Belper News Article

The campaign seems to be generating quite a lot of interest in the local meda. This article appears in today’s Belper News.

Move to fight Amber Valley BNP festival
By Clive Whittingham

Battle lines are already being drawn over plans to hold the British National Party’s annual Red, White and Blue festival in Amber Valley again this summer.

Party member and former Heanor councillor Alan Warner hosted the event on his land near Denby last summer and despite major complaints from nearby residents says he plans to do so again this year.

Mr Warner said: “The application for a liquor and entertainment licence has already gone in and we’re waiting for the outcome of that.

“We wanted to get it banged in early because there will be more things going on here this year and more people. We’ve got another 14 acres to use this year thanks to a neighbour of mine opening up his fields.

“He was put off last year but everything went off all right so he says he’s not going to be dictated to by the protesters and we can use his land.

“There was no trouble last time according to the police. They came onto the site four times a day and were quite happy.”

Mr Warner promises the festival will be bigger and better than last year with a big wheel, dodgems, children’s rides and even a massive blimp bearing the BNP logo hovering overhead.

A website has been set up to call for more organised opposition than last year when a lone protester with a placard saying “no to racism” picketed the site.

A spokesman for the nobnpfestival website said: “The BNP is a far right nationalist party. Its politics are divisive and designed to stir up hysteria around immigration.

“The RWB festival is intended to draw new recruits into the party and consolidate these disgraceful politics.

“In 2007, Amber Valley Council granted the organisers entertainment licenses in spite of widespread local protest. Anti-fascists did not mobilise in time to help stop the festival. We are determined that will not happen this year.”

The site’s organisers say they intend to draw together thousands of people who oppose the BNP and protest against the festival.

Mr Warner said: “If we’re going to have thousands here protesting then let them come. This is a family festival and there’ll be no trouble from us.

“I don’t know where they’re all going to park because they can’t park on the road – we have on site parking for BNP members.”

Campaign Leaflet

This is the text of a leaflet announcing our plans for a national mobilisation against the BNP’s Red White and Blue Festival. A pdf version is available for download here.

Stop the Fascist Red, White and Blue Festival 2008

For too many years the BNP have enjoyed their annual Red, White and Blue festival without major opposition. They have usually kept the location secret for as long as possible but nevertheless have often brought numbers in their hundreds for a weekend of morale boosting, party-building and scarcely concealed, well-documented Nazi and fascist celebration.

This year we already know where the RWB festival is to be. Immediately after their festival in 2007, they announced it will be in the same location in Denby, which borders Nottingham and Derby and is only a few miles from the M1. This part of the East Midlands has been one of their prime areas of recent growth as well as having been a long established area of fascist activity and the birth place of the violent Combat 18.

Despite the still developing split in the BNP, they are insistent that their festival will go ahead. If it does then it will allow them to regroup, reorganise, fix and expand after the damage to them by their recent political in-fighting.

East Midland Anti-Fascists reorganise

Over the last year anti-fascists in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire have been working together to harass the BNP. Primarily this has been facilitated by the Nottinghamshire Stop the BNP campaign but it has also been supported by Derby UAF as well as a multitude of trade union organisations. All of these campaigns are determined to stop the RWB festival being a successful recruitment event for the BNP.

Already 150 people were mobilised in October, 2007 and physically blockaded and stopped a local BNP rally being held and addressed by Nick Griffin. In addition leaflets and stalls have been held in towns and villages where the BNP have been known to be particularly active.

Nottingham conference call for national mobilisation

A local anti BNP conference was called in Nottingham on Jan 19th and attended by 100 people.The conference was sponsored by many trade unions in the region including the FBU, UCU, UNISON and NUT Delegates called for a mass protest against the BNP festival; demanded that councils block permission for the event and asked trade unionists as far as possible to refuse to do any work that might help facilitate the BNP event; and for thousands of people including trade unionists and anti-fascists throughout the country to join us in filling the surrounding area in mass protest.

The BNP festival is still going ahead. We call on all local and national anti-racist campaigns and bodies opposed to the BNP to support the call of the Nottingham conference.

Please raise support for this mobilisation within your organisation. Contact us by emailing nobnpfestival@riseup.net,

Watch for news on the plans for this mobilisation at http://nobnpfestival.wordpress.com

Join us in protest to stop the BNP 2008 festival,

expected date late July, early-mid August (unconfirmed date of 15th-17th August)

Media Coverage

This article appeared in the Derby Evening Telegraph following the distribution of our press release.

Anti-BNP Activists Plan Rally at Summer Event

By Chris Mallett
CMALLETT@DERBYTELEGRAPH.CO.UK

09:30 – 29 February 2008

Left-wing groups are planning a mass protest against a British National Party festival which could take place in Derbyshire for a second year.

BNP member Alan Warner wants to attract thousands of people to Red, White and Blue – which he plans to hold in early August on his fields in Codnor-Denby Lane, Denby.

He sent a licensing application to Amber Valley Borough Council to play music and sell alcohol on the site.

But left-wing groups say that, if the festival goes ahead, a mass rally would be organised drawing “thousands of people across the region who oppose the BNP.”

The action was advertised on the website http://nobnpfestival.wordpress.com/ which has connections with groups such as Searchlight and Antifa UK.

These organisations object, among other things, to the BNP’s policies of ending immigration to the UK and sending non-whites to their countries of origin.

The website says: “The RWB festival is intended to draw new recruits into the party and consolidate these disgraceful politics.

“As such, those who oppose the BNP have begun a campaign to stop this year’s event from taking place.”

Last year, the Evening Telegraph reported that only one man with a “no to racism” sign turned up to protest.

Among those upset at the lack of action was Rev Ken Horleston, vicar for St Clement’s Church, in Horsley.

He said he felt guilty about not protesting last year and would back a peaceful rally by the anti-fascist groups.

Mr Horleston said: “We are planning a protest from the church perspective as well.

“The Bible calls on people to ‘love thy neighbour’ but the BNP’s views are in violation of this.”

Amber Valley MP Judy Mallaber said she was not prepared to comment on any protest as it was not yet clear whether the festival would go ahead.

Mr Warner said Red, White and Blue would go ahead despite protests and that it was the left-wing groups who were more likely to cause disturbances.

He said: “The festival is a peaceful family event.”