenham and joint secretary of the Anti-Fascist Fortnight steering committee, told Searchlight: "This is really exciting news. The support of the Daily Mirror takes our campaign onto a new level. I would urge everyone to get involved."
HOPE not Hate literature
Searchlight has produced a range of HOPE not Hate literature which local groups and unions can distribute. These include newspapers, leaflets, postcards, posters, balloons and badges. View the merchandise here.
Anti-Fascist Fortnight
Over the next two weeks there will be anti-BNP activities across the country. It is really important that we translate opposition to the racist views of the BNP to positive action. If we are going to prevent the BNP from winning council seats then we need to get anti-BNP literature out through doors. Please do you best to spare some time to help out. You can view the activities here.
£8,000 to defeat the BNP: Please support Searchlight
Searchlight still needs to raise £8,000 to fund its campaign. Every penny raised will go straight to our campaign fund. The more money we raise, the more we can do. The more we can do, the more we can stop the BNP. The more we can stop the BNP, the better life will be. It's that simple.
We would like to thank those who have already given generously and we would urge others, especially those who are unable to attend our activities, to support the campaign through a donation.
To dontate to the campaig click here
You can download a fundraising leaflet here
TOGETHER WE CAN BEAT THE BNP
12 comments:
Good on the Daily Mirror, but lets hope the Searchlight material they put out is not Islamophobic this time...
It is a pity that there is not more unity between anti-fascist groups - but when New Labour and Searchlight decide to buy into racist notions of Muslims to try and undermine the Nazi vote building such unity is clearly going to be next to impossible.
The model proposed by Unite Against Fascism clearly opposes not only fascism but also racism - such a model has to be better to one which says simply 'Vote [racist] Labour to stop the fascist BNP'
For a clever chap Snowball, you do argue some strange positions.
Firstly, I have never seen any material from Seachlight that is Islamophobic, I read the magazine every month, and it is ludicrous to suggest that Gerry gable would produce racist of islamophobic material.
Incidently, the position you are arguing is a break from the position of the first time round ANL, which was an explicitly single issue anti-fascist campaign - there wwre arguments at the time and we in the SWP explictly defended the right of people who supported immigration controls to be part of the ANL.
BUt also Searchligt does not advocate "voting Labour" - it advocates voting from whichever non-facsist party is best placed to beat the BNP, and time and time agains argues that to achieve that then labour needs to address the class intersts of its tradiational voters.
NOr - in the context of the BNP chalenge is it pparticuylarly helpful to categorise labour as simply a racist party, because that is an obstacle to building a campaign based around trade union activists.
Indeed Jon Cruddas has himslef produced quite a sophisticated critique of how New Labour fails by both encouraging immigration while failing to politically defend immigrants. There is a deep tradition of anti-racism in the Labour party.
I would also say that UAF is slightly compromisd by the silly things it says, for example Weyman bennett describing the BNP as an "openly fascist party", when they are clearly not openly facsist. But also, any campaign against the BNP must include (as one string of its bow) arguments addressed at the concerns of BNP supporters in language they understand, rather than appealing to the already anti--racist.
Searchlight are very good at driving a gap between the racist base of support for the BNP,, who neverteless are uncoomfortable with the party's violence, etc. Nor do they pander at all to racism or islamophobia in so doing, despite your assertion.
Another area where sercligt are very strong is their reserach and targetting of non-white voters to ensure they get out and vote against the BNP.
Sorry - perhaps I should have been more specific - some Searchlight leaflets seem to have bought into the idea of 'Islamofascism' - arguing that the BNP and 'Muslim extremists' are essentially two sides of the same coin - a very New Labour analysis.
Such an analysis in my opinion can only undermine the effort to unite black, asian and white in the struggle against racism and fascism.
I would need to see what was actually said Snowball and clearly there are some Jihadis who ARE as bad as the BNP - as I am sure you will agree.
Also were these Searchlisght lefalets, or lelaflets produced by local groups under - who often use the "Together against facsism" label but Searchlight has no editorial control.
ARGH! What are you doing Andy?!
Do you know nothing at all about Searchlight?
Searchlight promotes its own agenda and that of the secret state, not an anti-fascist agenda. It has a well-documented history of grassing up revolutionaries to fascists and to the intelligence services. I could provide numerous examples of this. Essentially it attacks as a sub-contractor for the state spying on and manipulating those it was claiming to be helping.
For its entire existence Searchlight has acted in close co-operation with the most reactionary elements within the state, for example they almost certainly helped facilitate the link up between dissident loyalists and groups like Combat 18, running stories that conformed to secret state agendas not the truth and were used by the state as a weapon against the revolutionary left at the time when the revolutionary left was still considered a threat to the established order.
The anti-fascist movement learnt all this the hard way and it took 20 years of seeing comrades being grassed up, deliberate disinformation put out and organisations sabotaged. Anti-fascists should not have anything to do with Searchlight projects, contribute anything financially to them or support them in any way. To do so is effectively co-operating with and supporting some of our most bitter opponents.
Please, take the post down.
I don't agree with any of that Duncan.
Certainly i don't agree that gerry gable and Nick Lowles are my "bitter opponents".
I don't agree with any of that Duncan.
Why not?
Do you think it isn’t true? If so, then say so and I will provide the evidence. What exactly do you dispute that I have said?
Searchlight acts as a sub-contractor for the state, writing stories to fit their agenda, spreading disinformation, grassing up revolutionaries (that’s people like us Andy) to fascists and the intelligence services and disorientating, dividing the anti-fascist movement.
Certainly i don't agree that gerry gable and Nick Lowles are my "bitter opponents".
Really? Do you know that Gable is a state asset? Conspiracy theory territory this may be but it is true nonetheless.
And there was me thinking that one of the bitterest opponents of revolutionaries, a term I’m sure you would apply to yourself, is the secret state.
You were around for the Miners Strike, remember how MI5 behaved during that? You yourself seem to know what you are talking about when it comes to Northern Ireland so surely you must have no illusions about the role the state plays in anything that threatens it.
Since its inception Searchlight has been closely associated with the secret state and giving it support not only seriously undermines our own movement but it gives fascists a powerful weapon against us.
Duncan, when you say:
"grassing up revolutionaries (that’s people like us Andy)"
what do you base your identification of me as being a "revolutionary" ???
and "revolutionaries, a term I’m sure you would apply to yourself"
why, would you assume that?
I describe myself only as a socialist - by any means necessary.
All this you are saying is old hat ultra-left bollocks about refusing to work with the state against the far right. Again the fash need to be combatted by any means necessary.
Who else should have arrested David Copeland if not the police?
The allegations about the secret state, and I have read all this stuff before over the years, are from people who are quite naive about the real issues of serious political work - based upon hard information, and using the actually existing circumstances of a liberal democracy.
what do you base your identification of me as being a "revolutionary" ???
why, would you assume that?
Apologies Andy, I assumed you identified as a revolutionary socialist on the basis of your identification as a socialist and your support for anti-imperialist struggles in Iraq and Palestine.
All this you are saying is old hat ultra-left bollocks about refusing to work with the state against the far right.
Ok you’ve got me convinced. I’ll start working with Searchlight. And when they start doing things like ask for membership lists of organisations I belong to so they can check for ‘fascists’ I’ll hand them over knowing full well that it will probably be passed onto to MI5 and if any of my comrades complain about being falsely accused of being fascists by Searchlight as a result of this I will rightly condemn them for being ‘ultra-left’.
It isn’t about not working with the state at all, it’s about not co-operating with the intelligence services. The same intelligence services that have spent decades undermining the socialist cause in Britain by any means necessary.
Again the fash need to be combatted by any means necessary.
So you advocate co-operation with those who have used fascists as a weapon against the left? Those who have passed on information to fascists?
If you know about Northern Ireland you know the reality of the secret state and I am genuinely surprised that you advocate co-operation with them.
For example, say during the Miners Strike in 1984 when MI5 were doing all they could to defeat the strike would you have advocated working with these same intelligence services, passing on information etc, to combat fascists?
The allegations about the secret state, and I have read all this stuff before over the years, are from people who are quite naive about the real issues of serious political work
This I find insulting and so would the people concerned. To say that people who have been smeared by Searchlight, had their details passed onto fascists by Searchlight and had their lives been made living hell after Searchlight passed on their details to MI5 are ‘quite naïve’ about serious political work is astonishing.
From what I have read so far, it is you who is naïve about serious political work.
As a socialist serious political work will one day bring you into confrontation with reactionary elements within the state. At this point it is probably best that they are not on first name terms with you and have your personal details.
Strangely enough ;)
I think Andy Newman's right on this one!
I'd suggest that part of the reason that the SWP disliked Searchlight was largely because they can't control it, Blair ain't the only political control freak
There have been various rather allegations against Searchlight from anarchists types over the years, not sure how accurate they are.
I think Searchlight is a required read for any anti-fascist.
But it is a strange old Left nowadays where fascists can contemplate infiltrating the Left and not be found out fairly quickly?
surely, quizzing people about their anti-fascist views ain't exactly hard is it.
handing over any details about another anti-fascist seems a bit naive to me, membership lists should remain private to the organisers of each anti-fascist grouping and not be passed around, to anyone else.
Searchlight has it's good points & is an informative publication but their decision to withdraw from UAF was disgraceful and divisive. Searchlight supporters should be agitating for it to re-join UAF.
It also damningly has pushed the line of voting Labour to stop the Nazis. This poses a problem for united campaigns because will Respect, Green, SNP, Plaid or even LibDem supporters and members feel inspired to join such a campaign, especially as it often the failure of New Labour that has laid the ground for the success of the fascists.
Searchlight also pushes some strange ideas. For example, it argues that only white people should leaflet white estates etc. Actually all the evidence shows that one of the great things about mass campaigns such as the ANL in the 70s were the diversity of the campaigners & the way it united black and white
AJ
What about leaving it to the voters if they want to vote BNP or not, not a great idea to lets the national press stick their oar in!
Post a Comment