Xenophobia
One of the many organising tasks that i have been undertaking within the NASUWT has been about combatting the BNP and other organisations of the Far Right.
Back on the 11th May, the BNP held their European Election Manifesto Launch at the Thameside Theatre in Thurrock – which has historically been a hot bed for BNP activism. 3 Days later, the NASUWT eastern region sponsored a Love Music Hate Racism gig at the same venue. When we set up the event, we were unaware that the thameside was where Nasty Nicks Nazi party were going to be holding their launch, in fact we only found out on the monday night when it was all over the national news.
The Event ran well, with the only downside being a turnout smaller than we would have hoped for, however the general feeling was that we had wiped the taint of the BNP away from the Venue, the Town, the County and the Region.
NASUWT and other trade unions cannot take all of the credit for the lucky failure of the BNP to gain any elected position in the Eastern region, whether on County Councils (they stood a candidate in every seat for the essex county council) or for europe, however I think that all of the Trade Unions in the Area did do a large amount of work in stopping them. I Would especially like to thank Geoff Webb, the PCS Make your vote count co-ordinator for the eastern Region for all the invaluable help and support he gave us, to Dave Smith, the LMHR convenor for Essex for organising the bands, and to Sally Carpenter, of V-One TV, a Thurrock Council run inclusion initiative, for organising the use of the Thameside.
Thurrock is such a target for the BNP as it is an area that was once very highly unionised – the Tilbury Docks are within the area, where most of the jobs have now gone. These people are in such a position that they can start to believe the malicious untruths that the BNP deal in – you haven’t got a job because “They” came over and stole it etc etc, and there are no strong community/social organisations in place to combat it. Thurrockians are also one of the targets when the BNP say “British Jobs for British Workers”. When you have no job, or an incredibly poor paying job, and no prospect of improvals, these sort of insidious whispers can bury themselves in your mind, and you can start believing them. When the BNP say they are the party of fairness, people believe them, because they see all the newspaper reports about expense claims. I personally believe that the BNP do truly believe they are the party of fairness, however they don’t mean fairness as in equality, they mean fairness as in the colour of your skin!
Trade Unions need to rebuild the strength and organisations they once had in areas of these, and they need to promote inclusion, justice and fairness (Equality). Reconnect our members with the founding principals of trade unionism (All for one and one for all to quote from numerous books, songs etc.)
How can NASUWT and other unions move on now? Well, the hard work being done around anti-fascism needs to continue, just because the elections are over for now doesn’t mean we can rest. We need to be engaging with our members, not telling them “Don’t vote BNP” but letting them see the reality of the BNP, and the Xenophobia and hatred which underlies everything they do. All of our members have brains, and a mind, and know how to use them, if we tell them “Don’t vote BNP” without giving any reason, without showing them what the BNP does (Or doesn’t do in the case of the councillors they already have”, then they’re likely to go out and vote just as a “No-one tells me what to do”.
We also need to overcome Voter Apathy, in the European elections, for every 1 voter who voted BNP, 29 eligible voters didn’t vote at all. If this is reflected in our members, if we can get them out voting, if we can show them that the extreme right shouldn’t have a place in our councils, parliaments, schools, job centres, hospitals etc, then maybe, just maybe the BNP can be returned back to where they belong, the gutter!!
I Hope this makes sense, but it was jotted down inbetween doing other little bits of work!!
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