Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE)
Action To Kick Out The BNP Fascists!
THE NEWS that the Nazi BNP had gained three councillors in Burnley has provoked disgust at both national and local level. Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE) is campaigning, on various fronts, for mass united action against them around the slogan of jobs, homes and services, not racism.
Robin DasGupta, YRE, Manchester
Firstly Manchester YRE targeted the city’s universities to gain support from students through the National Union of Students (NUS) which has a record of trying to combat racism and fascism nationally.
However, locally the attitude was, sadly, not the same. In the University of Salford for example, when a YRE member asked how to put a motion forward in the next Union General Meeting, the reply was unhelpful. At the University of Manchester, the Union said it had no official position on the situation in Burnley.
So, it is up to ordinary people to take the initiative in fighting racism and fascism. Many students at the University of Salford come from, or live in, Burnley. YRE members are holding regular stalls calling for an Emergency General Meeting.
YRE members at the University of Manchester are putting a motion before the next Union General Meeting on 29 May, pointing out the exact nature of the BNP and whose interests it serves.
The motion mandates the local union to build for two demonstrations against the BNP, one at the beginning of June and the other in the Freshers’ Fair in September.
National demo
Struggles at the universities however cannot be successful on their own. The battle against the BNP ultimately has to come from a mass anti-racist group backed by the trade unions. Manchester YRE is also campaigning for the unions to organise a national demonstration in Burnley calling for jobs, homes and services, not racism.
It should make it clear that the BNP is a Nazi Party that supports the ideas of Hitler. We should be equally clear that the actions of the mainstream parties, with their support for ‘free market’ measures leading to cuts in public services, are part of the problem rather than a solution to it.
We should have no faith in such organisations and strive to build ones of our own to combat the BNP and the root cause of their existence.
